Some Days Are Just Full

Where do I start? Well at the beginning I guess. My friend Krista is a barrel racer. 9 years ago she got a horse, and when it was three, she had a cowboy start him. The cowboy probably rode him 10 times, and then sent him home. Anyway, after that, she rode this horse a few times. Enough times for him to buck her off, run off with her, and do the same to a few other people. He is a big, tough, hard headed paint gelding.

Anyway, Krista hurt her back. She couldn't ride for almost 6 years, and the paint sat in the pasture and nobody did anything with him. Then she got back surgery and can ride again. She brought painto and her other horse over for me to ride for a few weeks, as a favor to a friend, to leg up so she could get back on. Well the other horse was no problem. Broke, already a winning barrel horse, no attitude, etc. Painto was tough. He tested my limits on how tough I am willing to be to get points across to a horse. I got him rode about 10 times and then had her ride him, after I got him tired.

It was determined that Krista should sell this horse. Lets put it this way. If one were to put a flank strap on this horse, he would be a rodeo horse. Not like he needed the flank strap to want to buck. If I get on Pepto and she has a hump in her back, I laugh, kick her forward, and enjoy the hops. If I get on Brownie, and she has a hump in her back, same deal. This horse, though. I get on him and he has a hump in his back I get right back off and lunge him some more. Because I know he could and would fling me 20 feet in the air head over heels like a lawn dart and not feel slightly bad about it. The others are just fresh and having fun, but he is a coyote.

Well who is going to buy a horse like this? A green broke 11 year old paint gelding with a big coarse head, a tail that goes like a helicopter the whole time he's being ridden, and serious resistance issues, who has to be worked into a full body sweat to relax? And all you natural horsemanship people out there I don't want to hear a word. My trainer is the only one Tom Dorrance ever would let train his wife's horses. Yes, my trainer traines Tom Dorrance's wifes horses, and was endorsed by Tom. Pat Parelli thanks my trainer in the acknowledgement section of his book. Sweating is not bad for a horse. What's bad for this kind of horse would be someone thinking they could get through his tough skull in some coddling way and get themselves killed. I know how to feel a horse and feel his moods. This horse would relax when worked hard. Some people are like that too. I am, so I know. A good hard workout can focus my mind and relax my body. I have enough savvy to know how to get through to this horse. And I have, the times that I rode him. After lunging him bitted up until he was (somewhat) relaxed, I could then get on him (without spurs) and have a shot in he!! of keeping him checked up. He would try what he could to bulge and pop and stop and charge through my hands or my legs and I would sit on him firm and centered and just keep kicking him back underneath me. He would bulge his hip out trying to get away one way and I would kick him with that leg and he would let fly double barrels and I would ride him forward some more with set hands trying to get through to the concrete steel that was his mouth. I would gallop him at a wall and double him right into it and out the other side until both of us were breathing hard and his head would start to come down. Then I would ease up on him and let him see how nice it is to just walk circles on a loose rein, following his nose easy and letting my legs shape him. And it was working. If I spent lots of time, he would get broke.

That's the problem. It takes an expert to do that. And honestly, most people with the skill to do this don't want to bother wasting their time with these kind of horses. I don't. Some may say that's harsh, but what of it? Why on earth would I spend all my time and energy on a horse like this when I have a barn full of champion cutting horses who want to be ridden, who want to work, who want to show and win, who don't want to hurt me or buck me off or run off with me, who learn quickly, are intelligent and athletic, willing? It takes me three times as much time and energy to ride this horse as it does one of the cutters, even the unbroke babies. And for what? Even if he gets somewhat broke, he is still worth about $500. Or less. It would take years before he could be considered safe for anyone but a skilled hand.

So then I broke my hand. (On this horse). And Krista won't ride him. So he sat and sat for two months while hay is $250 a ton and shavings are $6 a bag. Some people came and looked at him but no one wanted him and I can't say I blame them. Krista as a last ditch effort put him in a local ranch horse sale. Now this isn't the bottom of the barrel killer sale. I have sold horses at this sale and gotten good money for them, they've gone to good homes with local ranchers and ropers. Perhaps some cowboy would buy him and use him to work in the hills all day every day until he got broke.

I told her to find some cowboy to ride him through the sale. But no one would. It never occured to her to ask me to do it, and I didn't offer. I am known at that sale and others for always having a nice well bred horse that usually tops the sale, and wouldnt' really want to have my name attached to this horse. But no one would even consider helping her.

The night before the sale I was already in my pajamas reading a Kurt Vonnegut novel. My trainer knocked on the door and said Krista was outside, she got her horse in the sale and she was going to lead him through in the morning. Wow...lead him through? That would be a guarantee kill buy. No one would want to touch him with a ten foot pole. My trainer told me I should ride the horse through the sale for her. Yikes!

