Age: Born in 2004
Sex: Gelding
Breed: Mustang
Height: 14.2 Hands
Location: Cochranville, PA
Interested In:  Men or Women. Any age or ability (Open to an arranged marriage with your son or daughter).  I don’t discriminate, I just want to be loved.
Dowry (Asking Price for those of you who are less old fashioned): $4,000

My Self-Summary
I’m just a nice guy looking for a committed relationship.  I don’t have any baggage (never had any injuries, and was bought up well, and no annoying vices), and will help you forget about yours whenever you are looking for a good time.  My size has caused me a few break-ups.  They say “It’s not you, it’s me.  I’ve grown out of you.”  But I know they just wanted someone taller for appearances sake, not due to my ability.  I carted around your boyfriend who is bigger than you, and you and your friends have ridden me at the same time. So stop discriminating against my height!  (Sorry, I’m a little bitter about being left at the alter a few times.)  It’s been hard to see them go, but they have all gone on to be great successful riders and horsemen.  They say you learn from your past relationships, so I credit myself with any success they have found.

I am extremely tolerant of the antics that accompany beginner and youth riders, in the arena or on the trail, but I’m not a push button pony.  I make sure they know their horsemanship.  I’d never do anything inappropriate, but if they don’t pay attention I’ll lead them to my favorite grassy patch for a bite to eat before going into the arena for a lesson.  

What I’m Doing With My Life
 I formerly had a career competing in endurance racing, and have been a guide for riders on a dude ranch. Currently I get hacked around once or twice a week, and give the occasional beginner lesson.  Sometimes I play wingman for my trainer if she is trying to impress someone from an online dating site and cart those yuppies around on the trail.  I tolerate the fact that they have no idea how to ride and probably never will, but I get lots of pats and get to be in selfies, so I guess it is worth it.

Other than that, I spend most of my time living outside and working on my full figure by eating an unlimited amount of hay.  I dream about the day I can convince them to give me grain so I can look like the Percheron next door… That is one of my life goals.

I’m Really Good At
Being absolutely adorable no matter what tack you put me in.
Babysitting beginners, boyfriends, girlfriends, parents, siblings, cousins, and anyone else who has no idea what they are doing.
Being pulled out of the field when I haven’t been ridden in ages and still remembering how to behave.
Being a super fun for those who actually know what they are doing.  I'll give you the ride of your life, every time!
Tilting my head at new things to make it look like I care, and then walking right up to it like it is nothing.
All things Bareback!! Trails, jumps, barrels… I love it
EATING!!

Six Things I could never do without
FOOD, outside time, mud, my super fuzzy winter coat, my super hardy hooves… and definitely food that can’t be stressed enough

On a typical Friday night I am
Can I change this to what I would rather be doing?  Because at the moment I’m usually just munching in my pasture.  I would much rather have a standing date spoiling the love of my life with affection, getting groomed, ridden, and begging for cookies I probably shouldn’t be getting.

You Should Message Me If
You are looking for a committed relationship.  I’m done playing games and am ready to settle down.  You have beginner riders I can teach (or are a beginner rider), but are willing to tell me when I’m being a little pushy on the ground.  It doesn’t take much, but I’d do best having someone in my life that wants to be my leader every once in a while.  Or if you are an experienced rider looking for a reliable and fun partner in crime to take on the world with.  We could have SO MUCH FUN doing all the things I never get to do with the kids!!

If you want to know more just message or call my trainer Kelsey Parisi.  
kparcse@gmail.com
215-450-2603

How many times have you heard someone say to a rider with an unruly horse “You should go lunge him for a while,” or “Did you warm up enough?”  I remember seeing a trainer come out of the arena after a bad round in cutting, throw the reins at his loper and say

“This horse was too fresh.  What were you doing back there?  You didn’t lope him enough.”  

It’s a mentality that stretches across all disciplines, and at all levels.  A great personal example happened to me over the summer.  I was showing a green horse at his first team penning.  He got spooked and bucked around the arena like a rodeo bronc.  As congratulatory as my audience was for my bronc riding skills, as I got back on and began to walk circles and do slow giving exercises to regain his attention, at least 5 different riders “reminded me” that the training track was available for me to go “lope some fresh out of him.”  They said to go take 20 minutes or so to get him in the right head space.  I walked him for 10 minutes in those small 10ft circles, asked him to back a figure eight, and told the clocker I was ready to go.  He was perfect his next 5 runs.

My question is this; Where did the notion come from in horses, that being tired leads to better performance?  Do you see olympic athletes sprinting and wasting all of their energy before the big race?  Before taking the SATs, should we have students go to spin class so they are mentally focused?  I don’t know about you, but if I have already exerted a fair bit of energy, I’m more likely to be off my game than on it.

Two weekends ago, Cooper and I showed in the Trail Champion’s Challenge at the PA World Horse Expo.  The warm up arena (the main arena at the expo center) was the warm up pen for every event that day, and only available until 9am, which is also when our class started.  So not only did we have to deal with every distraction possible in the warm up pen (flag bearers, cleaning in the stands, cart horses, you name it), but if you were looking to get your horse tired, and were not going in the first 20 minutes, your warm up was probably going to be moot.  For many riders, their warm ups were useless.  

It is shows like this, that I am glad for the “warm up” techniques I have come to use, and for my strategy of “practicing fresh” when I am at home.

It is pretty simple really, when I am at home I like to ride my horses through show like situations at their “freshest” on a regular basis.  This means before they have been turned out for a few hours, and with minimal to no warm up (just enough to prevent physical injury), which for trail obstacles can many times mean get on and go.  If I can’t get through a mock trail course at home with that small amount of pressure on my horse, then I have more work to do in order to compete competantly.  Then, when I am at the show, my warm up consists of slow technical maneuvers that make my horse feel confident.  I focus on slow work that they know, so that they easily pick it up and focus on what I am asking.  I never school new things at a show.  If I look at the pattern and see something I have never practiced at home, the warm up pen is not where my horse is going to learn it.  I show the horse I have that day, no more, no less.

