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Wild horses couldn't drag me
 Andrew is a natural horsmanship trainer
The subsequent weeks were to prove me right. It was a gruelling journey that took me through highs and lows and taught me more about myself than I had learnt since experiencing a harrowing first term at a northern University in Britain, which for a posh . teenager from the south of England , was fairly harrowing. But when the chance first presented itself of helping my partner, natural horsemanship trainer, Andrew Froggatt, break in 9 wild horses and re-educate 3 others, I jumped at it. After all, what could be finer than living on one of New Zealand ’s most stunning sheep stations just a hop, skip and a jump away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist mecca, Queenstown? Coming originally from the suburbs of North London , this was like a dream come true. Furthermore, I was itching to have a break from my real life as a presenter on National Radio, and perhaps most importantly, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn more about horses.
Thus you find us, Andrew and myself, rising from our lakeside hut on a fine autumnal morning, our first day at Mount Nicholas station – 100,000 acres of snowy mountains, rivers, flat plains and bush, inhabited by 26 thousand merino, 2,500 steer, a lot of deer and about 40 wild horses (9 of whom were about to become much less wild). It’s owner, Robert Butson, is one of the last owner-managers of a high country sheep station and quite horse mad into the bargain. While many other stations were starting what has proved to be a long affair with the quad bike, he remains faithful to the horse, keeping the old traditions of mustering on horse-back alive.
 What was I in for?
Then there were the 3 year olds – Maverick, Stelly and Oscar. All had had limited handling as foals and since then had been left to their own devices in a back paddock a long way away from the human race. As a result, all three looked upon us as some sort of scarey ten headed monster about to do our worst. And finally the six two year olds – Bambi, Silky, Luka, Badger, Scout and the grey (I ran out of inspiration at this point). And I have to say the naming of Bambi was a serious error of judgement on my part as she revealed herself to be wraith in fawn’s clothing.
 The two year olds in the yards
Our first job was to catch the horses and tie them up. Andrew uses the principles of pressure in every stage of the process. So for catching, he advances and retreats. The horse’s instinct is to run away, but even then Andrew can control the horse’s direction and speed. He approaches the horse and when he judges the horse is about to move away, he backs off, thus releasing the pressure as a reward. The timing is critical. Each time he approaches the horse, he will get that little bit closer until he can touch the horse on its face. From there he progresses to stroking its neck and then slowly, slowly putting on the headcollar, all the while advancing and retreating.
That may sound more straightforward than it actually was, and the speed with which we achieved this depended on the horse itself and showed some interesting variations between breeds. The horses had all been born and bred on Mount Nicholas and most were sired by Robert’s one-eyed Irish Hunter stallion (the loss of his other eye a result of an altercation with a feisty mare). There were also a couple of thoroughbreds, a Hanoverian and a Cleveland Bay in the mix. The thoroughbreds (Badger and the grey) were a dream to handle. On the first day Badger bowled up to Andrew and stood there patiently while he put a headcollar on. Maverick and Luka, Irish hunter crosses, could not have been more different. Despite being such a big, strong horse, Maverick trembled and shook when we approached him and would not let Andrew anywhere near his head. The only way of catching him for the first 5 days, was to lassoo him, throwing a rope around his neck. Luka, took a more direct approach, thus earning herself her name (a derivative of Loco, meaning mad in Spanish). Even before we got within a hundred yards of her she would be snorting and stamping her feet. Andrew ensured when he finally entered her yard, he did so at a snail’s pace. But even that was too much for Luka and she flew over the shoulder-high cattle yard fence from a standstill. We watched in awe and saw a golden career ahead for such a talented jumper. The rest of the horses came somewhere in between the two extremes. Within the first two days we had headcollars on all of them and these they wore for the next fortnight.
