Welcome to the Hands-On Horse Training Blog of Troy Griffith
With this blog I hope to document and track the training of horses in my care.
By clicking on the horse’s name in the Categories to the right, all the entries I have posted for that horse will appear. This way you can follow the progress of each horse.
With any luck, some of you might find my observations useful.
Thanks for taking the time to have a look.
Of late, I have had several conversations pertaining to bit us and misuse and the choice several horse owners I know have made to go with one “bitless” option or another. These discussions have ranged from our mutual horror at how one local reining trainer abuses the mouths of the horses in his charge, to the other end of the spectrum wherein the person wants to have nothing in the horse’s mouth at all because; “It is obviously better for the horse to not have to deal with metal in their mouth right?” But is it?
First let me say to any of you reiners out there that I am not saying the sport of reining is or has to be abusive to the horse’s mouth. That being said, we all know there are trainers out there who use methods that are damaging, and this guy is one of them. One doesn’t even have to watch him in action to know he should not be allowed anywhere near a horse, though if you do it is obvious. One only has to walk down the stall isle and look at the mouths of the horses he trains. Now there are trainers like this is all horse sports, so I am not picking on reining here. So this is not going to be a discussion of how one sport is better or worse than another.
What I want to discuss is the very basic notions and misconceptions of bits and bit use, held by many people.
I had a recent chat with a very nice lady I know from Facebook who participates in mounted archery as her chosen sport. When we got on the subject of how she is riding “bitless” these days and she made the following statement “We like the idea of no metal in our horses mouths, and since mounted archery is primarily riding by the seat of your pants, our horses have to be responsive to leg and body cues.” Now she is not the first person I have recently spoken with who held a similar opinion, which appears to be that bits are not desirable since if you ride with your legs and your set you don’t “need” them. Over the years I have heard this sentiment repeated many times by many people and even echoed something like it myself when I was riding one of my horses in a hackamore. I have come to realize this view is often a push back against the heavy handed riding and/or use of harsh bits by many riders.
Let me begin by saying that in “Classical” horse training the “aids” are broken down into three sets; the hands, the seat and the legs. The legs include leg pressure with the thigh, calf and heel and the use of the spur. The seat is balance shift and encouragement or retarding of the horses movement, as well as keeping the rider in the saddle of course. The hands refer to the use of the reins and bit. Each of these three sets of aids is equally important to the whole that is “classical” riding and they are not interchangeable per say. Meaning the proper function of the bit cannot be replaced with the use of the seat or legs and I will touch on this more later.
So let’s talk about a bit about bits. While there is a vast array of bits designs out there promising a wide range of effects, my experience is they can be broken down into two very basic effects; snaffle effect and curb effect, or lateral vs. vertical flexing. A snaffle is a bit design in which the reins are attached to the bit in direct line with the bar of the bit and give the best communication to allow the rider to encourage flexation to the left and right. With a curb bit the reins are attached to an arm of some sort which provides leverage on the bit, rotating it and in turn bringing a curb chain into contact to apply pressure on the horse chin, and/or nose and/or poll; thus allowing the rider to influence the horses bend along this axis.
It is interesting to note that many horse people, possibly even a majority of them think that is bit is a snaffle if it is “broken” or “jointed”, in other words if the bar is in more than one solid piece. You will sometimes see a bit called a “western snaffle” when actually it is a jointed curb bit. A snaffle bit can in fact have a solid or jointed bar, though the latter is more common, as can a curb bit; but it is the relationship of the reins to the bar that determines the snaffle or curb effect.
There are bits designed to offer greater or lesser degrees of one effect or the other with a single set of reins, like the Kimberwick, (originally called a Kimblewick,) that varies the effects depended on where the reins are attached and how they are used. There are also bits designed to allow both effect from a single bit but using two set of reins, one set providing the direct snaffle effect and one set using leverage to enhance the curb effect. In higher levels of dressage it is even common to use two separate bits with two sets of reins in a “double bridle”, allowing for even greater separation of the curb from the snaffle effect.
