Beautiful Arabian
Poor little Confetti came to us a year ago. She’s not but 14.1 hands, but what a firecracker she was at the time. Her previous owners had thrown her out in the pasture and just completely ignored her. A TWH trainer was going to take her to the sale, so we bought her. What a beauty and so sweet, when we could catch her.
Once we did convince her to come to us after walking an hour around a paddock full of TWH horses, some twice her size, we were able to lead her with no problems. Once we got her in the barn, WOW, the firecraker exploded! Of course I had to take into account she probably had not been in a barn, much less tacked up, in years. Did I mention the barn was also full of stud show horses and it was relatively dark inside. Poor Confetti must have been scared out of her wits. However, the help were able to ride her enough for me to see that she did have training and that she wasn’t a mean spirited horse under saddle. We have had her ever since.
This is where my techniques for training really came into play. I took her home and stalled her during the day and put her in the round pen at night for about a week. I round penned her daily just to teach her to walk and trot by voice command. Groomed her daily and started tacking her up slowly. It took her a week just to trust me enough to let me put the blanket on her without her jumping out of her skin. After about a month of gentle persuasion we were able to ride her. Surprisingly she rode fine at a walk and trot. She was a little fast. Obviously she had been cowboyed by whoever had owned her before. She did not know how to give to the bit, she only knew what hauling on the bit was. She did know how to stop, thankfully, but again by hauling on the bit. Poor girl had obviously had it rough. Know wonder she was such a firecracker.
After months of constant work, she is now a great trail horse that walks quietly, trots slowly and collects, half-passes, is learning side passing, moves off the leg easily, takes very little rein and stops when you sit deep in the seat. She goes in water without protest, crosses creaks, doesn’t spook on the trail, rides in a neighborhood, doesn’t mind barking dogs, and leads by an ATV. The one mistake I did make was I always told her ‘good girl’ and rubbed her neck when she stopped when I sat deep. Now if I am not careful, she will stop dead in her tracks if I murmur ‘good girl’ no matter what gait she is in! Oops!
Confetti is for sale as a walk- trot trail horse. She loves to cantor – gallop rather. But I am still in the process of collecting her cantor. She can be seen on www.baymountfarm.com.