Ever After Mustang Rescue

People are often baffled when I tell them I am adopting a mustang to be my next equine partner. While mustangs do require a bit more time and patience to train than domestic breeds, their strong desire to gain approval from the alpha horse in a herd (which hopefully in a training situation is you) makes them try their little hearts out. Who doesn't love a little horse with a whole lot of try?

I acquired my love of mustangs while working for Mona Jerome at Ever After Mustang Rescue in Biddeford, ME. Ever After takes in mustangs from a number of sources. Some are adopted from BLM auctions, some are surrendered by owners who have decided they can't handle or don't want their mustang, and some are seized from situations of abuse and neglect.

In order to fund this operation, Mona hosts several money-raising events, many of which are riding clinics. I met Mona when I started attending a fantastic, week-long eventing clinic at the farm. The clinic was so fantastic, that I attended 5 years straight (once on one of Mona's mustangs). One fine spring day, I received a call from Mona, and I assumed that it was regarding the clinic dates for that year. Instead, Mona asked me if I would be interested in coming to ride and train for her. I enthusiastically accepted the offer and packed my bags for Biddeford.

After arriving at the farm, Mona took a lot of time teaching me the art of training wild horses. I learned so much while with Mona, and I will now and try to condense what I learned into a few succinct bullet points

* When training a wild horse, there is very little room for error. While domestically born horse can tolerate quite a bit of incorrect training and turn out ok, mistakes made while training a wild horse can produce dangerous outcomes. In order to avoid these dangerous outcomes, it is important to correct bad behavior as soon as it happens.

* Attempting to muscle around a horse, regardless of how big or small, is a futile endeavor. Just don't do it.

* Be aware of the horse's body language as well as your own. Initally, body language is the only way you can communicate with your wild horse.

* Demand obedience and reward profusely when it's given. You'd be surprised how much a simple pat on the neck and a "good boy" means to your horse.

While these concepts are essential to successfully training a wild horse, I have also found that applying them to the training of any horse can lead to a deeper connection and better partnership between horse and rider. I am very grateful for all that Mona taught me, and I look forward to applying my knowledge to a mustang of my own. Please take the time to visit the Ever After Mustang Rescue website and see all the good work she is doing.

Sonic Boom

Every horse person has one extremely special horse in their life to which they will compare all other horses in their life. For me, that horse came in the form of 16.1 hand, chestnut, thoroughbred gelding, with a quirky and loveable personality, and a mane that that insisted on sticking straight up, named Sonic Boom (Boomer for short). I found Boomer at a sales farm in Southern MA, while looking for a new eventing prospect. He was extremely underweight, and covered in bedsores. Despite his ragged appearance, their was something so kind about his eye that made me instantly fall in love.

About a week later, we were back with the trailer, and Boomer was on his way to the Cutter Farm where his recovery could begin under skilled eye of the farm owner and trainer, Marina Burliss. After a month with Marina, Boomer had put on a substantial amount of weight, and in addition to the already kind nature of his eyes, a little sparkle became evident as well. We decided that Boomer was healthy enough to bring home, and he was brought the the small two stall barn in my back yard.

Initially, training Boomer was extremely difficult. His only training had been on the race track, and as the weight came back, so did the racehorse energy and spunk. He was under the impression that while he was being ridden, it was in fact play time, and let me know this by bucking, rearing, spinning, and bolting. It is fair to say that in those first few months, I spent almost as much time on the ground as I did in the saddle. My father would often ask me after my rides how my "flying lesson" was that day. On top of Boomer being difficult, I was only 14 years old, and relatively inexperienced, but I stuck with him. Eventually Boomer started to settle down, and learned how to focus on the task at hand.

It was at this time I thought it was appropriate to introduce him to jumping. Boomer took to jumping like a fish to water. Aside from the ocassional excited leap, he was calm and patient to the fences, and did not know the meaning of the word "refuse." Even if I gave him a terrible approach, he would find some way to get his body over the fence.

After years of riding my pony, Dixee, who was truly wonderful but had a tendency to be a dirty little stopper, my confidence jumping wasn't great. This didn't bother Boomer at all as he seemed to have enough courage for the both of us. Riding such an honest horse can do wonders for one's confidence, and before you knew it we were out on the x-country school jumping banks, ditches, coops, roll tops, and any other kind of jump you can think of. I soon overcame my fear of jumps larger than 2'6'', and learned to trust in my very brave horse.

While Boomer and I were very strong in both x-country and stadium jumping, dressage was a weak phase for us (ironic, I know). I use to blame it on Boomer not liking dressage, but it has become quite clear that I was just a terrible dressage rider at the time.

After three years of the most amazing equine partnership I have ever experienced, Boomer's life ended tragically at the age of 7 after a severe bout of colic. This was one of the most devastating things I have ever experienced, but now instead of being sad about what could have been if he were still alive, I am so grateful for the time I did have with him. Several years after Boomer's death, I got a tattoo in his honor. The tattoo represents the most important lesson Boomer ever taught me: ride for the love riding, the love of the horse, and love of the partnership between horse and rider.

