ANIMAL TALES & TAILS OF ANIMALS
EACH HERD HAS THEIR WAYS
WINNY THE SPINNING WHEEL For me, my path trough trials and errors.
After the previous horses, another horse came along. One that showed me the importance of ‘position’ and ‘timing’. He learned me, that horses knew already what a perfect circle looked like and as I stated the example of the foal galloping around his mother, or the herd you see that circle. Only here, the circle has a deeper meaning ; it’s about staying in the zone. A lot can happen in that zone, and if you place yourself in that zone, you and what you do becomes interactive. So this horse was named Winnipeg, but I called him: Winny the spinning wheel. I just loved his funny side up. So Winny spinning wheel had everything that the horses before him didn’t had. He could move very quickly ‘ on a wim’ he could stop even quicker, he would ‘buck’ on something that didn’t suited him on that moment. Bottom line he had a mind of his own, with a body that you could place in a rectangle box medium size, so in other terms; the joints close to each other this combined with an explosive character installed in the middle of him. It was a yes or no kind of guy written all over his body. Because I was young and inexperienced, a few men came to my ‘ so-called’ rescue. So they showed me how to deal with a young horse with a bit of character. They put Winnipeg against a wall and strained him up with a lunge ( rope) so he couldn’t move away from the wall. Then they put the saddle on him and cinched up the girth. I had to position myself behind the corner and held the rope so his body stayed against the wall. Bottom line I was glad that Winnipeg couldn’t see what I was doing and after one session I sent everybody to damnation and from this moment I trusted no helping hand for a long period. So back to the beginnings, more likely ‘ before’ the beginning. Meaning I started with a horse and the history. Winny spinning wheel was a very deep detailed observant horse with a fine hearing mechanism, ( One needs to know that in that period I would train the young horses by giving command words with a specific tone or vibration . Giving sounds or command words, worked well). One of those first command words was’ ON TROT’ like rolling the rrrrrr for a longer time. Winny spinning wheel responded instantly. It looked like Bugs Bunny running off, or it could be he was so enthusiastic about showing me he understood it. I was glad we found our match. From now on, everything with the word- command sounds for me. Little I new, I was in for a treat. I would say winny spinny wheel……. On trrrrrot……. And off he goes, like the arrow that burst from the bow. I managed through this way, to overcome the problem of getting the girth tied up, and waited whenever he was ready for it. I knew he would not move until I would say the magic word with rrrrrr and he loved our way of working together like this. Everything was fine as long that I didn’t give the command code to move. So weeks in a row , I would come into the paddock with winny spinny wheel with the saddle but not the saddle girth. He was okay with this. Winny supported the saddle but not the saddle girth. One day I entered the paddock with a saddle on top of him and a bit later he allowed me to tie up the saddle girth. Splendid, I could look how he walked and walked and walked waiting for me to give the command code to go on trrrrrrrrot. And there we had it. When I put some pressure on his walk so he would go on trot without saying the command, you could see his back legs and his front legs getting closer to one another and worse now, while lunging and somebody asked me which side I wanted to take and I told them ok I take the right side ……winny took action and pleasantly happy to show me how he recognised the RRRR in on other word…. The thing is, he was building up inside, he was tolerant but when it comes to the next movement I was stuck. Always he reacted like the arrow leaving the bow and on such a speed and bucking , letting his steam off. YEP Mr. Nice guy playing it by the book literally. So the old issue was overcome leaving me with another one the letter RRRRRR. Winny Spinny wheel would not move onto trot without using the letter Rrrrrrr. Really, I tried different manners like saying on.TOT,, (without the RRR) but it didn’t worked. And if I should use another word with an -R in it, he would shoot forward. For him this way of working together was a yes and every time that something was bothering him he just waited until he heard the RRRR and everything that he has stored up literally unloaded. So next question. ; how was I ever going to get on his back. More specific: How would I stay on his back once the letter -R was pronounced?. It’s not a good deal that one learns, from the first ride to teach the horse on how he can buck you off. Probably with this character he would think he was doing the right thing. I asked for help from the only person who could help me at that moment. Yvette the lady who managed the riding school also the one that entrusted me with all her young horses and she knew, that I needed to discover things for myself and let me do this when needed. And also she could help me out (without any prejudgments or the phrase’ told you so’). She was also the only person I trusted in keeping the lunge, while I would go on the horse for the