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Lewis & Clark

Mustang History, part 2

SPARKY GOES TO SCHOOL

The good thing about a wild horse is that you don't have to un-teach him all the mistakes and bad habits that past owners have done.

On the other hand, you have to teach him EVERYTHING.

That's been a challenge for me. In fact, much as I have always liked horses, I had long ago given up on them. I liked having them around (as long as somebody else took care of them),  but I didn't want to handle them or ride them. 

Horses tended to walk all over me, buck me off, scrape me off under tree limbs, bite me when I took them their food - you name it, they did it to me. I had no ability to control them, and I didn't like the rough methods that were offered me to deal with them. I didn't want to be involved with any animal that had to be beaten into submission, kicked, whipped, tied down, tied up, scared into obedience, or any of the usual old-style "breaking" stuff.

I wanted a "willing partnership."

Photo of Lesley Neuman at a BLM Adoption: by Terry Crawford

It was through watching the gentle, humane "natural horsemanship" demonstrations at BLM Wild Horse Adoptions, with trainers like Lesley Neuman and Bryan Neubert, that I decided to give horses another try.

As the preceding pages show, I was able to do a pretty decent job of getting Sparky through his initial gentling and domestication process.

But as he got older and bigger, problems started to arise. He would crowd me and push me. A friend came to visit and he reared up and tried to jump on her.

If I pushed him to do something he didn't want to do, he'd stomp his feet and pin his ears. A couple of times he even threw a full tantrum - rearing up and bucking away. He never hurt me - I do think he likes me - but I knew I was letting him develop bad manners, but I didn't know how to change it. He was teaching me to keep his world very small and restricted.

Well, I need to be fair here. Most of the time Sparky is just wonderful. But nevertheless, I recognized that problems were developing.

Here's an example: One day in April I tried to apply fly spray. Sparky threw a tantrum. We ended up with an angry, stomping, rearing horse on our hands and it was hard to get him calmed down again. I felt very nervous and sad that my "relationship" with Sparky seemed to have been damaged by that incident. He didn't seem to like me too much for a few days afterward.

I guess this is the point where a lot of adoptions begin to go sour. (Actually, most adoptions that sour never get this far! Most failed adoptions involve people who are unable to gentle their wild horse in the first place - or, they involve people who expect too much, too soon - and end up getting bucked off on the trail.) But I love Sparky, and I am committed to keeping him forever.

So I had a choice: I could continue as we were, and have a pretty but dangerous pasture ornament, or I could face this Horse Thing straight on and learn to do it right.

When the Student is Ready, The Teacher Will Appear
- Ancient saying from somewhere  (Zen? China? I don't know)

Last spring Lesley Neuman invited Michael and I to watch a clinic she was hosting, given by Jerry Tindell. We liked what we saw, and got our horses signed up for a clinic this spring. We took Sparky, Root Beer and Ruby to a 3-day clinic in March.

At that clinic, Michael and Jerry discussed making a video for Jerry's students, and the date for that was in April.

When we found out that they had an opening there for another horse, I jumped at the opportunity to sign Sparky up for a 6 clinic series that starts with Round Penning, moves through Ground Skills (halter work) and ends with Beginning Riding. (See http://www.jerrytindell.com for more info)

So, here is Sparky at
"Tindell's Horse & Mule School (Humans Too)"

First, we learned how to work in the Round Pen. Here, Jerry Tindell shows me how to direct Sparky to change directions.	The reward (and goal) of Round Penning is developing a strong Connection between the horse's mind and yours. Here, Sparky stands facing me, paying close attention, and willing to follow me.
I asked Jerry to help with Sparky's fly spray problem. Since a horse remembers the last thing that happens in a session, and we had allowed our fly spray incident to end on a bummer, Sparky had built up quite an issue around it. Jerry worked him through it, and now look how nicely he stands for spraying!
From Round Penning, we moved into Ground Work: Driving forward from behind	Learning to drive in circles
Softening at the poll	Good Boy!
Well, okay, it wasn't ALL sweetness and success!	Now we have lots of things to practice before next month's clinic!

NEXT: OBSTACLE COURSE

Sparky's Progress: • Sparky 2001 - Adoption • Gentling Sparky • Sparky Settles In • Sparky is Sick • Sparky Spring 2001 • Sparky - Summer 2001 • Sparky In School • Sparky in School, pt 2 • Sparky's First Rides • Saddle Training 2 • Sparky 2006 • Sparky 2007 •

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