Cold Open

Meet Titanico (aka Ty)

Sometimes horse training feels like an endless game of snakes and ladders, only it’s a special edition where there are lots of snakes, but no ladders. You roll the dice and slowly progress up the board, but no matter how far you get, you’re always sent back to the beginning. Often these setbacks are just pauses to fill in gaps in the training that appear as horses progress. Then there are the more challenging setbacks- the long snakes, if you will: injuries, traumatic experiences, illness, and the ever dreaded “real life”. My 2019 Makeover hopeful, Titanico (Ty), seems to have had a long run of snakes recently. Between abscesses, visits to my family over Christmas, a bruised muscle from a kick, and our move down to South Carolina, we’ve managed to regress to the point where I think he was probably further ahead at the start of December than he is now. So, with less than 8 months to go before the makeover, where do we go from here?

The other day I was sat having a chat with a friend of mine whom I hadn’t seen in a while, and in between conversations about Richard Picken, reining horses, and rehabbing injuries, we chatted about our newest thoroughbreds. He’s one of those fabulous people who combines an extensive eventing resume with an equally strong understanding of natural horsemanship, and can meld the two perfectly. Generally speaking, I find a lot of “natural” horsemanship is just good, basic horsemanship with an extra name in front of it, but there are a few people I know who seem to have a special gift for assessing a situation from a horse’s perspective, and picking out things the rest of us miss.  So as we discussed the various strengths & weaknesses of these young horses and the challenges they faced, a few things stood out to me. There are lots of different methods of horse training, but the one thing I’ve found to be consistent across all successful trainers’ programs is cognizance. They’re aware of how every one of their actions impacts their horses, both physically and mentally, and they use this to their advantage. Every time you apply pressure, release pressure, fail to apply pressure, or fail to release pressure, you’re training your horse; where you choose to rest your horse, when you choose to rest your horse, and how you choose to rest your horse all play an important role; and the downward transition you ride at the end of your show jumping round is just as important as the one you do in your dressage test. Good riders realize this and use it to their advantage, while the rest of us are simply left to deal with the consequences of our actions.

So where does that leave me? Well, I’m going to continue going back to basics with Ty. He’ll continue lunging, hacking, and doing w/t cavaletti work until I’ve got a more relaxed, less herdbound horse who listens to my leg 100% of the time rather than just when it’s telling him to turn towards home. But even though we won’t be doing anything exciting, I’ll be doing my best to be aware of all of my actions, and to make conscious choices so that I can maximize every transition, walk circle, and trot pole we do.

P.s. I promise I'll introduce myself properly next time!