first time. The time to move on had come so we tried in converting the R into another command code or using the same word without R but first we tried to use the stick or along whip and gradually apply pressure so Winny Spinny wheel would move on trot. As I stated before, it didn’t work. His forehand and backhand came closer and closer to each other until the explosion button in the middle was triggered. He still would release as an arrow leaving the bow, but now with an explosion at the start. And leaving the R out of the word trrrrot…… well, it was clearly a word not accepted in his vocabulary. So I scratched my hair and for the first time in my life I thought I needed an armor in order to get me safely through the first ride. The other way out of this…… get on him and get out into the woods. He needed to forget the letter R it became so dominant in the training that even when I spoke with other people he would react on the letter R in the words we were expressing . It was necessary to perform a small brainwash. Looking back, I still see myself on him as prepared as can be . The day had come. For a while, we walked and walked and walked and walked. My trusted helping hand tried very hard to get him bit by bit to speed up his walk, but after a while, I thought. …….” what the heck” and spoke softly the words……. Winny spinny wheel…….on trot. About two seconds later and after having performed a Somersault, I found myself sitting next his front shoulder on the ground looking up to Winny who was standing still like a statue that never moved. Also, you need to know that each first ride with a young horse I would put a kind of leather belt arround their neck so I could hold on while bucking. (A bit like rodeo) but only to keep my balance. While I was sitting on the ground next to Winny that leather belt was still in my hands . Really, it takes quite a liftoff in order to perform for me a somersault end up sitting on my butt not realising the time between me sitting in the saddle and next on my butt. I must say that when in riding young horses when you fell off, there was always moments like slow motion periods. But here no memory, no recollection . I think it went too fast, one moment I was sitting in the saddle the other moment I was sitting on the ground. On the other hand, Winny looking down at me like” what are you doing there??????” so I knew he didn’t ment any horror, so we repeated the same thing again and I can happily say that I only fell off once. I cannot say that for the rest of the kids later in Winny Spinney wheel’ s life. As I told you, he was an ace in being clever and colourful. So after a while performing the lessons in the ridingschool, they had to send him out on walking trips, because he would buck them off inside the riding paddock. Later I heard that he still would buck some off outside in the woods to. He lived a long and healthy life, staying through to his own colourful cleverness.
ABOUT FAME AND JILDERT
Fame not as in Famous, rather a name for a horse with great expectations. Horses are usually named after the pedigree lineage or the brand of the owner ships / ventures & undertakings or just a name (like Fame /David Bowie ) that sounds good for living up the expectations. I don’t know who gave this horse the name Fame, but the story of Fame is about the same thing as WINNY spinny wheel, but totally from a different view. Fame came into my life because somebody was trying to train her, and the family that bought her, was not happy with it and they return to me and ask if I could continue the training. Now in this period I was training young horses, and my reputation started to be noticed by all the members in the riding school. This means that you take on a place in their thoughts and you have to deal with it. You take that place they put you in, or you continue to do what ever you’re doing . For me it was the latter. The name Fame started with an F so she was in the period like the Fantastic lineage more precisely Fantast the dressage horse. The family who bought her was a member board of the riding school and he precisely accentuated that the horse he bought for his daughter, needed to be trained by somebody else but not by me just because I’ve never had a membership card of the riding school and I was not going to do that. So after a few weeks, surprisingly he came by and asked me if I could take over. note: ( the boy who was training Fame was capable). But apparently the owner was not happy with it. I think if I remember well it’s about he wanted it to be done in one week, he didn’t wanted to wait. Maybe it also has to do that Fantast was trained in one week but like if you read Fantast story then it was not because I could do it in one week. I NEEDED to change after a week because he was always turning circles and he was not taking the straight lines. I had to do that ; it was specific for that horse . But like I said, when you got being noticed, you start take a place in the thoughts of other people , that get twisted in their thought forms. So I accepted and I started from a clean sheet knowing that he would expect Fame to be ready in one week. What the boy had done was good so I could easily start going up in the saddle, and because I wanted to be alone with Fame while training so I could find out, to see if she could respond not on the command codes vocally