noble training story through August 1997

I started working with noble in the spring. because he had been completely wild and a stallion for all of his seven years, working with him was always an adventure. I was a little nervous, never having trained a horse from scratch myself before, so I started slowly, with lots of ground work.

from the beginning, he always seemed to love being brushed and groomed and fussed over so that's where I always start. even today, the best way to catch him in the field is to walk up to him with a brush in my hand and hiding the rope around my neck where he doesn't seem to notice it. he's way to busy then closing his eyes and enjoying the attention.

for two months I did virtually nothing with him but groom and play with him and work with him in our makeshift roundpen at the farm. using john lyons techniques, I worked with him until he was always calm and willing to turn towards me and even come when I called him. we also started with picking up his feet and getting started with mounting, just putting my foot up near the stirrup and putting pressure on him, quietly until he would stand still as a stone no matter what I did to him.

but I was still nervous to ride him. he is quite a spirited pony and I haven't ridden seriously for some time, so still by june I hadn't even tried to ride him. I heard from donna that the hooved animal humane society had hired steve harris to come to their barn and work with the trakehners. steve's training method is called the "touch of love" and is very similar to the john lyons techniques that I had already been using. donna thought that we could work out a deal with hahs for steve to work with our horses, noble and donna's tennessee walker, jazz.

Steve had great luck with Noble, doing many of things that I had already learned with the pony, but taking the time also to show me the correct techniques. He was convinced that Noble would be a fine pony and encouraged me to keep working with him. He also said that Noble was ready to ride!

So then finally in June I took the plunge and got up on him in the round pen. He trotted around for a bit but I felt pretty comfortable in my old Stubben saddle and I just let him do what he wanted. Every weekend I came out and did the same thing over and over again until he was a quiet as I thought he would be. The big moment came when we had a family reunion at Donna's house and her daughter, Jody, said she would get up and ride him for real in the pasture. OOOeee. She had a heck of a ride. Both of us rode him around the field a couple of times, with a spill for each of us. Noble really seemed be enjoying himself.

Since then I have had a couple of very short rides in the field myself and Noble continues to be quiet and willing. He looks unbelievable now, I have spent the last four months grooming him, trimming him and pulling his mane. He is well on the way to becoming the hunt pony that I hope to train him to be next year.