This month, we have been diving into tales of the place each persistence and play mindset repay large in the long run. On that observe, allow us to deliver you the story of Equestrian Masterclass teacher Chelsea Canedy and her superb mustang mare, Luna.
Luna got here to Chelsea as an unbroke and wild 6 yr previous who solely knew the very rudimentary fundamentals of the right way to be haltered, led, and despatched onto a trailer down a chute. Up till that time, she had lived her life on BLM property in a wild herd in California, and wanted not solely to be taught the fundamentals of being ultimately ridden, but additionally the fundamentals of merely being round people. The trail hasn’t been straightforward, however by way of taking issues sluggish and by no means going sooner than Luna was able to deal with, they’re now effectively on their option to a stable partnership.
Canedy and Luna will likely be taking part in September’s Mustang Traditional, a contest meant to showcase this superb breed’s versatility and functionality. We will certainly examine again in on them through the occasion. For now, examine her superb journey with Luna, and what it may well train us all about horses and horsemanship!
Sophie Coffey: How did you purchase Luna? What have been the circumstances that introduced her into your life?
Chelsea Canedy: It began with Tik (Maynard)! We have been chatting late summer time of 2023 and we simply discovered that he was going to Highway to the Horse, and we have been speaking about his prep for that, and he mentioned, “You recognize, if I wasn’t doing Highway to the Horse I might be doing the Mustang Traditional,” to which I replied, “I do not know what that’s.” So he forwarded me the e-mail from the Mustang Heritage Basis and mentioned, “It’s best to do it, you’d do a fantastic job. It might be such a cool expertise to do one thing with a mustang.”
The extra I examine it, the extra I made a decision that it was actually one thing I needed to take part in, each as a result of it might be an incredible studying expertise and since it match rather well with my experience. The previous as a result of whereas I’ve dealt with inexperienced horses and I’ve began some horses, I’ve by no means labored with a horse that was utterly untouched. The latter due to the eventing format of the competitors, after which there’s an added bonus of should you get into the High 10 of the competitors, you get to do a freestyle of liberty work. So it married the entire issues that I actually get pleasure from doing plus the truth that I would want to additionally be taught loads to rise to the event for it.
Sophie Coffey: What are the factors for the Mustang Traditional? Is it much like the Retired Racehorse Challenge Thoroughbred Makeover occasion in that the horse needs to be a sure age/can’t have greater than X variety of rides, and so forth?
Chelsea Canedy: First off, the horse must be adopted from the Bureau of Land Administration (BLM) after a set date in September of 2023, and it must be a wild horse. I imagine that you could get an accepted BLM horse from a second get together in that timeframe so long as they’re nonetheless comparatively untouched, however I personally needed to start out from scratch.
The one factor that I discovered fairly rapidly although was that a lot of the mustangs are out West, and I’m about as far East as you may get since I reside in Maine, and there are simply not plenty of straightforward methods to come up with a mustang out right here. There was additionally some bizarre timing in that the BLM and the Mustang Heritage Basis parted methods for his or her programming proper when it was time to accumulate a horse, and so it turned that a lot more durable to search out one.
I wound up turning to some mustang Fb teams asking if anybody may assist me, and this excellent girl named Meg in Ohio who had been a part of the BLM’s Tip Coach program, the place somebody will take a mustang and get the very fundamental dealing with on them. They will get loaded onto a trailer, haltered, brushed, and comfy with their toes getting picked. So she had been doing that in partnership with the Mustang Heritage Basis for years, and she or he noticed considered one of my posts and informed me that she was going to a pen in just some days and mentioned she would search for me.
She checked out plenty of mustangs and despatched me movies and photos and known as me whereas she was there, and we wound up each selecting Luna collectively. First off, Luna was very curious, she didn’t come proper to the sting of the pen, however she actually watched Meg and tracked her. Second, she had a cute construct to her, she had a extra athletic look to her as effectively that I believed would serve us effectively in our journey. Third and eventually, she was 6, so a bit of bit older than the 5 I used to be aiming for, however since I knew I would want to start out leaping comparatively quickly I didn’t need to choose one which was 3 or 4.
One factor I need to say is that I actually couldn’t have discovered Luna with out the assistance of the web Mustang group. These folks love mustangs, they usually put their coronary heart and soul into the work they do with them and actually imagine within the mission of getting them out of BLM holding pens and into good properties the place they’re going to learn to be good residents to allow them to have a contented life.
