Catching up a little!

Alright...I'm using a different computer right now, so let's see if this will work.

I think it will!! :D The 'enter' button is what keeps screwing up...looks like it might be working right now!

OKAY! Let me catch up really quick, before I go into detail with the Horse and Soul tour (!!!!).

Linda! So, several weeks ago now, Melissa, our dog trainer (and a fellow photographer), called me and said that she had a friend from work that was having a lot of trouble with one of her horses. Melissa gave me the lady's contact info, but I didn't get around to calling her (Linda) for a few days. Then, Melissa messaged me on facebook one day, saying that Linda had been talking about her problem to someone else, and that someone had told her to put a stud chain on her horses and eat them into submission. I called Linda right then and there!!

Linda has two horses:

Cinnamon, a chestnut Fox Trotter mare, 12 (or maybe 7?) years old. Linda used to ride Cinnamon at a barn nearby. Cinnamon may have had some sort of natural horsemanship training to a certain degree in her younger years. She was bred, but the results of the pregnancy tests were hard to read. Linda has had problems with Cinnamon rearing and being pushy and defiant.

Polly-Anna, a fleabitten gray Gaited horse mix mare. Linda has been told that she's between the ages of 5 and 25. Kate looked at Polly's teeth, and we're pretty sure she's around 20 years old. Polly-Anna was a rescue from a lot full of starving horses wallowing in mud up to their knees. Linda has had problems with Polly being barn sour- running back to her pen.

I arranged to come out and meet Linda and her girls. When I got there and got to chatting with her, she filled me in on another thing:

Linda has talked to three other trainers. One of them came out, looked at Linda's horses, told her a few things and left. One of the trainers never showed up. The other trainer came, plopped Linda on Cinnamon's back, and drove her in fast circles and made her go go go! Nothing seemed to help.

We chatted about all of this, standing in the pasture. While we were chatting, Cinnamon came and checked me out. I knew right off the bat that she was a left-brainer! She nibbled on my notebook and gave me the sniff-over. I went over the zones and horsenalities with Linda, and then we got Cinnamon out to play.

I was right. She's and Left Brain Introvert! A fairly textbook example too. I went over the first 5 games with Linda slowly. I told her how an LBI thinks, and we went over pressure points and energy. That concluded our first day!

The next time I went over, I helped Linda with the first 5 games, and then helped Linda jump on bareback. Linda is not a confident rider- the best part though, is that she admits that! That is so hard to do! She got on though, and I just led Cinny around a little, and let Linda get comfortable.

The next time I went over, Kate came with me. Kate took Cinny, and me and Linda took Polly this time. Turns out, Miss Polly is an LBI too! She was so retreated into her shell, it was hard to get her to respond. I asked Linda if she kept any treats, and she said yes and went to go get them. Linda was halfway back when suddenly both horses heads popped up, the ears went forward, and the noses started twitching. They were whole new horses! And all they heard was the treat bag crinkling! It was a great example of how a treat can wake an LBI up. After that, Polly was very willing to respond, and did some great porcupine and driving for Linda! Kate worked with Cinny, and Cinny was doing just great! She was yoyo-ing with her lead dropped on the ground! And we were in an unenclosed area, with a yard full of green grass right next to us! That is so phenomenal for and LBI who's only been worked with twice before!

We haven't been back to see Linda yet, since we had this trip to Murfreesboro and we got rained out one week, but I am so anxious to get back into it with her! Now that my weekend job at the pumpkin patch is finished, I'm hoping to go out twice a week.

I just can't get over how awesome it is that Linda really wants to learn this stuff! And she's got the perfect horses to learn it with! Love those LBI's!!

Oh! And I'm not sure if I mentioned before...I think I did, but I'm not sure....Pistol is at Kat and Casey's house for now!! She's being worked by some of us 4-H'ers, and is doing so well!! It's really good for her!