Ya know, it’s not a good story without a dragon.
I was teaching a clinic at Verde Valley School, Sedona. Stunning, breath-taking scenery with the arena tucked at the base of the red rocks. Sort of near nothing. All the school buildings, barns, etc were quite a ways away, as in couldn’t see them. I had turned Peka, one of my relatively untrained heathens (about 250 or so rides in her) loose in the arena while I was working with the ten girls and their horses. She was my demo horse for the day. One of the reasons she was loose was because I wanted to see if she would come to me in a strange arena when I called her by name.
Yep. Fabulous horse!
I put a string around her neck and demonstrated a couple of things like sidepassing, turns on the forehand and hindquarters.
Then, it was time for a break. I Curbsided her on the fence and bareback with just the string I set off for the trailer to get her some hay and grab a PB&J for me.
The trailer was up a pretty steep hill about 300 or so feet away. We were about half way there when her whole body went rigid. Her head went up and she turned sideways at something we couldn’t see. She’s normally a pretty good girl so I figured that some little nervousness wouldn’t be too difficult and I asked her to turn back toward the trailer and met with… Nothing. As in no inclination or indication that she was going to do that. That lasted about a second. And she took OFF for the hills.
I pulled back on the string and it had absolutely no effect. Didn’t even remotely slow her down. Now as I’m sure you realize that hilly/mountainous terrain that’s covered with bunch grasses and shrubbery also has — cue scary music here — erosion arroyos!!! As in 1-3 feet deep with straight sides and 2-4 feet wide.
I knew they would be there, but she didn’t as she’s never been in that part of the country. Besides, she wasn’t looking down AT ALL. She saw them (yes, them. There were quite a few) just as she got to them. I couldn’t do a ding-dang thing but go with her as she jumped. Luckily she’s a very smooth jumper. But still, at a gallop, bareback, with a string, in strange country jumping arroyos where the steep edges just crumble away is not really – ya know – a good idea.
So, what’s going thru my mind while she’s galloping: “Huh, this could go badly.” “Sure will put a damper on the clinic.” “I guess if I got to go, this isn’t a bad way, but I don’t want to be mangled and live.”
Then, we came to a steep hill with 2 dead pine trees about 4 feet high at the bottom. The dead and dried limbs were sticking up and everywhere, waiting to impale the errant runaway horse and rider.
I couldn’t stop her, but I used every skill and signal I had to turn her and somehow managed to get thru to her. We went left. Sharply. I then realized that she was starting to come back in her head and when I pulled on the string again, she just stopped quietly. And stood there. She looked at me and said, “Whew, lost my head there for a bit, mom.” I said, “No shit!”
I leaned over and put the string over her nose and rode her back to the trailer.
While I had no intention to test our skills like that it was helpful to know that could happen. I always tell students that you can’t learn to canter at the trot. That’s also not a good time to assess your riding skills. You need to already have them.
Peka was perfect the rest of the clinic. Of course. And yes, all the clinic people all saw us go. I did mention that I wouldn’t recommend that for any of them.
In retrospect here are some more of my thoughts:
If you want to achieve a high goal, you’re going to have to take some chances.” — Alberto Salazar
“If anything terrifies me, I must try to conquer it.”
— Francis Chichester, adventurer (so me!)
I’m a quote collector. I love them. They inspire me in myriad directions. And I’ve selected this batch to support my thoughts on how I feel about moving forward after my brush with mortality on Peka.
“Gardens are not made by sitting in the shade.” — Rudyard Kipling
“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.” — George Woodberry, Poet
It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard… is what makes it great.? —Jimmy Dugan, A League of Their Own
“In order for you to profit from your mistakes, you have to get out and make some.” — Anonymous
“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” — John Kennedy
Fear is the best crutch ever. It’s always easy to rely on and keeps you from fulfilling your dreams. Brendon Burchard
“You can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price”
— Vince Lombardi
Now then, when I recounted my Peka story, many people (including my husband) had the same sort of response. That being: Well, I guess you won’t do that again!
