Another Journey Begins - The Ripple Effect...What Next

Part One

This is probably a good place to add BG was spending plenty of time selling himself as a trainer to anyone who would listen. According to him he was the only one who had worked horses for a BNT before the man retired. BG's story was any success those horses had had in the ring was directly related to BG's skills with the long lines and his work ethic, NOT the BNT who he portrayed as lazy and unethical.

The only thing I knew for sure was the BNT's horses had definitely been worked out of this facility and that they had done well in the ring. Who was responsible for their success was anybody's guess but BG definitely wanted me and others to believe it was him.

The other thing BG was claiming had to do with those horses in his barn. According to him the problems with the horses were all about the owners. Mostly owned by kids or young people with little experience and not a lot of money, these horses were not in training full time. Whatever was going on with those horses was pretty much because of that. BG couldn't be fixing them unless he was paid and they did exactly what he said. According to BG that just wasn't the case and he was frustrated nobody listened to him. His training couldn't be an issue because he just wasn't getting the opportunity to work his magic and when he did, those inexperienced riders just ruined it all.

Now with my friend's mare coming to BG for fixing it would be interesting to see what happened with her. While I had never seen the mare under saddle, I did know my friend's mare personally. She was bred to Legs back in 2006 after the twins were born. When Surprise got sick and needed expensive hospitalization, my friend had sent the horse to me for breeding so I'd have the stud fee to help with the filly's medical expenses so I did have experience with the mare and her personality.

This is a little off subject but I can't resist saying the resulting foal is a beautiful half-Arabian gelding that I swear carries a dilute gene. There's an odd caste to his supposedly bay coat but other than that he looks a lot like his dad. He is equally talented and I can't wait for the day he's going under saddle. Now I was looking forward to seeing what his mother looked like under saddle and to see how BG had really done with the mare's problems.

From the time BG picked up the mare, I had heard what bad shape she was in. I was told her coat was awful and her weight bad too, although not bad as in neglected but just not where it should be. BG was clear he knew what to do to fix those things. Drawing on his years of experience he knew what was just the right thing for this mare.

It wasn't long after her arrival that talk of taking this mare to the Oct show began happening. It was clear from their conversations with the owner and with me that BG and WF really wanted to show the mare at that horse show. WF contacted the owner and told her of the coming event and letting her know they did not charge show fees.

There was so much pressure to show the mare the owner might have thought those show fees had been waived to get her to take the mare except both of us had already been told multiple times that was the barn policy. As much as they wanted to show the mare, the owner did wonder to what extent they would go to get the opportunity. She made an appointment to come see the mare to see what all the fuss was about and asked me if I'd like to come along.

I can still remember the day that I went to the barn with my friend to see how her mare was doing. It had been about a month since the mare had arrived. I hadn't seen the mare worked even once. That work had been done when I wasn't around but I had heard she was doing great. I also heard that she was trained in an odd manner and no one could really figure her out except BG. According to him even WF couldn't ride this mare as well as he.

This mare is a beautiful light colored palomino. When I'd seen her last she had been hanging out being a pasture ornament and was in the kind of shape you'd expect. Now looking at her jogging down the rail towards me, my jaw hit the ground. I sure hadn't seen the mare in this light before. She may have issues but she definitely had "the look" and maybe even the talent of a western horse that could win it all if she could ever get those issues worked out.

During this session the mare showed no signs of the issues that had caused the demise of the lease/purchase agreement. Knowing those issues had been pretty frightening, I guess it was reasonable for my friend and I both to assume that BG was indeed well on the road to fixing this mare.

These assumptions surely affected my perceptions of BG as a trainer but I still had some reservations. There were those show horses in his barn that never did quite cut it in the ring except for the one horse there he had nothing to do with training, WF's horse.

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

A Little Thickening

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