Tar Baby
story by
Margo Morton
Crane Lake
Alberta, Canada
Unfortunately, Tar Baby
had just lost her colt and I didn't want to
rebreed her that year. So I decided to get this
nice mare trained. I brought her into the
corrals and phoned a Professional Trainer in our
region, to ask if she'd have time to break her.
"She's a four year old mare", I told her.
"Four years old,
that's getting a little old to just now start
breaking?"
"She's very quiet" I
told her, " When I halter broke her this week
she responded very well." That bit of news was
not what the trainer wanted to hear, "Halter
broke this week" she said, "you just halter
broke a four year old this week", she said
incredulously.
"Well yes" I
replied, ashamed of my lack of diligence in
halter breaking the mare sooner. "Tell you
what," I said, "would you take the mare and see
what you think"? "If you feel she'll be too
much to handle, I'll take her back home." The
trainer agreed. I understood her hesitance, as
she was not a young women anymore, and had rode
her share of tough horses. She no longer rode
and trained any horse that was too much of a
bronc, but I was pretty sure Tar Baby would not
be to difficult to teach.
I trucked Tar
Baby to the trainer and told her I would contact
her in a week or so to give her time to assess
the mare. It was 2 weeks before I got back to
her to ask how it was going.
"It's going
surprisingly well" she said, "for a mare of her
years". We must have caught her before it was
too late to do much with her. She went on to
explain what she had accomplished with her so
far, which was impressive. She was very happy
with Tar Baby's progress.
That's when I
dropped bomb shell #1. "I was looking through
my horse papers the other day, when I came
across that mares' registration papers. As it
turns out, the mare is a six year old, not a
four year old after all." I told her. After a
moment of strained silence, the trainer went on
to rave about how well the mare was doing
especially in light of this new information.
Six years old, not four and so easy to work
with. Amazing!!! Not even halter broke until
the week before you brought her to me. Amazing
mare.
Then she commented,
"you know, I'd almost swear that mare has a
small bag" That's when I dropped bombshell #2.
"Well yes she probably does" I said, "She had
just lost her colt about 10 days before I
brought her over to you". There was dead
silence on the other end of the phone, while
this news sunk in.
Finally she found
her voice, and was doubly impressed with the
incredible mind this mare possessed, having lost
a colt so recently, just halter broke and being
a 6 year old too. "Perhaps It's very fortunate,
from a trainers point of view that she lost this
colt, once they've had a colt and been part of a
broodmare band, it's very difficult
to professionally train them after that." "They
just are no longer open to learning and
responding like a young mare is". "Oh, they can
be trained of course, but never reach the level
of ability like a horse started young". "This
mare is responding like a two year old".
I felt that this
poor lady trainer had had enough shocks for the
day, so I didn't tell her that this colt that
she had lost was not her first foal and she was
indeed a member of a brood mare band for quite
some time. I don't think she could have handled
much more information coming one thing after
another.
The trainer
continued with the mare for 2 months, and
was always incredibly impressed by her. As for
me? I am very happy with the job she did with
her too. She is a nice mare to ride, responsive
and calm. Part of Tar Baby's easy ability to
train at her age is the fact her AQHA
bloodlines go back to good, honest working,
ranch horses, many that were Champions.
