Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

At 07:37 AM 2/4/2010, Lisa Salas wrote:
> That was a good article, Mike! I liked your version about the city
> slickers. I especially liked both versions of avoiding scary things.
>
> So many riders make a big deal about spooky things. They will make
> their horse go up to it no matter what! Yeah, THAT always calms them
> down. I have had riders say to me many times, "Why are you getting
> off? You know you are just teaching them to get away with it". Well,
> the way I see it is, if I am on a horse that is not liking cars and
> trucks going by, I am getting off. It seems to calm them down when you
> are the LEADER in such scary situations. However if they do decide to
> bolt, they are on their own. I would HATE to see my horse get hit, but
> I can get another horse.

I somehow missed the original post that prompted this but I managed to
catch this bit of valuable information.

I once was a proponent of the "no matter what" school and my horses
quickly learned we were going to investigate every suspicious(?) object
waiting to ambush us.  Time consuming and very hairy at times.

Now I'm of the "ignore it, it's nothing, keep moving" school.  I now teach
the horse to blame me for all distractions - "He put that dead stove there,
no fun in that."

Staying on an excited horse on the edge of control is foolish.  Your weight
on the horse is not going to soften the impact.

Marv "To avoid injury and suffocation keep away from children." Walker
Horse Info & Training DVDs ~ http://MarvWalker.com



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