With all these options it is very easy to get confused as to the purpose and efficacy of one bit over another and I can see how someone seeing the double bridle being used with those two sets of reins might think that it must be harsh and hard on the horse’s mouth, just as some of the hardware used in western riding can appear excessively harsh. What one has to keep in mind is that while yes, there are some bits that simply ARE painful and harsh, for the vast majority of them, it is the hands of the rider that dictate comfort level for the horse.
As the French Riding Master Phillipe Karl says, “It the way you do things and not the things you do, that is “classical” or not.” In “classical” riding all the aids, including the use of the bit, are simply means of communication with the horse, not a method of controlling the horse. The difference may seem subtle, but in practice it makes a huge difference when it is taken to heart by the rider. Yes there are times when controlling the horse is required, certainly when we begin the training or more often, when we take over the training of a horse already taught that the relationship between horse and rider is a contest and not cooperation, but subtle communication should always be our first aim, partnership our goal.
François Baucher described there being three levels of rein pressure acceptable in riding, light, gentle and firm. Unfortunately, everyone has a different idea of what light, gentle and firm means. Unless someone teaches you through demonstration what Baucher meant, it is easy to take these terms down a path that leads from “classical” to the worst forms of modern riding. From asking the horse to making the horse do something; from cooperation to conflict; from partners to adversaries. In the latter situations the bit becomes a weapon used to force the horse to react in a certain way and herein lays the reason the bit becomes harsh or painful.
To some riders, light means only a few pounds of pressure, gentle means only hurting the horse slightly and firm means punishment for getting things wrong. I cannot begin to adequately emphasize how wrong this is.
My goal is for Light to be an elastic contact on the horse’s mouth that is kept at the zero point between contact and no contact; this being accomplished through the active adjustment of finger, hand, and elbow position in relationship to the movement of the horse or the rider. Gentle, the slight manipulation of the contact to achieve a desired response from the horse. Firm then being the reduction of the elasticity of contact to retard movement.
Here is a little visualization to help you understand what I mean. Think of the old ‘two cans with a string between them’ communications device kids played with before the time they were all given cell phones at age 6. For the sake of this visualization let us assume the cans are being held by kids in two adjoining tree houses. The wind is blowing slightly so the trees are swaying. Kept lightly taught, communication is possible; too loose, contact and therefore communication is lost; too tight and the string won’t vibrate with one can is spoken into, so the two kids are required to maintain an elastic contact between them, giving and taking as each moves. But how does the kid in one tree know when to put the can to his ear to listen for the message from the other kid? The kid wishing to be heard gives the string an ever so Gentle tug to alert the boy on the other end that he needs to pay attention. Tug too hard or too suddenly and the boy will drop the can he lightly holds. Now let’s assume one of the boys moves around in his tree house, the other kid has to move also to keep the connection lightly taught, but then the moving boy goes too far and suddenly the second boy find himself at the edge of his tree house about to lose his balance and fall, rather than jerking back on the string and breaking it, is just holds Firm and allows the other boys to realize he has stopped moving with him and so both boys come to a stop.
Obviously in the above visualization both parties had to understand the goal and develop a sense of give and take. When you begin working with your horse, it will be up to you, as the smarter of the two, to help your equine partner understand this. Once you have it, you will be able to ride in Light contact that is maintained by elastic movement on your part. You will able to ask for bend and flexation from the horse with Gentle manipulation of that contact and you will be able to transition down from one gait to the next all the way to the halt, by simply by shifting that elastic movement to a Firm hold for a moment.
You may notice that at no point do I talk about pulling on the reins or any form of backward motion with them. This was quite intentional. The only backward effect on the reins comes from turning your shoulder or shifting your weight back in the saddle. When properly schooled the horse will go forward, stop, turn left, turn right, back up, move sideways, shift its quarters or shift its forehand, all from the seat and legs, the reins only support or hinder these actions by being Lightly flexible or held Firm. The purpose of the reins is not to stop or steer the horse per say, but rather to control the direction and degree of bend and to effect the balance of the horse. In essence our hands do help in directing the horse left or right, but only is as much as they effect the bend of the animal. A horse moving forward bent is as turn.
