Rose How She Overcame Great Obstacles!
Read her amazing story
Rose is the reason why I do what I do! Rose was this cute 4 year old cutting bay mare that I had purchase several years ago. I had a trainer go with me help me find a horse. This cute horse was not trained enough for someone with my level of experience! I already owned an older horse that was trained, that I had been competing on & taking lessons. What I didn’t learn in lessons is how to train a horse. I had no idea what I was getting into. I had the trainer work with her for about month after got her. Then I did lessons with him and things went ok but not great. I kept her with trainer for about 2-3 months; during part this time she had gone to vet get her wolf teeth taken out. What we didn’t know was the vet had not taken it all out. She soon started having rearing problems and the trainer who I had trusted did not think about her issue could be from pain. After period of this not resolving itself, I finally decided take her vet to see if something was wrong. Sure enough there was a the vet found a piece of tooth in her gum, so every time the bit hit her mouth it was causing her a lot of pain. We got this resolved but unfortunately due her mistrust and from breeder not having her trained properly, she learned to rear. She learned anything she didn’t want to do she would rear up.
So one day when I was with trainer and riding Rose, I asked her to stop. And with no warning she went straight up! I landed hard on ground and it scared me. I did not get back on and I left for my almost hour drive home. By the time I got home, I was in so much pain I could barely walk. My husband took me to emergency and fortunately it was mostly a tear & nothing permanent. My pride was though, I could not get back on Rose and I became afraid. She had already had “hot” personality, she did not trust, she had several issues. Basically she was too much of horse for me. I try to sell for several months and was not able to.
After many months of tears, anguish and feeling like I was failure. I finally decided that Rose needed be with me and I was determined to overcome my fear. I took Rose and moved her by me. I decided I was going to learn as much as I could about retraining horses that seem like there was no chance of changing. It was many months and more tears, and lot research, order training videos, trying all kinds of training tools, techniques. I made a lot of mistakes as I was learning this, but also was making a lot progress. After 6-8 months of ground work I decided to start riding Rose again. I was terrified but felt a lot more confident that I had learned what to do if she did certain things. Still continued the groundwork and never stopped because that was what was building the trust in her & I. There is a lot more that I love to share but will add more later. But after a lot hard work, sweat, & tears I was able ride her with a saddle, bare-back even at a lope and competing on her! One thing I had learned was Rose was just like me! She did not trust anyone and had been hurt a lot earlier in her younger years. I had to earn her trust!
