A year ago I took ownership of Calipari (formerly owned and shown by Havens Schatt). Calipari (aka Con Fu) is a ten year old Holsteiner gelding whose only discipline has always been H/J shows.
He had some issues with being ridden by anyone other than her; said issues consisting of trying (and almost succeeding) to kill all of her employees that tried to ride him. According to her barn manager (my sister) he was great until you asked him to do something he didn't want to do, at which point he would do anything to you that he could. He also has EPM, but it's well controlled, and he has been treated for it again since I got him.
Anyway. Since I got him, I've been working with him using a lot of conditioning and desensitizing practices, gentle encouragement at building confidence and trust, and have had zero issues with him. He's never so much as spooked under saddle with me. We chalked this up to jumping just not being his preferred career, as sometimes happens, and shrugged it off. I've always ridden him English, with the main change being that I ride in a French link hunter dee with a running martingale, and I think Havens rode him in something with a little extra brake to it and draw reins. I also have about 20-30 lbs on anyone who works for Havens, and at least 60 pounds on the lady herself. I figured the extra weight made him more respectful of me, and I started him from scratch on groundwork.
While I was a little disappointed that he doesn't seem to care for show jumping, as I wanted to get back into it, frankly I've just been enormously grateful to have Fu as my trail buddy and training guinea pig. He's incredibly smart (he plays fetch with halters and will bring any of the other horses' halters and fly masks to the gate if they toss them in the pasture!!). Maybe smarter than me. But yesterday he blew my mind and I'm questioning what I want to do about it.
One of our Boer goats got out of her pen and into the gelding pasture. (I won't bore you with the details but it was partially my fault. I am dumb.) The donkeys and cow horse in the pasture ran away or side-eyed her. And then Fu noticed her and I swear to god he just immediately clicked into cow-horse brain.
I've never seen a horse perform maneuvers like a border collie. He was extremely gentle - didn't nip or even open his mouth at all, let alone hurt her - and it was clear from his movements (slow pace, but kept up, and mirrored her movements exactly...even pivoting about ninety degrees on one foot while jumping to the left) that he was actively trying to herd her. He could have trampled her, bit her, or kicked her at any moment. He chose not to.
He brought her across the pasture STRAIGHT TO ME (I take no credit for this, I was just standing there with my jaw on the ground), and when I ran through the open gate and signaled him to come to me, he brought her into the pen and then stood outside the gate with his head lowered, occasionally shifting to match her when she tried to turn around and dart past him. He stayed there, focused on her, until I ran back and got the gate closed and chained, then wandered off to the back gate to wait for his dinner (lol).
He's always liked to watch the goats but he's never exhibited behavior like this before. These goats have horns so I don't want to experiment with it and end up with him getting hurt, but I'm seriously considering bringing him out to meet some cows just to see if this may turn out to be his secret calling.
The issue is, I have no skills or knowledge of the sports of cutting and sorting. Like, none. I've always ridden English, since I was 7 (which means I'm officially over 20 years in the saddle!) and I'd have to completely restart him under Western tack, which I have a much less extensive knowledge about. But I'm willing to give it a shot - he needs a job, we've exhausted most of our trail options within riding distance, and he's bored.
Do y'all think this might be worth it? I don't know if it's smart or safe to bring him around cows, with his history, and while I don't mind the work of restarting him under Western saddle, I'm afraid of ruining him.
All advice welcome, just please be nice! Thanks!
I'm planning a scavenger hunt for our stable and thought I'd ask you guys for some tips :) It's going to be roughly 15 people, all riding western style and we have a huge area to ride in (forests, fields, lakes...) and all adults.
I thought of doing to groups, one for the more timid/beginners and the other one for the more daring (maybe timed). Or doing pairs of people who normally don't really do anything together and maybe balance each other out to further the community ;)
We don't have any problems with riders doing stupid stuff/going to fast or disregarding their horses. I thought that taking lots of photos/videos would be nice so that we can share everything afterwards :)
It's only me and a friend planning and organising and can't transport big things (bridge and trail stuff is all on our riding square (what's the English word for that anyway?)).
Thank you guys heaps
