T-R Star Ranch - Rescued Horses

Rescued Horses

T-R-Star Ranch
469-774-7439

Rescued and Rehabilitated Horses

When my parents decided I was ready to start training, they did not want me starting
with young horses. They wanted me to start with the most needy of horses. Horses
that had been mis-trained or abused and neglected. Horses that truly needed a
second chance and were very unlikely to get one. What I learned from this was
invaluable to me as a trainer and instructor today.

Most of these horses (click on photo's to enlarge) ended up in their situations because
to many people refuse to further their education when it comes to horses. "Where
education ends, abuse begins."

Where It All Started

Sadie
Upper Photo -
Severely abused and
neglected when she
came to our Farm
Lower Photo at a
barrel racing clinic.
Sadie is now living
near Pilot Point with
her new owner

Jett
Gorgeous Gray dun.
Very abused when he
came to us. After we
rehabilitated him we
turned down three
buyers before we found
the perfect one for
him. He now has a new
home near Austin, TX
Jett is a playday horse
now.

Hemi
One of the most abused
horses I had ever seen
when we bought him. I
spent many months
rehabilitating this horse
and kept him for several
years. I decided to sell
him to another trainer
who had been interested
in Hemi for a long time
and now shows him in
cross country.

Skye
Abandoned, Abused
neglected. I saw
the diamond in the
rough on this
horse. She was
sold to a good home
and is now being
trained as a
hunter/Jumper.

Kahlua
This horse had not
been trained enough as
a young horse and
showed signs of past
abuse. Luckily the
lady we bought her
from had treated her
could not provide the
additional training that
she needed. She was
purchased by one of
our students and now
lives in Denton.

Not all horses we
rescue are physically
abused:
A 15 year old Arab that had
been left out in a pasture without
care for at least five years. Feet
grown out in a curl so bad that
he could barely walk. No muscle
tone, a tumor on his back and a
tail so matted it took three
people three hours to comb it
out. (NEVER cut a horses tail
because it is badly matted!!!! It
is better to spend several hours
combing a badly matted tail out
then for the horse to have to
spend SEVERAL YEARS
growing his tail back). This is
what happens when someone
buys a horse and then loses
interest in it, but refuses to sell it
for whatever reason. Horses are
not cattle and can't be thrown
out into a pasture and forgotten
about. They will lose their
conditioning, training and
eventually their health, which
makes them practically worthless
to a potential good new home.

A 16 year old quarter horse that
had been extremely well trained
as a young horse, but was
purchased by some people that
did not take lessons to learn how
to properly discipline and correct
a horse that misbehaved. When
they sold this horse ten years
later he was unbelievably
spoiled. He would lunge and try
to bite, try to buck and rear if he
was told to do something that he
did not want to do and he would
throw a full temper tantrum if he
did not get his way. This horse
had become dangerous to it's
owners and they had no choice
but to sell it. Of course no one
wanted to buy a horse like this.
We could see the underlying
training that this horse
possessed and it only took us
about thirty days to correct his
behavior and he became one of
the best lesson horses that we
had. If his previous owners had
taken just a few lessons with a
qualified trainer they could have
had ten years of enjoyment with
this fine horse. Horses are not
supposed to act like this. Even if
you are a non-beginner, you
need professional help when a
horse starts to misbehave this
badly.

A six year old Palomino that
could buck you to the moon!
This is what happens when a
young horse is only sent to a
trainer for 30 days. That is not
long enough to train a young
horse properly! If someone
does not have the skills or
resources to train a horse for at
least 3 to 6 months, then they
should consider buying an older
finished horse. 30 days is
enough to teach a horse a few
basics, but he doesn't get it set
in his mind and he will easily pick
up very bad habits like bolting,
bucking, rearing etc. because
the training was not set and
practiced. We have seen so
many horses ruined because of
this. People buy a young horse
and think they can read a book,
or watch a video or seminar and
then train the horse themselves.
Would you let someone cut your
hair if they told you that all they
had done was read a book or
watched a video on how to do it?
If not why not? Cutting hair is
simple compared to training a
thousand pound animal. All of
us have seen people get their
hair cut a bunch of times, but no
one thinks that they could put up
a shingle and start cutting
peoples hair because of this.
WHY people think that they can
do just this type of thing when it
comes to training young horses
just amazes and baffles
professional trainers all over the
country. We were able to
rehabilitate this horse and find
him a good home, but
unfortunately he will never be
able to reach the potential that
he had because of his
mishandling as a young horse.

A five year old arab that was
purchased by a non-beginner to
train. This girl had been
showing and winning ribbons
and trophies, so her parents
thought it was time to allow her
to train her own horse. This
would have been fine if she had
been working with a trainer, but
winning ribbons or even world
championships at horse shows
does not mean that someone is
qualified to train a horse to be
put under saddle. This horse
had not even been halter broke
and after six months she could
only brush him, pick up his front
feet and sit on him while he
stood there. We have had a lot
of people tell us that they have
wasted money sending their
horses to people who had
wonderful show records but were
unable to help them with their
horses. You wouldn't get brain
surgery by a foot doctor for
good reason. If you have a
horse that has problems, send
them to someone that
specializes in fixing problems. If
you need a young horse started
then send them to someone that
starts horses. Only send horses
that are finished with the basics
to show trainers to learn the
discipline that that trainer
specializes in. And ALWAYS
ALWAYS get SEVERAL
references before sending your
horse to a trainer! You could
end up spending a lot of money
and getting a horse back that
was worse then when you sent
him there. Luckily this girl did
not do any damage to this horse
which is rare. We did about 30
days of t rainin g on him and
noticed the potential he had to
do dressage so we sold him to a
dressage home in Florida where
he will finish getting the
extensive training that he needs.

