S5 E3: Swagger’s journey - with Ivy Starnes
Today we welcome our first new guest for this Season. Ivy Starnes caught my attention through her generous sharing of videos documenting her journey with a horse called Swagger, a young, now gelding who was previously living in the wild. I’ve been captivated by Ivy’s training with the support of her coach and friend Michelle, as they help this incredibly unique and quite spectacular horse learn about connecting with humans. He has forced Ivy to really refine her training, and it is super inspiring to watch.
Not only is the training lovely, and the problem-solving Ivy and Michelle work through, but also Ivy’s dedication to recording the journey and then paying forward the assistance she was given earlier in life, by sharing the footage so openly.
I’m so pleased that Ivy is joining me today so we (I mean, let’s be honest, I invite people onto An Equine Conversation so I get to hear from them too) get to hear more detail around Ivy’s experience with this seriously unique horse.
Ivy Starnes:
Ivy Starnes has been training horses since she was 16 years old. She started with natural horsemanship methods and has slowly moved more and more towards positive reinforcement. While she still uses pressure and release, Ivy is doing more and more with clicker training. She spends most of her training and teaching working with gaited horses and riders, working to get a smooth and relaxed gait for the trail.
In April of 2023, Ivy was given McSwagger to train for the Heart of Phoenix Equine Rescue. Swagger was a feral gelding from eastern Kentucky and Ivy had no previous experience training wild horses. Ivy had seen wild mustangs trained before and assumed she would be able to train Swagger just as easily. He quickly proved her wrong and Ivy is on a journey of training Swagger using only positive reinforcement, documenting the moments and sharing them so others will realize that some horses really do need a lot of time to overcome their fear.
Photo of Ivy with Swagger thanks to Ivy Starnes Photography & Cinematography
In this episode we discuss:
1:25 - episode introduction
3:50 - where in the world are Ivy & Swagger & the climate they live and train in
11:55 - talking hay
12:42 - whoops, sorry Tassie listeners! The rest of what I said was right but you are not 'an Island off Australia', you are 'an Island OF Australia'. My bad!
13:30 - Ivy's unique horsie origin story & gaited horses
26:50.954 - Swagger's story
32:13 - how Swagger came to be with Ivy & initially it seemed it would be easy...
36:57 - but it didn't start well
39:54 - getting out of the rut & getting some help
42:13 - help that's remote
43:59 - starting to slowly solve Swagger's disengagement
48:44 - a break-through and the progress snowball starting to slowly roll
51:56 - the approach for Swagger's care & welfare needs, particularly hoof care
1:03:11 - developing Swagger's environmental curiosity
1:04:35 - the highlights reel from February 2024 onward
1:09: 43 - coaching support with Michelle
1:13:44 - what MAYBE next
1:15:14 - Ivy's biggest learnings & recommendations
1:21:15 - supporting Swagger's journey & finding Ivy
1:24:14 - further thoughts
1:26:47 - wrapping-up with Swagger & Ivy's gift to us & what's on next week
Link from Ivy:
Go Fund Me link: https://gofund.me/83d83a1f
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IvysHorses
Website: www.IvysHorses.com
Our links mentioned this episode:
Abbey's Run Equestrian website
Abbey's Run Equestrian on Facebook
Thank you to Matthew Bliss for podcast production & consultation. If you'd like him to help with your podcast, get in touch by email at business@mbpod.com