RE: Re: Show and Tell

["Maryanne Stroud Gabbani" <maryanne@ratbusters.net>]

From Jim:

>He's a "blank slate" at this point, saying "teach me, teach me".  You
will be richly rewarded later if you do all this up front....and it's
painless to teach...it just happens.  I don't want to have to teach
ANYTHING that he doesn't already know at Endurance Rides. Even with all
this training, sometimes they still may "fergit" momentarily with all
the excitement, but the odds are in your favor.<

My 4 yr old Nazeer is now under saddle for short periods(up to 1.5 hour) of
walk and trot. I waited until I could get a saddle fitted by Sharon before
we started working him at all. As a foal he went in the desert with his
mother and was ponied as a 2 and 3 year old. In fact the first times he went
for walks in the countryside with a light saddle and bridle he was ponied
with my mares so that the first time he was actually ridden by Morad (a
light weight) he had to have a pony line for Nazeer's comfort! Gradually
Nazeer realised that he was safe even without it and we take him out
regularly now, mostly in the countryside in the early morning and
evening....and it's usually Morad riding him since I'm stuck in the office
WAY too much. We make a point of going places that everyone thinks are
totally nuts, through herds of goats and sheep, right through the villages
with all the activity and the odd cars and trucks. We call it working his
mind. Since endurance here seems to be following the high speed sand running
of the gulf, I doubt that I will ever do much more than a 60 km of that kind
of riding. But what I am trying to develop is a string of sane, sound horses
for interesting horse trekking in the desert and countryside, the kind you
can trust to go anywhere you want with them. Speed's ok but I like going a
bit slower and looking at things. I guess I'm working on cuddly, furry
jeeps....and so far, so good.

Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
Cairo, Egypt
maryanne@ratbusters.net
www.ratbusters.net