Horse Care For Beginners

How it all started. 

This is my story about how I went about changing a racehorse, actually a steeplechaser, into a horse that felt comfortable about being used solely for pleasure riding, primarily trail riding.

It all started when I was living in semi-retirement on a 10 acre property south of  Melbourne,  Australia, which I used as a hobby farm. I’d started horse riding whilst in my 50′s and felt very comfortable with my Percheron/Thoroughbred cross, Middie, who was kept company by my partner’s horse, ‘Satin’

On an occasion when I was out riding I met the Manager of a neighbour who n was involved with racehorse breeding. In conversation he asked me, “Would you like another horse?”  My immediate response was “Not really, thanks.  I’m quite happy with Middie”.

Thinking over the question that evening I thought that perhaps I’d better at least check it out. Next morning I phoned him to ask a few questions. I found out that the horse was a 5-year old Thoroughbred gelding named ‘Oui’. He was a direct descendent of Sir Tristram, New Zealand’ s  greatest stud stallion in that country’s racing history. Had raced as a steeplechaser successfully but had  a nasty fall which badly affected his left front knee, and had been put out to pasture where he’d been now for over a year.  If I wanted him I could have him on permanent loan, provided I kept him on my property and didn’t sell him.

The offer appealed to me. I phoned Trudie, the head Instructor from our Saddle Club, told her the story and she said “Let’s go and have a look”.

The inspection.

The next day Trudie and I headed off for the Stud where Oui was paddocked. It was a beautiful property and after going through a series of gates and gardens and finding someone to talk to, were taken to an extensive stable and asked to wait while Oui was brought out. But not before being warned that he wasn’t looking too good as he’d apparently received a kick on the face while out in the paddock.

So Oui was led out and, yes, he had a large lump on his head, almost between his eyes. But he looked beautiful, about 16 hands, a glorious glowing chestnut coat, and the most magnificent wavy mane.

We walked to an indoor round pen and the stableman said he’d put Oui through his paces. He walked, trotted and fast cantered the horse for a good quarter hour, all with no sign that his leg had been injured. It just looked a bit like a knotty ball on his left knee.

Trudie then examined Oui closely and spoke quietly to me, “It’s amazing, his heart rate has virtually returned to normal, just within less than 10 minutes. Russell, take him!” So that’s how it came about.

Back at my property.

Oui was delivered to my place in a large horse transport truck the following day and I put him out in the paddock with the other two horses. They appeared to accept each other immediately with no sign of trying to establish a ‘pecking order’. My first action was to change the horse’s name. I couldn’t imagine walking out into the paddock and calling out to him, ‘Oui’, ‘Oui’!  I decided on ‘Tristie’ as a remembrance to Sir Tristam.

 Trudie called in the next day, and it was obvious that she’d immediately fallen in love with the horse.  She said she’d leave things for about a week to let the now ‘Tristie’ settle in. She then offered to work with with me and Tristie to give me confidence (bear in mind I hadn’t been riding for very long) and to change Tristie into a more of a ‘hack’ horse than a racehorse.

Getting to know each other.

I knew the first thing I should do was to get Tristie to know and trust me. So I spent as much time as possible with him. I walked him on a halter with a lead rope, often, for short periods of time. I brushed him as I know this is an effective method of communicating. Then I decided to see what I could do about Tristie’s lumpy head and leg.

At the time I was actively farming emus, and with another local farmer had formed a company to develop through a local Laboratory a range of emu oil cosmetics and therapeutics. The major product was pure emu oil – developed from the large fat deposits that emus carry on their backs to feed off during their breeding season.

Through practical application I knew emu oil was highly effective for many human ailments. So I decided to massage Tristie’s two lumpy areas two to three times a day with emu oil to see what it achieved. I felt that apart from what the oil may achieve, my consistent contact with Tristie would help the ‘getting to know you’ process.

It took two to three months, but the emu oil virtually dispersed totally both lumpy areas.

Now for the re-training.

True to her word, Trudie turned up so we could start work. We went very slowly at first and we spent the next two years working with Tristie.  Both of us at first, but then mostly just me.

We went through the normal training routine. I’d already done the on-halter walking, so we progressed next to lunging. First, without any tack, then fully tacked-up with bridle and saddle. Tristie had obviously been through a fair amount of lunging before as he readily adapted to it with me. We put him through all gaits and he showed no hesitancy in converting.

Then came the big test for me. I was going to mount him for the lunging. And apart from training Tristie, Trudie was also training me! She had me riding with my feet out of the stirrups, then with no reins held and my hands up in the air, and I survived it all with Tristie being a gentleman and accommodating me.