So Meg introduced Luna to her place and the timing labored out that she was together with her for 2-3 weeks, and she or he put in these fundamentals I discussed earlier in order that when she introduced Luna all the way down to Kentucky, the place I occurred to be instructing, I may load her up simply and take her again to Maine.
Sophie Coffey: What have been the primary targets that you just had with Luna, and the way lengthy did it take to perform them?
Chelsea Canedy: I knew straight away that I used to be not in a rush, that if I actually took my time to start with, that issues would go faster in the long term. I made it my mission to only earn her belief and open a really clear line of communication. It’s so fascinating with mustangs, and Luna is my first one, they’re very cautious of individuals and human contact, however not a lot with objects of their world. So getting them to the touch a human’s hand or take meals from a human may be tough, however getting them to take meals out of a bucket that you just’re holding is way simpler.
Straight away, I used a clicker and acquired her into optimistic reinforcement coaching. Instantly, that gave me AND her absolute readability when she did one thing that I needed her to do, and she or he actually thrived with that sort of mindset. And oh my God are mustangs sensible – I can not overstate how clever Luna is. It blows my thoughts. I simply at present taught her the right way to do the Spanish Stroll, and it took her three minutes to determine it out, whereas different horses it’s taken three days they usually barely have it. It’s as a result of they develop up within the wild the place actually every part is an issue for them to resolve their complete life, they usually all the time need to be extraordinarily “avenue sensible.”
That additionally, from what I perceive anecdotally and from what I’ve skilled, these avenue smarts additionally make them extraordinarily cautious of individuals. It’s not true of ALL mustangs, however it was positively true with Luna. It took me weeks and weeks for me to only be capable to put a rope round her neck and run my fingers over her physique. As soon as she understood that I used to be her individual, although, she was recreation to attempt something, she simply tries so laborious. I feel that not dashing her or forcing her into something actually created that sturdy basis for us, one which was constructed on belief and selection.
Sophie Coffey: What has the journey been like total? What have been some setbacks, and the way did you progress by way of them? When do you are feeling like issues actually turned the nook from them?
After I had simply began to journey Luna, I had a reasonably dangerous fall the place she blind bolted away from me and I couldn’t keep on. It was a really humbling expertise, and likewise one that actually shook me as a result of I believed I had checked the entire packing containers you wanted to examine when beginning a horse from scratch, and Luna had been superb. She trusted me and was prepared to attempt something, so there have been no indicators that I had missed something alongside the way in which as a result of she was so relaxed and so completely happy.
What occurred is that once I acquired on her that exact day, she began to place a bit of of her personal power into the work. Then, she felt me shifting above her, which was solely a sensation that she had felt earlier than to a small diploma. Then, she additionally felt me saying “wait, don’t do this,” which was a really new stress for her, one thing pulling on her face. In the end, she genuinely didn’t perceive what all of it meant when she skilled it altogether, and have become genuinely terrified in consequence, and she or he simply ran.
So I clearly knew that I had missed one thing in her coaching, some field I hadn’t checked, however within the second I didn’t know what that one thing was. I took her all the way down to Florida with me, and Tik was there prepping for Highway to the Horse, and it was the right circumstance as a result of he wanted to be working with fairly unbroke horses, and Luna knew a ton of stuff on the bottom however she wasn’t broke to journey. So her degree of using was about the place Tik’s mount could be at Highway to the Horse.
Tik had been doing a ton of prep work for his personal journey, and had discovered that you just needed to up the stress and the quantity of power that you just put out across the horse. It wasn’t sufficient to maintain issues quiet on a regular basis, you needed to do extra, contact them ALL over, make extra noise, do issues above, round, behind, and assist them learn to be OK when issues acquired to be “an excessive amount of.”
I watched him undergo that course of together with her, and I might return house and work on it, and I might take her again and she or he could be additional alongside after which Tik would take the subsequent step. So when he lastly did get on her, she additionally had the identical bolting conduct with him, however he was sensible and was in a spherical pen in a western saddle, the primary of which I hadn’t executed myself as a result of my spherical pen was buried below snow and ice. Tik was set as much as principally journey it out, and I used to be not.
It took her a couple of minute of “I don’t know what’s occurring!” earlier than she settled down in that journey, and it took her solely about 2-3 rides the place she was squirrelly like that to start out till she mentioned, “Oh, okay, that is simply one other factor to be taught and settle for.” I might say that it took a couple of month of using periods like that to get her to the purpose the place she was actually stable, the place I felt like I may take her out of the spherical pen and begin strolling, trotting, and cantering.
