Re: crops and stuff...

[Tara Wheeler <harpy@io.com>]

If I owned a horse I thought was overly dangerous, I'd put a bullet in it's
head myself rather than  risk the life of an auction-pen or slaughterhouse
worker.

Horses are inherently dangerous.  Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.

Like driving on the freeway.  I drive a 3/4 ton truck with a tubular steel
cow-catcher on the front.  I know I know how to drive, that my breaks and
tires are good, and I have insurance, but can't be 100% certain of all the
other drivers on the road.  It's called defencive driving.

Read any ride sign up sheet.  Horseback riding is an inherantly dangerous
sport.  You sign a paper saying that you understand this and that you don't
hold the ride-owners responcible if you get killed or maimed on their ride.

You can be killed around even the most well-trained horses.

I broke my elbow on the first of July when a bee flew into my mare's ear
and stung her.  I'd love to see a horse trained well enough to stand still
for that.

You said:

>OTOH, our horses, who DON'T kick out and behave
>aggressively are fully entitled to take a swipe if they get rear-ended or
>bitten or kicked at. Goes both ways.

I just want to know how you train your 'well behaved horses' to know the
difference between a good touch and a bad touch.

Are they 'entitled' to do so, but so well behaved they don't take that option?

This whole mess started over the proper use of a crop on a ride.

I said I used mine when my mare, who gets bitchy on occasion, needed a swat
to remind her not to take that bite, or that kick, no matter how well
deserved.

I would love to teach my mare those never talked about parts of dressage
that taught a warhorse to kick and strike and bite on command.  Would come
in handy should a dangerous dog (or any other unrestrained animal) pop out
of the bushes and come after us again (this has happened in the past).

However, right now, there is no such thing as a 'good kick' or a 'good
bite' or even a 'good pinned ear'.   A quick swat and a 'quit!' nip that in
the bud.

I'm taking my mare to rides.  I'm putting a red ribbon in her tail as she
has kicked in the past.  I'm riding defensivly, trying to keep an eye on
the less experienced and the idiot rodeoing cowboys at the same time. I'm
wearing my helmet and carrying my crop.  I am responcible for my actions
and those of my mare. And I'm continuing to take lessons at home under
various instructors to improve my form and that of my horse.

Every time my mare and I go out, we learn something. And we get better.

I thought that was the point.  To progress rather than stagnate.

San, I'm glad your horses are perfect.  I can't afford a $30,000 perfect
horse.  I'll stick with the under $2000 not-so-perfect horses and train
them as I go.  If you're training your own perfect horses and come to
Central Texas, I'll pay $200 for a day's lesson as I do whenever someone
comes to town with a new way to do things on horseback.

My advice for you is to stop going to rides.  There's an awful lot of
people training their horses as they go and it might be dangerous out there
with all the kicking and biting and crop waiving.  And they're only getting
younger.

Badly behaved, but still fun at parties,

Tara Wheeler
_____________________________________________________________________________
"She is the virgin harlot. She is vulgar, witty, knowlegable to a depth
that terrifies, cruel when she is most kind, unthinking while she thinks,
and when she seeks to build, she is as destructive as the corriolis storm."
_____________________________________________________________________________
Bijas from 'Dune Messiah' speaking about Alia and harpy@io.com