Max's Gift
Max's Gift
On the 9th July 2020 the world lost Max. Max was a magnificent, 17 hand chestnut warmblood with a big white blaze and four white socks. He was the type of horse that got lots of compliments for his calm, unfazed, laid back demure. Everyone wished they could own a horse like Max, a horse you could ride out in the bush, take on an endurance trek, go jumping, enjoy adult riders club…he was just a horse his owner Ann-Maree, could enjoy and feel safe on.
The interesting thing about Max is that he wasn’t always like this. In fact, he was the opposite. He was remarkable because he showed the world that with patience, dedication and ingenuity dangerous horses can be transformed.
Here are the 3 lessons I learnt from Max:
1. The owner of the horse needs to be committed and thorough - As a young horse Max learnt to buck…and I mean “BUCK rough stock rodeo style”! His aggression then escalated to attacking people on the ground. When I met Ann-Maree, she had found a trainer who had helped her with the aggression on the ground but struggled to address the aggression under saddle. She was referred to me. That was 6 years ago and Ann-Maree has not missed a clinic and has kept up with regular training sessions with me ever since. She meticulously followed my advice, never skipped a step, and went backwards in his training to make a response better if she had to. She addressed all aspects of his health and tack. She never cut corners, got lazy, got frustrated, gave up, got sick of it or shopped around for quick fixes. If she got stuck, Max regressed or she was ready to move forward, she immediately contacted me and we worked through it. So, while Max’s transformation is remarkable, he really is the outcome of Ann-Maree’s hard work and willingness to listen, be coached and learn how to make good training decisions herself.
2. Obstacles as distractions – Max had very negative thoughts about being ridden. We had to get him good with each step of being ridden, from being mounted, sat on at a stand still and going forward. Groundwork helped immensely for the mounting and being sat on at a standstill but going forward was trickier. This was because he would go forward and then suddenly become very negative and threatening and we would have to deal with this. Each gait took weeks of patience to eliminate this habit from being triggered. How we did it was by having the arena full of obstacles, primarily poles, witch’s hats…things Max had to navigate with his feet. This distracted Max’s attention and his aggressive thoughts from being triggered. It allowed Max to do longer and longer stretches in each gait that we could stop and reward his with rest without any episode of aggression. This allowed Max to identify and learn that he could be “successful” in moving forward and helped transform his mindset.
3. There is only so much you can fix from the ground if the behaviour is triggered under saddle – I will never forget the cold winters night when Ann-Maree finally rode Max for the first and asked for more than a hind quarter yield. It was after weeks of preparation. I will never forget the moment he took his first step after being cued to walked forward. He took that one step and Ann-Maree got off and we celebrated. For at least 30 minutes prior to this step, Max had reacted with negativity every time Ann-Maree had asked him to walk forward. He had tightened, flattened his ears, swished his tail and threatened to escalate and each time we just immediately switched to asking him something that he could do without negativity instead – in this case Ann-Maree yielded his hind quarters. Then finally he took that one single step forward minus any negativity and Max’s transformation under saddle begun. Groundwork had helped immensely. But Max’s negative association and bucking was specifically triggered by someone sitting on his back and asking him to go forward. Therefore, it could only be effectively addressed under saddle. We were able to deal with it safely and at no stage during re-training did Max buck. We did this by getting him good at things such as standing by the mounting block, being mounted, being flexed and yielding his hind quarters. We allowed him to get confident and willing at these simple things before we asked him to move forward and this is how we were able to avoid “bucking him out”.
Till this day Max still holds the title of the most dangerous under saddle horse I have ever worked with. He was a big powerful horse that had learnt how to buck and keep going until the person was removed from his back. A number of trainers had been unable to help him. Once with me, Ann-Maree and I worked together to TEACH him how to be a willing horse to ride. Ultimately he LEARNT how to be the chilled fun horse he became.
The loss of Max is heart breaking to so many people, especially Ann-Maree. If horse training was described like dressage levels, Max was a Grand Prix transformation. Ann-Maree allowed the real Max to be known to the world, the beautiful calm, willing, gentle horse that was fun to ride.
Rest in peace mighty Maxy Moo. You taught us, inspired us and will forever give those that hear your story the special gift of hope.
Photo credit - Zoe Martin ❤️
