I have a horse with really bad behavior on the ground. I’ve owned her since she was six months old. It started the day I got her, she ran me over on the way out of the trailer and I’ve been wary of her ever since.
As an experienced horsewoman, I assumed I could apply all that I had learned so far to try and correct this behavior. I would say I was about 90% successful. She is mostly trustworthy, but that 10% of the time she isn’t, is extremely dangerous. She’s knocked me down many times. She doesn’t have a confirmed respect for personal space.
This year, I began to think there was no hope and I would have to sell her. I ride alone most days, and I was concerned she would knock me out and nobody would find me for days.
I had joined the American Quarter Horse Association, and began receiving their magazine. I was really impressed with the professionals in the Western discipline, they seemed to be very knowledgeable about how horses thought and reacted to people, and in reading the articles in the magazine I started to think differently about how I interacted with my horses.
I wanted to see this type of horsemanship in action. As a dressage person, I considered myself fairly open minded, but I think each discipline tends to think of itself as ‘all wise.’ I was so frustrated with my horse I decided I had better drop that attitude or this problem wasn’t going to get solved. I decided to travel to Oregon and see a Clinton Anderson clinic.
Those two days blew my mind. Watching him work with the horses was amazing. He spent a lot of time talking to the audience and really giving us a thorough view of how the horse’s mind worked. I wasn’t sure how to apply it to my riding, but I could definitely apply it to my ground training. I took so many notes I ran out of paper and had to write in the margins of the program.
I purchased a rope halter and lead, and the stick he uses for what he refers to as his Method. I started to work with my horses based on the notes I took at the clinic; my dressage horses learned to stay out of my space, yield to pressure, and even do rollbacks! I felt like I had been given the key to the secret horse training society.
My mare can now be safely led to and from the arena with no problems. She is calm and can be handled by anyone. She also had trouble loading into the trailer, but he had a technique for that too. I was grateful for it when I went on a three day road trip to California and halfway there she decided she didn’t want to get on the trailer. I knew exactly what to do.
They say there is no teaching, only learning. Now I believe it. I can learn something from anyone, and sometimes the learning comes from unusual sources. I had to be willing to change my mind and admit I was wrong. Because I can do that, I can get better. It is a hard thing to do, but the rewards are great.
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