Training Time

Finally everything is clicking. The weather, my schedule and the horses. I have officially retired from training because I don't have the time or the facilities to be a consistent trainer anymore. I also have a 7 year old horse of my own that isn't much better than green broke because I am always riding someone elses horse. But I digress - yesterday everything was clicking. The weather was fantastic and I had a cancellation of a riding lesson. I was actually able to work three horses yesterday! Now I remember why I love to train. I was able to take my time with each horse and really work on what they needed. It had been about a month since I had worked Val and she picked up right where we had left off. The layoff really helped her attitude. Shiek was a little scattered at first, but soon tuned in to the business at hand. His left stifle still troubles me though. I have worked him lightly the last three days ( suppling/cuing/tuning in 30 minutes on Monday, walk/trot ponying on Tuesday, suppling/long lineing/patience on Wednesday) with lots of hydrotherapy and linament afterwards. He still continues to be sore and refuses to take the left hind lead. I will give him the day off today and pick-up with the conditioning on Friday. The owners are impatient to proceed, but I refuse to ride a sore horse and risk permanent damage and a bad attitude.

Oklahoma Burning

Oklahoma is literally burning down! High winds, low humidity and dead vegatation have combined to make a perfect fire storm. Several towns had to be evacuated and people lost homes, businesses and other personal items. Thank GOD that so far no human lives have been lost! This does bring to light another important thing. My sister-in-law called frantic last night. She and her husband had to evacuate their home. They were not able to get their horse, Rusty, to load in the trailer. They ended up leaving him there. Now I know that we all believe that no emergency will ever happen to us, but things happen. Teach your horses to load! I don't mean, "Well we eventually get her to load". That doesn't work when anxiety is high. The horses will sense it and become agitated themselves. Don't blame the horse. It is your responsibility as a horse owner to train your horse in basic handling. I don't care if you don't ride them or well we never haul them anywhere. Again - things happen. If it's not a fire, flood, hurricane or some other disaster; it could be an emergency trip to the vet. Please, please, please for the health and well-being of your horse - teach them to load and load well.
Okay, now I will step down off of my soapbox. Have a great weekend!