Hi everyone! Thanks for your patience with the continuation of Grady’s story. I started this post a long time ago but had lots of starts and stops along the way to getting it done. The chronological part of the story left off back in November of 2022 so if you’d like to read the prequel to this post, click here.
Our time at Jayne’s barn was wonderful for Grady and me. We had a whole new support system and we saw Jayne so much more often. Her other clients and the barn owner were so friendly. The staff had gotten to know Grady through the time he spent there at the clinics so that was an added benefit.
Now that we were spending more time in an indoor arena, a new issue that came up from time to time was noises from above. The sound of raindrops hitting the roof bothered Grady, especially if the rain was heavy. In one of our clinic sessions, there was a bad storm and it rained so hard that Grady couldn’t handle it. Jacquie was very understanding and suggested putting him away and trying again later. When we came back out after the heavy rain had stopped, Grady did great.
Luckily, it didn’t often rain that hard, but what was more of an issue was the huge fans at both ends of the indoor. The one at the near end was set back behind an area overlooking the arena so it wasn’t usually a problem. The one at the far end, however, hummed and sometimes rattled right overhead on the short side wall and Grady wanted no part of it. The arena was very large so it was easy to avoid that end but sometimes that wasn’t enough. Again, this was only an issue during the hot, humid summer months and we did the best we could. This would be something we’d need to work on for a long time.
Another wonderful experience we had while at Jayne’s barn was riding in a few horse shows. Two of them were at the barn and another one was about an hour away so Grady spent the night. After spending so many years on the show circuit, it was a nice change to do some low-key schooling shows just for fun.
Two things I love about dressage shows are having an actual time for your rides and getting written feedback from the judges. Since you get scores for each movement in a dressage test, you can have some mistakes but if you do other things well, you can end up with a good overall score. All I wanted out of the experience was for Grady to gain some more confidence and for both of us to have some fun. Getting some good scores and blue ribbons was icing on the cake!
In the summer of 2015, I had the opportunity to travel to California and meet Monty Roberts. I knew about Monty and his methods and I was intrigued to learn more since I had been dabbling in some groundwork with Grady. Monty and his wife, Pat, often hosted groups of people at the farm to learn about his work with horses and my visit overlapped with one of these events so there was a lot going on. Watching Monty do one of his famous “Join Up” sessions up close and personal was amazing. He explained what he was doing as he moved the horse around the round pen as we all watched from an elevated viewing area that encircled the perimeter of the round pen. Within 30 minutes, Monty had the previously never saddled horse not only saddled and bridled but also carrying a rider, all with no use of force.
When I returned home, I couldn’t wait to try doing a join-up with Grady. There was a round pen at the barn up on a hill overlooking the farm. I had taken Grady up there a few times to ride around the property but had never had him loose in the round pen.
It was a little nerve-wracking when I first let him loose, but after running around for a few minutes, he began to focus on me and I was able to get him to change direction back and forth and walk, trot and canter on my voice and body language. When he started to show signs of relaxation, I was able to get him to come in to me and ultimately follow me around the round pen, still loose, but totally relaxed and mirroring my every move. It was pretty amazing. This kind of work was definitely something I wanted to learn more about.
In the spring of 2016, I received the news that the owner of Jayne’s barn was going to be selling the farm and that we would have to find a new home. Although most of Jayne’s clients were going to a nearby barn, I knew of a suitable place right down the road from the barn I was managing so, on July 1, that was where Grady would call home.
This barn had a friendly, family atmosphere even though the boarders rode in various disciplines with different trainers. Grady had a nice big window that looked out at the beautiful scenery and he loved to watch the activity around the farm. Jayne met us for a lesson not long after the move which gave us a great start at our new place.
Unfortunately, Grady wasn’t happy with everything at his new home. A couple of weeks after our arrival, Grady decided that the fan at the end of the aisle near his stall was a big monster. One day when I got to the barn, I could tell he had been anxiously circling around in his stall and I suspected that it was the fan, even though he had been fine with it since the day we moved in. He even enjoyed standing in front of it to cool off after our rides. I don’t know what changed.
One afternoon, I got a call from the barn manager that Grady was circling around in his stall nervously and not eating his dinner. I asked her to try turning off the fan and she said that helped. The bad news was that a heat wave was coming and we’d really need that fan to be on. Luckily, there was an empty stall with an individual stall fan in one of the other barns on the property so that became Grady’s new quarters. He liked that much better and he still had a great view.
