Riding horse

[Marshall]

As you may remember about 1 1/2 years ago I bought a rescue haflinger that had been in a wreck. We tried working with her several times and she never really made much progress. She always wanted to kick the tongue and got very nervous. About six weeks ago I went to get Chester (the horse my daughter started riding) and he had a bad hair day and would not cooperate for nothing. I went to get my other mare (Precious) and she wouldn’t come near me. Then Molly(the rescue horse) comes up to me. I figured what the heck, I’ll give her a try. I put the saddle and bridle on and started leading her around. She did not get nervous at all. To make a long story short, Emily(almost 10) has been riding her a few times a week and taking her to riding lessons and Molly is woking out very well. She very cautious and takes a lot of coaxing to go faster than a walk. The couple times she did spook(once my fault) Emily just talked to her and had her under control. All I can figure is she does not associate riding with driving. Emily can go out to the pasture, put her halter on, lead her to the trailer and load her. I hope things keep progressing as well as they have so far.

[jen judkins]

Sometimes a new job is exactly the right way to build confidence in a horse that has had trouble in the past. Give her some new, more positive, experiences and get her on board with you doing something less scary to her. You might be able to go back to the driving issue later once she has more confidence in you as a handler and herself in other settings. Nice story…

[f3farms]

my son starts all the ponies in saddle first.its easier for us.after doing the 4 mile loop afew times in saddle i will sometimes hitch them to the cart and drive them.they seem to do better because they already know the road,dogs,route…i would much rather see them act up on Jr in saddle than have a broken cart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9E-XKX381s&feature=g-upl
this haflinger/arabian cross gelding just came in.day one they fought alittle.day three they did the 4mile loop.Jr came back and said he was awsome!!walk/trot/canter

[Author]

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