“Don’t saddle the the young horses in the barn because someone saddled Presence in here and she started bucking and about jumped through the plate glass window into the office” was one of the first comments I heard about Presence even before I knew her name. Little did I know that she would end up being mine.

The second time I heard her mentioned was when Pat asked if there were any problems with the horses that he needed to know about. One of the externs spoke up and said that Presence bucked every time you saddled her. The reason I remembered her name this time was because just minutes earlier I had looked on the board and realized she had been assigned to me for the week.

After the meeting I went out to do my assigned chores and when I came back to start my horsemanship time an extern told me she had groomed Presence for me but she bucked like a fiend when she saddled her. I thought to myself “What have I got myself into here” and then told the extern, “Don’t saddle her, just groom her and let me saddle her so that I can help her through this.” I knew I needed to take it slow and see what was going on inside the mind of this little horse.

My first play session with her I took it slow but at the same time I pushed her a little to see how she would react. On the ground she did great and she seemed to have gotten past the bucks.

When I went to get on her all the comments came flooding in. “She’s really sensitive”, “she bucks when you saddle her”, “has she bucked yet” all just comments but enough to make you think twice about putting your leg over her. Needless to say, I took a little extra time with my pre-ride check before getting on. She seemed good and it was now or never and I got on.

The first thing I noticed was she didn’t argue with me. If I asked her to go right she went right, no muss, no fuss. I brought the life down in my body she slowed with no hesitation. No pushing or pulling and she seemed to want to obey, what a pleasure.  From that first ride I was hooked. I never had a problem from that point on or had a second thought about riding her.

Anyway Presence is now mine. She was part of the Parelli Dream Horse Program and now she is in my Dream Horse Program.

I’ll share more about her in later posts so keep tuned in…