I am now the proud owner of a green broke, mountable, well behaved
horse!!!!!!!! Since I couldn't figure out what to do for Jihad to make him
relax I took him to a John Lyons Cert. trainer who, lucky for me, is also
and endurance rider! Imagine what luck two great disciplines in one
package!:} To refresh some of you who may not know the story Jihad is a 5
year old never ridden arabian. Since I worked with and excercised harness
race horses most of my adult horse life I became clueless when the problems
started. Especially after the reck.
All in all it took 5.5 hours broke up in two days because the weather was
really bad yesterday. Actually she was on him in 4 hours. The last hour was
working on the fact that he dosen't like it when you put your foot up to the
stirrup and moves away, so he had to run when he did it and now he'd rather
stand still instead. He didn't mind once you got up there and over him, or
swinging a leg carefully over his butt and sitting on him. He never bucked
or spooked, mostly when he didn't like something he'd just spin around. And
he is sooooooooo smart, if one tactic didn't work he'd used covert body
language to get his way, like if he dosen't want you on his right side he'll
turn his head to the right and put you on the left side of his head:} What
a guy! Once Meg showed me all his tricks, well the light bulb went on. It
is amazing how smart horses can be that they can so easily out smart humans!
We rode him in a bosal type halter, that's it! So this week I will work on
mounting and dismounting, bending to pressure, stopping and starting. I
don't anticipate ANY trouble from him now. I wish I had done this right
away, then we'd be on the trails by now. So from this point Meg will come
out to the house once a week and work with me to teach me resistant free
training. It is a wonder, it is so easy, yet we've all been taught the
dominant make him do it way. This way we ask him in a manner he understands
and he decides if he'll do it or RUN! Jihad would much rather not run:}
Meg also said that he is a really smart horse and that I got a great deal on
him:} Like we didn't already know that! Thanks Pat! I think she fell in
love with him, because she kept commenting on what a sweatheart he is and
his great temperment. I am really looking forward to a long loving
relationship with Jihad, he is really special.
The amazing thing is how simple it became once I knew how to speak my
horse's language. He wanted to do these things for me, instead of me feeling
like I was forcing him too do it. I can see a long and rewarding
partnership starting for me and Jihad and am now looking forward to meeting
you all in a race sometime next fall:} Before I wasn't sure I'd ever ride
him much less get to meet any endurance riders at a ride! I also heard all
the stories! How and older horse not broke is harder to break to ride if I
ever could, and stuff like that. Luckily I believe no horse is untrainable.
But I was double lucky to find such a great resistance free trainer!!
Well I've gone on too long. Yak at ya all later!
PS: NEXT DAY: I brought Jihad home and he spooked in my round pen and went
through it again. So I am sending him to Meg's for a month and I can get
over there to work with her 4 days a week. Problems: 1, My pen is too small
40' diameter, and too flimsy, is actually porta panels for camping:} (I KNOW
STUPID HUMAN ERROR DOES IT EVERY TIME!) 2, I don't want to set him up for a
conditioned response everytime I work with him I want him to trust me. So
Meg is going to trade me the panels for 1 months training. She can use them
for porta stalls. 3, the connecting straps pop right off so I didn't have
the thing installed right. If I did though I am afraid he would of hurt
himself instead of the thing just falling apart when he started panicking.
The Good News is look at how much great experience I'll get from working
with MEG for 1 month!!!!
Cheryl Newbanks &
~~^** Majestic Jihad (rookie in training)
~~}_ _~~ /\| Buckeye, AZ
( )__, ) ~ cnewbank@cybertrails.com
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