Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Once upon a time, when I first got my Paint to do some competitive rides and 
possible LDs, I thought I had found the perfect 'old ladies' horse...Ha, ha....

I thought we were doing great, as he had already been well started, but very 
green, and he seemed to do everything I asked of him...Then I took him to a 
'natural horsemanship type' clinic....Boy did my eyes get opened, and I got 
humble....

That occasional nippy thing he did at home was down right aggressive in the 
new setting. Refused to back up or away from me at all, when at home he did 
this well.  Crowded me, shouldered into me...just about anything he could do to 
show that, no, I had no respect from this horse! I was embarrassed. What 
brought this out was the new environment. After the clinic I had a whole pocket 
full 
of tools to use on a very arrogant horse.  He still planted me a few times, 
as he was very good at the 180. But over time, he realized that being with Mom 
was much better than running amuck in a strange place...so he at least tries 
not to unseat me when he has a fright. The last time I hit the ground was when 
a deer jumped out in front of us while we were getting down the trail pretty 
fast. He actually tried to get back under me, but I was too far gone...<g> At 
least I didn't land as hard...I found that his spooking problem was simply that 
he hadn't established the fact that he could trust me to be the leader.
I still have to reinforce my position sometimes, but that is just his 
character ~ keeps testing to see if the Captain's position is open...<g>
I suspect the one rein stop doesn't work for some people because neither the 
horse or the rider has mastered how to do it properly. And, it has to be 
learned well at home before using it when you need it out on the trail... Just 
pulling the horses head around doesn't usually get you what you want, unless he 
has learned that this means, stop and think! His hind end must be disengaged 
for 
it to work. Other wise you are still going down the trail with his head on 
your knee and the engine (hind end) still firing away... after he has learned 
the full one rein stop, then it can be abbreviated to just pulling his head 
around, then it gets so that all you have to do to warn him of improper 
behavior 
is to left one rein.  That is the way it is supposed to work.

I found that just watching it done, or reading how it is done doesn't really 
do the trick for me...I had to do it with the instructor pointing out what I 
was missing.  Hands on is the best way to learn how to use those tools. The 
best thing to do when I get a new horse is to take us both to a clinic and let 
the instructor, help me find the holes in his training. And they all have holes 
and issues that keep us up awake at night...<g> I've found that nearly all 
those issues come back to one thing ~ respect!

We women tend to want to be nice to our horses, just because we want them to 
love us...doesn't work that way at all. Look at the herd. Which horse is the 
one that they all whinny for when it is taken out of the herd. Yep, the one 
that bossed them around. Some horses seem to need proof of this authority more 
than others.

Arabs are usually much more 'soft' and quick to pick up on Parellii, 
Anderson, Lyons type methods that it doesn't really take much of it to get the 
proper 
response.

Good luck with Weedy ~ those that cause us the most sleepless nights are 
usually the ones that make the best partners....


Jan

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