Horse Tales from the LOPE Ranch

Buck Brannaman Clinic Part II: The Last Two Days

Day Three

I was optimistic at the start of the third day of the clinic. After all, Santo and I had made much progress together on the first two days. And usually by the third day of a clinic, the horse and rider teams have settled into the rhythm of the clinic — so all signs pointed to an easier day.

But a big weather front had moved in that morning — temperatures were much cooler, with sharp wind gusts. As I headed into Santo’s pen to begin tacking him up, I noticed he was pacing frantically again. The horses in the pen next to him were being loaded up into a trailer — they were heading home a day early. Between his pen mates leaving and the dramatic weather change, Santo was beside himself. I tacked him up and placed my rope halter over his bridle — my plan was to ground work him in the small arena, then mount there and warm him up under saddle before heading into the big arena.

It was a good plan — but didn’t quite work out as expected. The wind gusts were very pronounced in the small arena, with sporadic rustling and banging noises everywhere as the wind rearranged many items and tossed them about. Santo was nearly out of his skin with agitation. I would ground work him for awhile and get a brief change — but any distraction (wind, horse walking by, etc.) would set him back quickly.

My instinct was to mount him and get started with short serpentines. But Santo seemed to be having more of a flashback to his mounting accident long ago. He was extremely restless near the fence when I tried to mount him there — he’d sidle up to me rapidly, present the stirrup like it was on fire, and then vibrate in place for a few seconds before dancing out of mounting range. And mounting from the ground was equally bumpy — my back was still weak on the left side from my injury and I had trouble getting into position fast enough to mount smoothly.

And I was having my own flashback — to my fall the previous summer. Then, I had mounted a young horse without realizing he was troubled — and paid quite a price for my rush to be in the saddle. The logical conclusion was that I needed to go slower and prepare horses better before mounting as a general principle — rather than leaping on the back of one that was obviously agitated (like Santo). Buck had often said during this clinic that people need to spend more time getting their horses gentle on the ground before riding — and it seemed like advice that was tailor-made for me.

Still — as I perched on the fence awkwardly (with my back complaining) and watched Santo twitch about spastically in front of me — I felt pretty sure more ground work wouldn’t help Santo in this moment. By now, all of the other riders were in the big arena. Country music was blaring — a sign that Buck hadn’t entered the arena yet — and the clinic was probably going to start at any moment. Santo and I were alone in the small arena.

Just then, a rider entered from far side of the arena. Dismayed, I saw that it was Buck — I hadn’t realized that he used this side arena to get to the big arena for the clinic. Embarrassed, I ducked my head and hoped he wouldn’t notice us floundering at the fence.

Of course, he immediately reined his horse next to Santo (who managed to vibrate even more) and asked what was going on. I told him that I had tried doing some ground work but that it didn’t seem to help for long — and that basically I was trying to figure out what Santo needed me to do for him.

Buck nodded and said it was just one of those days — with the wind and cold coming in suddenly — and suggested that I just get on Santo and do him some good from the saddle with short serpentines.

I stared back at him in surprise — and Santo even paused his piaffe on cocaine movements for a moment. I said something brilliant like “huh?” — and Buck patiently repeated his advice. Seeing the doubt on my face, he added that I could also bring Santo into the big arena to do ground work instead (but I could tell he thought that might be the less effective way to go).

And he rode off, heading into the big arena.

I looked at Santo and knew Buck was right — I needed to get on Santo to help him. Although my back thought that was a really bad idea, I decided to put Santo first — and I clumsily mounted him (and promised to give my back multiple margaritas later). He exhaled with obvious relief and off we whirled into short serpentine land. Sure enough, after about 10-15 minutes, Santo settled enough for me to ride him to the large arena without taking out any innocent spectators.

Buck was already talking to the class, as they stood around him on their horses. Santo and I began our now familiar routine of twirling up and down the arena. Many spectators waved cheerfully at us and I smiled back, happy to see that Santo’s fan club was growing. As the class began riding as a group, Santo and I blended in with the other riders. Santo soon was walking out nicely on a loose rein, doing long serpentines from my leg cues. As the trotting work began, I felt him relax even more — the extended trotting mixed in with “soft feel” and slower work really helped Santo unwind.

As we trotted by, Buck leaned down from his saddle (he seemed about two stories high on his big bay horse) and said, “You weren’t even sure you should get on him. And look at all the good you are doing him now.” He smiled with approval — and I was glad that I had taken his advice.

So was Santo, who was having a fun day at the clinic — especially during the cow work. We helped Rita and Kate cut a cow (by following them like a backup police car) and Santo seemed eager to do more with the herd. But I decided to guarantee that day ended on great note for Santo. I dismounted him after his tandem cow cutting moment — and exited the arena before everyone else.

After the clinic was officially over and all the riders had left the arena, I checked on Santo in his pen. Once again, he was pacing and neighing nervously — clearly the movement and noise still triggered a response in him.

Day Four

Before the final day’s class, I pondered Santo’s newly returned worry about being mounted. Given my less agile mounting style at the moment, what was going to be the best way to get into the saddle? At home, I often used a mounting block — but I was embarrassed at the thought of lugging one of those into a Buck Brannaman clinic arena.

The first time I ever audited a Buck clinic, he told an entertaining story about a lady who brought a mounting block to one of his clinics. She would set the block down and lead her horse to it. Just as she was ready to step into the stirrup, her horse would move away a few steps. And she’d sigh, pick up the mounting block, and move it back to within mounting range of her horse.

This happened several times, as Buck looked on. Finally, she mounted successfully and began riding away from the mounting block. Buck told her that he didn’t have a problem with her using the mounting block — as long as she put it away right after she had used it. The lady looked at him in exasperation and pointed out that she couldn’t do that without dismounting from her horse, putting the block away, and then mounting without the block (since it would be put away at that point). And he smiled and said something like, “Now you are catching on….”

In Buck’s approach to horsemanship, horses should always be quiet and stand still for mounting — that is part of their foundation work and shouldn’t be skipped over for convenience’s sake. At the same time, Santo seemed like a temporary exception to that rule — for this clinic, he was getting calmer after I was in the saddle (but not before).

Pondering the dilemma, I decided it was time to adapt to fit the situation. Before I tacked up Santo, I took the mounting block out of my trailer and put it in the small arena. Once Santo was saddled, I led him there and headed for the mounting block.

As I stood on the block and directed Santo’s feet toward me, he became nervous again. Clearly, he was happier once I was on his back — so why all of the dancing around before mounting? Was it just the return of his old bad experience with a rider falling during mounting — and if so, why was it occurring now?

Then for the first time during the clinic, I had an insight into his behavior during mounting. As he rushed up to the block, gyrating slightly, I had a mental image of a getaway car. Santo was telling me, “Hey, get on FAST. Trouble is coming and we need to get out of here. But we need to leave together, so HURRY up.” He was the getaway car and I was the slow co-conspirator, dawdling my way out of the bank I just robbed.

I laughed and lined him up beside the block. My back was much happier about this method of mounting — and as soon as Santo brought the stirrup to me, I stepped into it and sprang lightly into the saddle. Santo sighed with relief and off we went to short serpentine in the big arena.

On this day, for the first time, we were able to stand with the group and listen to Buck talk at the beginning of the class. Santo yawned frequently, tried to make friends with the horses on either side of us, and generally behaved like a well-mannered child on a school field trip. He was curious, happy, occasionally sleepy, and slightly distracted at times. Best of all, his feet stayed still without any tension or worry. I was ready to redirect him if he needed to move around — but never had to do that.

Throughout class that day, Santo and I practiced bringing his energy up and then easing it back down. During an exercise where two riders pair off and do cow working maneuvers (with one horse being the cow and the other horse being the horse), I got a little over-eager and ramped myself up quite a bit (sadly, this only resulted in inelegant movements and the cardinal sin of outpacing the “cow”). But Santo took it all in stride — becoming full of animation to match my spastic example, but then dialing that energy down immediately when the exercise ended.

Santo had a field day with the cow phase of the class. He watched alertly as Buck roped one of the cows near him — and then relaxed into mellow daydreaming when Buck left our part of the circle. Again, we walked out with Rita and Kate (the wonder cow horse) — and Santo walked into the middle of the cows alone for the first time. He wanted to sniff and even bump the cows with his nose — and he was very pleased when they moved away from him deferentially. The crescendo moment of the clinic came for Santo when he cut a cow from the herd all by himself (with Kate and Rita on the sidelines).

I could feel how happy and proud he was at that moment. Quickly, I steered him to the side — and dismounted him on the spot. As I led him back to his pen, Santo walked as if he felt like a champion.

After I untacked him, I headed back to the arena — after all, I didn’t want to miss the last round of Q&A and Buck’s parting words of wisdom to us. I also wanted to say good-bye to my clinic friends and maybe even get a chance to thank Buck for his help.

As I walked into the spectator area, one of the horses in the arena spooked suddenly. It looked like maybe he was worried about the cows — it was quick, minor episode but it caught my attention. It was near the end of the clinic — and the horses were gathered around Buck while their riders listened to him. I thought about Santo’s behavior in the pen after each day of the clinic. For him, the end of the clinic would be that same experience of anxiety — unless I did something different.

I remembered Buck’s advice on the first day of the clinic — that horses like Santo are a gift to their riders, if the rider will give the horse what he needs (instead of doing what the human would rather do). My personal preference was to sit down and listen to Buck’s final talk — followed by socializing with my fellow clinic riders.

But that’s not what Santo needed.

I looked over my shoulder at the clinic group, sighed, and headed back to Santo’s pen. He was chewing quietly on his alfalfa with soft eyes. My trailer was already hitched — I loaded him right then (alfalfa still in his mouth) and drove home.

When I unloaded Santo at our ranch about an hour later, he was calm and peaceful — and he walked off the trailer feeling like the biggest winner ever.

And that was how his clinic ended….

Ruff Slew Update

Ruff Slew (aka “Parker”) had been making terrific progress in his training with Holly Flint of Flint Equestrian. He was working quietly in his walk-trot-canter sessions in the big covered arena. Parker had begun stepping over poles as part of a long, slow introduction to jumping one day in the future too.

As a three-year-old right off the track, we were expecting to see a less smooth transition for Parker as he entered our racehorse education program. But Parker handled the training barn and Holly’s training sessions with aplomb and calmness.

Then a couple weeks ago, Holly called me with some interesting news. As part of Parker’s training, she had started teaching him how to lunge on a long line. Parker was displaying resistance and irritation during the process. From Holly’s description, Parker was balking, turning his hindquarters to the center, hopping up, and generally behaving in a cranky manner.

I went to observe a lunging session with Parker and Holly — so I could see what might be happening. As Holly led him to the arena, I had a pretty good idea what the issue might be. Parker was crowding her space — while he walked near her shoulder, he often stepped ahead. He was excited by the strong wind that day and pranced a little (which he felt gave him the perfect excuse to ignore Holly in those moments).

As Holly began lunging him, Parker did a perfect impersonation of a sulky teenage boy being asked to clean his room. He dawdled, scowled, stopped dead, hopped, and turned his shoulder to Holly. After watching for about ten minutes, I decided to check Parker out with some ground work exercises — to see if his responses were due to physical tightness or really were just a teenage boy reaction.

We removed the lunge gear and I put a rope halter (with a long lead) on Parker. As soon as I began to lead him, Parker very cheerfully bounded up to my ear and crowded me. I asked him once to step back (offering him a soft aid and a “good deal”). When that produced zero response in Parker (who was busy looking over my ear to the paddock next door), I gave a quick, firm aid in which I popped the lead rope back emphatically and with great clarity of intention (i.e., “Get back now”).

Astonished, Parker immediately retreated to a respectful distance — and I walked off again, leading him behind me, without continuing the aid. He had responded promptly and without offense — so it seemed likely that we were indeed simply dealing with a teenage boy situation.

After some ground work exercises, Parker made some very nice changes in demeanor and we ended the session by walking around the big arena and back to the barn. Parker stayed behind and was calm (he seemed to weigh hardly anything on the end of the lead rope, in fact).

Holly and I put our heads together — and decided that Parker had a little hole in his foundation from his long ago halter-breaking days. Many horses (including highly successful show or competition mounts) have this issue as well — they don’t lead, load, or lunge super well. It can be tempting to just ignore or work around this — after all, Parker is riding quietly and doing well in all other area. So why should we slow down his training process to go back and work on leading?

The answer is because Parker will begin to regress in other areas (including under saddle work) if he believes that he can push the boundaries of respectful distance on the ground. Again, the teenage boy analogy is very apt — as most parents know, teenage boys require structure and consistent leadership to be successful and to develop the right kind of confidence as young men one day. Ignoring disrespectful behavior (no matter how small) only leads to more difficulties in other areas.

As a three-year-old, Parker is a classic teenage boy. His body is growing rapidly, his mind is absorbing new information constantly, and he frequently needs to test the boundaries of parent and teacher authority. The good news is that Parker is a genuinely kind, sweet, and emotionally balanced young horse. He shows every sign of one day being a confident and happy partner for a lucky rider.

After many viewings of our DVD on Retraining Racehorses (with Tom Curtin) and its focus on the basics, I have become pretty familiar with the importance of ground manners and proper leading skills for a horse. In addition, LOPE’s library of horsemanship DVDs includes the 7 Clinics DVD series with Buck Brannaman — which includes much information about ground work as well.

Holly began incorporating exercises from both those DVDs into her training sessions with Parker. He is catching on very rapidly and has been a willing student. Even during an especially exciting day in the arena (with wind, flapping saddle pads on the fence, and a new horse arriving to the facility), Parker was able to safely express his anxiety to Holly, listen to her directions, and end the session quietly.

We are so pleased with Parker’s progress! This is an easy issue to overlook — and we appreciate Holly’s willingness to help Parker through the process of relearning some basic principles about appropriate ground manners and respect for handlers (even when they are leading you past something REALLY interesting, lol).

Parker has a terrific, cheerful temperament and would be a wonderful horse for someone experienced with young horses. He is the type of horse that you will be tempted to bring along too quickly, as he often displays a calm, seasoned attitude to tasks (especially riding). Parker is showing signs of being a terrific eventing or sport horse prospect too!

Parker is available for adoption now. His adoption fee is $1200 and includes ten weeks training with Holly at Flint Equestrian (plus he is up to date on all shots, coggins and dental work as of January 2013). Please contact LOPE for more information on Parker.

Call Me Cleo: Case Study

Assessment of Cleo

Call Me Cleo is a three-year-old gelding at LOPE. He was donated by his breeder after his initial under saddle work revealed that Cleo was not a good candidate for racing. As the trainer at the race training facility noted, Cleo is a big, growing horse — and he runs like a puppy, full of energy but without much efficiency or speed.

As a two-year-old, Cleo had an injury — a serious laceration to a hind leg. His breeder diligently nursed him back to full soundness — which took months and delayed Cleo from being started under saddle. Fully recovered, with no soundness issues, Cleo was officially started under saddle as a three-year-old — but with the giant puppy running style, his racing career ended before it had a chance to begin.

So Cleo came to LOPE with about 45-60 days riding under his belt — he was sound, green, cute, and very intelligent. But he also had some interesting patterns — while Cleo was sweet, he also was insecure and unconfident about the world. And he saw people as either a source of short-term comfort or as obstacles that would yield to his opinions when he was upset.

Many times when a foal or young horse has an injury that requires intense rehab, they will develop an unusual relationship with their human handlers. Because socialization by their mothers and pasture mates is so key at this age, a young horse is a like a big sponge where relationships are concerned. So if they must be handled for careful rehab (which might require lots of soothing behavior by human handlers as well as very close physical contact), young horses might begin to see people purely as treat and comfort dispensers — rather than as leaders.

At the same time, because they are young and by nature less knowledgeable, a young rehab horse is often insecure and uncertain about the world and their place in it. So they can tip easily over into anxiety — while never considering that the human might be a good source of leadership and structure.

Cleo fits this description. He is charming, sweet, and very appealing. People (especially ladies) feel an almost irresistible urge to pet and fuss over him. At the same time, when Cleo gets frustrated or anxious, he will brush aside people if they do anything except sooth or comfort him. Essentially, he has little true respect for the human as a leader — and treats them like favorite (but unequal) peers in the pasture.

If left uncorrected, this type of behavior could lead to a spoiled (and thus dangerous) horse. Spoiled horses crowd people’s space and have no regard for people as leaders. Once a horse learns to crowd a person’s space consistently, the next phase is nipping, kicking, running, or striking at the human.

The good news is that Cleo hasn’t had time to develop this full pattern — plus he was treated with genuine kindness by his breeder. We can’t stress enough how intelligent and sensitive (in a good way) Cleo is — this is a young horse with a huge capacity to learn and to be a good partner for a rider.

Rancho Bayo’s Approach

The first priority that Rancho Bayo focused on with Cleo was to reeducate him on the horse-human relationship. No matter how cute his facial expression or how sweet his eyes looked, Cleo was put into immediate “petting detox” — which means that the Rancho Bayo team resisted the powerful temptation to pet and fuss over him for no reason (other than his extreme cuteness).

He then was exposed to lots of ground exercises in which his trainer (Eric of Rancho Bayo) directed Cleo’s feet and asked Cleo to maintain a respectful distance and demeanor. This was often hard for Cleo — as he would initially run to Eric for comfort (almost literally trying to get into his lap) but then react with irritable frustration when Eric would not allow Cleo to crowd his space and kept asking Cleo to continue with the exercise.

The next phase was to increase the distraction level for Cleo — by asking him to still do exercises when he was worried or anxious due to windy days, new horses in the paddock, and so on. Cleo would often react by appearing to soften — but only for a moment — and then immediately trying to leave (either mentally or physically) when it was clear that Eric wasn’t fooled and was continuing to ask for Cleo’s participation in the work.

Eric has been careful to always maintain a calm, quiet tone with Cleo in his presentation. He doesn’t get ruffled if Cleo is evasive or showing signs of irritation (Cleo stamps his feet in frustration like a child when he isn’t getting his way). But Eric also doesn’t stop asking for a specific response until Cleo gives it to him. In that way, Eric allows Cleo to search for the right answer — and rewards him immediately when he finds it.

Eric is changing Cleo’s understanding of the role of people in his life. He is showing Cleo that people can be consistent, clear leaders — and he can rely on them to provide structure. This is what allows a young horse to develop true confidence in himself and in people.

Advanced Exercises

Because Cleo is unusually smart and is very tuned into his surroundings, Eric initially adjusted his approach to include some warm-up activities before beginning his ground work sessions with Cleo. One exercise involves tying Cleo and leaving some slack in the lead rope. Eric then will signal Cleo with a lunge whip (that has a plastic bag at the end of it — so that it can act as a long flag) to move away from him and roll his hindquarters.

This exercise requires very careful and precise timing, to avoid putting too much pressure on the horse or inducing panic. At first Cleo would fling himself to the end of the lead line, lean against it, and try to tune Eric out. But he quickly learned that by rolling his hindquarters, he could yield to the “feel” of the lead rope while also reducing the pressure from the giant lunge whip flag (for Eric would immediately stop moving the flag when Cleo rolled his hindquarters).

Another variation on this exercise requires Cleo to face Eric squarely (without his head tipping to one side or the other — a sign that Cleo is preparing to exit). Once he has done that, the flag pressure disappears immediately.

Both of these exercises are of the “don’t try this at home” category — meaning that they do require a very seasoned and experienced handler to execute them properly. Eric has decades of experience with this type of work — plus works with mustangs regularly — so his timing and technique are finely honed.

When done properly, this exercise allows a horse to work through tension and evasion issues much more quickly — and sets up the horse mentally for the next ground work exercise (which usually is quite short, so as to not overwhelm the horse).

Lariat and Rope Ground Work Sessions

Eric has utilized ropes and lariats in his ground sessions with Cleo. In one exercise, he looped part of his long lead rope around the saddle horn. While he held the end of the lead rope on the ground, he asked Cleo to bend in the direction of the pressure — by matching Cleo’s resistance on the other end (plus four ounces more pressure).

If Eric tried to pull Cleo's head harder and force the bend, it would be very counter-productive (for both him and Cleo). Instead, he quietly matches Cleo's resistance (with that small amount extra) — and allows Cleo to search for the answer. It is especially hard for Cleo to bend on his left side - after this exercise, Cleo was able to make a big change and relax deeply. The long rope helps Eric work the exercise at a distance and not crowd Cleo during the process.

The next level of session involves a lariat. During another day, I watched Cleo stay calm and relaxed while Eric tossed a lariat at him — even carrying the rope quietly on his back while still trotting in even, consistent cadence. Eric eventually roped Cleo and did some ground work with just the rope on (no halter at all). Cleo showed great improvement in his softness and willingness to follow Eric's cues (or "feel"). And for the first time, Cleo was able to stop when asked and then voluntarily yield his hindquarters and bend to follow Eric as he stepped back (without any pressure on the rope at all). This was a huge moment for Cleo — as it shows his trust in Eric as a handler and also demonstrates his sensitivity and potential for lightness one day.

What About Riding?

