As Baron healed from his leg wound I started to begin light work with him, on my visits to the boarding stable. I still only got out to see my horses about once a week to once every two weeks, depending on Gordon's schedule or if I could get a ride out with someone else, which was pretty rare.
At first, I just worked more on his ground manners, which didn't take me long, as he always had excellent manners.
He was so small, for his age, only about 14.1 hands at his 2nd Birthday, that I didn't want to do a whole lot to stress his bones, joints, etc, so I just had fun with him. One of the first extra things I taught him was to bow.
After he was gelded in April 2001, right before his 2nd Birthday is about when I started doing this, I think. I would use a carrot, which he loved, as his reward. I started out saying the words "Baron bow." Then I'd put the carrot just below his nose, starting to work on him learning to lower his head. As he caught on, I put the carrot lower and lower, eventually I had it placed between his knees and he'd flex his neck to get to it.
After that, i started working with him on moving his legs so he could reach even further back and lower. He would put one leg forward and move the other back, eventually having them about two feet apart or more and I'd put the carrot down around ankle level. He was so smart that all of this didn't take long and he learned it with very infrequent training sessions, due to my lack of transpartation to the barn.
After he mastered bowing, to my satisfaction, he had grown a bit and I thought it would be okay to start putting him in the really big round pen that the barn owner had. I started teaching him to lunge, just with a lead rope, at first, going in circles in both directions, around me and around the roundpen.
Again, he learned quickly and I soon was using a regular lunge line and also working with him on free lunging. I knew not to do a lot of trotting with him and no cantering, at first, until he was closer to his mature height.
As I worked with him he grew and learned quickly. I started adding a circingle and then the side reins that, at first, I just attached loosely to his halter, so he could get used to a girth like piece of tack around him and the sensation of reins next to his neck.
I did what I could to work with him through his two year old summer and into fall, but when winter came, it was just too muddy to do much in the roundpen, so when I got to go visit, I just spent a lot of time grooming him and Bunny.
As it started to warm up and Baron approached his 3rd Birthday, he was now almost 15.1 hands, so when I started him back in the roundpen, I was able to do a lot more with him. I was amazed, we picked up just about where we had left off months before. I had always known he was a smart horse, but this truly solidified it.
He quickly progressed the spring of 2002 and by June it was time for me to start getting on his back.
I had been given a nice senthetic western saddle that I had been putting him. I mostly ride english, but this was a nice saddle, so I figured I would use it. Baron didn't seem to mind and it fit him fairly well.
I admit being pretty nervous as Gordon gave me a leg up that first day, but Baron was perfect. I swung my right leg over his back and eased my way into the saddle. After letting Baron stand there for a few minutes, to get the feel of me on his back, I had Gordon lead us around the roundpen a few times. Baron never showed any signs that he was going to buck or do anything wrong, so I praised him and dismounted after about 10 minutes. It was a flawless first ride, I couldn't have asked for anything more from him.
Gordon and I were getting married in July. We'd be gone for a week on our Honeymoon, to Saratoga Springs, for opening week of the Saratoga racing meet. Then when we got back I had a barn builder set to build the barn in mid August and a fencing company to come out about two weeks after the barn was finished.
Because I would not be ready for Baron to come to our new home until late August, I decided to send him to a trainer. The boarding stable was 1 1/2 hours from where I would be living, so I would not be able to visit him, anyways.
I trusted the lady I boarded with, she had never given me any cause not to, so when she recommended her trainer, that she sent all her youngsters to, I didn't hesitate. I had seen a horse come back from him and it was fine, so I figured that Baron would be, as well. So, in early July, Baron went to this trainer's farm to continue his education.
Bunny and Angel, who we had been given, would remain at the boarding stable, until the farm was ready. Gordon and I had also purchased another Thoroughbred mare, Messenger of Light, who we nicknamed "Leia", and she stayed at the barn she was already at, until my farm was ready. Leia, like Bunny, was pregnant, so I didn't want to move Leia too much.
In early August we went to see Baron at the trainers farm. He looked fine and I watched the guy ride him, putting him through his paces. Then I got on for a short ride. I was pretty happy, but I could tell Baron wasn't quite as relaxed as he'd been even on his first ride with me. I just figured it was because I hadn't seen him in over a month or something like that. So, I dismissed that feeling, but I should have listened more closely.
After the barn got put up we were still waiting on the fencing, when Gordon and I decided to go see Bunny and Angel and make arrangements for them to be brought to us. It was about 2 weeks after I saw Baron. We were standing out infront of the lady's barn and we were talking about Baron. When suddenly the lady said, "The trainer may be the town drunk, but he is really good with horses and I've never seen him drunk around the horses."
I swear I must have turned ashen, as I felt all the blood drain from my face and thought I was going to pass out. I couldn't believe she had not told me this key piece of info before, I would have definitely remembered something like that.
She lived almost two hours from the trainer, so how did she know if he was drinking around the horses or not? I was so mad.
As soon as Gordon and I got in the car, I told him that I was going to have the trainer bring Baron home immediately, fence or no fence, i didn't care. Gordon agreed, we wanted Baron away from "the town drunk" as soon as possible.
So, I called the trainer and told him that the fencing would be done sooner than I thought and asked if he could bring Baron home a little earlier than planned, to which he agreed.
If I had my own truck and trailer, I would have gotten him myself, but we didn't and still don't. I didn't know many people with trucks and trailers, so I had to trust the trainer to not drink before bringing Baron home.
Luckily, Baron arrived home safely. I had opened up the foaling stall for him, so he had a 12 by 20 stall. I deeply bedded in shavings, too, so he would be comfortable. I also hung two fans for him.
We may not have had horse pastures fenced, but we did have hte back yard, so I did bring him up to the back yard for grazing, for an hour or two a day.
Baron watched from the stall as the fencing went up about a week after he arrived at Perfect Peace Farm. The workers were amazed at how calm he was and when I told them that he was a pure Thoroughbred, they were in even more shock. He just calmly watched them work, driving the posts into the ground and hanging the Centaur brand fencing that I had chosen for my farm.
As the fencing was being finished, we moved Leia to a neighbors farm, just down the street, where she stayed for about a week or so, then we brought her home the day after the fence was finished. A few days later Bunny and Angel joined them and our small 4 horse herd was finally all together.
Baron and Leia didn't get along, at first. Leia is just so calm and laid back, she is easily picked on. I'm not sure, exactly why he didn't like her very much, but he'd chase her, so we eventually had to separate him from Leia. We put Baron in with Angel and Bunny and Leia, the two pregnant ladies were in the other small paddock, on the other side of the barn.
After Baron had settled in, I started trying to work with him again, but my horse was different and I couldn't figure it out. I would get on him and he'd go a little ways and then freeze. I could feel the nervousness in him and I knew something must have happened with that drunk trainer. I apologized to Baron and told him I wouldn't have sent him there, if I had known what I learned later. I told himt hat if I sent him to any other trainer, I'd do more research, visit the place, if possible, and stay on top of the trainer to make sure that this kind of thing didn't happen to him again.
Little did I know, that even if you do your research, get tons of good recommendations from people, stay on top of the trainer, bad things still happen and trainers can sometimes turn from what seemed like a very reasonable person that you got along with to someone completely different. Poor Baron ran into his fair share of trainers that went nuts while he was with them, but at least he doesn't have to worry about that anymore, as he is safe with his new owner, Laura, who has now had him for 2 years.
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