Al Dunning was giving a clinic and I was delighted to be an auditor. He talked about the time it takes a trainer to get a horse ready for the show arena with enough skills to have a chance of winning. He said, “It takes 100 hours to start a horse and ready to show.” A trainer usually rides five days a week for as long as twenty minutes to forty-five minutes with an average of thirty minutes. Figure out how long a 100 hours takes…about a year. Now the trainer is given a horse that has been started incorrectly. Usually force (torture) has been applied incorrectly causing fear or bad habits. Al told us it takes a 100 hours to restart the horse. Now we are at the point where the addition 100 hours are needed to teach the horse using correct methods before being ready for the show. In human terms, it takes two years to restart the horse and get him enough skills to make it in what ever show activity is involved.
Fancy spent eight months in Florida. I had a limping EPM horse at home. It was winter in Missouri. Having Cisco at the stable was depressing. Every time I thought he was ridable, he wasn’t. This was very depressing. I brought him home and on good days we played in the round pen doing ground work. I thought I could make it until April to get a ridable Fancy back from Florida.
Tony Vaught came to town to do his farrier work on Cisco. He pulled up by the barn, hopped out of the car, looked at Cisco and said, “Your horse is doing great!” “THANKS!” I said. But wait. How did he know Cisco was doing great? Turns out he was talking about Fancy. His next words were this: “Fancy is really doing great. If you let me keep her all summer, I’ll win the Ranch Horse World Grand Championship.”
WHAT!
What could I do? Fancy won the Open Reserve Ranch Horse World Grand Championship with Tony! She was beaten by her half sister, Nova, ridden by Jenny Vaught. It was a great show! My name is on the owner registration papers of both horses! Wheee! When the classes were over, I got to have my first ride on Fancy. I quickly determined that she is the perfect horse for me! This was September. I had gone thru nearly a year without having a horse to ride. My core muscles were happy in hibernation.
Fancy had eight months for her restart. Tony rode Fancy in a bosal. She had an aversion to a bit. Her bit aversion was caused by torture during her failed first colt start.
Fancy came home and was put into training with Erin Patterson. Erin is a wonderful Fox Trotter trainer. She started working on Fancy’s hatred of the bit. Fancy’s head and mouth had been treated with inhumane methods during her first colt start. We also discovered she also had a sore back. Our vet chiropractor discovered the right hip had locked. This made her have a “hitch” when she was trying to gait.
Horses are complicated.