It can be time-consuming to put in all of these ground work sessions with a horse like Cleo. Many people might wonder why we just don’t saddle him up, mount, and “ride him down” to quietness. We don’t do that because it won’t work as well as Rancho Bayo’s approach. Sure, people might be more impressed by a flashy display of riding an anxious young horse into what appears to be submission. But at the end of the day, we won’t have accomplished anything — Cleo will be more worried, will trust people less, and will ultimately regress. This long, slow, “boring” work is what sets up a horse like Cleo for true success — because it gets at the root of his issues and rebuilds his understanding of the world, of people, and of how his body works.

Cleo will be back under saddle soon enough (in the next few weeks). And the first ride will be boring without any wild displays of worry or excitement — because Eric will have prepared Cleo for a successful, relaxed, and enjoyable ride.

That is what impresses us at LOPE.

More Details About Cleo

Cleo is available for adoption now at LOPE. He would be a terrific project for someone who enjoys working with young horses and bringing them along slowly. Because of his intelligence and athleticism, Cleo will be a fantastic partner one day for a handler willing to be patient and gain his trust.

Call Me Cleo

Call Me Cleo is a three-year-old chestnut TB gelding with a blaze. He went to a farm to begin his under saddle and race training in December — but didn’t show much aptitude for speed.

Cleo was home raised by a responsible and caring race breeder named Karen. She had waited an extra year to start him in training due to an injury. Cleo had a hind leg laceration as a two-year-old that was quite serious and required several weeks of care to heal properly.

Karen had bonded closely with Cleo while nursing his injured leg — he was a favorite of hers in every respect. When she received the disappointing news that racing was not going to be the ideal career for Cleo, she decided to donate him to LOPE. Karen was especially excited that Cleo would be going into our Racehorse Education Program to receive training and assessment from a professional trainer.

Rancho Bayo is one of LOPE’s favorite horsemanship facilities. We first heard of them at LOPE’s Annual Benefit Horse Show — a group of their riders swept the horsemanship awards two years in a row! It was clear that their program focused on in-depth horsemanship and foundation training (for both their horses and riders). Eric and Michelle of Rancho Bayo have decades of experience working with all types of equine training issues — and are patient, careful horsemanship teachers.

We were excited to learn that they had an opening in their training barn for Cleo! And so Cleo headed there on February 16. At that point, Cleo had about 45-60 days under saddle and training from a professional race training facility. Because of that and his young age, we knew Cleo would benefit tremendously from the foundation work at Rancho Bayo. Eric there is taking a slow approach with him — going over the basics of how to lead and ground work quietly, for example.

Cleo is a very intelligent young gelding with a cute face and athletic build. His hind leg healed well — other than a cosmetic scar, the injury left no damage that will impede his future as a riding horse.

At Rancho Bayo, they noticed that Cleo isn't confident about new situations. Whenever he is anxious, Cleo wants to make his own decisions about how and when to move away from the things that worry him. At first, Cleo will cling too closely to his handler for security — but then he'll get frustrated if the handler won’t allow him to take charge of the situation.

Cleo literally will stomp his feet like a cranky child when this happens. Eric simply redirects Cleo's energy in these moments — by asking him to something specific with his feet (like move to one direction in a specific way, for example). Cleo has already started to learn that foot stomping doesn't really get him his way (just like children do as well).

Eric is teaching Cleo that he needs to focus on Eric for guidance and not tune him out under pressure. What this means is that Eric will be kind and calm — but also will be a clear leader for Cleo.

At first, Cleo thought this was just a silly idea — why should he listen to Eric? Cleo thought it might be easier to step all over Eric's personal space or pull away from Eric on the lead rope instead.

In these situations, Eric smiles, stays relaxed — and quietly keeps directing Cleo until he understands what Eric wants. Interestingly enough, Eric doesn’t pet Cleo much during their ground work sessions (even though it is incredibly tempting, due to Cleo's cute face and sweet eyes). Eric wants Cleo to feel good about being near Eric and about listening to him — without needing to be petted or fussed over. Otherwise, Cleo might think Eric's main purpose is to pet or sooth him — which will only build the wrong response in Cleo at this time.

As I watched Eric work with Cleo during a session last week, I saw Cleo gradually become more and more relaxed. Like many young horses, he is still trying to understand the world (as well as how his own, rapidly-growing body works) — so it's hard for him to feel secure in every new situation. Eric is a patient, reassuring trainer — he gives Cleo consistent and clear guidance, so that Cleo can feel supported and understand what he is being taught.

Eric was careful to not overwork Cleo — he knows young horses need time and lots of repetition to master new skills. He allowed Cleo to stand near him and “soak” on the lesson they just worked on together (rather than quickly moving him into another round of activity before Cleo had time to process everything).

I liked Cleo’s state of mind at the end of the session. He was very focused on Eric (like an attentive student), but he also seemed to understand that Eric was there to help him.

This is a significant change for Cleo — and an important step in the right direction. Eric gave Cleo positive feedback immediately, to build on that moment and encourage Cleo to keep “trying” in that direction.

As a young horse, Cleo is still very much an open book. His breeder treated him with great kindness and made sure that he had the time he needed to recover from his injury. She also selected a good race training facility to start him under saddle. At this stage in his training, Cleo needs to be in a consistent routine and structure with a handler who will keep directing him toward success. For Cleo, this means that he needs to see the human as a trusted leader, to understand the boundaries of his role versus the human’s role, and to learn how to handle new situations while building confidence.

Cleo is available for adoption now and would be a good project for someone experienced with colt starting and foundation training. Please stay tuned for more updates on Cleo’s training progress!

Making a Profit on Training

For those of you who follow LOPE’s blog closely, it is familiar news that we have started a racehorse education program. Last year, we began outreaching to local professional trainers who wanted to work with LOPE — and they helped us form a training initiative drive. After ten years of our work, LOPE had learned some important lessons about the challenge of transitioning ex-racehorses into new homes — and to keep them less at-risk in the future.

We started with one horse in training — and by mid-February raised funds to place three horses in 30-day assessment training and register two horses to ride in clinics held by well-known horsemanship teachers. The group of trainers in our program now includes Laura Whitfield of Poseidon Sport Horses, Holly Flint of Flint Equestrian and Eric and Michelle Clark of Rancho Bayo. The clinics were taught by Tom Curtin and Peter Campbell. We hope to raise additional funds to expand the program — so we can send more horses to an even bigger group of quality trainers and clinicians.

Each of the trainers in the program gives LOPE a discount on training — and LOPE also pays board (just like a regular client) while the horses are in the training barn. LOPE of course covers the cost for vet care, farrier work, transport cost and so on. For the horses that are sent to clinics, most of them are at the LOPE Ranch (rather than in a training barn) and are ridden by me. Most clinicians don’t typically give discounts (though they will often spend extra time coaching the LOPE horse and rider team).

LOPE’s adoption fees typically range from $350-$1500. To get to the higher end of that range, a horse must have 1) been in training for eight weeks or more; 2) shown talent and aptitude for a particular discipline; 3) demonstrated a kind and extra willing temperament; 4) be up to date on dental, farrier and vaccinations. In our current group of adoption horses, we have two horses with adoption fees of $350, two with adoption fees of $650, two with adoption fees of one dollar (to excellent retirement homes only) and one with an adoption fee of $1200.

So far, our training and clinic costs alone for the program total significantly more than the all the adoption fees combined. This excludes boarding cost at the training barns, vet care expenses, farrier fees, transport/fuel expenses, and feed/hay cost (for those horses at the LOPE Ranch).

How are we able to make this training program sustain itself, if not by profit? And why do we continue to expand the program, if it isn’t financially rewarding to LOPE?

The answers are easy. LOPE is a nonprofit charity, not a for-profit business. Our mission is to help ex-racehorses find new careers after their track days are over — and our goal is to see these horses be less at-risk in the future. Training gives the LOPE horses job skills and a better chance of success for the long-term future. At the same time, by blogging about the training process, LOPE can also share what we are learning with a wider audience of equestrians — and maybe that will encourage some of them to take a chance on an ex-racehorse for their next riding project.

LOPE doesn’t make the program sustain itself — our generous sponsors, donors, and supporters do. The training initiative would have never happened without such enthused encouragement from our network of contributors, trainers, and fans. And each day that the program continues is due to their generosity and huge heart for ex-racehorses in need. Without them, LOPE could never afford to provide professional training for the horses in our care.

Huge thanks and deep gratitude to all the people who have made the racehorse education program possible at LOPE!

Silver Red Bird Update

Red Bird has just finished her 30-day assessment with Laura at Poseidon Sport Horses! She has made great progress since her arrival there. At first, Red Bird was hesitant to relax in new surroundings — and she was quite worried about trusting new people. Her initial response was to go right into “flee” mode — Red Bird would either “leave” with her body (by moving her feet rapidly or turning away nervously) or with her mind (by tuning out the person working with her).

Slowly over the past few weeks, Red Bird has settled into her routine much more comfortably. Laura has found that Red Bird likes to learn via lots of repetition of simple, easy tasks — so that Red Bird can gain confidence that she really is getting the answer right.

Red Bird also needs her handler to be as soft as possible when giving cues for ground work. If you are asking Red Bird to begin moving forward while free lunging in the round pen, it is important to ask very quietly. Simply lifting your hand a little too quickly prompts a rapid response from Red Bird — but a slowly raised hand (or finger) elicits a much calmer departure.

Essentially, Red Bird is scared that she will get the answer wrong — and so she tries to rapidly respond with whatever she thinks is the right answer to the aid. But her own rapid reaction makes her anxious — and even more sure her answer is wrong. So it is important break down each request into small steps, to help encourage Red Bird to go slow.

Another key factor is emotion. We all can sometimes take things personally if a horse is responding in an unexpected way to our requests. With Red Bird, it is essential that her handler radiate a calm, relaxed mood — no matter how worried she is — so that she can feel more supported and secure. This doesn’t mean that she can ignore the request or evade it — but that the handler keeps asking in a steady way until Red Bird can process how to respond successfully.

At first, Red Bird was only worked in the round pen — the stimulation of being in the big covered arena was simply too much for her to process. She was too on edge and distracted. But after steady, patient sessions with Laura, Red Bird now is doing simple ground work in the arena! As you can see from the photos, she starts out feeling a little worried — but soon relaxes and is able to soften considerably by the end of the session.

Red Bird returned to the LOPE Ranch last weekend for some extended pasture turnout time and light ground work. Laura and I both feel that Red Bird needs some time to let down from the track in a natural, herd setting. She will be restarted under saddle later in the spring — much like Showtime Queen, she needs a more gradual transition from her racing career into a new job.

Stay tuned for more updates (and video) of Red Bird at the LOPE Ranch! Best of all, Red Bird will be going to a clinic with Peter Campbell in April. Thanks to a generous sponsor, she will be able to benefit from Peter’s support and expertise in a colt starting class!

Apalache King Update

King has just finished his 30-day assessment with Laura at Poseidon Sport Horses! He has done incredibly well with everything — and has become quite a favorite at the barn.

King came straight from Retama Race Park to Poseidon — he had run in a race just a few days beforehand. Typically, we like to give LOPE horses some turnout time between racetrack and retraining — but we decided to experiment and see how King did at Laura’s training barn.

It has been fun to watch his progress! Although he is young and green, King has a relaxed and confident personality — he thinks the world is a wonderful place and that he is pretty awesome himself. His viewpoint is reflected in his kind eye, relaxed walk, and lack of muscle tension throughout his physique. Many horses come off the track with the tight muscles of a professional athlete used to repetitive physical patterns.

But King has relatively loose shoulders and neck muscles, along with a relaxed topline. He moves quite freely and show much potential for multiple disciplines. King isn’t tight or sensitive about being touched anywhere — and he even loves to have his face sponged off and carefully rinsed. As you can see in this short video clip, King also likes to admire himself in the arena mirror!

Laura wisely decided to not rush King too quickly into more advanced training work. With such a receptive (and attractive) young horse as King, it can be tempting to speed up and try to get him to the next phase (or three) as soon as possible. The horse market can be favorable to trainers who can get a promising young horse in the show ring rapidly — but that often can backfire, as green horses sometimes truly need a steady, slow approach to a new job. A good foundation in training comes from all the time patiently spent doing “boring” things — like ground work, tying, handling and so on. Skipping through those steps might seem like a good idea in the short term — but it rarely works for long term success.

King is a tall, handsome horse with nice movement and a wonderful mind. We could have already rehomed him to someone who was prepare to adopt him without any riding assessment at all. But we felt it was best for King to give him more time before he was adopted — so that he could have some training rides with Laura first.

The goal of our training initiative program is to assess each horse’s individual needs and give them as much training support as our sponsorships will permit. For Red Bird, it is best that she receive more turnout time rather than extended professional training at this time. But for King, it seems more ideal to give him some additional time with Laura for riding assessment.

We will be setting King’s adoption fee sometime soon this month — and will also be setting up appointments now for interested adopters who want to visit him and watch Laura work with him. Stay tuned for more updates soon on King!

Six Word Philosophies

When I first started working with the LOPE horses, I felt at a loss much of the time. Although I admired the ex-racehorses and wanted to be useful to them, I didn’t have much training experience or advanced riding skills. And my response to unexpected veterinary situations (colic symptoms, lacerations, any sign of blood) was to be squeamish and inept. Every day brought a new challenge to be met or difficult decision to be made — by me, the least qualified racehorse wrangler ever.

During that time, I often heard a particular phrase in my line of work. It came from prospective adopters as they perused the horse listings or visited our ranch. Colleagues in the equestrian world repeated the same phrase while facing tough dilemmas about their horses. Frequently, it came up during clinic and lesson discussions. Most often, it emerged from nearly everyone I consulted about fundraising or nonprofit charity management.

What is the phrase? “If it is meant to be…”

I thought this must be a good motto — since so many in the horse world seemed to follow it. The slogan had a pleasingly Zen vibe that seemed peaceful (and asked little of me). So I repeated it to myself whenever faced with the uncertain situations, delicate judgment calls, and horsemanship challenges that seemed to crop up daily at LOPE. And I waited to be filled with serenity, wisdom, and confidence as all of my knotty dilemmas vanished because of what was meant to be (or not).

Well, none of that happened. Why? The motto doesn’t work — because it’s actually a form of philosophical punt. As I realized this rather uncomfortable insight, I began observing with more clarity how the phrase was used (by myself and others).

Most of the time, we say it wistfully — as if we have no role in whether “it” is “meant to be” at all. We are waiting for signs from the universe — perhaps in the form of ease in circumstances (such as unexpected cash) — that the road to what we want won’t require much from us. So therefore it is meant to be.

I was a little embarrassed when I saw this larger picture — and felt that I had been letting the LOPE horses down by following a pop slogan instead of stepping up and putting in the real effort they need from me.

At LOPE, I work with horses off the track, retrain them, find them new homes, and educate the public about how wonderful these horses are. It requires me to run a farm, care for the horses, provide retraining and rehab to a variety of equine personalities, match the horses to the right adopters, outreach to the equestrian community, and fundraise for the financial support that makes it all possible.

These are LOPE’s responsibilities as a charity, as stewards to the horses and as horsemen. Wishful thinking and unrealistic hopes play no part at all. The LOPE team must figure out how to make the right things happen — rather than leave it up to kismet to tell us whether or not to proceed.

The reason I feel strongly about this is because of the nature of my work. Horses don’t know or care about whether things are meant to be. If I were to approach every first off-track ride on a young horse with the thought, “well, if it is meant to be, I will have a good ride with this green horse,” I would soon find that the universe was letting me get bucked off into the dust. As well I would deserve to be, if I left the primary outcome and responsibility for the ride up to my vague notions of fate.

The horse needs us to take responsibility for our actions as a rider and as a steward — and to commit fully in both roles. Just because something requires hard work or has some obstacles in its path does not mean that it is not meant to be. It just means that you need to decide if you truly want it and then commit to what it will take to reach your goal.

As Jim Rohn wrote, “Don’t wish it was easier — wish you were better.” At LOPE, we strive to be better — especially on the days that aren’t easy in any respect. It isn’t always the smoothest process, but at least there are good role models to emulate, like Tom Dorrance, Ray Hunt and all the others who follow in their footsteps.

I’m pretty sure that none of them ever answered, “if it is meant to be” when it came to questions of horsemanship. Instead, they encouraged people to build the skills, make the tough decisions, and put in the hard work it takes to one day become horsemen. When you go down that road, you develop the kind of experience and knowledge that makes the biggest difference to the horses. You truly learn and embody what it takes to understand what a horse may need in a given situation — and no longer need to wish or hope that helping that horse is “meant to be.”

So I have put aside that motto and traded it in for a much better six word philosophy from Ray Hunt: “Confidence is knowing you are prepared.” It makes me work much harder than the other slogan — and keeps me on that long, slow path to one day becoming a horseman.

Apalache King

Apalache King is a super handsome, five-year-old @16.3H bay gelding now in LOPE’s training initiative program. King came straight to Poseidon Sport Horses from Retama racetrack — and he is now in a 30-day assessment there with Laura Whitfield. He will be up for adoption soon — we just want to get to know him better and begin the next phase of his training first.

King won a single race but then seemed to lose all interest in running. His race trainer decided it was time for him to find a new job, so she donated him to LOPE. King is sound without injuries — and looks like he will be a terrific prospect for many disciplines.

Because he came directly from the track to Poseidon, Laura decided it was best to go slow and give King some time to relax during his transition to a new career. King is one of those geldings who is “all boy” — we can easily picture him with a baseball cap turned backwards, walking around the UT campus with a Longhorn jersey on.

In contrast to Silver Red Bird, King is much more confident about the world. He is pretty sure that he is super handsome — and that everyone should pet and admire him (because he is kind of a big deal, lol). We love horses that already think well of themselves! It says a great deal about King’s foundation training as a youngster, as well as his handling at the track.

Where King’s confidence can sometimes go a little overboard is during the haltering process. King tried to tell Laura many times that he didn’t need to put his head down for her while she haltered him — he was much too busy doing other important, “guy” things to pay attention to silly stuff like halters.

Laura changed his mind about that pretty quickly — but for the first couple of sessions together, she and King had to work quite awhile on the polite way to be haltered. King soon decided that Laura had a point about all of this — and he now is courteous and respectful of the process.

As a young racehorse fresh off the track, King benefited greatly from this kind of simple (but extremely important) groundwork training. Laura discovered that King had the stereotypical racehorse way of leading — which meant that he did the leading, instead of the human on the other end of the lead rope. King also assumed that “leading” was the same as “crowding closely into Laura” — which took another series of quiet, steady sessions to explain the difference to him.

Throughout all of the work, King was cheerful and happy about himself. During the round pen work, King carried his head high initially (just the right position for galloping down the track). But in spite of the racing head position, I couldn’t help noticing that King actually was cantering quite slowly — he really wasn’t truly interested in running rapidly around the pen.

King showed nice movement with easy, ground covering strides. He seemed to have some nice action in his hindquarters — but with his head up, he wasn’t really engaging behind fully. We also noticed that King wasn’t particularly tight in his shoulders — which is a nice plus.

With Laura’s encouragement, King began to drop his head occasionally during the free lunge sessions. Whenever he did that, a remarkable change occurred in his movement. His shoulders immediately loosened, his hind end engaged more and his movement went from nice to downright elegant and flashy. King doesn’t seem to be carrying much tension or brace in his body — so as he learns how to carry himself for a job other than racing, his body can respond without resistance from old muscle memory patterns.

King is athletic, well-built, tall and kind-hearted. Although he is young and green, his emotional calmness and physical aptitude makes him a wonderful, willing project. He will be a terrific horse for someone and we are enjoying watching him progress with Laura.

King will be up for adoption soon. He is up-to-date on coggins, shots and dental work. In addition to other of his other marvelous qualities, King has awesome feet — he is currently barefoot and doesn’t require any special shoeing. If you are interested in more information about King or would like to visit him, please contact LOPE.

Silver Red Bird

Silver Red Bird (aka “Red Bird”) is a beautiful, six-year-old grey mare at LOPE. She came directly into our Training Initiative Program straight from Retama racetrack in early January. Red Bird had come in second and third a few times, but had never won a race. As a six-year-old maiden, her racing options were limited — and her trainer donated her to LOPE.

For the past three weeks, Red Bird has been with Laura Whitfield of Poseidon Sport Horses as part of a 30-day assessment. Laura has been helping Red Bird begin her let down and transition from the track — and also has been using the time to observe Red Bird and get to know her personality.

Initially, Red Bird was very uncertain and anxious in her new surroundings. She had trouble relaxing and trusting new people — so Laura went very slowly with her. Much time was spent with simple things such as being caught in the field, proper haltering (Red Bird was pretty sure she could just turn her head away while Laura put the halter on) and leading. That is all very basic — but you would be surprised how many seasoned, well-trained show horses also have trouble with haltering, being caught and leading quietly!

In the round pen, Red Bird didn’t want to look at Laura — especially from her right side — and she would canter around the pen, looking out over the panels to the pastures beyond. As Laura often says, “Fast doesn’t necessarily mean forward or confident.” In Red Bird’s case, her quickness meant that she was eager to leave any unknown situation — due to a lack of confidence, rather than a dominant attitude.

On the plus side, Red Bird clearly was very intelligent and wanted to bond with Laura — she just wasn’t sure how to go about that. Laura helped her by taking very small steps each day to improve each task they did together. There was no pressure and no rush — just clear boundaries (like for how to be haltered or how to walk through a gate with Laura) that were quietly and calmly reinforced.

