Diamond in the Rough

The amazing Andalusian horse! We are celebrating them as our February Breed of the Month on YourDressage!

Dressage riders who choose Andalusians as their mounts are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the International Andalusian & Lusitano Horse Association is a participating organization.

Here, a trainer in Region 4 shares about taking the chance on an Andalusian stallion, who came with a lot of past trauma and behavioral issues, and the incredible bond they have built since.

By Jane Fucinaro

It all started with a vague Facebook post in our local equestrian group, saying something to the effect of, “Andalusian stallion with potential for dressage, project horse. Experienced trainers only.” My friend Paula had shared it. 

I thought, “This is my chance to own my very own Andalusian to develop!” At this point, I had a couple of Andalusians in my barn, and I loved their trainability, athletic build, and, mainly, how sane they all seemed to be. But as I messaged with Paula, my heart began to sink. She is an experienced horsewoman who had taken this stallion onto her property to put weight on him, at the request of his owner. When she first met Galán, he was skin and bones. As he put on weight under her care, the docile stallion became neurotic, dangerous, and quite the liability.

Galán was born and raised in Mexico on a family farm that breeds “Mexican Dancing Horses,” or Azteca horses. Galán is ⅞ Andalusian and ⅛ Quarter Horse, and his early developmental years were spent in parades and parties with an overarching theme of chaos. Contrary to dressage training, these horses are trained to become reactive and explosive as they “dance,” which resembles a backward piaffe – tense and quick. Galán was moved to the United States as a four- or five-year-old, but he was primarily turned out, and was only ridden occasionally in parades or on trails around Nebraska and Iowa. What happened during the next two years of his life is a mystery to us, but he had clearly been neglected.

I had my mind made up ahead of time that I’d likely be bringing this horse home with me, and he’d be a success story in no time. I figured I should bring my husband along, like any responsible partner would, just in case I needed a hand. I played it cool and left the truck and trailer at home.

We pulled up and spent five minutes chatting with Paula, watching this crazed lunatic of a stallion pacing and screaming the fence line. His feet were months overdue, with only one shoe barely hanging on. She had done an excellent job feeding this horse, but now he was plump and crazed. Through my lifelong journey with horses and our five years of barn ownership, my husband, Nick, and I have dealt with some fairly dangerous situations, challenging horses, and less-than-ideal circumstances, but this trumped it all. I began questioning my judgment about this horse.

Nick insisted I stay back and just coach him on how to halter and handle Galán. The universe put trainers in my life who offered the perfect combination of methods for this horse, and luckily, Nick took instruction very well in that moment. This horse was feral, dangerous, and scared. 

We made the decision to have Paula trailer him to our place to get him into our spare arena with more space. It took hours, and he damaged the trailer on the twenty-minute drive to our farm, but we got him unloaded and set him loose. After a few hours of quiet liberty groundwork, he was standing calmly with us, and we softly haltered him. 

To this day, my husband says that this was the first time he has heard a horse speak to him; he says, “A wave of gratitude, thankfulness hit me.” Nick decided he would be ours in October 2021.

We spent at least three to five hours a day with this stallion for months, often into the night hours when my busy training barn was quiet so we wouldn’t disrupt the “normal” horses. Our groundwork sessions progressed to occasionally sitting on him. By April, I had my first “true” ride on him. He has so much trauma associated with mounting, taking the bit, and much, much more. We spent months building up from riding bitless into a leather bit. We also decided to geld him in April, as it seemed any progress we’d make would get instantly set back with the smallest little set-offs. 

It was also in April 2022 that I found out I was pregnant. 

So many thoughts went through my head about whether or not to continue working with him while pregnant. We’d made miles of progress, but his stallion and trauma behavior would resurface frequently, especially with environmental changes. As I began to show, he became increasingly more interested in my baby bump, nudging it, sometimes even aggressively grooming my growing belly. 

However, as my pregnancy went on, Galán became softer and quieter. He became the only horse I trusted with my life – and my baby’s life. We rode trails at the lake, babysat green horses and riders on a cross country course, and worked on our bitless dressage work at home in the arena. Our last ride while I was pregnant was at eight months along in a freshly harvested field. 

He has become such a special horse to me. He still can be the barn terror, and we deal with the effects of his trauma on a daily basis. We competed at our first dressage shows throughout 2023 at Introductory and Training Levels, and – despite frequently having to diffuse his anxiety –  we had many successful moments both in and out of the show ring. We are the proudest when he can lead safely around the grounds. 

Our goal in 2024 is to attend more shows and off-site trail rides to assure him that he has no reason to worry, wherever he is. While he has much more talent inside of him, his emotional integrity is first and foremost in his development. We will continue to push his training at home and encourage his confidence on many field trips to come!