I need to put a coda on the Eva story.
It's interesting. I have had the opportunity to work with three very different, wonderfully bred Welsh Cobs on a loan basis over the past few years, Aeres, Encore and Eva. Two of them taught me a lot about training and riding. but Eva taught me a lot about myself.
Eva taught me that I can, but I don't want to, bounce like I used to. It had been well over fifteen years since I fell off a horse when I fell off of her in August. It was a "good" fall, but I'm still dealing with some lingering (and thankfully, slowly subsiding) pain a few months later from my arm and leg hyperextending as I whiplashed them into the ground. With the way my mental health is built upon CrossFit, and the way our co-op is built around us all being able to perform manual labor, nothing scares me more than being injured.
She taught me that I don't naturally think like a horse trainer. I missed some subtle signs that there were small holes in her foundation, which turned into bigger holes later on. Ones which I thankfully had time to fix, but still, we could have avoided the fixing.
But - she also taught me that I can learn to think like a horse trainer. Especially when I rely on my friends, like Kate, Mary and Leah.
I'm going to try not to generalize an entire gender, but Eva taught me that I don't know how to speak mare. If I had had the time to really develop a partnership with her, I think she would be dynamite, but it's a whole different ball game from geldings and stallions, one that I am not used to playing.
She taught me that I can teach a level of subtlety I never thought I was capable of. That mare, no joke, steers off your seat and weight aids basically alone, in a rope halter, thanks to the way Kate had me start her. I'm looking forward to using that knowledge on Disco.
And she validated my opinion that some horses need to be started young for reasons that have entirely to do with the mind. I do not mean started hard, but I do mean that they need to understand the concepts of "work" and "submission" when they're still impressionable. Eva is a wonderful mare with a sweet personality, but we never really found anything she enjoyed, work-wise. I can't help but wonder if her work ethic would be different if she was started younger.
Ultimately, unlike Encore and Aeres, Eva wasn't really with me to be sold, and she is now back home, perhaps to be bred next spring. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to play with her and for the perspective that she gave me.
Thanks for the coda; I wondered what happened with Eva. Very interesting to read your perspective on her. Sounds like there are LOTS of differences between her and my little black Morgan, but one thing struck me. Perhaps Stella's inability to truly relax comes from basically being feral until she was almost four. I've accepted that she may always be tense and hot; would she be different now if 'started' much younger?
ReplyDeleteI don't know that you can generalize that much, but I do think it matters. It certainly has for Disco.
DeleteI had mares for years, I like mares. I was on the list for another. But Jen's mares kept having colts and I finally caved. I'm living life in the reverse, I need like 25% of the toolbox I needed for my mares, and the geldings are still like "why r u like this?! it's fine, everything is fine." How are they so agreeable, and with no strings attached? Why did I not do this sooner? :)
ReplyDeleteHahaha, I love that, and I can totally see it. To be honest, it's obviously not for everyone but I need to write a post about how much I'm enjoying stallion life so far. There's a sharpness and awareness to Disco, but also a directness and simplicity that I very much appreciate. It's wholly different from geldings or mares.
DeleteThank you for the final post about her, I've really enjoyed following along with her. Her story is similar to my gal, (Dee was left alone until I bought her at 4 and knew basically nothing), and Eva sounds just as sensitive as Dee. There are days I can leg yield just off my seat alone with her. When people ask her age, I say Dee is physically 5 but mentally 3. I love a good gelding, but I think I'll always be a mare person.
ReplyDeleteDee sounds wonderful! I really don't think there's one answer for this kind of thing, you just have to know your individual horses.
Deleteya know. i have a lot of gratitude for the third project horse i had in college, bc after two fairly easy to "get going" horses (more or less, they all have their things), Angel was a different sort of horse for me and i eventually had to throw in the towel. probably stuck it out too long, honestly (young + stubborn etc) and paid the price with falls and confidence issues. like, horses are hard no matter what, but knowing that legitimately not every horse can or will be a good fit for me makes me more appreciative of the sweet and kind horses who give me confidence and mesh well with me.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. I did tell Lisa early on that Eva was above my pay grade, and maybe that's more what I meant. She is the second Castleberry Cob I've started, and the first, a gelding, was just so much easier for me.
DeleteNeeding to be started young because of their mind is such a legitimate thing (VERY unpopular online, though). Wynnie is almost 3 now and we've started doing little bits of groundwork (like 5-10 minutes of lungeing and little bits of yielding the haunches, that sort of thing), and the change in her overall demeanour is HUGE.
ReplyDeleteAlso, yes, mares are a whole 'nother ball game lol
It's unpopular but only because people have this all-or-nothing opinion of starting them. It's not like you get on and start w/t/c for an hour 5 days a week immediately. Disco has had maybe 4 rides, and a lot of driving, and that's been enough to completely change his attitude from what it was about work before he left.
DeleteThank you for sharing more about Eva - I was just wondering what she was up to! As a first time mare owner myself, it's been a huge learning experience for me as well. I find it challenging to walk the line of "I get it girlfriend, we both have feelings" and "Hey, I still need you to be polite around other horses and when you get temped!" It's really starting to pay off as she's friendly in a way I'm not sure I've experienced before, but you know I struggled for a bit!! So glad Lisa is keeping her on for breeding, that's a good line of sport ponies!
ReplyDeleteYes I do! Sticking it out seems to be paying off. I am of course not a professional, but Eva and honestly Encore also were not 30-60 days' training type horses. They wanted a person and they wanted certainty. I think yours may be the same also, some of them just take some time.
DeleteMost of the horses I have ridden long-term over the years have been geldings. The opportunity arose this year to half lease a mare and it has been a vastly different experience. She's tolerant because she is an amateur's horse after all, but there are certain instances where she insists that I do things correctly. Or there are many, many opinions. I just about gave up on riding her back in August, but when she finally got her joint maintenance (she was way past due on injections), so many things became so much easier and the bucking was drastically reduced. There are lots of awesome geldings out there, but I've really seen the value of a good mare this year. I had to earn her trust and frankly she had to earn mine, but I am so, so grateful for her. She also takes care of my almost 4 year old daughter and that to me is invaluable.
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