A Frantic Trot - May 2009

For Xena, the trot and lope have been very challenging, emotional gaits. When I first began training her in early 2009, she was actually unable to trot without flying into a panic and galloping down the long side. Her eyes would be terrified and her tail erect, while she snorted and frantically searched for an escape route. It was sad to see her unable to enjoy the power and beauty of just being a horse. I don’t know why she reacted like this, but I imagine it was someone at the PMU barn who taught her to run for her life. After many months I was able to train her to do a gentle, unemotional walk-jog transition and she’ll now jog along so beautifully, both online and next to me as we run at liberty.

I’m now planning to train her to do trot-lope and walk-lope transitions, but first she needs to learn my verbal cue for a lope. Tonight she stepped into the lope on two separate occasions, but it was stressful for her. I had to push her into a very fast trot before she’d pick up the lope, as we’ve not practiced this before. I’m using Clicker Training to teach her this, as it allows me to acknowledge the moment that she performs a task correctly; it’s called positive reinforcement. I clicked at the moment she picked up the lead with her hind leg, and then quickly asked her to turn-in after only 2 or 3 strides. She anxiously trotted to me, and I praised her enthusiastically while she ate her treat.

It may seem excessive to have waited 20 months before teaching Xena to lope, but I’m really glad I did. She’s gained so much confidence in the last year, and I think her emotional response to the lope will be fairly brief. Loping online is one of our pre-riding skills, as both of us will need to be confident, in case she has a burst of speed while I’m in the saddle.

Xena was rarely ridden during her 17-years. She was started as a young mare by Peter Campbell, during a natural horsemanship clinic in Alberta. Fast forward 10 years, and she’d changed hands, been a PMU mare for several years, and ended up as a rescue on a feedlot. In 2007 she was again backed by professional trainers, but her last ride turned into a bucking session and the rider was seriously injured. Understandably, no one has ridden her since.

I’m not a professional rider. I’m not even an advanced rider. But in any case, I don’t think it’s crazy to restart her myself. She knows me, trusts me, and is strongly bonded to me. And just as importantly, I know her; I know how she reacts when she’s frightened, I know how she behaves when she’s confident. I can recognize her thresholds before she’s overwhelmed, and I have the patience to go back to square-one, if that’s what she needs. And, by the time I mount her, we’ll have completed 2 years of Parelli groundwork training together — that’s significant. (I’ve almost convinced myself that I’m capable. :p)

My plan is to train Xena from the ground, on as many pre-riding skills as I can find or create. I plan to above all, take the time Xena needs; months if necessary. We will have many training sessions, leading up to our first ride, because the more I build her confidence from the ground, the safer I’ll be in the saddle … and the more confident she’ll be under it. All it’s going to take is time, patience, perseverance and love — in abundance.

* Key Training Sessions represent dates when we seemed to make significant progress, although there are often several training sessions between dates.