Let's meet the TWH

My walker is currently baggage free, at least IMO, however I was introduced to him back in 07 and he had baggage, a lot of it.  As a previous post talks about here, he was bought as a padded horse throw away.  He was bred by the former president of TWHBEA and his dam's side is a long line of padded horses.  He had joint clicking at the age of 4 and had virtually no training.  Very jumpy and very sensitive to the touch, he was someones first horse.  He was probably stacked at the age of 1 and backed by the age of 1.5 and didn't make the cut so he was shipped down the road to be sold as a trail horse to someone who didn't know better.

I call this his Young and Ugly pic, this was his sales picture.
Only one I have from his younger years.

My first meeting with him was very brief, I saw him for probably only 30 mins and then didn't see him again for almost 6 months when his owner contacted me and was upset over his behavior.  The barn he was at was recommending selling him or putting him down as he had gotten into the habit of rearing and flipping.  I went and evaluated him, determined he wasn't mean about it and that he just had huge gaps in training and what they were riding him in hurt.  Like a double twisted wire snaffle with huge shanks.  Or  a bicycle chain bit with shanks. And a saddleseat saddle that didn't come close to fitting.  As I was the only one crazy enough to ride this rearing beast, I started retraining him by starting back at the basics.

Fast forward a couple of years and he has been moved to the barn I was at, I was riding him a couple of times a week and was working on getting him to learn how to canter.  Tragedy struck when he kicked the App (who fully deserved it) and fractured the App's front leg.  While the App was out of commission for 6 months, the TWH became my full time project.  We learned to canter, we learned to trot, we learned to jump.  After the App was rideable again, I simply forgot to stop working with the TWH.

We started showing in gaited dressage, some jumping shows and even placed 5th out of 18 in a w/t/c flat class.  When I found I was moving to Michigan, the owner asked if I could take him with me. She couldn't bear to sell him and not know what would happen to him and she couldn't afford him anymore.  Obviously I have SUCKER written on my forehead because of course I took him.  Despite the fact he is gaited, randomly spooky, passive and reactive I think I am actually going to be able to use him for what I want to do.  By jumping I am teaching him to think before reacting, by turning out with the App he is learning to be more aggressive.  By trotting we are opening up possibilities for normal classes and the random spookiness we will just have to deal with but it is SO much better than it used to be.

So meet Sinatra, my TWH who is becoming a well rounded trotting horse whether he was bred for it or not.