On Thu, Apr 26, 2007 at 10:59:04AM -0700, Judy Ryder wrote: > How about the owners whose horses are doing therapy stuff? Not only limited > to disabled children and adults, but horses that are giving owners "good > vibes" and in general making them feel good emotionally.
that would be me. i have ptsd, which is a fairly intrusive anxiety disorder, except when i'm with stjarni. he was a little "hot" two lessons ago (it was awful weather, i hadn't ridden in three days, and his paddockmates wanted to stay in the run-in) and actually spooked (about three feet or so) two or three times during our warmup. i hate hate hate spooking, but in fact on stjarni i felt just fine; i could tell he was just blowing off a little energy before setting down to work. at no point did i lose either balance or calm. my instructor doesn't believe me about the ptsd :) a lot of the reason i chose him as my teaching partner was the hope that he would be able to impart a similar feeling of security to my students. in some cases it takes a few lessons (and in some cases it's just not a good match) but i think overall he's very talented at it. --vicka
