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when they felt he would spin. He’s very athletic and he would spin when he felt he had to spook,” she explains. “It was nothing special with him—maybe he’d see something in the bushes, or hear something. His automatic response was to turn and look at it very quickly, and off went the rider,” Christina explains. His trainers realized Fendi wasn’t usually afraid and they would walk him slowly to approach what attracted his attention. Christina admires what Kim Tasker accomplished with


him. “In his first year, she was the one who rode him the most. She is awesome at fixing the problem horses.” “I did not discover any secret tactic,” remarks Kim. “I just


took him back to square one and repeated the basics with him for months and months. We changed bits constantly and used a bitting rig—anything to calm him down and make him more rideable.” Voice commands also helped to channel his enthusiasm,


explains Kim. “We used voice commands on the line in the rig and while riding him until he understood easy, whoa, and HO.” When it was to time to resume jumping fences, Fendi


had to learn to wait rather than charge to the jump and fling himself over the rails. “It was mostly just repetition— jump the same fence twenty times until he settled down and did it correctly. Then repeat, repeat, repeat,” Kim says. Christina confirms this. “We retrained his body to jump


appropriately, rather than run at the base and hurl himself over. He had to learn to accept to back up from the fence, and it just took time.” Another problem was that Fendi would propel himself


too far from the jump. She explains how they used ground poles, setting a pole in front of a jump. “And we put a pole behind the jump to teach him to jump more shallow. Most of the time we would set a two stride at 12 feet. There was no way at first that he could make that space. Even now, if he gets really excited, he wouldn’t make that space.” Then she adds, “We had to create lines with his jumping ability. We would school 3’6” to 4’ jumps out of the line, trot in, land appropriately and back up to that huge fence.” Christina discovered that coaxing her horse helped in


his training and that treats are a real motivator for Fendi. “He always received a treat for good behavior,” Kim notes. “He gets treats before I ride him,” says Christina. “And he


gets treats afterwards. He’s obsessed with food. He will do anything for food. I’m a small animal vet and I train dogs. They will also do anything for food. So with a horse, too, training progresses much better.” Christina mentions a research study conducted in


Minnesota about positive reinforcement in training horses. “They learn ten times faster [with treats] and they retain the information longer,” she says. Recognizing that horses have long memories, she worked from the beginning to form a partnership with Fendi. “If you keep a horse and get them to trust you and accept you, you have a higher chance of having a better round in the show ring. So I kept him. He’s had the same owner, same trainer, same grooms—nothing changes. It’s all consistent, positive reinforcement.”


Opposite page with title: Fendi at the in-gate, HITS Thermal Desert Circuit. Above, top: Fendi, Dr. Haney up, shows off a good walk as he enters the show ring. Bottom: On course, Fendi shows his long stride at the canter.


Reducing pressure with no punishment was an approach


Fendi’s team consistently enforced. “He will do something that he thinks is great, and it’s terrible. We think, ‘That wouldn’t win in the show ring,’ but it’s okay! He thought it was great. So we’ll just try another day. And if he’s naughty at home, we just put him away,” Christina says.


Warmbloods Today 57


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