Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

What a great weekend! I have never had a REALLY good story to tell until 
now. I have always loved all the ride stories on ridecamp and now want 
to share mine.

For any of you "Jims' Girls" this may bore you a bit because you already 
know how absolutely fantastic Jim and Joan Holland are and how riding 
their horses in their little part of the world is magical. For the rest 
of you who don't know, this might give you a glimpse.

When you visit Three Creeks Arabians you get great southern hospitality 
in a big way. I spent the weekend eating fantastic home made meals, 
having great conversations and gaining more knowledge about horse 
training then if I had read multiple books. That is only part of it.

Jim didn't know me from Adam. I had been impressed with his horse 
training articles so visited his website:

www.threecreeksarabians.com

I sent him an e-mail asking him about my young 4 year old Arabian and if 
he would be interested in doing some training.

What I did NOT get is a sales pitch, or a sure, bring him down it will 
be $800 a month plus , or sorry I don't do that.

What I Did get was a no, I teach people and then they go and teach their 
horses so come on down for a weekend, lets go for a ride on my horses 
and get to know each other. * I am paraphrasing quite a bit here *

Ummm, ok. A weekend in the blue ridge mountains, a ride on a 
unbelievably fit and healthy horse and maybe I might learn a little 
something to boot is what I was thinking. WHAT an under estimation.

Upon arrival Joan greeted me and made me feel like we've been friends 
forever. Jim comes up and starts talking *horse*, no really,I mean Jim 
Holland TALKS horse! Think of the Dr. Doolittle of horses, that is our 
very own Jim Holland. We take a trip down to the barn.
Not just any barn but a custom built horse heaven barn where horses 
don't want to go out to the greenest most lush green grass you can 
imagine because the barn is SOOOOO comfortable. Fans to cool with, no 
flies or gnats to bother them and companionship of their best friend and 
herd leaders, Jim and Joan.

The horses don't even need a halter and lead rope to be brought in from 
pasture into the barn but they need the practice so Joan puts the 
halters on.

In the barn they do tricks like bowing down, like *answering* yes and no 
to questions, like picking up a hat on the ground and handing it to Jim. 
Jim the entire time is handing out priceless bits of training 
information. Showing me the results with his own two horses. These are 
not just top 10 and 1st place Endurance horses, these are beautifully 
trained, gentle and willing friends.

A picture perfect pasture and the blue ridge mountains are what you see 
when you step out onto Jims wrap around porch right off the kitchen. You 
can see the horses regardless of what pasture they are in and it is just 
beautiful, breath taking even.

The next morning after some coffee and breakfast we start packing up. Me 
being the want to know everything about anything type person ask Jim 
about everything from breast collars to saddle bags to saddles. Since 
Jim is a fitter for Reactor Panel saddles I even took advantage of his 
knowledge regarding fitting. I mean anyone else could have made me feel 
about an inch tall asking some of the questions I asked but not for a 
second did I feel like I was being judged or that I was being ignorant. 
He also talked about AERC and some of the workings. I realize now how 
important it is to pay closer attention to what is going on in the 
organization .

I was learning SO much and all for the benefit of my horses. Jim was not 
going to be getting anything out of this in any way and yet he was 
willing to take so much time even for the most basic question and answer 
periods because that is how much he cares about horses. Obviously he not 
only cares about his but any and every horse and that is why he is so 
willing to take such excruciating time and patience to teach the owners 
to help themselves and their horses to be the best horsemen and women 
they can be. That is how I see it anyway.
So now we are off. I am riding Magic. He had just done Biltmore the 
weekend before and was so fresh and ready for the trail you'd think he 
had had a month off. He just ate up the trail like it was nothing. At 
one point I wanted to see what Sunny felt like riding so always the 
obliging Jim was patient, changed stirrup lengths etc and let me ride 
Sunny. These horses climb mountains. I mean literally.
I had always wanted to be in the blue ridge mountains since before I had 
moved south. I had taken a lot of trips up north and down to Georgia
and always looked out to the distant blue ridge when driving by and 
wondered what it would be like to be in those mountains. This weekend 
Jim gave me that answer.

The ride was amazing. When we got into the forest it was like nothing I 
had seen before. Canopies of rhododendron gave way to wider forest 
service roads gave way to single track through hardwoods .

We were in the Cohutta Wilderness areas for most of the ride. Can you 
imagine!? Riding in a wilderness area. No inkling of humanity anywhere 
for miles and miles and hours and hours. No planes overhead, no power 
lines, no trash, not even a piece of gum wrapper. You felt for a long 
while like you were from 100 years ago blazing a trail because the trail 
was so hard to see, just grass a bit shorter then the greenery around 
it. Jim knows these trails because he is a certified Search and Rescue 
person so not for a minute was I nervous. Joan had warned me that a 
person could get lost in the wilderness and never be found and honestly 
I thought maybe she was exaggerating just a bit. NO. Absolutely not. 
Without someone with Jims expertise no one should attempt going in 
there, THAT is how 'virgin' and wild it is.
We climbed so high up into these mountains at one point we were above 
the clouds. I'm still pinching myself. I had a mile to learn how to 
“tail” a horse and how to train a horse to do it. Magic had barely 
broken a sweat. Sonny had put on a bit of weight this summer so was 
sweating a bit. I on the other hand had to stop multiple times and catch 
my breath. The horses were well behaved and professional for the entire 
trip, over 6 hours on the trail.

Things that had never occurred to me to teach my youngster now seem so 
vital. Some of these were to teach a horse to walk over the log with the 
front feet, stop, slowly make the horse finish walking over the log or 
having the horse being able to relax by a cue for you. I saw how 
important it is to expose your horse to enough things so that pulling 
branches out of the trail or cutting down dangerously low overhanging 
limbs from the back of your horse does not spook him.

Horses being willing and able to eat constantly throughout a ride. 
Little bits of this and that along the trail, Jim not only told me how 
important it was but how the best and safest way to teach a horse to do 
it and WHY it is so important. How many times when you are reading a 
book or if you go to a clinic will you get the knowledge, get an example 
and get to know WHY it is so important and shown why it is so important? 
This ride was a once in a life time ride I will never forget.

I could go on about the teaching but I am going to let Jim do that with 
more articles, pictures and hopefully a book or newsletter or something. 
hint hint. :-)

The ride was difficult but was it worth it. For any of you who are like 
me and still working on getting the LSD taken care of on a horse and/or 
bringing a younger horse along do NOT give up even when it gets to seem 
like its going to take forever. Knowing now that there are rides like 
this out there and horses can be this awesome makes the time, effort and 
energy worth it more then anything else I can think of. For all of you 
who have been experiencing wonderful horses and amazing rides where the 
ride is tough but you like it all the better because it was hard but 
Worth it please keep telling us YOUR stories.

If anyone ever gets the opportunity to spend any amount of time with Jim 
or Joan Holland, take it, you will be missing more then you know if you 
don't.



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