Charmayne James Barrel Racing Clinic

Last week, I talked about mine and Secret's first few months together, and how by the end of summer, I needed a confidence boost and she needed a little experience herself. 

At the end of summertime, Secret had been hauled to a handful of shows, exhibitioned a couple runs, and was overall doing well with the barrels.  I however, had a lot of confidence issues, I didn't know how to ask her to correctly turn to the barrels, I didn't know when to cue her, and wanted an overall learning weekend with her, so I signed us up for a Charmayne James barrel racing clinic on the last week of September 2012 in Winona, MN.

The weekend started off well, Secret trailered the 4 hour journey across the state with her half brother, Salty as Charmayne was going to ride him for her demonstrations.  When we got there and checked in, we got their stalls for the weekend ready and got them situated.  The first order of business with this clinic was to ride the barrel pattern as fast as we were comfortable so Charmayne could watch us and evaluate how we do and then she would ride our horse to see how they rode the pattern.  To say the least, I was a basket case, which doesn't translate too well to Secret because she then becomes a basket case too.  At home with Julie, Secret could lope a pretty nice pattern, but with me, I get so nervous that she started getting jacked up and would throw her head around and keep her nose in the air and wouldn't like to control herself, so I did our first pattern with Charmayne at a walk.  I told Charmayne that we were really green and I was nervous for the whole weekend.  When Charmayne rode Secret, it was like she knew that greatness was on her back and she needed to be on her best behavior.  Secret did well for Charmayne and although had a little issue with turning into her second barrel too soon, put on quite the performance for her. 

I had my work cut out for me.  Secret knew what to do, I just had to get over my own obstacles in my head and learn to communicate with my horse and relax a little.  I went to bed that night full of excitement that Saturday would bring a day of bonding with Secret and learning a lot.  Although I was excited, at the same time I was scared that something bad was going to happen, that I was going to make a fool out of myself. 
Saturday morning came way too soon, as I half asleep dragged myself out of the hotel room and drove the ten minute drive to the Equestrian Center where the clinic was held to feed and water our horses and make sure everything was kosher.  Secret was happy to see me and I was glad she made it her first night away from home since she was born without any real issues. 
When I came back after having some coffee and getting ready for the day, my excitement turned right back to anxiety when I was getting Secret tacked up for the morning session of the clinic.  After we went out and warmed up for the morning, we went inside the arena and got our first lessons from Charmayne about turns and how to do them correctly.  Secret did great, she was very patient with me as I figured out how to hold my hands to turn her correctly and where to put my feet.  We worked on right turns a lot because Secret was really bendy with them, it was almost too bendy and I couldn't get a good forward drive out of her going to first because she anticipated too much. The other thing we worked on a lot (a lot more than I cared to at this clinic) was standing still.  Secret would not stand still for the life of her for more than five minutes.  We did a lot of forwards, backwards, circles, flexing and prancing around because five year old horses with little pea brains don't have the attention span for all day work from 8am until 4pm.  I felt bad for the people and horses who were around me, because we needed a lot of space for all the dancing around we did while we waited for our turn to do stuff.  If you think a horse will tire themselves out doing stuff like that, think again!

At the end of the day on Saturday, I had Secret consistantly doing a fast trot around the barrels, she was fitted with a new bit to help her stay broke at the poll (keep her nose down, she enjoyed keeping her nose in the air lately), and learned a lot about the whole barrel racing thing in general.  I was getting better with my hands, my confidence was alright for now, Secret was coming along well, I was pumped for our speed show on Sunday morning before we went home!
Sunday morning came, and I went to do chores half awake like I did on Saturday, everyone was fine and happy to see me, but when I came back to the hotel to get ready, Julie had gotten a phone call that Secret went down and she was collicking.  At this time, full panic mode set in.  I was dressed faster than I could ever imagine possible, and we were all piled in the truck not knowing what to expect when we got back by Secret. 
I will be forever thankful to the people whose horse was next to Secret at the clinic for being thoughtful enough to check on her when she laid down and to take time away from their own horse to walk Secret around the parking lot to make sure she was okay until we got there.  You could see it in her eyes that she was uncomfortable.  We figured she was dehydrated from yesterday and since she pooped in her water bucket that was almost full, didn't drink a lot last night.  So, I let her eat a little moist grass that had dew on it and prayed that she'd poop so I'd have a little reassurance knowing that things were still going through her system.  She did go and I had a little relief, but when we saddled up for the morning's festivities, she was still acting a little punky, and Charmayne could see it in her eyes that she wasn't 100% just yet.  So, I got off her, and sought out help from the vet who was overseeing the anesthesia for the dental work being done on the other horses at the clinic to see if he could help her.  I don't know what it is about the people at these clinics, but everyone is so caring and go out of their way to make sure if you come to them for help, they can help you in some way.  The vet gave Secret a shot of Banamine, which is an anti inflammatory that helps them get over their collic, and his vet tech mixed up some electrolytes for her and within 20 minutes, I had my spunky little girl back who looked like she had ants in her pants and wouldn't stand still.
We were able to get in a couple more runs around the barrels before our speed show and a new day brought new problems for me.  I had a hard time picking up her leads going around the barrels and was not able to lope a nice pattern because I could not tell if she had switched to the correct lead or not, so we were stuck on an awkward half trot, half lope, half lope on the wrong lead kind of pattern.  When we did our speed show, I started her on a trot and went to the lope, but had the same problem.  I went home knowing what I needed to work on: my hands and our leads.  We weren't going to get anywhere quick if I couldn't get her on the right lead or tell if she was on the right lead, and we definitely weren't going to get anywhere if I couldn't let go of the reins a little bit and give her some head room. 
I was excited to work on all this new information I had gotten from Charmayne James throughout the winter, and when I got home, I was excited to see my videos that my friend, Rachel had taken of us throughout the weekend.
In the next blogs, I'll talk about the fall and the winter time of year, how our rides were going, and what eventually became the straw that broke the camel's back and made me realize that Secret needed a break from barrels and needed to start over.
Thanks to all who read my first blog, and to everyone who is reading this one and following along on our journey! Again I appreciate any comments about confidence building or any natural horsemanship tips you have for me in general.

