Hope?

While searching for a good new home for Brother and Nugget my family has been undermining my determination.  The children all boo-hooed at the thought of rehoming Nugget because she's their favorite.  It seems a little strange to me since she's the one that we can't even get on so far but I guess you'd have to meet Nugget to see just how darn sweet she is.  She really is just so darn SWEET (repetitive, I know, but it's really the only word to describe her) that you just fall in love with her even if you can't ride her.  Just hanging out with her is relaxing.

And for all his talk about rehoming Brother being the smart thing to do and how financially we'd be better off Brother has always been dear hubby's baby.  The reason we got Brother in the first place was he and Eric seemed to have an instant connection of some sort.  He's not as blatant about it as the children, of course, but he has been dragging his feet around when it comes to this whole rehoming thing.  I found one place that has a special place in their hearts for OTTBs that would retrain them and keep them for their clients that come there for treatment which sounds like it could be a very nice place for Brother and Nugget but hubby's answer was "nah, they'll probably want us to deliver them which means we'd have to borrow a trailer or something."  Sounds like a silly excuse to say no to me!

I'm actually surprised that someone hasn't grabbed them up!  These are quality horses with some very rich blood running in their veins free for the taking but once I tell them that Nugget roars or that they'll need a very experienced rider to get them used to being ridden again the people that were so eager to hear about them just dry right up.  I'm not really complaining since I'd rather keep them but it does make me wonder just what the heck people are expecting???  Do they honestly think that someone is going to hand them two blue bloods with perfect conformation, fully trained and bomb proof, no quirks or flaws whatsoever on a silver platter for free??? 

But the big news is...I rode Brother (sorta, a little)!!  Eric was hemming and hawing about things and decided that he'd like to put Tina or Traveller's saddle on Brother just to see what he'd do.  His idea was that maybe Brother just needed to "buck it out" so Tina's saddle which has a back cinch would be best since Brother's almost sure to buck not being used to that second cinch.  This kind of talk was making me really nervous really quick so I decided that I'd best do something with Brother to thwart my sweet hubby's plans.  I don't actually object to letting a horse "buck it out" to some extent as long as he's been prepared and the saddle fits well but neither Tina nor Traveller's saddles fit Brother properly! 

So instead I asked Eric to hold Brother's lead rope while I got on and off him bareback.  Every time I got on Brother got a cookie.  That went so well that after several mounts and dismounts I had Eric lead us around the round pen while being generous with the cookies.  It all went very nicely and Eric was satisfied so I was happy but I knew I still needed to find some way to put a complete end to this talk of using Tina's saddle on him.  Yesterday I got my chance while Eric was at the band parent's meeting.  I put both saddles on Brother in the round pen but took the back cinch off Tina's and only cinched them up enough to keep them from falling off.  Brother was good walking the round pen carrying the saddles but now that I've actually seen them on him no, I do think that they sit too low over his withers.  Plus although Brother was good about it he did seem a little tense and twitchy.  Eric came home just as I was finishing with the 2nd saddle and disagrees with me.  He says he thinks he could make it work with the right saddle pad.  At the very least I know that I don't have to make any kind of solid stand unless he gets another saddle pad so for now we're safe on this point!  And it's looking more and more like maaaaayyyybeeee we won't end up rehoming them after all!  We'll just have to keep seeing what happens one day at a time I guess.

Time off

We weren't able to ride for a few days so Thursday I insisted that I had to ride or I'd implode.  As we were tacking up unexpected guests arrived but I was determined to get at least a quick ride!  Eric rode Tina, I rode Traveller, and we both experienced some of the same things, horses acting bratty.  Neither of them did anything awful but they had a general "do we gottaaaaa???  Why can't we just have a cookie insteaaaaad???" attitude trying to stop, go, and turn where and when they wanted to instead of when we asked them.  It seems a few days off are not good for these two at this point!

