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Took my coming 4YO filly to a clinic yesterday for my
distance riding group. It was at a paint breeder's
farm and the breeders are 3 years into a natural
horsemanship program with a big name guru. 

A little back ground, I bred this filly and have been
with her every day of her life. she has been lightly
under saddle for a year with no bucking, no problems.
She's just been an absolute gem to work with. In the
last couple of months, we've begun serious trail
training and she's just done everything I've asked of
her. She's not spooky, she's smart and willing to try
new things.

I thought this might be a good learning experience for
Ali and she might get to do some things that are fun
and interesting for her. It turned out that I carried
home some very negative feelings about people who are
supposed to be kinder gentler trainers, but who don't
read the horse very well! 

I've decided after going to a lot of clinics that most
of the "natural horsemanship trainers" spend a lot of
time with ONE horse. That horse becomes their demo
horse and will do anything, including make sandwiches
and do the dishes. I have half a dozen horses to work
with.

There was this "obstacle" course set up in the arena
for us to do. Now we aren't a NATRC group and we don't
judge obstacles on trail, but I figured this would be
a good exercise anyway. Miss Ali has never in her life
been inside a barn before! It was a horribly windy
day, 40 mph gusts, that rattled the eaves and vents of
the barn making it a pretty scary place. 

Ali walked right in the barn under saddle and stood
quietly while we watched the demo and other horses do
the course. (every one had a really difficult time
with it). It was set up like a trail class course with
absolutly nothing that we would find out in the real
world on the trail! 

First there was a narrow aisle made of straw bales we
had to walk the horse through. On top of the bales was
a plastic alligator and a bucket of flowers! Ali has
been down a lot of narrow, rutted trails, but that was
not her idea of a good time. Then we had to go over a
wooden plank bridge, which, she did. Then we had to
walk our horse into a mess of tangled Christmas tree
lights and stand the horse there quietly. 

Ali, being a good trail horse, picked her way OVER the
lights, very carefuly placing her feet. LOL. She did
the square with teh beach ball OK. Then there was a
clothesline with clothes on in. Now she has gone under
clotheslines with clothes since she was an infant, no
big deal. But this was in the dark corner of the barn
with the wind just rattling the roof something fierce.


Each time Ali balked at somethign, this "trainer"
grabbed her bridle and tried to yank her through it. I
told her to leave us alone and we could do it. Ali
about yanked miss natural horsemanship trainer off her
feet one time, LOL. 

We got through the clothes and on the other side was
an obstacle of 3 poles with an ugly man sitting at the
corner. Ali wasn't prepared for that, and spooked, but
just a small startle. I was really proud that she
didnt' really freak.... 

But that was her last obstacle. There were half a
dozen more, but I could tell she had more than enough
at that point. The trainer kept trying to urge me on.
Meanwhile the wind was howling, birds were dive
bombing us and the trainer's dog was in the arena
trying to help and we had an audience of horses and
riders. 

I looked at Ali's HRM and her heart rate was 110
standing still! I said, my mare has had enough, we're
through and left the arena. I took Ali outside, where
she immediately calmed down and her heart rate
dropped. I rode her through an outdoor obstacle course
and she did just fine, no balking, no problems, She
handled blowing debris, wood piles, old rusty water
troughs, picnic tables, etc. just fine. 

Then had lunch and a rest period and then did a little
trail ride of a mile or so. I wanted to just pack up
and go home, but against my better judgment, I went.
The trail ride was not one of Ali's better times
either. I knew we should have called it a day, so I
dismounted and worked with her till she was her sweet
self again. Meanwhile the trainers kept trying to
"help".. I told them to leave us alone and let my mare
chill out a little. 

We got back to our trailer and dang if they didn't try
to make us go back into the barn for the obstacle
course again! I screamed NO WAY MY MARE HAS HAD
ENOUGH....I think they finally "got it" then and left
us alone! 

Ali is not a spooky horse and she has shown me over
and over again that she will take on a lot of
challenges and figure things out. I knew that on this
particular day, she was not dealing well with what was
in front of her and it would have been a disaster to
keep pushing her the way they wanted me to. 

I think if we had all the time in the world and we had
been in the barn by ourselves without "trainers" Ali
would have eventually accepted the scary stuff and
done the obstacles just fine, but that situation was
overwhelming to her. 

Long story short, Why don't trainers see that knowing
when to STOP is part of training????? Grrrrrr.... So
much for clinics as a teaching tool for my horse.. 

chris 



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"A good horse makes short miles," George Eliot

Chris and Star

BayRab Acres
http://pages.prodigy.net/paus
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