My teacher: Tatesa

Horses play a big role in Princess of Wisdom. Tibetans especially in the 8th century were horse people. I drew from my own horse experience to breath life into the horses in my novel. Also, I wanted to show the love that the characters have for their horses. I am always amazed when I watch movies with horses, as well as many novels I have read with horses, that horses are treated in the story simply as off-road vehicles that sometimes panic. The characters hardly interact with their horses, except to jump on, give a good kick and away they go...then yank back hard on big metal bits in their mouths to stop them. This is not reality and it is a good way to have nothing but trouble with your horse.

Hollywood has done a great disservice to the horse in their depictions of the way people ride horses for dramatic effect.

But we all know that people who lived day to day relying on their horses and interacting with these amazing beings had a sense of relationship with them, that they had qualities one could communicate with and that the horses communicated in return. 

I had a very good teacher in regards to horses. She set me on the path to learning about horses and understanding them. Her name is Tatesa (Ta-tay-sha), she is a full blood Egyptian Arabian mare. Tatesa came into my life as a three year old filly who was basically untrained.  

Not only was she untrained, but she had been badly handled by those who tried to force train her in the cowboy style when she was only one and a half years old. This gave her a deep mistrust of humans. She was sent to another trainer who set out to simply get her to the point she could relate to humans again. This trainer told me that Tatesa had been made crazy by these harsh tactics. We bought her from this trainer who got Tatesa to the point she would lunge in a circle; yet her fear was still noticeable.   

So, now I had this two year old Arabian filly who was frightened and defiant.  I set out to train her to ride. I say trained, not break, I never believe in trying to break a horse. I always sought out to learn natural humane methods. Tatesa did not need breaking, she was intelligent and high spirited, what she needed was someone to learn her language, communicate what was desired and then teach her using her own language. In the same way a mare will teach her foal to go there, stop here, follow me. A mare never breaks her foal. The same idea applies with training a horse.  

Since she was two years old I spent two years working with Tatesa on ground work only; natural horseman style. I had decided to wait until she was four years old to ride her, as that is the age they wait for in Europe. Here in American they usually start a horse under saddle at two. This is not good for the horse as their joints are not fully developed. But more than the physical concerns, it was clear to me that Tatesa was not emotionally ready for saddle work.   

So, everyday I would study the videos of natural trainers such as Pat Parelli, Buck Brannaman, Frank Bell, and then go out into the arena with Tatesa and communicate.  

At first I wondered what I had gotten into. It was like having a dragon at the end of my lead rope. She ran, and pulled and reared and bucked and kicked. But I kept at it, always finding that good note to end on, no matter how small an effort by her. To say I was discouraged would be mild.  

But then, an amazing thing happened. Each day I would walk to Tatesa's gate and she would watch me coming, halter in hand. I expected when she saw me she would turn and run the other way. But no, what happened was she trotted, yes trotted, down the hill to meet me at the gate for our session. Did I mention this mare was sensitive and intelligent? She made it clear she loved our work together. Gradually her fear subsided and we were communicating, she began to understand what I was asking. She began to realize I would never hurt her. Pretty soon she was anticipating what I wanted and would do it before I asked, just because I was moving into position. It was what happened before what was asked she was tuning into. And, yes she did teach me how to communicate with her as I used the methods I had learned, she showed me so much. I was successful because this mare was an amazing student.

When she hit four years old I saw a noticeable shift in her maturity. By the time I put the saddle on and got on, it was no big deal, she just carried me off and away we went. No bucking, just calm, no rodeo. After that first ride I swear she showed an attitude of pride at her success. From then it was teaching her communicating from the saddle, again like a mare teaching her foal or another horse in the herd, higher in the pecking order, directing her movements. And we had that firm foundation of the ground work communication going.

At first I trained using a mild snaffle bit. Later, I stopped using a bit in her mouth and began using a bit-less bridle based on the Dr. Cook model. I noticed an immediate relaxation in Tatesa and she was just as responsive to the bridle cues as before. More so in fact as she no longer had fear related to that metal in her mouth causing her pain. I never can understand how horse people think inflicting pain will cause a frightened horse to stop. Only training does that. A bigger more painful bit is only going to intensify fear.

Tatesa became a calm and reliable mountain trail horse. Which was what I had wanted.

As well as Tatesa as my teacher and the three natural horsemen I mentioned, I also studied and used the methods of Dan Sumerel and Julie Goodnight, all natural horse trainers who teach the language of the horse.

Tatesa in the mountains.