BE TOUGH
But Fair
By Glenn Stewart
Wow what a day! I
didn’t know what I
was going to write
about today. We don’t need to be tough on horses but we do
need to be fair. We should be tough-
minded or strong in our resolve or
direction. Then I got
all the inspiration and more when one of
my students shared
his story around the morning campfire
during Horsemanship Camp here at The Horse Ranch. 6 • SEPTEMBER 2021
SADDLEUP.CA
E
very morning we get together to talk about what we learned the day before, answer any questions and prep for the day’s class ahead. Some amazing things can come out during these discussions and this morning was one of those days. Some of you know about my horse “Dealer.” This horse is black gold in my eyes and is one of my demonstration horses. He is a dream to ride: smooth, athletic, strong and is soft and beautiful doing it. He wasn’t always that way. When I met Dealer, he had been to a trainer for 3 months and the trainer gave up and said he can’t be trained. A friend of mine new about the horse and he suggested to the owner to call me to see if I could help. We set a date and Dealer was brought to Grande Prairie and put in a stall. When I went to get him the first day, I barely could get him caught in a 10’ by 10’ boxstall. He would spin, put his head over the stall and do anything to keep from being caught. After a bit of coaxing, I got the halter on and tried to lead him to the arena. Every step I got forward he would back up two. You couldn’t catch him and he didn’t even lead after 3 months with the trainer. We finally got to the arena and started to fix things. He absolutely hated people and didn’t trust us, or anything we brought around him. When I got him to allow me to put the saddle on he decided it was time to get the saddle off and bucked so hard the dirt from the bottom of his foot hit the arena roof and is still stuck in the insulation. I had other horses there I was starting but Dealer got the longest session and after the second day I started to give him two sessions a day. He would buck until he played out, then walk around, catch his breath and go again. It took me 2 hours of warm-up and ground prep the first day to manage a 2-minute ride. By the end of the 5th day, against my recommendation, the owner took a ride on him, the ride went well but there was lots left to do and the owner said why don’t you take the horse. I said I appreciated it but no thanks. The work it would take to bring him around would keep me from riding all my other horses and I could get 4 regular horses going in the time I would spend on Dealer. I have a habit of taking horses that have had a real bad deal along the way and try to help them out the other side. I already had ones at home that I had said yes to that were a real handful. So we decided to put another 5 days on him to see how much more could be done. By the end of the second week, it took about an hour and a half to get him ready for a half hour ride. I worked him off another horse with lots of groundwork and worked on his confidence all the while trying to get him to see that he could trust people. I remember he never moved his lips the whole first week. They were pinched tight. He had a hard look in his eye and hardly ever blinked. The second week things were getting better but still had a long way to go. The owner said, “you know Glenn, you should take this horse home.” I have to be honest, I had considered it the first week, but I was trying to be disciplined and not take any more tough ones on and just ride some of the horses I had at home. I was proud of myself when I said no thanks again. So the owner asked me to take him home and put another 10 days on him. It was getting into spring, so
