My new boarder is laying-up her six-year-old Thoroughbred until we find out what is causing his issues.  Now you know that none of us can go very long without a rideable horse so she’s horse shopping.  She bought her current horse off the track three years ago and has been trying to fix him ever since.  This is her baby and she loves him dearly.  She’s brought him along in his training since the beginning.  He’s her dream horse, but…..  So now her quest was to by-pass all the years of training and just go for a “ready to go” show horse.

She’s tried a young green mare that she is falling in love with.  But that’s not what she wanted.  She didn’t want to start from scratch again.  She’s ready to hit the big time, but the horse isn’t.  What should she do?

Okay, the Libra in me goes to the scales.  Weighing the positive reasons against the negative reasons.

So I told her my story.  I was there at one time.  My black mare was done.  Her stifles were shot.  It was time for her to surrender her position, retire, and live out her life as a lawn ornament. I was a Whipper-In and needed a finished horse to take her place.  All our horses were getting long in the tooth, and their bodies were starting to show the signs of too many years of hard hunting.  Other than my black mare and a dark bay gelding, I had always raised my horses from babies.  Both those horses were fabulous hunt horses, but they came with issues.  The gelding was a barrel horse who wouldn’t go through gates for three years without rearing.  The mare just used to dump people when she was done and go home.  She was an Alfa mare to the end.

When you raise a baby and start their training from the beginning you have a horse that knows you and what you are asking.  They are agreeable and will give you the moon and the stair to please you.  There has been no abuse, or holes in their training.  Your hand print is all over them and they are what you have always dreamed of.  Well most of the time.

So I spoke with this young woman about the pros and cons of buying a green horse as opposed to a finished horse, thus my title Made or Home Made.  Yes you can ride off into a show ring in higher divisions immediately.  But let’s think about the sense of accomplishment you have with your old horse.  He is a product of your time and love.

Before I replaced my black mare I was borrowing horses to hunt.  I couldn’t believe all the people who loaned me horses.  Whipping is hard on a horse, but the owners wanted their horses to experience the schooling that went along with the job.  However, I realized that I didn’t want someone elses mistakes.  I needed a horse that was ready to go, but ready to go with the schooling I was used to.

The bottom line of my story is that I bought another baby and trained her the way I wanted.  I kept Magic on her feet for four more years.  What this woman’s decision will be, I have no idea.

It’s a matter of preference, time, and money.  What matters most to you.  All I could tell her is that if you have peace in your heart about your decision, it’s the right one.  Time will tell.

Down here we are in full-blown Spring, but my friends up north are getting hit again.  It’s not bad enough that they have had four nor-easterns, but now some of them are getting hit with something called Wilbur.

My first husband used to wake me on April Fools Day with “it snowed last night,” which would make me leap out of bed in a panic.  This year it wouldn’t have been a joke.

We on the other hand need rain desperately.  There are 1100 wild fires burning right now in the state of Florida.  Not by us, but this morning on the news they were telling people how to protect their homes.  We have two deep wells, and golf course type sprinklers all around the property, so we’re in pretty good shape if one should come our way.  But look at all the poor people who lost their homes in California.  Weather is just kind of crazy.

With all that said, what do horse people do when winter won’t quit?  Beside slit their wrists.  My suggestion is learn.  There are so many different ways to learn about different disciplines now-a-days.  You can watch top trainers on TV, get videos, go on-line, and of course the “old-fashioned” way of reading books.  No matter how much you think you may know, there is always something new to be learned.  You may have read something a million times, but when you do it one more time, you may find a nugget of something that didn’t register the times before.

If you think you’ve heard it all, go to a different discipline, and see what comes up.  You may see the same old thing described or taught in a different way.  The light bulb moment may appear.  I love those a ha! moments.  I learned a lot of good training tips through other disciplines.

There is just so much out there, and it appears, so much bad weather left.  It will serve you well to explore different ideas.

Now you must prepare for the next season of “mud.”  You know the shoe pulling, boot sucking off mud.  But be encouraged, the days of heat and bugs will jump out at you real quick.  I don’t think there will be a spring folks, you’re going from snow right into summer.  Kind of like Florida without the snow.  Below freezing at night and boom! sunny and 80 the next day.  Makes you crazy.

Sorry, I don’t control the weather, and the meteorologists just don’t seem to get it right either, at least down here they don’t.