So Friday I gave both of them a more thorough ride.  The last time I asked for a canter on Traveller he threw me off so on him I'm doing a lot of work at the walk and trot, cantering we practice on a long line in the round pen.  I felt confident enough on Tina to ask for a canter for the first time and it wasn't too bad!  Eric was watching and said she has a "really funny lope" but it felt ok for a first time.  I really want an arena!  Right now I can either ride off our property on Tina (not on Traveller yet!) which means I have to keep it at a walk or in a space in the pasture which I know is safe for them but hard, uneven, and I have to keep a lookout for rocks.  It makes it tough for me to figure out what's going on with them exactly.  Is this "funny lope" her normal stride, being a stinker, feeling unconfident, or a bit of uneven ground? 

Yesterday we had to go work on my friend's garden.  She has a bad back so she asked us to put in a raised garden for her which we're doing with the wonderful natural rock that's plentiful on our land.  We finished laying the concrete footer for it at about 10pm then we had a two hour drive back home.  I'm so sore today and my poor hands!  Ladies, if you want beautiful, soft hands never have anything to do with concrete because that stuff will just eat your hands up!  I'm really hoping we can get this done in the next month or two because our next project is going to be my arena!  But even sore and not having an ideal place to ride I gotta get back up in the saddle sometime today. 

More training

Brother STILL has his shoes on!!  I had to get that off my chest because this is the longest he's ever kept shoes on for us! lol  And it's because of those shoes that I'm able to get Brother back into training.  So far it's just been the leading exercises that we started last week but today I got him back into the round pen.  I only had him go for maybe 15 minutes, most of that just walking in both directions, and only a few turns around each direction at a trot then ended it with a little more leading practice.  He didn't even breathe harder but I want to take it slow and build him back up.  I've finally got him at the weight I want him to be so I hope he doesn't start losing it again!

Traveller I walked and trotted in both directions to start.  His trot is really coming along very nicely!  He's beginning to relax and give me more of a very soft, smooth, floaty trot that's so wonderful to ride.  His canter, on the other hand, needs some serious work.  His last owner really loved for him to go super fast while I'm not as concerned for speed as much as quality of movement.  While I was riding him once I cued him to canter and he very smoothly bounced his back end in the air throwing me right off.  Now I know that if I'd only asked him to canter in the round pen I could've seen straight off that I wasn't ready to ride him at a canter.  He seems to get very irritated when asked to canter, tossing his head around, often breaking down into a crazy fast trot.  A work in progress like everything else!

Catching up

Labor Day my hind end!  It's been nothing but busier than a one legged man in a butt kickin contest for me since my last post!  I did manage to get a little time in with the horses though!  Friday Brother was a bit limpy in one of his front feet but I figured it was just tender from all the work the farrier did on him.  Sure enough it seemed better later in the day and was gone Saturday.  He's still got the shoes on!  Keep your fingers crossed that he manages to keep them on at least until his poor bruised feet can heal up! 

Sunday I watched a few Ken McNab shows where he demonstrated how he teaches his horses to follow his movements when being lead instead of pulling the horse along by the lead rope.  It seems so silly basic but I realized how often we have to twirl the rope at one of ours while we're leading them somewhere because they get those I-don't-wanna sticky feet.  This was the subject of Nugget and Brother's first training session since it really is so basic and would be easy enough on their couch potato-like present stamina! 

The goal is to keep the horse's head roughly even with your shoulder with you leading from their left side.  You want them to move with you as you move, to read your body language to figure out which way you're going to go.  When you lean forward as if starting to walk off if the horse doesn't move with you reach behind with a *insert your own training tool here* (I used a dressage whip) to wave at/tickle/tap the girth area to get them moving forward with you.  When you back up if the horse doesn't step back tap the ground in front of their feet, escalate to tapping their front legs if you have to, until they back up.  To turn left you simply turn left and tap their hindquarters away if they don't move with you.  If you want to turn right turn into their head/neck and push it away to make them move over for you.  Seems simple enough, right???  

