| Howdy Larry!
Hi guys, Finals are finally over for the semester,
so now that I have a little time ('little' being
the operative word), I wanted to post something
GOOD that's happened, and maybe will help some other
folks, too. Nope, doesn't have a darn thing to do
with nutrition. :-)
As most of you know, I have a very nice coming-six
Anglo-Arab sired by Karahty and out of my good old
TB eventing mare. He'd been started out well, and
when I moved up to Colorado, I put him with someone
to condition while I was in vet school classes.
I won't rehash that whole thing, but suffice it
to say, I was very, very unhappy over the physical,
mental and athletic condition of the horse I got
back. Dakota's manners definitely needed some work,
he needed alot of consistent ringwork and had some
problems to get over, like pulling back while tied
and herd-boundness and things like that.
Karen Chaton rode him for me for awhile, and
made a lot of really great progress, but when she
left for XP last spring, I put Dakota with a So
Cal trainer near Lancaster named Larry Jeffery.
Larry works primarily with young horses and 'problem
children', and boy, am I happy with the job he's
done with Dakota. I don't have a chance to see him
in person too often, but have gotten progress videos
from Larry, plus have visited a few times to ride
my horse. What is really evident is how well taken
care of my horse is---he's relaxed, happy, eager
to go to work, is groomed within an inch of his
life (and you can tell the difference between a
horse that's really groomed daily versus one that
got hosed off an hour before you got there), and
all of his problems are long gone. He does everything
you ask of him as though it never would occur to
him to do it any other way. And when you ask him
to do something new, or something he hasn't quite
got the hang of yet, you can see the wheels turning,
concentrating on doing what Larry is asking him
to do, working *with* his rider, and not thinking
about how to get out of it, or thinking about throwing
a fit or otherwise avoiding something new he has
to learn. It's a real pleasure to watch the process.
He'd solved the problems in a month or two of consistent
work, but I've left him there since then so he could
really turn him into a pushbutton horse (and also
because I didn't have time to bring him home until
next spring). Boy, that horse can do *everything*
now. A trained horse, what a concept .
Larry isn't a real polished, sophisticated
trainer with a slick barn, he's just real quiet
and easy-going, loves the horses and just keeps
working with the horses until they do it right.
No yelling or flailing around, no picking fights
with the horses, just a real understanding of how
they think and learn. I could just sit and watch
him work all day long, it's such a pleasure to see
a honest-to-god, old-time, this-is-the-real-thing
horseman.
Anyway, I thought I would post this first of
all because I think we need to shout just as loud
when we see something right as when we see something
wrong. But also just in case anyone in the western
states needs someone like that for their horses.
Most of the horses he works with are the runaways,
the kickers, the I-don't-wanna-do-that-and-you-cant-make-me
problem children that we all run across. I just
can't say enough good things, enough that I was
willing to send my horse 1000 miles away from where
I live, and will send Dakota's baby sister to start
as soon as she's old enough. Nope, Larry didn't
ask me to write this and I'm not getting anything
from it. I just think he's worth telling other people
about, and you guys all know by now that my opinion
can't be bought. Larry charges somewhere around
$650-700 a month for full time board and training
(which is about the going rate), most horses are
ready to go home in 90 days and he's worth every
last penny and then some. I sure see a lot of people
fighting with their horses rather than having fun,
and this seems better to me.:-)))
For anyone that wants to talk to him, Larry's
email is longviewranch@msn.com , or you can talk
to me if I can answer questions.
Anyway, just thought I would pass along the
info for anyone who's horse needs to see the error
of their ways.
Susan G.
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