WARNING:
I am fully aware of the low quality of the following videos. These were my early beginnings in 2013, and I had limited access to video cameras. Unfortunately, original footage has been lost, and I only have the initial edited videos to present.
I still want to show them here, as they illustrate the progress I made as a learning horseman, overall demonstrating that you can make mistakes on your path to getting better with horses. So, don’t be afraid to get in the arena and start to practise and learn.
Table of Contents
Abused and spooky P.R.E. gelding
This P.R.E. (Pura Raza Española) gelding had some issues in the past: ears pinched, and it appears that he probably not has been treated gently. Since then, he’s never been worked or broke.
- Name: Finito
- Breed: P.R.E.
- Age: 3 ½ years old
- Genre: gelding
Finito was four years old when I started him. He arrived to Turban Stud in Denmark when he was three. He was quite spooky and shy, as he was abused back in his breeding farm in Spain. It took some time to get over these problems, but he ended to be a nice and pleasant horse.
Starting a young Arabian gelding
This Arabian gelding has been started in four days. He was born in 2009, has been brushed a couple of times and halter broke, but never worked, never been saddled before that.
- Name: Etamoor
- Breed: Arabian
- Age: 3 ½ years old
- Genre: gelding
Etamoor was three and a half years old when I started to work with him. I had only four days before me, because he was already sold and his new owner was to come very soon. I went through the complete basic program: Foundation groundwork, Desensitizing, first steps under saddle.
Breaking an old Arabian breeding stallion
Perm has spent the last thirteen years of his life walking from a stable to a round-pen, and breeding mares from time to time. He experienced riding once when he “got broke” in 2000.
- Name: Perm
- Breed: Arabian
- Age: 17 years old
- Genre: stallion
Perm was seventeen years old and did not do much but eat, sleep and breed for the past thirteen years! No surprise: he had a couple of problems to solve, and was not ready to be ridden at once.
The Fence exercise really helped me here to get him used to see me above his head, to feel my leg in the stirrup and on the saddle. Natural horsemanship was the only available and positive approach for him. Finally, he’s a great horse, he’s got the best jog I know, and he loves to spend time with a good (light-handed) rider.
Perm has been a great teacher to me, and he left his mark on me in a very positive way…
Starting a very dominant Arabian stallion
Elixir was four years old when I started him. He has been used to be the king of the pasture, and that included humans! He was very dominant and knew nothing about respect.
- Name: Elixir
- Breed: Arabian
- Age: 4 years old
- Genre: stallion
My first approach was to consider the stallion and force respect by lunging and backing up, which ultimately ended in big arguments around the arena. That is where humility is important: I had to consider the fact that I was completely wrong, and try another approach, more gentle and patient.
From that moment, he started to consider my cues, to listen to me and actually enjoyed to work and be ridden. Yet, there still were some moments when we lost that connection and he got disrespectful, so we had to get back to the basis to re-connect. At the end of our time together, he was more calm, more focused, and his new owner has been able to ride him at all three gaits.