Re: Pony prices and training..tap,tap,tap

[PLOUGH1@ix.netcom.com (KIMBERLY PRICE)]

You wrote:
I've been following with interest all the posts re training young 
horses,overcoming spooking, and getting them past scary things. I have 
a four-year-old I'm bringing along. We go out alone from the house and 
encounter manyscary things along the way, including emus (no longer 
scary), traffic (morescary to me than to my horse!), cows and other 
farm animals, and unknown scarythings when he just stops and I can't 
for the life of me figure out what it isthat's causing him to hesitate. 
I borrowed from John Lyons' trailer loadingmethods to get him to go by 
cows. When he stops, I tap him gently with thedressage whip--tap, tap, 
tap--until he moves just one foot. Then I stop. Thentap, tap, tap 
again, until he takes another step. As long as he takes a step
forward, he gets rewarded by having the tapping stop. Seems to work.

The worst he does is a 180 degree spin in a millisecond. Once, up in 
themountains, he got me off when he saw some deer. Another time, I was 
hangingoff the edge and simply willed myself back into the saddle. 
Taking dressage lessons (on another horse) with an excellent trainer 
has improved my seat tothe degree that I have much more confidence than 
I used to. I'm able to stay relaxed and loose most of the time, which, 
as others have pointed out, is important. The result is that I try to 
look at every obstacle as an opportunity--an opportunity for training 
and getting my horse used to things.

When I was looking for an endurance prospect, I intended to get a fully
trained horse. However, when I saw this 3-year-old, I fell in love with 
him and decided to take on the challenge. It's been frustrating at 
times, but educational and immensely satisfying.

Kimberly wrote:
  **** I got introduced to John Lyon’s method of Natural Horsemanship 
through the trailer loading video too.  It is a wonderful method.  I 
went further along and learned about his roundpen training and attended 
one of his clinics.  It was inspiring to say the least and worked 
wonderfully for myself and Mystery, plus a few other horses I’ve worked 
with including an older newly gelded stallion who was completely ill 
mannered and wild.  I encourage you to look into this and check it out. 

***If any of your friends get Horse&Rider, or if your local library 
does,  in 1996 they did an article of his in every series.  He also has 
a web page but not a lot of info on it.  His clinic scedule is tight, 
but he also has some videos you can rent from tack stores or buy 
cheaply thru  State Line and such on sell.  He is only one “flavor of 
NH”, you probably know there are many others.

***Please let me know how your 3 year is doing and the greatest of luck 
to you.  I wish I had the time and resources to start a youngster.  I 
could of done it so much smarter with Mystery  if I had known sooner 
about natural horsemanship methods.  I started him at 5 turning 6 from 
a wild herd, and he will be 11 in Feb.  We've both come a long way.

Kimberly (&Mystery the Morab...”yeah, yeah, yeah...that irritating 
little tap...sheeze!”)