Horse Training

Takala was my first horse to start training. He ran like the wind. Full of life. He learned to love and to trust. He turned out to a beautiful soul and is now situated at In The Company of Horses.

Emily was a new challenge. She was death on the one side and slightly blind as well. Very unpredictable. Trusting was difficult for her but we got through that wall and we became best friends. Unfortunately I had to move away before I could ride her on a daily basis. She became a farm horse and was eventually sold.

She was peace herself. Passionate and trusting from the beginning. She was sold before we could do mounting.

Luma was ridable before she came to me. But as a young horse she was ridden once a while. She was very jittery and got a fright easily. She also liked to buck when she is being ridden. So I started from the beginning. Back to the basic principles. Focusing on all the little details. She turned into a whole new horse. She returned to her owner. She is a safe and loving horse.

Ghost is a young horse. He was ridden a while back. He needed basic training to be a safe horse for the girl that was going to ride him in the future. He also needed schooling for Western Mounted Games. He turned out to be the safest horse in the herd. Riding bare back, swimming, children to adults could ride him, experienced to unexperienced. He amazed me. In the year 2023, Ghost and his rider competed in Western Mounted Games - Nationals.

Roxy the queen. Beautiful and petite. Roxy came to me for training but it turned out it was not necessary. She had no faults or problems. She stayed in the herd and her owner came and did riding lessons on the weekends. Roxy just knew how to push you a little bit out of your comfort zone but not at all in a dangerous way. She just wanted to please.

I bought Tokyo as a personal horse. He was still a young horse with just the basic knowledge of riding. We worked on his stubbornness and to pick up his feet when walking. He also had a bad habit of biting when saddling up and leading on the halter. Today he is such a sweet boy. Riding bare back, kids riding him, experienced and unexperienced

Eclipse was castrated on the day when he arrived by the herd. He was very shy and protective, that gave me a hard time to clean the wound but with time he saw that I was not going to hurt him and he gave into trust. He was also a spoiled horse, so he had no respect and wanted to do things his way or no way. He soon realized that this is a relationship between 2 and not just himself. He was to young to mount, so I did all the training up until mounting.

When I first came to Dawn, the owner told me, "Jani you are our last hope" everyone kept on bad mouthing this horse and the owners could not get Dawn to work with them. Dawn was also trained by a very expensive school and highly trainers which told them that they are wasting their time with Dawn. Dawn had a fear of anything moving. She had a bad habit of getting a fright for anything, she sees the object, ignores it and then later gets a fright for the object. She also traumatized herself in the horsebox. She kept on scaring herself. So with the training we did a lot of desensitizing and random objects that make noises. She quickly realized that it was not that bad. Same with the horsebox. We did a lot of work with the horsebox. This horse showed everyone, including me again, that patience is the only key. Dawn then also went in the year 2023, to the Western Mounted Games - Nationals and represented the Limpopo team. They won Level 0 Champion and SANESA Overall 2d Champion

Windsong was such a treat to train. With the thought that Windsong was already trained but was not ridden. He was difficult to ride and did not like compromising. He came to me and I started everything from the beginning. Windsong was a challenge at first, he was very stubborn in the training session but we quickly made friends. When we were on the same page, this horse turned into a whole other horse. His personality became soft and caring, just wanting to please. As big and strong as he looks, his heart is as big as a peanut. This little baby has his whole life ahead and I am honored to have shared it with him.

Magnum arrived the same day as Windsong. Magnum was a bit more challenging when training him. He was older and was never trained before. Magnum was a very nervous horse and was always the first one to take the first way out. A wise quote said, " Patience is Key". Magnum bloomed into a confident, loving horse, still a little shy but he showed me his true colors. He trusted me with his whole heart and I could see it. We were almost at our first outride when Magnum found his forever home. The people saw the same Magnum I saw and fell in love with him.

Cyder was an absolute pleasure to train. He came to me where I had to help him with basic ground work and desensitising. Cyder was the first horse I ever encountered being an introvert horse. He was very unsure when I did training and desensitising with him but reassuring gave him so much confidence and he stopped overthinking everything. I can't wait to see him again in the future. For now he needs to get a little bit older to be able to start riding. 01-03-2025 Cyder came back for training and it was time to do the mounting part. This was such a breeze with Cyder, as if he had done this before, but this was his very first time. He was still a bit wonky with his legs but as we grown in the riding he quickly became confident and more willing.

