My mother is 85 years old in a wheel chair. We loaded her up and took her to go see Ray, and she enjoyed him so much she wanted to see him again on Monday!!
We have a Quarter Horse/Paint named K.C., and I always called him a “two person horse.” He took two people to load him, and it took two people to be able to ride him.
He didn’t buck, kick or bite – nothing drastic – but if you wanted to go riding, you had to stick with someone else. You couldn’t ride off by yourself. If you did, he would freeze. As long as it could see the other horses, you could ride it, but the minute those horses were gone, it would go into a panic. He was very attached. It was my daughter’s horse basically, but she couldn’t ride it because it would freeze, literally just freeze. If you tried to make him move, he wouldn’t crow hop, but he would start to flip his head and let you know he was not impressed with your decision.
I was sharing this with all with Ray, and he said to bring him over. So I brought him and another horse over the grand opening at Blain’s Farm and Fleet.
After that, my daughter is now interested in the horse again because she can’t believe the difference in the horse. She’s a kind hearted type person. One of the problems that she would have is that she would take it out in the paddock, and it would always jerk its head down and eat the grass. It was always a major issue. You take a 1,000 pound animal and a 100 pound little girl. It turns its head, and it’s going to pull her.
[After working with Ray] the horse never tried once to eat grass. It paid attention to her. I was really amazed. Some people said the horses there had been worked with before. I said, ‘You can tell the story however you want, but this was my horse. I know for a fact Ray never saw that horse before a day in his life.’
Ray told me my horse was going to be a fun horse. I told him it doesn’t buck or do anything, but I told him in all honesty that we were going to sell this horse because my daughter wouldn’t mess with it because the horse scared her. I was going to sell the horse for half of what I paid for it. I was going to take a big hit on the horse because we were going to buy her a different one since she was shaken up. We’re not selling the horse now.
I went out and bought eight of the videos, and I did all the things that he told me to do with this horse and my daughter also has been working with the horse. The videos are more for her than for me because I was there, and I saw what he did.
So we have been watching the videos, and I thought, ‘Well this is how he did this, so I’m going to try it.’ So I took the lead rope, and I tied it around the halter and climbed up on the horse. He minded perfectly with no bit, with just the halter on.
I didn’t know it but my husband was watching. He was out by the barn; he was further away, but he saw my daughter heading for the house.
My daughter said, ‘You really impressed dad. He saw you riding the horse with just the halter on.’
This is a horse that before would go sideways, kind of shimmy, and he would throw his head up when he wasn’t happy. Now there’s none of that. It’s all gone. This is my horse. Not somebody else’s. I was impressed.
The second horse that I brought is an Appaloosa named Dreamer. Dreamer’s a 6-year-old’s horse. He’s an easy horse and a good horse; the problem is that he crowds you. He would knock you down if he thought you had a treat. He’s terribly spoiled. My fear was that when the one of my six grandchildren would want to go catch the horse, because it makes them feel big, that the horse would walk on them. Once you put the kid on, the horse’s attitude changes. He will not run with them, but when you’re walking next to him, he would walk all over you and push the kids. The things Ray has taught me so far have been working with Dreamer. We’ve been doing the same ground work with him that Ray taught us, and he’s getting to where he will walk with me, not on top of me. He gives me space.
Ray really impressed me, and I have nothing bad to say about that man, absolutely nothing. I enjoyed his show.
I’ve seen horse trainers before and whatever they want to call themselves – horse teachers, horse whisperers. Most of them don’t overly impress me. I watch what they do. That’s fine and neat, but it’s not something I would do or it doesn’t apply to my situation or me. When I first watched Ray, he impressed me. When I first got there the first day I was hooked. I came back Friday and Saturday.