Nugget didn't really get it, maybe she just doesn't want to get it?  I don't know how to tell the difference yet.  She caught on to how to go forward with me, though I had to keep correcting her for getting ahead of me, and she kinda sorta got backing when I walked backwards.  Actually she caught on to taking one step back if I tapped her front legs firmly but she wouldn't progress to two steps.  To give her legs a break from all the tapping I tried turns which didn't go well at all.  When I tried to turn right she was really dull to me pushing her head away like she didn't care and was perfectly content to be pushed.  Turning left was worse since she overreacted to me tapping at her butt like I'd thrown a rattlesnake at her.  After awhile I was getting a little frustrated so did a few more backing steps and ended with lots of forward to give me an excuse to give her lots of praises and pats.  Maybe next time will be better. 

Brother, on the other hand, was my big super star with this exercise!  After not being trained at all for so long I had to stop fairly often to reassure him that he was doing a great job because he kept blowing out hard like it was scary to him.  He got the general idea very quickly on all four directions though which was very gratifying.

Tina got a break but I decided I needed to do a little riding.  I just did not feel like lugging the saddle out so instead I took a ride with Traveller bareback.  I didn't know if he'd ever had someone on him without a saddle so I stood on the ladder I mount from with one leg slung over his back for awhile to see how he'd react.  He really wasn't bad, seemed more surprised than anything, and stayed quiet after a moment of shifting around a bit.  I eased the rest of me onto him and voila! 

If you've never tried riding bareback I heartily recommend it!  It's not something I'd want to do all the time but it's definitely one more fun thing you can do with your horse from time to time.  I also really think that at some point when you're learning to ride riding bareback is a very valuable learning experience!  You can feel SO much more of how the horse moves and holds himself, you can learn a ton about your seat and how to move with the horse, and it really forces you to improve your balance. 

With the first few steps I learned that I've been sitting too far forward on my pelvis because I was like a weeble wobble!  When I rolled my pelvis so I was closer to sitting on my jean's pockets I was way more stable.  That last trainer I worked with told me a few times to "sit on [my] pockets" but I didn't truly get it till I felt it on Traveller the other day.  I may've brought my knees forward too bringing them out of line but I couldn't really tell and since I felt so much more secure I kept at it.  All in all it was loads of fun and I think my riding made a step in the right direction.

A new step

Last night I started reading a new book, Discovering Natural Horsemanship by Tom Moates.  It's not a step-by-step how-to book, it's more the story of one man's journey falling in love with horses, trying to learn everything he can to improve his relationship with them, his successes and failures along the way.  Even though it's not a training manual there are lots of great nuggets of horse sense to be gleaned from it's pages and when I finished devouring it this morning I found that more than anything else it made me rethink some of the things I've been doing.  For instance, I've been so in love with having horses I can actually ride I haven't stopped to consider if I should ride them. 

I completely passed up any groundwork with Tina and Traveller.  It's pretty obvious though that their previous owner not only didn't do groundwork with them but by and large let them develop bad ground manners, walking off, being spoiled and pushy.  In the months we've had Tina and Traveller I've fallen off of Traveller once when he bolted, he bucked me once, Tina acts like she'd like me to fall over dead, and Traveller isn't interested in hanging around me unless I have cookies to offer.  Something fundemental needs to change in my relationship with these two in order for me to have the type of connection I want to have with them one day.  If groundwork is the foundation and I basically skip it I'm building on a faulty foundation and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how that's going to end up!

When I went out everyone come up to the fence but when they figured out an early dinner wasn't forthcoming Traveller and Tina wandered back over to munch on their hay.  I totally ignored them and spent some extra time brushing and petting Brother then Nugget.  By the time I was halfway through grooming Nugget Traveller had come up just behind her and was watching me.  By inches he got closer and closer to me and I kept right on fussing over Nugget pretending that I didn't notice Traveller at all.  When I was done with Nugget I turned and just started brushing him.  Normally unless he was haltered and tied off he'd move around too much trying to nose me for cookies for me to be able to groom him but this time he stood fairly quiet.