What that whole course of with Tik helped me notice is that I had executed a very good job serving to her to grasp the right way to remedy the issues I used to be asking her, however I hadn’t executed pretty much as good a job instructing her the right way to handle her personal feelings when the reply wasn’t straightforward to search out and the power of a scenario turned overwhelming for her. So she was tremendous relaxed once I had been coaching her, however I by no means pressed her right into a scenario the place she may not be, as a result of I used to be attempting actually laborious to maintain every part quiet, calm, and relaxed.
Sophie Coffey: What are you engaged on with Luna at present, and the way would you describe the place she is in her coaching?
Chelsea Canedy: Now Luna simply appears like a inexperienced horse. Wait, let me revise that, as a result of I simply discovered that Luna is definitely a pony. We had her measured and she or he is 14.2 fingers tall, which is loads smaller than what they mentioned on her BLM papers. Proper now she’s engaged on understanding contact. I might additionally say that she is 100% a boss mare, so she will be able to set her jaw and have some, “I’d fairly not,” forms of moments, so it may well take some coaxing to inform her it’s OK to let go. I feel it’s nonetheless actually laborious for her to let go utterly and simply be prepared to have a dialog with me below saddle, as a result of she simply has a bit of a part of herself that’s on guard.
The leaping, although, she’s a beast. I level her at one thing and she or he simply says, “Okay, I’m going!” However I began her at liberty with leaping, and I used the clicker and clicked each time she jumped, so she’s simply by no means been afraid of it. And now she’s just a bit little bit of a machine, I level her and I soften the reins and she or he goes. So proper now, we’re simply engaged on having the ability to hold a gradual rhythm together with her over the jumps and cruise across the course.
Sophie Coffey: When is the competitors, how way more time do you’ve gotten?
Chelsea Canedy: I really feel actually good proper now, the competitors isn’t till September, so I really feel like I’ve time now to essentially put polish on every part. I really feel like I may go proper now, however it wouldn’t be as fairly as I want to make it, so now I’ve time to make it lovely. We take numerous subject journeys collectively, and we’re entered to do Newbie Novice at a contest in July (which I feel we’ll simply do the Dressage after which determine if we’re leaping or not day of, as a result of the Mustang competitors is run on the Starter degree). So we’ll go and have the expertise of going to a brand new place, stabling off property, working in massive teams with different horses, you recognize simply getting the Horse Present expertise. After which I’ve about 5-6 different native outings deliberate earlier than the competitors, and we’re simply going to plug away at all of it summer time and hopefully be in a very good place come fall.
Sophie Coffey: Are you aware what your long run plan with Luna is likely to be previous the competitors?
Chelsea Canedy: Effectively she measures as a pony and she or he actually does clock round a course, and I feel she’s solely going to get higher, however proper now it is actually laborious to say. At this level, we positively have a bond. I took her to a neighborhood present a couple of week in the past, and I would go away her with a scholar once I needed to go coach, and when she noticed me as I used to be strolling again she began to whinny at me, and she or he did it 5 or 6 instances, so it was positively an “I see my individual!” response, and it’s very laborious to have a horse like that after which say, “Okay, I’m going to promote them now.” I actually don’t know what the longer term holds. I want to assume in the long term I’ve set her up effectively to be somebody’s excellent pony, however I’m not on the level the place I understand how any of that’s going to unfold. We have now plenty of enjoyable with the freedom work and I may see placing collectively some acts together with her sooner or later… It is simply laborious as a result of I like to take action many issues and it is troublesome to place sufficient consideration into each facet of the horse world that I get pleasure from! However I may see Luna being an exquisite low degree eventing companion for somebody, or youngsters’s hunter or jumper, or any person’s liberty horse who can be enjoyable to journey. We simply began our bridleless work And that is solely going to make her a cooler horse in the long term.
I additionally need to say a particular thanks to Co-Sponsors Alison Brigham and Michael Frankel, in addition to my superb barn employees at Surprising Farm who assist make this journey attainable. I actually could not do it with out them!
If you need to be taught from Chelsea, you might have an interest within the following Equestrian Masterclass programs:
Chelsea Canedy Teaches Groundwork 101
The New Horse Starter Pack
