Category Archives: Solving Problems

Hard to Catch

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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)

Taking the time it takes

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Dix, Lauren’s 13 year old Lippizan, is on the “20 year plan”. It has taken some years, and a lot of changes, for Dix to finally get healthy and happy. But (do we need to knock on wood?) it seems to be happening.

When I first met Dix at Lauren’s place in Florida he was one UN-happy camper. He was not well, physically, and he seemed pretty miserable as a result. Try as she might to analyze and improve every aspect of his diet, care and training things were still not right in his world. The year before they left Florida he’d stopped sweating and had to live his own air conditioned stall. Poor guy!

But the Universe has shifted on so many levels for Dix and it has been a joy to see him transform.

The first big thing was the Gruber’s move to Tennessee. Although in Florida Dix had to be isolated from other horses because he’d fight with the other horses the reality in Tennessee was there was no way to isolate him on the farm when they arrived. It was sink or swim. He swam. He was still crotchety but there was plenty of room to move so no one got hurt. Maybe his need to boss everyone around was a benefit because it sure got him moving. And we know that one of the 3 Success Factors for improving health and soundness for horses is Movement!

So things got better for Dix but more was to come. I arrived a year ago and began to work with him a little more. He was often very distracted and unable to leave his group without becoming quite upset. Sometimes, especially during spring and fall when the mares would go into heat, he’d call incessantly. Although a gelding, Dix sometimes behaved like an unruly stallion.

Meanwhile Lauren felt that there was still a physiological component. As always she continued to experiment with balancing his diet. She put him on Remission for his metabolic tendencies and Chasteberry for his out-of-control hormones. Of course he gets Equipride like the rest of the crew as well.

When a couple of new horses joined his group several months ago he was merciless, particularly against the gelding. Fortunately the aforementioned gelding figured out how to stay out of Dix’s way and a truce was called. But then things started to change in the last couple of months. Whereas Dix used to insist on taking the top dog position he has begun to just let it go. Now sometimes he is on the receiving end of horsey rebukes. And it doesn’t seem to bother him! Wow. Is he turning into Just a Regular Horse? Is he feeling good so he doesn’t need to be cranky? We sure hope so.

Today I decided to work Princess, a 5 year old Belgian cross who is just getting started under saddle, in the round pen from horseback. Who did I ride? Why DIX of course. It was a great exercise for him and he did splendidly. He’s sure enough built for the job. So perhaps by the time he’s 20 he might finally be the Dressage horse Lauren originally bought him as.