Dave

There are times, when this game, specifically the horse training element of it, just seems too hard. When things are going well, everything seems wonderful, but the effort, time, money and luck involved in having things go well, is really a lot more complicated than one might realise. 

The biggest problem I face, is the challenge being head vs heart. The struggle of differentiating business from pleasure. 

18 months ago, I embarked on one of my biggest challenges, having 4 trainees on the go at once. A horse doing the job I am asking, requires many attributes, but along with that they need the positive experiences and the understanding of what is being asked of them. They must be able to remain calm, and look to their person for guidance. 

I guess for me, I thought I was a good enough leader and trainer to work with most horses, and given the time, would get them working nicely. How wrong was I?!?

I have a very relaxed training method. No pressure, and everything is broken down into the smallest pieces possible. Every horse gets the same basics, although if there is a certain thing that needs a different approach, then I’ll accommodate where I can. 

What is interesting though, is how differently each of these 4 trainees accepted the training. 

Monty and Luna have their own blog, but I think Dave has slipped under the radar a bit. Dave is a funny man. Initially he came to me having not had much previous interaction with people. It only took him a couple of weeks to work out that people came with nice things like food. 

He worked out that he would be asked things, and learnt to offer what he thought I wanted, and the try would be rewarded. For all the basic things, he started to do quite well. He began to like his short sessions, and really started to enjoy grooming and baths. 

Introducing tack was intriguing however. From one side, he was quite accepting. If the tack approached from the other side, it was absolutely terrifying. In a way, Dave reminded me of the movie ‘50 first dates’. He would accept something in a session, seem to be very comfortable with it, then the next day it was like he’d never seen it before. 

The steps I use to start all my trainees can be seen in my ‘life of Brian’ videos on the YouTube carriage of occasion page. They are all step by step. Once we’d moved on to pulling a tyre, it was like something just clicked. It was like Dave finally understood his purpose in life. He progressed 3 steps in 1 session, proudly marching along pulling a tyre. 

His over reaction to things subsided, and I was very close to moving on to the cart. Then one day, while pulling his tyre, he just dropped his bundle. I asked him to walk in a certain direction, he took offence, went the other way, spooked at the tyre following him, then bolted. 

Now, I don’t mind a spook. Horses are allowed to spook, there are many scary things in this world to a horse. The important bit is how they react to that spook. They need to settle to the voice, and trust their driver. Dave did not. Dave ran, and because the tyre was following him, he kept running. Eventually he managed to dislodge the tyre, and came to a fence and stopped. 

We went back a few steps after this. Everything was back to being scary. We went back to long reining pulling nothing, reinforced the noisy cans, went back to the light, quick to escape from tyre and built our way back up. 

We were back to pulling the tyre and swingle bar confidently, although still wary and suspicious of life.

The decision to no longer chase a harness career for Dave came after we were calmly long reining yesterday. The tyre he was pulling hit a bump. A bump that he has done for the past 6 weeks without any form of reaction to it. The tyre hit the bump, Dave spooked and bolted. There was no holding him. In a blind panic he bowled through a post and rail fence into the greys yard. Straight through the wire fence at the other end. 

Around and around he went, panicking, even though the tyre was long gone. He lined up a 4 strand wire fence, flipped over it, then got up and continued running. Eventually he stopped, amazingly with only a few minor grazes, so I caught him and removed the harness, then led him back to clean him up. 

For me and him, the journey ends here. He is going to a brilliant home, where he will have time to just be Dave. 

I don’t have the confidence in him, or myself, that I could get him through such a scare. It is not safe for him to continue, if that is his, out of the blue reaction. 

This is why when you see me post a video of driving Brian in the cart, who has been in training the same length of time as Dave, and has had exactly the same process, that I am in awe of how well he is going. 

The main difference I can see, is Brian trusts me. Brian does not see me as suspicious, Brian accepts that I am worthy of his trust and wants to follow my leadership. 

I do hope that Dave finds the connection he seeks with his new owner.