On Mon, Jan 15, 2007 at 08:00:10AM -0800, Robyn Hood wrote: > I would not want to be a school horse, of any breed, and my horses are only > used as lesson horses during clinics. But how does anyone learn to ride if > there are no school horses - the lack of having good school horses is > probably why so many people go and buy horses without knowing anything - how > kind is that to horse or rider. Not everyone can afford to keep their > horses without the horses having some job and who are we to judge which > horses are happy and which are not; and what is a suitable job. It sounds > like Vicka is trying to watch Stjarni and hopefully if she see a change in > his behaviour, demeanor or attitude she will adjust his job description.
thanks, robyn. i did think stjarni made a fine school horse, but i *have* changed his job description at least temporarily. at the start of the winter (when a lot of folks leave lessons) we moved to a diffferent barn, mostly b/c it is next to a big state forest, and i thought it would do us good to do more trail riding over more difficult terrain (both him and me). i've missed the intense training i had received at my last barn (we've had one lesson in six weeks, and i have a trial coming up this week with a new instructor) but we've done a lot of different stuff (beach rides, night rides, water crossings, hillier rides) and i do think it's been good for us (me, mostly, i guess as stjarni seems to take it all in stride :) we may return to teaching again -- i have several students who wanted to follow me, and that's ok with my new barn, but it'll be different (the barn is adult-only, though they're willing to be flexible for one kid who lives in their neighborhood and whose parents have leased there for years, plus i'll only have my one school horse). or we might go back to the lesson barn. and yes, i do try to watch stjarni, and listen to others' advice about him (even from this list, not infrequently :) -- my happiness is dependent upon *his* happiness, and his happiness is my responsibility. fortunately for me, he seems a basically mellow, easy-going horse -- something i asked about before i bought him, but which seems to have proved true. --vicka
