My First Horse - Tye...

When I was around ten years old my mother asked whether I'd like to learn how to ride horses. As we were soon relocating to an area with a pony club nearby, and I'd recently enjoyed riding a horse on my birthday, I was ecstatic! I started weekly lessons at a local riding centre and found that I really loved being around their horses. The lessons were a different matter though. The instructors were always trying to get me to kick, hold the reins tighter and pull my elbows back further, be more bossy or get angry - but I could never, and still do not accept that this treatment is ever necessary. Intuitively it just never felt right to me, no matter how many times I was told.

After about a year of weekly lessons, I longed to have my very own horse, so after a few discouraging searches, I bought a 14.2 hh bay kaimanawa pony. His name was Tye and he was about six years old. He was short legged and wormy with a ton of personality and a mind of his own. He'd lived his short life in isolation, with only food for comfort after being taken away from his herd of wild kaimanawa horses in the yearly muster. These horses roam free in the Kaimanawa Ranges located in the central north island of New Zealand and are rounded up for slaughtering or re homing to limit herd numbers. He didn't like humans. And trusted them even less. From the very first try out ride, I knew I had to have him. It wasn't because of his looks! And it wasn't because he performed well... I just felt such a deep connection and it was something I couldn't ignore!

But then the drama started. For the next year and a half I tried my best to work through Tye's many 'issues' he seemed to have come with. From the smallest things to the most terrifying - I experienced them all! He walked on top of me, into me and past me. He startled and over reacted to everything - even a tiny leaf waving or rustling in the wind. He didn't eat horse food and wouldn't take anything from a feed bucket. Picking out his hooves was a tiring mission and worming was almost impossible. His pace was either anxious, choppy, reluctant and slow, or (for no apparent reason - just out of nowhere) zig zagging, out of his mind bolting!

I tried everything I could think of to help him. Different saddles, harsher and softer bits, the dentist, bowen therapy, chiropractic treatments, physiotherapy, different instructors who taught different methods, and also different riders. Nothing improved. After many episodes of bolting and some bad falls, I was so scared of him, I rode at nothing faster than a slow trot in a confined area. The energy I felt coming from him was frightening, although I rode other horses [ie photo below] confidently and successfully. I was advised to sell him by many people, but despite everything I wouldn't consider parting with him.

One day, a little over a year after I got him, I noticed he was lying down in the paddock and was reluctant to get up. When I started leading him, I noticed he was terribly lame in the right hind leg. The veterinarian's diagnosis was tendon/ligament damage and I was advised to rest him for a couple of weeks. After no improvement another veterinarian was asked for a diagnosis. His verdict was different - a stifle joint rupture, with little or no possibility of a full recovery. It was absolutely devastating! But I was still determined to keep him and even more so after the diagnosis... thinking at least he was loved and cared for and that I would make sure he led the best and most comfortable life possible from then on.

Over the following weeks a thought kept returning to me that perhaps Tye's injury wasn't in fact a joint rupture. Tendons and ligaments would surely heal, even a small amount over time, but strangely there was no improvement at all. I also felt intuitively that somehow it was something different. After asking the veterinarian if there were any other possibilities and after an x-ray was taken - sure enough it revealed that Tye had been mis-diagnosed twice and had in fact sustained a fracture at the head of the fibula. This was something he thankfully would recover from!

After ten long months of isolation and complete rest with me tending to him every day - rain or shine, and after second confirmatory x-rays, he at last had made a full recovery. I was advised to bring him back into work very slowly and after a few weeks of rehabilitation I was eager to make this a fresh start for me and for Tye.

After a recommendation from a member of the pony club I belonged to at the time, and a series of more terrifying bolting incidents, it was decided Tye should be sent away to receive formal training. It was hoped that this would finally sort out the issues that had plagued us for so long, which clearly hadn't improved after his long rest.

I visited him every week during his four week stay and surprisingly was told that there was nothing at all wrong with him. The trainer advised me that it was me who was the problem - that I didn't have enough skills and I wasn't confident enough to handle Tye. She recommended that I sell him because we would never be any good together and that he would have a better life with someone who could ride him confidently. I was so disheartened that when she recommended a horse psychic, I actually agreed! The psychic agreed with her recommendations, and it seemed conclusive that the problem lay with me.

