Have you ever had that feeling….you know the one, you are going today to pick up your new horse – stable ready, new water bucket, feed bucket, new rugs and of course, new halter!!!! Contained excitement brewing as you drive into the gate with your float ready to give this new horse lots of love and attention – little do you realise this wild horse, who has not had human contact, has been in a 300 acre paddock for 3 years is not on the same page at all – deflation ensues upon realisation that the handful of ‘smoochies’you have come armed with are not really going to make any impact on this horse…..she would need 4 feet on the ground for starters, HOLY CRAP – what have we agreed to.

After a harrowing 2 hours said horse was exhausted from resisting arrest that she got on the float and munched from a self constructed hay net (ute net) as we, the unprepared new owners hadn’t thought of a food reward for the float journey. Now Frankie, once on the float, floated like a dream, not stressed, not moving, happy with her lot…..

HOME – fantastic, everyone pat each other of the shoulder, but now what!!!!

We needed an expert to guide, not only Frankie, but us so that we could get the floating experience sorted – Frankie will be a competition showjumper once she has learnt the basics, so she needs to be able to go on and off the float with ease – nothing worse than being the last person to leave a show because your horse does not want to get on the float – been there, done that, not interested in drinking the cool-aid anymore.

Everything with this horse, as she is 16.3hh and still only 3 and the first halter was put on her in March 2016.   We have decided to take a slow but precise approach with – she is a chestnut mare and if you try to pick a fight with her – YOU LOSE (simple), so we have had 3 floating lessons with KAREN WHITE of MOHEGAN EQUESTRIAN & HEALING.

1st lesson – OMG, OMG, OMG, sweaty horse, sweaty handlers – this is going to be tough
2nd lesson – OMG, make me!!! Oh, you made me and it’s not so bad – on/off/on/off/on/off – sorted.

• Take Frankie to a free-jumping day, float loading was ok – got her there and back fine but still needs a little more confidence building.

3rd lesson – Haven’t been on the float for about 4 weeks, forgotten almost everything so fight, fight fight for the first 5 minutes then happily on/off/on/off/on/off – standing happily in between loads. Great progress, this horse is very reactive and also lacks confidence, Karen is giving us the tools required to make this a good experience for Frankie.

Now, we are still not out of the woods and we need to have a little more float training but this horse has been amazing, she has gone from rearing and being terrified to being a bit nappy at worst – she loves attention, she loves human contact and she loves to be guided to do the right thing. She doesn’t have any dirt in her she just had NO idea what was coming – how would she!!

We cannot thank Karen White enough for all her patience and gentle persistence and leaving us scared in the brain for life with this quote
“MY GAME – MY RULES”

It has become our mantra on the occasions when the red head wants to be the boss!!!!
Frankie has gone from Frankenstein to Frankstar and her future is looking very bright – next stop, showjump training – HELP!!!!!

Jennie & Kayla Adamson
Bullsbrook