Hi there, I've been gone from BBSing for quite some years, but I have
horses, and have been reading your recent messages.  My horse is the
good version of the generic Plantation Walking horse.  He does
everything as natural as can be, and does it smoothly.  I believe he was
a reject from a training barn because he didn't quite make it as one of
the big lick horses there.  Someone took his papers and gave them to one
that did, and he was sold without.  But I benefited from this, because
even though he WAS a reject, that made him high quality anyways.
He's black, which is generic as all get out, and he is smooth as silk.
I could pick his double out of any of the VOICE walking horse magazines
from many of them shown that are winning in Plantation Pleasure classes.
In other words, he isn't just smooth as silk, he moves right and is
built right too.  I've not had very many horses in my life, but I almost
can't believe I've got one that I like so well.  He's four years old,
and no, I can't get his papers.  I learned all that stuff second hand
about his papers being changed.
(BTW, I'm not an expert on Walking Horses, or any other kind of horse, I
just like mine like the dickens!)
That's my personal horse, but we have 9 of them, and we all ride them
too.  My best friend and I take care of the community bunch every day,
and come back to the house with what each one has done that was funny or
whatnot.
We have a chestnut Shetland pony stallion- a pet,
a chestnut Walking Horse stallion - a real high stepper,
a chestnut Walking Horse gelding - safe/dependable kid stuff,
a sorrel Walking Horse mare - almost a pony (very small & flashy),
a Palomino/Paint Walking horse 2yr old filly - her daughter,
a flea-bit grey Walking Horse Mare - brood mare,
a dun weanling - her baby,
a Dun/paint/Walking horse stallion/yearling - Really flashy too, he has
blue eyes rimmed with black (real evil looking), a bald face, and four
white stockings to the knees/hocks. His tail has a victory V of three
colors when he holds it up high.
We also have a black Walking Horse brood mare - but a good trail horse
too she's the mother of the one above. Also dependable.
We have a lot of horses, most of them showable, but we like to trail
ride better.  We go to the local riding club, when the competition is
not terribly dangerous (around here they take it too seriously for us to
want to risk blowing any of our less experienced horse up over it)  We
usually go there just to visit, and just take the steadiest horse who
doesnt really care if he's sideswiped or cut off.
We have a close friend that breeds and trains Palomino Quarter horses
and Paints, but she was raised up with Saddlebreds.  Her father and her
trained and showed them.  She breeds and trains her Quarter horses, but
she trail rides a lot, and that is only on her Tennesee Walking Horse.
She is really stuck on him.  She's an itty bitty woman, and this horse
is a powerhouse and will go straight up cliffs for her.  Personally, I'm
not that brave a rider, nor that experienced, but I enjoy hearing her
talk about all the stuff she's done on him.
I rode English on Quarter Horses, and beginning dressage many years ago,
but had to stop riding for a while.  When I started up again it was on
gaited horses.  I rode a couple of dangerous and spoiled horses, got
into a few scares, and didn't ride for a year because of the phobia.
Oh, mind you... I did do the right thing, and got "right back up in the
saddle" after all the episodes, but I never got rid of that nervousness,
and it was making riding unenjoyable. And I even tried to force myself
through it and ride anyway, but that really didn't do the trick.  I
ended up doing a lot of chores, grooming, doctoring, feeding, anything
on the ground.  I came up with a lot of excuses until I just petered out
on the riding thing.
A year later I decided to try again, and did on the black mare, which is
a seasoned trail horse (although rough as a cob, gaited or not).  It has
seemed to do the trick, and I was trying to work my muscles and mind
into just having fun, which I could do on that horse.  Nonetheless, my
own horse is a little bit more spirited than the phobia can handle right
now, and he's also cold-backed.  So, I haven't gotten around to riding
him regularly in the open.
I can handle it in the round pen right now (grin)  talk about riding
merry go round horses.  He's bored, I'm bored...  And don't get me
wrong, he isn't spoiled, or mean.  He has the potential to be even a
great beginners horse if he's ridden regularly for a year or two.  But
he has a way of getting scared that escalates into a kind of hysteria
that doesn't go well with my own phobia.  I aggravate it, but his
tendency is not a horse that comes back down from being scared quickly.
In other words, his flight or fight is in good working order.
So, we are sending off to the trainer just to have him ridden down for a
couple of weeks in situations that I might ride him in.  Someone that
will give him confidence when he goes out in the world.  In the
meantime, I hope to get my saddle confidence up on another horse.  You
don't know how guilty I feel about not riding him, because I just am
crazy about this horse.  But boy can he run backwards fast when he's
scared. (grin)
Anyways, I don't mean to sound so depressing.  I'm just kicking myself
in the head for ever getting up on a spoiled horse, much less two of
them.
Anyone there got gaited horses?  And how do you start a horse to learn
to pull things?  (As in carts, logs, buggys, etc...)  One of our horses
is at such a great and steady age, that I think he's ready to learn
somthing like that and make himself useful in ways that the rest of our
stable doesn't.  (He's our kid safe horse.  He won't even step on a cat
unless it's trying to get his food)
Nice to read you all.  (grin)
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 X SLMR 2.1 X 
--- Maximus 2.00
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