 |
Re: [RC] I don't want BLIND obedience from a horse... - TypeF \(Jackie Floyd\)I have to laugh at this one as it reminds me of my own experience a couple of weeks ago. I've ridden Tank over metal bridges, wooden bridges, opened gates, etc., and been round lots of scary stuff out on the trail. After the AERC convention and the talk on engagement in the endurance horse, I decided to take Tank over to the local stables and use the well-groomed arena to do a little schooling. About the same time I got ready to go in, a local trainer showed up with a trailer full of lesson horses and little kids showed up to take lessons, some of which had never been on a horse before. We all get to the arena at the same time. Of course, they're horses are these nice, quiet QH types who don't raise an eyebrow at anything. Tank will occasionally raise an eyebrow at something out on the trail but it's usually just nothing more than that. The stable owner's wife go the biggest laugh in the world, as she watched my Great Trail Horse have a total terror fit over the white, 3-railed arena fence. It took me 5 minutes to get him close enough to the fence to touch it with his nose. Then there were the telephone poles laying outside the arena, and the orange construction cones and the sprinklers attached to the fence .... The little kids were looking very wide-eyed at the complete shenanigans of the Wild Arabian, and the looks on their parents faces was even worse. Needless to say, within 10 minutes of entering the arena I was making my bowed-head exit with profuse apologies to the trainer for disrupting her class. Yikes! So I took Tank outside the arena for a little spin and he was his usual perfect self. Guess he doesn't like to be fenced in! LOL Next time, I'll make sure there are no lessons scheduled for the same time. :) Jackie and Tank ----- Original Message ----- From: <rides2far@xxxxxxxx> To: <walkergirl@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 11:50 AM Subject: Re: [RC] I don't want BLIND obedience from a horse... To which the judge replied: "If I'm riding, and there's amountail lion in the vicinity, I WANT my horse to tell me about it!" I raised and trained a mare when I was a teen. Rode her on trails for 3 years and then sold her. The people who bought her were show people and took her to a show and entered a Trail Class that weekend since she was, after all, a "trail horse". They called me and said that though she didn't win, she'd been the crowd's favorite. First, there was a gate with a loop over the post for a latch they were to open and close. I had no idea how to teach a horse to sidepass, but Banner had, on her own learned to open loop gates with her lip and I'd had to change my latches on my own stretched barbed wire gate. The kid at the show kept trying to get Banner to get up close enough for the kid to reach the latch and Banner had finally had enough. She took her lip, opened the latch, then gave the gate a shove with her nose and walked through. After going through she took her head and gave it a shove closed since that's how she and I had gone through my neighbor's gate for years. After that she was supposed to cross a "bridge" made of 4x4's with short boards nailed between them to simulate a bridge. Banner had crossed many bridges in her life but completely refused this one. The kid left the ring. The next "trained trail horse" tried to cross the bridge and the boards broke under its weight. The people said several onlookers told them after the class that if they really had to ride on the trail they'd take Banner over the winner any day. :-) Angie ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! ============================================================ I don't think you have to join a gym or buy frilly outfits to get some fitness. A decent set of shoes and a 15 minute dismount here and there will help. ~ Jon K. Linderman, Ph.D., FACSM, Assistant Professor of Health and Sport Science, University of Dayton ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================ ============================================================ Common sense should also be a part of the decision making process. If you see someone who doesn't have any, hand them your tool box. ~ Lisa Salas - The Odd Farm ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
|