So I got dressed and went out and got him out and started lunging him. He hadn't been saddled in two months. I put the saddle on and bitted him up (I know him well enough to know this is necessary if I didn't want him to kick my saddle to pieces) and let him lunge. He bucked for probably 10 minutes. (I' m not exaggerating). I lunged him until he was breathing hard, and then bitted his head to the side and let him stand, blow, and relax a bit. After 15 minutes he had relaxed and gotten his air back and I got on him in the round pen. He wanted to buck; I kept him checked around to the side and gently eased him forward with my legs until he felt unstuck and then went into a trot. I worked him in the roundpen at a trot and a lope for about 5 minutes and then decided if I had to ride him at a sale in the morning I better get brave and come out of the round pen. I opened the gate and went out.

After riding him around the courtyard and in the cutting pen, I felt more confident, like maybe I could get through it in one piece. I know how these things work. All I needed to do was to show him smooth, low headed, on a loose rein, walking around easy. Some people go to these "performance horse sales" and yay-hoo their horse all over the place trying to make him look like he is ready to win the Snaffle Bit Futurity. Of course they have no skill or savvy and their horse is a reflection of it, gap mouthed, chomping, breaking out all over with nervous sweat and hopping and jumping and flinging (which the people think is cool, like rolling back or moving hard. Sheesh. Idiots). Their idea of a rollback is jamming a horse's front end in the ground and then the butt passes up the front end in a pogo stick motion and they scramble out the other way. This is called the "sale barn rollback."

I get depressed every time I go to these kind of sales. I like going to the sales at Fort Worth and seeing the well bred, expensive horses ridden by good hands, who will go to good places and have lots of money time and effort put into their upbringing. Many of them become champions. I don't even mind high end ranch sales where at least half of the people can ride and aren't crucifying their horses.

Here's a tip for anyone showing off a horse for someone else. No one wants to see how much you can "train" on your horse. That is not a good way to demonstrate skill. No one wants to see your horse stiff, scared, hopping around and overfaced. No one wants to see how much you can "make your horse do." You just end up looking like a yay-hoo. Show your horse smooth. Be cool and still and soft and show how relaxed you can get your horse. Do your homework at home and show off what you got in public, even if it isn't as much as you would like to have.

Anyway, the next morning, I got up at 5 and rode him again before taking him to the sale. I wanted him tired. Tired enough that he wouldn't plant me like a lawn dart in public. I got on him and bridled him up (in a smooth snaffle) and drove him up into my hands and pushed his ribs over one way and then the other, at a trot. Circles, changes of directions, until he quit trying to bulge and resist. Then I let him gallop. I took him in the big arena and let him out all the way. Holy COW! This horse found his special purpose. I could feel him loving to run, like a race horse loves to run. And he was fast! Fast enough for me to know he had some extra gears he hadn't hit yet. As we galloped, I gave in to the feeling and felt him relax and let go of some long held resistance. I could feel his hot energy coming up through the saddle and I locked in with him and we were one. He took me for a couple of glorious laps and then started to slow on his own and I let him. Then we walked around nice, on a loose rein, content with ourselves and the world.

I drove up to the sale with hope, hoping someone would come along and find what I had found in this horse, and be willing to work hard enough to bring it out in him so he could have a good life. The sale was smaller and of lower quality than it has been in years past, when I have been there with good horses. The economy has changed and this is a sign of the times. There were a few ok horses but nothing great, and there were a few barrel racers and ropers who could ride ok but also some real yay hoo sale barn types who just muscle and spur horses around. These people make me mad because they don't even seem to like horses. I don't know what their motivation is but I do know I don't like being around them.

Well he was tired at the sale, and therefore walked around nicely on a loose rein. I showed him in the preview and thought he did well. I rolled him back on the fence and kept him on his hip and made everything manageable and smooth. But you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear and the experienced hands there could see he wasn't broke. I eased him into the ring but couldn't get him to do much. I know when to push and when not to. Now was time not to. I stood still and eased him into a small circle at a walk while the auctioneers tried to find something to say. He was a late add in the catalogue. No one knew anything about him. He has no bloodlines to speak of, no accomplishments, and his limited potential is buried under a mountain of reisistance and it would take a pro to unearth it.

He brought $300. A horsetrader bought him. My only hope is that some cowboy will get him and he will have a shot at having a job.

As I walked out of the ring the cowboys lining the exit were amazed. "You let him go for that?" They are used to me having a lot more horseflesh under me. I could just nod and go back to my car to unsaddle him. Old painto seemed strangely subdued too. Like he caught a bit of my depression. He groundtied like a broke horse and let me unsaddle him and toss the saddle in the back of my car. We didnt' speak. Just then the skies opened. It had been upwards of 100 degrees all day, and thunderheads had been building. It is rare in California to get a summer storm. Usually it stops raining in April and doesn't rain again until late November. But lightning cracked (lighting fires all over the hills) and the rain came splattering down. It was fitting. I left him tied to the hotwalker and drove away.

Although the day was only half over and I really hadn't worked that hard, according to what I usually do, I was exhausted and low. I had a headache and I felt too hot. With a heavy heart I walked through the barn and greeted all my ponies. I felt dirty, like I had been at a slave auction. Not only been there, but participated. Participated in playing god, having power over the fate of another living creature. I wish there was other answers. I wish all horses could be saved. I wish that more people had skill so more horses could realize their potential. It's nobody's fault, I guess, but it is sad anyway.