This is a question that is weighing heavily on me right now… Am I good enough to work through the changes I need in Breeze? or maybe they are changes in myself?
I haven’t had a horse like him since Traveler… strong, herd bound, anxious (and therefore spooky).
The last of those appearing to be, by word of mouth of prior owners and trail sharers, a byproduct of his turmoil in living situations from Nov 2022 to Jan 2023 when I got him.

Being completely honest – the incident in May has set me back in confidence and left me nervous to attempt large organized rides at this point, or group rides when I know there are ‘fire breathing dragons’ along. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just not doing what I had hoped we would be up to. But now I have to figure out – how do I get to where I want to be. Is it where we should be?

I’ve become picky when riding in groups and pick terrain that I know can be dealt with if he has a moment. I got myself a safety vest (not an air vest though), but I need to test out how it feels when in the saddle before I am on trail with it for longer times. Now that the weather sometimes is cooperative and I have ability to haul (new to us truck = new hitch to install), I need to set aside the time to go do more lessons with him. So much to juggle now with schedules as school has begun – for our now 6th & 9th graders – with driving them around to school, soccer, horse shows, and marching band – and my desire to go on trail. I’m not a fan of the arena 😛

The above was written weeks ago as I contemplated things… I never finished, so here’s the latest update and thoughts.

Since the above started, I’ve gotten Breeze out again with Skyler a few times. He’s still more reactive than I would like, but I’m finding ways to work through it. I’ve got a good sticky bum and sticky pants lol. He’s just a BIG mover, so if you are caught off guard at all, HOLD ON! (as he slams on the brakes, backs or side steps, or even teleports across the trail width)
The things he spooks at, I don’t always understand – like trying to walk through a gate on trail – but NOT a kiddie pool or random obstacles in the ring – Or a bridge across a creek that we had to step down the bank to approach, but NOT the same type of bridge before that had more of straight lead in. The giant piece of machinery alongside a trail – yeah I get that! We retreated and reapproached, giving it very wide berth while snorting and moving forward. Sometimes we have to resort to using Scooby, who he himself is not brave, to start the forward movement, and then they go on together.

I’m sure there is a trust component to this and some relationship building we need…and likely *something* that happened between Nov 22 & Jan 23 that has set him back mentally from what he was at his original sale last July. So we work on it as we can.

This is a different challenge for me…I’ve feel I’ve been through the gamut of physical issues and loss; I’ve learned in-depth about hooves, composite shoes, bodywork, and nutrition. I even had to expand my pasture management knowledge to implement a track system for Sully. Now, I have a horse that in all aspects appears to physically capable and strong, but the mental side, that I never had to learn to ‘fix’ with Traveler so many years ago, is the ailment before me.

We headed to another Tom Moates clinic weekend early in September. We set out at 7am and arrived right in time to start our session that Fri morning, with 2hr drive and targeting a 915+am arrival four our 945 slot. Initially Breeze was cool and clam and just hung in the trailer on the far driveway while we discussed unloading and timing and such for the other horse currently being worked, who normally lives alone. Once I moved the trailer down to the barn and he and the other horse noticed each other, he became quite a bit more antsy in the trailer. One issue that has crept up since July was his refusal to back off the trailer. He was easily going on/off, but then “scared himself” coming off not setting his foot down correctly and had since been impossible to get to back off, so we were taking Scooby off first and then turning and walking Breeze off (usually we do the opposite to help Scooby’s joints out as backing off such a step up is harder). Tom took over after a few minutes of my attempts and was able to get the back, with the note we would work on it again the next day. Beyond that, Tom also helped him center and refocus off the trailer as I took off the shipping boots. He’s normally not so ‘antsy’ at places upon arrival, but that day was a good day to show it! We tacked up and headed to a round pen where we worked on getting Breeze to seek me vs glued to the edge nearest the other horse. Then it came time to hop on. Breeze is trained to shimmy up to a mounting block, but he does it to the point he practically shoves you off, so Tom spent 15-20 min working him through the right runway approach. I hopped on for 5 or 10min, but even in that short a time we had good successes and worked through some scary areas of the round pen and approaching from both directions before we called time on our slot. Breeze got to be turned out next to Sunny and was happily munching the grass as we left. This was a “roving clinic” between several locations. I enjoyed watching Tom work with 3 more horses that day, learning a ton, and spent lovely evening on the mountain with old and new friends.

Saturday our day went in reverse and we started on the mountain – what views! Again we watched Tom work his “magic” and help horses with anxieties, that the owner learns how to work with and then experiences it too. When you start with horses that aren’t “untouched” it is amazing to see how similar they are in a way — all 5 of the horses showed us they have had experiences that make them anxious of certain requests, movements, objects or sounds. Breeze’s way of showing anxiety is far from subtle! While he complies and moves about, in addition to high-head carriage and tension, his bottom lip starts flapping. When we’ve been out on trail and such together, it is fairly infrequent, and only when he is worried, spooked, or impatient. That Saturday lesson was quite the opposite as he knew Sunny was “there somewhere.” We did some quick grounding work as weather was drizzly and then switched to riding. Tom had me work on making my legs more noticeable to him (he can ignore them pretty well otherwise!), and one-rein circling to change his thoughts if needed. We also worked on his backing, which he has major bracing to while doing that. We were doing well, then the herd-bound focus on Sunny came into play hearing him in the barn, and he got wound up and difficult to focus and move about. Tom helped us end on a good note, with more work to be done; he mentioned he could see how hard it can be to refocus Breeze once “up” and we plan for more clinics to help us work through that.

Once we finished up riding we worked on getting Breeze to slow down his approach for loading, and load only halfway in without angst. We practiced it several times, and while he again managed to “scare himself” when going to back off at home, I was able to convince him to in a few short minutes. More work to do there as we go places and practice this. We got wet, but I had said earlier I’d rather ride wet than drive home through bad weather – that is indeed what happened! Clear my whole drive home 🙂 I was even able to unhook upon arrival, which was well timed with rain hitting us the next morning when I would have been unhooking otherwise!

The question still sits in my mind… Am I good enough to work through this? I think with the right tools, and if I can manage not to get dizzy during the 1-rein work, I have hope… Our little clinic gang really wants to see Tom more often, so I’m hopeful that we can keep going to clinics and lessons, practice in between, and have some major progress together.

In addition to all that horse stuff, it has been quite a busy time – I traded in the F150 for GMC 2500, it was my birthday, school started up and therefore our schedules went wacky for driving kids to and fro; Skyler had another horse show in late August where she did well again with Ruby, both kids had birthdays too! They each had family party time and small get togethers with friends to celebrate. Skyler also got to choose what horse camping event we would do on her weekend off of soccer – so for the last week I have been packing bit by bit with checklists made to get us ready to go the Chesapeake CTR at Fair Hill. We plan to do the CDR on both days, a 15mile Saturday and a 10mile ride Sunday, then haul home. It will be all of our first CTR experience, and Scooby’s first competitive camp/ride experience. I have been assured we will be able to get a time buffer at the start to keep Breeze from latching onto the group ahead of us, and I hope that with keeping Scooby with us we can maintain our composure as well. But, I’m also armed with new tools, a safety vest, and desire to never have the complete meltdown again and the unashamed knowhow to GET OFF if I feel it headed that way.
I’ll tell you all about how that goes in the next post!