Meet Smokey.

Smokey is special because he is the first horse I saddle broke. I had undergone months of teaching, lessons, project horses, and talks (*ahem* quizzes) with my bosses over how to train a mustang from scratch. After all that, they decided I was ready, and they assigned me Smokey.

Smokey was a punk. Smokey did not know he was a pet. Smokey thought he was still a wild horse. Smokey had been adopted at first sight by an old lady and needed to be trained to accept a rider.

For about a month, I did the same thing I had done with other project horses: I trained him to come to me. I trained him to walk, trot, and lope in circles around me in the pen when I asked. I trained him to accept a halter and lead rope, and walk like a gentleman beside me. However, when those weeks passed and I had done all I’d ever done before, it was time to learn some more. It was time to saddle break Smokey.

So my boss and I went into the round pen one summer day and, after doing groundwork, I popped up on his back. The first step of breaking a horse is just getting them used to weight and pressure on their back, so I started by laying on him and petting him.

That was followed by while of popping on his back, getting thrown off, and trying again. Wash, rinse, repeat. The dirt stains never came out of my jeans… but I took little steps at a time, teaching him to accept long intervals of time on his back. Eventually he realized I am *not* a horse-eating monster and that was all the drama for the day. 

My time training Smokey is one of my favorite memories because it symbolizes so much in my training journey. Before him, I had only trained horses groundwork–getting them to accept a halter, a lead rope, to walk calmly beside their handler, to accept vet checks, and to follow a few commands from the ground. Smokey was my next-step project horse; the first one my bosses trusted me to saddle break. This was a horse full of sass, vigor, and a fair amount of wildness… but in the end, he came to understand humans, and I came to understand horses a little better, too.