Those of you who know my Lusitano gelding, Sedutor- Sudi to his friends- will remember what a difficult horse he has been. He would whip round so fast my head would touch his backside, which didnt do much for my whiplash!- at something that we could neither hear nor see, and so could never tell when it would happen. He was a danger to lead on the ground, flattening Becky against a concrete block wall and then trampling down her right side, necessitating a trip to hospital. He nearly did the same to me several times, until Jill Shephard showed me some Intelligent Horsemanship groundwork methods which helped a great deal.
I had already taught him lateral work under saddle, but he was becoming more and more unpredictable and I frankly didnt enjoy riding him- I am after all, only 4 years off my bus pass!!
So Becky worked him in long reins for nearly a year, and I brought him back into work under saddle for a short time then. But we had problems with his feet for some time- he has one fore foot at a different angle to the other, making him take a shorter stride in walk. I had him z rayed at a top practice with the best of equipment, and nerve blocked at the same time all round, and they could find nothing, putting it down to purely him having to bring the foot down toe, rather than heel first, because of the different angle. Our trimmers have really got on top of it now, and so I brought him back into work again, in early December.
I have been riding him nearly every day for the last few weeks, and he has changed so much again. He really started to bond with me under saddle and developed a trust that I have never had with him before. He also loves his clicker training 'vending machine' in the form of Jenny, and having her on the ground in the school I think further reassured him.
This last three weeks he has been improving steadily, to the point that I dared teach him some piaffe and passage under saddle. He had already offered it and Becky had established it in long reins, although he still went light behind in the piaffe without a rider able to engage the hindlegs. But to have tried it under saddle would just blow his brains. Once blown, you might as well have called it a day, as you could never get him to settle again in a session, he is so hot and explosive.
But three days ago, I decided to give it a go, and although a little bit concerned to begin with, he did some nice piaffe steps and some lovely passage. Yesterday, I asked him again and he improved yet again in the piaffe and passage.
Today, I wish we had Debbie and camcorder here, because I dared to really collect him and get more expression. What was amazing was that he went into the school with such a cheeky expression on his face,and it remained that way for the whole session. I have never felt him so full of himself, but purely full of joie de vivre. He just made Jenny and I laugh so much because he is so clever, and anticipates things almost as I think them, but we are gradually getting him to let me think for him!
The pics below are from yesterday, but had they been today, they would have been better again. His expression was with ears pricked most of the time- not from the previous spooky, always fearful reason, but just purely whoopee, yet totally able to be under control. I just got off on a high
- every day for the last few weeks, this previously so difficult horse has just given me everything I have asked, and so willingly. He tries so hard, and loves to learn, and I get off him every day with a smile on my face.
Shoulder in
Travers
SI on a circle
Half pass
Canter
Some piaffe pics
Passage- although not the best shot, but to give an idea!
Spanish walk, which he is still learning under saddle but it is coming very well!!
Heather
For those of you who are new to the forum, here is his full story, posted on IHDG couple of weeks ago, on a thread called 'Do you Believe in Fate?'
I had a wonderful old horse, whom I lost seven years ago, aged 27, having rescued him from the knacker when he was nine years old.
He belonged to a lady, one of two in their late fifties who had bred him, and were having to give up their TB stud, due to having to care for elderly relatives. But Butch, as he was known at homea 16.2hh grey gelding, had been turned into a dangerous rearer by a fairly well known eventer, who had ridden him forcing him to jump etc, when he clearly was in pain from a (then undiagnosed) back and pelvic injury. He had been hurdled originally and then, was sent eventing by his breeders.
They had to take him back when he started to rear to the point of going over backwards, and indeed would do so, as soon as pointed at a jump. He had also started to rear at road junctions if he didnt want to go in a certain direction.
I heard about him through a friend who had him in his yard on trial for a week, for a client, to see if he would be retrievable. The client still wanted to jump, and it soon became clear that this was not an option, so my friend rang me and said that he thought I could sort him as a dressage horse.
I rang his owners, who were engaged on the phone. When I rang back a few minutes later, they said they had been on the phone to the hunt and he was to be put down next day. I pleaded with them not to put him down, but to come over and meet me. They agreed, and came over, liked me, liked our place- I lived in Essex at the time- and I went over next morning, tried him, and brought him home.
I always worked with him never to confront him- I gave him all the time he needed to settle, and then just rode him in the indoor school careful never to push him to the point he felt he might go up.
I then started to hack him out, and told my staff which way I was going, and if I wasnt back in two hours, to come and look for me! They never had to! When we came to a junction, I just sat there. I know if I had pushed him, he would have gone up. But after a few minutes, he got bored, and would walk on, on a loose rein, with me purely using my weight and opposite leg, to guide him in the direction I wanted.