It seems so ridiculous now in looking back - but at that point I would have practically done anything to help Tye. In retrospect and if I'd known more about horses and horse care at the time, I wouldn't have ever allowed Tye to ever step onto her messy, rubbish filled, hazardous facility. When I saw her dejected looking horses in their small paddocks with no grass or shade, neglected hooves and straggly coats I should have known better. And especially after she volunteered information that a few of her horses had died from unknown causes! But I was young, inexperienced and took her words to heart in desperation to find a solution, even though at each visit I didn't see any actual improvement with Tye despite various other riders working with him. I was devastated by what she said to me, and I will remember those words forever.

At the end of the four weeks he arrived back. His behaviour had worsened and deteriorated so much that I actually half considered selling him. I was at my lowest point and at a complete loss to know what to do. Somebody else I knew recommended another facility, and whilst I was reluctant after the last experience, I begrudgingly allowed Tye to be sent away yet again.

On visiting him, the first thing that was said was that his problems were caused because he didn't like having a bit in his mouth. There was no explanation and very little instruction, but I accepted what they said - willing to give anything a go. After the trainer had raced Tye around in an enclosed round pen scaring him with a crop covered with rustling plastic, I started to doubt their methods. But I began riding him in the round pen with no bit, to see if there was any difference.

Amazingly, I felt straight away that there was definitely a different 'energy' coming from him. I no longer felt that he was a loaded gun ready to explode! And whilst this was just the beginning of our journey together, I will always be grateful for this initial advice. There was nothing wrong with Tye at all once the bit was removed from his mouth, and nothing wrong with my riding skills either! At last there seemed to be some light at the end of the tunnel for us. It did take a while though for me to begin to trust him again, and as well I had to teach myself a whole new way of interacting with him, as the old ways just didn't work anymore. A bit controls a horse by the use of pain, and once the source has been removed, one has to look for new ways of communicating with them!

Nevertheless, little by little and guided only by my own intuition and how Tye responded, we made small steps together. During this time, I began to develop my own ideas and methods about what to do with Tye. Solutions arrived easily and were implemented with great success. Before long we were cantering in an open paddock, jumping, doing cross country and water jumps bitless, and actually feeling safer than I ever had before. It was wonderful - liberating - joyous!

Since those early days of first taking the bit out of Tye's mouth, and then developing different ways to communicate with him, he has never again ever shown any signs of his old behaviour. However it seems another battle was again just beginning - but in a most surprising and different way.

For the previous year or so, I had been a member of the local pony club. When I started to ride without a bit and very successfully, I was advised by the president that it wasn't permitted. Many discussions were held, and many letters were written to various people in various positions of authority stating that bitless riding with Tye was in fact safer than him having a bit in his mouth. Mentioned also in these letters was the fact that there was no rule which stated either in the New Zealand Pony Club Rules or in the Branch Rule Book, that riding without a bit was not permitted. Despite many protests, I was asked to either ride Tye in a bit or leave the club. It was again a very emotionally painful time, and the words I write here can't even begin to describe how painful it actually was. Experiencing and living through that situation changed my perspective about many things and many people very deeply.

Since then Tye and I have continued to explore and travel a path which is very different to traditional teachings. And sadly, it seems that wherever one travels, new ideas and new ways of viewing and doing things really challenge some people... and not in a good way! There is an old saying 'you can recognise a pioneer by the daggers in their back', and I can completely agree! Thankfully, there are increasingly larger numbers of people who are able to open their minds to enlightened thinking. They aren't satisfied to simply accept traditional views for the only reason that 'it's always been done that way'. Even though the old ways don't work, are unsafe and terribly inhumane!

Tye and I have an amazing relationship. I interact with him and ride him without anything on his head at all. Without leg contact or any particular body position, and without any other abusive or restraining devices. He is always respectful, obliging, responsive, playful and totally at peace with anything I ask of him. He remains a cheeky individual who adores food - still short legged and still with a ton of personality! He is and will always be... my most beloved teacher.

Further information about bitless training or barefoot trimming may be viewed on the 'profile', 'photos', 'info' or 'testimonial' sections of the website or by contacting Horse & Human by email, phone or text.