Horse of the Week: WALTER

When I first started teaching at the barn, there was no horse I liked less than Walter. I didn’t like his pig eyes. I didn’t like his short legs, his upside down neck, or his height (at 14.1H he’s the smallest lesson horse we have). I didn’t like the way he spooked at everything or how he was always on high alert. I especially didn’t like how he would take off with my students at the canter, or refuse even the smallest cross rail with what seemed like deliberate exaggeration. Suffice it to say, I didn’t like anything about him.

Walter is now my second favorite lesson horse. I trust him with one of my favorite students and he is a star at every show. He is, in my lowly opinion, worth his weight in gold.

So how did he make such a big turn around in just over a year? Well, it went something like this….

“Miss Jillian, I want to ride Walter.”
“You can’t ride Walter, Angelika. You don’t know how to canter yet. He’s too much horse for you. You can ride Josie instead.”
“But I rode Walter last summer with Miss Erin and he was really good.”
“No.”

There where about four or five conversations just like this one that took place between myself and one of my more persistent beginner/intermediate riders. Eventually she won. I threw up my hands and agreed to let her ride Walter who I had only been using sparingly in my advanced jumping class up to that point. He’ll take off with her at the canter, I told myself, and that will be that. She’ll go back to riding Josie and I won’t have to listen to any more whining.

Angelika rode Walter outside on a nice summer day in late July. To my astonishment, he was a perfect gentlemen. There was no spooking. There was no cantering laps around and around and around the ring. There wasn’t even (much) fast out of control trotting. Walter behaved himself and at the end of the lesson Angelika led him back to the barn with a smug look on her face.

“So I can ride him next week?” She asked.
“Er, yeah. Sure.” I said.

Angelika was not an advanced rider. She was barely posting, tended to daydream every five minutes, and had some major balance issues. Yet Walter had toted her around like the most seasoned of lesson ponies when the day before he had taken off with one of my best riders after a fence and she had had to use a pulley rein to finally stop him. I was stumped.

By the time summer wrapped up, I was beginning to understand Walter a little bit more. He wasn’t being bad when he took off with my riders. He was TERRIFIED. Eventually I paired him up with one of my advanced jumpers and they hit it off immediately once all three of us figured out a few things.

1) Walter cannot be stopped with the reins. The second you pull into his mouth, he panics and pulls three times as hard the opposite direction. Half halts will slow him down, as well as controlling the tempo of your post. He hates being circled.

2) If you ride through your seat at the canter and lay off his mouth, he has one of the most beautiful, naturally collected canters I have ever seen.

3) Walter is afraid of most things, including jumps. But if you ride him with confidence, stay light through your hands, and engage his hind end he will jump anything you put in front of him.

4) Walter doesn’t spook at everything, just things that are different. A bench that has moved. A jacket that wasn’t there before. A new person on the rail. He can be distracted from spooking by wiggling the inside rein.

5) The second you become tense and nervous, Walter will get 10x more so. He feeds off his rider’s emotions like a telepath.

At that’s it. The five commandments of Walter. I won’t say I retrained him, but he sure does have a heck of a lot more muscling in places he didn’t have it before. He is not a good horse for every rider, but he will teach whoever rides him more than any other lesson horse can. I have a lot of my nervous intermediate riders on Walter. You have to protect him I tell them. Walter is a follower, not a leader. He will take care of you if you take care of him.

And he does.

Walter soared through a 3’3” grid two weeks ago with a good six inches to spare. He jumps with his hind end and pops his back unlike any 14.1H horse I’ve ever seen. Last Saturday one of his favorite riders took him out into the field and jumped cross country. He absolutely loved. This Wednesday he will give his weekly lesson to one of my (and Walter’s) favorite students, a timid young boy who was learning the posting trot last summer. On Walter he has learned how to two point, canter, and jump. They won two blue ribbons together at the last horse show. I have never seen a horse take care of a rider more than Walter takes care of this student. They trust each other implicitly. It’s a wonderful thing to see.

So my hat’s off to you Walter. You may be little, you may be afraid of just about everything, and you may be twenty six years old (did I mention that yet?) but you’re the best little jumping pony I’ve ever known.