Western Horseman, April 1994

Planning to Win
by Pat Murphy

To beat 100 Snaffle Bit Futurity contenders, everything has to be right.

Before 1993, Sandy Collier, of Buellton, California, had been the ladies champion of the National Reined cow Horse Futurity twice. At the week-ling September 1993 competition, held in Fresno's Selland Arena, she repeated as ladies winner, added wins in herd work and preliminaries, and emerged as the winner of the open division. She scored 445 out of a possible 480 points in the three categories: herd work, reining, and fence work--and became the first woman to win the open in the 24 years the event has been held. The1993 event paid out more than $300,000 in cash and prizes.

Collier is a full-time trainer who specializes in cutting, reining, and reined cow horses at her new location in Buellton. She also instructs students for non-professional competition.

The road to victory began when David and Paul Hunsicker, of Solvang California, asked Sandy to accompany them on a search for a snaffle bit futurity prospect. They found Miss Rey Dry, then a 2 year old, at R.J. Chambers Tejon Ranch, at Lebec, California. The horse was sired by Dry Doc and was out of Starlita Seguin.

Sandy collier talks about the horse and about winning.

What did you look for in your selection of the right horse?
What's important to me is how the moves, because the one who accomplishes the most with the least amount of effort is going to be the winner. A horse who is athletic and efficient in his movement has a presence about him that commands attention, even if he is not really pretty.

As for conformation, I like them to be a little narrower in front than some people do. I look for a smart, kind eye and a willing horse who is intelligent and eager to learn and to please you. If they aren't, in spite of all their training, they will never look like they enjoy what they're doing and won't be a winner.

When riding, even on a green horse, I want their hindquarters to just drop beneath me--when I sit down and they stop. I find that they either have the ability or they don't.

How did you keep Miss Rey Dry's attitude fresh and willing?
I never fatigue a horse. That can bring on injuries and it takes away their enthusiasm. I remember that there is always tomorrow, and if a horse has gone at least a little way toward what I am trying to accomplish and the horse is getting tired, we stop. My theory is that I try to improve the horse 1 percent each time I ride them. I plan one little thing to work on each day. This has resulted in a very low injury rate nada perfect results in avoiding a sour horse.

Another way to keep them fresh is to give them variety. I ride them out on ranches, I have a big loping reach for them to lope on, we gather cattle, we work the cows, etc. When they come out of their stalls, they never know what they're going to do that day.

How do you keep yourself fresh and excited about riding?
The same way. I do a lot of things beside ride horses. I run every day and play racquetball or squash. I take lots of adult education classes and work part time in the emergency room at the hospital, and I also have my real estate license. I am hooked on learning and trying something new and different. So, I strongly feel that a variety works very well for animals and humans alike, in keeping enthusiasm high.

What are your thoughts about being a woman in the horse training profession?
In some ways, it has advantages, as I don't necessarily resort to physical strength as a solution to problems. I think we tend to make up for any lack of strength with finess and creativity. When you can turn a potential weakness into strength, that's great.

Since horses are bigger and stronger than I am, rather than dominate them, I try to challenge them and get them to be enthusiastic and want to participate and be team players.

How do you encourage a horse to want to participate when basically he would rather do nothing?
You give the horse a choice, but make what you want to him to do more pleasant and give him lots of praise for succeeding. Then his confidence is raised and he will start volunteering, just like a kid in he classroom.

I use the principles put forth by Tom Dorrance and Ray Hunt, the legendary colt starters who developed a system that is pretty stress-proof. This leads right from the round pen to a training program that allows the horse to make choices.

It is more difficult for women to compete in these events?
When I first started showing, I thought men and women had equal opportunities to win, but I was mistaken. However, it has now changed a lot because of some fine women competitors who, in spite of the odds, kept turning up with great horses from their excellent training programs and they became highly respected because they have earned it.

What popular training techniques do you depart from?
There is a common theory that many subscribe to "peaking a horse." In other words, getting the horse improving steadily in his performance and timing it so he reaches his apex of performance right at the time of the major futurity, before he tapers back down.

I don't want my horse peaking at the futurity season. I want him solid; so I take him to a place in his training where he is really comfortable, and we form a solid foundation there. Then, no matter what happens he can fall back on a solid foundation. If I have to ask them for one more inch during a futurity, they are confident and comfortable that they will revert to that spot if necessary, but not stress out and fall apart.

Miss Rey Dry was happy and fresh and sound mentally and physically. Although I had shown her at five futurities previously, she never acted like she had been shown yet. She was still fresh.

Since I must train a futurity horse to be able to compete in reining, cutting, and cow horse work, I have to teach them one way and make everything fit it in an orderly way. But this is really a tricky thing to do. With Miss Rey Dry, I did something a bit different. I rode her like a reiner on her dry work, so by March I was riding her a little in a shank bit with a jointed mouthpiece, one handed. We did all the moved that way (normally you use two hands with snaffle but training). I wasn't helping her so much and she was making more of the decisions. I really think this made a big difference.

When I did herd work, I rode her like a cutter--one-handed. I repeat these techniques, because I was really pleased. In a way, a horse is like a computer. If you put the right things in, step by step, in the right sequence, then when you push the right buttons, it all comes out and forms a pretty picture. If it's crammed in there and you beat it in, you get a little picture of a bomb on your screen.

What bits are you happiest with?
For reining, I use a Billy Allen, a bit made by Greg Darnall that has a medium length shank and a little roller in the mouthpiece. The cutting bit is a short-shank correction bit and it has a mouthpiece that's broken in two places instead of just one. It puts a big who them. The snaffle bit is the third bit I use.

When did you suspect that you had a winner?
When I was having trouble deciding what events to enter her in because she was good in all of them. I said to the Hunsickers, "Shall we show her in reining events because she has this beautiful stop and turnaround, or shall we show her as a cutter because she is so correct and cute in front of a cow, or do we show her in the snaffle bit, because she just goes down the fence and swallows the cow?

Miss Frey Dry is really smart and you can watch her sort out information and make a decision on what is the right thing to do. Suddenly, I realized that this was one great horse, so I showed her in all of them.

How did you prepare for the futurity?
I increased my workouts at the gym, can run for an hour effortlessly, and I have tow high-ranking belts in Aikido and Kenpo karate. I'm 40 years old, but I've never been in better physical shape. Along with that came the mental high of being up and positive, and these are sustainable. I never went through the common pre-futurity stress syndrome.

You have to learn to control the pressure on yourself. Instead of being obsessed with winning, vow to be the best that you can be on that day, on that horse. The winning will take car of itself. That's what I did at the futurity. As we went into the herd work, I was aware of everything but distracting by nothing, rather than having tunnel vision. I learned this in martial arts training. The fact that there were 5,500 people there didn't faze me because of the preparation I had done. I didn't percieve it as pressure. I felt like I had a team behind me that wanted us to win and my horse now it, too. It was like being on a crest of a wave, and we were going to ride it to victory.

How do you advise students to handle pre-show butterflies?
Get out of that fight of flight response, which is dysfunctional in the show ring. Convert it into enthusiasm and feel excited and challenged. Remember that, after all, this is not brain surgery. No one is going to die if you don't do great.

A positive attitude should become a way of life. Negative thoughts are your thoughts opponents, not the other opponents. Feel like you're a winner by reviewing your victories and your strong points. Having good mental skills is half the fight. Be relentless in pursuit of your goals. Have complete faith in your ability to be great. If you don't completely believe in yourself, you will never get past mediocrity. You don't make excuses and you don't cast blame. Everyone loves winning but you must love the struggle to get there.