So what did happen at the Expo you may ask?  Cooper may not have won any ribbons at the Expo, but he gave every obstacle a good effort, and received strong compliments from the judges for his softness and demeanor.  And we were fourth to last in the class, with over an hour and a half of wait time from our warm up to when we performed.  Boy was I glad my horse can perform fresh!

**According to a 2005 study done by the American Horse Council, 61% of the horses in the United States are used for Recreational and other purposes.  A 2003 Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture study found that 48% of the PA Equine Industry is made up of Recreational, Tourism, Youth Activity, and Other Activities (Excluding Breeding).  Yet, the majority of the OTTBs you see listed, are being sold as high end show prospects which only make up 20% of the Equine Industry in Pennsylvania and 29% of the Equine Industry Nationally.  But in in the time I have been rehoming OTTBs, the most expensive one I sold was to a recreational home.  The public is willing to pay a premium for well started, reliable, horses that they can enjoy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the athletic ability and suitability of OTTBs for any discipline, but if it is our goal to have an outlet for these horses after racing, why is it that the massive recreational market is much less appealed to? **

Earlier this week I posed a question to a handful of horse people.  From Facebook groups, to friends and professionals.  I asked them which horse in their lifetime (leased, owned, ridden in lessons, any encounter really) they felt had the most value.  I said it did not have to be the most expensive horse, or the horse that made the most money, though that answer was perfectly acceptable.  Overwhelmingly, even from the professionals, the horses that had the most value were horses that they at some point in their life had used for a recreational rather than a professional purpose.  It was the lesson horses who got people hooked on riding, trail horses that made riding fun again after an accident, the horse that was so tough that it made them seek help from a trainer and in turn become a better horseman.  The response from the posed question was pretty on point with the statistics from over 10 years ago.

Now to bring this all back to Cooper and the Thoroughbred Makeover.

What led me to look up these statistics and ask this question was what happened when I took Cooper team sorting last week.  It was a just for fun event.  No big prize money.  Just a bunch of horse people having some fun playing with horses and cows.  It was Cooper’s first off site ride, and first time seeing cattle.  I couldn’t have been more proud of him.  He went into the herd, sorted out his cow, and stood patiently in between runs.  But the best part of the evening was when one of the riders on the oh so typical Quarter Horse made the comment; “I am so impressed with how that Thoroughbred is doing.  He is so wiling and quiet, it looks like you guys are having a great time.”  THAT last bit.  That she said it looked like we were having fun was what I appreciated the most.  Because that is what a recreational rider looks for when they buy a horse.  They want something they will have FUN on.  From the beginning, that is what I said I wanted to focus on this year heading into the Makeover.  Doing well would be great, but if I can enjoy the journey, and show as many people as I can how much FUN an OTTB is, that is what at the end of the day will get more of these horses into homes after they retire from racing.  

So yes, I’ll post progress posts on training.  I’ll go to practice trail shows, and as many events as I can.  But I’ll also be posting photos and videos of all the fun we have in between.  When we ride backwards while hanging out with friends after a long day at work.  When we ride double on the trails behind the farm, or go swimming this summer as I know we will.  I am going to start garnishing these posts with the # OTTBSHAVEMOREFUN, and I encourage every contestant and every OTTB owner to start doing the same.  Let’s see how big of a trend we can start.  Let’s show the industry how much enjoyment we get from these horses.  If we can get more people who never would have considered an OTTB as their next recreational riding partner to change their minds, we will have accomplished a great deal for these horses.  So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and have some fun with your OTTB!

** http://www.horsecouncil.org/economics/
http://extension.psu.edu/animals/equine/economic-impact-and-population-study/pa-equine-industry-inventory-basic-economic-and-demographic-characteristics

Well it is official!  JW Coop will be heading to the Retired Racehorse Project's 2017 Thoroughbred Makeover.  Sometimes things happen for a reason, and we think that is exactly what has happened with Cooper.  The short version (feel free to look back on our past posts about Cooper for the full story)...The racehorse thing didn’t work for him, the pony horse thing didn’t work for him.  Then he was to be rehomed, but chrondritis struck hard and we almost lost him.  After surgery, and months of recovery, December rolled around and RRP announced that trainers could start working with Makeover prospects.  I looked back at my training logs, and realized that our #Wonderbred Cooper had well under the amount of off the track rides to make him eligible for the Makeover.  No only that, but Cooper had some of the same racing connections as my previous Makeover Horse Mr. Discreet.  Additionally, the only race Cooper ever won, was coming in just ahead of Mr. Discreet on the day Mr. Discreet was claimed and came to our barn.  

After losing Mr. Discreet last August I questioned if I would try the Makeover again.  But as I looked back at Cooper’s circumstances, and his close tie to Mr. Discreet, I knew in my heart of hearts that he was meant to go on this journey with me.  

He may be a hair less fancy than some of the other OTTBs out there, but nothing can beat a horse with a good mind and a strong heart.  Those two things are overflowing out of Cooper.  To say that he has been proving his weight in gold already would be an understatement.  For his first ride I jumped on bareback in a bosal and just hacked around the arena as if he had been getting pleasure ridden all his life.  The thing about this horse is that he wants to be your partner.  He wants to be quiet, and he wants to please you.  He may not know a whole lot yet, but he sure does try his best at everything thrown his way.  Even when on his second ride we threw another rider up behind me on the saddle, he just kept putzing his way around the arena as if that was the normal way to do things.  