Then I took out one of the little broken up bits of cookie I had in my pocket for him.  As soon as he took it I turned my back and walked off towards the round pen with him following.  There are two things I've learned about Traveller so far, he's scared of whips, crops, stick and strings, or pretty much anything that resembles them  and he hates being made to go round in that round pen.  So my goal for today was to not use any kind of tool but myself and a few cookies to get him to enter the round pen of his own free will and maybe have a little fun.  When I got to the round pen I stood in the gate.  Traveller stopped before I reached the gate, safely out of arm's reach, and was looking at me again.  He really seemed to be thinking whether the bit of cookie I held out was worth getting any closer to that hated pen but after a few moments his mouth won and he came over to the pen for his nibble.  Then I went into the round pen, held out a bit of cookie, and after a moment he again followed.  He was in!

I've always loved watching people with their horses at liberty when the horse willingly follows the person around even tossing their head, kicking out their feet, playing and just genuinely having a good time together.  I don't know how they did it exactly but today at least I was using Traveller's cookie lust!  He stood and watched as I walked two horse lengths or so away.  I held out a cookie bit, he walked up to get it.  I walked off a little ways again, held out a cookie piece, but this time when he started towards me to get it I started walking away.  He stopped right away and just stared at me with a "what the heck" look on his face.  He recovered from his surprise pretty quickly though, started towards me, and I again walked away.  I went faster and faster until he was chasing me around the pen at a trot.  That didn't last very long, I'm not very fit right now, so he got his cookie bit! lol

Because he's so pushy with his head I decided to work on him yielding different body parts starting with that.  I remembered what I knew about stating with very light pressure and increasing it only until they gave even the tiniest bit and then releasing right away.  I touched his neck right up next to his head with my fingertips, pressed harder till he barely moved his head away and removed my fingers the instant he moved his head.  He caught on to this pretty fast, I only had to push my fingers in fairly firmly a few times before I only had to touch my fingertips to that spot and he'd move his head away.

Then I went to his shoulder.  This one seemed much harder for him to understand for some reason.  Several times when I got to the point of pressing very hard he'd try taking a step back.  I tried to stay consistent holding the pressure if he stepped back and only releasing if he stepped either front feet even a little bit to the side.  He sort of got it, not very well but I didn't want to make the mistake of boring or frustrating him by asking him to get it perfect before I let up. 

When I got to his rump he turned into a horsey genius!  I only had to press firmly a few times before I was following his hindquarters in a circle with only a light touch.  I did the same three spots on his other side, played another quick game of chase-me-for-the-cookie and stopped.  He's a very intelligent horse, you can just see him thinking when he stops and watches you, and hopefully I engaged his brain and curiousity a little today.  I think it was a really good session!  Now if I can just figure out the best approach to use with Tina!

Professional trainers, ugh!

What lead to me finding and posting the links in my previous post was seeing this amazing video over at Teachings of the Horse.  I was pretty much in tears the whole way through.  At first it was knowing the same feelings of hurt and frustration it seems Carry must've gone through watching a horse she loves and cares for yank away from her so violently and seeing the absolute terrified panic in Pony's actions.  It hurt my heart wondering what on earth they must've done to that poor horse to make him so frightened.  Through the rest of the video they were tears of an emotional journey from hope as the first tentative bond began between Pony and Robin, to hopeful excitement as I saw that bond slowly grow, and lastly to grateful joy as the connection was made.

For many years of my life I ran an animal rescue and took in damaged souls like Pony.  I accepted any animal I had the resources and knowledge to care for which was mostly dogs and cats but we had a few ferrets, even one rat and pink-toed tarantula.  Over the years, though, I became well known for being able to find ways to communicate with even the toughest dog cases, especially those no one else would take because they'd been labelled viscious or aggressive.  I simply soaked up every bit of knowledge from every source I could find and spent time really watching the dogs, seeing what applied and how they interacted with each other.  I didn't follow any particular training method but instead simply let each dog guide me in what pieces of knowledge to use to help them work through their individual problems. 