It is this effect on the flex and bend of the horse and how in tune with you the horse is to contact on the bit that dictates the type of bit you want. The reason most trainers begin with the snaffle bit is precisely because it provides less negative effect on the forward motion of the horse and allows for very effective encouragement for lateral bend which is key to teaching the horse to balance. Only after the horse is supple and flexible with good lateral movement, proper ‘rounding’ and balance should you move to a curb bit. The curb bit can then be used to encourage vertical flex and bending of at the poll. In neither case should the bit be used to force a head or neck position. Force causes tension, tension ends relaxed bending, which puts a stop to supple balance.
It is another common misconception that you use a stronger bit to correct problems; moving from a snaffle to a curb because the horse keeps raising its head. The fact is you should move on to leverage bits to refine the communication with your horse not to gain more power over it. The point of the leverage is to allow your touch to become lighter not stronger.
The last misconception I want to address is the belief that a bitless bridle or hackamore is more comfortable for the horse than a bit. In light, flexible hands a bit is more comfortable than a bitless or hackamore in heavy, rigid hands. In fact some of these bitless option still use leverage and curb effects on the chin, nose and/or poll and it the wrong hands can cause serious damage, both physical as well as emotional, to the horse. It is how you use the hands that determine the relative comfort the horse experiences, not whether or not you use a bit.
For me, bitless alternatives are fine for trail riding or general hacking about, but for schooling, competition or anything requiring the horse’s full athleticism, I want to be able to help the horse to flex, bend and balance and a classically used bit is the best way for me to achieve these goals.
Making correct use of the bit requires the rider to understand all the aids equally. Since the use of the other aids are just as important to classical riding and I am already controlling the horses direction, gait and speed with my legs and seat, I have no difficulty dropping the reins for mounted archery or combat and do so without lanes or barriers to control the horse.
I am not saying don’t go bitless, I am just suggestion you think it though and decide one way or the other for the right reasons. Which every way you go; Light, Gentle and Firm should be your guide.
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Part three: The three of us are taking lessons whenever we get the opportunity, soaking up Troy’s time at an alarming rate. Meanwhile at home, my wife begins to lift an eyebrow at me every time I come home with something horse related; be it a saddle to clean, a grooming kit or some new boots. Knowing me as well as she does, there are two things she is alarmed about when she sees them. The first would be magazines concerning the object of my obsession and the second would be catching me on Craigslist. Both of these she refers to as pornography for me which leads to offending behavior; to wit: Buying something expensive. You know, cars, boats, tractors, motorcycles, horses…oops! I said it. Sadly, she did catch me with a fist full of equine magazines and on Craigslist looking at horses. (Please see picture of dog below to see the kind of look I got from her). Bless her heart, she surely endures a lot from me and her wisdom in knowing when and how hard to push or retreat cannot be overestimated. She doesn’t think I listen to her sometimes but I do. Nevertheless, we have both noticed something about the relationship between our daughters and our family in general. We laugh more, argue less, collaborate better and play without restraint. A certain sort of peace has come to our house which is difficult to articulate but very palpable. It is our belief, it is directly related to our involvement with horses and our interactions with Troy and his wife Nancy who shows up when her time allows to help coach us and ride her horse Jupiter. Brynn would like to adopt Troy and Nancy as second parents and Maizy wants to go live with them should we (wife and I) become nonviable. Nice…. To be continued.
Part two: Troy started Maizy and me out with a lesson in horse anatomy nomenclature and an overview of their senses. In fact, one curiosity he pointed out was that a horse doesn’t see things the same out of each eye so when introducing the animal to a new arena for training or one that has been changed from the last visit, it is good advice to walk the horse around the perimeter in each direction for a look around before mounting up. An odd looking branch or bush that was no problem one way, may become scary to the horse when viewed going the other direction. I later saw that scenario played out.