After a few weeks of this, I could ride him anywhere. When I felt he really trusted me, I put him at a small jump in my indoor school. Over he popped. My friend who had told me about him, used to come to my yard to give jumping lessons. He saw me on Butch in the school and said that I had better take him out, as he was about to start the jumping. I turned, put Butch at the jumps which he had put out, sailed over the lot, and I can see my friends mouth hanging open, even now, years later!
I also did side saddle with Butch, not something you usually do on a rearer, but in all the years I had him, he never, ever went up again. He became one of my best ever schoolmasters, and one of the greatest equine friends I could ever have had. I kept in touch with his breeder until her death last year.
I lost him seven years ago, at 27, with sudden liver failure, but he had been a horse of a lifetime.
But all this is leading up to another 'coincidence'? I came back from lecturing in Australia in April 2006 and saw a very nice Lusitano gelding for sale in H and H. I was sort of looking for another, and he was tall, 16.1hh, and oddly, didnt look unlike Butch, who was 1/16th ID but could almost have been an Iberian cross.
But, the H and H was 3 weeks old and I thought he would have been sold. I rang the number, expecting him either to be sold, or at the other end of the country. To my astonishment, he wasnt sold and was in Essex, where I was going the following weekend, on my way to our saddle makers in Suffolk. A friend was coming with me- she is cobalmighty on DG- as we were also doing saddle fitting training that week at the workshop.
I mentioned to her that the gelding, Sedutor, was in the very village where I had been to see Butch, all those years before. As we approached the village, we turned down a road, which looked very familiar. As we drove into the yard, I turned to my friend and said 'This IS the yard where I got Butch'. My friend said I had gone a very funny colour! I asked the person who had Sudi for sale on behalf of a client, which stable he had been in ( he had been there for 5 months schooling, but they thought he would have sold quicker, needed his stable and had moved him into the washbox!) for the time he had been there. There were 20 odd stables in that yard. She pointed to the very stable that Butch had lived in prior to coming to me.
It was clear that Sudi was not an easy horse, extremely sharp and other people who had been to try him, hadnt got on with him. I knew that in the wrong hands, he would end up bad, and it was as though Butch had brought me there to buy him.
I did, and he proved to be very difficult to settle here, put Becky in hospital even leading him- he was scared of his own shadow, and things he couldnt hear, and would whip round and flatten and run over the person leading him. He would also whip round to the point my head touched his butt, such were the G forces, which didnt do an old whiplash injury much good!
Something frightened him one day as my yard manager at the time, led him out of his paddock. INstead of running the 50 metres to the yard, he turned round, galloped down his paddock and then jumped the fence, landed, one stride, over the fence into our plantation behind the indoor school, crashed through the trees and undergrowth, and jumped the fence into a neighbours garden, and galloped back up their drive, past their two small children ( ) and back round to our gate. I really did wonder if he had a brain tumour or something, as he was in such a terrible state. We couldnt see anything that could have frightened him either.
But, we had him checked out as far as possible by vets, iridologists, kinesiologists, you name it, we tried it! The verdict was with the last two, that he felt completely alone, he hadnt bonded with any of our other horses and would attack them, and he just seemed to trust no one. He had seemed to be very bonded with the person who had been training him to sell on- even though she referred to him as 'it'- he clearly was very attached to her, and I think, felt abandoned.
It has taken us two and a half years to win his trust. EX RA Jill Shephard, who was working for me in my saddlery company at the time, showed me the IH ground work, which complemented our classical schooling work.
We of course, started clicker training with him early on, and then Becky worked him in long reins, for nine months, no ridden work at all. Unfortunately, we then had some problems with him in his feet, which took another nine months to sort out, but gradually, he became more and more trusting and now, is another horse of a lifetime, one of the most generous, talented and intelligent horses I have ever owned. Yes, he is still ultra sharp, and teaching him anything new has to be done with great care or he could still boil up, but once he realises it is easy for him, he learns it in a fraction of the time it would take most horses!
I am absolutely convinced Butch sent him to me! There have been times when I thought Butch was trying to get me to join him!- when Sudi was at his most dangerous! But when I now see him looking at me, and also my yard manager and assistant, Jenny, in the same way that he looked at his previous trainer, with trust and affection in his eyes, it has all been worth it. Butch always used to do the same- if I went out of the school when someone else was riding him, he would always keep looking until I came back, according to the rider.
I hadnt botherered initially to ask his breeding, as the person who was schooling him had no idea about Lusitanos. But I asked her to email me a copy of his papers.
To my absolute astonishment, he was bred by the brother of the breeder of my other stallion, Rei. The two brothers fell out when their Father died and split the family stud, into two. When I compared the papers of Sudi and my stallion, they were out of the same granddam!!
Out of all the studs in Portugal, I now had two horses who were cousins, and I didnt even find the second one over there, but here in England where he had already been imported, three years before!! The two horses are completely unalike, except for one or two temperament quirks!- but how about that for coincidence too!!