A horse with this kind of mind and heart doesn’t come around often.  Let alone one who was so close to death less than a year ago.  Life threw him curve ball, and he found a way to hit it out of the park.  After losing Disco, seeing Cooper get stronger every day gave me hope that I could get past that loss.  He may be only a horse, but he inspires me every day.  It is my goal this year to allow him to show everyone how amazingly resilient, strong, willing, and caring OTTBs can be.  If he can inspire just one person as he has inspired me, then the journey we go on this year will be worth it no matter where we place.

To follow our journey, check back here for more blog posts, and keep up with his album on our Facebook page JW COOP RRP THOROUGHBRED MAKEOVER 2017.  If you see us at an event or competition, come meet this guy and let us get a photo with you!  We will be using the following Hashtags all year…  #Wonderbred #JustBreatheCooper #RRP #ThoroughbredMakeover2017 #ReeLeeAtTheRRP #RRPBound #KelsAndCoop

The last time we heard about JW Coop he was looking for his special someone.  With less than 10 rides on him, he had a following and was ready to move out to his new home.  But three days before his first potential suitor was to come meet him, he had an acute respiratory event that led to us discover that he had severe Chondritis.  Chondritis is an infection of the airway that caused a mass to develop on Cooper’s arytenoid.  This mass would become irritated with work, and caused his airway to swell and nearly close.  Our original treatment plan was to try and shrink the mass with steroids, and fight the infection with strong antibiotics.  But after a month of medication, the mass persisted, and surgery became our only option.  Thanks to Hogan Equine, Cooper’s surgery was donated, and the mass was lasered out.  Post surgery Cooper had a few complications that led us to keep him on the antibiotics and steroids for another month and a half, but luck was on our side and he finally pulled through.  Fingers crossed, we will be returning him to work in January, and there may be a run for the Thoroughbred Makeover in his future.  

Many horses get sick and the first thing that goes along with the addition of medications to their daily routine is a decline in body condition.  Usually from ulcers, loss of appetite, or poor body reactions to heavy amounts of antibiotics and steroids.  All the time that Cooper was on medication, his overall health never faltered, and I credit a lot of that to the feeding program we use here at ReeLee.  

With the wide variety of horses we have here at ReeLee nutrition is something we take very seriously.  Each horse has different needs based on many factors including their breed, size, temperament, discipline, work level, body condition score, and their overall health.  I personally have a background in Equine Nutrition from my time at Colorado State University, and we have a great relationship with our local nutritionist from Tribute Feeds.  Cooper is a prime example of how well their products work.  All while Cooper was sick we kept him on a feeding regimen that kept his body strong so he could keep fighting the infection attacking his airway.  We used a philosophy that I believe in heavily, high fiber, high fat, and low carbs.  So we had Cooper on a high quality alfalfa/grass hay, nearly free choice, and then supplemented the hay with three Tribute products; Resolve, K-Finish, and Essential K.  The great thing about this combination, was that we were able to keep the bulk amount of feed Cooper was receiving to a minimum.  Resolve is high in Fiber, and high in fat all on its own, but when you add in a small amount of K-Finish it just tops the cake for overall condition.  Not just weight, but coat condition as well.  One of the additional things I love about Tribute is their inclusion of Equi-Firm into their feeds like Resolve.  As Tribute explains, Equi-Firm is "a microencapsulated active dry yeast; acts as both a pre-and probiotic to increase digestibility and improve gut health.”  I think this was also a huge contributor to Cooper’s overall gut health in his recovery.  Finally, the Essential K fills in all the other minerals and adds in protein for a solid top line, and essential amino acids for overall health.  With this feeding plan Cooper was getting all of the nutrients and extra calories to stay strong without pound after pound of grain.  In the time he was sick he never got more than 6lbs of grain a day.  3lbs of resolve, 2lbs of K-Finish, and 1lb of Essential K split over two feedings. There are people out there feeding their OTTBs who aren’t even sick 8-10lbs of feed per day! Cooper looked great all through his recovery and today is heading into winter with a great body condition score thanks to Tribute.  

Talk about a fighter, Cooper not only beat the odds, but he did so with class.  If he were a person I guarantee he would have been smiling every day, through the injections, the bad tasting medicine, the stall rest, and the weekly scoping; Cooper was always in good spirits and cooperative for all of his treatments.  He won over the hearts of everyone in the barn, and every vet he met.  Thank you Tribute for providing us with great products to keep horses like Cooper in top condition to fight the good fight.  We look forward to our continued partnership with you on our rehabilitation and training horses.

Where to start… The journey Disco and I went on was one for the books.  From being the one to claim him on the track, to rehabbing him from a torn tendon, and then restarting him to make a run for the Thoroughbred Makeover…. He was a horse that will forever hold a place in my heart.  He was a horse with so much personality.  You couldn’t help just laughing and shaking your head at him.  From sticking his tongue out every chance he got, to always knowing how to be the dirtiest horse on the farm.  He would pick up anything in reach, and I swear he always had a smile in his eye.  He was young and flashy, and always showing off.  He would have any animal behaviorist puzzled with how he ran herd dynamics.  He was the boss of the alphas but a pushover to horses that had no confidence to any other horse.  When it came to training, he would progress so beautifully, and then hit stuck spots that would make me so frustrated at times.  But with every wall we hit, he made me think out of the box.  I ended up thinking of more new ways to teach and train things than I could ever dream of, and for that I will always be grateful to him. He taught me more than any horse I have ever trained.  Just in the last week we had reached highs we had yet to accomplish in all of our training.  We rode bareback and bridleless, he was finally mastering his transitions and pacing at the lope.  We were side passing logs (which for him was a big deal), figuring out teeter totters, and doing full arena trail courses.  I had been brainstorming my freestyle since May, and finally begun to accumulate props to start putting it all together.  For all the bumps we had hit earlier on that had me discouraged, we had rounded a corner that had me thinking we had a real shot at this thing.   

