A TWO - HORSE WOMAN AND A TWO - WOMAN HORSE
by Linda "Chigger" Miller
The wildest colts
only make the best horses.
-Plutarch (AD 46-120),
Life of Themistocles
When I moved from southwest Missouri to east Tennessee with my husband and two children in 1976, I was so homesick for family that for the first year I could think only of going back home. Then I met T. A. Robertson, a very special person. A mutual friend who happened to be one of his riding buddies introduced us. T. A. had been Dolly Parton's first grade teacher, and even though he had retired from teaching, he was still called in to substitute once in a while. T. A. often rode Goldie, his mare, to school, and she would patiently wait for him under the cool shade of the trees on the front lawn. It wasn't hard to spot the days he was working. He was about seventy years old at that time, and luckily for me he still wanted to teach.
Where I grew up, there were a few grade horses and a few Missouri fox-trotters around, although I never had the opportunity to ride one. Most of my experience was riding workhorses because my father used them to plow. T. A. introduced me to the Tennessee walking horse. It was love at first ride! I did not know anything about the gaits or much about horses in general, but I knew that I loved to ride.
Those days were so special because T. A. still was a teacher at heart and wanted to share his seventy years of knowledge about horses. He had ridden horses since he was old enough to sit atop one, and he still believed there was much more that he could learn from the horse. We rode twenty miles or more four or five times a week. He meant for me to learn, and I was like a sponge trying to soak in all that he had to say. I'll bet that I mouthed every horse in the county until T. A. was satisfied that I could accurately age a horse by his teeth. T. A. had many stories and so much information to tell about horse behavior, and several stories about the mischievous side of Dolly as a first grader. He kept me spellbound every day we rode together.
After the passing of T. A., I felt an obligation to his memory to pass along as much of his years of experience and knowledge as I could. I started teaching basic riding and horse care. One thing that I learned on my own and believe in strongly is that riding and horse care go together, and you should not teach one without the other. It isn't fair to your students or to the horses.
By this time, I had about eight horses I felt could be used to teach lessons safely. One of these was a small black mare named Sugar who was as quick as a rabbit. She would come back from a twenty-mile mountain ride as hyper as when she had left. She unloaded some of my friends and me a time or two, and she was like a mad hornet in the field with other horses. For that reason, we kept her in the barn most of the time.
Sugar was especially hateful at mealtime. As soon as she heard the feed cans rattle, she would pin her ears back and start violently kicking the walls of the stall. I tried feeding her first, last, not at all, and even in different places on the farm. Nothing seemed to convince her that she really did not have to be so angry. Once the food had been put into her bucket, she would calm down somewhat and eat in peace. Even then, the slightest noise could still cause her to kick the walls. Although I really did not like that behavior, I could not change it. So I simply resigned myself to making sure no one was around her during feeding time.
Despite her attitude at meal times, Sugar could be as sweet as any other horse in the arena when she had a youngster on her back. Time after time, she would let the students clean her feet and never showed any signs of bad behavior. They would mount and dismount many times-nearside and offside mounts. Sugar was always fine with all that. I kept a close eye on her, anyway.
I owned Sugar for quite some time and used her in many lessons until Jessica, a twelve-year-old student, wanted to ride Sugar every lesson. She was the only student who would give Sugar a huge hug when she arrived and again after the lesson. Most of the students would try to leave without the required cooldown grooming, but not Jessica. She would have stayed all night with that horse if her mom had allowed it. She was a natural rider and very well balanced. Jessica and Sugar made a great team, and I knew that it wouldn't be long before Jessica would want Sugar for her very own.
I really was reluctant to think about selling Sugar because of her habits at mealtime. Jessica loved the little mare, and this mare was especially careful with Jessica. Anyone could see that she and Jessica had an unexplainable bond. Sugar would recognize her and nicker each time she came into the barn. Their personalities were even somewhat the same. They were true kindred spirits. Jessica was trusting with Sugar and Sugar's nasty side while she ate. How could I say no?