The Beginning of a Dream

It was a cold day in February 2012 when I got my tax returns back.  That check written out to me was in my hand and I knew just what I was going to do with it.  I was going to buy Secret Native Cash: the horse I've been wanting for months, that I'd later find out would teach me more about life, trust, and myself than I'd learned in the previous 23 years of my life.  As soon as I cashed that check, I drove out to my friend Julie's farm where she was, and handed over $1,500 for this four year old chestnut filly that was as wild as the wind knots in her long, beautiful mane.  This little mare hadn't had much training or handling.  The only human interaction she had besides our stolen moments where I'd give her treats over the fence or sneak in by her and try to pet her was the dreaded 6 to 8 week farrier visits when she'd get her feet trimmed and reshaped.  Some people who knew me and my busy schedule asked me "Are you sure you want such a young horse?" "She doesn't know anything but how to be a horse, are you sure?"  I don't know what drew me to this horse, but something in her brown eyes drew me to her and I had to have this horse.
I didn't care that she was wild, she had a running spirit in her like her momma, who was one of Julie's good barrel racing horses, and her sire, who recently passed away was an up and coming barrel racer in the local circuit.  This little mare's blood lines and personality showed she would too become a great barrel racer someday and that's all I wanted, a horse to become a good barrel racer and we could go on that journey to greatness together.

Well, my dreams of this horse knowing what to do without an ounce of training were given a reality check the day I tried catching her to try a saddle on her.  If you can't catch a horse, how in the heck do you plan on riding it?  It was then I realized I had no idea what I was doing with this horse, so instead of chalking up a loss, asking for my money back or blindly going into training her myself and risking ruining her or getting myself seriously hurt or killed,  I decided to call in the big guns.  Julie not only owns the farm that Secret was born on, she also runs a boarding and horse training facility out of her farm where she can get a horse broke and running barrels in 30-90 days.  So, starting in April, I had Julie train her, get her started under saddle, show me what to do to bond with her, and get her going on barrels, so that by summer we'd be a dream barrel racing team. 
Secret's training with Julie went well.  She was willing to learn, wasn't over emotional about learning new things, she seemed like a joy to train.  I was excited that she was coming along so well and couldn't wait to ride and work with her.  At the end of the first 30 days, she was in a Myler training bit and was able to walk, trot, lope around the arena and was starting on the barrel pattern.  She also did surprisingly well on the trail, on her first ride in a group, she led most of the way, wasn't afraid of much in the wild, and seemed to like the trail horse life.
I had visions of our winning times at the local barrel shows and the big checks we'd be taking home because of my amazing little mare. Well, I had a reality check at the first local show we went to.  We brought Secret along so she could be exposed to the world of a barrel race and I could ride her around the grounds and watch the races.  Things went as well as could be realistically expected.  She trailered great, rode around with Julie great and stood tied by the trailer reasonably well with the other horses she'd never been by before. Overall, I'd say Julie did a great job getting her started, she was rideable, she was a pretty good girl all things considered.  Sure she had her quirks, like she wasn't sure about stepping from grass to asphalt, wasn't sure about other horses running around her, and didn't stand still for more than 10 seconds until she wanted to wander off or go do something.  It made for a long day of riding circles and circles and backing up and trying to contain this little mare with no attention span for a whole day.  Then, the unthinkable happened.  It was a hot June afternoon at this barrel race, and I was parched.  I had my wonderful boyfriend, Jon get me a water bottle, not thinking anything of it.  The action of him walking up to me sitting on Secret and handing the water bottle up to me was enough to make her come unglued.  She went completely nuts!!  Backing up, jumping around, rearing up, spinning in circles, just being a freak!  I had to throw the bottle on the ground, and when it landed she jumped completely sideways about 10 feet and finally calmed down.  This horse is afraid of plastic bottles! What the heck!?  After that, I was nervous, I didn't know what to do, so I did some circles, walked her slowly back to the trailer, tried ending on a good note, unsaddled her and walked back to finish watching the show.  After that day,I went home and I was ready to cry because my horse was afraid of a silly little water bottle.  If she was afraid of that, what else is she afraid of that I don't know about that could cause a bigger reaction and get me killed?  Other things went through my mind, like "What did you get yourself into?" "You are in over your head with this horse" and "I should have spent more on a horse that already knew the ropes and not a green little horse that was afraid of everything". 
After that first show, my confidence was shattered.  I was nervous every time I worked with Secret, worried that she would do something unpredictable and I wouldn't know how to handle it.  She picked up on my anxious, nervous vibes, because over the summer, she became anxious, jumpy, and frustrated with me, as I should have expected her to. 
So here I sat, at the end of the summer, frustrated with myself because I had no confidence in the horse that I loved like she was my own child.  I did not trust her, I had anxiety attacks whenever I'd do anythng with her.  Something had to give, something had to be done, because this is not the relationship I had expected, nor wanted to have with my horse.
In the next few posts, I'll talk about the Charmayne James clinic I signed us up for, and some unexpected saviors from the farm that helped me out along the way.  I invite all who read my journey with Secret to offer advice on gaining confidence with your horse because I like to know I'm not alone in this journey.  I like hearing other success stories as well.  If you need help and not sure which way to turn with your horse, I can try to lend a hand with that too!