Have faith, it can only get better.  Soon.  Real soon.  I promise, I just don’t know exactly when.

I’m sure you’ve all seen that sticker on someones car.  I think every child has gotten one of them for their self-esteem if not for their performance.

Why don’t we have them for our horses?   We’ve all had that special horse who has accomplished something extraordinary in their lives.  They may not be on the Olympic Team, but they’ve gone above and beyond anything we could have ever imagined.

As instructors there have been students who have amazed us.  I have two.  One is a young lady and one is a horse.  So I want to put my sticker on my post to recognize the wondrous things they have done.

My girl Hannah F.  (see my Pictures) –  She came to me younger than my other students, but with the enthusiasm that I love.  It did not come easy to her, but she had a good sense of humor and tried.  Needed to believe in herself more.  Progressed slowly, but she enjoyed every minute of it, and wasn’t looking to break any world records, just ride and play with the horses.  She’s the one that used to slide down Dawns neck.  The family moved to Tallahassee four years ago so I tried to get her in with a good instructor up there.  She is now winning Championships all over North Florida and Georgia.  They bought a young, green, warmblood, who she fell in love with.  The instructor didn’t think it would work, but they became a team that won’t quit.  She has gotten her confidence and rides beyond anything I could have imagined for her.  I am truly proud of her and her accomplishments.  She goes off to college next year and I would love to see her continue her winning streak.

The Horse that I am proud of is Tigger (the TB that just left).  He has not reached his goal yet, but non-the-less is on the road to be a horse, that came from my barn and instruction, that I am extremely proud of.  If you remember he was a rescue horse.  His owner had physical limitations and that’s why she decided to sell him.  During the six months he was here, I had her work on ground training, suppleness, and moving off her leg.  It was all slow but necessary for whatever he was to do in his life.  It gave her something quiet to work on and good for his brain.  He always had a good brain.  He would stand by the pond and watch my neighbor set off beautiful fireworks.  He was curious but not afraid.  It did not matter that the hounds were playing under his belly or that the Jack Russell would help him eat his breakfast.  Well the good new is, that because of his brain and schooling, he is going to be “Officer Tigger” over in the Palm Beach area, where he will finish his training.

My other girls are going on to be successful in their chosen profession. Diana, Hannah C., and Lexy are already in college for several years now, with Hannah F. and Emily C. entering this fall.  Beautiful, intellagent young horsewomen, who I couldn’t be more proud of if they were my own.

What they learned here, with regards to caring for Gods creation in love, will make them citizens to be admired.  I think I would have so many bumper stickers on my car you wouldn’t find my license plate.

Wouldn’t you like a bumper sticker too for one of yours?

I was looking through a magazine and there was a Tee Shirt that said “She Believed She Could, So She Did.”

Believe has been my word for the last year.  A year ago when Fri tore her tendon, the vet said she was done.  I told her no she wasn’t, that I believed she would be okay.  I will never jump her again, but I’m okay with that.  That leg is fine now, but she hurt her good leg protecting her bad one, so now I’m waiting on that leg.  Certainly not as serious a problem.

We believe a lot of things, some that are not true.  We have to be careful as to who and what we will believe.

The first horse I fell in love with, was a prime example.  The first year when I was taking lessons there was this big black mare named Black Diamond.  It was love at first sight.  I spoke to my instructor about riding her and I was told she was not a beginners horse.  So I patiently took my lessons dreaming that someday I would ride this mare.  Six months later my dream had come through.  Looking back I don’t remember her being that hard to ride.  She was a doll.  I rode that horse every chance I got.  Riding her in a show and getting first place sealed the deal, I was in love.  But then it came time for me to start jumping and I was told she didn’t jump, that I had to ride other horses.  So I did, but still every chance I got, I rode Diamond.  I had ridden her up to the stone wall many times dreaming that I would be going over that wall with Diamond.  I believed she would do it for me.  Back then I didn’t ask why she couldn’t jump, I just listened to what the owner said.

I don’t know if I read it in a book, or my instructor told me, but I never forgot “Throw your heart over first, and you can jump anything.”  So one day when we were all running around having a great time, everyone was heading toward the wall.  I was caught up in the moment and when they all jumped the wall, so did Diamond and I.  I was in heaven.  Of course upon landing, I thought about what I had just done.  Someone turned around and asked if I had jumped it and of course I said yes.  When I told my instructor about it she was a little upset.  She couldn’t believe it, but she said we both could have gotten hurt.  But we didn’t, I Believed, I threw my heart over first.

