My Foxy- A New Beginning

After I lost Ricky, I decided I needed a new horse right away, before I had too much time to think about it. I needed to get back up in the saddle as soon as possible.

We looked at several horses the next couple of weeks. I had just looked at this little sorrel mare a friend of ours had for sale. At first sight, I thought she was way too short and I really didn’t want another sorrel, but even through her heavy winter coat, I could tell she was built right. I wasn’t sure about her and so decided to continue looking.

That night I had a dream that I was riding my Ricky. I was team penning, like we always did, and suddenly he was so amazing! He was hooked on the cow better than ever before! My attention went to the ears that were pinned on the cow we were cutting, and instead of Ricky’s dark chestnut ears, I saw little sorrel ears! It was that sorrel mare we had looked at the day before! Okay, I had to buy her..

Yeah, maybe that is a crazy way to decide on my next mount, but it all worked out… eventually.

My friend who sold me Foxy told me that “She never offered to buck.” I don’t know if she ever did offer to buck with him, (being 250#’s and her being about 700#’s) but she went straight up the first time I ever got on her! That was not all,.. She was terrible with her hind end. Anyone who came in striking distance, she would cow kick! She didn’t do any of this, before, when I went to look at her.

Well I have dealt with horses that bucked before, just not ones that were that good at it! This is the point that I really got good at my ground work. Every time I felt her tense up and seen those ears get all pinned back, I would jump off and work her from the ground. I had to get her to flex and disengage, move forward, backwards, and around me until she relaxed. Then I would hop on and try it again. This is the way it went for several months and again every time I had been off her for a while, even still.

Now with the kicking issue, it resolved it’s self. She had gotten an abscess shortly after I brought her home. For some reason she let me soak her foot and doctor her twice daily without any fuss. It took a while for her to trust anyone else to be around her hind end, but she never did it to me again. I think she knew I was helping her. There is no other explanation for it.

Since then Foxy and I have become a great partnership. She has blown me away with her ability to cut a cow out of a herd efficiently. Yes it ended up just like my dream in the end. She is sure footed and confident on the trail, and my daughter won second place in Western Pleasure on her. Now we are working on competing in barrels and poles, and she is doing great! I will let you know in future postings how that goes, and what we learn from it.
Reining (Western Horseman Books)

The trail of Learning

I feel like I have been following a trail of breadcrumbs left by those who have traveled this trail before me, searching for the secrets of the most magnificent animal of all. Piece by piece, [What I mean to say.. Is in the midst of the forest of life, having children, getting married, getting divorced, going through difficult relationships in between, then finally getting married again, only to discover the challenges of a mixed family, in the meantime trying to learn the language of an entirely different species as my means of gaining self fulfillment.] I am collecting crumbs of knowledge, from horses and horse people alike.

I would find these crumbs, sometimes, in the most unexpected places. If I set out to find a specific crumb, I would often find several completely different crumbs along the way. This could be both exciting and frustrating. On the one hand I would have gained more knowledge that would help me with other training issues, on the other hand I would be no closer to finding what I was initially looking for. It is important, however, to be open to these other trinkets of information. You never know when you are going to need them. For instance, I had been working on getting my mare Foxy, to bend first laterally, then vertically. We were trotting in a circle as I was pressing my heel into her barrel while lightly tipping her nose inside the circle and massaging the rein until she softened and gave the bend I was looking for. While doing this, I noticed when she softened she would become more collected, and as I allowed her to straighten and move forward not only did she keep her collected frame, she continued at a slower pace. This was important at the time, because she was the type of horse to get over exited and somewhat out of control in new places. Now I have that little bit of knowledge, to help her to calm down and become collected in new environments.

This has made a huge difference in her performance and our relationship. Had I not noticed this product of the flexing lesson, I would have kept on thinking her being “high” was merely a nervous issue, instead of a softness issue. Wow! What a revelation! I feel kind of fatuous now when I think of all the horses I could have helped with this little crumb. It’s like a big puzzle. When we are looking for a specific piece, sometimes we find another, but know exactly where it fits into the picture. [Life can be just this way.. Or .. We have to wait a long time before we figure out where the puzzle piece fits!]

Always In Search of Horsemanship