| 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 <vbg>.
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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