Many times through the years I have done things because I believed we could.  Ravines played into a lot of the things that I did.  I look back now and think that somethings that I believed in bordered on insanity.  Walking across a ravine on two planks that was about a foot wide total, several times, that wasn’t too bright, but I had to get to the other side to stop hounds and that was the fastest way to get there.  Riding through a ditch, that the sides and the tree that was down over it, was up to my horse’s neck, but we jumped it, several times to lead another horse (who had more smarts) over it.

It’s like the movie Spirit.  Spirit believed he could fly and that he could jump the canyon, and he did.  The Indian boy was not so sure, but either way they were going to die so he took the chance.  Of course that was just a movie, not real life.

When you believe you lose the fear.  Is that a good thing?  I’m not sure, but it sure felt awesome.

Everyday when I go out to the barn I tell Zoey we are going to ride tomorrow.  We haven’t yet, but I “Believe” we will.  I also believe I will get caught-up on all the other things that I need to do, so I can ride.  It’s getting to the point that I’m just going to ride, the other stuff has to wait.  I’m no good to anyone when I don’t ride.

I believe others have had similar experiences, in which they believed they could do something that no one else believed they could do.  The love, trust connection between horse and rider can help us do amazing things.  If it’s not there you have nothing.

Do you believe?  Does your horse trust you that much?  Don’t try it if the magic isn’t there.  Oops translates into a ride to the hospital.

If there is an art, I haven’t found it yet.

A dear friend has been having “episodes,” as the doctors refer to it.  He seems to become unconscious. His blood pressure drops too low, and has a few other symptoms which I won’t go into.  When he comes out of it, everything is normal.  The funny thing is it always happens around lunch time.  They thought of low blood sugar, but no it wasn’t anything to do with that.  They considered the time since he took his morning meds.  No, that wasn’t it.  He has been going through months of tests, at many different hospitals, but as to finding out what is causing this, they have no idea.

What happened to the old days where doctors knew their patients.  They knew their families, their lives, their individual problems, what they ate, where they worked, and what they did for fun.  Now the doctors depend on machines to tell them what is going on in a person’s body.  They don’t even ask the patient or the families questions to try to figure out what is the cause.  If the various tests don’t show anything, they don’t have a clue.

We, with horses, know that watching them is our best indication.  They can’t tell us, so we become “Super Sleuth”.  A friend from church, not a horse person, asked how we know what is wrong?  I told him, they tell us if we listen.  Body language, the typical – temperature, gum color, heart rate, respiration, swelling, pain, are our techniques.  Of course we do resort to x-rays, and ultrasounds too, but initially it’s our eyes, ears, nose (thrush, infection), and observation.

We’ve become so technological that we have lost common sense.  Could it be the 80 pills this man is on.  One pill counter-acting another pill that is correcting something caused by another pill?  At least we don’t do that to our horses.

Evaluating takes time and patience.  That is something our medical associates don’t have anymore.  You more or less become a number, not person.  You have to fit within the list of symptoms, or the doctors are lost.  You have only this much time allotted for them to figure it out, or they throw you out of the hospital and move on to the next case.

We are so blessed that we do not treat our horses like that.  Although sometimes I am not sure.

We evaluate what the horse needs in the way of nourishment, in the way his feet are shod or trimmed, in the fitting of his tack, and what tack is necessary and what tack is overkill.

When purchasing a horse we evaluate if this is the right horse for a person or the right person for the horse, his conformation, his attitude, and his athletic ability for the particular job we have in mind.

As teachers and trainers we evaluate what techniques will work best for our current problem or need.  This should not be a rushed decision, a lot hangs on your approach and conclusion.  With a quick thought you may make or break a horse.  You may cause success or injury to a rider.  It is so important to take all things into consideration before making a move.  It doesn’t always come down to an oops let’s try again.  Sometimes in life there are no “do overs.”

When evaluating anything important, take your time, look at all the facts and consequences of your upcoming actions.  Gain all the wisdom on the subject that you can, and go from there.

Let’s keep the art of evaluation alive, at least where we can.