Wyley & Mary getting acquainted
Wyley has led a life of leisure after his dramatic rescue in 2006, when as a yearling; he had been hit by a truck and then rescued and rehabilitated by Bob and Doreen Henderson. Three years later, Wyley was sent off with Mary Renwick of Cochrane, Alberta to be saddle trained.
Mary has trained hundreds of horses in her day, as this has been her primary source of employment for close to thirty years. She has worked with many different breeds from high strung thoroughbreds to Pole Ponies, Quarter Horses, Arabians and Standard Breds, just to name a few. She once worked with an American mustang while she lived and worked in Montana, which turned into an amazing cutting horse. The mustang never tired after many long hours of packing a rider and moving cattle on the range. Hence Mary was excited and eager to work with another mustang, this time one from her home province of Alberta.
For the first five weeks Mary did a lot of ground work with Wyley, using natural horsemanship techniques. It took several weeks just to desensitize him, in that he was very defensive about being touched and brushed all over. Although he did not bite or anything of that nature, he just didn’t like being handled and fussed over. Nor was he keen on letting a human take the lead and often would challenge Mary. Wyley would turn to face her, and walk in her direction, bearing his teeth and pinning his ears. However, Mary would give it right back to him, showing him that she was the lead mare, like it or lump it. Wyley was more bark than bite and would back down from her shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, Mary said that he was quick to swing his back end around in her direction and she wasn’t about to take any chances as to whether or not he would kick her. In time they developed a mutual respect for one another.
Mary got Wyley familiar with being ground driven, just as one ground drives a horse to teach it to pull a wagon, she would walk behind him and get him to turn left or right or stop from the lead lines attached to his halter. From the halter she progressed to having him wear a bridle, with a bit in his mouth.
Driving Mr. Wyley
Once Mary was confident in Wyley’s improved manners and the movements learned while on the ground, she moved up to putting a saddle on his back and then would lunge him on a line to get him used to the stirrups flapping at his sides and to feel the weight of that foreign object tied onto to his back.
Building slowly onto his training, Mary was finally at a point where she was confident enough to lay across his back with one foot in the stirrup. When he didn’t have an issue with that she progressed to sitting on him and finally got him to move around freely while she sat on him. Wyley didn’t offer to buck at all; the challenge was more in getting him to budge. He thought if he stood still long enough Mary would get tired of the game and get off his back, literally. However, Mary implemented the ground driving cues to get him to move ahead followed by turning left and right. Once these basic movements were established then they picked up the pace by getting him to trot with a rider on his back. The main thing Mary finds with Wyley is to give him a chance to think about what she is asking of him so that he can respond favorably. Not rushing or worrying him, prevents any type of explosive response a person would get from any young horse in training that was confused and anxious about any part of the procedure. During his training thus far when he did have a problem with any part of it, Mary would stop when he was getting upset, let it go and try again at a later date. Mary’s main priority is safety for herself and the horse she is working with, and therefore she tries to read a situation or the horses body language before it becomes a problem. Wyley apparently is very good at telling her what he does and doesn’t like with his ears being the radar to go by, according to Mary.
The Eyes Say it All