Very well said. I am working with a 4 year
old, just started last summer. Although he is far from perfect he can
tolerate a lot of things. He often times surprises me, but I have handled
him a lot. When I am saddling I can take my crop and rub him
anywhere. I can even slide it up under his tail and he just stands
there. Yesterday I was working in the round corral. When I was done
I rode him back to the trailer to unsaddle. I grabbed his halter that was
hanging on the fence and tossed it over his shoulders in front of the
saddle. When I got back to the trailer, I noticed that the halter and lead
rope had fallen off about half way back. I missed that, but the horse
didn't even flinch when it fell. He just kept on walking.
Exposing your horse to any and all things that you
can is great. Not saying he can't become a knot head at some point, but he
sure is calm about a lot of stuff.
Subject: [RC] horse getting loose while
bridling/collars, leads,etc.
hi all, lots of good input on this one. i am one of those people
who just happens to be in the right place at the right time on lots of
occasions. i have stopped my share of runaway horses, but the advice is
good to just stay out of the way and hope the horse calms down and stops on
its own. trying to stop them is a good way to get hurt. that
said, you cant beat an ounce of prevention. just about all of us
who handle horses have, at one time or another done things that are somewhat
risky, and gotten away with it, others have not. i like what jim holland
said about groundwork. you just cant do too much groundwork. spend
time desensitizing your horse to ropes, tack, everything! it can prevent
panic and runaways. you can argue all day long about the best way to
tie, not tie, bridle, halter or whatever, but the fact is, spending time
working with your horse, so that the horse will not panic and run off is
better than spending money on equiment. i will even go so far as t o say that
if you spend the time doing groundwork and desensitizing, your horse will even
tolerate having the saddle slip under its belly and just stand there. we
all know, "horse stuff happens", we just need to do our part to be prepared
when it does. ed
