Re: Pony prices and training

[Bierstedt <Bierstedt@aol.com>]

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 many
scary things along the way, including emus (no longer scary), traffic (more
scary to me than to my horse!), cows and other farm animals, and unknown scary
things when he just stops and I can't for the life of me figure out what it is
that's causing him to hesitate. I borrowed from John Lyons' trailer loading
methods to get him to go by cows. When he stops, I tap him gently with the
dressage whip--tap, tap, tap--until he moves just one foot. Then I stop. Then
tap, 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 the
mountains, he got me off when he saw some deer. Another time, I was hanging
off the edge and simply willed myself back into the saddle. Taking dressage
lessons (on another horse) with an excellent trainer has improved my seat to
the 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.