09/30/2023
I'm going to start this by apologizing for the length of this post. There's a lot of information and there's no short way to tell Whiskey's story.
This video is one of the best and biggest breakthroughs I've made with a horse. It's nothing special. It's nothing fancy or flashy. It's just a gelding loping some big, relaxed circles. Keyword being relaxed.
This is Whiskey. He's a 20 year old gelding that was massively misrepresented from sellers out of state. His video looked good, he looked like and easy to ride, happy sort of guy. His current owners were told that he was 10 years old and he was represented as beginnger safe. Once he got here, he seemed to be a bit on the nervous side, but otherwise pretty easy to be around. I hopped on him pretty soon after he came in and he was bracey, stiff, and a bit forward, but gentle and tried pretty hard. Through some research we discovered he had been moved through 3 different homes in as many weeks and hadn't gotten a chance to settle anywhere.
His intended rider felt comfortable enough with him to try and hop on a few days later and Whiskey didn't react well and spun before his rider had a chance to get settled in the saddle which resulted in an involuntary dismount. Over the course of the next couple of weeks some major quirks and several body/pain issues were found in addition to a less than ideal weight. Whiskey lacks a lot of confidence and really falls apart when the people around him aren't confident enough to make him feel safe. He also really tries to work through pain, but can react poorly once his tolerance threshold is met.
He really is the sweetest guy ever though and doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
Over the course of the last several months Shantel with Triple H Equine Services Blackfoot ID has been working her magic on Whiskey physically while I've been working on the big training issues. His owners worked on a lot of groundwork between my sessions to help build a relationship with him as well as help him gain muscle as he gained weight. They've also been diligent about making sure all of his vetting and maintenance has been brought up to date to make sure they're doing everything possible to make sure he's healthy and comfortable.
So what's the big deal about loping some circles?
This horse has been quite the challenge to work with, not because he does things wrong, but because he gets so very nervous. For several months even just wearing a saddle made him incredibly uncomfortable. In all the time we've been working with him, I've been on his back just 4 times. This video is from the very first ride that he's actually looked happy and been relaxed.
The first time I attempted to get on him after the incident involving the involuntary dismount, Whiskey was so nervous that he was shaking while standing at the mounting block. I didn't get on him. It wasn't fair to him. Instead, I asked him to flex around and soften his neck to find release. As soon as he figured out that was the answer and he could do it before I asked him to, we quit. That was the end of his session that day.
At the time, I didn't realize what I had just taught him. I asked for that particular action because bending his neck around requires him to loosen his front end a little and is a frequent tool used with colts to help prevent bucking when they're first mounted. It's an action that can help keep a rider safe. I gave him the concpet so that I could have an emergency brake should something go sideways once we worked through the biggest fear issues.
What Whiskey learned, however, is that he could say "That's enough". He learned that he could communicate his discomfort. This isn't something I normally work with, nor it is it something I've needed in the past. It didn't really occur to me that he had learned that until the following week at our next session when I took him to the mounting block in just a halter. I had no intention of getting on him that day, just working on him getting comfortable. Initially he was the same tight, shaking ball of nervousness as soon as I stepped up on the block. I placed a toe in the stirrup and he flexed around to touch my leg. I took it out of the stirrup. His head lowered a bit. I did it again, same response. I did it a third time, but Whiskey's response changed.
This time he didn't reach around immedeately. He let me put a little weight in the stirrup before he said "enough". A minor breakthrough happened when I removed my foot that time. Whiskey stopped shaking. He realized that I was listening. Over the next few minutes I continued with the process in which he allowed me to get a little farther each attempt until I was seated fully in the saddle. The following 2 weeks he was significantly more relaxed, no longer shook at the block, and was starting to soften under saddle. All great progress.
Whiskey then said No. He wasn't mean about it, but was clear. During saddling I had noticed he was a little tighter than normal, but I figured we had missed our session the week before and he hadn't gotten worked as much due to weather so maybe he was feeling fresh. We went to the arena, did a little ground work, then pulled up to the block. He was shaking again. He was asking for release before I even touched a stirrup with a toe. I listened. We did a little more groundwork so that he wasn't entirely out of being worked just because he said no to riding. Then I pulled his tack to find an incredibly sore wither.
Shantel worked on him again to find a bunch of tightness all over his body, we suspect he got in to it with another gelding in the pasture. He took a while to recover from all of his soreness and got an additional week off while his muscles continued to heal. Then came this session that's in the video.
This ride was almost entirely guided by Whiskey. There were a couple things I had in mind that I wanted to accomplish with the ride which we did fairly quickly. I could feel that he wasn't ready to quit working. He wanted to move. So I let him. I gave him his head and allowed him to go whatever speed he wanted. We did quite a few laps at a nice, big trot before he settled in to a beautiful and relaxed lope. This is the very end of the ride, he chose to stop there and I was just a passenger.
This ride we got a new, soft jog with a nice, loose neck. He had brakes. He was more responsive to coming off my leg than he had been previously. Everything had improved and he actually wanted to be there with me and work. He didn't ask to stop, he asked to go. For this particular horse, that's HUGE. It doesn't look like much, but our whole team is incredibly proud of this sweet gelding. He gets better and better every day and is going to make someone a VERY nice horse.
All of that said, Whiskey is not a good fit in his current home. He isn't the horse they needed, but they are the people Whiskey needed for the soft landing that is helping him recover. He needs a home that wants to dedicate a lot of attention to just him. He's sound with no maintenance, plenty capable of riding out, and tries very hard when asked to try new things. He's easy to catch and both single and cross ties. He loads well and stands for a bath. He's content being outside or stalled. He's more of a people horse than a herd man, hasn't showed any sour behaviors. He is not necessarily "fancy", but does neck rein and is going to continue to get worked and refined until he finds a new person. Due to his struggles we would love to work with potential new homes and Whiskey together a couple times to go over everything in depth and set up everything up for success. He's a very special guy to all of us on his team and while none of us want to see him go, we all feel that he would be better suited to a very confident individual that is interested in just pleasure riding. I don't think he's suitable to a home looking to compete. Whiskey may not be a horse that will win awards or ribbons, but he will win your heart.
