You work with a Trainer?!?!?

You work with a Trainer?!?!?

Ahahaaaa And you think your some hotshot horse handler... Hahahahaha

Sure, go ahead and laugh. I can take it.

I am trying to get better, trying to learn.. Living it.

I can take it because I realize there are limits to what I can do. Limits in my experience level, limits in my riding expertise, limits in my own self confidence.

Take for example the other day…

My trainer comes out and she has been working with Marshal and me boning us up for the big trail ride. So far we have worked in the spooky back woods and he is getting better… He is jumpy, but he is better.

So she says well she would like to continue working on that. Yet I say, you know Bonnie, I been working with Emma, ( riding her at the walk and trot, getting her good to bridle ), but you know, I have not yet asked her for the canter yet.

The reason is that I don’t think she has ever moved off on the canter on her own, and the last time I saw her really cantering around was when the saddle was turned under her belly and the reins were skewed down with it and she was running pell mell through a clinic full of students, sans rider…

I said, you know, I would feel better, if when I asked her for the canter you were here to walk through it with me.

Well Bonnie, being the good sort of trainer she is, said ok. First thing that happen is I tie her out to the tie rack and get ready to get her saddled. Bonnie says well saddle her there, and I say you know I think the she has been tramatized at the tie rack. Bonnie says show her, so I get the blanket, go to put it on her back and she starts to pull back and clench up.

I say, but watch this.

So I untie her, and then put the blanket on her, and she stands like a perfect lady…

It’s the difference my friends between forcing a horse, and having a horse think…
This horse was FORCED to wear a saddle while tied out, she never got to thinking it was ok… she just fears it… Now I got to work backwards, now I got to untie that knot that was tied in her.. and I will tell you that is harder then making it in the first place.

Bonnie just grins.

So I get her saddled up and take her in the round pen, and mount up. She is pretty much a perfect lady about it all. Then I say Bonnie watch this..
So I start making sucking, clucking, farting, smooching noises, and Emma freezes up like the sky is falling…

Yeah.. there is a little earthquake there waiting for a place to happen.

So I start to move her out, trotting and she is having a hard time staying on the outside of the round pen. Her movements are jerky.

When I ask for the canter, she freezes up… trots faster.. but does not move out to the canter…

I had the same problem with Komet… He froze up at the trot canter transition.
Now with Emma I know I have the added baggage of the saddle slipping. If she feels that movement ( I get off center ) that could trigger her to lose her little red headed mind.

So I am kicking and doing all I can to get the transition. Then suddenly POW! She grabs her ass and goes a few steps at the canter and then starts to buck…

Oh I love bucking horses.. You know I just want to ride bucking horses all the time…. How I dream of bucking horses…

Someday I will get a dead broke horse and I will ride every inch of hair off that horse…

Well I survive, no issues, but Bonnie says, yup… there is an issue there…

Ok.. So we work on a few things and then I get back on..

Oh I love that too.. You survive a riding experience. I mean you heard the bullet go zipping by your head.. and then they say, oh, ok get back on… I mean how stupid are we really?!

Note to readers. Just save your money and buy a fully trained horse… You can live training colts vicariously through me..

So I get back on, and we get the transition. Its not pretty, I mean it’s a full out gallop, but we get it both ways…

But I will tell you, in your tummy you feel it, it is an icy cold… You feel that you are getting on a 1200 lb animal, that can stomp, buck you to the emergency room and you say to yourself… I can do this… I can ride this thing… I can overcome my fear, I can be better… I can do better…I can do it for myself…

I can do it for the horse… Because you know, the only way your horses get better, is by you, by you getting better… by you pushing your envelope and trying…

Inch by painful inch…