Re: RC: Re: RE: tripping

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/05/2000 3:49:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
suendavid@worldnet.att.net writes:

<< Amazing that she's as sweet and
 trusting as she is, she's the "packer" around here for the kids and scared
 beginners.  But don't ever let a lead rope get tangled up in her legs. >>

We have a long-time friend who boards her very nice Arab mare with us.  The 
mare is in her late 'teens and is still very frightened of anything around 
her legs, such as brush and wild blackberry vines.  When she was young, and 
before our friend bought her, she had been difficult to shoe, so the men in 
her life roped her and threw her on the ground to shoe her.  To this day, she 
1) doesn't like men, 2) is slow to trust someone new (she loves her owner and 
will do anything for her), and 3) is panicky about going through brush or 
over limbs.  She will leap high to clear, or her rider dismounts and sends 
the mare through ahead of her.  When we had a male horseshoer, he always had 
trouble doing her hind feet, but our daughter is now our farrier, and has 
gradually gained the mare's trust.
Our friend rides this mare in nothing but a nylon web halter with a rope tied 
both ends into the ring under her jaw.  Her race starts were sane and 
controlled, and she was 3rd place and BC in Swanton Pacific 100 some years 
ago.  Horses don't forgive fools lightly.....

Barbara