but physically. So while training I saw she was very sensitive to my movements so I thought I would have a bit of fun and I start a physical bending down and each time I bend down she would go into Gallop. Nice, ….if I walked before her front shoulder while lunging she would stop immediately. It was really a moment thing . You go from one moment directly to another moment so it’s a bit the same like Winny, but she responded to my body enormously and the position I would take on. So a very sensitive horse. And also very sensitive in approaching her sides. Both sides as well the right one and the left one . When I would walk into that zone she would keep the distance of like 5 m so now I knew how to train her and also I could understand she needed more time and the boy knew that as well . But here we are. So I started to play with her by exaggerating my movements in my body and in the meantime , we learned a few tricks, and she responded well on that. I let her have that one trick by bending down I allowed her to go and Gallop. All the rest I had to do was to desensibilize her flight reactions. She was kind, gentle and as I mentioned ; sensitive. After a few days, I decided I would ride her in the paddock before I would go out the next time. I placed myself in the saddle, asked her to bent her head to the right to then to the left. Also, you need to know sensitivity comes with being alert on details; meaning that a difference in a detail could make a great difference in action and reaction. That is what happened. I was wearing a blue &white striped sweater and once I started to move forwards , she acted on the movement of those stripes and took off full speed. Luckily, I could perform the same exercise that I did with her by desensitising her flight reactions on the ground by making the circles smaller and smaller and smaller until she calmed down. I was still surprised by ‘that’ detail of clothing and I never wear that sweater again. A funny thing is that when I went for her first walk in the forest (she had tiny ears ) and I came at the crossing of a road, she shaked her head and the headstall fell off her ears. I holded my breath because I knew that if she would leave there, I couldn’t turn her around because there was nothing in her mouth anymore so I quickly jumped off and put the headstall back on. It was a funny day and the surprises were all in the details. Another little pony (you can find a few of his stories by the ‘written ‘ Post; more specifically the “event horizons” ). He could do what happened with Fame, but like you come to know Mc guyver he did it on purpose. See picture bellow …(His expression says it all).
Sam & mc. Guyver
JILDERT
I placed the story of Jildert with the story of Fame because they shared the same sensitivity; more sensitive on details but totally different. Jildert was a black Friesian stallion. And I was still on my period for exploring bodily expressions and see what that does while training them. Jildert was born to be in the centre of attention. Even though his colour was black he would shine and he was grandiose. When he stood still you could easily draw pictures while he kept that position with his full attention on you. I welcomed in that friesian calm grounded presence. Now since Jildert wasn’t sold yet and I could train him the way I would feel like, and by the way, this would be the excellent timeframe to continue to experience with bodily expressions and see where that leads us both. With Fame, because she was sold and destined to have expectations I was limited, but Jildert came along and he was my ticket to go. I was really excited with this newcomer. I started -off with the usual training, and it was like playing together and see where and what comes out of it. What I remember is not a lot of lunging with him, but the pictures that comes to my mind now, we’re always playing in the paddock of the riding school itself. I think we started like running after each other and turning and blocking and making turns. And then out of the blue I raised my left arm up into the air with my four fingers high in the sky and stopped my whole body becoming like a statue ……and he stopped!!!!!! He did that while I stand far away, no matter the position . I let him Galloping around in free style and when I repeated my gesture….he would do immediately that grandiose stop. Great I made my training better and better in this . Before I placed a saddle on him I could stand up on top of him and raised my arms. He would not move . Splendid ; I just needed to complete the training by riding him and take him out for walks. And I didn’t need to find somebody to take over when the training was completed; he attracted enough volunteers. But since I did not do all the other training like yield to pressure with the legs, well he would kick his behind legs if I would encourage him to move through applying pressure with my legs. So I needed to correct my negligence here. I learned a lot from sensitive horses, you got a sensitivity that activates the “fight and flight “and you got the sensitivity that are the intellectual ones. Somewhere I wrote that it takes as many type of training that they ‘re types or races of horses. And that is exactly what I mean that you don’t know in the beginning how to training will unfold. I’m very happy with all the horses being my teachers in this.