Red Bird has excellent feet and is going barefoot during her 30-day assessment. Laura’s farrier was impressed with her hooves and felt that shoes simply weren’t necessary for her at this time.

Red Bird also is a lovely mare — very feminine, with an elegant head and the longest eyelashes we have ever seen on a horse! Her anxious demeanor was oddly appealing too — we could tell there was a plea for assistance (rather than an aggressive refusal) in each of her nervous moments.

I watched Laura work with Red Bird in the round pen — and several elements in her movement immediately stood out. She was very much on the forehand (which can be typical of racehorses) — so much so, that her muscles were much more clearly developed on her chest and shoulders than on her hindquarters. Red Bird also had some strongly marked muscle patterns on her flanks and back — we could literally see the outline of where a jockey’s knees and upper legs would be. Whether that was due to her running style or to exercising with lots of tension in her body was hard to say. But it was definitely an interesting element to note.

Red Bird liked to trot and canter with her head up during the round pen sessions. While we have seen that pattern before with racehorses right off the track, Red Bird added her own special flair to the move. She would also stick her nose up and curl her lip — as if she was making faces at the clouds. The maneuver seemed to be emotionally expressive — as if it was her way of saying, “I’m ignoring you,” with extra emphasis.

During the round pen session, Laura encouraged Red Bird to try dropping her head a little — so that her back could lift and her shoulders could move more freely. When Red Bird did take this invitation, she would drop her head for a stride or two — and then abruptly put her head right back up again (as if to say, “What was that cool feeling?”). It was very cute to watch her feel these new (and more pleasant) ways of moving her body.

As I watched Laura lead Red Bird back to her pasture (past scary things like peacocks and suspicious tractors), I noticed that Red Bird was trying to stay “with” Laura even when she was nervous. Sometimes it was only a small try — but other times it was a much bigger effort. Laura rewarded each of Red Bird’s tries — no matter how small — and in this way helped Red Bird begin to build confidence in her as a leader.

Red Bird is up for adoption now and would be a wonderful project for an experienced, patient person who can help Red Bird become more relaxed and comfortable with new experiences. She is one of those sensitive horses who will give 100% once she knows she can trust her person. Red Bird is up-to-date on coggins, shots and dental work — and is ready for her special person to come along and give her the loving home she deserves. See the LOPE adoption page for more info.

UPDATE: Laura recently reported that Red Bird is now nickering at her when she comes to catch her in the pasture — and even trotted up to Laura and met her at the gate! Very nice sign that Red Bird is beginning to trust people and enjoy her work sessions. Based on Laura’s assessment so far, it looks like Red Bird would greatly benefit from having some extended time in pasture turnout — so she can relax, just be a horse and take a little vacation after her racing career.

Taking a Vow of Silence

Full disclosure — I am occasionally guilty of chirping at my horses. By chirping, I mean chattering away about nothing (like repeating the horse’s name or bleating “good boy” for no apparent reason).

I need to knock it off. Really, I do — because it isn’t useful to anyone (especially the horses). All it does is give me the utterly false sense that the horses care about my chirps and are listening to them. So instead of focusing on actual real stuff I ought to be doing (like riding effectively, for example), I lull myself into thinking that I am sharing some kind of a Hallmark special bonding moment (a Disney mind meld, if you will) with the horse.

Most of us really care about our horses and love them. But sometimes that love can inadvertently slide into a subtle form of disrespect — when we expect the horses to respond to the human way of connecting emotionally. And this can create some surprisingly negative consequences for both the horse and rider.

When we wander into the habit of chirping while riding or working with horses, what we are saying is, “please listen to my voice and not my body language — because it’s a lot easier for me to just coo at you than take responsibility for correcting my riding or ground work cues.”

When I was first taking riding lessons in Virginia long ago, I once observed a boarder lunging her newly purchased horse in the indoor arena. Her mare was a pretty chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, long legs and the worried expression of a horse used to living in perpetual anxiety. She whirled around the lady frantically, eyes rolling and nostrils flaring.

Her owner clutched the end of the lunge line while chanting to the mare repeatedly. “Ninja-Ninja-Ninja-ooooo-Ninja-Ninja-Ninja-aahaah.” She kept her voice high, her intonation singsong, and her free hand pressed to the yin-yang symbol on her tee-shirt. Eventually, she needed both hands to grip the lunge line, as her mare became more unsettled and tense with each “Ninja.”

The lady’s facial expression morphed quickly from placid to concerned to hurt to afraid to (finally) angry. She was mad that the horse didn’t respond to her special chant — it was the horse’s fault, not hers. I never forgot that change in her emotions — and what it said about her horsemanship. Although I had only been taking lessons for a few months, I knew that the horse was being treated improperly (and unfairly). To no one’s surprise, she sold that mare shortly afterward (no doubt blaming bad auras or incompatible astrology signs for their lack of “click” as a team).

Typically, we expect our horses to have a good “try” in them — to sincerely make an effort to process and respond to our aids. We should also expect the same of ourselves — to work at improving those less-than-ideal elements in our riding. It’s a lot harder than refining the perfect pitch for a cooed word of praise to the horse — but it is much more rewarding and helpful to the horse.

I put this theory to the test one day when I decided to catch, saddle, and ride my horse without saying one word. It was incredibly difficult — but when I finally did manage to be quiet, I began noticing subtle (and not so subtle) factors in my position, posture, and hands that needed to change. All my chatter had distracted me from learning more important information than whether my horse knew “Goood BOOY” in a husky voice meant half halt. For example, like whether I was actually giving my horse a good cue with my seat to half halt first (before cooing).

I still do chirp to my horses — but not nearly as much and usually not while riding them. Because I ride much better when I practice a vow of silence in the saddle — even if it means a whole lot of chatter at the barn before and after the ride.

Ruff Slew and Flint Equestrian

LOPE is excited to announce that Holly Flint of Flint Equestrian will be working with LOPE’s training initiative program! A talented eventing competitor and all-around trainer, Holly has a special fondness for OTTBs. Holly was a long-time student of Nancy Lindsey (Richmond, TX). She also has worked extensively with Clark Montgomery (Winner of the 2011 CCI*** at Bromont), Ruth Sawin, and Barbara Jacobs.

Holly has a deep passion for retraining ex-racehorses to have careers as eventing mounts. She also has a significant amount of experience dealing with green horses and problem horses. One of her own competition mounts is a young OTTB too! As riding instructor, Holly strongly believes a good rider starts with solid horse management skills. The care a horse receives will ultimately affect the relationship between horse and rider and the extent to which a horse is willing to give his all!

We were fortunate that Holly had an opening in her barn at the start of 2013. On January 1, LOPE sent a young ex-racehorse to Holly for training. Ruff Slew (aka “Parker”) is a three-year-old bay @16.2 gelding who was incredibly slow during his training time at Retama track. His speed was so unimpressive that his trainer opted to not race him at all — it was very clear that Parker was meant for another type of career.

Holly will be working with Parker for at least the next month. She will be giving LOPE an initial assessment of his aptitude, temperament and potential athletic talent after 30 days with her. During the first 30 days, Parker will be gaining many important life skills in her barn — such as learning about cross-ties, round pen sessions and basic under saddle work. The work will be slow, steady and methodical — so that Parker can absorb the information in a non-stressful way.

Holly feels that patience is one of the most important factors in successfully retraining OTTBs. As she says,

“OTTBS come from the track with a whole book of knowledge, but that knowledge is not the same as what we want our riding partners to have. Everything we ask means absolutely nothing to them until we teach them what it means. Being able to patiently use repetition to teach them is the bottom line in re-training an OTTB.”

Welcome Holly and Parker to LOPE’s training initiative program! Regular updates will be posted on the blog about their progress together.

UPDATE: After about a week together, Holly reported that Parker is one of the calmest TBs she has ever worked with! From loading to round penning to general handling, Parker has shown good manners, a willing temperament and a sincere desire to please. We are happy to hear how well Parker is settling and are looking forward to watching him learn with Holly.

Mystery Blessing Update

Mystery Blessing had been doing well in her training with Laura at Poseidon Sport Horses. She even had a prospective adopter very interested in her as a possible prospect for eventing. But during a pre-purchase exam, Mystery showed lameness on her left hind during the flexion tests — which understandably made her a less than ideal match for an eventing competitor.

We quickly scheduled a full lameness examination with Austin Equine Hospital — including blocking, radiographs, and ultrasound. To our surprise, a proximal suspensory injury on her left hind showed as the source of Mystery’s lameness. In addition, the exam revealed a much older, well-healed medial suspensory injury on the same leg (which may have been from her racing days).

The good news is that Mystery had a good prognosis for recovery. She will be in rehabilitation mode for about four months. For her situation, the rehabilitation will start with her being confined to smaller pen or paddock (so that she can’t put extra stress on her leg by running or playing too exuberantly with her pasture buddies). For the first two weeks, she will be hand walked regularly — and then she will be ridden under saddle at the walk (starting with five minutes per ride, then slowly building up to fifteen minutes).

After six weeks, she will be re-examined to see how well her injury is responding to the combination of rest (through small turnout space) and plenty of steady walking (via hand walking at first, them riding). Our vet’s assessment is that it is very possible that Mystery will be able to do a variety of careers (possibly even light jumping) — if she heals as well as anticipated.

We were fortunate that the injury was detected before her training became more strenuous. Some milder types of suspensory injuries can be very subtle and difficult to detect (unless flexions are done) — they often can lurk under surface and not be apparent until increased work creates more demand on the strained ligament.

Thanks to Laura’s training work at Poseidon Sport Horses, Mystery has been well prepared to handle new situations and change in general. Mystery has been very sweet about her rehab so far — she is friendly, willing and polite (even when the weather is chilly, the wind is high, and she can see horses in the other pastures running playfully).

Mystery will stay with LOPE until her rehabilitation is complete. We are super fond of Mystery and look forward to helping her recover from her injury. Please stay tuned for regular updates of Mystery’s progress.

Showtime Queen and the Tom Curtin Clinic

Before the Clinic

At the beginning of November, I began working with Showtime Queen (aka “Queenie”) in the round pen. My goal was to prepare her for the Tom Curtin Colt Starting clinic at the end of November. We began with some simple ground work (walking circles around me, suppling exercises, backing up, and so on) — and then progressed to free lunging in the round pen.

Queenie was willing but tight in her body — especially in her left shoulder (but her right shoulder wasn’t very loose either). She has some old scars on her hind legs, and it was a little difficult for her at first to step her hindquarters in and cross the inside hind over. From that description, you can probably tell that bending wasn’t easy for her — Queenie’s shoulders really wanted to lead the way and her hindquarters were a bit stuck as a result.

She also needed help staying focused during the sessions — I was reminded of my own somewhat distracted personality as I watched her attention flit rapidly between me, the grass, our neighbor’s cows, her pasture mates, and random birds. I contributed to this issue, as I sometimes wouldn’t wait on her long enough (so she could respond) and instead was too quick to jiggle the lead rope and be somewhat spastic myself.

Overall, though, she was pretty relaxed and curious about what we were doing together in the round pen. She really wanted to be supported and helped! I worked with her on learning how to relax and drop her head while being held in place along the fence. At first, she thought she couldn’t possible fit in that space — but when she did exhale, relax her neck and raise her withers a little, Queenie realized that she felt much more comfortable.

That one simple maneuver seemed to build her confidence quite a bit. During the free lunging, she tended to trot with spiky, big strides — but with her head high and her shoulders fixed in place. As we practiced dropping her head and relaxing, she began to take a few steps in a draping, “long and loose” type of trot. Upon feeling that, she typically would suddenly put her head back up, hop for a few steps and look at me as if to say, “How did I DO that?” Very cute!

Colt Starting Clinic

Tom Curtin’s Colt Starting seemed like an ideal clinic for Queenie. She is very green, so the foundation work that Tom stresses is ideal for her. At the track, Queenie was known for being nervous and unhappy — and I thought Tom’s clinic would help reassure her that work doesn’t have to bring out that response in her. Tom creates a very clear tone in his Colt Starting classes — and the horses (as well as the riders) make progress quickly (especially the ones that might be anxious or worried).

And I was a little anxious myself. A few months ago, I took a good-sized tumble off a young horse. While that kind of situation can occasionally come with the equestrian way of life, I still wondered if I would be nervous with Queenie in the clinic. The last thing a green filly needs is a rider who tightens at the wrong moment — so I wanted to be as confident and relaxed as possible for her sake.

Another level of concern descended a few days before the clinic — at a routine chiropractor visit, some xrays showed that I might have some ligament issues in my neck (from the fall). Fortunately, after a hasty MRI and a consultation with an orthopedist (the day before the clinic), I was approved to ride in Colt Starting — but with the caveat, “please try not to fall on your neck.”

First Day of Clinic

At the clinic the next morning, I was doing my best to focus on the filly (rather than my neck). In a new place, with lots of other horses, Queenie’s nervous persona from the track appeared. She paced, jigged, and swiveled her head (and attention) almost constantly. Tom worked with all the colts individually on that first day in the round pen. Queenie responded immediately to him (as all horses do) — and I could see how hard she was trying to understand what was being asked of her. She really wanted guidance — and that is exactly what Tom gave her. By the end of their short session together, Queenie seemed more relaxed and comfortable with herself.

After working with all the colts individually, Tom had them turned out together in the big outdoor arena. From horseback, he moved them as a group and also worked with them one-on-one (using his flag and horse to encourage the right things and make the wrong things difficult).

By the end of the first day, we were all riding our saddled colts together in the round pen (using just the halter and lead rope on their heads). Queenie did really well — she was baffled by the whole clinic structure, but she knew that Tom was there to help — and she decided I was on her side too.

Second Day of Clinic

On the second day, we rode in the same way for most of the class. Tom flagged us from horseback while we worked on separating the hindquarters from the front quarters. This is a familiar exercise to many clinic fans. Tom would ride up behind us and say, “Come with your right hand and right leg — and move the hindquarters.” This was my signal to take the filly’s head around to the right, while cueing her with my right leg to move her hindquarters to the left.

When the hindquarters stepped over behind, Tom would then say, “Now come with your right hand and left leg — for the front quarters.” I would then take the lead rope to the right (at a straight line out and away from Queenie’s head), while cueing her with my left leg to move her front quarters to the right.

Queenie can be stiff in her shoulders, as noted before — but she gave this exercise her 100% try and we had some very nice moments in both directions. Tom praised her efforts as well — which meant a lot to both Queenie and I.

Our main challenge on the second day involved ground work. I was still slow on my timing when Queenie would start to get distracted — I was waiting until she was already mentally elsewhere and then would try to redirect. With Tom’s and his wife Trina’s help, I made some progress — but noted to myself that this is an area that I need to work on in the future.

Third Day of Clinic

By the third day, Queenie and I were feeling pretty good about things. We rode in the outdoor arena (in a snaffle bit) and she did a wonderful, floating, extended trot on a loose rein. It was the first time I had ever felt that from her in the saddle — and it was a really special moment for both of us. As Tom encouraged us to lope our colts, I fumbled in my stirrups and felt a little off balance.

As luck would have it, one of my doctors (also an equestrian) was watching the clinic that day. As I straightened myself in the saddle and reached for a better feel in my stirrups, I saw my doctor’s expression from the sidelines. Remembering the caveat, “please try not to fall on your neck,” I recognized that this was the moment to dial it down rather than push for glory. Silently apologizing to Queenie, I instead asked her to practice that lovely, extended trot — and left the lope for another, less neck-stiff day.

Our Colt Starting class concluded with the group riding out to the facility’s obstacle course. Queenie was bold and curious — until a truck went by. I could feel her wondering if she should get scared, be calm or dance around. With coaching from Trina, I simply worked on bringing her head around and walking her off confidently to somewhere I wanted to go (naturally, I chose to head toward Trina and her horse — always a good place to be).

We had a big encounter with a wooden bridge obstacle. Queenie really wanted to be brave and cross it — but she needed lots of leg and rein support to set her up on a straight line and keep her there. Unfortunately, Queenie and I both have some difficulty with straightness — my timing and aids were very disorganized, so I wasn’t much help for her. But Tom rode in and coached me (even taking the rein a couple of times, so Queenie and I could both feel the difference in his intent and feel over mine).

While it took quite awhile for me to finally make some changes, I was really glad for the learning opportunity — and Queenie and I ended by going over the bridge together while staying straight and confident. I then rode Queenie all the way back to our trailer (down a long driveway and past the busy barn). I could tell that Queenie felt really good about herself during that walk back — and so did I.

Huge thanks to Retama Race Park and Dana L. for sponsoring Queenie’s registration and paddock costs for the clinic! And I’d also like to thank Tom and Trina Curtin for their extra coaching and help — it made a big difference for Queenie and me.

If you would like to learn more about Tom Curtin’s clinics and his upcoming winter camp, please be sure to visit his website — his 2013 clinic schedule is already posted. Or check out the LOPE DVD with Tom, Retraining Racehorses: Back to the Basics.

Dressage, Naturally Clinic with Karen Rohlf

A few weeks ago, I audited a “Dressage, Naturally” clinic with Karen Rohlf. The clinic was held in Cedar Creek, TX at Hy Court Farm and was very educational on many levels.

Karen Rohlf trained over 20 years in dressage with Anne Gribbons ('O' dressage judge, International Grand Prix trainer and competitor) and studied Parelli Natural Horsemanship directly with Pat and Linda Parelli. Her “Dressage, Naturally” training philosophy combines the worlds of dressage and natural horsemanship with the goal of helping riders become excellent horsemen — who are also excellent at dressage.

The Texas clinic was titled “Finding the Sweet Spot of Health Biomechanics” and was a terrific introduction to Karen’s training approach.

There were eight riders in the clinic and auditors were limited to twenty. As an auditor, I expected to watch quietly — but during the non-riding demonstrations, Karen made a special effort to engage and involve all the auditors. Far from being a dull lecture or two, the non-riding sections of the clinic were fascinating. Karen presented diverse exercises and props such as mimicking each other’s walks, using pool noodles to practice hip movements for lateral moves, and using big core stability balls (as “horses”) while demonstrating connection between horse and rider. Very illustrative and entertaining at the same time!

From an observer’s perspective, the riding sessions were designed to build awareness in the rider about the horse’s current movement and balance — while encouraging a different type of connection in order to find fuller movement and deeper balance. What impressed me the most was how carefully she broke down steps and layered seemingly simple exercises for each rider — so that within a very short period, each rider was able to feel, analyze and adjust to fit their horse’s specific needs within that particular exercise.

It is always difficult to summarize an entire clinic in a few paragraphs. I was struck by so many elements in this clinic — the understanding of equine biomechanics, the classical dressage technique and the overall horsemanship approach — that keeping this post to a reasonable length has been challenging. After reviewing my notes and practicing some of the exercises myself (after the clinic), here are my personal favorite takeways:

The number exercise: In this exercise, Karen has the rider trot a circle around her. She asks the rider to pick a number (1-10) to represent the energy that the rider would like the horse to trot at (let’s say the rider selects “4”). And then asks the rider, “Are you at 4?” — but the rider isn’t allowed to say “No.” Instead, if the horse isn’t at the 4 energy when Karen asked, the rider must then get the horse to 4 and then say “Yes.” When the rider says, “Yes, we are at 4,” Karen then asks, “Are you in neutral?” By the term neutral, Karen means are you riding without kicking or urging or using rein aids — in other words, are you simply riding quietly and allowing the horse to carry you at the 4 energy you selected.

This exercise is wonderful on many levels. First, it requires the rider to choose and commit to a specific energy. That may sound easy — but most riders (including myself) often start their rides shambling off at an uneven pace just because it’s the path of least resistance. Taking the leadership to actively (and precisely) select the pace is a much bigger test of horsemanship.

It also gives you a great deal of information about your horse, your aids and how each respond to the other. The “neutral” part of the exercise is especially telling on these points. I often tap the gas (by moving my leg or foot) — and rarely just let the horse carry me at my designated energy. The horse, in turn, is often expecting me constantly be in motion — so he never “hears” the reward of neutral. My continual aids can act as a form of static when I “really” ask for a change in pace. It’s kind of like I’m always humming with my aids — so the horse doesn’t hear me when I ask for something because the humming is distracting him.

Rail exercises: During one afternoon session, Karen had all the riders walk along the rail. She would then ask them to bend to the inside, halt, then ask for a single step of haunches in (while at the halt). At that point, she had everyone “hold” that position in neutral — so that the horses could pause and carry themselves in that posture briefly. She then had each rider walk their horses on. The same exercise was repeated, but with a shoulder-in instead of the haunches-in.

After several rounds of this seemingly simple routine, it became obvious that the lateral movement (if even for just that one step) was getting better and smoother for each horse. The concept of asking the horse to halt, make the one-step lateral move and then hold that position for a moment or two (with the rider in neutral) was building confidence in the horses and the riders. Karen explained that sometimes it is easier to teach lateral movements by first helping the students discover how to get that “perfect” first step in the move. But many dressage teachers overlook that first step (in an understandable desire to have their students do a series of steps and learn the movement more quickly).

