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Horse Training Article's
Name: Mike Branch - Flying B Horsemanship
Two Important Considerations
While working at a seminar recently, I was presented a question by a new horse owner, an overwhelmed look on her face by all the accessories, programs, tack, clothing etc. available for purchase, the lady looked at me as if I was her last hope for the day. Sir, she asked, I am a new horse owner, and there is just so much, and everything is so costly to get started, can you please tell me what I really need, and where to best spend my money while getting started? "What I really need" wow that hit home thinking of all the tack I’ve collected over the years, "Where to best spend my money"? (glad my wife didn’t hear her ask that one) but oh boy how that one hit me right in the kisser, thinking of the afore mentioned tack, enough to stock a western outfitter, all the dollars spent, and yes most of it wasted away. Thanking the lady for the question, I first thought of two things. Ma’am, I said aside from first obtaining a vet to help you maintain your horse’s health, I feel the first places to spend money and consider is on our horse’s feet and back. First before we even ride our horse lets get a qualified ferrier to trim our horse’s feet and evaluate if it will need shoes or not, that will depend upon your riding frequency and ground conditions where you ride. A qualified ferrier will also help you determine how often you need to have them out to make adjustments to your horse’s feet. After all, it’s feet is what holds up nearly a thousand pounds, and with some horse’s even more. They have got to have sound feet, period. Once you have some experience you will begin to notice it’s footfall, and you will see how intricate there movement is and you will see why that is so important. Think about it, if our feet hurt during the day doing what we do, we can’t perform properly. Now lets add a sore back to the situation, if our feet and back hurt at the same time I guarantee were going home for the day. I’ll bet your horse will clock out too. If you are not sure who you can call to trim and shoe your horse your vet can probably recommend someone to you , and remember we are talking about where to best spend your money here so don’t think cheap, also the most expensive person is not necessarily the best either.
Once we establish proper hoof care the back is where I feel we should next devote our wallet. There are tons of good looking fashionable saddles on the market that anybody could just go grab because they are "affordable". The real problem with that is there cheap, and they most likely hurt. Many times , more often than not they don’t fit the horse either. So often I’m called upon to help someone with their "problem" horse. Most times its not the horse that’s the problem, it’s the problem that the horse has to live with that’s the problem, once the problems are corrected and the horse is made comfortable, and understands life is going to be different from here on out both the horse and owner are happy and can build a relationship with one another. Think about it could you develop a relationship with someone who made you uncomfortable every time you got together? I don’t think so, and no wonder we have problems with such wonderful creatures.
Chances of just walking into your tack store, picking out a saddle and it fitting your horse properly is slim. There are several factors that need to be considered about your horse before you purchase. Is your horse flat backed, down hill, hollow backed, does it have tall withers, is it short coupled, or long etc, etc. If you do not know the answers to these questions your equine healthcare professional can help you find the answer to these questions, and they would be a good resource to ask because they would most likely give an honest and unbiased opinion, because they probably don’t sell saddles. They may not be able to pick out your saddle, but they can explain the muscular skeletal system of your horse, which in turn will help you determine the type of saddle skirt and fit for your horse.
Aside from having a saddle custom made, some dealers I know will allow you to trailer your horse to the store, bring a clean bed sheet, to put over your horse and allow you to try on saddles before you purchase. After all would you buy a pair of shoes, or unfamiliar brand of clothing without first trying them on?
Perhaps you already own a saddle and are in doubt about whether it fits properly. Here’s a simple test, saddle your horse as you normally would, and play with your horse, first on the ground, watch the movement of horse and saddle to get a visual for how the saddle is sitting your horse, then get in the saddle. After your horse has started to sweat good, unsaddle, look and feel where the saddle was, in the exact place your saddle was your horse should be wet from sweat, if there are dry spots that would be a good indicator of improper fit. Also if the hair is ruffled that is a sign of friction somewhere, which would also be an indicator of improper fit. Yes you could be putting pressure on your horse’s back that causes pain. You could actually cause your horse to start resisting the saddle, even avoid you when you enter the paddock because he knows pain follows you.
I’m sure none of us intentionally wants to hurt our horse, in fact I’ll bet most of us have had visions of us and our horse, being as one, riding off into the sunset together. Imagine the cowboys of the eighteen hundreds, twelve to fourteen hours a day in the saddle, for three months on the trail, if that saddle didn’t fit properly, and made correctly the horse would come up lame and never make the drive.
I encourage you to take your time and invest wisely. Remember that the saddle is for your horse , only the seat is for you. We want a lifelong relationship with our horses, so its up to us to put the right equipment on our horse.
Perhaps we can talk more about saddle fit in future articles, as there are endless things to say on this topic. Let me conclude by asking you to take care of your horses back and feet as you would your own.
