Each and every one of you has
played a significant part in my acquiring and, far
more importantly, keeping this wonderful horse.
The odds against this horse ever being my
“perfect horse” were astronomical.
I had decided to sell this horse on two
different occasions, one time as late as July 24.
Though most of you know the story because of
my constant running mouth, I wanted to take this
moment to thank you and give you the history so that
you all know each other’s part in Shyboy’s
evolution.
In early December 1999, CHERYL
MC KEOWN handed me an ad from Horse
Trader. The
ad was for a five-year-old Morgan gelding and a
seven-year-old Morgan gelding: since my theoretical
“perfect horse” was a young gelding with
“presence”. Little did I know I would have to
buy them both.
The description on the phone was EXACTLY what
I wanted from a physical point of view since both
horses were 15 hands (my desired height), good
looking, sound, and built to carry me with no
problem. Both
horses had to be purchased together and they were
dirt-cheap.
TOM DAVID'S first
contribution to the saga was picking up the horses.
Some of you don’t know I bought these
horses “sight unseen”, with Tom determining
whether or not these horses were “as
advertised”.
They were, and he picked them up.
Though the story of the other horse is also
interesting, it’s not relevant here.
When we brought the horses to
Burbank, they both had heavy winter coats but looked
great. Shyboy
unfortunately was terrified of the world and literally
hid in the back of his stall.
At one point I sat in his stall reading a
magazine and totally ignored him, other than telling
him “nobody is going to hurt you”.
MACIE WARD worked with Shyboy
from the second week in December through the second
week in January.
Macie spent thirty days trying to convince
Shyboy that we were not trying to kill him.
Most of that time was spent gently handling the
horse, talking to the horse and getting Shyboy’s
trust. At
the end of thirty days it looked like I was going to
have to sell him.
As it turns out, eleven months later, Shyboy is
still not 100% convinced that we are not going to eat
him. A
veterinarian looked in on Shyboy just a few weeks ago
and Shyboy displayed his old terrified,
“back-of-the-stall” posture.
I decided to give Shyboy a second
chance and send him out to JENNIFER ORMEROD in Acton.
Shyboy stayed with Jennifer from mid-January
through mid-April.
During that three-month period, Jennifer
accomplished all of the groundwork including carrying
a saddle comfortably.
Shyboy progressed so slowly that it again
appeared this was a hopeless mission. The horse would still explode in fright from time-to-time.
Frankly, at one point, there was even
discussion with Jennifer about having Shyboy “put
down”. We
did not want to have Shyboy hurt someone or
conversely, have him sold at auction and/or abused.
By mid-April, Jennifer realized that Shyboy was
going to be a long, long project.
I again decided to sell Shyboy.
TOM DAVIDS had originally taken
him to Jennifer’s, and then took him from
Jennifer’s to ROYAN HERMAN’s property in Shadow
Hills, pending Shyboy’s sale.
From day one, Tom had seen the great potential
in Shyboy and casually suggested giving him another
chance. That
little nudge was all I needed, because deep down I
hated to give up on this horse.
By then I had set up three showings to fully
qualified project-horse type buyers.
I cancelled the ad and cancelled the
appointments to show Shyboy.
At that point, some four months
after acquisition, Shyboy still had major paranoia
with anybody “above him”, on platforms, pipe
corrals, or the approach of stable hands with
pitchforks and/or carts.
Shyboy also had a major problem with the idea
of a foot being lifted into the stirrup.
Ironically, when I visited Shyboy at
Jennifer’s, Shyboy was comfortable with the saddle
and allowed significant weight (from the ground) on
either stirrup, both stirrups, or saddle horn.
Since Shyboy didn’t like raised feet, Royan
and I spent some time doing gym-type leg raises along
his sides. At
that point Royan was able to step up and step down. Royan and I were looking forward to spending a few more
months further gentling Shyboy to ride.
A few days after Tom brought
Shyboy down to Royan’s, I saw a note on Triple R’s
bulletin board for “starting colts and problem
horses”. Shyboy
sure needed “starting” and he sure was a problem
horse. Along
came DAVE WRATCHFORD.
I asked Dave to evaluate Shyboy and he came out
to Royan’s that night.
He saddled Shyboy, worked him in the round pen
and noted that Jennifer had really prepared him well.
Things went so well that Dave put a foot in the
stirrup: Shyboy bolted as he had done with Jennifer.
Dave gathered Shyboy back up and stepped up a
second time and Shyboy stood stock still.