 Catching Maverick wasn't easy
Once the horses have been caught then the fun part starts. The groundwork. We begin by teaching how to lead. The headcollars are made of rope, with knots at various positions. This creates pressure points on the horse and the horse learns to respond to that pressure when the rope is pulled. They soon pick up the concept of leading after which we set up a safe distance between man and beast. Andrew stops and holds up his hand and usually the horses are so wary, they stop immediately. Andrew uses reverse psychology in all aspects of his training. He doesn’t stop the horse with force, instead he makes their idea hard and his idea easy. Thus the horses that do not stop, walk straight into his hand, and soon realize that stopping is an easier alternative. With horses this wild, it’s a great way to start setting the boundaries and protecting yourself from half a tonne of horseflesh walking all over you. When the horses get it right, they get lots of praise and rubs, and soon begin to think they’re pretty cool. We start using the rope as an extension of the hand, gently throwing it over their bodies and around their legs before touching them and rubbing them. We would repeat this every time we brought them in. Then, using our energy and reinforcing that with the headcollar, we teach them to go backwards and this is the first of six “pre-flight checks” that every horse must be taught. (Note: in all subsequent proceedings, energy is key to everything. Horses are highly sensitive and if you approach a horse with too much energy, it will run away. Too little and it will take no notice of you. To be a success in this game, you quickly become aware of your energy levels and body language). Andrew walks towards the horse and it backs away. If it doesn’t he will raise his energy and walk a bit faster, perhaps shaking the rope as a backup. Once that has been established we start moving their hindquarters. This one is important especially if you want to avoid a good double barrelling. The horse must learn that if his hindquarters are facing us it is a sign of disrespect. We flew through these checks, most likely because the horses were so wary of us, and I began to feel quietly confident that this was not a case of mission impossible.
 ...but finally co-operated and let Andrew put his halter on
The final three checks involve moving the horses front end around its stationary back end, and vice versa, and then moving the horse sideways away from you. Once the first three checks have been achieved, the horse’s attitude is generally spot on, it’s listening and wants to please you, so the last few checks are relatively swift. Every day we would take each horse through these six pre-flight checks to check it out and make sure it was ready to move onto the next stage.
When Robert returned from the wilds with the two shepherds, Dan and Sarah, and the head shepherd, his son, Davey, all four became regular visitors to the yards we were working in. When I say regular I mean several times a day, and they were eager to drink in Andrew’s knowledge. Dan decided that despite his spat with Texas he would like to continue working with him, so Andrew started giving Dan lessons with Texas . Robert meanwhile was fascinated at the progress being made with Summer. She was probably the easiest of all the horses to fix, her problems being born out of a seriously sour attitude. Sarah worked a lot with Skinny, the horse she broke in, and by the end of the month, she was singing his praises and would have like to whisk him back to her native Australia .
Stage Three – the Bag
We were now in week two of our four weeks on the station and this is when I earnt the title, Queen of the Bag. Probably because it was the most boring and tedious job known to man, and Andrew wisely left me in charge. Bagging involves waving a plastic shopping bag which has been attached to the end of a dressage whip, at the horse, touching it on the shoulder and then over the entire body until the horse it totally desensitized. Before the horse was considered well and truly bagged, Andrew would test my work, waving the bag vigourously around it’s body, until the horse’s head was down and it was completely relaxed. With some horses this process took a few hours. They were my favourite horses. With others, step forward Maverick AGAIN, it took several days. In fact Maverick and Bambi were proving to be our most difficult clients and both took it upon themselves to practice some tidy boxing moves, striking and kicking at the bag, rearing up, spinning and turning. It was quite a performance and I’m sure had we had enough warning, we could have sold tickets and made a tidy profit. But on the whole, it was a dreary, mindnumbing job, and had to be approached as a personal challenge or else the very wearisome nature of the task would grind you down. So I set myself challenges of finishing such a horse within an hour and another such horse, like Maverick, by the time we left and that is how I survived my reign as Queen Bagger.
Stage Four - Legropes
As the bag desensitizes the body, so the legropes desensitize the legs. No-one in their right mind would want to pick up the foot of a wild horse without being sure it was not going to kick and this is the best way of getting to that point. A long rope is placed carefully around the horse’s foot, and one end of the rope is threaded through a ring which is joined to the other end. The rope is pulled through until it tightens on the ankle. With one hand on this rope and the other hand on the lead rope, the idea is to lunge the horse, stopping it by applying pressure to the leg rope. It’s easier said than done as the ropes get twisted around each other, and the leg rope has a nasty habit of slipping off the foot if it goes slack, and none of this is helped by the rain overnight which has made the roundyard a sea of mud in which I slithered like a ungainly seal. Andrew, on the other hand, is a past master at leg roping having fixed a number of racehorses with shoeing problems. Before long his horses were not just lifting their feet for him, but asking how high he wanted them in the air and whether they should point their toes.
