Saving Silver

By Katelyn Reed

I grew up riding other people’s horses. Western disciplines, English disciplines – you name it, as long as I was on the back of the horse, I didn’t care! In November of 2016, I finally decided to make a dream come true – I purchased my own horse, an 11-year-old Kentucky Mountain gelding named Hi Yo Silver. His name was not without meaning.

I purchased Silver from a dealer who informed me that this horse had been previously sold and returned because he reared. This habit was developed due to Silver being barn sour and buddy sour and not being corrected properly. After test riding Silver at the dealer’s, I concluded that I was capable of riding him and was hopeful I could break him of his rearing habit.

The dealer offered me a two-week trial period, and I took it. Armed with an open mind and a cautious approach, I began working Silver every day for those two weeks. He was just as bad as the previous owner had said he was. He’d rear straight up for no reason and bolt because he didn’t want to leave the barnyard.

After two VERY eventful days, I was able to pinpoint the core problem: he had no basic groundwork training and thus no respect under saddle. My good friend and mentor, Pat, and I poured over the Clinton Anderson method of training, and began to treat Silver like an unbroken horse who needed to learn basics before anything else.

I started using the Lunging for Respect method, along with flexing three times a day, and rode him every day. Previously if he was bad, he was put away and not worked, but that approach didn’t work with me. I don’t have the funds or means to have a roundpen, so all of my lunging was done in a small paddock. He drug me ALL. OVER. But I never gave in and he learned pretty quickly that, yes, he could drag me, but it wasn’t any fun.

Silver caught on slowly, and the rearing stopped three days before the two-week trial was up. Cautiously, I rode him off my property. Nothing. No spook, no rear and no bolt with him trying to get back to the barn. Half a mile down the road, some plastic from a covered round bale was flapping in the wind. When he stopped, I prepared for the worst, and I felt him tense. He turned his head and eye to look at me, licked and chewed, and dropped his head with a sigh and continued on without a fight. I told the dealer that night that Silver was staying with me.

We have ridden all over creation this winter and not once has he exhibited the bad habits that had caused him to be returned to the dealer the first time.  I still start off the ride by lunging for five to 10 minutes and resting equal or double the time, but I am very hopeful for the upcoming summer, where my plan is to turn him into an endurance horse.

Had it not been for the Clinton Anderson Method, who knows where Silver would be today!

Have a story you want to share about you and your horse’s partnership that’s possible because of the Method? Share it with us at [email protected].