Once again we went through all gaits and I found that Tristie  was extremely smooth and moved beautifully.

Then came misfortune.

I came out to the paddock one morning and found Tristie standing by the fence with his right front foot held off the ground. After a quick look I called the vet.

Unfortunately Tristie had developed an abscess in this foot, presumably caused by a small puncture in the sole of the foot, plus the help of extremely wet ground.

My vet took the normal procedure of making a hole in the foot large enough to allow the pus to freely drain out and applied antibiotic cream as a poultice to encourage further drainage. The foot was then bandaged.  It was my job then to watch that the bandage stayed in place, and to apply more cream daily and re-bandage the foot.

This went on for over a week. Of course, as the foot started to recover, Tristie was more inclined to use the foot, and so the bandage became dislodged more and more frequently and had to be re-applied more often.

Tristie recovered completely and, if one good thing came out of the experience, I think is was that I had further contact with the horse and hopefully increased his trust in me.

And so, we were once again able to continue our training, and my riding, within the confines of my property.

Out into the world.

Trudie, although only middle-aged, was confining her instructor/training activity to groundwork.
She no longer was an active horse rider.

I think her intense involvement with Tristie must have influenced her. She came to my property one day and said “Let’s take Tristie out to see how he takes to the outside world. You ride Tristie and I’ll ride Middie”.  This surprised me, but both she and I knew that Middie was as safe as you could ask any horse to be. So I agreed. We’d try a short ride on one of the many tracks between the roads and property fence lines in my area that were heavily protected from both by trees and undergrowth.

We saddled both horses up, and with some trepidation on my part, departed down my long driveway out onto the riding track. Apart from coming across a tractor coming out of a driveway, which caused us much hesitation, the ride went without a hitch. I felt we’d really progressed!

I ventured out on my own a few more times and encountered no real problems.

Next move:  Saddle Club!

This was going to be the big test!

Saddle Club started at 10 am on the 1st Sunday of each month.  I was up bright and early, warmed Tristie up with some gentle lunging, cooled him off, groomed him, and saddled him up. I then set out on my solitary, supposed twenty minute ride to the Saddle Club grounds.

All went well until we came within sight of the Club grounds where there were cars with horse floats arriving, riders arriving on horseback, riders warming up their horses, in other words considerable noise and activity.  I’m positive that Tristie thought he’d arrived at a race meeting and his attitude immediately changed to what must have been tense excitement.

I found him extremely hard to handle as we entered the Club grounds and felt it wise to dismount and lead him in.

After checking in for the day, I once again mounted up and walked Tristie to the area for ‘gear check’ and managed to keep him under control through this.

I then tried to walk him down to the area in which we were initially going to work.  This, unfortunately was at the bottom end of the Club grounds and we had quite a few accompanying riders. Tristie became more and more agitated the further we went. He then tried all sorts of what I would call evasive tricks, the worst of which was walking backwards.

For the first time in my short riding career I was scared!

I didn’t quite know where to look for help. I could see Trudie in the distance, but she was too far away to either see or hear me. I can recall a specialist, guest riding instructress riding past me and saying, “You can’t be serious!”, but she offered no assistance. So I just persevered and finally got to our work area.

The riders in our group gathered in a rough circle for instructions. But our instructor came over to me and nicely suggested that it might be better if I took Tristie aside from the group and worked independently.

So I found what I thought to be a good riding area and followed the instructor’s coaching and just  worked on my own.  I managed to get through the entire morning, but come lunchtime I decided to call it a day and head for home!

So Tristie’s, and as it turned out, Tristie’s only day at Saddle Club finished.

From then on.

My riding on Tristie then only consisted of exercise on my property and trail riding, always relatively close to home and always carrying a mobile phone. I really had done all I could do in re-training this most delightful horse.

He was great company for Middie and Satin as you’ll see from the photo of Tristie playing in my small dam.

The final farewell.

In year 2000 my partner,  Jill, and I decided to sell our respective properties and move to Tasmania, the island State south of mainland Australia. Under the permanent loan arrangement I had with the Stud covering my having Tristie I couldn’t take him or sell him, only return him to the Stud, which is what I did. It was a very sad occasion and I did visit him the day before our departure for a cuddle and to shed a tear.

My final advice.

I learned an enormous amount about horse care and horse riding from my experiences with Tristie. But I would suggest to anyone taking on a horse that only has had racing experience, don’t tackle the task unless you are a very experienced and mature rider.

Related posts:

1. Horseback Riding ~ Avoid the Mistakes I Made When Buying a New Horse!

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