First the not so good news.  Mick’s owner changed stables and took Mick with her, so I am no longer riding Mick.

This week I started riding Debbie’s horse Tercel, a dark bay or brown Arab gelding, I think he is in his low teens.  Debbie got this horse a few months after I started riding Mia (around seven years ago), and I’ve been wanting to ride him ever since.  Debbie got him to be HER horse, she had trained him to saddle but his breeder/owner was not mentally prepared for his reactive nature, and when his owner took him back to her farm the situation deteriorated.  However Debbie suffers from the problem that plagues most managers of big stables, 38 horses, an active lesson program, running shows, and just taking care of the horses takes up every single minute of her day.  She just does not have much time to ride.

So she leased him to a dressage rider, a competent horsewoman who had owned and ridden a chestnut American Saddlebred mare for a few decades, and had turned from Saddleseat to dressage.  This lady tried, she leased him for around a year but she could not adjust herself to Tercel’s reactive nature.  Debbie tried him in some lessons and he was less than ideal.  So here is Debbie, too busy to ride, here is a drop-dead gorgeous horse with a reactive nature, both gazing at each other over the distance with a deep longing to be together.  The few times Debbie got to ride him she found out that NONE of her saddles really fit Tercel.  In previous posts I described trying my EZ-Fit treeless saddle on Tercel (did not suit Debbie), then my dressage saddle which Debbie LOVED but Tercel decided did not fit properly after three rides, no matter what we did to make him more comfortable.

So when Mick left the stable there was the question of who I would take my lessons on.  Of course there is always Mia, the around 30 year old Arab mare of hers that I ride for my “homework” ride, but the problem is that Mia is not only 30 years old, she has arthritis and there are limitations to how much work she can do on any particular day.  I decided that I had waited long enough to ride Tercel, I knew (and Debbie agreed) that of all the saddles we tried Tercel moved best with my EZ-Fit treeless saddle, so I said I wanted to ride Tercel in my lessons and I was perfectly fine with bringing my EZ-Fit saddle to use with him.  Debbie agreed!  She told me she had no worries that I would do Tercel any harm, and that with him being “aged” he had settled down some though he is still reactive.

When I got to the stable on Friday for my lesson my son Joe was with me.  Debbie was glued to her phone trying to finalize some rewards for her program so Joe asked Debbie’s daughter Sam if he could get Tercel so we could start grooming him.  Well, it turns out the Tercel does not like men so a woman had to catch him.  Dawn, who cleans stalls, went out and caught Tercel for us and tied him up in the aisle next to a round bale, the one place that Tercel is happy in the barn (he is scared of the wash stalls, that is where he gets to see the blacksmith and vet.)  I looked at Tercel, decided it was time for him to get used to my son, got out my toothed plastic curry comb and told Joe to just start by combing Tercel’s mane out.  You see, my son Joe has a great advantage over most men, Joe grew up with Arabs, both mares and stallions.  Joe is 6’2”, 250 pounds, quite confident with leading and grooming Arabs, and is not scared of them at all when they start acting up.  All it took was a man with CONFIDENCE just gently grooming him for Tercel to calm down around a man.  Dawn, the lady who caught Tercel for us, told us that Tercel was quite sensitive around his ears, his previous owner had messed him up.  So I started grooming the mud off of Tercel’s head (avoiding his ears) while Joe moved to currying him.  Debbie finally got off the phone, came on down and started grooming Tercel too.  He took it really well, two women and one man messing with him all at once.  Tercel has been suffering from fungus in his coat so I got my slicker brush off and started going over his back.  Horses often don’t enjoy the slicker brush at first, but after the first minute or so Tercel decided it would not kill him.  When it came time to tack up I brought out my BOT poll cap and asked Debbie to put it on him, well Tercel played giraffe but she got it on and he calmed down after he realized that it felt good.  Debbie then saddled him with my EZ-Fit saddle, put on the Spirit Bridle bitless she uses with him (also mine--lent out to Debbie for a loooong time) and we went out to the ring.

