Race Horse to Pleasure Horse

 Anne says:-

“I come from a farming background with very little formal riding tuition. My first pony (14.2hh) arrived when I was six and I was still riding her when I turned 17. All through those years I was primarily self taught with a few stints at pony club during 70's, but as my pony wasn't a jumper or a show pony and I was a shy child, we tended to slip below the instructor interest radar.

During my early adult hood I took up riding again and attained a reasonable level of success primarily in the in-hand show ring. A move to the Tasman area from Canterbury in the mid 90's lead to another break from horses of almost ten years. However an opportunity to have another horse arose and on 19 August 2006 Sir Ambrose (Spot) stalked off the Interisland horse truck into our agricultural contracting yard. Spot is a 16hh thoroughbred who at 7 years of age was being retired from a successful racing career.

I met Jeanette through ballroom dancing and we became friends away from horses although I did know that she was pretty clued up and was involved as an ‘Equestrian Examiner’ of some sort. What I didn't realise was that Jeanette has an incredible ability to build your self belief so that you can do it and in turn you can teach your horse to do it.

Jeanette takes the complex and breaks it into understandable pieces of information. Our training sessions involve a lot of two way conversation, with me asking heaps of questions - in the past with other instructors I wouldn't have said "Boo" in the worry that I would be seen as stupid or ignorant.

My initial intention was to have a horse to ride around the roads and possibly join the local adult riding club, now my goal is to have a riding horse that is light, supple and obedient. If all goes to plan Spot and I will be competing at the Winter Dressage Series in 2009. That is a huge mental step from where I used to be as "Dressage Ladies" until recently intimidated the heck out of me - now my attitude is that we will be there so that we can use these outings as measurements of how well our training is going. There is nothing like getting out in company to see how well the lessons you have been working on has ‘sunk in’ and if it is still there for us both when in a different environment.

Spot had most of his first year here off, just learning to be a horse again - there were stints of riding out, the odd lesson, some long reining, pony rides for visiting children, dealing with tractors, balers, bale wrap etc etc. This winter he has been bought in and taught to lunge - what a fabulous tool this is when used properly. Jeanette ever patient is not phased by me ending up with ‘tangled knitting’ like lunge line, loosing my contact or general incompetence.

Both Jeanette and Spot have been very forgiving and now I have a horse that is happy to work calmly and quietly in both directions, responds to voice commands, has rhythm, a beautiful swing to his working trot, is continually working in a longer and developing ‘Topline’. Not bad for a racing machine that could only go like an inside out banana bent to the outside. Early on Jeanette said that there was a lot of ‘unpicking’ to do before we could start putting him together again.

I have found the ground work has been invaluable, as I can watch and ‘read’ Spot working in his different moods and judge and experiment from the safety of the ground how best to respond and interact , identifying tension, relaxation and attitudes to new things. Great "Aha" moments -for example when I realized Spot finds comfort in perpetual motion. Jeanette gives me autonomy to work from my increasing knowledge base. This will equip me when I start ridden schooling enabling me to ride him forward until he relaxes and works thought his body again.

‘Discovery learning’ is a valuable tool!!

Anne