--- Wanda Lauscher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: It's my opinion that even if you sent > one of your horses > 'out' to a trainer, there is still a ton of work to > be done when you > get that horse back in your hands. I think you > would really have to > work at getting to know that horse because you > weren't part of the > orginal process of training.<<
I sent Whisper out for training last year, but before I took her home, I took several lessons on her to become familiar with her and her with me. Once I was comfortable at walk, trot, and canter, I took a lesson on the trail with her, then I took her home. Whenever I have an issue, I take her back to my trainer for a lesson. My trainer/instructor is invaluable to me! > I think if more owners decided to take training into > their own hands > and tried to educate themselves as much as > possible....and kept their > methods gentle - we would have a lot of happy > horse/human > partnerships.<< With Andi, he is such a sensitive soul and trusts ME completely, I could never turn him over to a trainer, so I will do it myself. Since I have had him since he was 11 months old, I have inadvertantly turned him into a 1 person horse - not a bad thing, tho, since I will be the only one to ride him. And even tho Whisper has been with me since she was 8 months old, and I knew her since she was born, her personality is different and she takes to everyone. Must be the Arab in her. > I think gaited horses offer a bit more of a > challenge though. Because > if you start out and you're completely focused on > gait and getting a > gait....you could really ruin a horse's natural way > of going if you > weren't careful. << Gait is not an issue for me for the first year under saddle. If it's there, I'll take it, but I don't care which second gear they offer untill the basics are down first - and that takes a good year, IMHO. Susan in NV Happy High Desert Trails Susan in NV Nevermore Ranch http://users.oasisol.com/nevermore/ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