Maizy and I learned the proper way to clean and groom the animal with particular safety lessons about those feet. We then worked on ground work with each technique directly applicable to a cue we would later use from the saddle. Troy also taught that ground work was more than just moving the horse in different directions and ways to get us familiar with the aids we would use from the saddle, it was also establishing our leadership role with our respective horses. Doing round pen work before a ride gave us a chance to watch the horses movement and assess any injuries or conditions they may have. I noted not everyone does much in the way of ground work when training nor do they revisit it once astride but Troy thinks its very important and I think so too. Often times problems encountered in the saddle can be corrected by working on basics from the ground.
Maizy was taking lessons on and from Khali (an absolutely delightful Arab mare about 9 years old) and I was paired with Curly who is a laid back Morgan with an explosively powerful side when you ask him for it.
After each lesson, Maizy and I would come home completely stoked about our experiences with Troy and the horses. We would buzz about the day ad nauseum to my wife and Brynn. After about our third week or so, Brynn said she wanted to take lessons too. I told her I didn’t want her to because it was my idea and she wouldn’t like it if she didn’t like someone telling her what to do with the horses. Her reply was she felt like we were having so much fun and she was missing out; heaven forbid. Hmm…”Okay” I said “but you absolutely cannot be thin-skinned about corrections from Troy and you must be open to learning new or different ways than you learned previously and you must forgive yourself if you don’t get it right the first, second or even third try.” Brynn agreed and she started with us at the next lesson. She was paired with Bella, a young Friesian/Morgan mare rather bossy to the older boys in the pasture but very sweet-natured and a willing young lady. Catching her up with Maizy and me was a snap as Brynn is a natural horsegirl. By this time, Troy had his hands full with keeping an eye on the three of us plus the three horses so we split our lesson times apart. This allowed a larger safety margin and provided for his undivided attention. Speaking of his attention, the man has amazing ability to spot the slightest detail of doing something correctly or incorrectly and pointing it out. The importance of this ability with new riders such as ourselves cannot be emphasized enough. An example of this was noticing leg squeezing when one of us was trying to stop the horse. To the horse, the leg squeeze meant ‘go’ but the rider’s hands were saying ‘stop’. The resulting confusion to the equine was frustrating the student. He spotted the problem and instructed to avoid squeezing the legs as a brace against working the hands as no bracing was needed for subtle, quiet and light hands asking for the horse to stop. Separate hands from legs. Problem solved immediately.
Troy coaches Brynn
To be continued.
As of January, I have a new horse in for training. Rex Regis Iago is a 3.5 year old Friesian/Percheron gelding, standing 16.1 hands. He arrives with no training beyond simple halter etiquette.
When I got my first look at Iago, I was concerned that I as taking on as a training project some over-sized lumbering beast of a draft cross, but my early work with him has me beliveing that he will be anything but.
My first sessions with him were spent in the round pen, as I always do with young horses when they begin their training with me. Like other Friesian blood horses I have worked with, he was calm and essentially fearless when it came to free lunging, caring very little about the lunge whip or my attempts to move him around a bit. Luckily he is also very smart and quick on the uptake, as I have come to expect from Friesian blood horses. He very quickly came to understand my desire for him to move at the walk, trot and a few steps at the canter in both directions. By the third session, he was clearly understanding the vocal ques, including the “Reverse” command. As I said, very smart.
He has very big movement, with lots of impulsion and suspension, far more than one might assume looking at him standing around the pasture. I suspect he will continue to increase his already substantial movement as his muscles up and becomes more supple. His flexibility is also far greater than his conformation would suggest.
I am looking forward to seeing if he is, as he seems, very Friesian in personality and mental acumen. If this is the case and his mental agility is as impressive as his physical gifts, the training should proceed at a good pace.
Hello All! My name is Brian and my two daughters (Brynn-12 and Maizy-9) are new students of Troy’ s. We began taking lessons with him in October 2011. All three of us are very green with my 12 year old slightly more experienced than Maizy and me. I’ve decided to blog about our experiences in the world of equines under Troy’s leadership and our own self-discovery. I’ve never blogged before so I ask forgiveness in advance for my errors. I welcome any comments, advice, corrections etc any of you out in cyber land would like to make concerning horses and horseman/womanship.
