What is that popular catch phrase these days?  Oh, yes.  “The struggle is real”.  It is certainly a catchy saying.  But for people who own horses in rural places without the luxury of a nice barn that has an indoor riding arena, the struggle truly is real.

I have always ridden year round.  No matter if I was as hot as an Arizona summer or as cold as a Rocky Mountain February.  I have always had the ability to ride year round.  I have paid premiums wherever I am at to have the ability to ride year round.  In other words, I have always trained or boarded at places that have indoor facilities if the weather gets bad in the winter.  Except here.  In rural Nebraska.

Everyone thinks that because its “rural” that it automatically accommodates horses and their riders.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.  The winters are bitter, bitter cold here and the closest indoor riding arena is in a town in our neighbor to the South, Colorado.  It took me almost two years to just find a place to board my horse that wasn’t just a pasture.  We have an arena, that only I use, because although there are a few other boarders, they never ride, and because of that it is covered in weeds and I have to beg for it to be groomed every few weeks.  Seriously.  Two years to find a place that had an arena, a nice pen with shelter, a place to park my trailer, and fed twice a day and cleaned once a day.  To me, I guess that was pretty basic, basic boarding stuff.  But out here it is the cream of the crop.

Not saying the place is bad by any means, just not at all what I am used to.  And for someone who wants to compete and ride year round, it’s a nightmare up here.  We got our first “snow” today, and although the snow is not so bad, the 35mph winds and 50mph gusts, are bad.  It is impossible to even consider loping her out when it is that cold. The wind chill drops a 40* day to a “feels like” of 19*. And so it will be for the rest of the week, more or less.  People out here don’t really ride in my book.  It seems everyone has a horse, but they ride a handful of weekends a year and that’s it.  I very much so consider riding an art and a sport, not just a “hobby” and it blows my mind that people don’t ride their horses out here.  And because there is no demand, there are no facilities.  Making me the odd ball out and truly making the idea of riding year round miserable, if not impossible.

I hope to be in a position one day that truly allows me to ride year round again.  But until then, I’ll continue to do what I can, when I can, because I can’t help but ride.  I just cannot put it down for six months out of the year to pick it back up in the spring.  My brain is not wired that way.  Between weather, lack of facilities and the dreaded daylight savings time, the struggle truly is real.

Cheers!

Ah, horse girls.  Throughout the ages there has been a very distinct affinity between women and horses.  This is certainly not a new subject, and yet, so many books, articles and poems continue to be written about this bond.  When I was teaching riding full time, I would guess 65% of my students were girls between the ages of 7-12, most of the rest in their teens and a small portion under 7.  But 100% of my students were girls.  I saw a few boys stumble through a week long “summer riding camp”, never to be seen again, and at the entire barn of about 200 privately owned horses and probably 300 some riders, you could count the male riders on one hand.

What is this magic that we, as females seek in the power of horses?  I like to believe it is because the horse represents all we want to be as women.  Strong, wild, beautiful, gentle, kind, nurturing, teachers and healers.  Things, at our female core, we can all relate to.  Of course there are the obvious things about riding that draw us to it like it being healthy, athletic, outdoors and just plain fun.  But what is it that draws us to these powerful animals in the first place?  What makes a girl choose a Breyer model horse over a Barbie doll?  What makes her beg relentlessly for the pony ride, or lessons or horse camp?  I’m not sure that question can be answered.  I want to believe that it’s something spiritual.  Not all girls who ride as children become so hopelessly addicted that they continue on into adult life. But those that do, they will be bound to the animals, with a need similar to oxygen their entire life.

This weekend I met an old college friend down at our old stomping grounds to meet up with a former student of mine that is now pursuing the same equine degree, my husband along for the ride.  We are all hopelessly addicted horse girls.  Dreams we could never wake from, and Lord I pray we never do.  I was there to help my friend on some technical riding aspects and we borrowed my former student and her horse.  We stepped into the arena, and it was almost instantaneous, we all breathed deep of the smell of the indoor ring.  The damp smell of good footing, horse sweat and leather.  I mentioned it first, and us girls knew exactly what I was talking about when I said that it smelled like heaven.  My husband seemed lost on the comparison.  All three of us girls are at extremely different places and stages in our lives.  But when it comes to this crazy passion, we are all on the exact same page. We all instinctively know what “it” is, that draws us to the dream, to the horse.  Weather we can name it or not, we all feel it.  We are true horse girls.  Bound for life to the sport, the dream, the horse.

Cheers!

I used to get very frustrated when people would say things like “mustangs are hard to train”.  I assumed they were saying, essentially, that mustangs were unintelligent.  But instead of getting angry, I now have a better response.  They are not “hard to train” but they sure are different.

You see, in my experience, today’s performance horses are born stopping and spinning, piaffe-ing and passage-ing, jumping and running…  We have perfected genetics to a degree where a horse bred for a specific job, is literally born doing it.  Very similar to the way a well bred border collie or heeler are born knowing how to work livestock.  A little direction and you have a winner.  Everything in these horses DNA is telling them this is what they are born to do.

Then to top of the “natural ability” (I hesitate to call it natural because it has been carefully designed), most of today’s horses are also bred to have soft, willing, and happy minds.  And again, for the cherry at the top of the well bred Sunday, they are nurtured to love and trust humans from the moment they hit the ground.  They are imprinted, coddled, handled from the moment of birth.  They grow up living in the human world, not knowing much else.  So when the 2 year old year comes along, and the saddles and trainers are introduced, is it any surprise these horses are winning futurities at three?  Their life is so carefully planned from the first thought of a performance prospect.

I can only conclude that if these are the horses you have been exposed to for the most part, that yes by all means, a mustang must seem “hard” to train!  Why?  Because they are a true horse.  Nothing in their genetics is telling them to trust, much less please a human!  On the contrary everything in their genetics is telling them to run for their life, and if you cannot run, fight.  Mustangs are not unintelligent.  In fact, as far as horses go, they are (and I may be biased) the most intelligent.  If they do not learn quickly they die.  If they are careless they die.  They cannot afford to not be smart.

Mustangs make phenomenal performance horses.  They have so many qualities that make them amazing for performance.  Good legs, strong feet, mental and physical endurance, strength, very surefooted.  And if a trainer truly understands what I like to call “true horses”, he can tap into that.  But it takes a certain breed of trainer.  Not everyone can understand these horses, because they do not fit in today’s idea of what a “horse” actually is.  They are not made by man.  They are made by God and Mother Nature.

I like to watch really great Mustang trainers.  They are true horsemen.  A trainer that can truly teach a mustang to stop, spin, slide or piaffe, passage, pirouette… those are true horsemen with true horses.  It is a much more honest relationship, a much more honest teacher and student.  They were given such raw materials and turned it into something so beautiful.

A three strikes Mustang, named Cobra, just won the world championship in Western Dressage.  Not because he was selectively bred for years and years to excel in a certain sport.  But because he was a true horse, with true heart, that had a true trainer.  So I guess what I am trying to say is if you fancy yourself a student of the horse, like I do, there is no greater test of your horsemanship than a Mustang.  Because if you can teach a horse, that has no reason to perform for you, to perform at the highest levels, in my book you’ve aced the test.  So are Mustangs hard to train?  No.  They are just very, very different.

Cheers!