09/16/2025
DONT BE A QUITTER
I recieve quite the variety of horses. Some needing refreshers, some for fine tuning, and a lot of c**t starts. Many times, c**ts get dropped off a lot like kindergarteners. Some, their parents already taught them half of the alphabet. Others, they can barely hold a pencil. You can probably imagine what kindergarten is like those first few weeks or months. A s**t show? Yeah, probably. Is the teacher having a shot of whiskey at home? Likely... But does she just quit her job because it gets hard?
No......
Out of hundreds of horses, I have sent home less than five. I believe only 4 in 15years that came in to be started and I never rode them. Why? Unrealistic timeline from the client that would truly put my life in danger. I don't sign up for that bulls**t.
But many times there are horses that question my timeline. They protest the process almost daily. Ive had some in training that he was either running me over or pulling away from me constantly. Then when trying to prep him for saddling, he was either swinging his head around to bite me or was cow kicking at me. The safest place around this bastard was on top of him. Well, the opportunity presented itself and that's exactly what I did.
The following day, his owners came to see him and I wasn't exactly thrilled. The results that I had hoped to be, was not there. I felt behind. We all play on the horses timeline but any professional does have their own internal clock too.
With training, I try to always stay optimistic. Never let my mind draw to conclusions too fast. Even with tough horses, my mindset is setting the horse up for a future and not end up on a fancy platter in china. I'm not worried about matching horse and owner in the beginning of the process. Im there for the horse only. Owner comes second.
Repeat after me.....
Don't.....Be....A....Quitter