So there’s a little piece of me that likes to think that I know everything and am perfectly equipped to retrain a thoroughbred.
And on that front, I should award myself 10/10 for ego and a 2/10 for accuracy.
But eventually, after fannying around and getting nowhere with this horse – I realised that it would make more sense to just shlurp all the goodness from someone else’s brain.
Good me. Tick for being a responsible adult.
So as soon as I saw that Dr Shelley Appleton was running a clinic near me, I thought
‘Bingo! That’s exactly what we need!’
See, a lot of the clinicians do an internal eye roll when they see an ex-racehorse waterskiing their handler into the arena on the end of the lead.
To be fair, it’s like when I see a ‘Bad Bitch’ sticker on someone’s car….There’s no visible facepalm – but, you know….we do jump to conclusions.
Anyhoo, Shelley’s ‘Canter Therapy’ podcast has been on high rotation through my ear drums and I’ve always liked the way she speaks about ‘off the trackers’, even before I ever had one.
Instead of broadcasting all the damaged goods you get with a retired racehorse, Shelley sings the praises of the humble thoroughbred.
So let’s fast forward to a few weeks later, when I loaded up the big fella and off we went…
After a theory session full of a series of ‘eureka’ moments it was time to get cracking with the horses.
And even though I was keen to get started, I was LESS keen about being ‘that’ kid in the classroom.
And as expected we entered the arena at a lovely, elevated medium trot…
Cucumber was channeling his inner Arabian stallion, while I was playing the part of a slightly podgy ball and chain getting dragged along behind.
It was not quite the proficient horse person presentation I was aiming for… and and as we lined up to receive some practical advice, I was getting flash-backs to our family car trips in the 80s.
Like most parents – mine were not proponents of the Sibling Smackdown events that would happen in the back seat on our long, sweaty, summer road trips….
But after a few stinking hours, with sticky thighs and sugar highs – it was a guaranteed part of the trip.
And whenever one of these wrestling matches broke out, we were eyeballed via the rear vision mirror and a parental arm risked dislocation while it flailed around hoping to disrupt World War III happening in the back.
This was usually followed by the threat of pulling over onto the side of the road… and even though we never believed the BS about being left there, we knew that far worse fates might await.
Like missing out on McDonalds or the radio getting changed to a classical music station 😩
So if one of our furious parents ever turned around to give us a serve, we knew to pretend to be gross little Von Trapp family kids, full of seat-belted curtsies and kindly words to one another.
And there I was, a middle aged woman in a horsemanship clinic channeling that exact same feeling.
As I was getting tossed into the air and taken out at the knees by Cucmber’s humongus head – I remembered that distinct feeling of being mid punch in the backseat and then pretending that nothing was going on.
Only this time, instead of Mum glaring at me, it was Shelley’s smiling face looking around to check we all understood.
It was that EXACT feeling as I yoinked hard on Cucumber’s rope… and then smiled a little bit psychotically while I pretended everything was fiiiine.
Just fine.
Nothing to see here, lady…
After a while I realised that my gutteral grunts were giving the game away… and that it was probably less weird to admit to a lack of horse training, than explain why I was grunting so weirdly in public.
But by the end of the clinic and still to this day – I have a really lovely horse to handle.
Ever since that weekend, he follows my feel and walks along on a loopy lead like a well trained cow pony… It’s quite mesmerizing actually.
And yes, of course I learned a whole lot more than how to do a loopy lead rope walk – but with that foundation in place, it’s made him a dream to have around.
Shelley’s approach really resonates with me because it’s logical, evidence based and very much considers the horse and their behaviour, instead of the ego of the human.
Also her clinics are really well designed.
Even when you’re at the bottom of the training scale (ahem) you still come out having achieved specific objectives.
Even better, it’s easy to remember and implement at home.
I’m not sure about you but sometimes I’ve gone to clinics and it’s been sensational while under the watchful eye of the clinician. We’ve all had wins and felt like singing horsey koombayah… but once back at home, it’s back to wrestling smackdown tactics to just walk from A to B.
In closing, I 10/10 recommend heading along to a clinic if you can – but regardless of where you are in the world, you can binge listen to ‘Canter Therapy’ for freeeeee (I’ll link below) OR you could even dip your toe in with some of Shelley’s online courses.
I started with the short course called ‘Things to Know About Horses’ and it was packed full of A-HA moments. So if you’re not sure, I suggest this one as a starting point.
In any case, take a look at the links below, you might get a lot out of it 😀
Check out Canter Therapy Podcast here.
Check out Dr Shelley Appleton’s Courses and Website here.
*** Please know there’s no affiliate incentive or anything gross going on here. I’ve paid full rate for these online courses and clinics and have no issue recommending them as sensational value for money***
To see the next instalment of my recycled racehorse project please Read Chapter 7 here