Once the fan issue was resolved, we were able to focus on our riding and continued to have great lessons with Jayne. With the barn’s busy schedule and varied disciplines and trainers, I sometimes found it difficult to find quiet times in the ring, but we made the most of it and used each experience as an opportunity to learn. If someone was jumping, I would stand with Grady out of the way and let him watch. Most of the time, he was ok with that, except for the time that he wasn’t, and as the jumping horse approached the corner where we stood, Grady decided to freak out and scoot sideways into his path. They managed to avoid us but how embarrassing!
In March 2017, I attended a Horse Expo in Harrisburg, PA. While walking around the shopping area toward the end of the first day, I noticed a round pen where a clinic was just starting. I looked at my schedule and saw “Scott Purdum – Despooking the Fearful Horse”. I immediately stopped to watch and really liked what I saw.
The main premise of the clinic was that any horse can spook at any time, but if you teach the horse how to spook, it can make all the difference. I won’t go into all the details here, but ultimately the horse who was in the session learned to stop and stand when the spooky thing happened (in this case it was the audience applauding on command).
After the session, I found Scott’s booth and bought some of his equipment and a training DVD. I couldn’t wait to get home and try some of the techniques with Grady. Happening upon that clinic turned out to be life-changing for Grady and me.
When I got home, I started working on the exercises I had learned at the clinic. Grady was taking to it very well and it was fun to have new things to work on toward the end of winter. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find quiet times in the ring to work on my groundwork and I was beginning to feel this barn was no longer the best fit for us. Around that time, a stall became available in the barn where Jayne’s other clients had moved so I decided to take it. This barn was smaller with an attached indoor ring and a more consolidated schedule. It was practically guaranteed that I would have the place to myself if I planned to work with Grady in the late afternoon. Those quiet times together really strengthened our bond and we were able to make great progress.
One issue at the new barn was that when the sun warmed up the metal roof on the indoor ring, it made loud crackling noises which freaked Grady out. We worked on our ground exercises and Grady learned to stop and stand when he was afraid rather than bolt and run off. After a few months, I could actually see Grady’s thought process when something scared him and he ultimately learned to stop on his own without being told. Once that got really solid, I was able to then teach him to continue without stopping and the result was him slowing down and remaining calm.
We also used this method when dealing with the noise and movement from the indoor ring ceiling fans. The fans in this indoor weren’t as huge as the ones at the other barn but they were different in that they hung straight down from the rafters. The other ones were more built into the wall. Either way, they were fans, they made noise overhead and they were scary.
I really enjoyed the groundwork I was doing with Grady and, even though I was still working with Jayne, I started to take the pressure off myself to always ride Grady in between our lessons. Much of the time, our groundwork was more successful than our solo rides and Grady was more relaxed which resulted in better, more productive work. He always shined in our lessons so I figured it was working for him too. Grady enjoyed all the games and variety and he started to clown around as well.
One day, I draped a tarp over him and he reached around, pulled it off his back and shook it around as if to say “See, the noise doesn’t scare me anymore!”.
When I did ride Grady on my own, I started to change it up and get more playful with it. I began incorporating some of the desensitization work I had been doing on the ground into my rides. We got to the point where I could wave a windsock around on his back and even ride around carrying a small flag.
I was finding a good balance between doing groundwork and riding while focusing on being present in the moment when Grady and I worked together. The biggest thing that groundwork helped us with was that if Grady was in a nervous or overly energetic mood, I had more tools to use to help him work through it which always resulted in a positive session.
In addition to our lessons with Jayne, we attended more clinics with Jacquie. Since Jayne’s former farm hadn’t sold yet, we had a few opportunities to ship back there for the clinics which was amazing. Grady had grown so much over the past few years since we started working with Jayne and Jacquie…not only mentally but physically. He actually appeared so much bigger than he used to and he carried himself so differently.
During what ended up being our last clinic with Jacquie (before Covid stopped them), I was walking around on Grady and we happened to be at the far end of the indoor arena where the (previously) scary fan was running. A new woman I hadn’t seen before at the clinics was handwalking her tacked-up horse to help him acclimate to the new environment. I heard a voice behind me but it took a minute to realize she was talking to me.
“Excuse me, would you mind if we followed you past the fan? My horse is a little nervous about it.”
She wanted to follow Grady and me past the fan for confidence….wow….what a testament to Grady’s journey. I took a deep breath, smiled to myself, and proudly answered “Of course!”.