Catch riding

Within the past couple months I have taken on the challenge of being a catch rider. My first catch riding gig was at the Eugene horse and tack expo, riding and handling sale horses for a local trainer. Everything went smoothly for the first two days, and I even got some experience handling and riding stallions which was really exciting.

On the third day, I was showing a 4 year old, 17 hand quarter horse gelding in a sale horse class. While he was a gorgeous animal, and an ideal candidate for the AQHA hunter under saddle circuit, he was also (unbeknownst to me) completely herd bound. The way the sale horse classes work is that all the horses line up on one side of arena, and then one by one, each sale horse is given 5 minutes to strut his or her stuff. When it was my turn, I confidently made my way to the center of the arena, and for a moment it seemed we were going to have an excellent showing. That was not to be. Soon enough the horse realized he was no longer with the other horses. My steering and breaks instantly vanished, and I became no more influential than the saddle on his back. Before I knew it, I was on the ground, and the gelding was happily strutting back to other horses.

He soon came to a stop next to a miniature mule that he had befriended during the entire 15 minutes we had spent in line. I climbed back up all 17 hands of him, still shaky from the adrenaline pumping through my veins, thinking of the epinephrine pathway I had memorized in biochemistry. I used up the remainder of my time trotting in a circle near the line of other horses.

The trainer was impressed with my toughness and fearlessness in the situation and asked me to ride the horse again at an upcoming horse show. Because of my previously mentioned stupidity fearlessness, I agreed.

The next weekend I met the trainer and her team of horses at the show and prepared to ride. My giant QH friend showed his ability for airs above the ground in the warmup, so I prepared for an exciting day. I was pleasantly surprised when our first class passed without incident, and then even more surprised when my name was announced after the words "in first place." The pattern of good behavior and top placings continued. Later in the day, we were named the hi-point combination for our division and handed a shiny, silver goblet. Now that's what I call redemption!

The HJ Hampton Story

This story has nothing to do with mustangs, but has much to do with a horse that changed me for the better. If you are a sucker for happy endings, this story is for you.

In 2006 I had the great challenge/pleasure of riding HJ Hampton (Henry) immediately after his return from intense training as hunter/jumper. He was a challenging, yet rewarding mount who always gave his all, and had a personality that melted the hearts of all that came in contact with him.

He had some training, but he was very fearful and distrusting of his rider, initially trying to evade my cues instead of looking to me for guidance. Eventually he learned to trust me and became much more relaxed. His flatwork progressed rapidly and he had an endless capacity to learn. Before too long he had become solid at first level work and was schooling 2nd level movements.

Despite his previous training as a hunter/jumper, the prospect of jumping terrified him. I only attempted jumping him on a couple occasions, and his reaction to those attempts were enough to convince me that “this horse will make someone a nice dressage horse, but he’s not meant to jump.”

Henry and I posing for a photography class.

Since I had previously made the decision to focus on dressage, Henry’s fear of jumping did not impact my desire to ride him one bit. In fact, I spent many hours at my day job as a chemist thinking about my evening rides on Henry. I loved how he challenged me and made me think. He was very insistent that my cues were tactful and instructive, and he was not afraid to let me know when he didn’t understand. Even though Henry let me believe that I was doing the training, I’m pretty sure he knew he was actually the one training me. I will forever be a better riding for the hours I spent on his back.

In 2007, I left for Oregon to pursue a graduate degree, under the impression that Henry was to be sent back into hunter/jumper training. That was the last I saw/heard of him until spring, 2010 when on a random whim, I decided to do a google search for HJ Hampton to see if I could find him.

To my shock, the first thing that popped up was a helmet cam video….of Henry…at ROLEX!? Those big ears were unmistakably his, and I quickly started searching the internet for more video. I found several more videos of Henry jumping, with what can only be described as a look of pure joy in his eyes. I have never been happier to eat my words. It did my heart so much good to see that he was happy and healthy, not to mention tremendously successful.

I later learned that Henry’s training had been taken over by Australian rider, Peter Atkins, an eventer/miracle worker who taught Henry to love jumping. Their strong bond was evident in the helmet cam videos, with Henry’s big ears flicking backwards after every combination as if to say, “am I a good boy Dad?” and Peter enthusiastically replying, that yes, he was indeed a good boy. This relationship led to a successful outing at the World Equestrian Games and rise to fame in the equestrian community.

I won’t say much about what happened next, but here’s the story in a nutshell. Peter had agreed to train, care for, and campaign Henry in exchange for half ownership. Henry's owner claimed that was never the deal. A jury decided that based on evidence presented by Peter, there was in fact a partnership. The judge ruled that the partnership was to be dissolved, and Henry was to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. At the last second, Henry's owner agreed to sell her half of Henry to Peter, giving Peter full ownership.

It is my belief that Henry is now in the right place. It is clear that not only Peter, but his entire family adore him. He has become far more than just the horse of a top rider. He is a family member, and I could wish him no better life.

During the ownership dispute Peter and I came to know each other since I was Henry’s previous rider and had information on his training history. Now that the ownership dispute is over, Peter has generously invited me to come visit Henry at his farm. I am extremely excited to say the least, and look forward to seeing the great HJ Hampton once again.