Dahli's TIme

In the days immediately following Algiers’ death, Dahli continued to call for him, looking for him each morning and at night panicking when I closed her in the barn alone. And then she came to realize he wasn’t coming back, but that her routine continued the same. And her calls faded with her memories, while she began to realize there were benefits to being alone. All the hay was now hers, as was the pasture. I brushed her with Algiers’ brushes to comfort her with his aroma, and spent as much time with her as I could. This was Dahli’s time. We picked up her ground work in the spring, and added in ground driving so she would learn steering and brakes. After experimenting with reins run through surcingle rings versus through stirrups, I gave up and decided to keep it simple. Just the long lines straight from her bit to my hands, as I walked along behind and slightly to one side or the other seemed to work best.

 

July: backing

By July, she seemed reliable and ready for the next big step. I assessed the risks of starting a timid, sensitive and very reactive, quick and athletic mare. Because I am alone here, and don’t have anything like an ideal setup, I decided to err on the side of caution and start her lightly tranquilized with ace promazine. I decided to work directly behind the barn where it is fairly level and we could be close to the barn – an area of safety. I kept the barn door closed so she wouldn’t be tempted to make a run for it. I roughly allowed July for initial backing, August for riding around the property at a walk, September for trotting and October to introduce canter. Each day, I positioned her next to a hay bale and climbed onto that. From there, I could lean across the saddle and let her get accustomed to the feel of my weight. Several times, I leaned across the saddle, and then shifted my weight back to my feet. Then dropped the stirrup down and this time hoisted myself gently up with a foot in the stirrup still just leaning across the saddle. The next day, I halved the ace and repeated leaning across the saddle with a stick in my right hand. This time, lying across the saddle I tapped her with the stick and asked her to “walk.” We walked along a few steps and then I let myself slip to the ground. We repeated this exercise a few times per day, for two days running. And then I gathered my courage and slipped into the saddle, still leaning down low on her neck with my seat in the saddle and scratching and encouraging her from there. I introduced her to leg aids supported by my voice and a light tap of the stick. And then I began sitting up straight in the saddle. We practiced steering, starting with circles and progressing to figures of eight and then serpentines in the small area behind the barn. Everything interspersed with very brief halts and immediately moving off forward, before she could become impatient or anxious. I stopped the ace altogether within 3 or 4 days.

 

August and September: walking and trotting

By the first of August, I moved the training area to the arena, and we repeated everything. By the end of August, we were calmly walking around the entire arena and each subdivided pasture area, past the barn, behind the barn and would end the ride next to the shed. In September, I introduced trotting and by the end of that month, she was doing circles, figures of eight and serpentines up and down the arena, and trotting circles in the pastures as well. We had a couple spooks, which my body handled easily. Our mutual confidence and trust grew.

 

October: Cantering and WHOA NELLIE!

In early October, the time seemed right and I asked her for canter. It took several attempts of asking from a strong trot before she responded with a canter. I was blown away by the quality of her canter – a beautiful, clear 3 beats and so powerful and yet easy. After a couple strides I eased her back to a trot and then repeated the pattern I’d used to strike off and repeated the short canter. She rounded herself beautifully cantering, although a little deeper than I wanted, it held through her trot. I noted that it was a good thing that from day one she hadn’t shown any sign of wanting to buck, as her slightly deep position while cantering lent itself perfectly to serious bucking.

 

Our riding time was limited, and every day I considered could be the last before the fall rains came. Even so, I decided to quit while we were ahead and pick up the next day. A decision I have regretted ever since. The next day we repeated our usual warm up, work-in and training pattern. I use patterns to allow their repetition build confidence and routine in timid horses, introducing new exercises when they start to anticipate or get silly which indicates they are ready for the next step. So we followed our usual pattern until I reached the point of starting the new exercise: cantering. I repeated the pattern I’d used to set her up for her first canters yesterday. She’d been thinking about it overnight, and responded immediately – by breaking into a world class, rodeo-quality, bucking bronco fest! I was totally unprepared, sitting in a 2-point to keep her back free and with my reins a little longer than I now wish they’d been. For 6 bucks, she shot me straight up out of the saddle. I kept myself square above her and landed right back where I’d started, but before I could scramble to pick up the reins and do anything, I was already shooting back into the air. Meantime, her mental wheels were turning.