But accidents happen.  In this case, it happened so fast it was over before I could grasp what I was seeing.  In a very uncharacteristic reaction, Disco spooked during a desensitizing session with a new prop and crashed through the arena gate.  He ended up in our neighbors cattle fencing, and that is not a mix that is bound to end well.  We got him cut out of the fence, and the vet arrived in minutes, but sometimes life isn’t fair.  Despite our greatest efforts to save him (his external injuries, the heat, and internal injuries we may never know the extent of) we ended up only being able to end his suffering.  In that moment, I found myself on the side of the road with his head in my lap apologizing to him and telling him how much I loved him.  The words and tears kept spilling out, and I stroked his face as he slipped away  I still can’t fathom how we got there.  I have had it on replay in my head, trying to find things I could have done differently.  Everyone tells me it’s not my fault, and I think a part of me knows that, but I have a guilty pit in my stomach that I just can’t seem to shake.  We have all had those close calls.  Disco could have just as easily spooked and ran straight home after getting loose and come back unscathed.  He could have turned and run to his own field, or into the barn.   But this was not a close call we will talk about one day.  There is no comeback kid story this time.  Just tears, heartache, and bewilderment at how fragile life can be.

We ask these animals to put their lives in our hands in every discipline.  Whether we are asking them to climb mountains, jump over the moon, or walk calmly near something that to them seems deadly.  I do not think people give enough credit to competitive trail and freestyle riders who ask the latter of their horses.  The physical aspect may be less than that of dressage horse, show jumper, or eventer.  But the fact is, an incredible level of trust, and an immense amount of horsemanship goes into getting a horse to not bat an eye at what to them seems like something out of a horror movie.  If a person has an unrealistic fear of spiders, clowns, or heights we just let them be.  We do not ask the them to change, it is accepted that fear is a part of everyone at some level.  Yet we scoff at a horse who won’t walk over a tarp, cross a bridge, or drag a log, because “anyone can do it” with enough practice.  I want to tell everyone who is competing in competitive trail and freestyle how proud I am of all the work you put into your horses.  What you do is not to be belittled.  What you do is just as spectacular as every other discipline out there, even if it has less glitz and glam.  Even though the journey for Disco and I has ended, I am rooting for all of you that are still in it.  I said goodbye to a friend yesterday.  I will miss him for as long as I live.  This year I will be cheering from home, and I’m sure that somewhere out there Disco is sticking out his tongue and smiling.

Normally this blog is to talk about training, or a horse that is prepping for competition.  But this week Mr. Discreet and I want to pass the mic to his friend Cooper.  Cooper is afraid he is going to have some trouble finding that special someone, so he asked if he could post his EquiHarmony online dating profile here, in hopes that his soulmate might just see it and give him a call.  Who were we to refuse such a stand up guy!  So here you go, big guy, take it away. 

I’m a horse, so this whole online dating thing seems rather odd.  What ever happened to meeting that special someone on a trail ride?  Or may be even a chance encounter at the rodeo?  But it seems like this day in age, everyone always has their head stuck to a screen, so I thought may be I would give it a shot.

My name is J. W. Coop.  I was born on April 11, 2012.  I’m a 16h Chestnut Thoroughbred Gelding.  My mom was a mare named Eleven North, and my Dad was a Stud named Talent Search.  I ran 11 times, and won once.  It was pretty awesome, no one thought that I could do it.  You know that horse Mr. Discreet that Kelsey always drones on about for that Thoroughbred Makeover thing… I beat him in the one race I won.  That’s right buddy, I’ll never let you live that one down!

After I won that race I had this epiphany… What if this racehorse thing isn’t for me…. I know I know, I had won, so why would I think that?  But the whole being on the track all the time in that stall, and the other horses boxing me in when I would run… I would tell them, look guys I don’t have anything against you, so why are you trying to invade my bubble?  Why can’t I just get a clear trip, wire to wire, to the finish like the day I won?  Or even better, can’t racing be like time trials?  I really don’t see the need to have us all run in such tight quarters together.  I’m not the most rough and tumble kind of guy.  Some of those horses are darn intimidating, and who wants to deal with that?  Anyway… After I won I was also having some trouble breathing while I would train.  So my connections decided that it would be best to operate on my throat.  It made breathing easier, and I went on to race still after the surgery.  But I’m telling you, I heard this rumor that when we decide we don’t want to race anymore, we get to go to Kelsey’s farm…. so that was it.  I set my mind on getting there, and guess where I am now!!!

I got here about a month ago, and the first thing I got to do was go outside!  It was AMAZING!  After just hanging out for a bit, everyone thought I could be a good a track pony.  HELLO!  I already told you that having all of those other racehorses in my bubble is not my thing.  They are mean and scary and I just want to be friends with everyone.  Luckily after seeing me run away from the meanies at feed time a few times Kelsey saw that, and so it was decided that being a pony was not going to be my second career.  Phew!!! So, Kelsey started to feel me out and see what I could be good at next.  It was a bit like taking one of those compatibility surveys.  In my first 10 rides off the track we did the english thing, we did the western thing, we did some obstacles (bridges and dragging logs, ground poles, etc), and we did some trail riding.  I really liked trail riding.  This girl I didn’t know, her name was Hannah, rode me.  I made sure to be super good because Kelsey said she was like family.  So even though I had never been on the trail before I was perfect for her.  I crossed the creek and walked over all the logs, and stopped and posed for some photos too!  One day I even helped teach a big guy who had not much of an idea of what he was doing a bit more about how to ride a horse because Kelsey’s “lesson horse” as she called it was hurt.  I could tell he needed some confidence, so I made sure to behave for him too.  All of these new things, I loved them all, and I just wanted to keep seeing what else I could do!  Then, this week Kelsey came out to the field and jumped on me without a saddle!  She took me into the indoor arena while they were taking some pretty neat photos of another horse jumping and I got to stand and watch, and then I cruised around the arena.  I was sure to stay nice and smooth as always, even more so because Kelsey didn’t have a saddle on.  The girl taking the photos thought I was so cute she even took a bunch of me!  I LOVE the camera!  So I even showed off a little bit and carried Kelsey around backwards!  It was so much fun!  Everyone here has been so proud of me.  They keep saying that I can do ANYTHING!  The other day, Kelsey even called me a WonderBred :)  