As someone who tends to tense and grimace while learning lateral work, I found this approach super helpful and fun. When I practiced it with one of my horses after the clinic, I found that I relaxed quickly and enjoyed the process of getting that one step just the way I wanted. And of course, my horse was much more relaxed too!

A few key mottos: In every clinic, there are “aha” moments — where a particular turn of phrase really stands out. For me, there were several of these in Karen’s clinic.

First, she talked about “checking your alignment” — as you are going along with your horse, how is everything aligned? If something isn’t right (but you aren’t quite sure what it is), she suggested that the rider do shoulder-in — and notice what changes for the horse. Then do haunches in — and also note the changes. The same for shoulder-out and haunches-out. And then change directions and repeat again. After you do each of those movements, you will know much more clearly what is happening with your horse — and how you can support him more effectively.

Another phrase I liked that I heard at the clinic was “receive the contact” — as opposed to “take up the contact.” I do tend to scoop up rein contact like it’s a pile of laundry — so the idea of gracefully receiving was a much more welcome (and elegant) image for me to carry in my mind.

Karen also had a nice summary of the ideal purposes of rein contact. They are:

1. To give cues for more subtle lateral flexions
2. To receive info from body
3. To add another point of refined connection (like the connection between ballroom dancing partners).

I can be a little hesitant about maintaining rein contact, so I found this list to be very helpful — because it concisely reminds me of the positive and refined aspects of proper contact.

Conclusion

Karen has organized her training philosophy into a true curriculum — which is very difficult to achieve. From my perspective, it often seemed that she was teaching the riders how to reach a better “feel” with their horses — while also aiming for a foundation that will help the horse and rider attain balanced, refined dressage movement together one day.

Because the focus often geared toward biomechanics (for both the horse and rider), Karen’s approach quickly elicited key changes with each horse and rider. I especially enjoyed watching the progress of the horses with their riders over the four days. There was such a nice variety in the clinic (dedicated pleasure riders, professional trainers, athletic western mounts and elegant warmbloods all mingled happily in the arena) — so the changes were especially interesting to observe. I always find it impressive when a clinician can significantly help all types of horses and riders change during a single clinic.

Karen’s Dressage, Naturally website is an excellent source of information — she even has an online video classroom, which is well-organized with many quality videos. If you would like additional information, please also check out Karen’s book and other terrific educational items. The clinic schedule for 2013 will be posted soon, so be sure to keep an eye out for Dressage, Naturally clinics in your area next year.

Best of All

At her clinics, Karen will select a local charity to be the beneficiary of a raffle. At the Texas clinic, she chose LOPE as the charity! She raffled off her entire classroom video collection for 2011 — a valuable and much prized item. Thanks to Karen and several awesome LOPE supporters (like Sue, Angela, Toni — to name just a few), nearly $1200 was raised for LOPE at the raffle. Because of the raffle, LOPE could bring two more horses to our ranch (Carlisle Chipper and Western Jones) — and we are super grateful for everyone’s enthused participation in the raffle!

A Tale of Two Rides: Mystery Blessing

Ride 1

Since our last blog post about Mystery, many fun and exciting developments have been going on with her training with Laura at Poseidon Sport Horses.

A few weeks ago, I took a lesson with Laura and rode Mystery myself! This was a big deal to me, as I had a fall from a green horse in August. Mystery was the first young horse I had ridden since my tumble — and she was just terrific!

Laura schooled me on how to support Mystery in turning and bending under saddle. Just as I described in my post about Mystery’s groundwork, the key was to do some occasional turn on the haunches as we navigated circles together. Mystery is extremely kind and willing — but her shoulders are learning how to loosen up, which is a new way of moving for her.

With Laura coaching us, Mystery and I figured out together how to angle her body so that she could feel her hindquarters begin to flow and track up to her front legs. As we helped her shoulders become more flexible, suddenly Mystery could feel that there was now room for her front legs to stride forward more freely. Which in turn created more room for her hind legs to push into deeper strides — and help her to balance on her hindquarters more (instead of on her front end).

While this all sounds very technical, it made sense to Mystery and me — and we had a terrific ride together. She is a very kind and comfortable horse — and I couldn’t believe I was riding such a young filly so easily! Mystery has a calmness under saddle that is reassuring and pleasant to experience — she is alert, but not nervous at all. This was a huge help for me — I felt relaxed and confident on Mystery. I had been worried that I might tense up or be tight while having flashbacks to my fall from earlier in the year. Thanks to Mystery’s sweet nature (and Laura’s guidance), I enjoyed myself thoroughly — and was reluctant to dismount.

Mystery carries herself as if she is a more seasoned horse. Several times during our ride, I felt her soften and bring her back muscles to my seat. I have only occasionally felt this before on a horse — and he was a classically trained dressage mount. As a four-year-old, there are plenty of things that are new and difficult for Mystery to master — but she approaches each request and aid with poise, intelligence and a sincere work ethic.

Basically, I fell in love with her! I told Laura I shouldn’t ride Mystery again — as I will be much too tempted to adopt her myself.

In Between the Rides

Over the following couple of weeks, Mystery passed several milestones. She and Laura began cantering together — Mystery has a very nice canter, with steady, ground-covering strides. She is very polite about not pulling and is doing her best to learn how to canter smoothly into the corners (which is often hard for young fillies).

Mystery also had her first free jumping session with Laura — and did well! Laura reports that Mystery was very brave to the fences and went over them happily. It was a great suppling exercise for Mystery too, as jumping required her to change her movement so that she could easily push off her hindquarters over the jump. Mystery is leaning almost every day now that her shoulders can be loose, her forelegs can swing forward more and her hind legs can step up and underneath herself — and how all of those things make every step and training exercise so much easier!

There also were some challenges for Mystery. She had lost some weight — most likely due to a combination of being in steady work (Laura works with her 5-6 days per week), a very strict new herd boss in her paddock (who seems to be stealing Mystery’s food), and an encounter with an unpleasant weed earlier in the month (it was tasty but had an extreme laxative effect). Based on Laura’s recommendation, we moved Mystery into a different paddock situation, added lunchtime alfalfa to her diet and had her teeth floated.

Ride Two

Soon Mystery had a session with another rider. Chloe came to ride Mystery — she is an experienced OTTB rider and works often with young horses. I was very interested in watching their ride and seeing how Mystery responded to a new rider.

I hadn’t seen Mystery in about ten days — and I was impressed with how much more balanced and rhythmic her movement was becoming. Often during the ride, her trot strides were showing the start of true cadence. Her hips were beginning to swing more and her hindquarter muscles were taking more of the work with each step. Several times she relaxed her neck and softened into the reins, while licking and chewing.

Chloe and Mystery were a well-matched pair and they rode nicely together (Watch video). Laura explained to Chloe how to help Mystery loosen and shift her shoulders on the tighter turns. Chloe focused on shifting Mystery’s shoulders (rather than turning her head) and riding her from the withers (since everything else follows the withers). With Chloe’s support, Mystery was able to avoid falling in at the shoulder while maintaining the circle and her own rhythm.

Chloe also cantered Mystery and did a good job with helping Mystery keep her pace steady (without dropping down to the trot) around the corners. Mystery really seemed to enjoy the ride and it was fun to watch her and Chloe together.

Mystery also demonstrated her steady nature during the ride. At one point, a very noisy truck rumbled close by the arena just as Mystery and Chloe headed down the middle of it. Mystery barely flicked an ear at the commotion — which caused Laura and Chloe both to joke at how “spooky” she was! It was a nice display of Mystery’s temperament as well as her work ethic — the truck was truly spectacularly loud and would have caused many an older horse to pause and snort.

By the end of that ride, it was clear that Mystery is progressing super well in her training with Laura — she ended the ride relaxed, calm and happy. We all fussed over her and praised her — what a super filly!

Showtime Queen

Showtime Queen (aka “Queenie”) was donated to LOPE a few months ago. She is a cute and intelligent filly — but she absolutely detested the track lifestyle and racing. Queenie developed serious ulcers at the track and had a great deal of difficulty holding weight.

Her race trainer (Tammy) is an excellent horseman and cares deeply about her racehorses. She had tried numerous treatments for the ulcers — and did her best to come up with feed combinations that might help Queenie gain weight. All to no avail — Queenie lost more weight and seemed miserable.

Although Queenie showed some promise and had attracted offers from other race trainers, Tammy felt it was best for Queenie to find a new home and different job. She donated Queenie to LOPE for that purpose.

As you can see from the photo, Queenie was quite underweight when she arrived here. Her coat was healthy and she had been fed properly — but nothing was sticking to her ribs, so to speak.

We decided to take the long, slow approach. Instead of medicating her further, we simply turned Queenie out to pasture with a couple of retired geldings (who primarily spend their days eating and dozing). In addition to the turnout lifestyle, we adjusted her diet to a low starch pellet feed and gave her alfalfa twice a day.

Between the grass, mellow Zen pasture mates and a complete lack of “to do” items, Queenie visibly relaxed within a couple weeks. She steadily gained weight — and we simply left her alone to unwind and de-stress. Sometimes we like to maintain a routine of “benign neglect” for anxious, thin horses — where we make their lives as natural as possible with little human interference (other than monitoring health).

Queenie blossomed into a much rounder version of herself. In addition to the new curves, something else emerged — her personality. Queenie is an extremely intelligent and sensitive filly with an appealing quirkiness. For awhile, she insisted on sharing her feed bucket with her BFF in the pasture (Tulsa) — she liked his company over dinner. Queenie also turned out to quite curious and bold about new things in her pasture. We learned to pay attention if Queenie suddenly seemed to be inquisitively tracking something at the edge of the pasture (which turned out one evening to be a pack of feral hogs) .

Most of all, it became clear that Queenie is one of those super feminine fillies. She never, ever gets muddy (or even dusty) — and she carries herself with absolute certainty that she is pretty and everyone is looking at her.

Now that Queenie’s weight is back to normal, we have started her back into ground work. Our plan is to take her to a Colt Starting clinic with Tom Curtin. Tom is a great horsemanship teacher and is the star of our DVD on Retraining Racehorses. His Colt Starting clinics are a great way to restart a horse who hasn’t been ridden in awhile — and who might need some extra help with going over basics again. Huge thanks to Retama Park for sponsoring Queenie for the Tom Curtin class — thanks to their generous support, LOPE will be able to take her to the Colt Starting clinic!

Stay tuned for another update soon on Queenie — we have begun doing ground work with her to prepare for the clinic and plan to have some video up soon of one of our sessions.

Mystery Blessing Progress Report

Laura at Poseidon Sport Horses has been riding Mystery regularly for the past several weeks. The groundwork from earlier sessions has really prepared Mystery for her saddle time with Laura. Just like on the ground, Laura helps Mystery learn how to move her shoulders and front legs more freely from the saddle. The rides are thoughtful and slow — so that Mystery can experiment with these new ways of moving, while also building confidence in what Laura’s quiet leg aids mean.

Before each riding session, Laura stretches Mystery’s forelegs, one at a time. She holds each leg out in front of Mystery (being careful to gently lift and then steadily support the leg — so that Mystery doesn’t feel suddenly off balance). And then Laura carefully pulls and rocks the leg slightly for a gradual stretch. In addition to working the tight areas softly, these stretches also encourage Mystery to shift her weight more fluidly to her hindquarters (so she can balance comfortably on three legs during the stretch).

It is a bit like watching a ballerina stretch her legs on the barre before dancing — Laura acts as the support, so Mystery can get the benefit of the best possible stretch without any strain or tension.

Laura then mounts Mystery and begins riding her around the arena. Just like during the groundwork, she encourages Mystery to open up and move her front end more freely from the saddle. Under saddle, the tightness in Mystery’s shoulders (especially her left one) is seen as a sort of constant lean to the left when turning in that direction. Mystery will step heavily into that shoulder, instead of having a light bend or lateral quality into the left direction.

To discourage that (without being in any way punitive), Laura will ask her for a step or two of a turn on the haunches — so she will slow the movement from Mystery’s hindquarters and encourage her left foreleg to step out and over to the left. This stops the heavy, leaning step — since Mystery is now starting to balance on her hind end for a few steps while Laura at the same time asks for a more of sweeping turn movement from the left foreleg.

That sounds complicated and dramatic — but it’s actually quite soft and simple. As Mystery starts to circle to the left, she becomes heavy on the left side (due to her tight left shoulder) — so the circle becomes a stiff amoeba shape. Laura immediately counteracts that by asking for Mystery to think about shifting weight behind (which lightens the front end) and turning for a step or two away from her haunches.

The same is true to some degree when Mystery is circling to the right. Because her left shoulder is tight, her entire left side has trouble stretching and curving on the outside of the circle — so the right side of her neck and body has trouble bending to the inside. By asking again for a turn on the haunches (even if only for a few steps) to the right, Laura helps Mystery again remember that balancing her weight on her hindquarters and then stepping up and to the right makes things much easier.

Laura’s circle exercises with Mystery were soft and spread out — it would be very hard (and boring) for Mystery if Laura demanded constant perfect circles repeatedly from the beginning to the end of the ride. The training session has more of a slow motion gymnastic stretching routine feel — instead of a regimented “You will now do 15 PERFECT circles” tone. Although Mystery is unusually poised and mentally mature for a 4 year old filly, it is important to remember that she is quite young and is still learning how her body works — thus her attention span and capacity to take in new information is not the same as a seasoned eventing horse or dressage mount.

Taking the time to do things slowly and help Mystery “discover” how she can move in new ways is a much more effective training approach at this stage of the process.

By the end of the ride, Mystery was stepping out into longer strides with much more confidence. Her neck relaxed into more of a draping posture and she seemed very pleased to find that her hind end really could take on more of her weight.

A few days later, I returned to watch another ride with Mystery and Laura. The change was quite marked. Mystery started the session with much more flexibility in her front end — while still a little tight, she moved with a great deal more looseness than at the start of the previous ride. It was as if she was saying, “Ah, I remember that I don’t HAVE to start out tight — my shoulders can move differently.”

Laura commented on Mystery’s willingness and intelligence. She had noticed that she could ask Mystery for a particular movement by cueing her softly (as if Mystery already knew refined aids) and then waiting for Mystery to figure out what she wanted. As Laura put it, she “whispers” to Mystery through very gentle aids — and then waits (without turning up her “volume” on the aid at all) while Mystery “listens” closely and then responds to the aid. Very unusual (and awesome) response from a 4 year old filly!

Laura wants to be sure that she doesn’t accidently shut down that incredible softness in Mystery by rushing her or “shouting” at her with her leg and rein cues. Another trainer might be tempted to push Mystery at this stage — to ask her to take in more aids, cues and training tasks. But Laura rightly sees that as an unwise approach — while Mystery is very willing, she also is sensitive and young. She might easily become shut down or resentful if overfaced with too many new things by an overeager trainer.

Taking the time to build the foundation slowly always is the best approach. Ray Hunt used to say that the long way is the short way. If you skip the slow, important steps at the beginning of the process, you will have a much bigger set of issues to deal with later on.

Laura also discussed the importance of building confidence in a young horse. Too often she has seen people assume that “confident” equates to an “attack” kind of vibe in the horse and rider team. In that mode, faster is better — which sets the stage for all types of mistakes and misunderstandings. As Laura said, if you ever ridden a horse that rushes to the jumps — you know how that just doesn’t feel very confident, controlled or balanced. It simply feels rushed and slightly frenzied.

Mystery has a great, open attitude — when Laura asks her to do something that seems a little impossible (like moving laterally to the left), Mystery responds with a tone of “I’m not sure how that can work, but I am happy to give it a go for you and see what happens.” This is a rare and marvelous quality — and any training that discourages that response in Mystery is going to be ineffective.

Nurturing that quality is what develops true confidence in a young horse — so that when they encounter situations they don’t understand (as they all will one day), their response is “I’m not sure at this moment how that will work — but I know it can, because I trust you as my rider and I trust myself to figure out what you are asking me to do.”

That’s the kind of confidence we like to see at LOPE…

Mystery will be in training with Laura during November too. She will be up for adoption soon — if you are interested in learning more about Mystery or perhaps watching one of her training sessions with Laura, please contact Lynn at LOPE.

Latest Update on Mystery Blessing

Since October 5, Mystery has been in training at Poseidon Sport Horses with Laura Whitfield. Since Laura’s program has a terrific emphasis on classical foundation horsemanship, she typically likes to focus on groundwork and handling for the first few weeks of training.

Many people might think that spending time on the ground for that long is silly – after all, Mystery has been ridden before (while she was racing) and also had some post-track riding time. So why not start riding her immediately?

As some of our own experience at LOPE has shown, proper ground work can give the trainer a huge amount of information about a young horse’s physical (as well as mental) state. When this is approached with thoughtfulness and care, a good horsemanship trainer can work out numerous minor issues before ever getting in the saddle. Which of course makes the first ride so much more fun and easy for the horse (and the trainer).

Laura like to see how a young horse handles basic tasks such as being tied in a busy barn and being led around a new farm (with unfamiliar paths and obstacles to navigate). Most ex-racehorses haven’t had to stand tied for long periods – they are more familiar with being tied to a walker or being tacked up in their stalls quickly. And of course, most OTTBs right from the track haven’t been trained to stand quietly for long (whether tied or being held by their handler) – the track is a bustling place and the horses are usually on their way to or from some important activity (like working out in the morning or racing in the afternoon).

After Mystery had been with Laura for one week, I came by to visit and watch them work together. Mystery was tied in the barn and was watching the activity in the indoor arena next to her. She was alert and perhaps a little bit restless (she would occasionally shift her feet, wiggle a little and sigh) – but Laura’s patient work with her was already paying off. There were no signs of pawing, neighing or high anxiety at all – even as horses clopped by her heading to the arena and the barn staff began loudly leaf blowing the barn aisle.

After awhile, Laura took Mystery into the indoor arena. A couple of horses and riders were schooling in the ring, trotting and cantering along quietly. Laura had Mystery stand beside her as we talked — so that the filly could practice relaxing and being attentive to Laura first (in spite of the interesting horses and leaf blower nearby).

Mystery settled quickly. She was alert but calm — and quietly took in the scene around her. Laura then began to do some simple ground maneuvers with her – to see where Mystery was tight in her body and in how she moved her feet. She asked for some neck bends and shoulder movements – these were particularly difficult for Mystery on her left side. As we discussed in the Chaplin post, knowing where a horse is physically tight is key. Sometimes horses get into muscle memory patterns (just like humans do) — and they truly don’t realize that another way to move is even possible. Just like a person with a stiff neck can become awkward and tense in their movements – and not realize how much they are accommodating that tightness in their neck.

As Laura worked with the filly, she pointed out that Mystery had trouble moving her left shoulder easily. Because of that, her front feet had some difficulty stepping forward in a free, relaxed way. If you picture that in your mind, you will see what I did. Mystery has a tendency to carry her neck up more than she needs to – because her shoulder is tight – and so her front feet take shorter strides than her very nice conformation should produce.

How do you address this? The most basic approach would be to do more ground flexions – so that Mystery can feel that her shoulder can indeed move more than she thinks. As that happens, she will also start to feel freer in her front end – which in turn will also help loosen the shoulder (and begin to end the circle of physical tension she carries now).

Does this mean Mystery would have bucked or reared if Laura had ridden her that day? Given Mystery’s temperament and willingness, I would say that the odds are very low that would have happened. But she would have carried Laura while feeling tight and less mobile in her front end – and the ride would have been much less comfortable for the filly because of that. Why start out a training ride this way when you can fix up much of the issues before getting in the saddle?

Laura did some more exercises with Mystery, like trotting her while leading and so on. In spite of Mystery having some tightness in front, we were both super pleased to see that she didn’t carry that to her back. Instead, her topline remained quite relaxed and fairly soft –which was impressive, since most horses who feel a bit stuck in front will hollow their backs and tighten there as well. Because her back wasn’t tense, Mystery had good diagonal rhythm at the trot – which was very fun to watch!

The session ended with a big test – Laura led Mystery out to the general pasture areas. There was a big, wooden bridge there – with solid but creaky boards. Many horses will balk or shy from the sound of their feet hitting those big wooden planks for the first time. Not Mystery – she dropped her head and walked easily beside Laura. No big deal at all!

Laura then had Mystery put one front foot at a time on the bridge – to help her stretch and work her shoulder muscles in a different way. Mystery did well and was very willing to try to stand in this odd new position – and was rewarded with lunch and the rest of the day off.

During the next few days, Laura continued with the ground work and leading exercises. She introduced Mystery to a new activity – standing next to the mounting block with Laura while listening to Laura talk to her students and the other riders in the arena. After a short while, Mystery thought the mounting block was a pretty relaxing (maybe even slightly sleepy) place to be. Laura occasionally would step in the stirrup or pull on it – Mystery was content and calm throughout it all.

And then Laura just mounted her during one session – and Mystery thought that was equally relaxing to just standing around by the mounting block. They had a great first ride together and walked all around the arena, practicing neck flexions and stretches.

For Laura (and Mystery), all of that slow, dull groundwork was worth it – to get that awesome, relaxed first ride together. Congrats to them both – we are so proud of Mystery and are thrilled that she has such a kind and patient trainer!

PS: For more information about Laura’s training philosophy and experience with ex-racehorses, please see our interview with her below (or in another post?)