When Andrew puts a leg rope on a horse, I wonder what the fuss is all about. When it’s my turn, I wonder which fairy godmother bestowed the gift of patience on him, and why I was at the end of the queue. I can honestly say, for the first time in my life, I have been pushed to the very limits of my patience. When you end up spending a week advancing and retreating or waving a bag at a stream of spooky horses, then you inevitably learn the best way in which to control that knot of frustration and anger inside. It took about a day for me to realize that when it comes to horse breaking, patience is the Number One Virtue. When frustration pays a visit, and it was a regular guest at my house, I learnt not to shout at the horse (quite satisfying), not to shout at Andrew (reasonably satisfying) and not to storm off in a huff (very satisfying) but to quietly take myself off for a cup of tea with Theresa. I may not have achieved the immediate hit I was after, but at least I came home with my relationship in tact.
Stage Five – A real test
As a result of living in the middle of nowhere, each visitor’s arrival was greeted with a raft of questions and general ”end-of-term” excitement. Our arrival we were later told, was heralded with cries of “the horsebreakers are here, the horsebreakers are here!” And likewise when the whole management team of Icebreaker rolled up with catering truck in tow, for a day and night of teambuilding, it was cause for more high spirits. Icebreaker is an excellent client of Robert’s, buying the majority of the merino wool produced on the station, 40 tonnes in all. On this particular occasion, Robert suggested that Andrew run one of his horse- whispering leadership courses for the team. The course is based on the principle that a horse can teach you more about commitment, teamwork, leadership and partnership than can a human. When Andrew works with a horse, he uses techniques such as sending clear signals, building trust and respect and establishing leadership, all of which are key to good management within the workplace. I was initially quite skeptical about the whole idea, but once I had witnessed the dramatic changes in a group of ASB bank managers who did a day’s course in Wellington , I realized what a fantastic tool horses could be. This time though, much more was at stake. Our horses had only had two weeks groundwork and just how well they responded to the Icebreaker folk, would be a reflection of Andrew’s work. After all, up until a fortnight ago, these horses had had very little to do with humans, let alone humans wearing Icebreaker hats! After an initial demonstration of the six pre-flight checks, each executive was given one of the horses to work with. Their task was to take the horse through the first three checks – moving backwards, moving the hindquarters and lunging. The men rushed in first, including the boss, Jeremy Moon, eager to prove their prowess in the horse arena. The women, especially the few who were scared of horses, were more tentative. By lunchtime all fears had dissolved - the horses had responded well, they were lunging and listening and the Icebreaker team were on a high. They had tamed a wild horse and been given an insight into their own leadership style in the bargain. Robert was incredulous. He had not believed a group of non-horsey people could handle these animals after just two weeks of handling.
Stage Five - Flankrope
Once the Icebreaker crew had left, it was back to business. For a spectator, flankroping is the highlight of the breaking-in process, and Robert and the shepherds spent many hours perched on the fence, enjoying the show. The idea is to release tension and anxiety from the horse, whilst teaching it that bucking is hard work. Andrew begins by putting a rope around the horse’s belly, slowly sliding it back towards it’s flanks whilst lunging the horse. Most of the horses will buck, and continue being lunged until they stop. Once that happens, the procedure is repeated on the other rein. As far as selling seats to this show, the big bucking horse, Texas , naturally created the most interest with all of the staff of Mount Nicholas , including the cook and the odd job man, attending. There was a hushed silence as Andrew slid the rope down his belly. Texas started to do some hefty bucks and then, much to the audience’s disappointment and Andrew’s relief, the big horse realized it was far too much like hard work, and ambled around for a couple of laps. Everyone shuffled off feeling robbed. The more spectacular equine gymnastics were to be seen with the quiet horses, the likes of Badger and Oscar. This surprised me but as Andrew commented “that’s why we check them out, so you know exactly what you are riding and get the buck out of them”. I was glad to have my feet firmly on the ground.
Next month: In part two of her story, Janine and Andrew progress to backing then finally riding their wild mounts - but not without a few headaches along the way.
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