Years ago when George Chaloux owned and ran Stratford Stables in Port Chester, N.Y. , a very successful stable full of boarders and where Uncle Joe (Vanorio) gave lessons, George always had a few very interesting sale horses available. And because George was also very fair with his sale prices his sale horses sold quite swiftly. So, about every other week a new van load of sale horses would arrive at the stable. Long before I arrived at Stratford George let one of the new arrivals loose in his tiny indoor ring, 90 X 45...and the huge doors leading into the indoor ring were 8 feet high. George watched the horse running around a short time when the horse ran directly toward the huge wooden doors and sailed over them without a scratch. He instantly called Jack Rockwell at The Hill ( now Old Salem Farm) who bought the horse instantly and that was Jacks wonderful horse Catbird. George had a rather large nose and he once told me his nose didnt start out that way. He used to ride in many jumper classes and at one horse Show he had a terrible wreck and the horse AND the jump landed squarely on him. He broke his jaw and his nose and several vertebrae and also had a punctured collapsed lung and he was in the hospital for over six months. He was a wonderful rider when I knew him and he certainly knew horses. I cant count the number of shows where he would watch people struggling to get their horses to load into trailers and vans. He couldnt stand to watch the balky horses and after a few pretty dangerous attempts at van loading George would slowly walk over to struggling individuals and say in his gruff voice Gimme that lead rope! which they always did. He would give a gentle yank to the lead rope, circle the horse once in a tight circle and lead the horse...or pony...straight up into the van or trailer and back them into a stall with no further fuss or bother. I never saw him fail. I think the horses simply respected him and just followed him obediently. For years George and I quarreled, half kiddingly, quarreled about whether horses preferred men or women. I contended women and of course George said men. So at my suggestion we did an experiment...four different times with four different horses...and the results were the same. Shortly after a batch of sale horses arrived at the stable we would choose one horse and lead it into the indoor ring all by itself. I would station myself at one end of the ring and George would be at the other end of the ring, with just enough space for the horse to run around the ring close to the wall while running. We were each equipped with a carriage whip to keep them running but we stayed very still and did NOT SPRAK AT ALL. After a bit of time , and each horse was different, when the horse tired of running and started to settle and look around they would start to walk and investigate and hesitate where they should go. Meanwhile George and I stayed perfectly still, never even moving our arms or speaking, the horses would walk closer to each of us in turn, until finally....very slowly, the horses ALWAYS came and stood quietly by me! These were NOT wild horses, but somewhat trained but green horses 4-6 years old. George claimed I was carrying sugar in my pockets (which I wasnt) or whispering to them so he couldnt hear me or wearing some alluring perfume they liked , perhaps one called Blue Grass. But it was truly fascinating as all of the four horses were from different batches of sale horses at different times of the year. And it really incensed George they ALWAYS came to me. Of course we could never figure out the reason but after four times with the same routine he had to admit that it did appear the horses did prefer a female. And we both already knew that there certainly appeared to be more women who rode and took lessons. Years ago I had read that there were 89 % more females who rode and owned horses in this country than men. All very interesting! And I had nearly forgotten this experiment we did so many, many years ago.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 00:12:50 +0000