So you may ask why a horse like me is trying this whole online dating thing.  I mean if I’m the best thing since sliced WonderBred then why can’t I find my own person the “normal” way.  Well, remember that throat surgery I told you about… It means I have to eat and drink off the ground for the rest of my life… Oh, and this part is kinda embarrassing… Water kinda comes out of my nose when I drink.  I know, it’s not the sexiest thing in the world.  But you know what, I am the guy that will take care of you no matter what.  I’m the guy that will be there when your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you.  I’ll let you fall asleep reading a book on my back in the field while I graze… I’ll take you on long trail rides through the woods on nice days, and I’ll cuddle with you in the cross ties when the weather is bad.  It will be my goal to always make you smile, and may be one day, when the time is right I’ll make you laugh hard enough so water can come out our noses together.

So if you would like to be my one and only, forever and ever, click here for Kelsey's contact information.  She is screening all of my potential suitors, so she will give you an application to fill out to make sure you won’t break my heart.  My dowry is $2,500.  I believe in only getting married once, so if you want to take me home you will need to sign a right of first refusal, and a no slaughter agreement.

Always and Forever.

J. W. Coop… But you can Call me Cooper.

So many of us have memories of our first horse.  We think back to all of the crazy things we did with them when we were kids.  We call them saints for not killing us, and we often times wonder… How come I can never find a horse as quiet as that first one…. But let’s think for a minute not about the other horses you have had since that first horse, but rather the differences in how you bought them up.  Today I want to talk about my first horse, an OTTB named Cease Lass.

We got Cease Lass after she had been retired not only racing, but from breeding.  She was 12 years old, and had had 3 foals.  She had obviously had plenty of downtime, and her ground manners were pretty good.  That b being said, she had no formal off the track training.  My sister Jess and I were 14 and 15 at the time, and until that summer we had only ever ridden in supervised settings.  Now we were guiding trail rides, teaching lessons, and helping run a summer camp.  As far as we were concerned, we were the best horse trainers on earth (as every teenage girl thinks they are).  

The first time we rode Cease Lass, Jess got on her in the round pen.  She kicked her forward, and backwards she went, right through the top two rails of the fence. But we were two teenage girls who had just gotten their first horse, so there was no way that was going to/ stop us. 

We were there 7 days a week.  The two of us fed all of the horses on the farm Monday through Friday after school.  I guided trails on Saturdays, and Jess on Sundays.  So, Cease Lass was handled every day, by the people that rode her, ridden probably 3-4 days during the week, and then would bring up the rear on several guided walking trail rides a day, every weekend.  We didn’t do anything fancy.  We weren’t teaching her collection (I honestly did not even know what it was at that point in my life) or maneuvers of any kind.  We jumped her over things on the trail that were in the way, rode her bareback in from the field, but most of all, we loved on her and just enjoyed her.  I think it was at least a year and a half before either of us decided we actually wanted to do more than just ride her for the sake of riding.  So Jess decided to she wanted to teach Cease to properly jump, and I wanted to teach her barrel racing.  You are probably thinking, how in the heck is that going to work… But you know what, it did.  We had gotten that mare so broke, that I could go to a barrel clinic one weekend, and my sister could take her into a jumping lesson that same week and you would never know I had been practicing a speed event on her.  We started to teach her the things we had never heard of, like collection, pacing, and control of stride length from books and tapes (yes this was prior to actual internet.  At the time the only internet I used was AOL Instant Messenger), and we kind of made it all up as we went along.  All the while we kept on spending time with her and riding her just for fun.

By the time we were both headed to college, we had had that mare for three years. And my sister had a dead beginner riding her in 4-H shows while she was away at school.  Looking back on it now, I don’t think that mare in her entire life with us, has ever gotten training sour.  She has never taken a bad step (and she is 22 years old this year), and she is the most broke OTTB I have ever been around.  She had two people “restarting” her with very different styles of riding.  Heck that mare had less formal retraining than any horse I have sold, or trained for a competition, and yet I bet if you would have taken her at 10 months after we first got her to the Thoroughbred Makeover in KY (had it existed when we had her), she would put most of our current RRP horses to shame.  Go ahead, say its the mind of the horse, say we got lucky with an extremely nice mare, but we have all seen nice minded horses go the wrong way in a training program.  What made this mare so great, was that we didn’t have a deadline.  If she didn’t understand something, or if she spooked on the trail, or if she refused a jump… We were just thrilled that we were still on her back and that we hadn’t torn down someone’s property.  We didn’t look for holes in her foundation or training and then school her on them.  We didn’t repeatedly ride the arena in circles, or force her into a frame that she had no idea existed.  We did not set out to find a bunch of schooling shows to prepare ourselves for things, we just went to shows and said.. "well lets see what happens." And then we would go home, ribbon or not, and just keep riding.  We built a relationship with this mare and we learned together.  Because we didn’t know any better, if something did not work WE CHANGED.  We assumed it was something WE were doing wrong, and not that our horse was not listening or not respecting us.  Our naive minds would just trouble shoot until we found the right answer, because we were humble enough to know we might not be doing something right.  