(CAUTION: There are rather broad, sweeping generalities ahead!!  I'd like you to know ahead of time that I know that there are exceptions to each of the generalities scattered in the rest of this post.  Don't panic! lol)

The results of training my way were amazing!  It's hard to describe the incredible rush of joy seeing an animal that has been so brutalized by people healed, trusting again, and finally happy through your patient diligence and I honestly don't think I could've gotten the incredible results I did with any one method of training.  The real strength of the way I trained was if one thing didn't work I simply dipped into my store of knowledge to find or adapt something that would work.  This is the real weakness I find in most of every horse training method I've looked into so far.  They have a set way they train, step by step, and if the horse doesn't respond to a particular step in their program they try to force that step on the horse.  If that doesn't work they give up saying that the horse is just too damaged or untrainable for whatever reason.  In my opinion, it's a poor trainer that blames the animal for failing to grasp the lesson.  I believe that there is always a (non-abusive!) way and it is the trainer's responsibility to find that way!

My other issue with a lot of horse trainers I've seen is they try to convince you that their method and tools are unique and supremely better than all the rest.  I have seen some variation but overall it seems like there's really two training methods going on dressed up and labelled different ways in order to try to lay claim to being completely different from all the rest, the command-their-respect method and the sweet-talk-em-into-doing-what-you-want method.  And my friends, I believe that a string on the end of a stick is a string on the end of a stick no matter what color you paint it, material you use to make it, or how many pretty ruffles you put on it.  There are certainly different ameneties available on some, my husband particularly likes the little hook on the stick-n-string offered by Dennis Reis, but overall their claims to being so much different and better sound like nothing but snake oil to me.  I'm just the sort of person that not only refuses to buy snake oil when I recognize it but I'm offended by the insult to my intelligence, angry at the attempt to cheat me.

In the best of all worlds I'd learn all the methods from all the different trainers, the good ole boy down at the feed lot, the do-it-yourselfers working it out with their horse at home, the pros, blogs, dvds, in person, you name it!  I'm afraid that's not very realistic though in time or cost!  I could spend the rest of my life learning and never get around to actually training at all.  I guess all I can do is take a rather broad sampling of the most recommended pros then stir in healthy doses of common sense, determination, sensitivity, patience, listening to the horses, and lots and lots of love.

Training possibilities

Why is it that everytime I swear I'm going to get to bed at a decent hour something happens and I end up being up later than usual?  I'll make this a really quick one so I can get some sleep!  Being up late at least gave me some opportunity to browse around looking for training ideas and information at least.  I've been watching all the "big names" on RFDTV like Dennis Reis, the Parellis, Clinton Anderson, and a few others.  Basically I like really throwing myself into anything like this by digging up anything and everything I can from anyone I can then putting together the bits and pieces that work from all of it.  In my web surfing tonight I found these of interest...

Horse Conscious

Westfall Horsemanship

Liberty Horse Training

Carolyn Resnick Horsemanship Blog

Tina still hates me

It's been 100 degrees plus here in Lampasas for awhile now so I haven't done as much with the horses as I'd like.  I actually enjoy warmer temperatures but even for me it's been just a bit too hot and I feel a little bad asking the horses to work at all right now.  But I suppose I'm really just being an overprotective spoiler.  I mean I wouldn't want to go gallop them around for an hour or two at mid-day but surely asking a half hour or so in the morning or evening wouldn't hurt them any.  Besides, Tina and Traveller still need to lose some weight!

Yesterday evening I took Tina out riding.  This is the second time I've taken her off our property to ride a little and she reacted the same way, like I was killing her.  Just before we got out of sight of the other horses in the pasture she stopped to look back and I let her stand there for a minute but sure enough, as soon as we got out of sight of them she was acting up.  The whole time we're out she tries to stop, turn around, go when I tell her whoa, and go faster and faster.  Last night she added trying to bite my foot and jerk the reins out of my hands!  So a simple ride turned into me wrenching my arms out of the sockets trying to keep her pointed in the direction I wanted at as close to the speed I wanted as possible.  We rode back and forth past my driveway as I tried to get it through her head that I would NOT go back until she did it at a walk!  And if she acted up too much I made her take a few steps backwards which she really seems to resent! 

