03/08/2022
A Lesson in Leadership
For those who don’t know, my very first horse was a blind, Quarter Horse mare named Paco. I got her when she was around 7 years old and I was about 10. Now my family is not a horse family. My mom loves horses but has very little experience with them. My dad is just not a fan at all. We had to put together a pasture for her and made a stall for her in our machine shed from old boards in the barns. We didn’t have a trailer or saddle. Just basic grooming supplies and food. And I very fondly remember my mom saying ,”we are never going to ride her. We are never going to take her anywhere.” But at the time I didn’t care. I was a little girl finally getting her dream of owning a horse.
As time grew so did my fascination with wanting to ride Paco. So had been ridden a bit when she could see, but not after she started going blind. And like I said, we didn’t have a saddle, so my mom would put my on Paco’s back and lead me around the pasture by hand. Eventually my mom bought our first real saddle, an older barrel saddle. Learning how to ride on Paco was awesome. She is one of the most gentle horses you will meet. But I learned real quickly that I had to learn how to ride independently. As I had to be Paco’s eyes as well as my own. I had to look for holes, logs, and anything around us that might make her spook unexpectedly. There was no holding onto the horn and looking at the ground. But like I said Paco was calm, gentle and easy going.
Then I started showing her at my local county fair. The first few times I went to the fair grounds Paco was a complete mess as you can imagine. Extremely nervous, wouldn’t stand still, spooked at everything. As someone with very little horse experience this was a lot to deal with. Luckily, I found Downunder horsemanship very young. The biggest thing I learned from Clinton was safety and to be a leader for my horse. And Paco needed a leader. Only one person could lose their cool at a time. So no matter how nervous I got, how anxious I was, I had to calm and clear headed for Paco. And she would respond. The moment I would climb on her back she would start to calm down because she knew where I was and I was with her at all times. She knew to look for me for guidance. Now this took a long time of riding and building trust, but it taught me so much. Your horse needs something solid to lean against when they get anxious. They need someone to tell them let’s burn off some energy, let’s go this way, it’s okay you can step down that. If you’re a confident leader, they will be a confident follower.
