HORSIN' AROUND
THE AMAZING CARL BLEDSOE NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP TRAINER AND TEACHER
f you were not at Carl Bledsoe’s Gaited Horse/Natural Horsemanship Clinic at Spotted Dance Ranch in Brooksville this past December, you really missed something special!
The clinic was Carl’s—and his wonderful wife Tammy’s—first clinic in the central Florida area. The good news, though, is they’re back for a second clinic on March 10-12. Personally, I’ve been on a long journey to improve the gait of my Spotted Saddle Horses and my gaited horse-riding skills since switching many years ago from trotting horses. After growing frustrated when presented with “old school” gimmicks, which are cruel and wrong, in my opinion, to correct gaiting issues, my continued search for knowledge and better methods in recent years led me to natural horsemanship methods. There are many good natural horsemanship trainers out there but very few that specialize in gaited horses, even fewer that are good teachers. I met the Bledsoes in early 2022 while observing/auditing one of their clinics for a day, and immediately invited them to Spotted Dance Ranch to put on a clinic. Carl, with help from Tammy and his Tennessee Walking Horse gelding, Jazzy, is that rare person that is both an amazing natural horsemanship trainer and teacher.
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F L O R I DAC O U N T RY Fe b r u a r y | M a r c h 2 0 2 3
Getting to where he is today has been a long and hard journey. With over 40 years of experience, Carl Bledsoe knows horses. As a third-generation horseman and secondgeneration trainer of champion and world champion Tennessee Walking Horses, he was born into the world of Big Lick show horses. The Big Lick is a forced, unnatural, high-stepping gait of Tennessee Walking Horses, and other gaited breeds, seen in some horse shows that is caused by the cruel and inhumane practices associated with “soring.” The craze for the Big Lick movement of Tennessee Walking Horses started around 1950; the exaggerated front leg action at the running walk drew spectators to horse shows and was rewarded by judges. Since it took natural ability and time to train horses to perform this gait naturally, some started using practices, such as weighted shoes, stacked pads or “stacks,” and chains around the pasterns, to enhance the movement in less time or in less talented horses. As the judges continued to reward horses with even higher and more dramatic action, some trainers started using horrible methods such as weighted chains and stacks, putting tacks under shoes or trimming the hooves too short to cause pain, and the cruel practice of soring, which is the application of caustic chemicals to the pasterns of the front legs to cause pain when the chains bang against them.
PHOTO BY KYM ROUSE HOLZWART
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Written by: Kym Rouse Holzwart
