Trainer uses gentle methods
Sagely tries to pass on his techniques to riders and owners so they can achieve better results from their horses. He's planning three fall clinics for horses and riders Sept 27, Oct 18 and Nov 15 at JD Acres, located east of Blairsville in West Wheatfield Township. Spectators can also pay a small fee to observe the sessions, which he calls Sage Horsemanship.
Among the concepts he shares with riders is the practice of teaching a horse using both its right and left sides. Because of the way a horse's head is shaped, the animal sees with either its left eye alone, its right eye alone or with both eyes, explained Sagely. "You can do stuff on the right side of a horse and when you do it on the other side, it's like a whole new thing," he said.
Another concept he emphasizes is that stopping a horse is a matter of stopping the back end. "A lot of people think you stop a horse by jerking on its face," said Sagely. "But he can't walk if his back legs cross." Demonstrating his point, Sagely leads the older of Howe's two mustangs, a reddish 13-year-old gelding named Thoregon, around the ring with a loose rope around its neck. He tugs slightly sideways to break the horse's gait and the horse's back legs cross just before it stops.
Thoregon,
who has been with Howe about four years, was never a mean horse but was terrified of
people, said Howe. Sagely, working slowly and patiently, has brought out a gentler side of
the horse, though it is still a little spooked by a slight movement such as Sagely slapping
his hand against his leg. "Horses are extremely sensitive to subtle cues in
humans," said the horse trainer, who seems quite sensitive to subtle cues in horses.
Though he has ridden, trained and shod horses since he was in his 20's, Sagely pursues another vocation as a biology teacher at Blairsville Area High School. He also helps coach the girls volleyball teams and teaches computer classes at the school. "The difference between teaching teen-agers and horses is the horse will always seek the easy way," he said. He explained that the human element can lead students to take a hard way sometimes.
In the time before school starts, with a pickup full of horseshoeing equipment and his dog along for the ride, Sagely spends a lot of time alone with a horse or pair of horses, patiently communicating with them using his body movements and methods. When he is at home, amidst time with his wife and children, the trainer communicates with other horse enthusiasts using the Internet. His website can be reached at Sage Horsemanship.
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