I'm not unsympathetic and I do realize that this is very common and normal.  Her head is telling her that her safety is back with the others and that I am very literally putting her in danger of losing her life.  Since a past owner cut up her mouth with a bit I even use a side pull (bitless bridle for any that don't know) on her and if we're near the other horses that's all I need to control her.  The next time we leave the property I think I'll have to try a bit on her, though.  She's just fighting me so hard that I can't find a place to let off the pressure so it's nothing but "punishment" for her the whole time which is not going to help the situation at all.  Maybe with a bit I can find places to reward her for good behavior so that eventually she can realize that she's safe.  I sure would like to reach a point in the future where I can have a fun little ride around the neighborhood with her.

The dream turns into a nightmare

When we started actively looking for a horse I was rather dismayed at our prospects at first.  We ended up looking at so many half starved, sour, barely trained, no-manners-havin, sullen, dead eyed rejects I couldn't believe it!  Heck, even the "rescue" we went to was so awful I left in tears wishing I had the resources to take every single horse out of there just to save them!  It was heartbreak after heartbreak.  Then one day out of the blue the trainer I was working with mentioned that she knew a guy that was looking for a good home for a few of his horses.  Since we were first time horse owners the trainer agreed to go with us to advise us so armed with a professional we figured it couldn't hurt to just go look.

The owner was an older gentleman who raised Thoroughbreds for racing but was ready to retire.  The first horse he pointed out was a mare that was munching hay among several others and a cute little donkey.  When we approached her she flattened her ears back and moved away from us quickly.  The trainer muttered to us under her breath that the mare had a bad attitude so we should pass on her.  The second was a gelding, Brother Anthony.  He seemed to be a nice enough horse and there was a fast connection between him and my husband. The owner said that Brother was doing well at the racetrack when he somehow got a leg hung up in his halter leaving him with a slightly bowed tendon which should heal just fine with about six more months of pasture rest for the kind of casual riding we wanted to do.

When we consulted with our trainer she felt he'd be great if we wanted to take him.  The owner said Brother was "dead broke" and the trainer backed him up saying that she knew he didn't just ride his horses at the track, he rode them all over his ranch too.  She also assured us that his injury should heal leaving him perfectly sound and added that she always had good luck with these off-the-track horses.  We asked how much.  When the owner replied "free to a good home" we couldn't believe it!  Really we felt we didn't have anything to lose!  But just to be safe we took him straight to the vet who did a checkup and coggins test for us.  The vet also agreed that the tendon injury was very minor and he should be fine for the kind of simple riding we wanted to do with nothing more than a little rest.

We got him home and proudly turned him out into our newly fenced pasture and he went plumb berserk!  He was racing up and down the fence calling for herdmates so frantically we were terrified he would kill himself!  After calling we went right back to the owner who said that the sour mare was also free to a good home.  Easter Nugget "roared" and when surgery didn't correct it they simply kept her for their own riding and never raced her.  We figured even if she never sweetened up and hated us with a passion at least she could provide Brother with company. 

Nugget was also "dead broke".  The owner told us that very recently someone wanted to ride (a child or grandchild or something I can't exactly remember) so he pointed out a few horses that they could use.  When he next looked out he realized that they were saddling Nugget by mistake but before he could say anything they jumped on up and rode off so he figured they'd be ok.  We were hopeful that this meant many happy trail rides in our future, my husband on Brother, me on Nugget, but we weren't worried about riding her since she was just meant to calm Brother.  Once again we took her to the vet who cleared her health-wise and we took her home.  We were very pleased and relieved when Brother settled right down when we turned her out with him.

The vet said six months pasture rest but just to be safe we didn't try any kind of work with Brother for about eight months.  I must admit, though, that we couldn't resist the children's excitement and several times let them get on Brother bareback holding him by a lead rope just to sit there which he took completely in stride.  We doted on them finding out what treats they liked, spending time with them, long grooming sessions, and generally trying very hard to impress them.  And we were pleased that it seemed to be working!  Far from sour, Nugget was turning out to be a very quiet, gentle, sweet soul once convinced that we weren't going to interfere with her food and Brother's true silly personality started to shine.  So we were confident when the day came that we decided to try riding.

