Mary and Gem

Back in the Saddle Again... I thought riding a horse would be like riding a bicycle, that it would, as they say, “all come back”, and guess what??? It didn’t!! Having owned and ridden a horse for years in my younger life, I thought entering the “Horse World” again would be “Not a big deal.” Ooops, was I ever wrong! I found myself actually afraid to ride either one of my newly acquired horses. Here I was feeding them, shoeing them, maintaining them in a very nice manner, and yet not riding and enjoying them like I knew I could. That is when I decided to find something that would help me get over my fear and allow me to ride again. I read everything I could get my hands on; I bought training videos, and try as I might, nothing was working. That was when I heard mention the name “Susan Wirgler” and that she was a good horse trainer. I gave her a call to set up a riding lesson. From day one, she was so accommodating. She let me use her horse, since mine had not been ridden for a few months. She worked with me and then she worked with my horse. One of our first challenges was to load my horse in the trailer and teach me to load and unload the horse safely. I’m happy to say I can now load either one of my horses anytime and anyplace in any trailer I’ve asked them to load into. Then she worked with my horse and I together. We’ve worked on communication and gentling the horses and training me and building my confidence. We’ve done ground work and ridden not only in the round pen and arena but also taken our classroom up to the trails nearby. I am now able to take either one of my horses out and trail ride. I’m happy to say, I’m thrilled to be out on the trails again. In fact, I just returned from a trip with my horse to Pt. Reyes! Who would have thought we’d both be riding to the Ocean? I owe this to all the training and support I’ve received over the past few months to Susan Wirgler. - Mary Ellingsworth