Gypsy

About Us

Statistics

Registered name: Trinity’s Gypsy Moon
Height: 14.2 hh
Weight: 1100 (too fat, always!)
Color: Tobiano pinto
Year of birth: 1993
BLM freezebrand: 93541167
Origin: Trinity Range, Nevada
Breed Registry: American Mustang and Burro Association

Beginnings

Gypsy and I have been a team since 2002. After over 30 years out of the saddle, I decided to get back into horses and found this cute little BLM mustang through a friend. I brought her down from Oregon to our ranch in California on Halloween day, and started right away riding her on roads and trails around the ranch.

Our first obstacle was rude behavior. Gypsy had been taught right, but being the bossy, lead-mare personality that she is, she had to test me. In my youth I rode hunter/jumper. Back then we had no concept of horsemanship, natural or otherwise. I needed help to be safe with this horse and gain her confidence. So I studied for a while with Charles Wilhelm, and learned a few things about ground work and respect work. This made a big difference and helped me through a very rough time. I will always be grateful to Charles for his quick and sympathetic response to my panicky call on New Year’s Eve of 2002!

Dressage

With better control on the ground, I wanted to learn to ride this new horse, so I started taking lessons from a trainer recommended by a neighbor. It didn’t matter to me that she was a dressage trainer—I didn’t even know what dressage was!—it just mattered that she would help me with my riding. Martha Gregory recognized right away all the good qualities of my new horse, and predicted she’d do quite well at the lower levels of dressage. I studied with Martha for five years, clinicing occasionally with world-class masters Karl Mikolka and Gerhard Politz. In that time, I took Gypsy through First Level, and we won the United States Dressage Federation All-Breeds Award for mustangs at both Training and First Level.

Later, I spent a year studying with USDF Fourth Level certified trainer Heidi Riddle. It took me five hours round-trip to trailer to her, but it was worth every minute. Heidi took Gypsy and me to new heights, working with me on my core and seat. During this period I also spent time studying with Mary Wanless and Erica Poseley at American Sporthorse. These experiences marked the beginning of my pursuit of effective riding biomechanics, and I am still working to learn these skills.

Trail Riding

But to back up for a minute, before we ever competed in dressage, we rode several seasons of competitive trail rides, sanctioned by NATRC (North American Trail Ride Conference). I advise anyone getting into horses for the first time to spend at least a season or two riding with this organization. (See “A Rose by Any Other Name.”) In 2004, Gypsy and I won a regional championship in the Novice division, and together we enjoyed many miles of beautiful trails all over the state of California, getting to know one of the nicest groups of horse people in the world. I loved NATRC so much that I continued to edit the Region One newsletter, Leadline, for several years after we were no longer active in the organization. (For some of my stories from this publication, see Leadline section on the Written by Jill page.)

Another thing I’ve enjoyed with Gypsy over the years is Trail Trials. These are trail competitions that involve a short ride, usually five miles or so, sprinkled with judged obstacles all along the way. They might be simple uphill or downhill tests, water crossings, step-overs, etc., or they might be more complicated. One of the most memorable obstacles I ever encountered was one in which you had to dismount your horse, hold onto the lead line and step into an outhouse, close the door, count to fifteen, then come out and remount. I didn’t know if Gypsy would stand still while I disappeared, but she did! I have used this skill several times on public trails where there was no place to tie a horse while I used the outhouse! The worst obstacle I ever encountered was two mini-horses hitched up to carts, and coming straight at us with streamers flying and noisemakers rattling. This frightened Gypsy out of her skin, and has haunted us ever since. (More about this later.)

Trail riding remains a favorite of mine, and for a number of years my husband Mike and I shared a horse camping vacation at Pt. Reyes National Seashore with our friends Barb and Dale Boehme. Over the years, we rode virtually every trail in the park, and I never got tired of this venue; our annual Pt. Reyes trip became the highlight of the year. I’ve posted a lot of photos from these vacations in the Photo Gallery.

