Karen Rohlf enjoys a variety of horses. She is attracted to special individuals rather than specific breeds. Her focus is always to help each horse and rider become the best they can be.

I thought I would introduce you to some of my horses. I dedicated my book to "all the horses I need to thank and apologize to" and I hope that someday I become perfect enough for each horse I meet so I never feel like I need to apologize to them ever.

This page is still in progress, but for now, meet these three:

1. Monty
2. Ovation
3. Atomic

Monty (The King, The Boss)

Monty, (Conversano Melora I), is a 1991 Lipizzan gelding. Monty is an interesting individual. I have never felt so extremely, personally connected with a horse, and so disconnected with the same horse! With Monty, it is personal ... and partnership is earned. He is dominant, energetic, tends towards fearful, is highly emotional, and is very much aloof. Before I tell you his back story, let me just say that I have learned more from Monty about fair leadership, trust and partnership than with any other horse. He has taught me a lot about myself. He and I share the same birthday (well, not the year!). Two Aries ... lots of creativity, stubbornness and emotion! Monty has taught me to be aware of my thoughts, because he sure reads them.

I first met him when he was 6 years old, when he came to the farm I was working out of for training. Someone had tried to start him, and it ended with the woman getting tossed into some jumps and breaking her leg. Monty was not welcome back there.

He sat at home for a while, then went to a cowboy type to try again. He threw the guy out of the round pen, breaking his back. Monty was not welcome back there.

Monty has a over-developed sense of justice, and doesn't hesitate to express his thoughts on it. So I can't blame him for creating his world. If he doesn't like a situation, or thinks someone is not good enough for him, he lets you know! He came to our farm when he was six years old. For some reason I took him on (did I mention I like the special cases?) He spent two weeks with me. I am happy to report I did not come off and I did not break anything, but he did show me a few of his 'moves' that made me say: "Oh, that's what he does!" We made some progress in the 2 weeks, but it was still pretty sketchy. Then one day I came to the farm and his owner had taken him home (such is the life of a trainer).

I wouldn't see him again until 5 years later when I heard of a woman on Long Island giving away a 'crazy Lipizzan'. So at age 11, Monty and I started our partnership. The journey has been as interesting as the horse. He lost no time bucking me off and giving me a good kick in the guts ... I guess he regretted not getting that done the first time we met ;-). But very quickly, we made a connection and he let me into his world. And just as quickly I realized I would never part with him. He was one of the horses I brought with me to spend those first years immersed with Pat and Linda Parelli. In a year, he progressed to bridle-less through the open land of the Parelli's ranch in Colorado, and became one of the ambassadors for Dressage, Naturally. Watching his posture during liberty is what made me realize how little a horse needs from the rider. If he can be perfect without anyone touching him, then why would strong aids be needed when riding?

Riding him is like riding a jelly fish; he is one of the most flexible horses I have met. Monty does not like games. They are silly and beneath him. He does not like to be fussed over. He has a hard time giving that last percent of leadership away. But if you earn his respect, communicate clearly and honor his fears, the connection he offers is deep.

He has a herd-leader attitude and has a lot of stallion characteristics. This is why he is the King of the Temenos. Now, as he is getting older, my goal with him is to keep him in shape and feeling proud of what he does. For the first time in his life he is enjoying allowing other people riding him, too. A couple lucky working students have gotten to feel his slithery, powerful self, and he seems proud to be the teacher.

Ovation (The Court Jester, The Reluctant Rock Star)

Ovation is a 2003 Holsteiner/Paint cross. On the Holsteiner line, he is out of Fantabulous, who is by Rapport, and the paint sire is The Spotlight. Ovation was locally bred and I got him as a 3 year old from the field. He was extremely reasonably priced, tall and good looking, had 3 nice gaits, and I thought he could make a nice horse to start and resell. Ovation is dominant, low energy, extremely curious, not overly emotional, and friendly. When I first started working with him I didn't really like him. I tend to like the hotter type horses and he was so uninspired. It was comical to watch him in the pasture with the other horses. They would all zip around, and there would be Ovation, pulling up the rear. If he got really wild, he maybe would toss his head, but it usually threw him off balance so he would stumble awkwardly.

