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By the end of the racing season she was the leading money winner of her class and went on to have an illustrious racing career.
In the spring of '94 I got wind of one of the troubled horses that might be headed my way.The odd part of the equation was the age of this horse. Soaring Fast and Breezy was a two-year old full-blooded Arabian of racing lineage. Typically Arabs were started under saddle in the spring of their third year. As the story unfolded apparently Breezy had leaned to whirl, leave the rider suspended in air, and then streak back to the barn. Several experienced and quite nimble riders had hit the ground hard, followed by the long walk home. Breezy arrived in the middle of the afternoon in early spring. It was still quite cold in the front range of the Rocky Mountains with morning and evening temperatures well below freezing. None of the horses lacked for energy in this cool weather. The first thing I heard about the twenty-mile trip over to my place was the loading fiasco. It had taken several hours to load the horse. I could tell from the attitude of the man delivering Breezy that there was no love loss between them. This left a huge opening for me, since I place utmost importance on developing a relationship. Breezy emerged from the trailer wide-eyed. This was her first trip away from the ranch at which she'd grown up. More importantly, she was away from the security of her gang of horses. She was a lanky dark gray of about fifteen hands with a black mane and tail. She had a friendly and intelligent look about her. We moved her into an outside paddock and sent her handler home. I wasted no time in getting to know her and she immediately melted into my version of a positive first impression. In hindsight I'm sure this was the first time a human had really loved on her. She wicked it up like a sponge and we quickly became fast friends with the mutual goal of sending her to the track that summer as a confident and reliable horse. Lemons to Lemonade That night I did a lot of thinking about this situation. I sure wasn't in any big hurry to climb on her, but had to somehow build her confidence. The answer came to me about 3:30 a.m. I woke with a very clear starting place, namely trailer loading. Here was something she absolutely hated and was probably quite fearful of. First thing in the morning I called down to the ranch-hand and asked him not to feed the new gray horse. I would feed her a little later, ideally in the biggest trailer I could find. After the day had warmed a bit I walked down to see my new challenge. She was happy to see me and was an eager and bright student. We did some ground exercises to help her understand the fourth step of my program The Dance Begins. This driving procedure is integral to sending a horse into a trailer, stall, or paddock. Within a matter of ten minutes she was driving like a champ through an assortment of gates and openings. Time for the Trailer I had the use of a good-sized three-horse slant trailer with a gentle ramp grade. In spite of the snow on the ground, the footing was good and the ramp was dry and had excellent traction. The Merhow trailer was reasonably well lit, and with the partitions secured against the wall, had ample space. This was a good starting place to do some serious confidence building. But Breezy didn't seem to think so. The moment we walked up to the ramp, I saw a different and very stubborn side to this gangly Arabian. Her eyes filled with white and she started back peddling immediately. I was prepared for this and helped her move backwards much faster and more aggressively than even she wanted to. Back we went a good twenty-five paces as I made her attitude and refusal uncomfortable for her all the while making a loud shhhhhhhhhhhhhh noise. Then I stopped and let it sink in for a long minute. She looked at me with those big dark eyes, and then finally licked her lips and dropped her head as if to say, "Gee nobody's ever done that to be before." I loved her up and reassured her that I was still her new best friend, and then we started anew. This time at the trailer she at least stood at the edge of the ramp and handled it. But the moment I asked for forward movement, she exploded again. She met the same not-so-nice result, only this time we only went back a few steps as I made the loud shhhhhhhhhhh annoying noise. This went on a couple more times before she decided it might be easier to work with me by placing her right foot gingerly onto the ramp. You would have thought she won a million dollar stakes race. I praised her up and down and she believed me. And that one foot led to two, then three and then suddenly she was in the front of the trailer eating her breakfast. I allowed her to take a few bites and relax before asking her to back out, which she did reluctantly. The next time I asked her to go in she did not hesitate one iota. Hey breakfast was there and she was good and hungry. For the next week Breezy