After completing 2022 Phase 1 of the ” Traina Horse farm Project”, with the arrival on the farm of the stallion of Sicilian oriental thoroughbred Vulcano and the coverage of six mares of French Montagnes, selected in collaboration with the Institute of Equestrian Growth of Catania, Phase 2 of the project has also now just ended. That is relative to the formation of the staff that directly deals with the horses about “how and what” to teach the horses already onthe farm.
They are divided into wild mares, semi-domesticated and fully domesticated mares, foals born in the last two seasons, and already existing saddle horses to be retrained and standardised as performances and behaviours.
Francesco Traina and Anna Maria Bosshard had a first two-weeks training period on “building the foundations of a saddle horse for understanding and not for coercion”. They learnedthe “Six Keys of Harmony”, a “gentle” method developed by the well-known American trainer Ed Dabney (www.eddabney.com). It was taught to them by Franco Barbagallo, who learned it 14 years ago while staying at the Dabney’s Training Centre in Georgia. In those two weeks, for demonstration and educational purposes, Barbagallo availed himself of the collaboration of his horse Zulù, prepared for professional trekking with this method many years ago.
Francesco and Anna had to re-educate two saddle horses each, chosen from the dozen currently present on the farm. It was done in this way: one after the other, Franco Barbagallo and Zulu showed together how to perform all the different exercises of the “Six keys” method. Then, Francesco and Anna applied it to the first two horses in re-education, with Franco ready to correct them until they learned how to perform precisely all necessary movements and techniques to be explained and taught to horses. After a working session of about an hour and a half, in which the first two horses were often exchanged between Francesco and Anna, the other two horses were taken in re-education to work both, in about three hours of work, four horses eachwith different characteristics, characters, reactions and behaviours.
After the lunch break, the first two subjects were resumed for a second working session of another hour and a half, and then the other two. So each of the four horses was subjected daily to the ideal work period: an hour and a half in the morning and the same in the afternoon. Only in this way is the horse not stressed and fatigued and learns and remembers well what is explained and taught.
Dabney’s method first teaches “everything” from the ground without a saddle. So, the same exercises apply from the saddle when the horse has “learned everything already” from the ground. In this way and in every circumstance, you get early and good behaviours of the horse: respectfor the territory of the rider, independent and precise control of the movements of the head, neck, front, rear and ribs of the horse, precise positioning on the ground of its hooves so that it can easily specialise, subsequently, in every different equestrian activity. At the same time, a strong and firm connection, gentle and empathetic, develops between horse and rider, which will continue and grow constantly over time.
It was then passed to the acquisition of the techniques of habituation and desensitisation, “gentle, progressive and gradual” of the horse to a whole series of elements and external events that, as a rule, frighten and destabiliseit and that can be encountered or happen in the paths and/or in the arena: even sharp movements around, the noise of various kinds, pass over tarpaulins, flutter bags and plastic sheeting, dressing and undressing of those who are riding him and so on. All this up to obtain a total and serene “undisturbed” subject.
We then went to repeat everything from the saddle. Particular attention has been paid to how to achieve, over time, what really makes the difference: a “horse in hand”. This means a subject that, in absolute and increasing lightness, can change direction, pace and speed, “feeling” energy, weight distribution and centre of gravity of the rider and “following” the movements of the hand, not of the snaffle bit. So that, over time, the actions of the reins and legs of the rider will become minimal, then “almost invisible”. For this purpose, the two riders acquired a constant “independent seat”, essential to achieve all that.
Not being in this phase still available on the farm, the Ability Trail necessary to specialise a raw horse in trekking, and having available saddle horses already with some experience of excursions, at the end of this two-week process,trail rides were made to apply in nature what horses and riders had learned during the two weeks.
The end result was extremely positive. All four horses easily learned and applied everything taught them well, with a “grade of 7”. Francesco and Anna have learned to apply the method well and, over time, operating in “constant reduction” and improving their skills, all the riding horses on the farm todayand in the future will reach the final goal of a beautiful “grade of excellence of 9”.
In the coming weeks, all the horses on the farm will gradually be subjected to the teaching of the method so as to have:
– all “homogenously domesticated” mares which are respectful and can be haltered, moved, handled, approached, touched and tied without any problem.
– all the foals who have learned from the ground the “Six Keys” waiting to put the saddle on them at the right time, always gently and without trauma.
– all trekking horses re-educated and ready to fully satisfy any level of rider can mount them during a future excursion or horseback trip offered by Traina Horse Farm under its brand Sicani Horse Trek.
The next Phase 3, will concern the birth of the new “French-oriental foals”, their immediate imprinting, the subsequent modelling and teachings so that they can have from an early age a relationship with the man that will always be kind, empathetic, fun, safe and fulfilling… as they deserve.
Text and video by Franco Barbagallo.