ok...and so here is the rest of the story. Listened to John Prine and Bonnie Raitt singing Angel from Montgomery. Made me think about the horse business and how trying to make a living at working with horses has been a hard way to go for me. Never been much good at the business side of it. Not enough confidence in myself. Then I thought about the offer that Richard Shrake had made to me at the Expo. At the last minute, I was asked to bring one of the rescue horses (Twink) for a couple of Richards demos. The first demo was about starting an unstarted 2 year old. I have known about Richard for a heck of a long time. Have respect for the man. He is kind and friendly and always makes a person feel good to be around him. I studied him for a period of time in my early training days and then went on to other things that eventually led me to Peter Campbell. I havent paid much attention to Richard for a long time but I knew that this would be a good experience for the colt. Richard had me walk with the horse until our feet got so they were moving in time. Then he had me inhale and walk fast for a bit, then exhale and walk slow. The horse began to stay in time with my feet and adjust its rhythm to mine. ok. Then he had me move the horse around me on the end of my lead rope and I would also use my energy to speed him up and slow him down. Then we saddled the colt. He held the horse and I held the saddle. Richard likes to put the saddle on while the colt is walking forward. No problem with that except that I had a hard time hitting a moving target when I throw the saddle up from my hip. I think one needs to hold the saddle differently when doing it Richards way. The colt took every thing in stride. Didnt even get upset with my clumsiness. After that he had me mount the horse, also on the move. First he had me step up in the stirrup while the colt was walking forward and just stand in the stirrup with my weight in the middle. The next time I got all the way on. He led me around for a couple of small circles and then he let the colt loose and encouraged him to go forward. We trotted for a little while and then the colt walked and finally came to a relaxed stop. Richard took ahold and I got off. No problems. After we were done for the evening Richard complemented me on the way the colt had been prepared. He felt like we had done a fantastic job with ground work on him. And then he complemented me heavily on my athleticism and confidence when working with the horses. He said I was pretty handy. Then he told me that I should become one of his endorsed trainers for the area. He needs good people, he said. I thanked him and told him that I would talk to him more about it the next day.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 03:40:12 +0000
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