had her morning meal inside a whole variety of trailers including a very small and tight one-horse that no horse would choose to ride in. But she trusted me implicitly and it really became kind of a game for both of us. Hummmm, which trailer today? Time to Mount Up Three days into our morning ritual I sensed it was time to get some saddle-work done. After religiously working through the first six steps of my 7-Step Safety System, I mounted Breezy and performed the final step Ballet in the Saddle. When I had her performing one-rein-stops well, we progressed to the beginning stages of rollbacks. Within minutes she was doing ballet beautifully, first pivoting on the forehand, then rocking back onto her hind end and pushing off with glee in this exercise that essentially connected her mind and her feet. And now the moment of truth was upon me, the first ride out. Given Breezy's history I knew it was just a matter of time before she would try her whirling stunt on me. I felt I was totally prepared. Exactly when and where this might happen was the big mystery, so we eased into it and did some confidence building before facing the bigger challenges. We began by riding around the barn and paddock area of which she was familiar. We rode up and down the alleys between the paddocks visiting dozens of the other horses of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Then we rode into one end of the small twelve-stall barn and out the other side. There were big garbage cans filled with grain and supplements. The rakes, shovels, and assorted tools as well as horses coming and going, gave many horses fits in this barn. Breezy took notice and did tense up several times, but with a bit of support she really did handle this challenge commendably. Now it was time to leave the barn area and explore the ranch. We walked down the road through the dip of a creek-bed that again challenged most horses as it was congested with brush and trees on each side. As with most horses Breezy was concerned in this narrow corridor, but she didn't have a real meltdown and came out the other side in tact and reasonably poised. The ranch opened up at this point with fields extending in all directions littered with clumps of scrub oak, barren this time of year. We circled several of these clusters then proceeded up the road in the direction of some interesting red sandstone formations. A large horse-eating boulder sat at the edge of the road. Now this boulder had probably spooked more horses than just about anything on the ranch and she tensed noticeably. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeasy girl. Just an old rock. Nothing to be afraid of now. Eeeeeeeeeeeasy Breezy," I cooed over and over while stroking her neck and pushing her through this sticky area with my legs and seat. Again she maintained and we walked on up the road, though she was on pins and needles. We must have been a good seventy-five yards past the boulder when she just couldn't maintain anymore and suddenly whirled to the right, hard. Real hard. I was sitting deep and had a hold on the reins with the right one a bit shorter so it wouldn't take much to get that head around. I was ready and even expectant the whole time in anticipation of this exact scenario. I put my plan right into action. "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I hissed aggressively and cracked her right shoulder with my stirrup three times, then circled her down to a one rein stop and regrouped and helped her settle down. No grudge here. She just happened to hit the brick wall when he whirled right into it. She thought it was all her idea and it was a bad one. She was absolutely right. It was a bad idea and quite uncomfortable. Better her discomfort than mine. The Black and White Zones At this point of my career in specializing with difficult cases I had some very distinct philosophies about how to help horses through their issues. As my mentor Tom Dorrance had espoused years earlier, "Find a way to make the right thing easy and comfortable for the horse and the wrong thing difficult or uncomfortable." After hitting the ground more times than I'd like to admit, I began smartening up and actually formulating a plan before the bomb exploded. That way it was not a surprise for me, but was for the horse. Time after time I was able to help the horse conquer his fears and irrational behaviors by setting the horse up to 'hit the brick wall' the moment the behavior raised it's ugly head. Time after time I began 'fixing' problems almost instantly. The key here is timing and anticipation. Instead of being surprised by the event, I became pro-active and made very certain that the event was negatively rewarded. Of course conversely, all positive behavior was rewarded heartily. Most importantly there must be no gray area. If we aren't clear about our communication, how will the horse learn? A situation like this one with Breezy was unfortunately human induced. The horse would reach a certain distance from the barn,away