Natural horsemanship / trust building exercises?

M

Miss K

New User
Joined
2 April 2010
Messages
4
Visit site
Hi,
My horse has a very sore back from a poorly fitted saddle so is getting massage and osteopath treatment and new saddler booked for next month but it looks like ridden exercise should be given a wide berth for a good few weeks to allow him to recover properly.
I want to use this time constructively and try some ground work with trust building exercises. Any ideas? He's a good boy most of the time, but if he sees something that scares him, the shutters come down and he tenses up so much it's hard to get through to him. Cows and loading are the main issues. I've seen parelli dvd's advertised, has anyone tried these methods and got good results? Any advice gratefully received.
 
Thanks, is there any reading material or ways I can find exercises for IH or do you need the instructor to come out? Not sure if there is one local to me - East Sussex.
 
Have a look on the Intelligent Horsemanship website, there is a list of all of the instructors and their locations. Definitely worth getting someone out and you might enjoy Kelly Marks' book, Perfect Manners, as well.
 
Miss K said:
Thanks, is there any reading material or ways I can find exercises for IH or do you need the instructor to come out? Not sure if there is one local to me - East Sussex.
Click to expand...

Jim Goddard who organises the tours etc is based in Mayfield area so covers East Sussex.
He came out to see me and is a great guy.
You should be able to get his number from the website.
 
The only one i'd have anything to do with is Claus Hempfling - bit wiffly but very much common sense, saw a demo he did and was impressed - no showmanship or rush to produce flashy results in a short space of time. I would avoid Parelli/Marks/roberts unless you want a screwed up horse and have heaps of money to spend on commercial rubbish, plus if you ever want to sell your horse on for whatever reason you will find it almost impossible if any of those 3 have been used as the buyer will need to start from scratch. Have been to demos of all 3 and was horrified at the drivel they were spouting and what they were doing to their horses, walked out of the parelli one as it was that bad!! The best way of building up trust is taking walks in hand as if you would take your dog, slow small steps and common sense are the way to build trust in any animal.
 
Jim Goddard is a great guy (my husband Simon and I are also part of the tour team) - I'm not sure if you can find his name on the IH website yet as I think he's only just / just about to qualify as an RA - you can always email the office to check (find their details at www.intelligenthorsemanship.co.uk). There are RAs throughout the country though, so you should be able to find one that suits you.
Sorry, wouldn't normally be drawn into it, but had to giggle at the person who said you'd have to have your horse completely retrained if you worked using IH methods and then wanted to sell it. Particularly since she said 'take your horse out for a walk' as her favourite tip - if you look on my facebook group you'll find my daily 'Tip for Today' for a couple of days ago was essentially 'take your horse out for a walk' - doesn't sound like we're too far apart there at least with our ways of thinking! Anyway, take a look at the biography of Recommended Associate Carrie Adams (http://www.centrelines.co.uk/p_ieBiography.ikml) to see that you can work within IH and definitely still get mainstream results!

Sue
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top