Re: Riding W/ running martingales (long)

[benamil@juno.com (David Bennett)]

Lynette
I know that you mean well with your post.  However, I don't think you
read all of my post.  I started out saying that this was a green horse -
one that is still learning even now.  He was already working on a loose
rein with a well-fitting, gentle snaffle in training rides.  The ONLY
place he could learn that he needed to listen to me by whatever aids is
during competition WHEN HE IS MOST EXCITED AND NOT LISTENING.    I did
not say that he is still pulling after a year of competition nor did I
say that he requires a running martingale all the time.  In training
rides and the last 40 miles of a 50-mile ride he goes on a loose lead and
responds to all aids.  It is only necessary now to remind him that he
needs to listen when everything is most exciting.  

The main point is that I was doing all that was possible to not ruin his
mind and let him remember the months of ring training with gentle methods
that his breeder paid to have done before I bought him.
If you do not expose the horse to what causes him to have a problem he
will never learn that he has to do what he should regardless of the
situation.  Sometimes it takes a LONG time for this to happen and as Bob
Morris pointed out, some horses are always "ready to go to a fire".

Dave Bennett
& Rocketeer
Chickamauga, Georgia

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999 10:14:29 -0600 Lynette Helgeson
<helgeson@lansford.ndak.net> writes:
>This last statement shows that David is not in control of his horse, 
>but
>he is trying to control the horse with the bit. You don't control a
>horse with a bit and a running martingale, but with their mind.