Restaurant server hopes for horse training career

ROYAL CITY - When diners see smallish, blondish Judy's food server Ashlee Moore for the first time, they probably don't imagine she's spends the rest of her waking hours with big animals like horses.

But Ashlee does that on the family farm about a mile from her employment, on the road that leads directly south from Judy's.

Ashlee, 19 and a 2014 graduate of Royal High School, has no plans for college. She wants to become a professional horse trainer, improving her already good skills while waitressing.

Grandma Jean Scroggins, who gave Ashlee her first ride as a two-year-old, is encouraging her granddaughter. She said animals like her, and "she's good with horses."

Ashlee was born into a horse culture. Her grandparents and parents, Steve and Karen, had horses when she was born. According to grandma, Ashlee was competent enough at the age of five that she was allowed to roam the five acres by herself on horseback.

But it wasn't necessarily easy. Ashlee rode a stubborn Shetland cross named Shiloh. She learned on him and knew how to handle him when he occasionally reared up.

Ashlee's horse today is a paint called Rain, named after the horse in the movie Spirit. When this one was unloaded from the trailer, Ashlee told her mother that he was Rain.

Ashlee was 6-7 years old at the time. So she grew up with Rain. Her mother did the initial training. Ashlee picked it up from there and continues to train Rain.

"Horses can always learn new things," she said.

Horses weren't the only animals in Ashlee's pre-teen and teen years. As a member of 4-H, she raised and showed steers at the Grant County Fair. She was top-5 fitting and showing all three years.

"I had one last year I could ride," she said. "He was a baby."

Chili Bean, as the steer was named, was the only steer to bring sadness at the end of the relationship. Like all show steers, he was sold.

"He's somebody's hamburger now," Ashlee said.

Ashlee also showed pigs one year.

But horses have always been number one with Ashlee. She showed Rain at Moses Lake three years and at the state fair in Puyallup one year.

Horse and rider were all-around high point winner all three years at Moses Lake in the performance events - barrel racing, pole bending and flags. Rain was the grand champion last year in fitting and showing.

It was during her freshman year that Ashley started to consider training as a career. She was having good results practicing with Rain. In January she got her first outside horse to train from the Valentine family.

It was a refinement project of less than two months. The horse had a habit of leaning on or pushing people lightly - intimidation. She trained it out of him.

Ashlee is training Rain to be a show horse. She hopes to have him ready within a year to start competing. It's then that she'll start to find out if she'll have a career. If Rain wins or at least does well, horse owners should take notice of her.

Meanwhile, Ashlee is studying on line or by DVD. Each time she learns a new technique, she practices it with Rain.

Ashlee's approach is gentle and slow. She won't saddle a new horse until she completes the ground work with the horse.

"That's the way most training is done now," she said. "There are very few cowboys "breaking" horses like they used to. A lot of people frown upon breaking and see it as abusive."

Training a horse is the art of removing habits that are instinctive to horses. They are always trying to intimidate other horses and humans too. They show disrespect with their hind ends.

The ground work is done with a lead line. The end goal is to get the horse to respect and respond to the rider, and you train as long as it takes.

One of Ashlee's first efforts is to get the horse to square up with her. That's a show of respect for her.

"If they flip their butt to you, that's a sign of disrespect," she said.

You can train the horse to eventually do what you want by pointing with the lead and, maybe later, without the lead. Another early effort is to get the horse to back up on command.

"To back up is very submissive," Ashlee said.

According to Ashlee, not all horses pick up the things that are being trained in the same order. Like children, they all learn differently.

"You can go from the ground work to the saddle, and a lot of the training will transfer," Ashlee said.

And that, too, is a gentle, slow process. You get the horse used to the blanket before trying the saddle, and you don't get into the saddle until after the horse accepts the saddle.

"You put one foot in a stirrup, lean up and hop off," Ashlee said. "You do it again and again and . . ."

The reason Ashlee continues to practice with Rain is that she is refining her own skills. The more she teaches him, the more she grows.

"It's a matter of learning how to effectively communicate to the horse what I'm asking him to do," she said.