So I’ve been working at the stable for a few days now. I’m getting to know the routine, the horses on sight (still working on it…), and some of the other things that go on around the place.
I was helping the other two girls who were there, Becca, who works at the stable, and Morgan, who is Deb’s daughter. Did I mention Deb’s name last post? She’s the one who owns the farm. Either way, we were taking out horses to the front pen. I took a smaller mare named Serra and on the way we passed by a field that already had a horse in it, a gelding named Ray. He was being happy to be out of his stall, running around.
And I am embarrassed to say that I lost my leader check and Serra decided to walk all over me. Not literally, but just in that she knew she could misbehave and went ahead and did so. That’s when Deb ran up and disciplined Serra and took her to the field.
I went back to the barn, what little of my ego that existed completely smashed as if Serra had trampled it. I had convinced myself that I knew something about horses at all, and now I knew I was sorely mistaken. I could only assume, at this point, that Deb would come to tell me that I just wasn’t working out, I didn’t know enough, and I should just leave.
Instead she was practically smiling when I saw her next, and while she said she was not happy with what had happened, she was happy that it had very clearly shown her where I needed to start with my lessons.
So I met when her and Morgan and she told me some truths about the horse industry that were quite sombering, but were things I did need to hear. One of which was that since I had not been riding and competing since I was young, it would be extremely hard for me to make it in the business. The 17 year old Morgan was already a world class champion and even she wouldn’t be guaranteed anything.
Deb then said I would be working on horsemanship on the ground. This did not surprise me, and while I guess I was mildly disappointed, I was excited about learning anything new. (Maybe I was also glad that they didn’t think I was beyond help.)
So for the actual first lesson, after which this post is named…
Morgan took me to their indoor ring with her horse Money. She told me a snug fitting halter is best, and showed me the shank which is threaded beneath the horse’s chin and up the side of the halter to the ring beside his cheek on his right side. (Forgive me for any ignorance of terminology.)
She then had me sit and went through her “paces”. Walking, trotting, stopping, squaring (boxing?), and the thing where the horse turns while keeping his back legs in place. I just can’t for the life of me remember what she said that was called.
I was then brought up and she showed me to stand with my shoulder at the middle of Money’s neck on his left side. The right hand holds the shank just at the edge of the stitching and the left hand holds the looped extra with the line facing forward. (I feel I have described this poorly.) Stand tall, look forward (not at the horse), feet together, chin up, elbows at my side, arms parallel and right hand just next to his jaw. (Not too close, but just at that position.)
Morgan explained that to start walking, I was to move my hands forward slightly and then step back into them, such that was now walking with the same positioning I had been in while standing. Since Money is a very well trained horse, he stepped out right after me. I did have to shorten my stride a bit. No reason to hurry, and because Morgan’s much shorter than I, Money is used to a smaller stride.
To stop I was to use a count of three then lean back slightly and come to a halt. This was much harder. I kept stopping too abruptly and so Money would move slightly past me before being able to stop. It was really rather amazing when I did get it right though and he just stopped right next to me. Of course that’s what he’s supposed to do, but it seemed amazing just the same.
It did help when Morgan mentioned that I can take smaller steps when I get started and slow down a little when I’m getting ready to stop. Not sure if this is just for learning, or if it just means that one does not have to move at a perfectly constant speed.
After I had practiced starting and stopping for a while, she taught me about squaring the horse. I do the stop as normal, then turn so my toes are (still together) facing toward the horse’s left shoulder. Then the goal is to get the horse’s hooves lined up with each other.
I was told the way to do this is to line up my right hand as if there was a string connected to the leg I wanted to move, and then move my hand back. I had more trouble with this one. I would move my hand and he always seemed to want to move his front legs, and when I tried to lower my hands to have him move his back legs I always seemed to drop my hand too far such that he couldn’t see them anymore and thus did not respond. Plus sometimes it seemed impossible to get a line to the leg I wanted without having to pull on his head, so maybe I need to stand closer to his head to lessen the angle? I’ll have to ask. This is certainly going to take some practice.
But at the end, I was left with a sense of accomplishment and a desire to practice and learn more. This is a part of working with horses that I just didn’t know existed.
In all truthfulness, I don’t think I have the dedication to ever try to own my own place or try to be a world champion in showing. However, as of right now, I am still interested in learning horsemanship, work my way up to riding and try some dressage, (or reining, not sure which I’ll end up doing) and go to some shows.
Maybe once I’ve had a taste of that I’ll be able to better decide if I want to keep competing, or maybe just continue riding for pleasure. I would like to think I’d always be able to get some sort of job mucking out stalls and trading them for lessons. There’s no shame in keeping horses as a hobby.
