Apr 18, 2012

Happy Birthday!!!!


He's growing up too fast.

Thirteen today.

Stop growing up, Flint!

Apr 12, 2012

Horse Problems

I need a little advice from the fellow horse people in blog world. This I rarely ask, because there are so many different opinions and people chomping other peoples heads off, but I am willing to listen!

I have this horse.. (obviously!) and she is terrible. Haha!

Ok not really terrible... she just needs some major work.

She's just like her mother was. Spunky and wild.

Anyways, the problem...  Sometimes she is hard to catch which is very frustrating. It is frustrating for all horse owners at times. I have patience and I just continue to walk after her where ever she heads until she finally gives in. I don't beat her or punish her once I catch her, I simply halter her, pat her, and walk towards the house. That can be fixed by just spending time with her- catching her, releasing her, catching her, brushing her releasing her. BUT then thing is.... when you do get them to where you can catch them and you start riding them again... that is where the problem comes in! They think, oh well if she is going to start riding me again I'm going to not let her catch me again! So... how do you fix this?!?!

This horse also has trust issues. I worked her in the round pen the last two days and she did great until the part where she is supposed to follow me around where ever I go. Some people call it hooking on. I let her go in the round pen and she turns away from me. I drive her away.. change directions.. and make her go the speed I want her to go. Then as she starts lowering her head/chewing/licked/relaxing/turning her ear in towards me I turn away and release the pressure. She almost (not almost...)... she never walks towards me, but she will turn towards me. I will walk towards her and she will let me pet her but it's like she is scared of me- but my approach/stature is a relaxed as I can be. She is really tense and holds her breath, but as she relaxes I will turn away from her. She usually takes off running or walking again by herself. After a while she would let me walk up to her but she would never follow me. It was just frustrating me because I've never had a horse not follow me and I honestly don't know what to do about it.

So, what would you do? Would you continue catching her and loving on her, would you work her more in the round pen? Would you sack her out or something similar to get the scary mode out of her?

I'm at a loss. Sort of!

I'm going to go out and catch her in a little bit and just rub all over her and be sweet to her and let her go.

It also doesn't help that I have 5 other horses running around with her egging her on!