Day 1

I'm sick of my horse being head-shy.
I'm through with chasing her around the paddock.
I'm tired of being cornered in the stall when I go to get her.
And I'm most tired of my trainer's "training"!

This is the account of one 17 year old girl's experience when she takes "training" into her own hands.
Impossible, you say? By the end of this blog, I promise to have won one blue ribbon in a class of at least 10. I promise to have solved the three problems I aforementioned, and any others that come up along the way. And, most importantly, I promise to have done it all without raising an angry hand to either one of my mares.

Maybe I should state why I'm taking on this project.
I've had my black mare, Brie, for 5 years. Don't get me wrong, my trainer did help in the beginning. Let's call him Andre. Andre started training her when she was 3. She's now 8. And while she is still very....easily excited, I have to give Andre some credit for calming her down. Now while she was in training, someone took her for a joyride and she's been headshy ever since. Back up as to why. Brie is a Paso Fino, a rare gem in America, land of the Quarter Horse. I don't want to go all out into her breed, but you may google it if you're interested.

About a year ago, an expert in the Paso Fino came to our stables. I'll call him Dominic. Dominic observed Brie and me and said that Brie is a very anxious horse. She needs to calm down. So I followed his advice: walk her, don't let her gallop, make her face her fears of the sunshine demons. And it got me to the point where I could ride her in the show ring without her rearing or freezing and getting excused. And while this is an accomplishment, I'd at least like a fourth place. Brie doesn't like other horses in front of nor behind her. Or in general. She only likes my filly (young girl horse) Nina.

At my most recent show in Kentucky, I met an elderly man I'll call Carmello who is packed with knowledge. To make a long story short, I'm following his advice combined with Dominic's: no more doing without reason. See, Andre, who was once very gentle, is getting very aggressive with his training. And when you ask him why he does what he does, he either doesn't know or answers simply "because everyone's doing it". He's not training Brie anymore, but he is training Nina. And I do not like what I'm seeing lately: scars on her nose and ankles. Good thing this is the last week of her training.

So to start off my tale, today I walked Brie for a good hour. I didn't use a bit, which she seemed to really like. After bucking and kicking while I warmed her up, she was really wanting to take off on me. But I managed to work with her and calm her down. Nina and my mom even joined us in our calm state.

So that's how day 1 went. Nothing big, but I guess it takes little steps. I plan on going thru all of the Level One Parelli DVDs this week while I sit at home and have nothing else to do! So that should prove an interesting challenge in the weeks to come. As will the state fair.