Tercel was sort of watchful but he behaved when I mounted, and Debbie started our ride by walking beside Tercel until she could see that he and I were getting along.  Tercel strode forth freely and I started guiding him away from Debbie.  He was not sure at first about leaving the one person who understood him, that was fine, it was up to me to convince Tercel that I am just as trustworthy as Debbie is.  Riding Tercel at the walk was delightful, his back was nice and relaxed, freely “swinging”, and after a short while he, completely of his own accord, reached out and took up contact with my hands.  Debbie is a GOOD trainer, I did not have to teach Tercel much at all.  He was perfectly obedient to my leg aids and I could easily turn him without using my reins.  I plan on walking most of the time until Tercel decides that I am worthy of him.  He is out of shape, it will HELP him to be ridden just at a walk for a while. 

Debbie is a good teacher too, she knows when to let her pupils fly free.  I told her I was going to deal with Tercel’s reactivity like I did with Mia’s super reactivity and Debbie said fine, so each time something caught Tercel’s attention I stopped him and counted to ten  out loud, giving him some time to process what he noticed, and then he moved on peacefully when I told him to walk.  As my lesson went on these stops became less necessary and Tercel had no meltdowns.  He continued to reach out on his own to establish contact and it was such a NICE contact, though he was carrying his head low he did not lean on the reins at any time.  The first time I tried a turn on the hindquarters he did quite well, much better than I had anticipated!  His other turns in place were not as good but he was cooperating, trying to figure out exactly what I meant with my aids.  The first time he obeyed one of my aids I praised him lavishly, often adding a good scratch under his mane.

Debbie wants Tercel to learn to properly accept the bit, right now he is not comfortable with one in his mouth.  I asked Debbie if I could have complete control over re-introducing him to the bit and she agreed.  I want to ride Tercel at least three times before trying a bit in his mouth, just to make sure he understands the language of my hand aids.  Then I can start going through my extensive bit collection, try each one in turn and see how he reacts to them (I will probably start with the Wellep bit.)  Debbie thinks I have better hands than she does, and I have the added advantage that I have no worries about looking a fool to an outsider since I always look like a fool.  I will do whatever is necessary to induce the horse to gently reach out for the bit, carry it happily while on contact, and promptly obey the twitching of my little fingers.  I DO NOT CARE where the horse decides to carry his head, though I greatly prefer that his muzzle is at least as high as his knees.  I suspect that Tercel learned to dislike bits because people (not Debbie) were demanding what they considered “proper” head carriage long before Tercel had developed the proper musculature necessary for a horse to comfortably maintain this “proper” head carriage.  Sort of like a person in their first ballet lesson being told to go “on pointe”  right away with no physical conditioning, very uncomfortable, it becomes painful in a short while, and leads to physical injury.  Horses often end up HATING bits because, to the horse, the bit has proven to be an instrument of torture.  I do not torture horses with the bit.

Debbie was really pleased with my ride, she liked how Tercel lost his habitual look of anxiety, she really liked that Tercel did not have any melt downs, and she liked seeing him move while he was relaxed with his rider.  She even gave me a hug for riding him so well!

Some Arabs can be safe for anyone to take lessons on, when I started my lessons Debbie had two pure Arab geldings she used for the most scared beginners.  Other Arabs are more sensitive and reactive and these horses really get pissed off when their riders tighten up, harden their fists and drive their heels into their bellies, these horses are not suitable for beginners.  These are the Arabs I get to work with at Debbie’s stable.  Even though I am weak, unsteady, unbalanced and uncoordinated I do not have problems with these horses because I don’t panic, if the horse starts slinging its head I loosen the reins immediately and totally.  I am in a ring, if the horse “runs away” he is going in a circle and I have PLENTY OF TIME to gently re-establish control.  If stuff gets worse I can always send the horse into the center of the ring where they are perfectly happy to stop right next to Debbie.  Because of this I get to ride these utterly marvelous animals, they calm down under my handling, and they become much safer for other, less knowledgeable people, to ride.

Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Have a great ride!

Jackie Cochran