My plan is to share with you our experiences from beginning with Troy in October to where we are today…owning two horses (Iago-a Friesian/Percheron cross gelding and Khali-(pronounced Cali) an Arab mare). How did this ownership happen so swiftly?!! Those of you reading this are fully aware, no doubt, of equine addiction and I needn’t try to justify, rationalize or explain in any way.
I found Troy not in the usual way one gets introduced to a horse trainer; that is to say by word of mouth. Instead, the instructors I had been referred to were ‘natural horsemanship’ followers teaching in a predominantly western style. This is not bad and in fact is very good. I happen to observe that many of the prospective instructors I watched ride had very busy hands and legs and knowing my sensitive 12 year old like I do, I did not think this method would mesh well with her gentle soul. What I was looking for was a rider who was so quietly and sublimely in tune with the horse and using techniques that capitalized on his own and the horse’s natural mental and physical processes that to an observer on the ground it would be very difficult to see anything the rider was doing to direct the horse. So, I set out into computer land seeking instructors in my area that taught more in a Classical style which I thought would be the method best suited for us to learn based on our needs. If you’ve ever watched Phillipe Karl (Google his name and watch him ride) you’ll know the method I sought. I found Troy’s website entitled www.handsonhorsetraining.com and was convinced he taught what I was seeking; although admittedly, I didn’t know exactly what that was.
Brynn and I then met Troy the HORSE man in person. I found he was not your average horse-nut. He had experience and interest in war-horses and Medieval gaming/training, martial arts, dressage and learning from ancient and current masters in horses. All of these disciplines and others told me Troy would surely give my daughters and me the best instruction in ‘quiet balance’ and the proper rider/horse psychological mind-set so important in riding. I did not want an instructor to gently placate us, ever fearful of upsetting the client and therefore working themselves out of a a job. No. Instead I wanted an instructor with a keen-eye and attention to detail oriented. All of us seek this but I wanted one not afraid to point them out in a straightforward, unapologetic fashion followed quickly by explaining and/or demonstrating the correct behavior. I also needed a HUGE amount of patience from the instructor as we struggled to learn things so rudimentary to the experienced. I also wanted to learn all aspects of horses, not just how to ride. Of particular interest to me was horse psychology and the human/horse relationship. Lastly, I wanted a trainer who knew his/her limits concerning knowledge, skills and abilities and honestly say so to me if I asked for something beyond them. Yes, I was sure after meeting Troy he would work well with us.
At this point when we met Troy, I should mention that Brynn was having a particularly bad time emotionally. Being a ‘tween’ girl and in Junior High with all those dramas and pressures she was an emotional train-wreck. This was one of the reasons that motivated me to seek professional leadership and instruction from a horse trainer for her rather than let her just play around with horses on the weekend under the loose eye of our friendly neighborhood barn. Therapy if you will. After our first meeting with Troy, Brynn said we both talked too much, were too full of ourselves, the lessons were my idea and she didn’t want to take them. Ouch. Okay, she was right about one or more of these things. (sigh) So, rather than push her into something I knew she would like and benefit from, I told her that would be Okay she didn’t need to go; but, Maizy and I would start immediately…and we did. To be continued.
Maizy and Khali in December mist
At first blush, the title of this entry is a tad obtuse. How is horse training like chess? Sort of sounds like the riddle from Alice in Wonderland, “How is a raven like a writing desk?” In the Lewis Carol classic the riddle is nonsense spoken by a madman. In our case, it is my hope that neither is the case.
