When I heard Jack LeGoff say for the umpteenth time, “Training horses is like religion … you have to BELIEVE! I must admit that I may have rolled my eyes at the time. Cut me some slack – I was just a kid! Twenty years later, I truly get it.

I also remember Jack telling me that YEARS after training with him, former students would often stop to tell him, ’I was working with a horse the other day and I finally GOT it! I suddenly understood that lesson’. That makes me feel a little less thick, because most of his old students were U.S. team members!

Which leads me to an epiphany I had just the other day. Actually, the word ‘epiphany’ implies suddenness, which was not the case, but the end result is the same: I am now a true believer!

The horse that lead to my recent zealousness is a 4 year old gelding called Kronos. A tall, raw boned Friesian/Dutch Warmblood cross with the look about him of the average gangly, dumbstruck 2 year old … with a history. He came to me having recently hospitalized a fellow Northern Ontario horse trainer. Since the injury involved a concussion, no one knew exactly what happened.

Figuring this horse out over the next couple of months was puzzling. None of what I was told about his history seemed to match what I was dealing with. He had an owner who seemed loving and doting, who had spent years doing ground work with him. He had been under tack without incident for almost a year and a half before there was any sign of trouble and yet he presented as wide eyed and wary, trusted no one and would bolt blindly a moment after spooking or when confused.

He managed to get loose on the lunge line, so I long lined him. He would get loose from me on the long lines, so I worked him in our 15m X 20m barn yard on the long lines. He still got away from me! When something triggered him there was no stopping him. Now, keep in mind I am 6’1″, fit, strong and have a decent sense of timing – this horse was serious about exiting stage left when he had one of his ‘moments’!

After bolting around at mach nine he would invariably end up in the corner of my ring, at a gate, or at a fence, and as I quietly approached he would tremble, panic and try to go through whatever was in front of him. I would resume where we had left off, without making a fuss, and end up in the same situation moments later … day after day! What would you assume? Something didn’t measure up.

One day, soaking with sweat, out of breath and with a torn groin muscle, I was contemplating this horse’s dismal future when my friend and fellow horseman Bob McGurrin stepped in and took the reins. He took a keen interest in figuring this fellow out.

We worked together to do in hand work, work on the ground, work on the long lines. We took turns. We doubled up. We were both dragged at the same time. He got away with BOTH of us on the ends of the reins … but much less frequently! We discovered a system and the first time that we managed to still be holding a line at the end of one of his inexplicable bolting sessions, our hope was renewed.

The transition to under tack work yielded a few similarly hair raising results. One moment he would be fine, then a seemingly random and innocuous movement on my behalf would leave us standing by the in-gate, trembling, vague memories flashing through our heads of fences being dodged nanoseconds before impact and adrenaline coursing through our veins.

He is now my second favourite horse in the barn to ride. OK, so there ARE only three and one is a pony … but the point is, he has become a loving, trusting joy to ride! My faith was sorely tested, but I held onto a few things along the way.

Through it all, I trusted my mentors in classical horse training. They had told me that short cuts never paid off in the long run, that every horse, given time, would respond to clear, classical horsemanship and that ,as I mentioned earlier, I had to believe!

Believe me – I WANTED a short cut! I am not a religious person, so believing for the sake of believing is not an option for me; I put no stock in blind faith. At 42 years old and having taken lessons from the age of 5, I have had all kinds of advice and input from some of the world’s most successful horse-people. Not all of it jived, either! So, how did I choose what to cling to?

That brings me to another familiar quote: the proof is in the pudding. SO those whose methods worked with all shapes, types and temperaments of horses, whose methods resulted in calm, happy horses and a clear conscience at the end of the day, won. And I would have to say that our boy ‘Kronos’ won too, in the end. Thank you, mentors!

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Comment by Paige Lockton-Wilde on December 7, 2012 at 11:31am

Good luck Jackie!

Comment by Jackie Cochran on December 6, 2012 at 5:31pm

You have given me hope Paige, hope that three of the four horses I ride regularly will eventually come through. 

At least none of them are as bad as Kronos was! 

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