Teaching him was also funny ... mostly because if I didn't laugh I would probably cry. He just seemed to take forever to understand the most basic things. The dominance, lack of fear, and lack of energy worked together to manifest as a horse who basically preferred to just stand around and eat things. So, he was a nice safe easy horse to start in some respects, but when it came time to go ride outside the round pen, he was like riding a blind-folded, drunk horse. He had no idea where to go.

I remember one day I thought I really needed to ride him out in a bigger space. He had been going nicely around the outside of the round pen, but I felt bad; how boring was that! So I took him out into the field next to the round pen ... he was lost, we barely moved; if I put my leg on, he would balk. Somehow, we ended up pointing in the direction of the round pen and his ears went forward, he perked up, and trotted himself over to the round pen and went around it at a beautiful forward, free trot, blowing and licking. He was so proud!

That was when I realized that this horse was going to really need to understand simple things well in order to get excited about doing them. Moving, simply for the sake of moving, was not his style. It has been a real lesson for me in patience and creativity. Ovation loves to be fussed over and praised. Training him is a lot more like training a dog. He needs me to get excited about stuff. Interestingly, now he wants to show off! He truly is a reluctant rock star. He would never volunteer to go out on stage, but if you can get him out there, he transforms.

At some point he found his power and it became like a new toy for him. My dressage trainer neighbor even commented that it was like I had nothing, then all of a sudden he is moving like a super star, and she wasn't sure how it happened because I didn't seem to be 'doing dressage' with him.

I am very excited about him. His dominance is blossoming into pride, his energy is able to be unleashed, his curiosity is turning into keenness and attentiveness, and his friendliness just makes it easy to praise and reward him... He cares about what I think, and is proud of what he has learned!

Atomic (The Little Prince - a King in Training, Boss #2)

Atomic is a 2003 National Show Horse (Saddlebred/Arabian) gelding. He is very much like Monty, so I guess that makes him my little prince, or King in training! He is very dominant, but much more aggressive about it (I have seen him successfully fight off horses twice his size when he was laying down, without even bothering to get up). He is high energy, fearful, emotional, and aloof (although I must say his aloofness is warming into friendly as I gain his trust and build his confidence). He is super smart. I named him Atomic because he truly is a big thing in a small package.

I bought him for almost nothing, sight unseen out of the muddy cow pasture from the owners, who had decided to give up breeding horses and were going to try their hand at Pomeranian dogs. I had met this horse's full brother and liked him. When asked what had been done with the 3 year old stallion, the previous owners said, "'Well, the kids throw food to him now and again."  When he arrived in a 2-horse trailer, I couldn't even see him over the tailgate. He came off a skinny, wild child and I wondered what I had done and why. But then he pranced around the paddock and I thought, "ooooh, that's fancy!"

Atomic has taught me a lot about leadership. These Boss types really require it. My biggest dilemma with him (after general taming) was to gain the position of leadership, without giving him a reason to feel defensive. It would have been easier if I could just puff myself up and be dominant over him ... but that just triggered his aggression. It would have been easier if I could have just been soft and gained his trust, but he would walk all over me, or at least not recognize me as a leader. The most difficult moments were if he got scared. He would try to preserve himself by trying to flee to safety, and in that moment if I tried to interrupt it, he did not accept me as a leader and would get aggressive towards me, seeing me as another obstacle between the scary thing and safety. It's not that much fun riding a squirrely, scared horse who is trying to run away and bite your leg at the same time! :-)

I have to remember that he can't be trust worthy until I trust him. But my boundaries have to be extremely clear and non-negotiable. I did a lot of observing him in the herd. I learned how he thought the world should work and what he did to gain leadership over the other horses. I played the same games with him, looking for leadership without getting into dominance games that I couldn't win. Big results came from how I handled feeding time.

His acceptance of me while on him has lagged about a year behind everything else. It was crucial to know when to have a foundational focus and when to have a dressage focus. I just can't skip steps with this horse. He is too smart and, like Monty, has an over-inflated sense of justice and of himself. As I earned his gift of allowing me to be the leader, his progress dressage-wise has caught up fast. Proof again that it is just not worth wrestling with their posture until their attitude is one of willingness and confidence.

Size-wise, Atomic is way to small for me (his nick name is 'Squirt'), but somehow his big spirit and presence carry me. He is truly sweet beneath that tough exterior. I think he, like my chihuahua, may feel like he needs to make himself extra big, but deep down he is soft. I am really happy with his progress and am so happy to now be developing his fancy gaits. I am excited to see where we go together. I hope I am smart enough for him!