It's All About What's In Your Heart and How You Use It"

Two weekends ago my filly showed me just how much she depends upon me for her safety. She had a meltdown when the neighbors began some sort of activity next door with which the filly was not at all comfortable. She begin to alert, trumpet, and then fizzle. She ran around and around the round pen seeking escape. I waited for her to hopefully settle but she didn't. Trying to prevent a wreck as I saw she was ready to bolt through or over the round pen, I stepped in. She immediately ran to me and tried to climb on top of me as she screamed in panic and moved her hooves in fear. I'm not a huge person and that weekend I had an acutely painful back spasm. I was unable to move quickly and was getting very nervous that I was going to be trampled under her feet in her panic. Every move I made caused excrutiating pain shooting down my legs. What an awful situation; not one becoming of a seasoned, veteran trainer and teacher at all and one that was dreadfully remindful of the power of these 1000# animals with whom we share life. I was in a pickle and unable to help my filly very much. I got her on lead and ten minutes later, after lots of circling and dancing and trumpeting and prancing, we made our way back the 50 feet to her own paddock where I asked her to back away from me and do a few turns on the forehand. She did. I directed her feet a bit more then turned her loose. She flew up to the other horses and I'm sure related all the events to them that just passed. All's well that ends well, right?

Well, let's get back to the clinic this weekend. While watching the clinician work with the first horse, one of the people owning the 2nd horse that was scheduled for the clinic decided this 'training' would not be compatible with her horse. She withdrew her horse from the lineup. Her horse is a highly sensitive one who requires nothing more than a mere "look" of correction and will respond favorably. This clinician's trainings was a bit more than mere looks and "ripping off his face" was becoming a trite statement from the round pen in response to a horse

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