06/06/2025
I wrote a little tongue-in-cheek article a few days ago about laying the blame for your disfunctional partnership with your horse right where it belongs, honestly and without rancor. And sometimes, where the blame belongs is with your horse's character. Believe it or not! Not all horses are born with a gentle and agreeable nature. Some are anything but! It is exactly why some stallions (and mares) produce bucking horses and some produce kids horses. It's not rocket science.
It is not all training and handling.
Let me say that again; it is NOT all training and handling.
I have always said that good horses find the right way, sometimes despite everything we do. For example, I had a buckskin horse for years who was the best head horse I ever swung a leg over; he'd score like a rock, break sharp, run hard, rate off, and stay honest in the hole allowing me to dally and roll a steer out paired up like a heelers dream. I didn't train him all that. He figured it out while I was still fumbling with my rope. That horse was miles ahead of any rider who ever sat his saddle, in any event we did with him. Amazing. I used to burst with pride when folks would compliment my training skills, knowing full well I never taught him all that, he just figured it out while I played catch up.
Then I've had the odd d**k that despite my best efforts to lay the plan out in an open and easy to comprehend fashion as possible, no matter how patient I was, this horse could not and would not settle. They'd fight the training like their lives depended on it. And maybe to them, it did. Those horses would keep me awake long into the night trying to figure out how to build a positive response in them. How to get them rode without getting hurt...that concern has weighed on my mind in the odd midnight hour, once or twice over this forty year career. In the end, it usually turned out that I was losing sleep over a pig's ear I was trying to shine up and pass off as a silk purse. A very temporary accomplishment. You know what I am saying? Putting lipstick on a pig does not make it a beauty queen...it's still...and first chance it gets...gonna be rolling in the mud, without a care given to all the gloss you put on it.
After all, you cannot change the basic character of a horse. No matter how well you get them going, if they are a d**k they are a d**k. It is a simple rule. If it gets complicated, check your ego because that is usually where the struggle can be found. Us humans battling an ego that doesn't want to admit defeat.
I just wanted to tell the pony petters who disagree with me; not all horses are born equal. It's why there are breeding programs that work, constantly producing great minded animals, trainable and hard working, purely talented, and breeding programs that disappear into the rising dust of broken bones, bank accounts and dreams. Good money thrown after bad, and time you will never get back that could have been spent training a willing horse. 🤷
Have a good day folks. 😊
