06/12/2024
So what exactly do you do?
That’s the question that someone asked me a couple weeks ago that caught me off guard. I was standing in a barnyard sipping a margarita that the property owner had handed me at the last appointment of the day. I thought about it for a couple seconds and then I realized that it really depends on who you ask and why you’re asking. That person was asking me about me though. I gave a blanket answer.
I do some training, teaching, rehab, farrier stuff and a little nutrition consulting.
What kind of training? What do you teach? What kind of horses do you have?
Once again I struggled to answer. Why? It sounds either a little silly or a lot like being full of crap if I answer, honestly.
Hi, I’m Mel and I love horses. I don’t just love them, I’m fascinated by every idea I can think of and piece of information that I can consume concerning the horse.
What’s your thing though?
Horses are my thing. All the breeds. Every size. All the disciplines. I want to do it all and have tried and been mediocre at most of it. Some things I’m really good at and others I can get by with. A few, I won’t be trying again. My bucket list is short now. There’s a couple of things left I wish I could try before this body calls it a day.
Well, what do you have for a horse?
That answer gets even more silly. The Andalusian I do mostly liberty with? Or my filly who’s bred for ranch work? How about my appy, she’s the best trail horse I have! Or my Arabian, I’m thinking about taking her around some barrels this year. The spicy Shetland mare that I spend so much of my time grooming? You want to hear about the warmblood I’m hoping to bring home this summer? I’ve been dreaming of a draft mare that I can take to weekend plowing parties with potluck dinners with the draft horse club. My western pleasure horse is retired and i might breed her next year for a replacement. I don’t have good answers here. I didn’t know we had to choose. I just do the next thing that brings me joy and some days that’s around a barrel at oh $hit speed and some days that’s piaffe, half pass and change rein.
Ok then what do you teach?
What do you want to learn? I ride the same no matter what horse I’m on or the tack involved. I do my best work on the ground at the end of a lead rope or standing in the middle of an arena doing my very best to speak life into the human/horse relationship or with a hoof in my hand. I’m not sure what I teach. I am sure that I want to share with others everything that’s been shared with me and all the cool ideas that I’ve come up with to build a road to communication with the horse. I can get you started on almost any path you want but I can walk with you for a long distance on the road to listening to your horse. I’m not sure what that’s called. It doesn’t matter what tack you show up with or what breed of horse you dress up in that equipment. I’m going to listen to it just the same as the horse before it and the one after it.
So, if you’re looking for classical training then, yeah, I’ve got that. A bunch of it. But you’re going to learn an awful lot about your horse and how to appreciate his idea of what’s happening while you’re getting that classical training program because if it’s not about the horse, it’s not for me.
What do I do? Horses. All the things that light up my soul about horses, that’s what I do.
Picture credit: Madyson Coburn Photography
