Welcome to Bozo's Carrots - Experiences in Horse Training blog

Hello and welcome to my first post.

 

First – a small intro (see about page for a longer one):

 

I am 29 years old, and, for the last 6 or so years, I have been learning the way of riding and training my horses that is most commonly known as “natural horsemanship”. Before I began on this journey, I was just a hack rider – I could stay on a horse through most things the horse threw at me, and, most of the time, I could wrestle and force it into some semblance of control. To be honest, there was a certain level of exhilaration in this. It definitely gave me an adrenaline rush: to be able to dominate a beautiful and powerful animal; to always stay on that knife edge between being the one in control and having to hang on for dear life! At some point though, I realized that the price I was forcing these animals to pay for my excitement was just cruel. More specifically, this realization arrived shortly after I came across and “adopted” a funny-looking sweet Standardbred, called Bozo.

 

Bozo was my first horse and I made all of the first-owner mistakes with him. What was worse, in the first couple years I owned him I turned him from a responsive and curious riding horse (he was basically unbroken when he came to me!), to one that was hard-of-mouth and shying. It happened because I rode him the way I always rode, and I never took the time in the beginning to establish a basis of communication between us. Nor did I even know that that was missing! I just jumped on and wrestled with him when he “misbehaved”, and figured that when I quit the wrestling it was reward enough and he “learned”. But he would always resist just slightly bit more then next time in the same situation, and things got worse.

 

It was when I realized that Bozo – who always came to me whenever I went out into the paddock to catch him – was putting his ears sullenly back when I put my halter on him and led him out, that I knew something had to change drastically. I took Bozo to a Parelli clinic, and understood that there was another way.

 

Following the Parelli methodology did not work out for me. Why? I’ll go into that in the next post. In short – I did not have sufficient support or understanding of what I was doing, and the pamphlets and magazines and videos that came with the Parelli Club membership did not provide it. Eventually, I did find a Parelli instructor – Chris Corbidge who began to give me an inkling of that understanding that I was missing, but my time with Bozo was short. He died.

 

I did have another horse to take care of by then – Becky. After a period of grieving, and an even longer period of trying to make progress on my own while I was looking to become an apprentice to a good natural horsemanship trainer, I found the clinics of Ross Jacobs, Michele Jedlicka and Marina Morton, who operate out of an equestrian centre in Garfield North, Victoria http://www.goodhorsemanship.com.au

 

I took Becky for a clinic there, cried for 4 days straight cause THINGS WERE JUST NOT WORKING and understanding seemed further than ever, and then, on the 5^th day, it started to come together. I moved Becky to an agistment property nearby and for 2 years now have been taking regular lessons with Marina

 

 

Why this blog?

 

I am hoping that with this blog I will achieve two purposes:

 

1) I want to share my experiences with people as I go through the process of learning how to build a foundation of understanding – a common language – with a horse on which one can build and build almost indefinitely. Hopefully these posts will resonate with some readers and prompt discussions that will benefit myself and all who read this blog and who might be struggling with similar issues I am struggling with, or who are just curious about different training methods and philosophies that are out there.

 

2) These posts will be a record for myself of how far I’ve progressed (even though this blog is starting when I am already well-ensconced in the practices of “natural horsemanship”, I know for certain that I have a lifetime of improvement to experience)

 

I hope that you will mark this blog (or save it to your blog-feed reader) and will come back and participate in the discussions as I continue on this journey.

 

All opinions and responses will be accepted, however obscenities and abuse will not be tolerated and will be removed.

Comments

[Sumi Jones]

Hi, from the US. I enjoyed reading some of your blog as I trained horses and riders fo over 20 years here in the states. I encourage you to use horses along with your psychology, if you go into private practice. They are such great 'supporters' in pushing people's emotional buttons. Good luck with your ventures. All the best, Sumi Jones

[Taobao English site]

I'm loving everything in this post! Great outfits!