We thought we were being very careful checking and adjusting the tack just so, slapping at the saddle, putting a little weight in just one stirrup, and on and on taking little baby steps watching the reaction the whole way.  When we put any weight at all in the stirrup Nugget would immediately start bucking wildly so we knew right off that if she was going to be rideable we had a lot of work to do first.  When we did the same with Brother I was able to get on him and walk in a small circle but he seemed VERY hesitant and shaky.  We thought that he'd be fine as long as we were careful riding him to help him learn that we would be gentle, trustworthy riders.  After all this was very different from what he was likely used to and I was giving feather light cues testing his sensitivity but surely with kind treatment he'd get used to it. 

Then my husband wanted to try.  Brother gave a few more of those unsure steps then did a strange wiggle-hop and exploded!  Horrified I ran to catch him but before we knew it my husband came up out of the saddle and back down on Brother's rump just as Brother's rump was coming back up.  Husband met horse rump and he was literally catapulted probably close to 20' in the air before landing on the tough Texas ground with a sickening whump.  At first I thought he just had the air knocked out of him but when he finally did manage to drag in a breath and let it out in a roar I knew it was bad!  When all was said and done he had most of the ribs on his left side each broken in more than one place and needed a chest tube to drain the blood from his damaged lung.

When my husband was healed enough to move around the house on his own I went back to work at the stable.  Neither one of us blamed anyone really, least of all Brother.  So when the trainer angrily dressed me down and told me to get rid of Brother and Nugget right away before my husband or I got killed I was shocked!  I calmly told her that we didn't believe in "getting rid" of an animal just because there was an issue to work through.  When she continued to argue and yell at me over it I honestly didn't know what to do because I didn't understand.  So they needed some work!  Why on earth would she be angry at us???  If anything it should be the other way around!  My husband was seriously hurt and could've been killed due to her mistakes!  All in all it took over a YEAR for him to fully heal and recover!  She especially yelled that she never said the horses were broke, never said we should ride them.  Maybe she was afraid we'd sue her???

Wow. 

That is what passes for a professional horse trainer?  It wasn't very long before I decided that maybe I didn't really want to learn from her example and left.  I'd rather stumble along trying to learn on my own than perpetuate that pitiful excuse for a "professional" anything! 




 

Training for the dream

In preparation for horse ownership I decided that I needed to brush up on my very rusty riding skills at a local arabian stable offering lessons.  This stable was fortunate enough to employ a full time trainer and I soon had dreams of training horses running through my head as well.  The stable owner and trainer put their heads together with mine to work out a deal in which I would help out around the stable doing chores I knew how to do and in return the trainer would allow me to practice my riding and teach me some about training.  I thought it was a deal made in heaven...at first. 

There were a few bumps in the road here and there and I was a little bit uncomfortable with how harsh the trainer was with the horses every once in awhile but I felt we smoothed through the bumps fairly ok, my riding was improving, I was learning a little about training, and though maybe a little harsh I couldn't say the trainer was abusive except for two occassions.  One time while riding a wonderful, gorgeous horse named Brass she just lost it with him really yanking and jerking as hard as she could on the reins over and over screaming at him leaving Brass visibly shaken and with raw, skinned spots at the corners of his mouth.  The second time she was trimming stray hairs around Brass' feet.  He kept lifting the foot she was working on until she again completely lost her temper, stood back a little then kicked him hard in the gut repeatedly.  Both of these times I was shocked and horrified!

I ran my own animal rescue for many years during which I became a very good professional dog trainer.  So while I didn't have any horse training experience I wasn't completely new to animal training concepts and those two incidents really bothered me.  I'd taught pet owners over and over again that if they're getting frustrated they need to end the lesson quickly on a good note and walk away for awhile.  It never does any good to lose your temper!  But I tried to keep my own cool, told myself that anyone could have a bad day, and kept trying to learn all I could.

Sometimes I wonder what became of poor Brass and feel an awful guilt that I let him down by not saying something.  What it would've changed I don't know, probably nothing, but in not speaking up I may as well have sided with his abusers.  I'm so sorry, Brass.

To be continued...