While I don't consider my mare, Whisper a rehab, I was having problems with her and getting frustrated, as most of you know. Standard NH techniques were not working with her. She was "stubborn, willful, ignoring me, giving me the hoof", etc... Liz Graves saw her last year, and told me she would make me a better horseman. I was beginning to think she was going to break me. I was told to be her leader, ride it out, push her thru her balking, etc. Yea, right. That made her worse. She was threatening to rear, kicking out, charging me on the ground, refuse to load, trying to squash me with her body against the horse trailer. Somehow, everybody was telling me it was all my fault. I quit the gaited horse list because of such negative comments. Took a leave from here for the same reasons. I went full force into clicker training and got good advice from Robyn off list in regards to TTouch methods. Well, that understanding advice from Robyn paid off. I now have a partner in Whisper, and while we are not a perfect team yet, we are well on our way. Here is a video of my ride from yesterday. I named it "Ears to You" because I noticed while editing how much her ears are on me, and they never were before. Near the end, you will see her sling her head when we get behind Mom and Fireman. This is her expressing her frustration at being on someone's butt. Keep in mind, this was a mare who would not go out on the trail unless she was on someone's butt. So that in itself is a turnaround. And previous to yesterday, when she got frustrated being behing another horse, she would buck. Yesterday, I rode her in the Promise Wrap, and I got no buck, just the head sling. I put her behind to stay away from the barb wire, as I have a barb wire phobia. I then moved back over and she was better. Gawd, I love this mare!! Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7lyyDCesfg Susan in NV read my blog to see why I ride my horse in pink: http://desertduty.blogspot.com/ Nevermore Ranch http://users.oasisol.com/nevermore/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
