When I first met Diamond Saphffire 229, in the early summer of 2017, I had my doubts. I knew from her past that I wasn’t starting with a blank slate nor a kind upbringing. This sensitive mare was started and worked into the ground the year before I met her. The training style employed on this tender creature was one of brute force and unforgiveness. Her hair coat and tail were burnt to a crisp, her top line was barely there, her neck was upside down, and her fearful nature would sometimes get the best of her though she tried her best to be smart.
The first time I threw a leg over this mare she had her head level with mine, a habit most horsemen would frown upon. She was extremely sensitive to any leg pressure, almost jumping away from the steady contact of my lower calves. Her mouth was hardened to the bit, she would lay herself on the bridle and push forward. She would constantly look sideways at inanimate objects, spooking a few times. She also didn’t know her leads in the lope, she could never seem to get her right lead.
About my third ride in I decided I really liked this mare. I gave her a new nickname, Jazzy. And from then on she became my project pony. Over the course of the next two months, I worked on restoring this horse from the ground up. She was a sweet thing all the way around but giving her a little extra attention and time on the ground really helped to ease her conscious about the situation. I’m a firm believer that the good days on the ground equal good days in the saddle.
Jazzy started receiving regular baths and got her mane and tail brushed out and braided several times a week. Her dry, burnt coat began to shine with luster.
One of the pivotal changes in her training that I think launched us forward was a bit change. I had been riding her in a great quality french link loose ring snaffle, but her mouth was just too hardened and she wasn’t accepting it. I switched us to a dogbone with a copper roller on a mild shank which she responded to a million times better.
After getting her in a bit that she agreed with I really started to see a change in her headset, she started to drop down and carry her self in a much more natural state. Though I didn’t know nearly as much about self-carriage as I do now she improved beyond measure. With this, she became much more accepting of leg pressure and began yielding to the aids quite impressively.
As Jazzy began to embrace work, finding that I wouldn’t nit-pick her every move or use force to make her submit to my will she began to relax, even by the end of our first couple of weeks together I noticed that she was much less bothered by outside activity. I think a big part of it was the loss of her anxiety and any ill-fitted tack that could be causing her pain. When a horse is anxious or in pain they will always look for a reason to react or get away from it, when a horse is comfortable they are much less likely to spook or become uneasy due to silly things.
It took us a while to build up our strength and confidence for the lope. But by the second month, Jazzy was on her way to success. It took a LOT of hard work and wet saddle pads to fix her lead issues in the lope, but we worked through it and I’m happy to say that when she left she was more consistent than ever.
At the end of the two months, Jazzy successfully sold to a buyer the same day they tired her out in a windy, crowded arena. Might I add we never took this mare off the property while in our possession!
