The only thing constant is Velocity

Horses are always trying to preserve energy. I read that in some book when I was a kid. Most things horses do are an attempt to find comfort and relaxation. Without the influence of a person (In a large pasture/wild setting) horses do not run around working themselves....they eat, maybe buck out a few good feelings and leave it at that. They do not waste all of their energy because they need that energy to run from any potential predators. This has always made perfect logical sense to me.

That being said, when taking Jake into perspective, another connection can be made that Jake does not think like a horse. Whether this is from a nervous flaw that was taught to him by incompetent riders or if he has some neurological issues will never be known. I'm not saying this in a light hearted way. A friend of mine, who studied horse phycology, found him to be quite the case. She explained that he was fearless and had no sense of self-preservation. She showed me a few examples of other horses that had the same mentality. Trainers were frustrated with his lack of common horse sense. A vet-tech told me she would have shot him because of concerns of mental health. 

Now, reading this over some people may think that I'm some crazy suicidal idiot to ride a possibly mental horse. Jake's issues do not stem from any classic symptoms, he never would randomly freak out, never had coordination issues, never acted violent or out of the ordinary. Another one of my friends call it blind dedication. He trusts humans 100% and never doubts where they may lead him. He does not ask why, or say no. He just does. This horse would walk off the edge of a cliff without hesitation, hell he would walk into a burning building if I asked him. He would, and has done things most no other horse would do the first time they were presented with something. 

Jake Jigging at Gymkhana 2008

Another part of it is that Jake is always moving fast. His walk, whether in hand, out in the pasture or in the saddle, is moving. He uses his whole body, when he is going somewhere he is going there with a purpose no lolligaging along the way. When I first got him, if you gave him a loose rein he would keep a constant velocity, always increasing his speed until you shut him down, then it would start over again, just getting faster and faster and faster. It took me a year to teach him to not break gait, at that time he developed a running walk that made TWH owners guessing his breed. He would walk as fast as his body would possibly allow. It was a crack up, and frustrating at the same time. The trot was the same, this horse trotted with the same amount of purpose as his walk. Flipping his toes out extending his stride to his physical capacities. The canter was always the most difficult, there really enough of a difference between the canter and gallop that I could teach Jake to stay at. So it was always a fight to keep him at a decent speed.

As fun as my pedal to the floor horse was it made for horrible group rides. No one could keep up. So there was no socializing for me with other riders unless they trotted while Jake walked. It later created a lot of tension after the fun of having a hot horse wore off. I tried anything and everything to be able to enjoy a casual ride with him. It was nearly impossible when I got him. This is where our problems started, as I became a more and more aggressive rider and my frustration levels rose. Trainers weren't helping, my father wasn't helping.....and no one could find any answers.

I was told once to let him run it out, "let him figure out he's got no where to go and is just wasting his energy" so I got to the public arena when no one was there and did just that I gave him loose rein and swore that I would not be the one slowing him down. He was going to figure this out. After I warmed him up (for I knew the hell ride was coming) I gave him loose rein at a walk. That walk slowly turned into a trot, which slowly turned into a canter, which quickly turned into a batt out of hell gallop. I merely made sure that he rated enough for the turns at the end of the arena and didn't run into the fence. He did lap after lap after lap. His stamina surprised me, it seemed like forever that he was at his top speed, the world flying by when his body started slowing down. His sides were lathered in sweat, I could feel him faltering, it wasn't that he was realizing he had no purpose, his ears were still forward, and his head was bobbing as he fought against his physical limitations. He was still digging into the ground, his muscles were just failing to push as hard. Then he started tripping, glitching in his stride as he no longer had the energy to keep his body going. But he still was galloping, fighting every stride to try and go faster and faster. After almost completely going down and still going, I pulled him up. I realized he wasn't going to stop until he fell. Not till his heart gave out and he couldn't move anymore.

I never did that again. It took me over an hour to cool him out safely. I probably did 20+ laps around the arena hand walking. (Because there was no way to cool him out while you were on his back). I can say that now a lot has changed, in an arena you wouldn't notice his nature as I have figure out how to work with him instead of against him. He still walks faster than most. It has nicely into a working walk that does well for control and collection. Its all a change in how I thought....but it took me 7 years to figure it out.