Summary Continued
Above left: Patrick explains the importance of longeing for respect, one of the fundamental exercises in Downunder Horsemanship.
Middle: Kendall and a friend watch as Patrick rides Ravi bareback for the second time.
Right: Kendall can now ride Ravi.
Kendall and Ravi begin to form a deep bond as she learns to consider why Ravi’s thinks and reacts the way he does and how to communicate with him using Downunder Horsemanship methods. Over the next few months, she watches the little horse she loves go from a frightened youngster to a more confident horse that she can now ride.
Four months after giving Ravi to Kendall, the friend pulls the rug out from under the 13-year-old when she tells Kendall that she can no longer pay the horse’s expenses. Kendall’s parents, who can’t afford a trainer and are desperately trying to keep their two businesses afloat, reluctantly tell their daughter to find a new home for Ravi.
Kendall, frantic to keep her horse, comes up with a plan she thinks might work. She tells her parents that she’ll give up everything else she does, sacrifice all her time with friends, do whatever it takes to learn to train Ravi, and do all the work herself if she can keep him. Her parents see her determination and decide to let her try despite the deep financial hardship it brings.
Thrilled that she can keep her young horse, Kendall begins to train Ravi on her own in April 2012, an arduous task usually handled by a professional trainer.
Kendall rides Ravi at their first competitive show in September 2012. He was nervous and difficult to handle at first but settled down after a few classes.
Kendall is now on her own training Ravi and begins the grueling task of teaching a rambunctious youngster to be a polished show horse, usually handled by a professional trainer. Trainers tell her to get rid of Ravi because he’s not bred to be a show horse and will never win. And, they tell her she’s too young to train her own horse. But, Kendall is determined that he can be a champion, and she views Downunder Horsemanship as her secret weapon to prove them wrong.
Her bond with Ravi deepens, even while she’s bullied by and has trouble connecting with other kids. She’s unaware that she has ADHD, but she knows something about her isn’t normal. She has trouble focusing at school because her mind is a jumble of noise, but all goes quiet when she sits on the back of her horse.
Struggling with herself as much as with Ravi, Kendall begins to doubt whether she really can train her horse and, as Ravi fights and resists her efforts, she wonders if trainers were right about him.
Ravi doesn’t want to grow up and be a show horse, showing his sassy personality with a head shake during a show in June 2013. Kendall does her best to manage his temper tantrums in front of the judge. She wonders if the trainers who told her to get of him were right, but she refuses to give up on him.
Kendall has Ravi under controll and looking great by their show in September 2013.
Throughout 2012 and 2013, Kendall keeps at it and, during the 2013 show season, they begin to have moderate success in the show ring.
In early 2014, she sets her sights on winning the Youth English High Point Championship through United Horsemen of the Carolinas, a statewide open horse show organization (open to any breed). After a rocky start to the 2014 show season and challenges beyond what she ever imagined, her hard work with Ravi pays off when she defeats the bullies from her previous barn to win the championship on the horse no one else believes in.
Top left: Patrick congratulates Kendall on winning her first blue ribbon with Ravi at a show in October 2012.
Middle left: Kendall and Ravi win Youth Grand Champion at a show in March 2013.
Top right: Kendall is happy with how Ravi is improving at a show in May 2013.
Bottom left: After competing successfully during the United Horsemen of the Carolinas 2014 show season, Kendall and Ravi clinch the title of Youth English High Point Champion with a winning last show in October 2014.
Bottom right: Ravi wears his championship insulated blanket and Kendall wears her championship jacket.
Palomino Youth World Show
During her senior year in high school, Kendall is determined that Ravi can compete at higher level breed shows, so she decides to take him to the Palomino Youth World Show held in July of 2017 in Tunica, MS. Adults at her barn grow jealous of her success with Ravi and threaten Kendall, saying they’ll stop her from going to the world show. She’s forced to move Ravi to a new barn a few weeks before the show because she’s afraid one of the adults will hurt Ravi out of spite.
After months of intense training and fundraising, Kendall finally has the money she needs for the trip. At the world show, she’s competing against youth riders with professional trainers, but her and Ravi’s success depends on how well she has trained her horse. Nervous but undeterred, Kendall proves what a girl with ADHD and a throw-a-way horse can do when they win a PHBA Reserve World Championship and two PHBA National Snaffle Bit Association championships. Kendall is overcome with emotion at competing successfully at this show with her spunky little backyard-bred horse.
What Her Horse Told Her is not like the fictional girl-with-a-horse books where the girl miraculously trains a horse in two weeks and then wins a championship. This true story details the nitty gritty, day-to-day grind of what it takes to train a spirited, sometimes naughty young horse and the internal and external battles Kendall fights to prove everyone wrong.
“I wanted Ravi to prove that he could be what they said he couldn’t be, and he did it. He proved to everyone that he’s a champion,” she said. Kendall looked lovingly at her golden horse with the big ears and short legs and said, “You did it, Ravi. You did it!”
