Horse Wise

Shadow Warrior was a handsome, well-bred Thoroughbred gelding. His sire, A.P. Indy, was a huge personality at the track. Even now, at age 30, A.P. Indy still has swagger (see link below to his 30th birthday video). Shadow had his father’s good looks, competitive fire and epic presence. Born in 2008, he raced 83 times and retired at age 9. Shadow ended his career in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in Sept 2017. Abandoned at the track, Shadow was rescued due to the heroic efforts of Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare. He came to the racehorse charity I ran (LOPE) in Dec 2017. It soon became clear that Shadow had intense aggression and PTSD issues. I had never encountered or worked with a horse as troubled as Shadow. But thanks to the mentorship and coaching of a good friend (Nathan Greiner), Shadow and I slowly made progress together for several months (see three-part series below for details). During that phase, Shadow helped many people learn — including at-risk youth, horsemen of the highest caliber and many racing professionals. 

But then Shadow took a turn for both the better and the worse simultaneously. The combination led to behavior that was even more dangerous than before. Although Shadow’s life was much too short, it had great meaning and purpose. The last year of his life was happy, with many days of contentment and peace. I’ll always regret that I couldn’t develop the skills in time to help Shadow fully. But I'll never regret that I had the honor to know him, work with him, learn from him and (lastly) own him. Many thanks and deep gratitude to all the people who helped Shadow and me along the way: Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, Gary Bailey of Bail-e Horsemanship and Colt Starting, Tom Curtin Quality Horsemanship, The Burke Center for Youth, Dr. Matt Evans of Austin Equine Hospital — and most of all, Nathan Greiner. 

Photo of Shadow Warrior: http://tjr.me/galleries/horses/images/shadow-warrior/

A.P. Indy 30th birthday video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X58Nc1_FTDI

3 Part Series on Shadow’s progress in 2017 and 2018:

Pt 1: https://mailchi.mp/lopetx/shadow-warrior-a-heros-tale

For me, Horse Wise began in 2007. Back then, I was running a racehorse adoption ranch and blogging about my experiences. Whenever I would write about a key lesson that a horse taught me, I would tag the post as “Horse Wise.” From that beginning, Horse Wise has evolved into a coaching and teaching service for people and horses. My history with horses started with learning to ride as an adult (in weekly group riding lessons). A full-time office worker with a normal job, I soon found horses taking over more and more of my life (including a memorable volunteer stint with a mounted Park Police unit). Eventually, I moved from Washington DC to Texas and started the racehorse adoption charity LOPE (http://lopetx.org/ ). The ex-racehorses provided me with an incredible education about horses, horsemanship and life itself. They also brought me memorable teachers, starting with the best of them all — Ray Hunt (http://www.alegacyoflegends.com/the-legacy.html). Thanks to the LOPE horses, I wrote a popular book (Beyond the Homestretch) about my work. To my surprise, I then steadily grew into becoming a teacher/coach for horses and their people. For more information about Horse Wise and the services we offer, please visit: http://horsewisecoach.com/  or  https://www.facebook.com/HorseWiseCoach/ 

A pretty mare was performing badly in a cow working class. She was anxious about making a mistake and didn’t want to let her cowboy rider down. But it seemed like she always did, no matter how hard she tried. The cowboy was frustrated with the mare and wondered why she was so untalented. She had a stellar cutting horse pedigree and ideal conformation for the sport. While he was a good rider and all-around nice guy, he had missed a key point. With a few quiet comments, a tactful clinician helped him understand that the mare was simply a reflection of his own expectations. For more information about Horse Wise and our services, please visit: http://horsewisecoach.com/

Jessica and Blaze were a good team. A seasoned professional horse trainer and competitor, Jessica had worked with many green horses. Blaze, a young OTTB, was her latest training project. He had been one of the calmest horses she had ever worked with. But then “all of a sudden” Blaze began to rear in his training sessions. What was going on? After watching Jessica and Blaze work together for ten minutes, it became very clear where they had taken a wrong turn. Find out what I saw — and how it turned out that a few simple steps had led to the problem. For more information about Horse Wise and our services, please visit: http://horsewisecoach.com/

Many years ago, I played extremely low goal polo. My small budget (and dismal lack of hitting skills) limited me to an inexpensive practice membership at a local club. Each week, I would play practice chukkers with my duo of polo ponies (Pepe and Presidente). I was known on the field for always missing the ball (seriously) — and for my enthusiastic defensive plays. One summer, I got the chance to play in a casual club tournament game. Full of excitement and determination, I put in my best ever performance in the game. To my dismay, it also became the worst memory of my obscure polo career. Pepe and Presidente wouldn’t talk to me for days afterward. For more information on the sport of polo, please visit the US Polo Association at https://www.uspolo.org/ To learn more about Horse Wise and our services, please visit: http://horsewisecoach.com/

