4 years together – how things have changed

I bought Juliano exactly 4 years ago on the day of my birthday. I've had him on loan for some time before but the day I bought him meant it was only me and him from that day on. No one else would ride him, no one else would train him, it was all up to us how we would interact with each other in the future. I knew I wanted to be the best human for Juliano on the face of the World but I wasn't sure how to do that. Then I got inspired, I saw a video of Pat riding a gray horse bareback and bride-less (even „string-less”) than I saw Mikey and Red Sun and I was hooked. I wanted to have a connection with my horse just like they did with their horses. „I want us to be just like that”, I thought, where do I sign in.

We've had a long and twisted journey. I was rediscovering horses again, as I thought I knew horses well before I've met Juliano. Juliano on the other hand was rediscovering humans as he wasn't the greatest fun of people before. We've had moments of horror, galloping in the woods, with no control, moments of my tears when I thought I would never be able to ride him and be safe. After some time we've started making progress. Small steps at first, then big breakthroughs, then few steps back. Juliano was always a 9 on a scale go=whoa. His impulsiveness was something I had most troubles with because how can you organize yourself in your body when every time you move your legs or your seat the horse jumps from underneath you. Let's just put it this way, we've had tons of uncontrollable canters in the first two years. In the next two years I knew I've had some control over Juliano's impulsiveness but it still looked uncontrollable to the outside world.

On the day of our 4th 'anniversary' I've realised something very important has happened. Juliano is no longer a 9 on the scale! Over this past week I've been riding him bareback with a string and day after day his go matched his whoa. He is a 5/6 and for an owner of an ex-race horse this is the best birthday present ever!

Happy canter

Yesterday our ride started to resemble the video I saw 4 years ago of Pat. I didn't have to use the string or the stick to do a trot-walk-backup jojo's. Juliano followed my focus, was very relaxed and went down from a canter to halt immediately after I took my energy down. He was so obedient that I started drilling my friend who was watching us ride „Is Juliano sad, does he look bored?”. I was so shocked and pleased with him that it didn't occur to me he was happy, relaxed and obedient. I was used to this crazy ball of energy underneath me. Now I still have an extroverted, energetic horse but we finally can start shaping this energy together into something great. It took us 4 years, for some this can seem a very long time, others might say „You could have done it in a week if you just slapped draw reins on that horse”. For me it is a dream come true, 4 years ago I couldn't even imagine riding Juliano in a halter.



It’s all part of a grander plan that is coming true.