Interview with Laura Whitfield of Poseidon Sport Horses

What is your typical assessment process for a young horse in training (with the understanding that of course all horses are different and that assessment technique can’t be a formula because of that)? What do you look for on the ground initially?

Most horses come in and spend two weeks or so working on the ground to gauge their softness and confidence levels. I spend that time working through tightness in their body and building the leadership roll. I spend time just hanging in the barn, working in hand and the round pen, roaming the property. I look at the horse’s fitness level, conformation, saddle fit and confidence. We play on both sides of the horse and look for training opportunities in everyday life around the farm.

What are some things many OTTBS tend to have in common during the initial training period? (ours are all individuals, but there are few things we see over & over — like a sticky shoulder or tightness somewhere in the neck and/or poll).

Every OTTB I’ve every met had to be taught to stand, both tied and in hand. They’ve just never been taught to park, either by themselves or with a handler. It depends on the horse how long that takes. Most of them tend to be tight and resistant in the jaw, underside of the neck and shoulders (especially on the left). When you start to get them to release those parts, it is always interesting to see what emotion comes up.

What have you especially noticed as cool or unusual about Mystery?

I’m pretty smitten with Mystery. I think she is going to be a very special partner to her new owner. While she isn’t very confident on her own, she is a very trusting mare makes me feel like she’ll follow me through just about anything, even if she’s a bit worried about it. That is something to be carefully nurtured, not taken advantage of. I’d like to see her come to the point of “Let’s do this!” when faced with a new challenge.

Do you have a favorite story about an ex-racer you trained or owned? Why do like them so much?

I was 14 when my parents bought me my first horse, a off track APX named Freedom, and that is what he was to me. He was right off the track and had spent 60 days with a barrel trainer. When I went to try him out, I rode him in a big field next to a VERY busy road with semis flying by and cyclist cruising around. Freedom just did his thing, even if his thing had no finesse. My parents bought him and with Janet Manley’s (link to Hy Court) help, I did my best to turn in him to an eventer. He was my very best friend in the whole world.

Horses from the track may have any number of physical and mental issues, but in the pursuit of that one Kentucky Derby winner, we have bred them full of heart and try. Every one of them “could have been a contender.”

Mystery Blessing and Poseidon Sport Horses

Mystery Blessing is now officially in training with Laura Whitfield of Poseidon Sport Horses! We are thrilled to see Mystery in such a terrific program and are looking forward to watching her learn with Laura.

The goal of Poseidon Sport Horses is to provide the equine industry with the very best in training and education. With a focus on bio-mechanics and classical horsemanship, Laura seeks to encourage her riders and horses to expand their knowledge, skills, and performance. More importantly, Laura does her best to provide a place at Poseidon Sport Horses for people to learn, love and laugh with their horses. For more detailed information about Laura, please see her bio here and visit the Poseidon website or Facebook page.

We selected Laura because of her emphasis on classical horsemanship in her work — as well as her genuine love of OTTBs. I first met Laura at LOPE’s Annual Benefit Horse Show in 2011 at Hy Court Farm. She was the Trail Horsemanship judge and did an incredible job providing constructive comments and feedback to the riders. We were so impressed with her performance that we gave Laura our “Special Award” for the show — and she proudly wore the award’s neck sash during the post-show social hour. We also made sure that Laura was available to judge at the 2012 LOPE Annual Benefit Horse Show last month.

More importantly, I had a chance to observe several of Laura’s students at Hy Court Farm’s Spring II Show in May 2012. She brought a pack of young students and first-time show riders. Each of her students (from adult to the smallest child) displayed a thoughtfulness about their horses and horsemanship that was immediately eye-catching. The horses that Laura had trained showed softness and depth — as well as genuine enjoyment of their work. The photo below shows the youngest student, Autumn, in her group that day. Autumn competed in the In-Hand Versatility class with an OTTB too!

During the first week or two of training, Laura will be working with Mystery on the basics of a good classical foundation (with sessions focusing on in-hand work, tying in the barn and round pen exercises). From what we have heard from Laura, Mystery is doing her best to please and to learn at Poseidon Sport Horses. Laura has noticed the same thing I did while Mystery was at our ranch — Mystery will stay soft and thoughtful, even when she is unsure about new things. This is a very promising openness in such a young filly — and we are so glad that Mystery is with a trainer who can recognize and build on this with her.

Stay tuned for more updates and information about Mystery Blessing. She will be available for adoption soon this fall (after she has had an opportunity to learn exciting new job skills from Laura).

Ground Work Assessment Sessions

Recently, both PJ’s Wish and Mystery Blessing received some ground work and assessment at LOPE. With multiple trainers interested in working with our new training initiative, we wanted to do some preliminary sessions with both horses — so that we could decide which trainer (and discipline) might be the best match for each of them.

PJ’s Wish and Mystery Blessing have been turned out together in the “new horse” pasture here at LOPE. The pasture is full of trees — plus it is a nice size (not too big, not too small) for young horses coming off the track.

One of the first activities we like to do with new horses is to lead them from the new horse pasture down to our round pen. That might sound like a simple task — but the walk is nearly ¼ mile down our driveway. We have found that this long, leisurely walk often tells us a great deal about each horse — since the way that a horse leads is often very much related to how he will ride, how he was handled and how he views the world in general.

Each horse was led to the round pen and assessed on leading skills, personality, attention span and so on. Once at the round pen, we did some ground work exercises and general handling of the horses as well.

PJ’s Wish was the first horse we worked with. He is a sweet, young, three-year-old gelding with kind eyes. We had noticed that he was the shyer of the two horses — in the pasture, it took him a little longer to be confident about new people (but once he became familiar with someone, he would approach the person for pats and grooming sessions).

While being led to the round pen, PJ showed that he had been well schooled in good manners — he wanted very much to please his handler and tried his best to stay focused. However, there were many interesting distractions on the walk (lots of fresh grass, several other horses in the barn pasture, the sound of Mystery Blessing neighing) — so he sometimes kept forgetting to walk and wanted to stare at all these fascinating sights. All very normal and understandable responses for a three-year-old. He also was careful to not crowd the handler’s space (even when he really wanted to turn and look at something new).

In the round pen, PJ’s Wish was a little unsure of himself and seemed worried about what to do. We did some work on the end of the lead rope (yielding hindquarters, walking around the handler in a circle) and also practiced some simple flexion exercises. His anxiety level reduced quickly as he realized that the exercises would stay slow and simple (he really wanted to get the answer right — which is very typical of young OTTBs). Soon, he was able to stay focused on the ground work — and feel more comfortable “guessing” the answers if he wasn’t 100% sure what to do.

We did some simple free lunging in the round pen at that point — just to see how PJ moved and how he responded to being in the round pen loose. He is a lovely mover — very elegant and light on his feet. PJ’s Wish did seem to prefer the lead rope exercises to the free lunging — but he gradually got more comfortable and began to lick and chew. With that very nice change in his demeanor, we decided to end the session with a long walk back to his pasture.

Mystery Blessing is four-years-old and has been off the track longer than PJ’s Wish. She also has had some professional training (w-t-c with some exposure to jumps) to help transition her from the track. Her personality is calm and kind — she radiates quiet intelligence and seems poised for her age.

Her walk down to the round pen was very quiet. She led softly from the lead rope and didn’t seem anxious about all the new sights. Mystery Blessing was aware of the same interesting things that PJ experienced on his walk (new horses, lots of grass, neighbor’s cattle, etc). She was calmly alert and looked at everything — but never once broke her walk stride or signaled tension. We were very impressed — especially when two of our retired geldings put on a prancing show (in an attempt to catch her attention). Mystery Blessing flicked an ear at the commotion and kept walking steadily.

In the round pen, she handled the ground work easily. She wasn’t entirely certain what we wanted but seemed to feel confident that she would figure it out. We noticed that Mystery Blessing is very tuned into her handler’s body language. Without being in any way jumpy, she would respond quickly to small signals to move away, bend or lead forward. She is a fast learner and seemed to enjoy the new activities.

When the time came to free lunge her in the round pen, we were pleased with how easily she adapted. Mystery Blessing is an athletic, sporty mover — she slowed down, moved out and stopped nicely with little tension.

Because of her easy responses, we decided to go a step further and saddle her. Mystery Blessing stood still for her saddle and girth (even with the handler simply looping the lead rope under an elbow, instead of tying the filly). When we realized that we had selected too short a girth (she is a very well-built mare) — she stood quietly and waited while we retrieved another girth from the nearby tack area.

Once saddled, Mystery Blessing did well with both ground work and free lunging again. We were impressed again with her willingness and dignified demeanor — and decided to end the session.

Typically at LOPE, we do one or two of these kind of round pen sessions before riding the horse. The sessions aren’t very long (we don’t want to sour the horses on round penning) but they help us see key aspects of each horse’s temperament, maturity levels and background. We adapt the sessions to each horse’s needs (some do best with very short sessions, others gain confidence with longer sessions but with fewer exercises). Since we started the LOPE Ranch, we have found that these pre-riding sessions greatly help the first rides — so much so that our first rides have almost always gone well (with a pleasant result for horse and rider).

After working with PJ’s Wish and Mystery Blessing in these first sessions, we came to a couple of conclusions. First, we felt that PJ would probably do best with more transition time from the track. As a tall three-year-old, he is still growing quite a bit — and would benefit from some slower schooling activity (rather than going into a full training program). His terrific race breeder agreed — and PJ will return to his original home to have more growing and simple schooling time. He will be available for rehoming from his breeder at some point later in the future.

Second, Mystery Blessing demonstrated quite a bit of willingness and preparation to begin some specific, more structured training. Her personality, movement and demeanor showed calm athleticism — and seemed to indicate that she might be a terrific candidate for eventing type work. We could see where she might also benefit from some classical dressage schooling work — to help her build new muscles and develop her athletic talent in a new sport outside of racing.

We began interviewing potential trainers for Mystery Blessing last week — and have been excited by the level of professionalism each trainer would bring to the project. It is wonderful to see so many trainers who want to work with the LOPE training initiative! We will announce Mystery Blessing’s trainer in the next blog post — and can’t wait to watch her training progress over the next several weeks.

The LOPE Training Horses: Mystery Blessing

LOPE is excited to announce that we have two horses in our new training initiative. One is a lovely four-year-old filly named Mystery Blessing (aka “Blessing”). She was donated to LOPE by Betty Knox and Carrol Key of Southwestern Racing, LLC — and she has had exceptional care and handling for her entire life.

Blessing is a Texas-bred TB — she is by Uncle Abbie and out of Mysterious Light by Mystery Storm. She was home raised and personally handled by her race breeder/owners — and carefully prepared for the track. Mr. Key and Ms. Knox are fond of the horses they breed and race — for them, racing is very personal and they care about each of their horses deeply.

Blessing raced eight times at the track and even won a longer distance race — while she showed some promise, it was not quite enough for a truly competitive racing career. She was retired sound and given time off to relax in the pasture. When she was ready, Southwestern Racing began the process of preparing her for a post-track career. They paid for Blessing to receive 90-days training (for w-t-c and some light jumping) — their hope was that Blessing would go on to a successful career in eventing or another show discipline.

When they heard about LOPE’s new training program, Ms. Knox and Mr. Key quickly came to the decision to donate Blessing to LOPE. She is a calm, sound and very talented filly — and they were excited at the possibilities for Blessing at LOPE.

They personally delivered Blessing to the LOPE Ranch — and we were impressed with Blessing from the moment we saw her. She unloaded calmly and stood quietly outside the trailer while we all chatted. Even though it was a new place, Blessing behaved as if she had just stepped out to her usual home pasture.

Blessing is a beautiful bay mare with an athletic build, feminine head and soft, quiet eye. She is @16.1H and carries herself with dignity and poise. Although she is only four-years-old, Blessing behaves like a more seasoned, older horse. Her ground manners are impeccable and she loves people. It is clear that she thinks the world is a good place — and that all of her experiences in it have been positive (thanks to her race owners).

Blessing is a great example of the type of Texas bred we have often seen here at LOPE — well bred, carefully handled and owned by people who cared about her while she was racing. Kudos to Southwestern Racing for donating her to LOPE — and for caring about their racehorses after their track careers are over.

We will be assessing and working with Blessing over the next week or so — to figure out what she might enjoy as a second career and to select the right trainer for her. Our guess is that Blessing will want to be an eventer — she certainly has the looks and temperament for the job!

Stay tuned for more updates on Mystery Blessing…including her training progress, her upcoming appearances at LOPE events and more!

The LOPE Training Horses: PJ’s Wish

We are very excited to announce that PJ’s Wish, a handsome three-year-old gelding, has joined the new LOPE training initiative! His breeder and race owners — Phil and Glenna Leckinger and Star Bright Thoroughbreds — donated PJ’s Wish to LOPE specifically to be part of our new training program.

PJ’s Wish has a famous father — Tinner’s Way — who won almost $2 million at the track. Tinner’s Way was a son of Secretariat, so PJ’s Wish has a very impressive family tree. His dam (Wishes n’Dreams) was also a special horse — she was Phil and Glenna’s first home-bred racehorse and a favorite at their farm. Sadly, they lost her not long after PJ’s Wish was weaned. And Wishes n’Dreams’ dam was their very first racehorse — so you can see why PJ’s Wish is a very important young horse to Phil and Glenna.

Like many local race breeders who come to LOPE, Phil and Glenna care personally about each of the horses they breed and race. They are reluctant to let their horses go (even if they aren’t racing competitively anymore) unless they can be certain that the home is exceptionally good.

PJ’s Wish raced a few times and didn’t show much interest in running. He was big for his age when he went to the track — so his owners made sure that he was trained slowly and steadily (so that he could have time to grow into his body). PJ's Wish trained well but was less than speedy about several aspects of the job. For example, he walked easily into the starting gate — but never quite got that he was supposed to leave the gate much faster than how he entered it. “A little too laid back,” was how his race trainer described his track demeanor.

PJ’s Wish is a super handsome bay with a big blaze and four socks — full of chrome with a kind face and lovely conformation. He is about 16.1H and still is growing — from a distance, PJ’s Wish seems much taller, with his long legs and strong hindquarters. He has been at the LOPE Ranch for nearly a week — and has been very gentlemanly and sweet to handle and work with.

His race breeders tell us that PJ’s Wish isn’t just all looks — he also has much determination and desire to please — which they just know can be put to good use in a second career. At LOPE, we also have noticed the PJ is quite sweet for such a young horse — he has the air of a gentle giant in the making.

We are very excited about PJs Wish and will be assessing him over the next week or so. From what we can see, PJ’s Wish might have many career options (hunter/jumper, eventing, maybe even dressage) based on his willing temperament, lovely movement and athletic build. Stay tuned for more details and updates about PJ’s Wish and his training progress.

Special note from PJ’s Wish’s owners:

Glenna and I have been involved in the Thoroughbred business for twenty years. It all started as a whim to own a racehorse — but we have since become involved in almost every aspect of the industry. In 2004, we built our own ranch in Tioga, Texas where we now have the opportunity to raise our foals and live with our horses and assorted other critters. We chose the name Star Bright Thoroughbreds for our ranch partially naming it after Wishes n’ Dreams and her first foal, Wishes Bright Star.

Today we own and board broodmares, weanlings, yearlings and horses in various stages of training. We are also involved in the stallion side of the business and currently stand Special Rate at Key Ranch in Salado. We have been fortunate to meet many wonderful people in the industry who have helped us along the way to become better horsemen, and hopefully responsible stewards to our horses and the industry.

Glenna and I are supporters and believers in the work that LOPE Texas does for the industry. Additionally, my partner and I retired Tinners Way to Old Friends in Kentucky a couple of years ago. Both Lynn Reardon, who has done a fantastic job developing LOPE Texas, and Michael Blowen, who established Old Friends, are people who through their dedication to the retired racehorse will help this industry thrive.

Phil Leckinger
Star Bright Thoroughbreds

Exciting New Training Initiative at LOPE

As we posted earlier this year, LOPE is focusing more on horsemanship and education this year.

LOPE has been helping Texas ex-racehorses transition into new homes since 2003. As we look back on our history, we have come to realize that the biggest challenge in helping at-risk racehorses isn’t what we originally thought. Our working premise in the past has been that if we could just take in more horses and adopt them to loving homes, then the problem would be solved.

We used to assume that everything would fall into place if we had a bigger ranch (to hold more horses), a large endowment (so we could afford to feed more horses) or a greater number of volunteers (to care for more horses). But sadly, over the years there have been several examples of horse charities with many more horses and much larger fundraising revenue that have failed.

One day we sat down and really thought about the realities of the horse market — and saw that there was a huge education gap about ex-racehorses in the equestrian community. Many myths and negative stereotypes still dominate the horse world about the nature of ex-racehorses and their training potential.

Until ex-racehorses are truly seen as desirable after their track careers are over, they will always be at-risk. At LOPE, we love the ex-racehorses — and think they are tremendously rewarding to work with as athletes, riding partners and teachers. We’d like more people to share our passion for these horses — and also encourage them to share our journey in learning from the ex-racehorses.

We are pleased to announce an exciting new education initiative at LOPE. We will be selecting one or two special LOPE horses to receive assessment, training and schooling show experience with a professional trainer in a suitable discipline (hunter/jumper, dressage, eventing or ranch versatility, depending on the horse’s talent and aptitude). LOPE will be chronicling their training experiences and ongoing progress on our blog and social media sites.

Adoption will take place after the preliminary training is complete — so that the horse will be properly prepared and more fully educated to begin a new career. A full vet exam will be made available to prospective adopters (who can of course also do their own pre-purchase exams). And a rebate for a percentage of the adoption fee will be available if the adopter rides in certain clinics or schooling shows within one year of adoption.

LOPE has begun to line up sponsors for each horse, quality trainers who would be willing to provide partial discounts of their fees, photographers/video folks to help record the training process and tack/equipment donors. If you would like to be part of LOPE’s new training program in one of these roles, please contact Lynn.

We have already selected the first horse for the training program and will make an announcement shortly about this outstanding Texas-bred prospect from a quality breeder and racing operation. Stay tuned for more details (but here are a few hints: tall, sound, young, bay and flashy with a big blaze)...

The Right Match

At LOPE, we’ve been involved with nearly 200 horse adoptions here at the ranch. We’ve seen many amazing matches between horse and human, and it’s one of the most rewarding parts of our work. The surprises are what make the adoptions extra fun to watch — like the difficult, complicated horse who falls in love with a gentle intermediate rider or the nervous, shy horse who blossoms into a show champion because his rider believes in him.

But we’ve also seen mismatches. Typically we spot these at the first adoption visit, when the prospective adopter comes to meet the horse and ride. It can be delicate situation to find a way to politely tell someone that they aren’t quite the right partner for that particular horse. Fortunately, we usually don’t have to do that — the rider knows that the horse isn’t the right match and is happy to keep shopping elsewhere.

Then there is the case of the stubborn mismatch — where the rider refuses to see that the horse isn’t a suitable choice. Most of us who work with horses see this particular situation occasionally here and there (whether it’s an over-mounted rider at a clinic or a tall cowboy loping a pony-sized steed during a trail ride). The most classic example is often a less experienced equestrian teamed with a gorgeous, but fiery, horse. The rider just can’t seem to accept that the horse isn’t the dream steed they hoped for, in spite of gentle hints from friends and instructors (as well as spectators to their latest near-disaster in the arena).

My original goal with this post was to come up with an entertaining list of “you might need a different horse” quips — as a way to get people talking about this topic and thinking about their own horses. The goal was to provoke thought and maybe help a few people (and horses) out there who need new riding partners.

As I typed along cheerily, my fingers paused, and I realized how well suited I am to write this post. I am in this situation myself — and it’s very hard to accept.

Those of you who have read my book about the LOPE horses know that Sally, the little bay mare, has been a huge part of my work at LOPE. Sally has plenty of pep as well as a lively, sweet disposition — alert and sensible all at the same time. Short and stocky with a round build, Sally is especially fun to ride in western tack.

Sally has taught me more than any other horse at LOPE — she was there with me at several key moments in my development as an aspiring horseman. For example, at a Ray Hunt clinic, Sally demonstrated to me the importance of adapting to fit the situation. During a demonstration ride at a horse expo, Sally showed me everything in myself that was lacking (and that was good) when it came to horsemanship. She means the world to me.

And I’m no longer the right rider for her.

About 20 months ago, I noticed that Sally seemed less rounded in her hindquarters. Sally is one of those short (15H) mares who seems to be curvy everywhere (belly, topline, even her ears). I assumed it was that she needed more exercise, a different diet (like more hay or alfalfa) and maybe a change in her worming program. But even after all those things, Sally’s booty remained leaner and it seemed, if anything, to be getting worse.

Sally still rode mostly the same — she was perky, sweet and easy (without ever being boring). But I felt something was wrong — and I began making excuses to not ride her as much. Finally, one day, I approached her from behind in the pasture and saw that one hindquarter was now much flatter than the other one. And it hit home to me that something more unusual was happening.

