Spooooooky arabs!!!

[bolton@pbhs.brevard.k12.fl.us (Rae Bolton)]

>Amber,
>
>        Been there, done this!!!  I finally have some advice for
>someone!!!  I have a 16h+ Arabian, Egyptian---- ......crossed back and
>forth between Morafic and Ansata Halim lines more times than he has
>legs......in other words he  is inbred.......when I got him I fell off
>regularly, .........like EVERY time I rode him----and it HURT....that is a
>long way to fall off!!  My only answer to you is:  WET SADDLE
>BLANKETS......and let someone else do it!!  In my case I got my husband
>who has better balance(and life insurance......:-) than I do to ride him
>some, then MY very FIRST ride I rode on him was a 50 mile ride, not a
>twenty-five, in the hills of SC, we are from FL......and we actually went
>more like 59miles----I might also add that it was also the FIRST time I
>had ever gotten on him and stayed on since I bought
>him-------.......Anyhow, after that this horse has never been the
>same.....which is GOOD!!  And I want you to know that at the rides, he
>doesn't spook ever, especially when in the company of another
>horse....then again he won't slow down  or stop either----for the first 15
>miles........but after that he is a very nice riding horse.  My only
>problem is that he bonded with my husband and has more confidence in him
>than me, but we are getting there the more I ride him.  But to this day, I
>would rather be doing a real ride than a training ride any
>day......because he still spooks some(not like he used to though)---in my
>horse's case it isn't that he is afraid, I am sure, but spoiled and
>stubborn.  And now I don't do training rides in tight quarters.......I
>find the longest, straightest, wide-open road and go straight to the end
>and back if I want to train!!
>        Good luck.....but get him tired....I mean really tired!  And you
>will see that he uses his energy for something other than foolishness.
>
>        RAE BOLTON
>
>
>Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 20:33:53 -0500
>From: Bob & Amber Roberts <mlaboure@flash.net>
>To: ridecamp@endurance.net
>Subject: Spooky Arab
>Message-ID: <36118A80.F9FFB9FE@flash.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>I have a 6 yr. old Arabian gelding that has done two LD rides.  I'm
>trying to condition him and me for our first 50.  He is 14.2, stocky and
>short coupled, therefore very agile.  He has good manners and a great
>disposition, but is afraid of dark spots on the trails.  When I first
>started riding him on trail, he would balk and refuse.  He has gotten
>over this and has learned how to cross water, bridges, sidepass to open
>gates, go past previously scary things.  So he is capable of learning.
>However, twice recently he has spooked so badly that I have been flung
>off on the ground!  First spook was like a cutting horse; he saw a
>dark/wet place beside trail and ducked his head and shoulder to the left