Cattle

We’ve had cattle on our ranch from time to time, and I discovered that Gypsy liked pushing them around. We have had a lot of fun on occasional short and long cattle drives over the years. Our biggest adventure was a three-day cattle drive on a guest ranch in Nevada. My husband and I went together (he rode our retired ranch horse Toby), and had the time of our lives. We saw some awesomely beautiful country while we helped move 300 cattle to their winter range, camped out nights, woke up one morning to the countryside covered with snow, ate chuckwagon food, and met a lot of nice people. The ranch was near Middlegate, Nevada, a little isolated outpost on Nevada Highway 50. After the drive was over, we stabled our horses, checked into the Middlegate Motel, and joined the locals for their annual Halloween dance. What a memorable experience! (See Bench Creek Cattle Drive.)

Mustang Ambassadors

In 2005, Gypsy and I were invited to represent BLM mustangs at the Bureau of Land Management’s demonstration at the Western States Horse Expo. I was expected to walk around the grounds with my horse and meet the public, to serve as ambassadors for the breed. There were also to be riding demos, so I started working on a little homemade musical ride to present to the public. I was taking some seatwork lessons at the time with Donna Snyder-Smith, and she helped me put together a ride to the Big Bopper's "Chantilly Lace."

Meanwhile, I knew Gypsy was still quite capable of becoming unruly in frightening situations—especially if she saw a horse-drawn carriage—and I wanted some help with this. I had met a foundation trainer named Susan Dockter through NATRC rides, and was really impressed when I saw her give a liberty demo one year at the Horse Expo. I contacted her and worked with her weekly for a month or two. At the end of this time, I was able to take Gypsy safely and with confidence into the Horse Expo environment, which can be pure bedlam and very unsettling for an insecure horse. We saw plenty of horse-drawn carriages, along with other weird things such as llamas, and Gypsy was completely manageable. She even spent many pleasurable hours inside a building in a busy vendor area, meeting the public who came by to admire her.

This time spent with Susan filled in some missing areas in our training that made all the difference. I feel this work marked the complete transfer of leadership from Gypsy (who was still always trying to assert herself) to me. After that, I could count on her to look to me for reassurance and guidance in dicey situations. Again, it was all about ground work, and I cannot say enough about the importance of getting this foundation solid with any horse you will be handling or riding.

Trying New Things: Liberty and Driving

About a year later, Gypsy developed a stifle inflammation and we had to take it easy on the dressage for a while. Looking for something different to work on, I remembered Susan’s delightful liberty demonstration, and I started working with her to teach Gypsy this work. I felt confident enough in our liberty work that in 2007, we gave a demo at the Meet the Mustangs Day sponsored by the Napa Valley Horseman’s Association.

While the stifle injury was healing, my vet recommended cross-training of some kind. I had been fascinated by carriage driving, so I decided to train Gypsy to drive. I worked with local trainers Roger Cleverly and Kelly Albrecht to train Gypsy in driving and to learn to drive myself. I had thought it would be fun to participate in group drives and competitions, but first I would have to get Gypsy really comfortable around other carriages.

It’s one thing to have a horse in hand or under saddle and expose her to something she is fearful of, but a driving horse has to be absolutely reliable. It will take much more work in desensitization to other carriages before I will feel comfortable taking Gypsy into an environment teeming with carriages. They say a horse’s first experience with anything will stay with them forever, and Gypsy’s first experience with those minis at the Trail Trials obstacle has never quite left her.

However, she is thoroughly reliable for carriage drives around the local ranchlands, where I’m virtually certain we will not encounter another carriage. (Tractors, cows, mountain lions are all okay—just not a carriage!) The driving proved a good idea, as it helped strengthen her hindquarters and support the healing of the stifle injury.

Other Projects

For several years, I hosted a monthly horsemanship clinic series with Susan Dockter at my ranch, to serve my local friends who wanted to improve their skills. Gypsy was conscripted as a mount for these lessons, and proved herself to be a great school horse.

2011 Update

In the spring of 2009, Gypsy wasn’t feeling very well. Twice I had shown her at Second Level, and she seemed to be finding the work very difficult and her energy was low. During the next few months I discovered that the arthritis in her stifle joint had worsened, and she was diagnosed with Insulin Resistance (the equine version of Type 2 Diabetes). She was dramatically better once we got the Insulin Resistance under control, but I decided not to pursue dressage with her anymore. Nowadays I trail ride her several times a week to keep her fit and her weight down.

Meanwhile, by 2007 I had realized I wanted to pursue dressage more seriously and Gypsy would never have the ability to go very far, so I started shopping for a new horse. For more about that adventure, see Pokani's page.