A little over a year ago, I contacted Sweet Water Farm for jumping lessons on the off-the-track thoroughbred I had at the time. I had been doing Parelli exclusively for about 7 years, had studied at the Parelli Center in Pagosa Springs, CO, and had gotten to a place in my horsemanship where I was ready to focus on a specific discipline. In other words. . .I had become a member of the lead-em and feed-em club and things had gotten a little stale. I think my horse thought so, too.
I decided to call Amrita Ibold--owner of Sweet Water Farm Akhal-Teke--because I had heard she was an eventer. . .and there's nobody better to call for jumping instruction than your neighbor the successful 3-day-er. We set up an introductory lesson on one of her school horses, and when I showed up at her farm that cold and windy morning, I was introduced to the horse that sparked my love-affair with the Akhal-Teke breed: Dagjeir, a purebred gelding imported from Russia. It was an amazing and rare introduction to the world of eventing that, unfortunately, not many people will get the chance to experience. For centuries, the Akhal-Teke has been known as
The Divine Horse, and I soon found out why. A wonderfully-versatile breed, they are: athletic, smooth, steady, elegant, extremely personable, and incredibly catty. . .all in one handy package of a horse.
At the time, I was managing a natural horsemanship academy for children. . .at a barn that had a No Bits, No Spurs, and No Shoes policy. The president (and owner) of this program was NOT thrilled that I was seeking outside instruction from a traditional trainer, but was at least tolerant during this beginning stage of what turned out to be my equestrian-career-overhaul. Later on, I would come to realize that the only downfall of receiving a well-rounded education in both traditional and "natural" training methods is trying to maintain the peace between radicals on both sides of the spectrum (Come on girls. . .can't we just agree to disagree?????).
Following my intial jumping lesson, I continued training with Amrita on my TB, and decided to make the transition from riding with a rope halter, to riding with a traditonal bridle, and make our debut in a schooling show in the spring. A few months later, and only days after my new bridle had arrived in the mail, my beautiful grey gelding broke his leg in a tragic pasture accident, and had to be put-down on the spot. It was one of the most painful and traumatic experiences of my life, and I now know how it feels to be the victim in every horse-owner's worst nightmare. But, as things often go, there was a silver lining to one of my life's darkest clouds. As heartbreaking as it was, the sudden loss of my horse allowed for the opportunity to train on Dagjeir for the upcoming 2009 eventing season.
Due to the fact that I was so enamored by Akhal-Tekes, I wanted to help Amrita promote the breed. With only about 500 Tekes in the United States, most people have little or no knowledge of them. We decided the best way to do this was to train hard and compete often--people need to know what these athletes can do! Over the course of the season, we competed in 5 USEA recognized three-day events, 3 schooling shows, and 3 eventing clinics--including the Olympic Experience Event Camp with the O'Conners and Amy Tryon in Kalispell, MT. We called it our Amazing Akhal-Teke Eventing Endeavor, and it turned out to be the best summer of my life. Amrita's beloved Dagjeir brought me from Novice level to Training level, and schooling Preliminary, in a single season!
Along with Parelli, I had also been studying barefoot hoof care, and had been doing my own trims for nearly as long. When I started training with Amrita, I offered to teach her how to do her own trims, and we soon took over the hoof maintenence for her herd of Akhal-Tekes, as well as her eventing horses. She had been keeping her broodmares and young geldings barefoot, but had always kept her competition horses shod in the front. She was so pleased with the improvement of her horses' feet with the barefoot trims, she decided to give barefoot eventing a try.
Our first event was The Spring Fling at the Northwest Equestrian Center in Rainier, WA--a four-day eventing clinic and schooling show. Pan Tau, Amrita's stallion, and Dagjeir, both did great barefoot and never missed a step on cross-country, even when we schooled the water jump. It was an encouraging beginning to our season. May brought our first real show of the season, The Mother's Day Classic, also at the Northwest Equestrian Center, and was equally successful. In the end of May, however, Pan Tau bruised his sole during a water-obstacle schooling session at Nick Holmes-Smith's eventing clinic at Chase Creek. Amrita gave him a day off and treated the foot with ABC's Poultice. He seemed as good as new the next day, so she opted to ride and tried him in a pair of Renegades she brought in case of such a situation. The Renegades proved to be too slippery to safely ride cross-country in, so she had to retire half-way through a jumping lesson. This was a very disapointing experience for them both, and Amrita decided it would be best to put front shoes on the two competiton horses for the busiest months of the 2009 season.
In July, I moved my TB/Warmblood filly, Bijoux, to Sweet Water Farm. . .giving up my position at Plumb Pond Natural Horsemanship for a life of eventing full-time. I had been doing Parelli with Amrita's youngsters for several months, and we both felt great about the way things were going. I was living my dream of using natural horsemanship to develop sport-horses, and loving every minute of it. In August, when our schedule was starting to slow down a little, we decided to have Dagjeir's and Pan Tau's shoes pulled and would focus on conditoning their feet for performing barefoot. We did two Training Level schooling shows in September and October, and two Preliminary cross-country sessions with Whidbey Island Pony Club's event trainer, Linda Chatfield. Our horses went confidently cross-country barefoot, and we were thrilled with their sure-footedness and stability on-course.
With the winter just started, and the 2010 Eventing season soon on its way, we are working to find ways to maintain hoof health in our wet climate, condition our event horses' feet so they are rough 'n ready to gallope cross country over any terrain, and still have time to develope the young horses into up-and-coming competitors. We love barefoot performance horse success stories. . .and are always looking for words of wisdom from those who have paved the way in the equestrian sport-world. We're hoping this blog will connect us with people on the same path. So bring it on ~ We want to hear from you!