Horse Math

Editor’s Note: This week, we hear from Debbie Hight. She is a former BHPS board member, a horse owner, a longtime math tutor, and occasional guest columnist for Cayuse Communications. She writes from her home in Maine, where she cares for dogs and horses, including her lovely Morgan mare, Roxy, who was a demonstration horse at the Summit in Maine in 2019.

By Debbie Hight

Horse math. Not the math where you add up the expenses of owning a horse (if you are brave enough), but the math involved where you compare your age with the age of your horse.

PART I

I am 72. And my barn has been somewhat geriatric. My retired Standardbred racehorse, Postcard Jack, died at the age of 35 earlier this month. Roxy, my Morgan mare, is nearing 28.  With any kind of luck, I should be able to ride another 15 years, but it is unlikely that Roxy will still be under saddle at that point.  A new horse is in order!  But what age?

Here is where the math comes in: maybe a mid-teens horse would be appropriate, so that we might reach the finish line together.

I started my search months ago by going to two Maine sale barns. The good news:  I visited these barns with horse people I trust and  I was able to see a lot of horses all at once, which helped inform me. The bad news: I struck out entirely while learning in earnest to be skeptical of what I was being told and what I was seeing.

I experienced similar skepticism online: tense, neurotic horses advertised as “mellow.” Green horses advertised as “safe for anyone.” The trail of misinformation is long and misleading.​ I found a gazillion Facebook pages devoted to various breeds (and discovered how to waste time looking through those pages).  I looked at quarter horses.  I considered younger horses.  I had a very good study of humans, honesty, and perspective.  I had three failed Pre-Purchase Exams.

And then I started to look inside myself.

While a quarter horse seemed like the smartest idea, I just couldn’t shake my 20-year love of Morgans.

But then a Morgan-specific search became even more difficult, especially when narrowed to finding a teenage Morgan within driving distance. While I live in Maine and am close to Vermont (the home of the Morgan), the number of ads were pretty limited.  Eventually, I found a potential match in Keene, New Hampshire.  The horse was unadvertised but owned by a breeder who was advertising younger horses.

Lucky for me, I had a team willing to drive five hours to look at the horse.  We decided that she was a potential match. I could have her for a 30-day trial. I scheduled my instructor to try her out and for my vet for a PPE.  The following weekend, my intrepid horse Roxy, my intrepid husband and I picked up “Angel.” She loaded well (with Roxy as a trailer pal), was a bit anxious upon her Maine arrival, but then settled right in.

It became immediately clear that she was a very sensitive horse. Light but not soft, quite anxious.  We learned something about her past, and that as a three-year-old she seemed to have some excellent training. But then there were ten years when we can only guess that she was moved about the Amish community. Lucky for her, and for me, she found her way back to the original breeder.

You might think that a rider with 20 years of experience would be well equipped to take on a new horse.  But I learned as a 50-year-old beginner on Roxy, making a zillion mistakes on my wonderful, stoic horse. By now, Roxy and I understand each other. I know that riding many horses makes a better rider, but Roxy was there and we’ve learned a lot in the ring and on the trails.

Lucky for me, I was introduced to the Best Horse Practices Summit and have absorbed all the best practices presentations. Together with Rob, a local and longtime friend, I genuinely believe in the ‘best practices’ approach.  Rob has become a skilled horseman (who has studied not only BHPS but Buck Brannaman, Bill and Tom Dorrance, Pat Puckett, and Ryan Rose) and now is helping work with me and this new horse. I will get there.

The current chapter: Annie passed her PPE. We’re learning and improving every day. And I still get to ride my Roxy.

PART II

The journey with my new horse continues.​ She is a project and I don’t care how long it takes to achieve the trust I have in Roxy.  She is amazingly light, but not explosive, and has responded to all of the groundwork that Rob (a more accomplished rider than me) has been doing with her. He’s ridden her often and now I do, too, though just at a walk, with a completely loose rein, no bit, and no legs.

I’ve renamed her Annie. We are connecting and making very good progress.  Rob has helped with exercises that help soften her and lower her head, which she carried high.​ I’ll be interested in sharing videos with or otherwise consulting BHPS presenters Jec Ballou, Katrin Silva, and Amy Skinner since I appreciate what they have to offer.

Also thanks to BHPS, I have used the bladder meridian, a body work exercise which Jim Masterson demonstrated to us in Lexington, Kentucky in 2022. She is becoming calmer and less reactive. A Masterson practitioner visited earlier this month and will return.  Dr. Sheree King (another BHPS presenter and now a dear friend) has said, “Maybe this horse needs you more than you need her.”

This horse is just so willing to work and to please. It’s quite a change from my stoic and tough girl, Roxy​, though now perhaps I more fully recognize all that Roxy and I have taught each other.  Still, I recognize that I have a project on my hands and have been working every day, sometimes with help, sometimes on my own. Ground work, quiet riding, dressage exercises, and more.

My trusted horse friends and professionals worried that Annie might not be the horse for me, but I decided to trust my gut and Sheree’s encouragement, and she is mine.  Last week, Rob said, “I think that this horse has been looking for you all her life.”

This year’s adventure in looking for a new horse has given me new appreciation for the term “perspective”.   While there are less than honest “horse traders” out there, the sellers and ads don’t know me as a rider, and from their perspective, their horses might fill the bill (for someone interested in bronc riding or developing a relationship with supplement companies or frequent vet visits!).   My trusted horse community has another perspective and sees Roxy and me as safe, stoic, kind of plodding and that’s the way it’s been for 20 years.  But Annie is so willing to try and so am I.  Annie is learning a lot and so am I.

So, looking for a new horse?  Do the math and be patient.  And never stop learning.