Bond With Your Horse
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Bond With Your Horse |
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Jo bought Sana in 2004 as a 3 year old. He is an Arab Stallion. He convinced her to undertake the Monty Roberts and Kelly Marks training as she couldn't find the right balance in handling him. If she was too passive he would walk all over her..literally. If she was even vaguely overly assertive he would become very defensive and 'attack'..teeth and feet flying.
With very experienced horsemen he was quiet and respectful and yet they didn't seem to be doing anything drastically different in their handling of him. However once Jo started the Kelly Marks training she realised that through their unconscious use of body language and their confident, relaxed attitude they were communicating a completely different message to Sana than she had been. The horse has to trust and respect you as a leader.
Jo has used all the techniques that she has learned with Sana and he has been a fantastic learning experience. We have encountered and resolved problems with aggression, biting, barging, over-excitability when out with other horses, inability to load, difficulty in handling back legs, fear of water, spooking and a terror of injections and therefore vets (not a good thing for an endurance horse).... And of course being a young horse we have introduced him to many new things including clipping, going to competitions and the many 'terrifying' experiences when hacking out.
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"The Groundwork and use of the Dually halter to school him has turned him into a respectful, gentle horse. He is still a stallion and he is still young and playful but now he knows his boundaries and what is acceptable behaviour around humans."
Ask Jo about him now and she will say "I have always loved him but now I like him and there is nowhere I'd rather be than with him. This is how we should feel about all of our horses".
Jo and Sana are now competing in endurance and he had a successful year in 2007 qualifying at the 6 Year Old Endurance Final at Uzes over 90kms (behaving impeccably in the company of hundreds of other horses). Since then he has gone on to finish 8th at the CEI* 90km race at Alpe d'Huez in 2009 and to qualify at the CEI** 130km race at Tartas in 2010.
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