Look, I have gotten horses darn broke since Cease Lass.  Heck, I got Indian Rain Dance extremely broke on a 90 day deadline.  So, I’m not saying that we need to be rid of the deadlines.  I'm not saying, don't show your horse, or don't school them and work on things.  What I’m saying is that once we put the title of “Horse Trainer,” on our backs we take on this boat load of pressure to train in fancy ways.  Be it wanting to sell a horse in 60 days, train a client’s horse in 90 days, or be ready for a competition in 10 months; We put deadlines on ourselves to get a certain amount done in a certain amount of time.  But here is what we need to start realizing, and thus changing, about the way we as professionals train horses… You should not train any differently because of a deadline.  That deadline should not be a time by which maneuvers should be perfected, it is a point in time where you see what you’ve accomplished up until that point.  It is a glorified time to take a progress report of where you are at and what you have achieved.  If you want to flip a horse in 60 days, then you sell what you’ve got at 60 days and price accordingly.  If you have had a client’s horse for 90 days, that is when you show their owner what you’ve gotten done, and if they want more refinement, then you tell them it will be more time.  If it’s a show, you show the horse you have and nothing more.  That’s the tough one… Gosh, how many times have you witnessed someone in the warm up pen watching someone else work on something their horse has not perfected? Then they school it right there before they go into the show pen, getting themselves and their horse into a stressed out mess based on someone else's progress.  How many times have you seen a futurity horse quit in the show pen?  How many times have you lost your temper with your own horse because you have been working on something for a while and you think the horse "should have gotten it by now?" 

I want you to ask yourself, what horse is of more value to you?  A horse who at the end of, lets say 10 months, has a solid foundation, and more than anything is willing and wants to work, or a horse who knows every maneuver in the book but resents you for making him do it?  Because resentment comes from rushing.  (It rhymes and we are sticking with it).

I guess the point of this is to say that the deadline itself is not your enemy.  The enemy is who you let yourself become in trying to meet it.  Do not train FOR a deadline, train INTO a deadline.  As a friend once told me “Have faith in your program, and your horse will come along just fine.”

Have a great weekend!  Disco is on his “bi week” as they call it in sports, and enjoying some R&R.  It has been good for the both of us, and I plan on going back to some "childhood" ways of training when he is done with his vacation.  I also want to make a point to say I am still very excited for the Makeover, and to see HOW FAR we get BY THE TIME the get there.  I will be sure to keep you posted on how he is doing soon.  In the meantime, I’ve got some photos below of the most broke OTTB I’ve ever trained (with the help of my sister Jess Parisi), Cease Lass.  

So it has been an eventful few weeks since my last post on Mr. Discreet.  I apologize for the wait, but with some farm emergencies (all critters are accounted for and doing well), and our internet being down for almost two weeks I was not able to get this blog posted.  But, here we are and it is time to tell you about our adventure to NY!

Last week I took Disco to a reined cow horse clinic in Nunda NY to meet up with a great friend of mine, Kevin Meyer of Mantz Creek Horses.  Kevin is a great trainer, horseman, and friend whom I have known since my sophomore year at Colorado State University.  Our relationship started out as one of student and mentor, but as time has worn on I am honored to be considered a peer to him.  Even if I do sometimes feel like the redheaded step child of his family :)

Anyway, Disco and I left early Friday morning and picked up a friend of ours many of you may remember… Indian Rain Dance!  It was great to see him again, and his new Mom Nicole has been doing great with him.  Once we were all loaded up it was off to NY.  

When we arrived the mood was rather somber.  Overnight the hosts of our clinic Luke Therrin and his wife Kelly had a major barn fire.  They lost horses, livestock, dogs, equipment, tack… yet despite their loss they were still determined to put on a great clinic.  I give them a lot of credit for that.  As we all introduced ourselves and our horses, and said what we wanted to work on for the weekend, it got me thinking about what I really wanted to get accomplished.  I recalled the trouble I had with Disco a few weeks ago regarding his loping pace.  I thought about how I was still having trouble keeping his attention and thus his tongue inside of his mouth.  What did I want to accomplish… I did not even know where to start!  

As we got into doing simple yet important basic exercises, 10ft circles at the walk, backing straight, backing circles, and trot stops, I kept thinking about making it all perfect.  The looming date in October that has been hanging over my head since I got Disco was thumping in the back of my mind with every cue I gave him.  I felt we got a lot done on day one, we found some holes I need to continue to fill in in our basics, but it was not until day two that I got that slap in the face that made everything click. 

On day two we did some great stretching exercises for our horses to start.  Followed by more basics, and we ended the first half of day two doing a mirroring exercise which I will talk about in another post because of how handy it is.  As everyone began to disperse to sit down for lunch, Kevin and I were chatting in the arena with a few of the other participants.  I bought up again the issues Disco and I had at the lope the other day, and his response was “Go lope him off.”  So I did.  Sort of.  I bought him into a jog and started to pick up his shoulders and get him set up to go into a lope and I just heard from the center of the arena “Doesn’t matter if he is ready, just ask him to lope.”  So, throwing caution to the wind I asked for the lope without any more fussing.  To my surprise, it was better than I had thought it would be.  But I was still having to hold him in the slower pace I wanted.  Then I hear “Now speed him up.”  I look over my shoulder, with a rather questioning look, but follow the instructions I am being given.  When asked for a bit more speed things got sloppy.  Disco dropped his shoulder and away we went.  Never out of control, but I could tell his mind was just focused on the green light to increase speed.  Then I hear Kevin say “Now take a hold of him and slow him down, if he comes to a jog that's fine.”  So I take a hold of him, he takes a stride of a slower lope and then comes down to a very quick jog.  Immediately I hear “Let Him Go.”  So I release my hold and simultaneously Disco picks up the lope again.  Kevin said “That's fine Let Him Go.”  After a few more circles, he had me once again bring him down.  This time he stayed in the jog when I let him go after the downward transition.  So Kevin told me to bring him to a walk.  Then after walking a bit, he had me take him right back into a lope.  We repeated this exercise for a few minutes.  With each downward transition, regardless of if he came down to a slower lope or to a jog, I released.  And with every time I released, he held the slow pace for longer.  Finally Kevin had me stop.  I walked into the center of the arena where a few other participants were still gathered and I got my lecture.  Kevin looked at me and said “I have never seen you ride this tense in the entire time I have known you.  You are putting so much pressure on yourself and this horse because of this competition.  You need to let him make the mistake so you can correct it.  You can’t hold him forever.”  I knew he was right.  And then to the melody of Frozen he chimes in “Let it Go, Let it Go.”  And all I could do was laugh.  When an honest to goodness cowboy, with buckaroo boots and spurs, a hat, and a mustache sings Let it Go… I mean come on.  What better way to make someone loosen up.  My response to that was “How many times has your daughter made you watch that movie?”  