IN THE MIDST OF THINGS
HOW IT ‘S NOT ABOUT ME, MYSELF AND I
When I was asked if I would like training young horses, I really thought that I had to get on top of the horse and try to stay on, like in a kind of rodeo. There’re a lot of names you find about that topic and up until now I can’t find the right name for it. I was too young to realise that this” training horses” meant a great deal. How would the horse respond once he was sold after training?? This was something very important. Luckily, I was very curious. I wanted to know everything about that creature. I wanted to know their secrets and especially the secrets of the interactions with each other. As a matter of fact, if I didn’t have that curiosity and wish to learn all there is to know about them, then I would not have all those beautiful stories to tell or write down. If I wanted to get “skilled in training”. Then probably I would have written a kind of manual on how to train horses. Also because of my curiosity for that specific creature, it changed the approach. If one is curious on the approach of what to do and how to do it, this opens a communication zone. There’s a world of difference in training on an action -reaction based kind of way, or getting in ‘their zone “and kind of “making it a work zone”. In the latter you need both for contribution/ being participants. If I need to verbally describe it or define it in one paragraph, then what I would say is something like this.
It’s like when you stand in the round pen which you’re back to the Sun and then the Sun comes from behind the clouds and you start noticing the shadows of the wooden fences that mirrors in the sand. First, you have a glimpse, kind of transparent darkness covering the sand and as the Sun -rays becomes its fullest, then the form of a wooden fence becomes clear and manifested. You know it’s not a materialistic thing but the form of the shadow is so clear so clear you can define it. Suddenly this kind of awareness expands and a quietude and a whole play comes into focus . You notice the wooden fences, the round pen, the picture that comes out of the sun-rays , the horse and yourself.
Well in the beginning, you just see the horse in that round pen and once you start working and asking movements, a whole lot comes into play. It’s like a dance of multi separate units coming into existence. Whether it is a problem or an achievement or a coherence of movement. It kind of grows on you. Before you realise it, you become aware of the horse, the distance between the horse and yourself that is a sensor area, you learn how to measure each horse differently by this, meanwhile you captivate the sounds from 200 meter at last in any direction, this way you can anticipate their reactions. And least, but not last; their sense and smell that gives way to their instincts. For them it is natural, for me a whole world opens up and at last I found myself a hobby where I could be busy for the rest of my life. My parents were very happy like they say…..oefff…. We found her a hobby that she sticks by.
EVENT HORIZONS
DJARO
This is not exactly a story but more how one evolves by daily actions , training horses and living amongst them. Is the kind of something that is more of an unknown, but yet present. I have to start with the facts first. Djaro is a pony that I bought for the kids in the times of my place ‘home ‘ which I called “t’elfhorentje” which was in fact another name for my address. (The farm I bought after I left the last riding school which position was “Horenweg 11” ). I continued working with horses and also mostly kids. So I needed ponies. Djaro had a lot of ‘Welsh’ but I didn’t know for sure. The place I bought all my horses and ponies was either in the first riding school or in the Ardennes. The guy that owns that farm in the Ardennes in his place where about 100 to 200 horses and all of them mostly lived on prairies. So I picked out Djaro BUT….for the price of one I needed to take three ponies home. When I bought Mc.guyver and “Little Carrie” that guy also tried to sell me a white pony ,but I refused, because I found her to wide. Little children had to open their legs to wide . Now he told me that I needed to take the two others ponies before I could buy Djaro. And the other 2 was that white pony I refused the first time (camarquese) and a Appaloosa pony. I really wanted that Welsh pony so I agreed. I named that white pony “Ivy “and the Appaloosa sproet ‘ freckles’. Two of them with history (health) and one that was so grounded that she decided I would live her life more wether I liked it or not. (which will cover a whole chapter or two on its own) .To sum this up, Djaro has a condition where he suddenly ‘out of the blue ‘ his back hand, would make ‘a split’ and you could see a panic in him without no visible cause, he surely had a physical trauma. There is no way of riding him.. It was time to call in Ben and Jan. A year went by and as usual, Ben would come each week and we worked Djaro . Ben had the qualities what I lacked concerning the transitions in movement. He would create a whole world purely of transitions. He would spend hours working horses from “walk” to “trot”. And Jan worked on the disruptions within the horses energetic systems. And at the beginning, the only thing I did was listen, watch, learn and Pay up.