After a few more minutes of preparation Dave
was mounted. Dave
worked Shyboy at a walk, trot and canter without
incident and only noted that the horse had no idea of
what STOP meant.
What a transition, somebody had actually ridden
this problem horse.
Though Royan was pleased that Shyboy had his
first ride, she was very disappointed she would not
have the opportunity to work with this wonderful horse
further. The
horse was still paranoid and afraid of people but
handled Dave’s daily rides very well.
It was interesting because the typical method
of walking a horse into a fence and asking for a stop
only resulted in Shyboy hesitating and immediately
sidestepping. A complete stop was almost intolerable – he had to go
somewhere.
 Dave rode Shyboy religiously for
another three-month period.
During that period of time I was able to spend
many hours working on his head (we’re not going to
kill you) while Dave did a great job on the riding
end. Unfortunately,
by the end of July, Shyboy had still not gained enough
confidence to become calm and dependable and he would
bolt at any provocation.
I rode him a few times during that period and
almost “turned him” over the edge of a hill on one
bolting incident.
By the end of July, I VERY RELUCTANTLY decided
to again sell Shyboy, as I couldn’t risk serious
injury with an unpredictable horse.
TONY ESTEBAN, a real estate
friend, knew and loved the horse and was upset that I
was again “giving up”.
Tony asked to ride Shyboy for a period of
thirty days to give Shyboy more miles and hours of wet
saddle blankets.
How could I refuse?
I still loved this horse and the move to
Burbank would only make it easier for me to reassure
Shyboy “nobody was going to kill him”. Tony volunteered to be a “crash dummy”, but fortunately
there were no crashes.
The goal was to end up with ten rides with no
bolting so that I could be comfortable enough to ride
Shyboy myself.
Once again Tom picked up the
horse and this time I was able to show off having
Shyboy approach ME in a big pasture – a previous
impossibility. I
rode (a rental horse) with Tony on many of his rides
and really enjoyed watching Shyboy slowly improve.
On occasion I would ride Shyboy around the
equestrian center alone, however Shyboy was always
nervous and tense.
This made me nervous which was transmitted back
to him. Shyboy
just couldn’t relax.
One Saturday (just short of
thirty days), I rode Shyboy over to Joe’s Trading
Post. He
seemed relaxed and I went over the swinging bridge
into the park. I
enjoyed my first (outside) canter part way up
Rattlesnake. I
then asked for a transition down to a walk and got it.
Another canter, another walk – what joy! I then rode Skyline down past the condor cages.
Rather than continue down, I turned around and
had a couple of more canters and walks on the way back
– totally relaxed.
At that point I was so happy I called Tony.
Tony was just getting ready to take his horse
for a ride so he met me at Martinez arena and we rode
together for another 1 ½ hours.
At that point there was no
looking back. He
made it! I
made it! It
seems we are a perfect marriage for each other.
One of the boarders at Triple R suggested that
Shyboy knew he was using up his “last chance”.
It has now been eleven months
since Tom brought Shyboy to me.
Obviously, it took a FULL eleven months to make
a horse out of “SHY”.
He is no longer Shyboy, as I hated stealing the
name from Monty Roberts; it really suited him however.
Fortunately he is no longer shy, but he went
through so much that the name will always remind me of
his start.
The Shy saga and my hopefully
“perfect horse” could not have ended up this way
without the support of each and every one of you.
Although it seems that Tony gets all the credit
for thirty days riding, that was thirty days of riding
after ninety days of riding, ninety days with Jennifer
and thirty days with Macie.
Though Dave gets the credit for the first ride
and three months of great work, that could not have
happened without Jennifer’s three months of patience
and groundwork with a “truly disturbed” horse.
As I go backwards, it would seem that Macie had
very little to do with this whole progression.
Actually, nothing could be further from the
truth as the first thirty days were perhaps the most
traumatic for Shy.
It took Macie three days just to have Shy
comfortable enough to take off his lead rope.
Macie spent many, many hours just being in
Shy’s presence.
This story would never have gotten past the
Jennifer stage if Tom hadn’t made some well-placed
comments. As
usual, Royan was my “support group” during this
whole experience and visited Shy with me at
Jennifer’s and then opened up her facilities to Shy
in May. She
also rode Shy in a clinic in June.
I would not have this horse today if it
weren’t for each and every one of you and your
contributions to this story.
It all started with Cheryl’s small classified
ad.
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