As we went to lunch that day I thought about what we had just gone over.  I thought about how right Kevin was and how nervous I get before I show, and how I have let my show nerves sneak into my training with this horse.  So I told myself that I do need to Let it Go.  

So what does a clinician do when they have a tense rider?  Let me give you some one liners that broke my RBF and tense riding throughout the weekend…

“Look like you enjoy riding.”

“SMILE”

“As a judge, don’t make me think you want to eat my children.”

With every remark I would laugh to myself and simultaneously in that moment, something would improve.  It really is amazing what happens when you relax.  All I needed was someone to remind me of that.  

After lunch on day two we worked cows.  Disco and I mainly tracked our first two cows, but by the end we did get one to go in figure eights.  We kept it simple for him, and he really started to latch on and enjoy it. 

On the morning of day three we got to lope more circles!  But let me tell you the difference in Disco from day one to day three was night and day.  I was more relaxed, we loped off ten times better than we ever have, and our transitions were completely transformed.  Not perfect, but we had building blocks set up to make them into what they needed to be.  

That afternoon we got the cows out again.  This time after I tracked the cow, I drove it down the fence and then circled it.  The cow was a bit flat by that point, but we got some neat photos that reiterate the point I have been making in this entire post… When you relax, your horse improves.  If you look at separated two photos below, in one I am tense and Disco looks the same.  He is bracing against the bit, his shoulder is bowing out, and it is unorganized.  In the other photo, I am laughing.  Probably at the fact that we had all just talked about how if a cow lays down in your pattern, if you just circle it both directions you still get your points… So I yelled “Lay down cow,” and all of the participants and Kevin all began to laugh with me.  In that photo you can see how much improvement there is in Disco.  He his holding himself better, and he is softening to the bit.  So I guess the point I want to make here is this… Live a little, laugh a lot, and enjoy the time you spend on your horse's back.  Even if you have something you are working towards, if you focus solely on where you need to be, and not on the enjoyment of what you are doing, you will never get anywhere.  

With that I will leave you with a bunch of great photos and videos from the weekend.  Thanks again to our gracious hosts for putting on a great clinic, and to Dream Valley View Ranch for allowing the use of their facility and for putting us up for the weekend. 

I’m going to confess to something here today that not many trainers are willing to fess up to.  I’m going to tell you a deep dark secret.  Sometimes, we get stuck.  Sometimes, like the rest of you, we get frustrated.  There are even times when as hard as we try to pull out every trick in our book it is not getting through to the horse… Sometimes we hit walls and think to ourselves “Why can’t you just get this!”  

The difference between a trainer who will succeed and a trainer who will fail in this situation is one simple fact… Recognizing when something is not working, and knowing when to quit.

I’m not talking about giving up.  No, I’m talking about recognizing that point in your ride where things stop being productive.  Being able to recognize when your cues are about to start coming out of a place of frustration rather than teaching.  A successful trainer has to be able to stop themselves and say… "I need to take this horse back to something he knows and is comfortable with, let him do it correctly, and end for the day.”  Then recollect your thoughts and create a new game plan for tomorrow.

This is exactly the point I hit with Disco the other day, and looking back on it, it was my fault I hit that point in the first place.   

Let’s start from the beginning of the ride that day, and I am going to walk you all through what led to us getting stuck, in hopes that you may then be able to prevent yourself from getting into a similar situation.  I also want to preface this with the fact that Disco in this entire ride never did anything dishonest or even wrong for that matter.  Horses do not do things out of malice or spite.  They do not wake up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning.  Yes, sometimes they have better days than others, but its usually because of how the rider sets them up for the good days vs the bad, and that is exactly what happened to Disco and me.

I have been pretty busy the last two weeks.  I’ve got a handful of client horses, and a handful of sale horses who also need to get worked daily.  As we only got the lease for this property in December and we are a business that is just starting out, we do not have a staff yet.  Occasionally we have some great students and friends who help us, but for the most part everything on the entire 36 acre property with 18 horses is done by myself and my business partner Jessi Werner of Phoenix Equine Services.  On top of all of that, my own horse recently came in from his field with a torn hind suspensory, and so my go to lesson, show, and pony horse for breaking all of my babies is stuck in a stall.  But as all of you know, there is no rest for a horse trainer.

Despite the thought that there is not enough time in a day to get it all done, somehow it always manages to get done.  Even if it means riding Disco at 8:30pm.  If I’m going to leave a horse for the end of the day, it is usually him because I know if I leave him for last I will still always get on him.  One because I know he has a looming date in October that gets my nerves sparking on a daily basis, and two because I always try to end on a good ride, and Disco is pretty reliable in giving me one.  

