Imagine a Horse

In 1986, Allen bought a book titled “Teaching the Haute’ Cole which inspired him greatly. 

The book contained some tricks such as teaching the Bow and the Spanish Walk. Chuck Grant clearly understood the value of teaching his Dressage horses tricks! This was exciting to Allen and as he had the perfect horse in his own back yard he started experimenting.

He searched for books on trick training, modern and old and then searched for teachers and mentors; he slowly discovered there weren’t any. In his search for information he DID find written works by popular “horse tamers” such as Professor Beery and John Rarey.

Allen began to experiment and as his young Arabian stallion, Hasan advanced, he began to chart his own course of trick training. His education as an engineer amazingly translated to analyzing and understanding the physical mechanics and requirements of the horse’s moves.

And so it began...

Allen and Hasan in the early days.

Allen and Hasan, a Paula Da Silva photo

Allen became totally engrossed in his relationship with Hasan and spent nearly every waking hour (and some sleep time) playing with him. Their relationship matured, they were inseparable. Allen sealed himself off from the outside world, totally engrossed in this new adventure. For nearly TEN years, the man and his horse learned together the finer points of dressage, high school horses and trick training.

There is a line from an old Roy Rogers’ song that goes like this “Trigger was four and I was twenty six, it wasn’t like work, just play”; that is how it was for Allen and Hasan. In true Bedouin tradition of raising an Arabian horse, the two lived and played together continuously; for a few seasons, they were each other’s total existence.

Allen lived near several riding facilities and soon rumors of this man and his horse circulated, and out of curiosity, equestrians of many disciplines began to visit and to invite them to their facilities.

Sue had spent her corporate life in sales and marketing and was an accomplished horsewoman. She had always trained her own horses and in 2000, she started training saddle horses full time. The first time she saw Allen’s horses perform, she had never seen outside of a traditional circus, horses perform at liberty and what came as a shock to her was it was a troupe of 3 horses---a stallion, Hasan and two mares. 

And she began to Imagine.

The two soon forged a relationship that would change their lives forever as they created Imagine a Horse and literally brought Trick Training into the new millennium.

R. Monet, Sue’s Western Pleasure Arabian and first Trick Horse trained by Allen