In my husband’s case- I looked at him and said, “You’ve met me, haven’t you?”
As a matter of fact, the next two days I was on Peka in the pasture bareback without even the string just to see what she would do. She was a pill and took off again. But, then again, I virtually never do that due to a lack of time. So, obviously we needed to practice—not avoid.
How would I fix that if I avoided it? Why would I avoid it when I like to ride her with a string. Walking with a string isn’t the answer. For starters, we were walking when we suddenly weren’t walking. This is a common problem I deal with when I meet people who tell me they don’t need to learn how to ride well because they ‘just walk’ on trail. Well yeah! Until you don’t.
Avoidance is the best short-term strategy I know of to ensure long-term misery. –Brendon Burchard
Good one, eh? Horses actually appreciate the opportunity to learn that fast and high energy/anxiety are not the same thing. They should be able to gallop with a relaxed and thinking mind with a person. After all, they do it without people, so therefore – it must be the people that are the
problem. And it’s impossible to teach a horse how to do that without doing it.
So, get out there and stick your toe over the line. Dip it in the water. Then dive in. What have you REALLY got to lose?
Upon hearing the story, Kay felt compelled to record it in her inimitable way for all of posterity so you get this whole bonus story/training concepts AND a great cartoon!
I was her last stop before the Alpo can. This girl is the most dangerous horse I’ve ever been around in my life. What did “they” do to her to make her so dangerous? And by dangerous, I mean: She allowed no one near her. Within range for her was anywhere she could reach or get to. She’d charge you, even lunging over the fence. Just hope you get through it and far enough away to live. She struck, bit and kicked, launched whatever cowboy got on her and then, like a bull, turned and attacked. Broke bones in several trainers bodies before coming to me at the ripe old age of three. The trainers who owned her could not get within thirty feet of a fence without her trying to attack them. They purchased her as a one-year-old at the World sale in OK and when the breeder went into the stall, she sent him flying over the stall wall and broke some parts. The trainer/owner had gotten on her, but she launched him and then like a bull, turned and attacked breaking his collar bone. She had to be removed from the stable where they trained because no one could even clean the stall. They sent her to a trainer whose business card USED to read “Problem horses a specialty.” She launched him and attacked again with the same result. he told them to come get her, she was hopeless. They turned her out in a 100 acre pasture for six months hoping she’d settle down, but the other people who had horses in the pasture couldn’t get their horses because she’d attack them. She was temporarily contained in a round pen of a mutual acquintance while they tried to figure out what to do with her. They had the vet out to draw blood to check for hormone problems. If anyone even placed a hand on her, she’d squeal and kick and squirt pee. While in the stock for the vet to draw the blood, she managed to kick him and break his arm. Blood tests were negative. The mutual acquintance said if they wanted to give her one more shot before they took her to the killers, she needed to go to Lauren’s. (I keep a low profile. They didn’t know me.) They said drug her, throw her in the trailer and get her over there. I was gone to lessons the morning she was to be delivered, so I left instructions to leave her in the round pen. Now I was not given any info on this horse, just that they wanted her to “go long and low at a lope.” I had a message on my cell that said, “Hope your pen is still up when you get home.” Hmmmmm….. I walked out to see the new arrival. As I approached the fence, this beautiful horse ambled toward me and started to put her head forward. I noticed that she had a rear hoof that was completely broken up to the hair line at the quarter line. Lots of fresh blood. Don’t know what happened getting her here. I reached up a hand to pet her face and suddenly, both hind hooves were over the 5 foot rail right at my head. “Oh sweetheart,” I said, “that’s not the way we do things here.” She then pinned her ears and lunged over the rail at me with her teeth and eyes snapping. Yikes! I got my stick and string so I could work with her in the pen and hopefully live. She didn’t have a halter on and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be close enough to put one on her anyway. I had to do some pretty good swinging to even get in the pen and keep her off me. She didn’t care. I felt bad about the broken hoof, but it was obvious that that would be a long