Well earlier this week I had one of those days when it just seemed like there was too much to get done.  8pm rolled around and Jessi and I were getting on our last horses.  I on Disco, and she on one of her client horses.  It was the end of the day, and as I saddled him, I was just going through the motions.  I was not thinking about what I wanted to get accomplished that ride.  I was thinking about the fact that I had to get him ridden.  Mistake number one!  Always have a plan for your ride.  Even if your horse isn’t in training, your ride will never be productive if you don’t have an idea of what you want to accomplish.  Don’t get me wrong, I wing it sometimes.  Hop on and decide, “oh lets do this today,” but even then I usually stop and think to myself about where the horse is in its training and what really needs to get done in that ride.  Well, I saddled Disco, bought him to the indoor, and again went through the motions.  We went over basics that he has been excelling at and refining over the last few weeks.  Trot Stops, Turn Arounds, Leg Yields, Two Tracks (yes western horses do these too), etc.  But as I asked him for a lope, even though he was balanced and not yanking on my hands, he was going faster than I wanted.  The only thing I could think about in that moment was; “You should be loping slower.”  So I started to go through things I have done with other horses, adding in circles in the corners, loping squares, adding in stops and rollbacks to get him to focus on my seat to determine how fast she should be going.  All things that we have done at the jog, but I hadn't yet asked him to do at the lope.  But it was all becoming a bit overwhelming for Disco.  He started to go to extremes in the rollbacks, either rushing them, or he would get his feet stuck completely.  He was overreacting to my aids (he is a really feely horse, which is a REALLY great thing, but it is not yet as honed in as it needs to be), and the ride began to get sloppy.  As things began to fall apart so to speak, I kept drilling him.  All I wanted was for him to take that stride or two slower so that I could quit for the day.

Mistake numbers two and three!  I put an immense amount of pressure on Disco and myself to fix something so that I could just be done for the day; when we have not really worked on it yet.  On top of that, when he was not getting it (because I didn’t have a plan) I continued to keep doing the same thing over and over.  Have you ever heard that quote that is supposedly one from the mind of Albert Einstein... “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Well that is exactly what I caught myself doing.

I was frustrated, Disco was confused, and the ride continued to spiral.  He started to hang on my hands and not move off of my leg.  He was telling me wholeheartedly “I don’t understand, just take away some of this pressure and let me think.” But my tired brain had me a bit greedy.  I forgot that he has been kicking butt since only coming back into work in March, after the six months off from the tendon injury.  I was expecting things of him rather than supporting him when he needed me to help him find the right answer.  Mistake number four.  Don’t go into a ride with expectations.  

So there we were. With four big no no’s (Riding without a plan, trying to build Rome in a day, drilling without sense of changing something that is not working, and expecting a result rather than rewarding a try) flashing like police lights behind me and I was not pulling over.  When I asked for another stop he slammed on the breaks (rather nicely I will admit, although it was the lope I was concerned about not the stop), and I could feel the heat building beneath the saddle.  He was starting to pant, and he was just anticipating me to sending him off the other way.  It was like looking into the rear view mirror, seeing you are being tailed by a cop with is lights on, and saying “crap, was I speeding?"  Immediately I felt my stomach in my throat, knowing I probably pushed a bit too hard.  Not physically too hard, he is fit enough to do what he was doing, and I never crossed any lines, I didn’t hurt him.  But in my mind I knew that I had lost my chance to gain anything out of that ride before I even asked for that first stride of the lope.  

I never like to end a ride like that, but I knew that my mind in that moment was not in the right place.  So I tied Disco up to the wall and texted a good friend of mine, Kevin Meyer.  My first message to him was rather agitated.  I was still holding a grudge from an unsuccessful ride.  I will be going to Kevin's clinic this coming weekend in NY, and I said to him something along the lines of “We could be at an interesting point in the training process by next weekend.”  As I vented about what happened I felt more and more guilty for setting my amazing horse up to fail in that ride.  It was not so much anything Kevin said that made me see that the entire thing was set up to fail from the beginning, it was putting it all out on the table and reading my own words to him describing what happened.  So I went back in, got on Disco, and at a walk just asked him to do a nice turn on the hind quarters both directions, a stop and a back, and then I put my arms around his neck and loved on him.  I breathed in the dried sweat in his mane and I told him how good of a boy he was.  I got off, hosed him down, and put him up for the night with the thought that tomorrow I would be a better trainer for my horse.

The following day I got on Disco first before I worked with anyone else.  Before I even put a foot in the stirrup, I had the plan that all I wanted that day was to have a quiet and positive ride.  I would review my basics, do some trot work, and when I got to the lope I wasn’t going to ask anything drastic of him.  I just wanted him to depart quietly, it did not have to be in frame, move forward at his normal comfortable pace that is between that large fast circle and small slow circle of a reining pattern, and make a few clean turns across the arena.  Without any fuss, he did all of the above in a 20 minute ride, so I quit on him for the day.  

Have I gotten Disco to consistently go at that slow lope yet after that ride?  No I haven’t.  But I know it will come in time.  Hopefully it will come by October, but you know what, even if it is not consistent by then, that is ok.  Unless you are willing to cut ethical corners, there is no way to force a horse to learn something in any set time frame.  You have to set that horse up for as much success as he can achieve in the time that you have, and when the time comes, show the horse you have on that day and nothing more.  I stopped myself before cutting that corner this week.  One thing that I take pride in as a trainer is never having crossed that ethical line, but as humans we are emotional and driven beings.  It is impossible to have no emotion while training horses, but it is up to us as trainers to recognize when we need to put ourselves in check.  I hope that more trainers in every discipline start doing the same thing.  Too often, timelines and paychecks allow trainers to get greedy.  They forget that what our horses allow us to teach the allows us the privilege to make a living in this business, not a right we can just take from them.

Here are some fun photos of Disco around the farm this week.  Saying that he likes to be a lighter shade of brown is a bit of an understatement.  And I still have no idea what is going on in the video below.