Trivia
Is it easier to train a horse that has never been
touched by a person it's whole life or one that has
been handled a lot?

This is one of the biggest gimmicks that trainers are marketing to beginners.
Professional trainers can usually put an unhandled young horse under
saddle in under a few hours. Of course that is the easy part. Setting the
patterns in, over the next several months of training to produce a quiet,
docile well behaved saddle horse is where the real challenge comes in.
Unfortunately most novices over handle young horses too much, so they
learn that they are bigger then people, that they can push them
around. Horses like that are ten times harder to train and will never reach
the level of training that they could have. Remember, if you have a young
horse, have a professional help you halter break it, teach it to stand
quietly when it is tied and maybe to stand being brushed a little. Also learn
how to set boundaries with the horse. Then leave him alone until after he
comes back from being put under saddle. Treating it like it is a pet dog will
only produce an obnoxious, dangerous animal that no one will want to own
(or take in for training). Go to a weekly auction and you will see plenty of
these ruined horses there.

So you want to start
training horses?

Please don't experiment on
a young horse that had a
shot at being good. We
have yet to see anybody
learn this way without
ruining what could have
been a great horse.
Instead consider trying to
retrain a young horse that
was incorrectly started by
someone trying to be a
trainer. Or take in an that
has no hope of finding a
good home.

These horses are usually
very cheap and if you can
fix the problems that these
horses have you will learn
a lot in trying to prevent
them when you are ready
to start young horses.

If it turns out that you
weren't cut out to be a
trainer at least the horse is
no worse off then it was
before, and if you are
successful that horse will
have taught you valuable
skills that you can take with
you as you continue your
long path to becoming a
trainer.

I was recently contacted by a company wanting
me to do a training video. They told me to
expect to take at least four hours to do 15
minutes of video. Most people do not realize this
when they watch these training videos and
shows. A lot of people think that it is easy to
train a horse because they see how easy it is on
TV. This unfortunately this does a disservice to
the horse and the trainer, when they can not
possibly live up to these expectations.

What should I do if I really want to
start training horses?

1. Get your own horse - You need to have experience with the daily ins and outs
of having your own horse. Start with a horse that is at least eight years old, but
preferably in their teens. Go to a horse show and start asking people how old their
horses are. Don't be surprised if many of them are in their late teens or early
twenties, but look and act much younger. You will make a lot of mistakes with this
horse, but that is O.K. It will teach you what not to do if you end up becoming a
horse trainer.

2. Learn How To Ride - Not just an occasional hour or two on a friends horse or
on a trail ride. Ride every single day, on your own horse and in all kinds of different
situations. Horse shows, trail rides, by yourself, with other horses, in riding
lessons, in clinics, around the barn. We think this is the biggest part of training that
people want to skip. If you wanted to get a job as a piano teacher but you could not
play the piano how far do you think you would get? You need to be extremely
balanced when training young horses. They will not tolerate an unbalanced rider
because they think it will make them lose their balance and that instinctively
makes them want to remove you from their back. You should have at least 2,000
hours of riding experience before you attempt to try to train a young horse.

3. Be prepared to come off, a lot - It will happen. There is no training method
that will work 100% of the time. Mainly because horses are very unpredictable. All
it takes is a tack malfunction, something that startles the horse and the rodeo is on.
You can do all the ground work in the world and it can still happen. Most young
horses, once they get started will not stop until you are off. Here are a few injuries
that we have personally seen happen to people who were trying to train their own
horses before coming to us for help:

Hat blew off - Broken pelvis
Saddle slid to side - Broken ribs, punctured lung
Ran back to the barn - Broken leg
Tack adjusted to tight - Dislocated shoulder

We have seen many horses just start bucking like crazy, just out of the blue. It is
hard to be ready for that. "But what if I don't want to train young horses? What if
I just train horses to show?" Then be prepared to have a very extensive show
record and a long list of accomplishments and a long list of other trainers that you
have worked with. Training can be very expensive and people want to see a good
track record before they send their horses to you.

4. You still want to do this? Then you have two choices. We are
assuming that you have already read every book and seen every video there is to
see, but you still really need help, hands on experience. If you can find a trainer
who teaches people how to train then you can take lessons to learn how to train.
Remember, this is a very long process. You need to have experience with
skittish horses, bold horses, stubborn horses, shy horses, willing horses and you
need to be able to tell the difference and then properly handle each type of
personality as it is presented. You need to be able to carefully read their body
language so that you don't make disastrous mistakes that may be very difficult to
fix. Beating a frightened horse, punishing a horse that misunderstands what you are
asking it to do, or not properly disciplining a bossy horse that misbehaves when it
knows better or worse letting him win can do irreparable damage. Ignorance of
these things has led to some of the most abused cases we have seen. The other
alternative is to get a job working for a trainer. This can be very difficult. If you
have no experience at all with horses then expect to start at the very bottom, or you
will need to work for very little or even volunteer your time. Trainers constantly
have people calling or coming by saying they are willing to "do anything" to learn
how to be a trainer and then most people disappear after a few days or weeks
because it just wasn't what they expected.

Feel free to contact us at 469-774-7439 if you have any questions.
Copyright 2009
Articles used by permission from www.DFWRidingLessons.com