Jessica owned Sugar for about six years and then had to go away to college. She was so upset because she no longer had time to spend with Sugar. She felt that it was unfair to ask Sugar to be confined to a stall and wait for her. Jessica was most upset at the thought of selling Sugar to someone she did not know and who might sell her again if things did not work out, which often happens. I could feel and see the anxiety in Jessica. She wanted the best for Sugar-happy days and a secure home with a lot of love. She made a very grown-up decision for a teenage girl, but it took all of her courage.
I decided to purchase Sugar from Jessica and return her to lessons. She wasn't the same mare. You could tell that her best friend and soul mate had left, and it had broken Sugar's heart. Jessica's heart was grieving, too, but she knew that she had made the right decision. It was quite a while before Sugar returned to her frisky self. Even then, she did not have that special sparkle in her eyes. She watched everyone who came to the barn but nickered at no one.
Occasionally, I rode Sugar again on the trail, but she just wasn't the same. I felt so sorry for her that the next decision wasn't hard at all. I decided to have her bred. Right or wrong, I guess that I was hoping a foal would take the place of Jessica for a while.
Ironically, within a month, friends wanted to find a horse for their daughter, Katherine. Her birthday was just around the corner, and she asked about Sugar. Katherine was only ten years old and had no fear of horses. I mean absolutely none. Sugar was older and awaiting the foal when Katherine started lessons with her. It was unbelievable the way the two took to each other. Katherine's parents had several horses at that time. From being at their farm, I knew that Sugar would get the best of care. But the greatest thing was that she would probably have a home with Katherine forever. The sale was made and they took Sugar to their farm.
I had warned them time and time again not to allow Katherine to go into the stall or even be around Sugar when she was eating. Just months after getting Sugar, disaster struck. Sugar kicked Katherine's new puppy and killed it; unfortunately, she saw it happen. Yet Katherine still trusted Sugar and her faith in Sugar had not waned. She loved her and forgave her.
Katherine has a magic rapport and a connection with horses that only a few experience. I have witnessed things Katherine has done with Sugar that I felt no one could ever have accomplished. For example, Sugar would carry empty five-gallon buckets (four of them tied with hay strings), and they would be dangling around her neck and clanging and bumping around her legs as Katherine was perched bareback. She would sit for hours on the mare in the pasture while Sugar grazed with no halter, bridle, or saddle-just love and trust between the two. After Sugar's colt, Pepper, was born, she shared her most private time with Katherine. Amazingly, during Sugar's feeding times, Katherine could go into the stall and groom her, pick her hooves, and even back her away from the grain. The sparkle back in Sugar's eyes told the whole story. She had a new soul mate.
Katherine rides show horses now, but she still has Sugar. While she is riding other horses, Sugar nickers at her as if to say, "My turn next." In 2003, Katherine Ramsbottom won the youth/owner/amateur (12-17 years) World Grand Championship on her Tennessee walking mare, Pusher's Special Design. She is such an accomplished rider, and I am so very proud of the way in which she shows and treats her horses. You can just see that she is having the most exciting time of her life-both in and out of the show ring. When she rides Sugar in the pasture, she has that same smile that she had when winning the WGC class. Sugar is a World Champion to her, also.
I do believe that women are more capable than men of giving love to a horse. It may be that we think the horse loves us back. Is there really any harm in that? I think that horses learn to trust women sooner than they do men because horses respond to kindness, gentleness, and most of all to nurturing. This is something that women sort of come by naturally.
Women are eager to be educated on horse behavior and learn how to make sure that they become the horse's "mom," or herd leader. I believe women try to think before acting with their horses because of their respect for such strong, large, and excitable animals. I want to think that trust is really the basis for the relationships that I have seen. The special ones-the connected ones-seem to have something more.
I have had more than a hundred horses since those early days, and I can say that I...