from her buddies and suddenly go into overload. Herd-bound is a good description. My best guess is that a trainer in her earlier education hadn't taken the time to baby-step her into longer and longer rides. She'd reacted and succeeded by leaving that person in the dust, and then run home with glee as if to say, "Look what I just did!" A very dangerous pattern had developed that had to be broken. I'm so glad she found me to help her through it. We continued our ride, but I deliberately didn't explore the outer edges of her ability. Instead I made it a pleasurable discovery ride. Her confidence grew by leaps and bounds and we rode back to the barn, both winners. Challenge Yourself to Challenge the Horse By design, everyday the challenges became increasingly more varied and interesting. The immature two-year old filly blossomed like the spring flowers exploding all around us. What fun we had on that ranch filled with obstacles of every description. One specific area did wonders for Breezy's confidence. There was an area of the ranch that was simply terrifying for almost all horses. Gas tanks on stilts, garbage dumpsters, rolls of wire fencing, boards and scraps of metal were strewn throughout this scary area. This was my favorite place to work horses on ground and in the saddle. And Breezy, just like most horses was not happy about spending time here. So. . . we did. In fact we spent a whole lot of time in this exact location. The first day we entered this area I kept her very busy with my ground exercises. She had very little time to focus on what was surrounding her because I kept her mind totally engaged performing ballet on the ground. When I finally eased off, she let out a big sigh and was just relieved to take a breather. The next day after the ground exercises I mounted her and we went exploring all the interesting junk. At one point she reached overload and again whirled to the right, her favorite direction to unload riders. It wasn't quite as lightning-quick as the first whirl on the road, but it was fast. In any case, she met the same end; a stirrup in the shoulder and it was over, for good. To the best of my knowledge that was the last whirl of her career. Within a few more days she was eagerly looking into dumpsters and sniffing gas tanks. And now she was ready for some speed work. Off to the Races The remainder of her time with me was simply marvelous. We took long rides into the Rocky Mountains and foothills surrounding the ranch. We worked at slow speeds through the gently sloping hills, and then increased the pace faster and faster as she became more fit. And finally we had that memorable ride that neither of us would ever forget as we just flew through the gentle hills adjacent to the Rockies mile after mile with no bottom to this young horse. We full-out galloped with glee and a sense of freedom and expression that I'd never experienced. She was now ready to race. It was indeed a sad day when we said our good-byes. I hugged her fiercely before she loaded like a seasoned champ right back into the trailer she'd arrived in several months earlier. By the end of the racing season she was the leading money winner of her class and went on to have an illustrious racing career. Warm, Wet Whiskers The years flew by and I lost track of this wonderful Arabian filly. I heard bits and pieces of her notable successes, and I always smiled with pride at our accomplishments. Then one spring I was at the racetrack tending to another of my students, a horse named Magnifico. Leaning against a stall door I watched this stunning character of a horse parade around and around on the hot-walker just being his prankish self. I felt the warm breathe of a horse then the whiskers on my neck. I reached back and stroked this friendly intruder and asked, "Say Betty, who is this horse tickling my neck?" "That's Soaring Fast n Breezy." I turned around and we melted into our long lost friendship as if time hadn't passed one minute. She remembered and so did I the wonderful journey we'd shared years earlier, and we both reveled in it. The End
Frank Bell and his accredited instructors have been helping horses with their people problems for several decades. He writes interesting and educational stories about these horses and their challenges. He also helps people better understand how to communicate with these magnificent creatures by answering their vexing questions on his website. Frank has designed a logical set of exercises that immediately places both parties on higher ground . . . without the need for a round pen. Suddenly both parties are riding in confidence instead of fear. Frank Bell's 7-Step Safety System (7-SSS) has been featured in horse magazines and e-zines throughout the world including a three-part series in Western Horseman magazine. Frank's video " Discover the Horse You Never Knew" fully outlines " the system" and is available in the audio/video library that includes thirteen works.
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