My new horse

Today we learned 'stuff Mother can't do'
Again, interesting that she played hard to get as her mother did but I could see she was really unsure why she was running away. Very interesting as soon as I touched a hand on her back she stopped dead and was caught. I spent half an hour wrapping her in rope and she thought this was great fun - Rose (mother) didn't , she is not 'rope broke' and was huffing and snorting nearby while I made up a mock driving harness and 'drove' Lightning around the pen. then I led her by the neck, by the front legs, by the back legs and by the ears (until the rope fell off)
I picked up all her feet - one was easy but 3 were not. Yes, again my friend has been 'regularly picking up her feet' - always the same one!
She is almost weaned no trouble at al - my friend has started to ride Rose for 20 minutes around the block and Lightning doesn't care.

Your progress is so encouraging to me

Lightning has been weaned this week. Her mother is turned out with my horses and she won't be caught - Lightning is all over everybody back at home. We are taking her to a foal show this week with an old pony for travelling companion. Any tips???

The Show...wow what a day I can't believe how good she was
First she loaded herself into the trailer next to old Image - we have been practicing a bit - she stood quiet all the way to the show and stood in the trailer while we went to enter. we got her out and she stood to be groomed, have her tail combed out and her legs washed - never done the last two before. She stood quietly in the collecting ring with all the usual half broken foal chaos going on around her. she went in the ring and walked and trotted with me. the judge said she was the quietest foal he'd ever seen and gave her First.
then she loaded back in the trailer like an angel and went home and out into the field like she did this every day.
I can't get over it - she's never even been out of the field before! And only 5 months old.

BRAVO!!!!! Well done, to both of you!!

It sounds like she really trusts you as her leader!

YAY FOR YOU!!!!

Superb work FlorayG! Congratulations!

oh now I feel embarrassed - I didn't make her like that, we just didn't do anything to make her NOT like that.
Aren't all horses born trusting? Makes you think what people must do to them doesn't it

That reminds me of what Hempfling says! He takes horses right out of the wild and trains them, and he says they respond so much better than domesticated horses because they haven't had any bad experiences with humans (not exactly those words, but similar).

Don't feel embarrassed! Yes, Lightning is trusting, but hats off to you for giving her a reason to keep trusting!!! As you said...you didn't do anything to make her NOT like that .

I couldn't agree more FlorayG, but as Cyndi says the point is you didn't do anything to not make her like that. Take your credit where its due! Its easier said than done for a lot of us!

Which 'wild' horses does Hempfling use Cyndi, do you know? I say 'wild', because there aren't any horses that are completely unmanaged by humans any more. And a lot of feral ponies are worse to train than domestic horses, as what little contact they have had with people has been bad, ie. branding, seperating mothers and foals, veterinary treatment etc etc. My friend's New Forest who came straight from the Forest is terribly afraid of humans. She still doesn't trust my friend after 2 years, though she gets a bit better all the time. Her foal (born at my friend's place) however, is immensely trusting and my friend can do anything with her.

Lightertouch - Perhaps I was wrong in saying that the horses that Hempfling prefers are "wild", as in feral, but they are pretty much untouched by humans. I believe they are Lusitanos, but I could be wrong. He is in Denmark and I think whichever horses he's talking about are bred on one of the islands, but they are out there for a few years before he brings one of them in for training. He lives on the island of Lyo. He does a lot with PRE stallions too.

STILL can't get any pictures to upload PLEASE HELP

I went through Photo Bucket. I opened a free account with them. You can choose what size of pics to use, etc. I think that when you put them in your message all you get is the URL mumbo jumbo, but once the message is posted, the pics show up in it. It's been a while since I've been in there, so I can't remember exactly what to do. I also have an account with servimag, but I can't figure it out