Horseman's Arts » Restarting a TWH Show Horse

It’s like a miracle!

sharon — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:04:17 +0000

Remember Pamela the, 6 year old gaited, mare I started working with several months ago? The quick recap, you can read earlier blog entries for more details, is she was very worried and tense which caused her to want to run back to the barn as soon as her beginner owner got on.

Michele riding Pamela bareback.

I actually had two simultaneous objectives. One was to help Pamela get more OK with being ridden so that she could offer a safe and pleasurable ride for her owner. The other was to help her owner, Michele, become more confident and relaxed while riding so that she could offer a better ride to her horse!

Michele has been hard at work developing her own skills riding my school horse, Tulsa. And she’s come a long, long, LONG way, going from fearfully wondering how she would stay on without a horn to hang on to–to riding bareback with confidence!

I took this picture with my phone today during her lesson. Don’t they look like two relaxed and happy campers? Just the way I like it.

It is NEVER too late!

sharon — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:55:32 +0000

Never too late to start!

The last time she did any real riding was some 55 years ago! But Michele is truly an inspiration to me and anyone who meets her. She is proof that if you want something bad enough you will put the effort needed into it and you will be successful.

When she started taking lessons with me this year she thought that at her age she’d better ride western because she couldn’t imagine how she’d stay on without a horn! Over the last month or so she has learned how to post, to canter and today she got her first taste of Really Riding. By that I mean that blissful place where the horse is on the bit and floating over the ground. After her lesson, I said, “So, perhaps now you can see a little bit how people might call dressage ‘dancing’ with your horse?”

She replied, “I can see that now. And, it seems that most people just never experience dancing with their horses!”

What a wise and poignant observation. And it is sadly true. So few really do learn to dance but it is never too late to start.

New life for a gaited show horse

sharon — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:06:32 +0000

This is an update on Pamela, a horse I talked about back in February. Just to remind you, Pamela is a 6 year old Tennessee Walker who had been used as a ’show horse’ prior to being acquired by my client, Michele Williams. In the previous installment of her saga I had managed to reduce the catching/haltering process from 30 minutes to 5 minutes and I had gotten on briefly. The picture to the right is from that day. Not a pretty sight!

It is now 3 months later. Progress is slow but I generally only work with Pamela once a week although recently while her owners were away they asked me to spend extra time with her which allowed me to move the process along a bit.

According to the previous owner, an ‘old-timey’ Tennessee horseman, Pamela was bred to be a show horse and thusly was just ‘high strung’. This was to explain why she would just take off running when Michele got on.

This was also the reason given as to why we would never be able to ride her in a snaffle. She had to be ridden in a long shanked curb bit.

Oh Ye of Little Faith.

Of course, Michele just ignored the man’s ravings confident in my certainty that Pamela really didn’t want to run off like that it was just that she didn’t know any other way to be.

And so here we are. Baby steps baby steps. The real problem, that the old owner just can’t see, is the deep worry in Pamela. As soon as you get on her first thought is to get back to the barn ASAP! So, our rides are all about making 1) being away from the barn a good thing, and 2) any and all efforts to relax and bring her attention to me is a Really Good Thing. She is trying SO hard! She really wants to let it all go but as yet still doesn’t fully trust that those old days are really dead and gone. But she is getting there. Last ride ended with a good half a minute of totally relaxed, neck out and down, regular horse walk. I’m so proud of her!

Hard to Catch

sharon — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:32:00 +0000

I have been working for the last couple/few months with a 6 yr old gaited mare named Pamela. The mare is owned by a lovely, but mostly inexperienced, older couple who are so tickled with the change in their horse. When we started this mare was so not OK. The slightest sudden move would have her leaving just as quick. Even though this mare had been ridden before (in fact had been a ‘show horse’) it was full of tension and worry. As soon as the rider mounted the mare was… outta there. The previous owner apparently thought this was normal and ‘just the way show horses should be’. Huh? OK not my world. But the fact is, the horse is now in my world and I say, it just doesn’t need to be like that!

So I decided to work with the mare as if she’d never been ridden before. I’ve been visiting with Pamela once a week and working on haltering, leading, ground work, and preparations to ride. My goal has been to ride this girl bareback wearing just a halter and lead rope.

Initially it took a good 30 minutes to get her to agree to let me put a halter on her! She lives with her son in a good sized paddock so I spent a lot of time convincing her that she should even let me approach her and touch her. In the beginning as soon as I touched her back she was gone–to the other side of the paddock! Now the process is down to 5 minutes.

I’ve also been doing a lot of ground work in preparation for riding. It’s all been about getting her relaxed, focused, and softly following my feel. Clicker training has played a crucial role in getting her to believe that maybe she’s left that other world for good. I’ve been very happy with her progress. And yesterday I achieved my first goal which was to ride her bareback! I even managed to get it on video.

There are three videos. The first one is the haltering process. The second one is the ten minutes or so I spent prepping to getting on. The third one is getting on and walking a little ways. It may not seem like much. I guess you’d have to have seen how uptight this mare was before to appreciate just how sweet, calm, and OK she is in these videos. A great start to a new life. (read about more progress here)