When dealing with horses that have an ‘issue’ I often explain to the horse owner that the horse is only behaving the way it must behave; it has no choice. It behaves the way it does because of how the horse has evolved in general, combined with this horse’s specific breeding, conformation, life experience, the training received to date; in short, it is the combination of all these, and many other, factors that wire it to respond the way it does. The horse does not wake up one morning and “decide” it is going to have a problem with something it has done very well before just to make this hard on you. It does not suddenly find it funny to turn left when you think you are cueing it to go right. Yes, horses have moods, hormonal fluctuations and some even have what can only be described as a sense of humor, but they do not reason things out, or plan to make your life miserable. They respond to the stimuli around them and the way they respond is dictated by things quite beyond their control.
Okay, what does this have to do with chess?
In a chess game, each player moves one piece at a time trying to gain the advantage over the other. The movement of each piece is controlled by rules; the rook moved forward and back, side to side, while the bishop moves only diagonally, etc. For each move you make there are a finite number of responses and as the game progresses the number of possible responses is reduced until finally there are no moves left for one side or the other and the game is over. Well before that point, one player begins to find that their moves are being completely dictated; in short, they have to respond in a certain way to what is presented as to do otherwise would not really be possible. Much the same way a horse will respond in a given way when to a particular stimuli.
When a chess game begins there are many moves possible and each individual move has only a small impact on the end of the game. As the game progresses, each move becomes more and more important. When training a horse, the rider tries one method or another to achieve a particular goal with the horse. The horse in turn responds the way it must to each move based on the factors listed above. Each response will in turn prompt the next move of the rider and so on.
In training, as in chess, thinking several moves ahead is the key to winning. Making ‘this’ move so you draw ‘that’ response, which in turn allows you to make the ‘next’ move in your strategy, which if properly chosen, draws the ‘desired’ response, allowing to you make it to the ‘end game’ in a position that insures a victorious outcome.
Also in training and chess, if you do not have a plan and are just moving around randomly and hoping it will work, OR if you are only reacting to the last move made by the other player, your chances for success are reduced greatly. Luckily for us, horses are not trying to beat us. In this way horse training is easier than chess. The bad news is even good players are sometimes defeated by novices who do not respond as expected to standard moves. In these cases we are forced to rethink our strategy and adjust our game.
The good news is each day is a new game. Each time we begin working with our horses we have the chance to adjust our play style to suit the nature of the particular horse. Also, we have the advantage of taking moves back in the middle of the game. Think of it like playing chess with a computer. You play along, thinking all is going well, when suddenly you see you have gotten yourself into trouble. You can keep playing along knowing you are fighting a losing battle or you can step back through several moves until you find yourself in a comfortable position and then chose a new direction to take your game.
Oft times I am challenged in my belief that the horse is an innocent victim in the training process and it is the trainer who is at fault when things go amiss. A rider will have a problem with something they are attempting and will turn to me and say, “See, I am doing this right, the damn horse is just being willful.” In short, they have run out of moves. It is in this situation I think “Checkmate, you have lost this game.” The rider did not see where things went wrong with this horse; sometimes because they picked up the game in the middle from another player and did not see the moves the previously person had made that set this match down a losing path. Here is where you start taken moves back, and back and back, until you find the position of advantage. This may mean just going back to the previous preparation work you were doing for this one thing the horse is having difficulty, but it may mean stepping down out of the saddle and returning all the way back to basic ground work, conditioning or flexibility training. If the opening was wrong, the game was lost before you even see it. I harp on ground work with my clients for this very reason, as it is through ground work we set the responses in the horse we count on later in the game.
If you don’t play chess, well don’t worry, I don’t think everyone has to play chess to be a good horse trainer, though I recommend chess to everyone, training horses or not. There is much the game can teach us about life. What I do fervently encourage you to do is think about training as a move by move process, or step by step if you prefer. If you don’t understand the rules of the game when it comes to training, then you will need to learn them. Instruction from someone who already plays well is a good place to start. Understand that sometimes the proper move is to take back several moves. Think ahead and try to understand what early moves will make the later ones more effective and remember that in horse training, as in chess, you have to be smarter than the other player to win. ;>
Since my last update on Curly, he has become a force to be reckoned with as a competitive warhorse in the medieval equestrian games we take part in regularly. Along with his owner, he has been used by my wife and one of my students as their mount. Because of this increase in use, I have put Curly into my training rotation and applied the classical horse training method I employ with Orion, Jupiter, Commander, etc.
