Dear Larry,
Well, the year of 2000 was the year of the horse (or should I say horses),
well it least it was for me. I
went through one horse right after the other, flushing more money down the
drain than I care to admit. One
spooked too much, one was too young and untrained and another incredibly
barn sour, and so on and so on.
During that year, I went through 4 horses and even a
mule. Each time thinking that
if I maybe spent a little more money, I would get the perfect horse that
I could feel confident on. Me, a professional dog trainer surely would not let any
animal get the best of me, but horse after horse, instead of gaining more
and more confidence, I was losing it by the
bucketful.
So· at last, I finally thought I had obtained the perfect
horse. Cute small (very important
for a rider with as little confidence as I) and she seemed unbelievably
calm. I rode her a few days
at the stables where she was for sale and then finally decided that she was
the horse for me. Then, once
I got her home, the pattern started all over
again. She started to get worse
and worse and Iâm talking about in a matter of
days. People were starting to
say that they thought she must have been drugged when I bought
her. This could not be happening to me, not again!!
Well, I thought that I would hang in there and keep trying to work with
her, so my husband and I would go for small rides in the
area. The one day, we decided
to make an extended journey to the community
arena. The ride there was
uneventful, then once inside the arena and for no apparent reason, she threw
me, and I broke two ribs. What a setback!
For the next month, I spent the vast majority of my time (when I could
bear the pain) working her in the round pen.
Shortly thereafter, we bought a little spread in the Elsinore Mountains
and were all excited about getting our horses on our own property where we
could spend some real quality time with
them. Picture this, a house
full of boxes, six kids to move and in tow, new horse facilities installed
and the weather so cold we left the ice cube trays on the porch to make
ice. What a scene.
That night when the horses were trailered in, my husband went out
to blanket the horses and moments later came hobbling
in. I peered over the stacked
boxes to ask him what was wrong, well· my horse had kicked him and broke
his pelvis. My father in law
had to take him to the hospital while I searched through the boxes for the
shotgun and ammo!!
Fortunately, I had a Horsetrader Magazine atop one of the boxes and in
a rare moment of peace, I looked in the magazine and saw Larryâs
ad. It said that he specialized
in problem horses, so· the next day, Larry showed up and hauled off
my ãproblemä horse. In
less than three months, Larry brought back my ãproblem ã horse,
which is now, for me, the Perfect Horse.
Along with the horse came a ton of advice and horse knowledge that,
simply speaking said the problem was not with the horse, but mostly with
me!
I had used other trainers, but Larry put the training in such simple terms,
it helped me to really get inside my horses head and stay
there. What Larry was able to
do, was to change her attitude and then teach me how to get her to respect
me. Now, Larry comes up to our
ranch to teach daylong clinics to my friends and me who really want to learn
to ride and how to keep our horses
educated. More and more people
have decided to join the clinic because they see the wonderful changes that
have happened with those of us learning from Larry.
Now, my 13-year-old son went out on the trail with my perfect horse, and
came back safe and sound and with the desire to get his own
horse. Now 2001 will be the
year of the perfect horse for my family and me.
Allison McDorman |
