Re: long term conditioning.

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <gabbani@starnet.com.eg>]

While I don't have pasture for my two colts, they've had a lot of desert
time to run free alongside their mothers and then when they got too old to
follow mom anymore, we've always turned them out with a bunch of crusty old
mares to whip them into shape. Result? I have a 2+yr old and a 10 month old
who know how to play together without causing tissue damage, who know how to
jolly an older mare into playing with them, and who know when not to even
try. They are calm, kind and considerate to their people (grooms, friends
and myself) and utterly ignore silly dogs, blowing plastic bags (the
Egyptian national bird), and other funny shaped objects like camels. Horses
need to know how to speak horse well before they can really learn people, is
my theory....and if they can speak horse, they are less likely to be a
problem in a group. It's been trial and error, but so far so good.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
gabbani@starnet.com.eg

> In a message dated 1/5/00 11:40:03 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> dotwgns@ruralnetwork.net writes:
>
> << Horses that  have the chance to learn to be "horses" in the open and in
a
>  herd environment before they learn to be pets can usually take better
care
>  of themselves and their riders. >>



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