Skip to content

Houston, Texas Horse Master Shoot

 

We were taping the show about 40 miles north of Houston at a beautiful center with a covered arena (we needed it) and a rehabilitative center. Our show topics were learning the cues and training a young horse to side-pass, canter departures, desensitizing an explosively cinchy horse, collecting the canter, reprogramming a hard-to-catch horse and a rider learning to jump. All six episode went smoothly, except one of them was, once again, supposed to be on water crossing but the horse inexplicably walked right into the water (for the very first time) so we had to change the topic.

Horses have an uncanny knack for making a liar out of you, have you ever noticed that? Have you ever bragged on a horse, only to have him totally embarrass you moments later? Have you ever spoken poorly of your horse, only to have him act like a total angel? There’s a lesson to be learned here and for us, the Horse Master crew, we learned this lesson a long time ago—always have a back-up plan.

I really liked all the horses (and riders) that were at the shoot, but the one horse that stands out to me was the hard-to-catch one. Because he wasn’t really that way by design. He had just figured out this very fun game, called “make the human run all over” and thought it was his obligation to play it. I could see right away that he wasn’t going to be difficult to reprogram, unlike some hard-to-catch horses, and I was right. He just needed new rules explained to him and then he was happy to play the new game called “come to the human.” He was actually very sweet and bright, just a little misunderstood.

 

You Might Also Like...

3 Comments

  1. My (why on earth did the good Lord send me a suprise baby?) horse is at a trainer’s place now. I bragged how good he is – and he is. BUT the trainer does things a lot differently than the way I trained Banjo. Whe he lunges, he only lunges the horse one direction for a while and then the other direction. I did a lot of turning and stopping. Poor Banjo can almost be seen scratching his head – what does this guy want? If the trainer shifts a little bit, Banjo spins around. Oh dear.

    I was upset you weren’t at the PA expo this year. Glad we did get to see you at the MD expo.
    I framed the “sorry I missed you” signed photo you gave me for hubby. He didn’t hit any steps on the bleachers when he realized you were at your booth. LOL.

    Julie, I don’t know if this is the place for this, but I bought your “confidence CD”
    I listen to it in the car and recently was on a scary snow covered road. You know what I did? I remembered what you said about paying attention to your surroundings and practicing deep breathing. I counted telephone poles. There were 41 poles before I went onto the plowed and treated main road.
    I am looking forward to see if it can get this chicken rider back on a horse this year.

  2. I really enjoyed the taping in Houston. My “Hard to catch” horse only gave me a 10 min work-out today. I love my new approach and really see it working.. Even in a 80 acre pasture. Thank you for an awesome experience that I will never forget.. Misty G.

  3. We totally agree with you about the cold temps vs. humidity! OK, also maybe about horses proving us liars. Ours do it all the time, but hey, that’s half the fun of owning horses: their versatility, in spite of us. Yesterday we hiked about 5 miles of backcountry to see our Mustangs (they run wild on thousands of acres for 5 mo. of the year), and when THEY spotted US, they came charging up three hills from over 1/2 mile away, to greet us. You just can’t get more heart-warming than that!
    Juanita


Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.