Hochstetler Arabian Horses by Stephanie Kilts
Merlin and Telesha Hochstetler of Corvallis, Mont. have measured their lives in terms of horses. Merlin Hochstetler grew up outfitting with his father in Montana’s wildernesses and Telesha Hochstetler, originally from Texas, received her first pony under the Christmas tree when she was a small child and has worked with numerous horse breeds, including Thoroughbreds, Saddlebreds, Quarter Horses, and Tennessee Walkers. But the Hochstetlers’ true love is Arabian horses.
In 1986, in the same year the couple was married, the Hochstetlers found an Arabian mare they fell in love with and bought a horse trailer to take her home. They expanded their ranch with their foundation stallion, Bey Tshah Majik, and have been breeding Arabians since.
“Arabians want to please you,” Telesha Hochstetler said, and are highly intelligent, making them easy to train. They also rarely buck because of their good nature, she said, and they are know for their endurance and good minds. When the couple joins other friends for trail riding, “our horses just keep going,” Telesha Hochstetler said.
The Arabian farm has approximately 40 horses running on their property in the Bitterroot Valley and breed for certain bloodlines. “I always wanted to be creative, but I never was. So I studied biology and genetics and found that horse breeding allows me to be creative,” Telesha Hochstetler said. Their horses have been sold in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Jordan and all over the United States. In order to sell their horses throughout the year, the Hochstetlers make sure their horses have been trained with the basics of being under saddle.
Therefore during an early snowfall in October, Merlin Hochstetler, Chinook Swindle, Jim Weiss and Scott Landis headed out to the barn with halters, bridles and saddles to train the six new horses before winter hit the Bitterroot Valley.
All of the men are old friends and originally knew each other from ski patrol. They are now all accomplished horsemen. Weiss, from the Big Hole, travels with Swindle to numerous horse clinics. Landis, Telesha Hochstetler’s son-in-law, has learned many of his horse skills from Weiss.
Since Arabians mature later than other breeds, the young horses are not started under saddle until they are five to six years old.
The ranch uses methods from the Parelli Training Program, a program by trainer Pat Parelli that combines psychology and communication to teach people how to work with the horses. Working in round pens, the men chased the horses away from them in order to establish leadership over the horse using “herd language,” Telesha Hochstetler explained. By using horse language, the trainers gain confidence from the horses that enabled the men to work more closely with the horses when they introduced tack for the first time.
“They use psychology rather than force to get the horses to do what they want,” Telesha Hochstetler said.
The men then worked on the horses yielding to them from both the mind and the body. They first start out by touching the horses all over to get the colts and fillies to understand the human touch than bending their heads and necks, pushing off shoulders, and picking up feet. They flop saddle blankets on them to get use to the feel and sound of the pad than introduce the saddle.
With the four men working the horses at the same time, many of the young horses are able to be ridden with just one or two days of handling. Landis spent the morning mounting the fillies and colts for the first time. He worked on making sure the horses are comfortable moving forward and understand the concept of stop.
Once the basics are done, they can be trained further into whatever discipline their owners want them to get into, Telesha Hochstetler said, but the ranch only works on getting the horses through the first steps of training.
In order to get a start on the horses when they are young, all of Majik Arabian’s horses are handled as foals. The next morning Kara Strain, an employee of Majik Arabians who feeds the horses during the week, separated the mares and foals into individual holding pens and one by one, placed halters on the foals. Strain works with the foals almost every day during the summer by handling them and using ropes and halters to teach them the basics of leading.
Although Telesha Hochstetler used to train all her horses, things have changed since she became ill ten years ago. The Hochstetlers, who were once active in the Arabian show circuit, have stopped traveling and showing their horses and are instead concentrating on breeding and maintains a foal crop of four to five foals a year.
“We want to breed pretty, athletic horses with brains,” Telesha Hochstetler said.