So I took her to Austin Equine Associates, and the diagnosis was that she had had an impact injury in the pelvic area at some point in her life (maybe a starting gate injury). Sally now had muscle atrophy in her hindquarters and the chances weren’t high that it would rebound back to normal. But there was also good news: she was very much serviceably sound and showed little sign of obvious lameness. She was weak on that hindquarter, of course, and high-powered sports weren’t going to in her future, but with steady riding, she might well tone up the surrounding muscles and become stronger.

So I kept riding Sally — taking her to clinics, doing trail riding at the ranch and generally thinking of her as my fun, “go to” horse. It didn’t matter to me that she wasn’t the perfect sport horse or a high-powered athlete — we were good friends and I loved our rides together. Sure, we often were more likely to ride jagged ovals than elegant circles and rarely attempted any kind of more advanced work (such as collection) — but we were just there to have pleasant rides and nothing more. And that’s just what happened for both Sally and me — nothing more.

Then, over the past few months, friends and colleagues began trying to help me see that Sally needs someone different. I didn’t recognize that at the time — I just wondered why people seemed to always talk enthusiastically about how I should ride Lightening Ball (my other favorite LOPE horse to ride) whenever I brought Sally to an event or clinic. Finally, a trusted friend was blunt with me: at 5’8” and 145 lbs, I am too big for Sally in her current condition. She has to put in tons of effort to pack me around. Plus she tries too hard to please me and give me the bigger, longer rides we used to do all the time.

Neither of us can progress further when we are riding together. The work we used to do is simply too hard for Sally — her needs have changed. Yet at the same time, she still enjoys light riding, long grooming sessions, ground work and hanging out with her pasture buddies. Sally has a great deal to offer to a good home — as long that home isn’t me.

Needless to say, I was quite resistant to these facts. It felt disloyal; as if I was tossing Sally aside for not being good enough anymore. But the reality is that I am holding Sally back by not letting her go to the ideal rider, job and home for her. When I realized this, I was very sad, because I knew that the best thing I could do for Sally was find her the right home.

For all of my experience with the LOPE horses, you would think I would have figured this out much sooner. But many of us horse owners have such a strong emotional bond with our horses that we forget to be objective. Another horse friend told me the story of a beautiful buckskin horse that she had worked with — they had a strong connection on the ground and made much progress with his trust issues. But he had been abused and was very fearful of being ridden. And my friend came to the conclusion (reluctantly, like me) that she was not the right person to take him to his full potential.

She rehomed Dakota to a trainer who specialized in working with horses like him. Many months later, she saw them riding together — a deeply emotional moment for her. She writes: “I think the biggest mistake people make in this situation is putting themselves and their own desires before that of the horse. If I had been selfish, I would have kept Dakota and he would have been a pasture ornament for the rest of his life. Now, he has a purpose and is probably much happier being able to trust humans again.”

So Sally is now officially up for adoption. She is a wonderful little mare and a terrific teacher. If you think you might be the perfect home for her, please contact us for more information. I have lots of great stories about Sally to share, and I promise to smile when the right home comes along and be happy for Sally (instead of sad for myself).

And for those readers who are wondering what my original idea for this post would have looked like, below is my quiz about horse and rider matches.

Quiz: Are You and Your Horse a Good Match?

Here are some questions that I have found useful to consider:

• Do you frequently postpone riding sessions with your horse because he is having physical problems? Is your horse ever sore (legs, back, withers, etc) after riding? Is this a consistent pattern?
• Have friends or family ever suggested to you that you might need a different type of horse? Has a trainer/instructor ever told you that your horse wasn’t a good match? Have multiple trainers/instructors suggested that you might want to reconsider your horse choice? Note: Multiple professionals giving you this type of feedback is a very serious signal to think about.
• Has anyone ever told you that they were worried that you were going to get hurt with your horse?
• When you ride your horse, do you both progress steadily over time? Do you work on new things or always do the same routine? Are either of you bored?
• Do you have fun when you ride your horse? Note: If your stomach is churning and you only exhale every 15 minutes while in the saddle, you are not having fun.
• Do you put off learning more advanced riding techniques because you aren’t sure you and your horse can do those together? Note: Not everyone is interested in learning how to piaffe, but this question did help me realize what was going on with Sally and me.
• Do you spend more time on the ground with your horse (round pen work, hand walking, grooming, etc) than you do riding your horse? Note: This question is not directed at folks who have pasture pals they adore but don’t ride for a good reason (the horse is retired or in rehab, for example). The question is for people who have a horse they acquired for riding. I often groomed or round penned Sally, but didn’t ride her as much — even though I considered her one of my primary riding horses.
• How often have you ridden your horse without supervision (i.e., not in a lesson) in the past 6 months? In the past year? A low number (i.e., one that you can actually remember) is food for thought.
• Pretend for a minute that you HAVE to rehome your horse for a good reason (such as you just got offered a dream job in New Zealand and can’t take your horse there). How does that make you feel? Sad, excited, relieved?
• If you use a trainer for your horse, how long has your horse been in training with that person? Have you switched trainers since you’ve had your horse? If so, how many trainers has your horse been with in the last year? In the last two years?
• Pretend for a minute that the horse person you trust or admire more than anyone (your current instructor, your most revered horsemanship master, your barn BFF, or Ray Hunt himself speaking from the grave) just sat you down and told you that your horse needs someone different. How do you react — are you angry (“What do they know?”), defiant (“I’ll show them and ride my horse in the Olympics one day”), concerned (“Oh no, what if they are right”) or sad (“I know they are right”)?

There are no official “scores” for this questionnaire. If you are noticing a pattern in your answers, please consider the quiz as a gentle catalyst for provoking new thought and insight into your view of your horse.

Patterns

As you know from previous posts, Chaplin and Lightening Ball are two of the ex-racehorses that I'm working with at Hy Court Farm. On the surface, the two horses couldn’t be more different from each other. Chaplin is a small (14H) 6 yo Arabian ex-racehorse who retired with just a few races under his belt. LB is a tall 15 yo TB gelding who raced until age 9.

Chaplin is short with a stocky, pony-like build. LB has the classic frame of his breed — long, elegant, very athletic. Chaplin is quite green, with little riding experience outside of racing (see video of Chaplin before he came to Hy Court). LB was once adopted to be a dressage lesson horse (only to be returned due to spookiness under saddle). Since becoming a PR “spokeshorse” for LOPE, LB has been to several clinics, participated in two schooling shows, did some trail riding and even went to winter camp at Tom Curtin’s ranch.

My time with Chaplin has been focused on following the work Janet Manley at Hy Court Farm did with him earlier this year. Ground work, gentling exercises and colt starting rides (by that term, I mean riding with saddle, halter and reins, but no bit yet). In contrast, LB has been my primary mount for my ongoing lessons at Hy Court — we have started learning some elements of classical dressage foundation work together.

The more I work with these horses (and think about horsemanship principles), the more I see that Chaplin and LB have some key things in common. Both have some gaps in their original foundation work. That might sound strange, since they both have been ridden successfully at the track and (in LB’s case) for years after their race career. But good foundation work goes deeper than simply training a horse to carry a rider, it also helps build into the horse a sense of confidence about his balance, movement and ability to deal with new situations consistently.

Both Chaplin and LB at times have some anxiety about being asked to move in new ways. Chaplin had some difficulty with his right side and with his right hind to left foreleg diagonal (see original post). LB has trouble with the same diagonal, and because he is older and has many more years riding, he has developed stronger muscle patterns and tightness (especially in his right shoulder, which tries to counterbalance the stickiness in the left foreleg-right hind diagonal).

Just like people, horses can develop physical patterns and muscle memory — and when they are asked to change these patterns, it can be stressful for the horses. They might really feel that they can’t move any other way — and if a horse feels like he can’t move (and starts feeling trapped), that’s when things can get a little exciting or anxious for him.

Good horsemanship gives the rider the tools to introduce and reinforce these new ways of moving to the horses — so that they can develop the “try” and the trust to take those new kinds of steps (both literal and metaphoric ones). If the rider gets frustrated and tries to “make” the horse do this, it won’t work out too well. As the same time, if the rider gets too soft in their approach and helps the horse avoid things — that will create a poor outcome as well.

It’s a big commitment to take the time to understand and learn these tools. Sometimes it can seem so much easier to just strap on a spur and “get it done” (even if the horse doesn’t really flow properly into the movement, but instead just reacts away from the spur). And I can always talk myself into not pushing my horse out of his comfort zone, because it’s “too hard” for him (even though what I really mean is that it is too hard for me).

When I slow down and take the time to understand what is really happening physically with each horse’s way of moving and carrying himself, I then can better set up the horse (as well as myself) for success under saddle. It takes longer and requires more of me as a rider. But the results are very much worth the wait (for both me and the horse).

The Education of Lightening Ball (“LB”)

I have talked about Lightening Ball (aka “LB”) several times in this blog. LB was donated to LOPE by his first race owners (Bob and Pat Orth). They had owned LB at the height of his racing success, back when he was Texas Three Year Old of the Year in 1999. Even long after they no longer owned LB, they still followed his racing career. In 2005, LB was running in $4500 claiming races at Mountaineer Park. He was nine years old then, and the Orths were concerned about his future. They claimed him back, just so they could retire him and eventually donate him to LOPE!

For those of you who have read my book about LOPE, you already know that by 2005 LB had developed a reputation at the track as a difficult horse. I never saw him that way (though I certainly appreciated that he was a very sensitive horse with a big personality), and over time, LB and I developed quite a bond. Although he probably was better suited for a more advanced rider, LB decided he liked me — and so our riding adventures began.

LB retired from the track sound — the only signs of his long racing career were two faint osselets on his front ankles. Tall, well-built and surprisingly agile for his size, LB was a formidable athlete and a terrific example of the Thoroughbred breed.

I did many things with LB. We went to a Tom Curtin clinic and learned about the many foundation gaps that both LB and I had. At that time, I mostly rode LB in a western saddle — we even went to Tom Curtin’s winter camp and learned how to do a little work with cows (even though LB wasn’t too sure if he liked them or not).

Eventually, though, I could see LB was a little frustrated. He would move slowly off my aids (such as they were), and had episodes of tension that confused me a little (though he was always careful to take care of me). I sensed something about my approach just wasn’t working for him, even though he liked me and wanted to please me.

So, over a year ago, I started taking lessons with Janet Manley at Hy Court Farm. Hy Court Farm has been LOPE’s horsemanship sponsor since 2008, and I knew they could help LB (and me) progress to the next level.

For the first few lessons, I rode Western as usual. But as LB began to work more through his back, it became clear that he needed a different saddle. His shoulders and withers simply couldn’t move well in my saddle. Schleese Saddlery stepped in and donated a wonderful, custom fitted saddle for LB last spring. The change was amazing! LB moved and felt like a different horse — he even won his class at his first horse show!

But there was more work to be done — specifically, by me on my riding technique. I had developed many poor habits over the years, and because I didn’t learn to ride until I was an adult, I also had several gaps in my education.

LB in some ways represents the classic OTTB. He is talented, attractive and very athletic. Like many OTTBs, he can occasionally have moments of tension under saddle too. So often, it is easy to dismiss these episodes as being due to the “TB temperament” — but the reality is that LB is an individual horse, with unique responses and experiences. The racetrack can often produce wonderful athletes with less than ideal foundations in place for activities besides high-powered racing, but that might also be said of the cutting horse or upper level dressage worlds too.

As a rider, I finally realized that it was MY responsibility to help LB work through his concerns and uneven education — it wasn’t appropriate to just write off any undesirable or unexpected reaction in LB as being outside my control.

So I got to work fixing and educating myself — a long, slow, sometimes frustrating (but always rewarding) process. Over the past months, I have begun to understand more about equine biomechanics, the importance of straightness to the horse, rein aids (and why I should not fear them), taking ownership of my riding and my horse’s needs under saddle, the reason why hind-fore diagonals are so key to the horse and rider, how interfering with the horse’s neck carriage can be so detrimental, why my posture is more important than my muscle strength, what is truly “lightness” in a horse and the difference between leg movement and back movement in assessing cadence in the horse’s stride. And that’s just a quick list off the top of my head. Wow!

I'm still nowhere near perfection as a rider. But, thanks to LB and Hy Court Farm, I am an improving rider as well as a serious working student of the field of horsemanship.

Stay tuned for more details on my journey with LB and the other LOPE horses during my working student adventures!

Educating Chaplin

Chaplin is an incredibly cute young Arabian ex-racehorse available for Adoption at LOPE. He raced a few times in 2010, but because of his small size (14H), it was difficult for him to win races. His race owners donated him to LOPE. A terrific foster home stepped forward — Julie gave Chaplin a wonderful place to spend time in turnout.

After several months there, Chaplin returned to the LOPE Ranch to begin some retraining and get ready for a new career. At 14H, he is the smallest ex-racer we've ever had at LOPE! But true to his breed, Chaplin has a wonderful, inquisitive temperament and a kind heart. He is green and inexperienced in many ways, but has the aptitude and willingness to be a wonderful partner for an experienced junior rider or petite adult.

After our flood in January, Chaplin came to Hy Court Farm. During the day of the flood, he had a very stressful time — while he was being led out of chest-high water to safer ground, he spooked and lost his footing. Being the smallest horse of the herd, the high water was especially scary for him!

Janet Manley at Hy Court Farm began working with Chaplin to help LOPE assess his personality, physical needs and overall suitability for different jobs. The first several sessions with Chaplin involved Janet working with him on the ground. I have a bad habit of sometimes rushing my ground work. Like many equestrians, I can be impatient to ride (it’s so much fun to check out the horses under saddle) and will accidently miss important cues in ground work.

So I was especially fascinated with Janet’s methodical, yet adaptive, approach to working with Chaplin on the ground. She carefully observed how Chaplin moved, where he was tight and how he carried his body. Chaplin’s frightening experience with the flood had made him extra cautious and tense about certain situations (feeling crowded, for example), and in watching his reactions, Janet soon came to some interesting conclusions.

First, it was clear that Chaplin was very tight on his right side. While it isn’t uncommon for green horses to be a little worried about their right side (since we usually work with them more on the left side for leading, mounting and so on), this tendency was much more pronounced in Chaplin. He had trouble turning his head to the right, so if something bothered him on his right field of vision, he would quickly turn his left side so he could see it from his left eye.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it made things pretty uncomfortable if you were standing next to Chaplin when he decided to move his left side rapidly to check out something on his right (instead of just turning his head to the right).

With further work and observation, Janet pinpointed that Chaplin’s right hind had difficulty stepping under (and thus creating stickiness in that hind as well as the left foreleg diagonal). Chaplin felt braced and tense whenever he was asked to step through the right hind-left front diagonal — which meant he often tried to back up or find other ways to wriggle out of that situation.

Watching this, I realized that riding Chaplin without first helping him work out the issue on his right side would be very stressful for both Chaplin and the rider. I had ridden Chaplin a few times when he first came off the track and when he was returned to our ranch from the foster home. He had seemed willing but super green — he stood still for mounting, stayed at the walk without trying to rush or trot, stopped on a voice command and so on. But he had been tentative, which I simply chalked up to his age and inexperience.

But now it was clear that he'd actually been tight (not just tentative) and uncomfortable. A tight and uncomfortable horse (especially a green horse) doesn’t need to be ridden so quickly. I would have served Chaplin much better if I had spent that time on the ground instead of in the saddle with him.

On the plus side, I was impressed with how generous and willing Chaplin could be. Clearly, he had every reason to be difficult with me under saddle those few times — but instead he did his best to please me (and also to gently let me know that he felt uncomfortable).

So many times I have been struck with how horses will “fill in” for people, and give us every benefit of the doubt while we make mistakes and rush around and maybe don’t pay as much attention to their signals as we should.

Chaplin clearly had a heart of gold, and I was excited to see what Janet and Hy Court would do next with him. Stay tuned for the next chapter.

The Best Laid Plans…

Several weeks ago, I worked on a draft of the blog post below. At LOPE, we had come to the decision that it was time to focus more on horsemanship education in 2012 — as part of our mission to help ex-racehorses find new homes and careers.

When I wrote the post, I envisioned a gradual process over the next several months — which LOPE would steadily shift its emphasis to education while sharing what we were learning.

Little did I know that nature had something else in mind. On January 25, a freak flash flood hit the LOPE Ranch after 7-9 inches of rain fell in three hours. Our facility sustained serious damage and the LOPE horses were moved to foster homes for their safety. Huge thanks to Sheila at Graymar Farm, Bill and Carol Matthews and Hy Court Farm for fostering the LOPE horses.

Because the LOPE facility has extensive damage from the flood, it wouldn't be appropriate to take in many new horses until the ranch is fully repaired. LOPE will continue to help place horses via our website, social media and other outreach options — but our usual adoption horse intakes will be reduced at this time.

So, LOPE will be taking this time to move forward more quickly on our horsemanship education program. We will be working closely with Hy Court Farm and the LOPE foster horses there. And I hope to see many success stories from those efforts — as the horses and I learn how to prepare them more fully for new careers after racing.

Please read more below:

LOPE and Horsemanship Education

LOPE was founded in 2003. Through the years, we have experimented with many different ways to help ex-racehorses find homes. The first year, we only did the website listing service — as we didn’t yet have the means or facility to take in horses at that time.

In 2004, we opened the adoption ranch — and started working directly with all types of ex-racehorses. Some years, we took in mostly rehabilitation horses — so that they could have the time to rest and heal their injuries here. Other times, we’ve had a variety of sound horses (from unstarted 2 year-olds to veteran champions retiring after many years of racing).

As we look back over the past nine years, one consistent theme has emerged. The more that we learn about horsemanship (and share what we have learned), the faster the horses find homes. A better-educated horse has more of a chance to excel at a second career — and as we become better students of horsemanship, we can help more horses.

At LOPE, we have come to believe that horsemanship and education are the keys to finding ex-racehorses new homes and careers. Too often people assume ex-racehorses are high strung, crazy or unsuitable for post-track careers — because they don’t understand the racehorse’s track training as well as his sensitive and willing nature.

Over the last few years, we’ve steadily learned more about horsemanship technique, equine biomechanics and horse psychology. Hy Court Farm has been LOPE’s horsemanship sponsor since 2008 and has helped us discover such terrific teachers as Janet Manley, Tom Curtin, Buck Brannaman, Ginger Gaffney, Anja Beran and Linda Hoover. These teachers hail from many disciplines of riding (from jumping to dressage to western). Yet at the core, they all stress the same principles — the foundation work that is the most important to the horse’s development and well-being (whether as a pleasure riding mount or as a competitive performer in any discipline).

With this style of horsemanship, the kind of tack on the horse is less important than how he feels about himself, his work and his rider. The horsemanship foundation work is fun and beneficial to every kind of horse and rider — but especially to the ex-racehorses (with their negative reputations) and to the riders who own and love them.

Many of you know from my book, Beyond The Homestretch, that I didn’t learn to ride until I was an adult. Although I have worked with nearly 200 horses directly over the years at the LOPE ranch, there are many gaps in my technical equestrian skills. At the same time, the LOPE horses have taught me a huge amount about horsemanship at a very fundamental level. So I often find myself with sophisticated knowledge about some aspects of horsemanship but only rudimentary knowledge about other elements.

In the past couple of years, I have written the book about my experiences with the LOPE horses — plus LOPE has produced a DVD on Retraining Racehorses (with renowned horsemanship teacher Tom Curtin). Since then, we have seen a large increase in interest about the LOPE program, the ex-racehorses here and our approach (of a student perspective, rather than an expert) to our work. People from all areas of the US have contacted us to share stories of their ex-racehorses, how they work with them and what they are learning. Even more exciting, we often hear from people who had ruled out ex-racehorses as mounts until they watched the DVD or read the book.

For the next phase of LOPE’s work, we will be concentrating more on horsemanship and sharing our learning journey with the horses here. As the first and most important step, I will become a working student at Hy Court Farm — to deepen my understanding of the horsemanship philosophy they teach. In the past few years, every significant step forward in LOPE’s understanding of the horses has come in some way from Hy Court Farm (for example, we met Tom Curtin and filmed our DVD there). So I am excited and honored to be a part of their program as a working student.

The LOPE horses at our adoption ranch will now be put in more formal career paths. We will select a couple LOPE horses to go through training and/or lessons at Hy Court Farm — so that we can give these horses a better “job training” plan, as well as learn more ourselves in the process. There might be fewer horses at the LOPE Ranch for adoption, but each horse will be able to receive more specialized attention and handling.

I will be blogging about my experiences as a working student at Hy Court Farm, as well as sharing the training adventures of the LOPE horses there too. Our hope is that one day the blog might help some ex-racehorses (and their owners) in their training — as well as encourage people to take a chance on an ex-racehorse as their next riding mount, teacher and friend.

Stay tuned!

Interview with Horseman and Stockman, Tom Curtin

Tom Curtin grew up in Montana and has had a long career working with some of the most famous ranches in the US (King Ranch, The Four Sixes, Johnson Ranch and 7D Ranch). He counts such horsemanship legends as Buster Welch and Ray and Carolyn Hunt as his mentors.

He has helped the LOPE horses tremendously over the past few years. I’ve learned a great deal from riding in his clinics and attending his winter camp in Florida. Tom also is the star of LOPE’s DVD on Retraining Racehorses and we appreciate his affinity for ex-racehorses very much.

