Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I am well aware of the plethora of horses available for cheap or for 
free but the situation I described has been in existence a long time, 
well before the economy went in the toilet.  PLUS - my point wasn't that 
people won't spend money for TRAINING. It was that they do not seem to 
know the value of a horse who is a true Care Taker, not just trained to 
be bomb-proof, an oxymoron when applied to horses if ever there was one. 
 You don't train for Care Taker.  A horse either is or isn't.  Most, 
probably 90+%, aren't.  Here are some examples:

Your teenage daughter and her cute girlfriend are going riding.  Older 
brother, who knows NOTHING about horses, wants to come too (duh).  So 
the 3 of them mount up, with bro on YOUR 8 year old Arabian Endurance 
gelding and head out.  They reach the trails and the girls decide to 
teach big bro a lesson and suddenly gallop off out of sight.  They stop 
and wait... and wait... and wait... and finally bro on Arab come into 
sight, reins all over the place.  The Arab is walking.  Tell me how you 
"train" for this.

Your daughter has a friend who can't ride but who would "love to go 
riding" so they do.  Your best friend phones you to say she saw your 
daughter and friend on the horses in town and at first thought your 
horse was sick.  It was wobbling all over the place.  Then she saw that 
the horse was sidling around trying to STAY UNDER THE GIRL so she 
wouldn't fall off.  Which "training" lesson is that?

Then there is the grandchild you have just started teaching to ride. 
You two are about 2 miles from home when without saying anything, the 
kid pushes her horse into a fast trot.  You see it too late and know if 
you give chase it could be a disaster so you just keep walking.  10 
minutes later (an eternity) you find them stopped waiting for you.  "I 
just wanted to ride alone in the forest" is her explanation.  Train to 
NOT take off when heading home and ASKED to move out?  Right!


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