The best teacher I ever had was a TB named "Mr. Wrong". He was renamed "Revelation" and he lived up to his name. He had been sold so many times that there were no spaces left on his papers. He had been banned for bad behavior from The South Florida Fair Grounds. (something I found out after I bought him and showed up there for a show). There is a complete story about Revelation in Robert Vavra's Classic Book of Horses.

The short story is that he was blind. He could not see, so he became very agitated whenever he heard any noise around him. He would lash out and kick like a Karate Master!

I took a new approach with him. Instead of taking his actions as something to correct by force, I started giving him sugar every time he thought he was in danger! I called it the Easter Egg Hunt. I would seed the area I was going to ride in with sugar and eventually he realized that there were goodies everywhere and all he had to do is trust me to take him to them!

I realized after some study, and a great deal of criticism, that I was using a form of behavior modification called "Targeting". Revelation taught me that it is easier and more lasting to use Targeting than Adverse Stimulus Avoidance. A horse is always more happy to come to something nice than run away from something not so nice!

I showed Revelation in Dressage competitions and went to the Dressage finals with him. He even out performed the top horse in the country the day of the finals. It was fitting that he would. The top horse in the country at that level had less confidence in his rider and wheeled around in the ring at X, refused to go ahead, and knocked the top hat off of his Olympic rider! The poor rider had to retire without a score! Revelation came in fifth place!

When a local TV station wanted to shoot footage of a dressage horse for a special documentary of a horsewoman, we were asked if we could do it. It required that the horse be ridden down the roadway shoulder so that a camera crew sitting on top of a van could get good steady shots. Revelation did it with no problem for me. He had never been to the place where we took the footage, and yet, he unloaded from the trailer and proceeded as if it was nothing out of the ordinary and certainly nothing to fear!

Two weeks before our Grand Prix debut, Reve stopped during our ride and refused to go. I dismounted and saw that there was blood dripping out of his nose. The tumor that had interrupted his optic nerve signals and had left him blind was now to the point of rupturing his vessels. He was humanely put down and I still miss him.

At the show two weeks later, it was apparent what a following he had when so many people showed up to watch him, and so many cried to hear the news.

Revelation taught me to be trustworthy. It is the most important lesson that I have learned. It is a lesson that many need today, as we so often watch horses performing in tension that our senses become dulled to it.

The horse must not be taken by force, he must be seduced.