Horsin' Around

Hey, I just joined you group. Not real familiar yet with this site. I specialize in Oregon Horse Properties and enjoy horses myself. So, if any of you are looking to relocate to Oregon, I can help. I love the pics of the bucksin. When the horse market gets better I would like to find the perfect horse (wouldn't we all).

I'm in SoCal. Do you have horses? =-)

Anybody in the Chicago suburbs or am I the only one?

I'm one happy horse person! Just this last week I gave away my 16-year-old TB gelding to a WONDERFUL, loving home, specifically my next door neighbors! Then they needed a companion horse for him and I sold them my 17-year-old Arab/Quarterhorse mare that has achieved 1st level Pat Parelli Natural Horsemanship training. Yeeeehaw! I also gave my neighbor the number of our trainer...LOL! Now she needs to learn to speak "horse". =-)

lol I dont stick any more when riding bareback.

Thank you Katie1! They are all wooly with the winter coat...I'll try to get better pix... =-) Your animals are incredible!!!!
OK, who's into the Natural Horsmanship? I am!

Nice looking horse LetterLady!

Hey guys Christmas is comming....what are you getting your horse for Christmas??

If anyone is interested, I did finally get her used to ropes - at least she doesn't come unglued at the sight of them anymore. And I did eventually get a halter on her - lots of patience and treats. She follows me around like one of the dogs, and while she let me know she wasn't happy about the halter, she didn't try to fight it. No chasing involved, I let her come to me. Lots of patience, and no pushing for more on my part. She's even gotten used to the dogs running loose around her, and doesn't threaten to kick if they get too close. It's a good thing, because the beagle tends to follow his nose instead of looking where he's going, and he's bumped into her a few times. She just nudges him out of her way, and every single time it happens he gets a really funny look on his face, like 'where did YOU come from?'

I grew up with horses and ponies, and worked with other livestock. But it's been awhile, because there was no place for a horse where I lived in Kodiak, although some of our neighbors had them and I provided pasture and took care of them. So like I said, more of my experience in the past few decades has been with dogs. If I hired a trainer around here, it would be someone who would 'break' her, not 'train' her - that's all there is. I don't think you've either read my descriptions very carefully, or else didn't quite believe I was recounting accurately. I know I've answered some of the same questions a couple of times.

It's correct that she is docile with a rope around her neck - however, it took 5 people [I was not one of them] chasing her into near exhaustioin and finally cornering her in the pasture to get that rope around her neck. That is not the way I want any creature of mine to be treated. The problem is not mine, it's with her past experiences. I have a friend who shows Friesians, and she is confident that I can handle whatever comes up. I only came here to ask for any suggestions she might not have thought of, but so far all I've seen is asking questions I've already answered, and criticism.

I do have a lot of experience training dogs [mostly rescued and abused dogs], and rehabbing exotic birds. I've even taught a few cats tricks. The essentials are the same, NILIF, conditioning, and in some cases, clicker training. The key to all of it is consistency and patience.