time healing and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. She didn’t seem to care either. High, shut-down pain threshold. I sent her off while she tried to attack and then bolted off squealing and squirting pee about 4-5 feet straight out behind her. I tested several options for her to come in or quiet down, the answer was a resounding “NO”. I was running around with her so I could touch her with the string and also use it when she attacked to start our conversation. Getting her to go away was important as a precursor to her giving to pressure and not killing me. She had no inclination to do so and there were many times that I knew my life was seriously in danger. To make a long story short, two hours later, both of us were covered in sweat and pee. She was changing direction and sometimes coming in half way to me. Then, suddenly she just stopped, turned in to me and walked up to me with her head down at her knees. She stood there heaving and dripping with her tail hangling limp between her legs and pee just started pouring out of her. I petted her forehead and said, “Sweetheart, where in the world did you even have that after two hours of squirting it all over?” Whatever happened to this horse before, she decided that she was going to get the human before the human could get her. I found out later that in addition to the multitud of broken bones she left in her wake, the owner had tied her legs and thrown her and left her laying in the sun under a tarp for several hours. She also had several serious wounds that they had stitched up on her lower legs without the help of a vet. Those scars will remain, the mind scars have mostly healed. I absolutely adore this horse and she’s like a barnacle. Follows me everywhere and always is a huge help teaching other horses how to do tricks and work with sidepassing over barrels or walking in the tire bundle or tarp work. She’s always right there on her own (frequently in the way) to show the newbie how to do it.
She was ten years old and had been kept in a pen for so long her legs hardly held up and sometimes didn’t while she scrambled to bolt away. A jet black Morgan, stunningly beautiful with black eyes, flowing mane and tail and crooked hind legs and strangely shaped hind hooves. Talk about spooky – I ducked between the rails of the pen she was in and she tried to jump out the back side. The guy who ‘trained’ her, well, he thinks standing in a round pen while she frantically runs so out of control that she’s at a 45 degree angle with the footing flinging hither and thither 30 feet out. She was in a total lather and had to be blocked to stop. Her eyes were white with terror. He, meanwhile, stood there in the ‘position’ with his arm cocked leaning on his stick while she lost her mind. Then, he saddled her up and got on and kinda rode her. Meaning he stayed on at a very tense walk and trot with reins only a few inces long and couldn’t get her any where near the rail or canter. A year later, after standing in that same pen the whole time, I brought her home amd turned her out with my herd. BTW she couldn’t be caught. What a lover puss. While she will come, she still has a thought that if you have a rope it may not go well for her. I’ve only been on her a handful of times and that bareback with a halter, but she’s doing very well. Updates as I get around to them.
Would you take that one with you, too?” the owner asked me. I made a face. I was there to see about a throw away (by them) horse for my daughter (Gryffindor is on the cover of my book with her). “No.” I said. “That’s like a large Great Dane. I don’t have any use for a tiny Arab pony.” But, the little bay horse whispered, “I’ll be your best horse ever.” Believe me, I throw that up in her face every once in a while when she gets a hair up her butt and she’s not being my best horse ever. She weighs about 200 pounds more than she did then. And with only about 225 rides in her, she’s a phenomenal horse. She’s perfectly behaved galloping in the mountains bridle-less with just a string around her neck that I don’t have to use. She’s so smooth in her gaits. She jumps like a bird; completely quiet and composed and we’ve started working on piaffe. I can put someone who’s never been on a horse before on her with a halter and take them for a ride in the desert or mountains. She’s also the one I’m on laying backward reading a book and in the un-spooky horse blog post. As to the reading picture, she had never been in the backyard, I had never laid backward on her. She didn’t even have so much as a string around her neck for that photo shoot. Very smart, but that’s an Arab for ya. Tell her what you want and be clear about it and she’ll give it her best try. I’ll keep adding blog posts featuring her and stories of old as we go.
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