Within that year, there was a moment that’s stood out. One day, we brought Djaro to the round pen and Ben let him walk free , some moments Ben would ask Djaro to change directions, meanwhile looking and becoming aware of where and which muscles got tensed, the position of his head , de bending of his neck, the way Djaro would hold his tail, where he put his drive in the back hand, how wide he would take his strides in his walk and the overall bodily synchronicity. This is not the game you play but rather a very fine restructuring that starts after the know how of Djaro’s day and what he is showing. Then after a while, Ben takes a working halter with a long rope and start tuning fine movements through that rope. Since months now Djaro was ready to communicate through this. The rope ( each horse’s response to that rope can be different in weight) it is just so fine that when you pick up the rope the horse would feel the weight in the halter and know what is asked. I think it’s better from now on instead of using the word rope to use the word ‘line ‘ because that’s exactly what it is. It is a line through where you communicate not only true bodily expressions but true fine pulses or producing a change in the weight. I can, with much conviction say now that BEN is the one who “ throwed “life-saving-lines” for horses with traumatic histories. The line is so delicate, all you need to do is pick up the line with two fingers your thumb and your index finger. As an outsider the first thing you will see is the silence, and your attention is drawn towards a kind of reading of what’s about to happen in that round pen. It takes the time it takes that’s needed. Often in those times whenever Ben started to work a horse, you better set your agenda and other appointments on another day because timing is of the essence when he got started. And when you get drawn into the moment, there are no beginnings or endings anymore only the savvy and feel. I can say that I experienced the harmony of this multi times and Djaro evolved to a pony, were, he would get himself out of the problem he had. He became my buddy , like a real friendship where you know somebody so deeply that no words could ever describe it. One day while I picked up his backhand leg to clean the hooves, Djaro had another ‘ trauma moment’ and since my hand was laying on the elbow of his hind leg, I could feel an electric shock going through my hands and I understood that’s because he neither didn’t know what happened to him. He had a kind of blackout . That was were Jan comes in and he restored and diminished considerably his trauma.
One could think that it’s a lot of time and a lot of money being given into the recovery for that pony. Well in that year, I also bought a stallion age of two years and Djaro became his play-mate. At first I was just putting Djaro in the stable behind sunny (stallion) but after a time I would find out that Djaro openend his stable door and I would find them (Sunny&Djaro) together . They hit it off together so well and it helped me because when Sunny and Djaro were going up in their battle games and prance, Djaro had his full capacity on his backhand. Never I saw a problem when he was running free. So while that year of Djaro’s recovery , already he fulfilled a purpose. And later on he would be an educator and ‘uncle’ for the foals . Looking back now, I presume myself rich in life and experienced, but never in money(systems). I could ride him and kids to, mostly he was my leading pony for the group walks. Up until this day ( november 2025) Djaro is still ‘Alive and kicking’ so to speak ( he’s whit-in his 30’s now) You will find foto’s of him www.saffier&co and Sarah will tell you all about his days now. Remember that I told you about the 3 ponies for the price of one?? Well I found out (by experience). That ‘Ivy’ was the partner in crime of mc.guyver’s break-out parties……back then in the Ardennes…..needless to say how I discovered this truth.