Aidol's Story..................the Outcome.........

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Part 1

There were no problems with the vet check. Aidol passed in flying colors. The vet couldn't get over how "young" Aidol was for a horse in his late teens. The Arabian horse looked and felt good and we were onto getting him moved to Oregon.

The buyer had already called Karla Moffitt and made arrangements for the horse before we even completed the vet check if I remember correctly. Then it was decided that Dave and I would haul him to his new home instead of them hiring a professional hauler. They paid our fuel and took us to lunch and we delivered them their first horse. It was a great day and both of them couldn't have been more thrilled.

Of course, I called the second woman and let her know that Aidol was definitely sold. Still she wanted me to keep her in mind if there was any chance that Aidol might be returned. I doubted that would be the case but promised she'd be the first to know.

Funny how that worked out. The horse was "on the market" so to speak for quite some time. Then we had more buyers than we needed. Just shows how things can go sometimes in this goofy industry.

Not long after we'd taken Aidol to Neuberg, Oregon, I got a call from the buyer. She's just had her first lesson on the horse and wanted to share how it had gone.

She said she was riding the horse like that lesson horse she'd leased. Like most lesson horses, this one had been reluctant to move. It had taken lots of kicking to get anything from the horse.
Kicking wasn't even in a rider's bag of tricks with Aidol. The horse was startled by such a cue. The trainer had to keep reminding the woman to be subtle with her cues. Seems like they spent a couple of days getting those issues worked out before they moved on to the lope.

I still clearly remember our conversation about the lope. When the trainer decided they were ready she gave the instructions on setting the horse up and then asking for the lope. The rider thought she was doing what the trainer said but when it came to using her leg she cued the horse like that lesson horse. Aidol galloped off thinking that's what he was supposed to do.

The rider was startled but not frightened by the response. The way she phrased it made me think she probably would have been frightened if she hadn't trusted Aidol so. She knew immediately it must be her fault the horse responded with such speed. She said she could hear the trainer take a deep breath before telling her to sit down to bring the horse back down so they could try it again.

This time when the trainer told her to lope her words were, " very gently touch the horse with your outside leg." The rider thought she was being gentle but Aidol galloped off again. Again she figured must have used too much leg

There was another deep breath from the trainer along with the instructions to sit down to bring the horse down again. Then the trainer remarked, "this is a very well trained, very responsive horse. This time I don't want you to touch him at all to ask him to lope. I want you to do nothing more but think 'lope.'"

"And that's exactly what I did." said the buyer in a very excited voice. "Aidol loped off in the slowest, smoothest lope I've ever seen." She said the lope was so wonderful the tears began streaming down her checks. She still couldn't believe this Arabian horse belonged to her.

To be continued..................





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