Sue – How Do You Do in a Horse Development Clinic?

We had the Whole Enchillada Memorial Day Weekend in Bentonville.
We had the Friday evening free demonstration where the entire Vaught family (except 3 year old Justin) rode their horses and knocked the socks off the crowd. Five year old Caitlyn rode Velvet. At the end, Caitly asked Velvet to lie down and she wowed the crowd.
Saturday, we had the Difficult and Challenging Horse Demonstration. That was very cool. Tony had to take a long time with Scout to get him relaxed and unafraid so that he could ride him. We saw Scout make many changes. The press came during this portion of the demonstration and we had articles in two Bentonville newspapers!
We got to see Bourbon, a tall American Saddlebred, load himself in a small trailer. It took Bourbon 2 hours to deal with his fear with Tony patiently coaching him and persisting that he load into the trailer. When it was all done, Bourbon had loaded himself in and out of that little trailer about 15 times. His owner got to load him several times also. When it was done, Bourbon should be able to get into any trailer.
We had Sunny, the untouched horse. She was nearing three and had not been trained to lead. She also was entered in the next day’s Horse Development clinic and by the time it was over, not only did she know how to lead, but she had her first ride! What that horse learned in two days is phenominal!
On Sunday, we had the Horse Development Clinic. I asked the participants to bring things that scare horses. We had tarps, spray bottles, yellow slickers, trash can filled with empty pop cans, the pedestal and lots of different sized balls.
This is the clinic that I wanted Sue to be in. She got to ride in Tony and Jenny’s trailer with the other 4 horses.
Everyone in the clinic had a carrot stick and used it. Remember how scared Sue was of other people’s carrot sticks while I was riding her? Well, this was the great opportunity for her to have carrot sticks moving everywhere as well as being surrounded by other horses. And, with me being on the ground, I didn’t have to worry.
We started out learning how to back up, turn on the forequarters and hindquarters. Since Sue was more advanced, Jenny gave us a few special assignments.
Next we moved the balls. We formed two circles with horses behind the humans and we kicked a ball back and forth the the humans.
My circle was going slowly and Sue was tolerating the balls just fine. We snuck down and joined Tony’s group. He always gets the action moving faster. We played with the ball on the ground. Then we bounced the ball…and lastly we had balls flying all over the place. Sue did just fine in all of this. She backed up a bit, but she didn’t turn and run.
We had a lunch break and then it was time for scary things. We played with a tarp, spray water bottles, yellow slicker, red slicker, umbrella, and hoola hoops. She’s still leary of hoola hoops going over her head, so we worked a lot on desensitizing with that. We didn’t have time to get the umbrella over her head. She tolerated it being over my head and being on the ground.
Near the end of the day, we walked over and climbed right up on the pedestal. I put the hoola hoop over her head while she was on the pedestal. Everyone was impressed and so was I!
Lastly we played skipping around the horse on one end and the other end had that game where you go under an ever-lowering stick. What is the name of that game! On the skipping end of the arena, Tony also rode three horses. He put the first ride on the untouched horse, Sunny. He passenger rode her around the arena while all of us were playing with the scary objects. Is that not amazing! He rode another palomino horse that was very reactive. He got that horse calmed right down by playing the skipping and drunken cowboy game. He had to take over that horse during the ball game in the morning. That horse started to kick out when he became overloaded. His threshhold was crossed and Tony took him over and demonstrated how to calm him down to get back into his left brain.
Tony also rode Sundancer. ..another palomino. Sundancer was ready for his ride. Tony skipped around him a bit and then jumped on him. His “human mother” walked in front of him and he followed with Tony on his back. This was also during the time when the rest of us were playing with horse scary things. Another amazing thing. I guess it was a palomino kind of a colt start day for those three palominos!
The stick was suspended from the gate on one end and rested on two barrels on the other end. The opening was just a bit wider that the width of a horse! People were leaning on the gate. A 10 year old boy was sitting on top of a corral panel very close. All those things would cause clastrophobia to a horse. Sue and I waltzed under the stick. We then all got in a circle and took turns going under the stick. Sue handled it fine whether I led her through or sent her through. She was fabulous.
Near the end of the clinic, a yellow slicker was drapped over the pole. The yellow slicker hung down about as far as Sue’s mouth. She couldn’t see the other side. We stuck there for a while. I had her put her head down several times and then made the suggestion that she could now walk through. Several times, she didn’t believe me. Eventually, she decided that she could walk through the yellow slicker if she ducked her head. We DID IT!
The clinic was over. Sue handled everything. She handled all the horses. She handled 14 other carrot sticks. I don’t remember her even flinching! That was fantastic.
When we went around one by one and told what we had learned, I was last. I told the audience that 3-4 months ago, Sue was pronounced a fruit-loop horse and after Tony and Jenny retraining I was able to take over. Then I passed my emotional threshhold and burst out in tears “I’m So PROUD of HER,” I loudly sobbed!
It was a great way to end the clinic!
But, just to show me that my relationship with Sue is not yet 100%, she played hard to catch the next morning.  After lunch! I had to walk her down about 10 minutes until she turned, faced me and then allowed me to walk up to her. She was in a pasture with her trailer buddies and would rather remain with them!