Dogs barking in near distance, as an elderly person takes his morning walk pushing his dried up walker along the sidewalk as it scraps the pavement, desperately needing some oil. The loud roar of a neighbors sports car fires up, he hits the gas, pealing out leaving tread marks on the road. The daily rounds of the big green city trash truck stopping at each house, to draw up and collect the garbage into it's giant bin. Mini horses are seen in the far turn out running around chasing one another, squealing. Confidently, my redheaded dragon walks by all of this along the spooky set of trees that felines love to hide in mimicking a stalking predator. All on the buckle, my dragon walks with her head low taking in the surrounding sights and smells, completely relaxed, unfazed by all the activity, we are both in a zen state of mind. I let out a big sigh as I say "thanks" to the sky for helping me find this place in our partnership where we both are at peace with one another and can actually relax in this crazy place we call home. Just over 8 months ago this wouldn't be a zen moment at all, but a rather stressful situation as her eyes would be bugging out followed by a straight up sky leap or side-way spook sending us flying into the abyss from a small snap of a branch underneath her step.
Rewind to the early spring of 2017. I received a phone call from a local racehorse breeder asking me to take on this young filly he had bred to race that wasn't able to make the cut physically as a racehorse. "Sure", as I always say "I would love to". With a chuckle on the other line, I was advised that the horse I was getting was difficult and would require a lot of time and retraining. A half smile formed on my face as I had no problems with young difficult horses, heck I galloped racehorses for 11 years and have retrained a whole hell of a lot of them.
A week later, I greet my new project, as I enter her stall and halter her up, I start to lead her to the nearby round pen to let her stretch her legs while I evaluate what I have to work with. Two steps out of the stall and she jumps straight up in the air, she proceeds to follow me as if she is walking on hot coals, barely clipping the heels of my boots as I am scurrying out of her way. I move my feet quick, to avoid being ran over and trampled as all I see behind me is a fire breathing dragon who has made all 15.3hh of herself appear to be 18hh. Getting her into the round pen was another challenging task as she starts rearing. And that was just the beginning.
Fast forward 3 months with several broken cross ties, countless exhausting days, and endless time "babysitting", I have some control to start her over some poles. Poles were cucumbers in the cat's eye as her reaction was to leap straight up into the air, regardless of how many times she has seen those darn things. She's a smart one, knows when something is new or has changed and it's back to square one as if she had never encountered it. Once I got her over the scary part of the jumping, as well as the 'clearing standards' faze where I swore I was going to eat dirt every time, the motor kicked in. Must-run-as-fast-as-we-can over everything and completely ignore the human on the back telling me to slow down and take it easy. Dragon was starting to gain a little too much confidence in this department and with the attitude of no one tells her what to do, it was a very frustrating time. Exercise after exercise, and we were still stuck at the drawling board. Going back to basics and flat work to get her more ride-able, turned dragon from speed demon to cranky, ear pinny, and resistant. If she couldn't get what she wanted, she resorted to being flat out disrespectful and sour. Now, I have no forward, I get ear pinny when I ask for impulsion, and I get kick outs when I ask for canter transitions. Ignoring the behavior hoping it would just go away, only made things turn further south. I felt like a small child on her pony kicking away while the pony stood there unfazed. I've had several vets check her body for soundness, chiropractor, hormones, saddle fitting. You name it, I tried it.
A year in half into working with dragon, I just decided to take her to a show and see what happens. The warm up was challenging in itself, as she went around like an unbroke stallion kicking up and and trying to run herself into other horses. During our warm up class in the jumping ring, not only did she refuse every single fence, she also gave me the full on feet plant at the gate, while turning her head back to me with pinned ears and showing me her teeth. "That's it!", I said "This ends now".
Desperately scouring the web reading article after article, as well as hitting up a few people I know well for advice, I was told to go back as far as ground work and start her from scratch as if she were a new horse in training. I ended up following the Clinton Anderson method, "Groundwork for Respect". Many people might frown upon his method, but this is what worked for us. Without this or something along the same lines, she would not be a ride-able horse for me at this point. I did not pick up any abusive training, just tactics, basically what worked was getting her to move her feet in any direction I asked with the smallest amount of pressure from a series of exercises to help you communicate with your horse. I spent an entire 3 weeks doing his method without riding her and boy what a difference it made in her overall. By the time I completed most of the exercises, I had a completely different horse. I no longer needed a running martingale, she was very calm, responsive, and the best part of all, I have little to no sticky feet. I could feel her start to respect me just by the attitude she was giving me daily, a horse who was finally willing to work with me.
Fast forward six months, I was able to haul her off property and compete at our first Beginner Novice Event. She was amazing! The instructor couldn't believe it was the same horse. She gave me a solid Dressage test and jumped everything in stadium and out on cross-country like a boss. I can happily hack her out on a loose rein, in a new place without her loosing her marbles, and she just feels so content in her own mind and body. She still has her moments, but they are much less evident. She is so well broke now that she has started giving beginner riding lessons to young girls. I now restart all my projects with that method and it has really made my life much easier. The horses become calm, focused, and willing to work with. I wish I would of opened up my eyes and picked this up years ago. My advise to you, if you run into issues with your horse that are not physical, go back to the basics, further your education, try something new. Nobody is ever an expert with horses, we are always learning, changing, and conforming. Don't be afraid to look at a bigger picture, ask for help, or change some of your ways. It might be hard in the beginning, but it does pay off. I can now happily say I love my mare and feel like I no longer need to refer to her as a Big B, but more of Boss Mare.
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