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Sugar Foot Stole My Heart
I was driving down the same road I always do when I noticed this adorable black and white face popping out of the pasture. I could not get that image out of my head for 2 weeks. I asked myself “why don’t you ask if it’s for sale?” At this point I didn’t know if it was a male or female. Well I asked and bought her for $250. I couldn’t wait for her (yes it's a girl!) to come home. I was able to bring the mother and her home until she was weaned.
Not off to a good start
On pick up day I showed up to see her being dragged into the trailer and it broke my heart. she ended up cutting her leg pretty bad. We got her home and settled with the comfort of her mother who was amazing by the way. My vision of bonding didn’t start out the way I envisioned it. We started with twice a day cleanings to her injury along with penicillin shots. Sugar Foot's leg healed up fine with some scarring.
Sugar Foot is a Big Girl now
Her mom went home and now it was Sugar Foot and me. I always had horses but they were always older and trained really well. I had no idea what I was doing. So I researched and researched how to start a colt. We worked on a lot of ground work and she was soo calm and absorbed everything soo quickly. We moved to Georgia with her roommate Little Chief. There she enjoyed a closed barn and daily turnouts to the green pastures. We ended up moving back to New Mexico. We worked on more ground work and driving until there was nothing else to do but get on her back which was going to have to wait since she was too young for weight on her back.
Time to Ride sUGAR fOOT
Life gets crazy. I ended up working a lot of hours and was not able to play with Sugar Foot. I decided to hire someone to finish her training. I hired a lady, she quit, I hired another trainer, she quit. The problem was Sugar Foot was no longer confident and she seemed like a completely different horse. I found a gentleman who trained his own horse that was a mustang and he was a stunt devil. Wow he should do just great! She was perfect when I demonstrated what all I have done with her and he was impressed. Well Sugar Foot would not let him catch her on the first day. I think it took a week before he finally caught her. He worked with her very kindly and I was always there monitoring. He finally got her saddled and he was able to get on her and trot around. Sadly he suddenly passed away. I felt like my world had collapsed. He had given me the gift of confidence because I had lost it. It was so bad that I was afraid to lead my own horses. When he came around I was able to get back in touch with my true passion. I was not ready to continue her training. I found another lady to continue. She was riding her and they were great together. I had my first riding lesson with her and I was so excited. We were riding around the round pen and she bucks, my second lesson she freezes and would not move. She worked with her some more and I brought her home.
What Do I do next?
The very first time I try to saddle her she blows up and slams me against a pipe fence pinning me between her chest and the fence. I felt like I was up against the wall with her and I broke down in tears. She was such a reactive horse she would jump into me if she got scared and I found myself under her a couple times. I was faced with pressure from my family who was worried about my safety to sell her. I was afraid of what would come of her if I sold her.
The Gift Sugar Foot Gave me
Introducing Sugar Foot to an UmbrellaI realized I was the problem. I needed to become the person she needed to understand her and I was not solving any problems by sending her to people to so call “fix” the problems. I tried different techniques but found what worked for her and me. I found Parelli Natural Horsemanship and I learned more about horses and why they do what they do in such a short period of time I couldn’t believe it. I applied what I learned and I was soo impressed at how Sugar Foot was responding. To this day 3 years later we have had NO blow ups. I LOVE working with her! If it was not for her I would not have searched for other ways to understand horses and I would not have the knowledge I have today and still learning. I owe her ALOT. We had a bond before but now we have a bond that some people never get in touch with and it is truly a wonderful gift. Thank you for reading about our special story. I love sharing it.
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