Most of you are familiar with the blogger behind today’s Transformation Tuesday, Viva Carlos. If you’ve been paying close attention to her blog lately, you’ll see an amazing transformation with her new horse, Ramone.  Today she shares his story with us for Transformation Tuesday!

11 Months ago I put Carlos down, that is still one of the hardest sentences to think. 4 days later my trainer brought another horse to the barn. Too soon? Yeah, it really was. 16.2hh and looked like hell, the gangly Grade 4 year old was green broke, previously backed and due to economic circumstances left to sit in a field. His name was Comic.

He literally fell off the trailer. I couldn’t bridle him, I couldn’t tie him, regular or cross tie. Lunging was okay but if a whip was involved he’d strike and kick out. Bathing was out of the question, grooming resulted in wiggling and threats to kick, blanketing took half an hour. Cleaning his feet was a nightmare.

And he was lazy and out of shape. I had to thump on him to get gaits, I couldn’t touch his face, steering was all over the place and I had to stop him by turning him into walls.

But he had promise. Well built, smooth gaits, graceful movement, large ground eating stride. The free jumping was special but he was honest about it. I move quickly so within the week I was riding him outside and jumping cross rails. I stopped calling him Comic and started calling him Strange Horse.

He passed his PPE, I cut a check, I named him Ramone. Most days I wanted to cry because he wasn’t Carlos but also because being patient just wasn’t in my vocabulary. Some days I’d dismount and tell my trainer to start calling people because he was for sale. Other days when it would take me an hour to bridle him I considered sending him to a cowboy for 30 days. I was just over it, it was emotionally too much.

I had a good support system. My trainer insisted it wasn’t too much for me to handle as a rider (emotionally.. mehbe). Friends assured me that if I just showed up each day at a time eventually the horse would be built. He was just green, no one had taken the time.

But Ramone liked having a home, he liked having horse friends and having people pay attention to him. Super friendly he comes to the gate and greets anyone who will say hi. When he gets in trouble he takes it to heart and turns around and forgives the rider.

He fell down, I fell off. We’ve stumbled, tumbled and flipped. I rode him bareback and hacked him outside. We did our first schooling show and jumping courses in month 3, started cantering courses in month 4. Jumped our first 3′ course in month 5, Jumped 3’3″ in month 9 and went to his first set of rated shows in month 10. One step at a time, I’m building the horse.

The whole time he’s remained pretty levelheaded and willing. He’s scared sometimes but he trusts his rider. I think he’ll make a great AA to AO horse, or Children’ts Hunter to Junior Hunter.

Have a transformation story of your own to share?  Whether it’s training, mental, physical… or all of the above please share it with me so I can spread your story!

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