In the past I was content to just help Raina gain better control over her horse, but in the last few months I decided to see how Curly would take to a more focused, structured training form. To this end, I started working with him in the round pen on the lunging caveson to work on his habit of hollowing out his back and counter bending while turning at the trot and canter. These behaviors cause a multitude of problems for him as far as balance and collection are concerned, not to mention making the ride less than comfortable for the rider. Helping him to find the correct bend to his body, while stepping under himself more with his hind end, has done wonders for his balance and conformation as his muscles have developed differently with the difference in how they are being used. He doesn’t even look like the same horse now.
In the saddle, the focus has been on keeping his frame together and helping him to balance and collect with the added weight of the rider to contend with. This has proven a bit of a challenge as Curly has an interesting habit of falling back on old patterns of behavior when left to his own devices. If the rider relaxes for even a few moments and allows him to start making decisions, the result, as often as not, is a reversion to old, bad habits. However, as long as the rider maintains an independent seat, strong core, consistent leg pressure and soft, elastic contact through the reins, the result is very precise control of a collected, wonderfully athletic mount.
Simply put, Curly is much happier when he has a rider who supports his frame and encourages proper collection and movement. Like most horses, he instinctively tests his rider, even though he is not very happy when a rider fails the test and allows him to make choices, which he invariably gets wrong.
It is my intent to keep him in the training rotation as long as he remains at our disposal as a warhorse. I am willing to bet that he will end up as excellent a mount for such activities and any we have yet had the pleasure of working with.
Whimsy is on her way. Up before the sun, she stood quietly with me as the horse hauler pulled up, figited a little as he opened the doors, walk cautiously up the ramp when I asked her too, but gods what a look she gave me through her window as they pulled away. I know she is going to a good home, with a lady who will love and care for her, so why does if feel like my daughter just moved out?
I become attached, to one degree or another, to every horse I train and it is silly to get emotional when they go, so why do I feel like crying? There goes what little macho I had left.
I will try to follow Jupiter’s example. No two horse I have ever seen loved each other as much as Jupiter and Whimsy did from the first day they meet. He was standing with her when I went to get her and kept offering to come with me when she was hesitant. He stood and watched as she was loaded and taken away, now he stands with Orion and Curly, grazing calmly as glow of the approaching sunrise tops the hills. Despite having an amazing memory, horses live in the moment when it comes to herd life. The loss of a member of the herd may be noticed and even mourned, but the stream of life keeps flowing. I don’t know if he will eventually come to realize that this time she is not coming back, but if he does, I know he will accept it with the quiet grace he does everything else.
By noon today she should arrive at her new home. I am sure her new owner will care for her wonderfully and love her as much as I do. I truly hope we are able to stay in touch and are keep up to date on her progress as time goes on.
An updated video of Cody in training.
This is his first try at mounted archery. I have included some walk/trot/canter work that came after, as well.
We have been remiss in writing up how Jupiter has been doing these past couple of months. It has been a lot of the same.. he’s continuing to get better at balance and coming under himself, he’s getting incredibly light in response to seat and leg aids… But yesterday his wonderful personality came out yet again. I was working him in the round pen to start, making sure he was moving well before riding him. I was suddenly dizzy and actually had to sit down on the mounting block we have in the center of the round pen and clutched onto it as my world went roundy-round. Jupiter immediately came over and put his nose on the back of my neck and stayed there until Troy came in..and then he only moved about a step away. I did start feeling better so sat up while Troy continued moving Jupiter around. Normally when the round pen work comes to an end, the horse walks up to the person who was last working them… not Jupiter… he came over to me once Troy was done to make sure I was doing okay. Gotta love that personality.
I did ride him slowly after this and while we walked and trotted around the arena I was able to get him to change direction just from shifting weight onto seat bones and barely had to use my legs at all. He is going to make his mama so happy when she finally gets a chance to ride him. :)