Meerkat was already backed and ridable when she came to me. The sweetest young mare but with a little sas. She needed her basic schooling in place. She was definitely out there to test me but when we came on the same level she quickly turned into my best friend.

Thunder was a overthinker. He acted like everything was always cool and calm and he had everything under control until he had to step out of his comfort zone. He needed a lot of reassurance, the whole time. He turned into a confident, loving horse. Always looking for attention. Never to hurt even a fly. Such kind eyes. He has so much potential to develop. His owner is just as eager as Thunder is and their journey is already kicking off with a bang.

Alaska is such a special mare. She came from the SPCA. The owner had no history of her and brought her to me because she had a bucking and stubbornness problem. Alaska would not respond to the halter or anything you ask her to do. The day of her arrival she saw the other horses and bolted in the opposite direction. She did not know what other horses was. I had to introduce her to each one and she made friends real quick. Alaska's personality switched completely when she saw what love was. I am about 8 months pregnant at this stage and Alaska, every time when she is near me, would follow me back to the car or gate, even though the other horses does not follow along. Or she would rest her head on my tummy, closing her eyes. Alaska is a beautiful soul and I am honored to have walked her journey with her.

Thor and Marica was my first "over the internet" clients. Marica trained her own horse while I helped her over Whatsapp Video Call. This was the first time for me to do such training. It was a bit challenging due to bad signals or bad video quality. But Marica managed to do such a good job.

Brave is a special case. She came from the South-African Military and was heavy abused and very wild. She was ridable in her days but now she roams free. I had to do a bit of training with her due to ticks in the ear and to treat it.

Aurora had to be put under saddle and desensitisied. She was such a pleasure to work with. She started with horse riding lessons with little kids and is loving her job !

Bubbles was also ready to be put under her saddle. She did better with her desensitising that the saddle work. She eventually started liking the riding lessons and didn't mind working.

Shazad was quite something. I am never intimidated by a horse, but he sure did. Underneath that big scary horse, the was a sort heart that I quickly fell in love with. Although I didn't get to do the riding part of the training, I had the chance to change his mind of the way he sees people. How to gain trust and not be scared.

What an exciting project this was. Astix came al they way from the Freestate. Never been touched, never seen a human, never knew a halter. He came to me and I help to do training with him and his rider. In 5 days we got Astrix to build a relationship with his rider and gain each other's trust. We also managed to do halter training and learn to box him into a horsebox. What an amazing little horse he was. Astrix has grown into a beautiful young stallion, later castrated. He is doing performance riding and the rider is riding and cantering away in the arena.

Spicy Spicy Spicy little girl. But what a joy. Thumbelina was ready to be backed for the first time. I fell in love with this mare by just the way she came running to me when it was time to work. She was willing, wanted to give attitude first then settled down. A real mare.

Warrior came to be because he had a problem of not slowing down and not listening to the bit at all. The owner didn't want to put in a harsher bit or pull on the mouth the whole time, so he came to me. This horse took time, and when I say time, I mean months on just going back to basics, back to voive command. This horse was so used to just running and sprinting that he didn't know of anything else. Well as you guessed, I have fixed the problem. Getting him back to softening in the mouth and actially just walking, not trotting, not running, just walking and to be calm and collected. Warrior came from a place where they take wild horses and run races with them. so all he knows is running, that's where his owner saw him and rescued him. His album has no content because I triend making a new way of doing training content, which didn't work so well.

The definition of a nervous horse. It took more than a year to finally get to ride this horse. He was ridable. When he came to his new owner he just bucked all the way and they never got the chance to ride the horse. That is where my job came in. I re-trained him, back to basics and desensitising. I started with Sunny Boy when I was 8 months pregnant, when it was time to go on maternity leave, I have not done the backing yet. The owners was kind enought to wait for me to be back in working mode and from there on we got to riding and after a year and a half the owners finally got their riding chance.

What a cute little big horse. Rooney was a young playfull stallion. As playfull as he was went it got down to training, his head space was right. Rooney's training gor until saddling for the first time when it was time for him to go to his new home. This was a real gental giant