Mike Branch
www.flyingbhorsemanship.com
(865)548-0112
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The Preacher and The Paint
The mare was a gift ( From a gentleman whose wife had to give up riding due to a medical condition). A beautiful sorrel.
Appendix bred of 19 years of age. "You try to get a colt out of her," he said. Upon looking at her performance pedigree he gave me I saw such names as "Win or Lose" "Jack Straw" " King P 234"
"Leo" " Three Bars" " Flying Bob", etc. Wow I thought, I’ll breed her to this black and white APHA grandson of "Blue Max "that was at my barn at the time. Maybe I’ll get a pretty paint and have names on it’s papers like legendary " Win or Lose " and "Jack Straw Jr."
Oh you’ll never get a paint off her said everyone who knew her, she has only thrown sorrel no matter she has been bred to. Well, I believe GOD is in control of what kind of babies we have.
Having already picked out a registered name " Win Lose or Straw," by the time he was born,( Who by the way was a beautiful white and bay tobiano) I could not get the name Preacher out of my mind, so there was his barn name. Preacher hooked with me right from the start. Yes, every imagination you could have about a foal was there, he truly loved me. I am keeping this one, he’ll be my gelding. Seems all my personal mounts turn out to be mares.
At six months of age my vet started all his vaccines and continued them according to schedule insuring him a healthy life.
Preacher seemed to understand every thing we asked of him even the ferrier was no threat to him.
November fifth 2006, 18 months of age on a Sunday morning, I looked out the window to see our herd of horses, there was Lightning a half Mustang half pony mix who was running all over the paddock, as usual trying to see who he could get to play with him. But just then my eyes found Preacher he was lying down, head up though " something’s wrong with Preacher" I said as I was going out to check on him. I sat down with him for a while, that is until Lightning decided he would try to get me to play with him for awhile . As I stood up Preacher stood up with me ah I said autumn getting you down boy. He did however look a little sad, but no sign of colic, which of course was my first concern. He walked with me to the gate, though rather slowly. I petted him there for a while, then went back inside. Soon I looked outside again there was my wife in the paddock kneeling down and talking to preacher, "something is surely wrong with him " I said. I went back outside to where my wife and Preacher were, I listened to him breath , put my ear to his stomach, then I called my Vet who turned out to be out of town. Quickly I called the University of Tennessee large animal hospital, made all the arrangements for them to be ready for his arrival. I hooked the trailer and off we went.
Of course I was there several hours while test were done, blood was drawn, I.V.’s started etc.. Then the dreaded word, We don’t know but we think It’s Potomac fever. Of course we had to leave him in intensive care at U.T. We knew that if he would survive it would be at least 5 days of intensive treatment.
My best friend called me the next day to check on Preacher and when I told him about all the Doc’s had said on Sunday and Monday morning he said "Mike" I’ll pray for your horse, I believe in doing that. I said so do I. I feel they have got to be GOD’s favorite animal. They are mentioned so many times in the Bible and in Revelation 19 It say’s Jesus will return on a white horse and all the armies of heaven will be on white horse’s. Maybe I’ll get to ride Preacher, He’s mostly white but he has some dark spots. Just then It hit me like a lead brick I said to Jamie you know when I gave my life to Jesus he came in and made my heart pure and we use white as a color to symbolize that. But along life’s journey I’ve messed up a lot, I’ve taken the pure heart and allowed sin to put dark spots on my heart. But because of the redeeming work of Christ Jesus GOD can look past all the spots and see a clean heart. We’ll we set into a long conversation about how we both needed revival in our lives and we confessed and ministered to one another that day.
Then another thought hit me Jamie I said " I guess were all just paint horse’s"
Preacher did not win his battle with Potomac, he did not become the great gelding I had such plans for ,but perhaps he had a stronger purpose ,his life certainly was meaningful in a way I had no idea.
I chose not to bury Preacher in the small horse cemetery on our farm, but found a corner off my barn that I would see every day, to be reminded of the sermon that he did preach. We all have dark spots on our hearts but if we have confessed Jesus as our savior we are pure indeed, for GOD looks past the dark spots through the blood of His son and see us as clean. Perhaps by being reminded of his sermon I’ll somehow become a better man.
I showed the mare a little while she was first in foal, for she was a great western pleasure mare. Even people at the events who knew her said " you’ll never get a paint out of her".
I stated at the beginning of this article that the mare was a gift, indeed she was, but the greater gift was " The Preacher" and the realization that I’m " The Paint".
Michael W Branch
www.flyingbhorsemanship.com
Please feel free to contact us with any comments or questions about our natural horsemanship program.
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