thanks, that was my feeling. She trusts me, but I'd been warned she would never respond to punishment, and she's the kind who is a one person horse. 3x other riders tried to ride her in the beginning and they ended up jumping off. She isn't a quarter horse. But with time and taking it slow till she was bored to death she trusts me now I think. .And actually acts like a plug. But she has shown a tendency to bolt from fear and dumped me last fallthat way, and was shaking when I walked over to her,(no I didn't hit her or anything)But we then rode another 10 minutes after she calmed down.The few times she has trotted(my daughter 1x, she rides eventers, and me 2x, bolted once, she was extremly hollow and tense). This is the same horse it took me a month to teach to blanket, by approaching little steps, unfolding it slowly, getting closer,etc. Same with bathing, saddling etc. I think sometimes I am working with a wild mustang, the similarities I've read about are striking. Maybe she is just more "primitive", except she is smart. I will have to lead her the first 1/2 mile thought, because I have to go down the logging road, past the 1st, junk pile, till I get far enough I have a safe area away from truck rednecks, 4 wheelers and have an area I can emergency dismount if I have too.I also will pick times when I am less likely to run into them. thanks. . . . Laurie and Rascal and Honey ----- Original Message ----- From: Donnie and Sherie Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 8:15 PM To: ladurgin@xxxxxxx Subject: green horse I have started 2 young horses and totally believe in TAKING IT SLOW. It's much easier to take it slow and build confidence that to push them too fast and try to undo the bad things they learn. I believe in WALKING, WALKING, WALKING the first 30 rides outside of an arena and I use the one rein to stop them from trotting the instant they try it on their own. To me, if you let them trot on their own instead of you telling them, before you know it they're wanting to trot whenver they want. I usually spend 10 minutes in the arena doing cones, circles etc to make sure the brain is engaged. Then the first 5 rides, I will ride a mile away from my house and back. Then the next few rides, I'll ride 1 1/2 mile out and back. Every 5 rides, I'll add a 1/2 mile to the distance away from home. I like to mix lots of riding alone with riding with another horse as I don't want the young horse to rely on another horse all the time. After 30 rides of WALKING, then I start trotting.......but only away from home and never at the beginning of a ride. I want the horse to get it in it's head that we aren't leaving the barn and running at first to let off steam. The horse needs to learn to control it's extra energy and use it when I ask. Hope this helps.
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