How you get this, the horse that wants to be with you, is the crux, isn't it?
Because my husbanc understands about autism (autistic 15 yr old son), I explain to him that all horses are autistic. It's only partly a joke. I think they love structure and routine and they like to be where the fun happens. The trick is choosing the right fun for each horse. Hunter loves loves loves to go, so conditioning for endurance is his kind of fun. Twist truly hated it, perhaps why he flunked out at the race track, but he adores being handled, brushed, babied. The jury is out on Tosca. She is certainly getting fit and hardening up and she has never balked or refused anything I have asked her to do. She's easy to catch and looks content when we return to the barn, but I can't tell for sure that she's found her niche. Yesterday we went out behine a 16 h Anglo Arab and a 15.2 hand Arab gelding and she trucked right along behind them. If the Arabs are trotting out, as is their training schedule some days, then she doesn't keep up, but it doesn't really bother her. She just keeps plugging along in whatever that gait is she does. Nancy