Tom will be coming to the Austin area on Nov 4-6 for Colt Starting and Horsemanship classes at Hy Court Farm. If you are in the area, please don’t miss the opportunity to ride in or audit the clinic — Tom is a terrific teacher!

You worked closely with Ray Hunt and knew him well. Can you tell us one or two of your favorite stories about Ray and why he was so important to you as a horseman?

Ray gave so much of himself to my family and I. I had the opportunity to show Ray how to make rope halters. It took some days for Ray to master these halter knots. At one point, he called and asked me for my help with some specific knots. I made him a simple diagram with a small piece of string stapled to a piece of cardboard. Years later, I found this same cardboard and string example that had traveled with him for ages, still in his halter gear bag. Being able to give back a small piece of what he gave us was an opportunity few have had — to give something to Ray, as he’s given to so many.

Ray also really enjoyed driving a team of horses. One time, he asked if I would come to Texas and start a couple of teams of his horses driving. It was really special to see him so excited to see these teams come together. And we then rebuilt a wagon to suit his needs. That two-week period in my life was so special to me — because I was able to give something to Ray, who gave so much to me.

As a teacher, you see so many horses and riders every year in your clinics and winter camp. Can you describe one or two of your favorite teaching moments (when a horse and rider achieved a special breakthrough or when you felt best as a teacher)?

This is a really difficult question. As a clinician, I have been blessed with the opportunity and the ability to teach what I have learned from many great stockmen. Each day of my life that I work with horses and people, I have great moments.

Recently I had the opportunity to conduct a horsemanship class of about 20 participants. Most of them had ridden with me previously. It was a pleasure to watch the harmony these people have achieved with their horses, to observe the changes that have taken place. I had the pleasure of watching the feel, timing and balance these riders had with their horses for the full three hours of the class.

As a human, it is hard to take credit for these changes — yet I am constantly reminded of how I have helped these horses and their riders achieve a higher level of respect, trust and understanding.

On your website, you are described as a stockman as well as a horseman. What does that term mean to you and why do so few people earn the right to be called that?

To me the term stockman defines a person who has a very good understanding of all livestock. A stockman has the ability to take one form of livestock and use it to teach another form of livestock.

To be able to move a cow with a horse, allowing the cow to teach the horse what he needs to learn and the horse needs to teach the cow what the cow needs to learn. When livestock learns the relationship between each another and the human, the job of the stockman is working harmoniously with all animals. This becomes fluid when done in a quality manner.

Seldom do people have the opportunity to work with the variety of livestock that I have had. My life has been filled with excellent horsemen and cattlemen. It is rare to find one person who could balance all talent — to set the stage, for each animal to be productive. I’ve been fortunate to work with good horses, cattle, dogs, mules and various other livestock. Being able to incorporate the human with various livestock in a harmonious manner makes a stockman — as has been defined by my peers and respected clients.

You will be hosting a two-week colt starting clinic this winter at your winter camp in Florida. How will the two-week format help people and their colts get a better foundation? What type of mistakes do people sometimes make in starting their colts on their own?

The two-week format will give a person the idea of where to take their horse beyond a three-day clinic creating a more in depth foundation. It will allow the human to understand how to keep things interesting for the horse.

A three-day colt starting class gives you a foundation to start out with your horse. In two weeks both the human and the horse have the opportunity to make the foundation stronger — and to develop respect and trust in each other.

But I can’t say that anybody makes any specific mistakes with their horse. They just lack the understanding of how to support the horse (in order to carry him further building respect and trust).

While you were filming the DVD on Retraining Racehorses, we really noticed how much you seemed to enjoy working with the LOPE ex-racehorses (and how much they liked you back). Not all clinicians seem to have the same positive attitude towards ex-racehorses as you do. Why do you like ex-racehorses so much?

Early in life I had the opportunity to ride some racehorses on the track. More often than not, these horses weren’t comfortable with themselves or the people that handled them. They lacked a foundation — which would have allowed them to have a second chance (which I always felt they deserved). This is why I feel obligated and honored to be able to help the racehorse, an athlete, which I highly regard.

When the racehorse doesn’t make the cut or when his racing career is finished, often he has realistically no place to go in life. He has no respect, trust or foundation. I feel that every horse should have the opportunity to have this foundation.

If the young, not-yet-started racehorse or the older ex-racehorse can be helped to develop respect, trust and a foundation, this will allow them the opportunity to have a second chance in life.

Horsemanship Philosophy of Buck Brannaman Interview Series: Cindy Meehl, Director of Buck

I first saw Buck, the documentary about Buck Brannaman, at the SXSW film festival in February. Last month, LOPE hosted a special sneak previewing screening of Buck in Austin, too. The film depicts the horsemanship philosophy of Buck Brannaman, as well as his own compelling life story. It's beautifully shot and very thought provoking (in a good way). LOPE highly recommends Buck — and you don't have to be a horse person to appreciate its entertaining combination of classic cowboy lifestyle, rugged scenery, pretty horses and quiet humor.

Cindy Meehl, the director of Buck, has quite an interesting story herself. She first met Buck when she brought a troubled horse to one of his clinics. The experience (and Buck) made a deep impression on her and she decided to make a film about him. Cindy was a first-time director and had no traditional filmmaking experience — but her passion for the project and for Buck's horsemanship philosophy carried her through the long process of creating the documentary.

The film has garnered much praise from critics and won the Sundance Film Festival's audience award. You can follow the latest news from the film and Cindy on Facebook, Twitter and the film website.

Please tell us about the mare you took to your first Buck clinic — you described her as troubled. How did Buck's clinic help you and her?

She was a Rocky Mountain Horse. I often ride alone and had heard that the Rocky Mountain Horses were good for trail riding. At the time, it didn't occur to me that the breed was less important than how the horse had been handled when it was young. My mare had been trained to be a flashy and extremely spirited show horse and she was quite troubled as a result. But I didn't take any of that into account — I guess you could say that I bought into the breed propaganda (laughs). Plus she was very pretty — which is another classic reason people buy the wrong horses.

My mare was very fearful and would bolt easily. She was challenging for me to handle and I knew I needed some help. I had heard about Buck and took her to his clinic. It was a very humbling experience. We all bring our own baggage and fears to the table at the clinics — and Buck is very clear about pointing that out. Instead of blaming the horse (or her early training), I had to learn to support her and give her what she needed to be less afraid. It was my responsibility and I had to own that fully.

The film especially captured the stoic, "no excuses" element of Buck's horsemanship philosophy. It reminded me of the saying, "there are no shortcuts to any place worth going." How did that aspect of Buck's horsemanship influence you as a filmmaker (particularly as a first-time director) and as an equestrian?

It influenced me very much, especially as a first-time director. Directing the film was the hardest thing I have ever done. Although I had strong visual skills (from my work in fashion and fine art) as well as a good sense of the importance of story structure, I didn't have any traditional film experience. I was driven by my pure passion for the subject and my desire to capture Buck's philosophy that I knew would help not only horses, but people, as well.

So many things that Buck teaches in the clinics translates to other areas of your life. For example, he often talks about having "presence" with a horse — where your sense of confidence and leadership is apparent to the horse. Because of my passion about the subject, I was able to project a certain presence that helped me "hold my own" with more seasoned filmmakers — I felt sure that I could make this film and that I had a compelling person at the heart of it. The film project soon attracted an incredible team, including Andrea Meditch (Man On Wire, Grizzly Man) and Julie Goldman (The Cove, In The Shadow of the Moon).

While working on the project (and particularly the editing phase), this incredible team of women came together in such a synergistic way. They really supported me and this film throughout every phase. As human beings, we often resist change and fear the unknown that it represents. But because of my experience with Buck's clinics, as well as the values my parents had instilled in me, I felt confident about making some of the tough choices in the filmmaking process. The film team was so talented and I am very grateful to them (and to Buck).

Riding with Buck makes you tougher in a good way — you learn to own your mistakes and figure out what your horse needs. Sometimes in today's culture, there is more of a tendency to evade, rather than take on, responsibility. I wanted to share Buck's approach with a larger audience through the film.

There must have been many good stories you had to cut from the 300 hours of original footage. What story do you wish could have stayed in the film (or was one of your favorite stories)?

We filmed Buck talking about his childhood pet, Sampson the bull. Buck loved Sampson and had even trained him to be ridden. One day, his father took him outside and told him he needed his help with a chore. He then shot Sampson between the eyes, right in front of Buck. I wanted to keep this in the film, as an example of his father's extreme cruelty — it was such a powerful moment, to see Buck relate this story. But we instead chose to include a story about Buck hiding from his father in the doghouse. The Sampson story showed his father's mental abuse of Buck and the story we kept in the film was more about his physical abuse. They are both heart-breaking stories.

I wanted to include another story about Buck. One day, during the filming, I asked him if he does clinics when he is sick or has the flu. He responded, "Of course I do. No one can take my place. When I was a kid and it was 20 below outside, I had to go feed the cows every morning. It didn't matter if I had the sniffles or wasn't feeling good. The cows still needed to be fed."

That was a special story for me and I think of it often. Now, whenever I'm not feeling well and still have to do something, I just tell myself, "hey, I gotta go feed the cows."

I've audited two of Buck's clinics and ridden in one. One thing I noticed right away was Buck's dry sense of humor — he made me laugh many times. What are some of your favorite examples of Buck's humor?

Sometimes when I'd be watching the film footage from one of the clinics, I would just crack up at something Buck said. At the clinics, I would always be the person laughing the loudest. My favorite moments are when he gently mocks someone who is being overly solicitous about their horse — as in, "Oh, poor Fluffy is sweating! Poor baby."

If you are a wimp about riding, Buck might tease you in the clinics. Buck spends 8 hours a day teaching from the saddle. Many of the clinic riders might only ride their horses for 20 or 30 minutes at a time — which is barely a warm-up for Buck.

Buck's humor often helps people who are nervous in the clinics. While he rarely singles out someone specifically (unless something unusual is happening), he often will make humorous remarks about certain types of riders in general. I've found it's best to assume he is talking about me and adjust my riding accordingly (laughs).

A few months ago, I was invited to give a talk at a juvenile detention facility here in Texas. I was surprised at how much the boys related to my work with the ex-racehorses at LOPE. They especially seemed to identify with the ex-racehorses (who are often viewed as "pitbulls" in the horse world: damaged, aggressive and unwanted). I can only imagine how deeply they would respond to Buck and your film. Are there any plans to use the film as a teaching tool in juvenile or other types of detention facilities?

I would love to see the film become a teaching tool in prison and other institutions (for substance abuse, mental illness and so on). A professor who was teaching a philosophy class wrote to me and asked if he could show the film to a class he taught at a prison. My response was, "Hey, let's screen the film for the whole prison, not just one class."

One of the reasons I did this film was to give people a sense of hope. As a culture, sometimes I think we have lost sight of what is important. There are certain basic principles in life that can't be ignored or avoided — such as integrity, hard work and purpose — no matter who you are or where you come from. You might think you are fooling people or that you have a shortcut — but in the end, you are only hurting yourself.

I'm 54 — and at my age, I hope I have some wisdom and perspective to share. I wanted the film to touch people, to uplift and inspire them.

Horsemanship Philosophy of Buck Brannaman Interview Series: Jeannie Choate

This is the second in a series of interviews about the horsemanship of Buck Brannaman — as well as the newly released film (Buck) that focuses on his work with horses. LOPE hosted a sneak preview screening of Buck in June — Jeannie was one of our speakers at the Q&A after the event.

I first rode with Jeannie at Buck’s clinic in Texas earlier this year. Jeannie has organized Buck’s clinic in Texas for many, many years. The clinic wouldn’t be possible without her hard work and dedication. As Jeannie put it to me, hosting a clinic is a true labor of love — so if you audit or ride in the Texas clinic, please be sure to thank Jeannie.

Jeannie also writes the Buckaroo Texas Blog, which chronicles her adventures in horsemanship.

What was your first experience like riding with Buck? What did you and your horse learn together?

My first experience riding with Buck was in Pearce, AZ. As I watched the morning class I got a terrible case of stage fright and a churning stomach (very unusual for me). As I watched this man and listened to him, I realized that this was the phenomenal teacher who I had hoped all my life that I could ride with and learn from.

Under Buck’s tutelage, my horse and I got a lot accomplished over the four days of the clinic. We survived riding near the loudspeaker, in a crowd of bothered horses (which in turn bothered both me and my horse). There were several horses having people problems — and Buck asked his assistant, Kip, to ride some of them. Buck called Kip to ride my horse, but then he turned to another horse and said, "No, ride that one instead."

I guess Buck saw something in my eye that said to just let me suffer through it, and he knew my horse and I would be ok. From this clinic, I started to get the importance of having a plan when you ride, for the horse knows when you know and he knows when you don’t know — and when you don’t know, it bothers the horse. I started learning about feeling of the horse — so she could feel of me.

Buck has us observe what he did. He encouraged us to remember what we were seeing and to compare what we had going on with the horse now, at the end of the clinic, as opposed to when we started the clinic. These are things that I am still striving to get better and better about. It takes work and dedication to really get these good — but once I become aware, it doesn’t take too long to get things working for me and my horse.

With a big grin on my face and tears in my eyes, I told Buck at the end of the clinic that I had just spent the last four days in horse heaven. He broke out in a loud laugh — that he then cut short, realizing that I was serious. But the smile on my face let him know, that yes, it was funny and such a wonderful feeling to have.

What is your favorite story about Buck?

I have so many stories, it is hard to pick out a favorite. At a colt starting clinic in San Angelo, Texas, I had a little sorrel filly entered in this class. I had spent the previous six weeks halter breaking three thoroughbred colts to earn money for the class. The little filly I planned to ride hurt her right front leg before the clinic. It was touch and go for a while if she would be sound for the clinic — so I did not get to do the homework with her I had planned.

On the first day of the clinic, Kip and I were in the round pen together with our colts getting them saddled. Kip’s colt was very touchy, and my filly was so nervous that I was trying to saddle her while she moved around some. It was cold, my latigo was sticky and I was having trouble getting her cinched smoothly. Buck saw that Kip’s horse was about to explode. So, he quickly walked to me and my filly, then said, "Here, lets get that cinch tightened." As he pulled it up smooth in a quick firm motion, he then said “Try to hang on to her,” — just as both colts exploded.

No saddles came off or slid sideways on either of the colts, which was important. It all happened so fast, I was in the wrong place to get the angle on my filly’s lead rope — and she got away. Buck said, "That’s alright we can catch her in a minute."

The next day as we saddled our colts and turned them loose in the arena, my filly took a few steps and then burst into a rodeo bronco exhibition. Buck was standing right next to me, turned his microphone off, and said, "Jeannie, I think you could score in the 70’s on her!" And with a chuckle, I said, "That’s if I could ride her, I would score in the 70’s."

Buck then turned and started walking toward the other colts and the stand. He turned his microphone back on and said, "Now if any of you are thinking you need some help with this first ride, you better go to asking." Upon hearing those words, I fell in behind him at a fast walk and said, "Buck, I’m asking!"

Buster McLaury was in the stands and Buck had him come ride that first ride on my colt. By the fourth day of the clinic, I ended up riding my filly her snaffle bit, loping around the round pen and even out in the arena. I still remember the feel of that filly, confident and happy. Great start for my filly, thanks to Buck.

How has this type of horsemanship changed you as a rider and as a person?

One of the main points of horsemanship I have learned is not to impose my will on a horse or another person — but at the same time not let a person or horse impose their will on me. I have learned to be more assertive in my everyday dealings and this has helped me to not be a victim. I have learned to really trust my intuition and to develop my emotional sensitivity as I develop a bond with each horse I work with. Not all humans I am around care to make a bond with me — and that’s fine too.

Another top point that I work on is being able to change on a moment’s notice. The tough part is letting go of my fifteen or more years of riding habits before Buck. This has been a challenge, but the understanding and ongoing study of this horsemanship has helped me change and adapt in my personal life (sometimes even to the extreme, if needed).

I am the better for it, striving to be the best I and my horses can be. My ongoing study and dedication to this style of horsemanship has led me on a path of adventure I didn’t think I would ever be on. And I have made friends from the very first clinic I attended (who are still close friends) and I continue to make more really terrific friends each year. You kind of bond before you even speak. It’s a happy trail I am on ☺

What are your horsemanship goals this year for you and your horse(s)?

I don’t really set firm goals each year, other than to study and go see and ride with Buck in a clinic. I try to always observe, remember and compare with humility. I strive to just keep raising the bar, so to speak, and expecting more of myself — but sometimes I have to back up and change to make a basic thing (that I thought was working) better, so I can raise the bar.

Most of the time, raising the bar is doing less. A goal that I am always refining is to be consistent with each horse and work exactly where that horse is at the moment. And always being aware of the balance and mind of each horse before I ask anything of that horse — working, building and refining, all the time, the basics.

Hopefully I will have my older horse in the two-rein next spring and I plan on showing a few times in Ranch Horse Versatility Competition too!

Horsemanship Philosophy of Buck Brannaman Interview Series: Karen Miller

This is the first in a series of interviews about the horsemanship philosophy of Buck Brannaman and the newly released film (Buck) about his work with horses. LOPE hosted a sneak preview screening of Buck in June — Karen was one of our speakers at the Q&A after the event. Since then, we have had several inquiries from people who wanted to learn more about the film, Buck and horsemanship.

I first met Karen riding in a Tom Curtin clinic at Hy Court Farm. She was so friendly and easy to approach — I was nervous riding in the clinic and Karen went out of her way to put me at ease. Karen has ridden with Buck for over ten years and hosts the clinic dinner at his Belton, TX clinic each year. I rode in that clinic for the first time this year — and heard Buck say of Karen that she "has the most heart and try of anyone."

Karen used to ride English and take dressage lessons, but eventually switched over to riding western in the vaquero style. She rides her mare, Mimi, in the clinics and has been working with her new colt, Tuco.

What was your first experience like riding with Buck? What did you and your horse learn together?

My first experience riding with Buck was very emotional, powerful and exhausting — all wrapped up together over the 4-day clinic. After I left his clinic, I just wanted to go home right away — so I could really starting changing the way I looked at and rode my horse.

At the clinic, the first thing my horse and I both learned was how to bend and try to follow a feel. Even though he was an experienced riding horse, I rode my 10-year-old gelding in Buck's colt class — because I wanted to understand where it all began with starting a horse the right way.

What is your favorite story about Buck?

One of my many memorable stories about Buck is one that came after we had just finished up with the 4-day clinic here in Belton, Texas. We had all just clapped and began saying our goodbyes before we left from the arena. One lady there was riding a horse that was buddy sour with her husband's horse. She had just finished telling Buck good-bye when suddenly her horse bolted — because the husband’s horse had moved away from her — and she came off her horse.

Buck knew and could see the problem with the horse — so he rounded up a more seasoned rider and had him mount the lady’s horse. Buck then began instructing him how to help the horse. They worked with that horse for over an hour until it could accept being separated from his buddy.

Buck could have just helped the lady up off the ground and moved on — it had been a long day already for him. But he chose not to — instead, he stayed to help the horse.

How has this type of horsemanship changed you as a rider and as a person?

It changed my whole life! It has made me a better, more confident person — and I am more devoted and understanding to my horse.

What are your horsemanship goals this year for you and your horse(s)?

My main goal this year is to be a better rider than I was the year before — especially in riding with only my seat and legs. And to ride with a better feel for the whole horse, to remember to ride every stride and to support him.

LOPE Benefit Clinic with Jack Brainard

October 7-9 / 9:00 AM each day

"If the horse industry ever created a renaissance man, Jack Brainard would be it." — Western Horseman

LOPE will be hosting a benefit clinic with master horseman, Jack Brainard on October 7-9, 2011 at Hy Court Farm (near Austin, TX).

Download a Western Horseman article here to learn more about Jack.

The clinic will focus on riding with softness and lightness in western tack. It will be helpful for all types of western riding horses (trail, reining, cutting, etc). Jack will work with each horse/rider team to understand footfall, feel and timing. The clinic will help the horses become more responsive and physically balanced in their movement (which will enhance performance in any discipline).

The clinic will be limited to 10-12 riders so that Jack can give each horse/rider team plenty of individual instruction. Cost will be $500, with $150 non-refundable deposit required to hold a spot in the clinic.

Although the clinic is full, auditors are welcome for just $20/day.

No registration is required for auditors — just pay whenever you arrive. Directions can be found on the Hy Court website.

Proceeds will benefit the LOPE horses. Please contact Lynn for more details.

Schleese Saddle Helps Ex-Racehorse

As I wrote on my April 4th post, Schleese Saddlery Service recently became a LOPE sponsor. We were especially excited about their sponsorship because LOPE has been learning more and more about equine biomechanics, and the huge importance of proper saddle fit to horsemanship and horse health.

Lightening Ball, a 15-year-old TB gelding, raced until age 9. In new situations, he would often display tension under saddle and became very tight in both his body and emotional response. He would sometimes whirl and spook unexpectedly at these times. But within a few minutes of riding him in a borrowed Schleese saddle, Lightening Ball showed a large aptitude for dressage movement and relaxed tremendously in his demeanor.

