The Sound Horse

Every training ride is both a geometry lesson and a gymnastic exercise. Accuracy in riding correct arena figures like circles, squares, and triangles gives the horse agility and flexibility. Gymnastic weight shifting exercises like side-stepping and transitions between gaits build strength and stamina. The precision of riding aSteady Line in a Steady Rhythm with a Steady Contact(a prime directive in the Old School) along with counting strides or giving the horse moments of peace to think for himself helps create the Thinking Horse(another primary concern of the Old Masters). Developing both the horse’s mind and body in equal measure every ride was a hallmark of the Old School.

Aragorn was my first horse. He came to me at six years old with a deformity in his front left leg – a condition called over at the knee. The joint could not straighten fully. It gave him a permanently bent look in profile and was supposed to be very limiting. No one thought he would go very far.

Progress in the beginning was slow. It was only after I learned about the Mikolka Method that our real training began. By that point Aragorn and I had been together for a few years. The training that followed was a long process of rebuilding – his body and my riding, each one helping build the other.

Exercises that shifted his weight gave him a steadiness and confidence that had been lacking. Nervousness faded. Panicked running stopped. The gymnastics progressively increased his stamina and strength so he could work more efficiently for longer periods of time. Even a tiny adjustment to the way I sat in the saddle could improve the way he moved and compensate for the deformity of his left front leg. His leg never physically straightened out, but with time and training, he moved as if nothing was wrong both under saddle and moving free in the paddock. The riding was teaching him how to move better on his own even without a rider.

After roughly seven years of methodical gymnastic rebuilding, my daughter Kelly had her first ride on him. She was about five, and Aragorn carried her as if they had been working together for years. Kelly had always struggled to “use her words.” The moment she got off, she said the longest string of words I had ever heard her put together at one time.

We worked together for another four years before I had to relocate for work. The new situation could not accommodate the horses. Six months after I saw him for the last time, I learned that his knee had fused, making even walking difficult. Without movement and gymnastics to keep it supple, the joint that had moved freely under work had frozen while living in a retirement paddock. He was euthanized. It was the beginning of a depressing time for me. What I did not know yet was that an even darker time was already coming for Kelly.