When working with horses. it often can be hard to see the difference between technique and approach/tone. Most people understandably will focus on mechanics rather than presentation. But horses respond as much (or more) to tone as they do to technique. Each horse is different in how they learn (just like people). It’s important to understand what an individual horse needs — so you can then adapt your approach to fit the situation (and the horse). In this episode, I tell the story of how one good gelding demonstrated this lesson to a cowboy. The cowboy was seasoned and kind-hearted — but he had watched a little too many television training programs. By the end of their session, they both had learned a great about each other (without once turning on the TV). For more information on Horse Wise, please visit http://horsewisecoach.com/

When I first started a racehorse adoption charity (LOPE), I was a complete novice at running a farm or training green horses. Did this stop me? No, that would have been too easy. Instead I cheerfully plunged ahead, oblivious to potential downsides of my inexperience. While my open-mindedness and optimism were terrific traits, I did end up learning many things the hard way. Like the importance of awareness when working with horses. Or of verifying information provided by other horse people (who may have issues with awareness themselves). In this episode, I share two entertaining stories of calm horses and savvy owners who weren’t quite what they seemed. They taught me valuable lessons about safety and observation skills that I never forgot. I hope you enjoy these tales of my misadventures — and that you never have to learn these things the hard way (like I did). For more information on LOPE’s work, please visit www.lopetx.org or https://www.facebook.com/LOPETEXAS/

Cassie and her mare Sasha are both teenagers (age 16 and 17 respectively).They’ve been a team for six years (Sasha was Cassie’s 10th birthday present). Together, they have accomplished much in the show world (including US Pony Club Finals and US Dressage Championships). But their biggest challenge was their quest for USDF Bronze, a journey that brought many twists and turns. In 2018, Cassie was within one score of achieving the Bronze. But when Sasha began to show signs of stress and tension, Cassie had to make a choice. Was it better to push Sasha to get that last score right away? Or to give her a break from showing and possibly not achieve Bronze at all? Cassie’s decision made all the difference to Sasha — and changed her perspective on competitive goals. Cassie has been an intern at LOPE since 2017. She has shown much dedication to horsemanship and to her feisty mare Sasha. . For more information on LOPE’s teen and young adult internship programs, please visit http://lopetx.org/starting-gate-program-for-future-horsemanship-leaders/ To reach their USDF Bronze goals, Cassie and Sasha trained with Ashley Shaw Dressage in Dripping Springs, TX (https://www.facebook.com/ashleyshawdressage/)

Dr. Matt Evans DVM is an equine vet, stand-up comic, landscape painter, master gardener and all-around Renaissance man. He decided to become an equine vet even though he had no experience with horses prior to vet school. Matt doesn’t let details like that get in the way of bold career moves. In addition to being a partner at Austin Equine Hospital and pursuing multiple creative endeavors (like parenting), Matt is active in local community charity work AND is a runner. Seriously, this guy is like a super hero or something. Best of all, Matt is hilarious and finds the humor in every situation (especially those involving horses). In this interview, we discuss how artistic passions and equine veterinary work complement each other in his life. For more information on Matt’s adventures in landscape painting, please visit him on Instagram at @evanspaintingsandstuff. To learn more about his work as a veterinarian, please visit Austin Equine at @austinequine. For our Austin listeners, Matt will be competing for the title of Funniest Person in Austin at the Cap City Comedy Club on 4/16 at 8 pm. Finally, for those folks who want to learn more about my racehorse adoption charity (LOPE), please visit www.lopetx.org. Matt and the wonderful team at Austin Equine Hospital have generously sponsored LOPE since 2004. 

My horse Santo is big, sweet QH with a heart of gold. He also is a very emotional kind of guy. Santo has LOTS of feelings that he wants to share with everyone, all the time. He had some dressage training (not a massive amount, but much more than I had as a rider). One year, I came to realize that both Santo and I needed to concentrate on foundation work together. So I took Santo to a clinic with Peter Campbell.  I put aside my usual dressage tack — and I decided to ride in western gear (wade tree saddle, mecate reins). My goal was to concentrate on the fundamentals and do my best to set Santo up for success. A calm, slow ride without any dressage bells and whistles. Instead, a whirlwind of troubled colt swept across the arena, leaving a wake of chaotic riders behind him. The outcome turned out to be my first ever canter pirouette, an advanced dressage movement that I never expected to experience on Santo. This episode is dedicated to the memory of Peter Campbell (1964-2017).

For more information on Peter and how his clinics helped the horses at LOPE (the racehorse adoption charity I founded), please read this 2015 blog post from former LOPE staffer Suzanne: http://lopetx.org/blog/horsemanship/10-things-learned-peter-campbell-clinic/