Soon after, Schleese donated a saddle and custom fitting to LOPE for Lightening Ball. The first step in the process was carefully measuring him -- so that the donated saddle could be adjusted perfectly for his body. Kristen Vlietstra of Schleese did the fitting session -- we were all very impressed with her professionalism and knowledge of horse biomechanics. She carefully assessed Lightening Ball’s conformation and body measurements -- and even measured me (to make sure the saddle would be a proper match to my leg length).

A few weeks later, a beautiful Schleese saddle arrived for Lightening Ball. During his first ride in the saddle, he responded with great enthusiasm to its fit. He set off into a lovely, flowing trot, lifting his withers and moving with quiet elegance. We began riding together in his new saddle several times a week and took regular lessons at Hy Court Farm.

Lightening Ball learned how to use his body differently and seemed to be delighted to discover that his saddle was now a help to him (not a hindrance). And I learned how to ride more correctly, with my leg back and upper body straight (instead of perching anxiously over the reins). The Schleese saddle encouraged my leg to be more stable and my seat to settle further back.

Lightening Ball loves his new saddle! But I had no idea just how deep his feeling was until the day I rode him in his old hunter saddle. I wanted to see if I would notice a difference in him -- and I definitely did. Within minutes of starting the ride, Lightening Ball tensed his back, shook his head and began spooking mildly. Once the saddle was replaced with the Schleese, he immediately went back to his calm, happy demeanor.

After a few weeks, I decided to put Lightening Ball (and me) to the test. I signed up for a schooling show at Hy Court Farm. After reviewing the choices, I selected a riding class series that combined a trail/obstacle course and a group equitation ride. Lightening Ball and I had never competed in a riding class at a show before. It was our big debut into the show world.

My goal was to expose Lightening Ball to a supportive show environment. I assumed he would be nervous and a little tense. To my surprise, he took the show in stride -- he warmed up quietly, with a soft eye and calm attitude. He seemed to like the trail versatility course, looking with interest at each obstacle. His movement was especially light and flowing during the group equitation class, exuding confidence and relaxation. After the class, I went to check the results and wondered if we scored well enough for a ribbon. I was proud of Lightening Ball and was pleased that he had enjoyed his first show outing. A ribbon would be icing on the cake. And sure enough, we did earn a ribbon -- the blue one.

We won the class!

Thank you, Schleese Saddlery Service.

Note: The time between my first ride in the Schleese saddle on Lightening Ball and his show win was less than 4 weeks.

Schleese Becomes LOPE Sponsor!

LOPE is thrilled and honored to announce that Schleese Saddlery Service is now a LOPE sponsor! Schleese provides custom fitted saddles designed for the female rider and the biomechanics of the horse. Their saddles are of the highest quality for both performance and pleasure riding -- and provide the horse with the most comfort and support to ensure full movement in all gaits.

LOPE’s mission of placing ex-racehorses into new homes has required that we learn more about equine biomechanics -- so that we can more effectively assess and help each ex-racehorse into the right new career. Many ex-racehorses carry body tension and muscle memory from their track days -- and proper saddle fit is one of the most critical elements in helping the horse transition into proper movement for new disciplines.

LOPE is launching a public education drive to raise awareness about the role of saddle fit in good horsemanship and horse care. "We are not performance riders at LOPE," stated Lynn Reardon, LOPE’s executive director. "But our work with ex-racehorses has led us to Schleese, because of the tremendous impact their saddle fit has on equine comfort and ability to move properly. Whether you are a competitive dressage rider or weekend trail rider, Schleese saddles will help you and your horse be a happier, healthier team."

Lightening Ball, a 15-year-old Thoroughbred gelding who raced until age 9, is one of LOPE’s poster horses for this education effort. "Lightening Ball was very tight in his back muscles and seemed unable to let down and relax into proper movement. Within ten minutes of riding him in a Schleese saddle, Lightening Ball demonstrated a huge aptitude for dressage movement. No longer impeded by improper saddle fit, he immediately lifted his withers and moved his back to allow for a full, flowing trot and canter. It was very dramatic," said Reardon.

Even more surprising was the change in Lightening Ball’s demeanor. "He can be very stoic and reserved. But after working in the Schleese saddle, his personality has really come to the surface. He is noticeably happier and seems to really enjoy his lessons and work now," commented Reardon.

Reardon and Lightening Ball will be chronicling their journey as they learn dressage together in a specially fitted saddle donated by Schleese. As they take lessons at Hy Court Farm in Cedar Creek, TX, LOPE will be recording Lightening Ball’s progress and changes in movement under saddle.

"LOPE is very grateful to Schleese for giving us such a generous sponsorship. With their help, we are better able to help horses like Lightening Ball fulfill their performance potential and transition to the right new careers," said Reardon.

Just follow the LOPE blog for updates on Lightening Ball’s progress. For more information on Schleese saddles and their benefits for horse and rider, go to www.schleese.com.

LOPE Hosting SHOT Clinic

On April 9, 2011, LOPE is hosting a one-day SHOT ("Stock Horse of Texas") clinic at the Diamond F Arena in Seguin, TX.

We are especially excited about this clinic! At LOPE, we're always learning more about horsemanship so that we can help the ex-racehorses here better prepare for new careers. And we have been very impressed with SHOT’s emphasis on horsemanship in its competitions and clinics.

The core of the SHOT program is education -- for both the horse and rider. At their one-day clinics, they especially focus on creating a pleasant and low-key learning environment for all types of equestrians and all levels of horses. We think the combination of reining, pleasure, cow work and trail/obstacle is especially good for horses. Each type of activity helps the horse learn how to become more versatile, relaxed and athletic.

Laurie Shelton, the SHOT 2010 Open Champion, puts it well:

"The whole point of SHOT is about riding the horse you have, that every horse and rider can improve -- and why not put some purpose behind those improvements? It’s not about encouraging folks to go buy some show-ready horse -- instead, it’s about improving what you've got and having fun while doing it."

The clinic on April 9 will be unusually well staffed, with eight top SHOT clinicians (two per class). Judging from the sign-ups so far, there will be a fun mix of riders and horses from different disciplines (everything from dressage to cutting to pleasure riding). The venue has a wonderful trail/obstacle course, a covered arena and a concession stand. Cost of the clinic is very reasonable -- $65 for SHOT members, $90 for non-members (which includes membership in SHOT). Pre-registration is due by April 5.

We hope you will join us and come ride in the clinic. Get full details here.

Buck Brannaman Film at SXSW

Cindy Meehl spent several years filming Buck Brannaman at his clinics across the US. Her film ("Buck") was recently screened at the Sundance film festival and won the audience award there.

I just saw that the film will be shown in Austin this week for SXSW. The screenings are Tues, 3/15, 2:30 pm at the Paramount and Sat, 3/19, 5:30 pm at the State.

The film trailer looks terrific and the film has received much praise from film critics and viewers. The link between horsemanship and life philosophy is a fascinating topic to explore in a film -- and I'm looking forward to seeing the film soon.

Here's a SXSW interview with Buck and Cindy Meehl.

Michael Richardson Benefit Clinic

Michael Richardson is an exceptional horseman. I first saw him ride at a Ray Hunt clinic in Fort Worth. The event was to commemorate Ray's induction into the Western Horseman's Hall of Fame -- and the riders included people like Tom Curtin, Buck Brannaman and Pat Parelli. Michael blended easily into this group of outstanding horsemen -- the only thing different I noticed about him at first was that he rode with two sticks (almost like dressage whips).

As the event drew to a close, Ray Hunt commented on Michael's riding skill -- and then pointed out to the crowd that Michael was a paraplegic. Michael's physical challenges haven't kept him from doing what he loves to do -- work with horses (and their people, too). He is a very successful trainer, teacher and inspirational speaker. And he has always appreciated ex-racehorses and has helped many of them transition to new careers after the track.

This year, Michael found out that he had been bitten by a brown recluse spider, which has created ongoing problems for him. He has had to have multiple surgeries this fall to counteract these effects -- and as a result, has been unable to ride or train or teach as usual.

A group of clinicians is putting on a benefit in January -- it is an incredible group of horsemen, including Tom Curtin, Curt and Tammy Pate, Craig Cameron, Chris Cox, Pat and Linda Parelli, Buster McLaury, and Lee Smith. And the emcees will be Rick Lamb and Peter Campbell. The event is Sunday, January 9 at the Fort Worth Stockyards. If you would like to attend (or donate to his benefit fund), please email Tiffany Richardson (tnmrichardson at yahoo.com).

For more details, please see the Facebook event page or go to Michael's website.

Horsemanship

When I first started running the LOPE racehorse adoption ranch, I felt very unqualified for the job. Unlike most people who work with ex-racehorses, I wasn’t a professional trainer or equestrian competitor. I had only learned to ride as an adult -- and wasn’t exactly the most naturally talented at it.

I was always searching for the right horsemanship mentors and techniques, hoping to improve my skills and ease my often nervous riding style. There were so many clinicians, trainers and disciplines to choose from! I watched many DVDs, audited numerous clinics and took lessons from an array of teachers.

One day, I watched a Ray Hunt DVD. Although I couldn’t quite say why, I knew immediately that this was the type of horsemanship I wanted to learn. I could see how the horses responded to Ray -- even if I didn’t always understand what he was doing so effectively with his legs, seat and hands.

There was nothing flashy or glamorous about the DVD -- just Ray working with each horse, doing whatever it took to get a change, whatever it took to give the horse what he needed.

Since watching that DVD, I’ve slowly tried to learn more about this kind of horsemanship, to improve myself and my presentation to the horses here. I’ve made progress, but still have a long way to go. As Ray would say, "I might not know where I’m going, but I’m sure not lost."

One thing I’ve learned for certain though is that ex-racehorses will nearly always meet me half way -- as long as I keep working on myself instead of working on them.

If you’d like more information on this type of horsemanship, please visit our horsemanship DVD page. And if you’d like to learn more about my personal journey with LOPE and horsemanship, please visit the Beyond the Homestretch book site.

Ex-Racehorse Story Sharing

Jan has been a long time supporter of LOPE. He is very interested in natural horsemanship and horse psychology. Jan recently emailed me an interesting story about his mare Queenie:

"Queenie is six-year-old bay thoroughbred mare. Her racing career was very short; there is some evidence of some old leg injuries. She suffered a severe cut to her left rear foot in a trailer loading accident in 2007, and was nursed back to near-normal by a friend of a friend. Queenie was therefore essentially a three-legged horse for over a year while she convalesced. I adopted Queenie in 2008; I'm at least her fifth caregiver.

Queenie is a very smart TB and fits many of the Linda Parelli ;Horsenality' profile attributes of a Left-Brain Introvert. I've been retraining Queenie using a blend of Pat Parelli, Dennis Reis, and Clinton Anderson techniques.

I just recently adopted another horse, Sienna. Sienna is a 13-year-old bay QH mare. I'm her third caregiver. My initial impressions are that Sienna has some of the Linda Parelli Horsenality profile attributes of a Right-Brain Extrovert.

Now, here's the real reason I'm writing you. In one of Pat and Linda Parelli's DVDs, Linda comments about going out to the horses and the horses say 'Take me, take me!'

For reasons unknown to me, "Queenie" has had an indifferent attitude since I adopted her. Her attitude has been essentially, 'please feed me, but it's OK if you don't want to work with me, I'm content to hang around in my stall.'

My friend who was Queenie's caregiver before me thinks that Queenie's attitude is a result of her severe injury in 2007. Have you or your readers seen similar behavior in the TBs you've taken in who suffered severe injuries and were immobile for a long period of time?

On a positive (and very interesting) note: once Sienna arrived and settled in at our place, Queenie is now the first to say 'Take me, take me!'"

My response: We sometimes have seen horses in rehab become withdrawn emotionally. My thoughts are that this is due to the horses feeling vulnerable -- as if they want to take up as little "space" as possible (both literally and metaphysically) so as not to be noticed by predators. But the horses all did rebound quickly once they felt better and began to heal. I would guess Queenies behavior might be also due to her large number of caregivers in a short period -- she may have decided to not become attached to any one person (since her ownership changed so frequently).

First Rides at LOPE

I don't always have the opportunity to ride the horses at the LOPE Ranch -- sometimes they get adopted too fast. But usually I'm the one in the saddle during their first post-racetrack ride. Many people assume that these rides must be pretty wild and crazy, with lots of excitement for everyone (me, the horse, any spectators).

It's really not like that at all.

For example, last week I rode Pogo, a three-year-old gelding here. Pogo's last ride was in fall 2008 during his very first race. He chipped his knee during the race and came to LOPE (read about his surgery from Austin Equine Associates).

After a very successful post-surgery rehab and rest period, Pogo was ready to begin work again. As I led him into the round pen, he pouted -- clearly he had become used to the couch potato lifestyle here at LOPE. But after some ground work and free lounging, Pogo settled into the "in school" mode. He tuned into the cues, his face relaxing into a calm, attentive expression.

Even though it had been months since his last ride (as a two-year-old), I decided to mount Pogo. Actually, I decided to "try" to mount Pogo and just see how things went. I'm not a professional trainer, so I do a lot of the "let's see how this goes" approach. Pogo had this cheerful look of expectation in his eyes -- I felt like I'd be somehow letting him down if I didn't at least put my foot in the stirrup.

Once my foot was in the stirrup, it seemed like a shame not to hop up once or twice, and then maybe even lean over Pogo's back. Pogo stood quietly, his head lowering. Then it seemed downright silly to not mount him. I was already there, hanging over the saddle, petting the right side of his neck.

So I then I swung my leg over and sat in the saddle. Pogo seemed comfortable with that and so we walked around the round pen a little. He steered pretty well for a green ex-racehorse, wasn't spooky about my legs, and (best of all) he stopped when I said "whoa." Pleased with how relaxed we both were, I decided to dismount Pogo and call it a day.

Our ride was short and completely unexciting. Just the way I like a first ride to be here at the LOPE Ranch.

A Week at Tom Curtin's Winter Camp

A few weeks ago, I went to Tom Curtin's horsemanship camp in Florida. And so did Lightening Ball and Sally, two LOPE horses here (thanks to Equine Express, one of LOPE's sponsors)

I had three other camp mates: Ginny, Kriestin and Linda. We shared a comfortable bunkhouse (just like "real" camp) and spent a lot of time laughing (and eating).

It was a great adventure! Each day, we'd be up at dawn to feed the horses and get ranch chores done. By 8:30 am, we'd be in the saddle and out on a ride with Tom.

I never was sure what each day would bring. One morning, we herded cattle. Sally was pretty excited about that, but settled down quickly. Within a couple of hours, she and I were even cutting a few cows from the herd (though very slowly). Our next challenge was opening gates from horseback. I was the one that got excited about that (but Sally helped me get over it).

Another afternoon, we rode for hours out in the pastures and woods, crossing many different farms. Lightening Ball got worried during the ride, but, thanks to Tom's coaching, I eventually learned how to help Lightening Ball relax. By the end of the week, he was an old pro at trail riding -- I was so proud of him. And Lightening Ball even moved cows too (he'd stalk up to the herd, towering over the cattle at 16.1H and glare at them till they sidled away).

I've been to local clinics with Tom in Texas -- but I was amazed at how much more effective the camp setting was. It was like the difference between taking a Chinese class vs. traveling in China -- the immersion of living at Tom's ranch, surrounded by master horsemanship, taught me so much more than I expected.

I can't wait to practice what I learned on the other LOPE horses here.

Especially Wooden Phone.

Ray Hunt, 1929-2009

Ray Hunt was the best horseman I've ever known. In the early days after founding LOPE, I watched his colt starting DVDs over and over, hoping to learn more about horse training. Although I run a racehorse adoption ranch, my training credentials at that time were woefully thin. I needed a crash course and Ray's videos seemed like a good start.

Ray was a holdover from another era, when horses were valued partners in the rugged work of large-scale cattle ranching. His imposing height and sardonic humor belied his gray hair – Ray was an impressive physical presence on camera. In his clinic tapes, he barked at the riders, recited poetry, squinted off into the horizon and gentled every equine rogue, no matter how wild or crazy. Ray was supremely confident in his skills, never once showing worry or fear – he'd just laugh and say something cryptic like "You got to take the bitter with the sweet," or "It's best to stay on the edge of trouble, not in the middle of it," or "You got to adjust to fit the situation."

I was fascinated with his mix of gritty machismo and zen-like slogans. Summoning up my nerve, I put in a request for LOPE to host a clinic with Ray in 2006, and he agreed.

That clinic changed everything for me.

Ray's sharp eyes, crusty Yoda-like comments and deep respect for the horse made a profound impression on me. I turned away from horse training – and towards horsemanship.

It was a seemingly small shift – but like Ray says, "It's the little things that make a big difference." He taught me to recognize the smallest change, the slightest try in myself as well in the horses.

Because of Ray, I might not know where I'm going, but I'm sure not lost.

Thank you, Ray.

Wooden Phone

Wooden Phone is our most famous racehorse here. He won over $830,000 -- his biggest win was the $500,000 Strub Stakes in 2001. Jim and Marilyn Helzer and Tom Durant donated him to LOPE. With his incredible history, Wooden Phone is staying here -- he is a wonderful "spokeshorse" for LOPE.

But like many big-money winners, Wooden Phone can be somewhat of a diva. Before he came here, he had a reputation for being difficult -- especially with other horses. It took awhile, but we finally figured out the right group of gelding buddies for Wooden Phone. The good news is that he now easily mingles with other horses in the pasture.

The bad news is that he has become a little herd sour -- he becomes upset when separated from his friends.

So it's time to start working with Wooden Phone more. Because he hasn't been ridden much since his racing days, I decided to go slow and start with some groundwork.

A couple of days ago, I haltered Wooden Phone and led him out of his pasture. Although he nickered a few times at his buddies (who ignored him completely), he led pretty well. But when we got too far away (in his opinion), he puffed up like a big dragon and began prancing around, squealing for his best friend (Vienna Circle, who was too busy cribbing to notice).

Anyway, I ignored Wooden Phone's dragon moves -- fortunately, we were close to the round pen, so I could lead him in there. He flew around the pen, agitated, calling more loudly for Vienna (who was still cribbing).

After watching Wooden Phone canter frantically for several minutes, I climbed into the round pen with him. To my surprise, he focused on me right away. Although somewhat excited, Wooden Phone seemed to come to me for help -- which I really appreciated, since the dragon imitation had been kind of scary.

He round penned well, slowing his gait when asked, maintaining a respectful distance and halting quietly. When I invited him, he even walked into the center of the pen with me.

Impressed with the change, I haltered him and ended the session with some grooming (which he loved). He led quietly back to his pasture and stood politely when I took off his halter.

Wooden Phone is an interesting horse -- sometimes he seems to throw conflicting signals. But he is very intelligent and I am beginning to understand his diva moods better.

I'll be posting more about Wooden Phone as we continue working together -- stay tuned!

Tom Curtin Colt Starting Clinic

Recently, I attended a Colt Starting clinic taught by master horseman Tom Curtin and held at Hycourt Farm. I brought Lightening Ball (actual spelling), one of our favorite older racehorses here at the LOPE Ranch. While Lightening Ball of course already knew how to be ridden (after racing for 7 years and winning $300K), I thought the Colt Starting class would be a good experience for him.

Sometimes racehorses are started quickly under saddle, often having full-time racing careers as two-year-olds. Because of that, they can have gaps in their foundation work – for example, they might never have learned to stand still while being mounted (since jockeys don't mount from the ground).

And Colt Starting clinics are also good for older horses that might have problems with spooking or bucking or other troubled behaviors.

Tom Curtin grew up in Montana and has had a long career working with some of the most famous ranches in the US (King Ranch, The Four Sixes, Johnson Ranch and 7D Ranch). He counts such horsemanship legends as Buster Welch and Ray and Carolyn Hunt as his mentors.

Tom is adamant about getting along with the horse instead of punishing the animal for doing wrong. He states simply that if you have a job for your horses to do, you have to cooperate and if you fight against your horse it will eventually sell out on you. "When I work with a horse, I want my ideas to seem like good ones to the horse." he says "I approach him in a manner that makes sense to him. I don't go against his instinct. I work with him and not against him and I try to fix it so that my ideas are his ideas." This communication between horse and human is a key point for Tom and is easily seen in all he does with his horses. Tom explains, "My main goal is to have my horse want to help me, to want to be around me."

Lightening Ball is a terrific horse, but he occasionally gets nervous in new situations, sometimes tensing up and spooking slightly in place. And while he and I always had good rides together at the farm, I worried how he might react to new places and situations. He and I had fallen into a bit of a rut, always riding the same pastures, never really stretching ourselves.

So I decided the clinic would be a good "growth experience" for both Lightening Ball and me. And I was right: I learned how to be a better, more confident leader for Lightening Ball – so I could help him through scary situations like walking toward Tom and his flapping training flag.

Lightening Ball was not happy about that flag at first. And I was pretty wary myself, as he started to back up rapidly, trying to escape that dangerous, horse-eating flag. But with Tom’s help, Lightening Ball and I both steadily worked through our nerves – until finally, Lightening Ball successfully (and voluntarily) walked up to the flag and touched his forehead to its flapping fabric.

Lightening Ball and I had many training breakthroughs (and a lot of fun) at Tom's clinic – it was a wonderful learning experience for both of us, thanks to Tom Curtin and the great people at Hycourt Farm!