The First Lessons

Humble Beginnings

Chief like many horses his age had come to the end of the road.  Rescued by a well-meaning neighbor and subsequently adopted out it wasn’t long before he was he was returned underweight and more broken than ever.   He was described to me as a good horse who listened well, but what I saw was a horse who had been bullied into submission and who obeyed so he wouldn’t be punished.  There was simply no spark there; no fire and his lack of energy had nothing to do with age.

A 22 year-old Quarter Horse Chief still had a solid frame but his Chestnut coat was ill fitting and pocked with abuse from horses higher in the pecking order.  He looked like an expensive lawn ornament to me with dull eyes. I was assured that he was indeed a “good horse” but I was skeptical as my stomach began to ache.   

The neighbor planned to send him to another horse rescue who inevitably euthanized older, harder to adopt horses.  Chief didn’t stand a chance; I couldn’t even get him to lift his head so I could look him in the eyes.

Chief Comes Home

A week later, Chief made the move to the other side of the fence. I wouldn’t see him again until that Sunday.  He had already been successful at putting weight on his narrow frame but his head was still hung like Eeyore, his ears falling lax at both sides—he didn’t care who or what was around him. He simply walked around his enclosure because he didn’t know what else to do.

So we began, with groundwork, matching feet, and targeting (see Equine Behavioral Health Resorce Center for more information). Chief was not interested in the games, he followed along obediently and didn’t object—what was telling is that he rejected his rewards.  Sugar cubes, pellets and oats mixed with brown sugar and salt all uninteresting to his tightly pursed lips.

It’s always nice to have a horse that listens, but a horse that listens and doesn’t care to understand or to think is entirely different. Chief was not a thinker—yet.

As the weeks went by Chief amassed more weight, his eyes showed a hint of sparkle and he stopped visiting his friends across the fence and began to follow Jack, the eldest horse around. Like any elderly couple, sometimes they got along, sometimes they didn’t.  Felix and Oscar brought together by age and disposition.

Time to ride

Not swayed by the normal goodies, the next attempt was apples chopped into to human bite sized pieces.  Chiefs’ lips quivered his ears pricked forward and he asked for more and finally decided to take things into his own hands.  He turned his head toward the bag I wore at my waist—searching.   Gently I pushed his head away and corrected him and silently noted that was the first time he acknowledged my existence and that I owned the hand that was feeding him and guiding him.

My first experience on Chiefs back was interesting,  I didn’t think of many things before mounting—like he had probably never had an English Saddle on, and he probably had never been ridden without a bit.  I think it was good I didn’t think of these things because I was confident that we would be ok together and that I could ask Chief to do things without him reacting badly.

With Jack (Horse) and Chris (Human) we played “follow he leader” which was easy for Chief, Jack was his friend.  Now I had to teach him how to not get too close.  The solution, instead of simply saying “ho” when we got too close was to make a small circle before continuing to follow Jack.  Instead of the five meter circle I was attempting I got my first taste of a former reigning horse quickly spinning and continuing after his friend. 

After a brief ride, I let Chief have some time to process what we learned while I sat down to make a few notes.

1.    Remember to use my words-Chief still needed to learn English

2.    Make the reward big—even if he doesn’t take the treat by giving him a lot of praise.

3.    As always, be patient.

After drawing up the next weeks lesson plan I ended the day with the photo you see on the blog. 

I have met people over the years who claim to be experts on horses, experts because of time and experts because of how much money they made from their books and videos and perfect horse package deals.   What I have learned after ten years is that most of those people couldn’t tell you what their horse is thinking, if he is upset or if he is content.  I think they have a clear picture of what they want their horse to do—but not what the horse actually wants to do with them.