Gale Rotenberg

    Last March, when Janie bucked me off, I went to Susan and asked for help.  I had a horse for a couple of years when I was in high school.  We rode up and down roads, into creeks, over highway overpasses, tried some barrel racing and goat tying.  In all that time, I really didn’t learn anything about horses other than you jump on and ride!  I truly appreciate, now, just how good that girl was and how much she took care of me.  Now I am too old to fall off; bones break more easily, I no longer bounce when I hit the ground, and it takes a lot longer to recover from injuries. Two years ago, I decided that since my children were grown, it was time to return to horses.  When I met Janie, she was docile and sweet, and most importantly, she wasn’t eager to lope and I wasn’t either!!  I wanted to learn everything there was about horses, and I wanted to train my horse to be the best that she could be.  I bugged everyone around me with a million questions, watched all the trainers on RFD-TV, and tried to do the things they were demonstrating with my horse.  I soon had a horse that was rearing or trying to bite me when she became frustrated, would snort out to the neighborhood in general when the sheep across the street moved, or spin and run when the children in the school next door came out to recess.  In essence, the more I tried to make her better, the more “interesting” she became. The turning point in this journey came in March 2014, when I took her to a 3-day clinic to teach “her” and me the basics of horsemanship.  Her ears were pinned flat the entire weekend, and she would look at me as though she wanted to bite my head off. At 3:00 on day 3 of the clinic, apparently Janie had had enough of this and me.  I was trying to make her lope when she didn’t want to, I smacked her with my slapper, and she started bucking – you know the full arched back, nose down, all four feet off the ground rodeo horse.  I held on (big mistake) and came off landing flat on my back after the 3^rd buck.  But Janie wasn’t finished telling me how angry she was, she finished the entire length of the arena bucking just to make sure she had made her point.  It took me five minutes and three people to scrape me up off the ground, and I had trouble moving for quite a while. I guess I am just as stubborn as my horse, because I wasn’t willing to give up on her so I went to Susan and asked for help.  She helped me to understand that Janie wasn’t the dull, slow horse that I thought that I had bought, but a smart, athletic, and sensitive horse that was going crazy with all of the big, high pressure movements that I was using.  Susan helped me to read my horse’s body language, tone down and refine all my movements, and ask “quietly” for the things that I wanted her to do.  Susan helped me to change me, so that Janie became a better and happier horse.  And Janie loves Susan!!  You can just see her thinking “Thank God Susan is coming, because my mom is driving me nuts, and I don’t understand her!” Janie was a scary horse by the time I came to Susan with her.  She was unreliable, and it was hard to know what was going to set her off.  When she was scared, she would back up at a thousand miles an hour, and once did that on a ridge causing us to fall part way down the side.  She wouldn’t stand still in a workshop setting, she would try to bite me, and she would not go anywhere without another horse and rider along.  Today, she is my partner and my love!!  We ride down the trails, just the two of us and I am confident that she will take care of me.  Janie is rock solid on trails that make many of my friends nervous.  She is calm and stands still until I am ready to go.  She is soft and flexible, and we are working on body control.  She now turns with just the movement of my seat and legs – a real accomplishment. This has been a tremendous journey.  Not only have I been trying to improve my horse, but I have been learning to ride from a complete novice as well.  It makes it hard for Janie to understand when I do not know how to ask myself, but I am learning.  None of this would have been possible if I had not met Susan.  She has given me confidence in both myself and my horse, and I have learned so much about communication with my girl.  Janie and I are partners now, and Susan has made this possible.