Hi

Got to thinking about the thousands of us burning brain cells over Trivia questions and wondering what else we all do.

I am interested in Natural Horsemanship and I wondered if there is anybody else with the same interests out there.

If I knew what natural horsemanship was, probably.

I love horses, as evidenced by all of the horse quizzes I've made. Even had three, at one point. Turned one from a biting, kicking nasty-tempered mare into a loving, well-trained mare with lots of steady, hard work.

Morrigan

Just looked it up, and, yep, I'm into natural horsemanship. That's how I trained my girl (the bad tempered one.)

I used some of John Lyon's methods on her, and they worked.

Morrigan

I'm not into Natural Horsemanship but I'm interested to know what it is?

I'm interested in what it is too Not really into them myself but lots of people around me are.

Welcome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_horsemanship

Morrigan

I use a bit when I ride.

I can also ride my horse without anything on her-no saddle, no bridle, no halter-nothing, but when I ride on the trails or road, I ride with a bit for both my safety, her safety and the safety of everyone around us.

The bit I use isn't painful, either. She neck-rains, and responds to vocal commands, and commands of my seat.

I never forced her to learn anything-she was wild when I started her at the age of 6-almost no human contact other than a brief feeding here and there. I started her easy-she was tied up, and groomed, first her neck, then the rest of her body. At the beginning, she just fought-bit, kicked etc. Then, it was like a light turned on. I wasn't hurting her-what I was doing felt good, she also liked the treats and the kind words. There was no pain-only good stuff to look forward to. After the light turned on, I couldn't scrape her off me with a stick. She broke out of her pasture to be with me. I was going to take another mare out because I didn't believe she was trail-safe, and she knew she was. She was good as gold.

She was one of my best friends-and I could do anything with her.

But I used a bit.

Morrigan

As the saying goes.."Different strokes.." I just know that what makes me safe is the relationship and the groundwork because if a horse really wanted to get away - no bit in the world would stop that. We don't use any direct pressure on the horse - just body language which is the language of the horse after all. We only ride trails when we can control a horse form the ground, at liberty (i.e. no halter or lead rope). So I can turn my horses in both directions, back them up, ask them to come to me and (eventually) lie down for me without any restraint. We load them into boxes with just a finger and send them away from us to jump an obstacle. Great fun!!