Comments on: Complex Emotions in an Adopted Horse http://petsaretalking.com/blog/2010/02/complex-emotions-in-an-adopted-horse.html Intuitive Animal Communication Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:32:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 By: Marietta Roby http://petsaretalking.com/blog/2010/02/complex-emotions-in-an-adopted-horse.html/comment-page-1#comment-1034 Marietta Roby Sun, 14 Nov 2010 20:48:31 +0000 http://petsaretalking.com/blog/?p=839#comment-1034 This is so interesting. When I got Sadie, a 3 y.o. mustang mare who came to me for last chance training, she was very angry. Sadie's inexperienced adopters thought that "round penning" a horse meant running them past exhaustion until it gives in. But Sadie is a fighter (she also had pneumonia, so exhaustion came early) so after a while she charged at the person running her. He ran out of the pen, and the pattern was set. When Sadie came to me three months later, just walking past her pen would cause her to charge with her ears pinned. Going in was flat dangerous, and our first several sessions were pretty scary. I know absolutely that in her earlier sessions with her first adopters, Sadie had tried to communicate with them, but they could not see the subtle horse language and continued to chase her, and eventually she gave up trying to communicate and turned to attack. I could actually see the moment when she realized that I could understand her and respond. In mustang gentling, I use a lunge whip to stroke the horse all over while maintaining body distance, and also as a means of getting a rope on a horse that arrives without a halter, as Sadie did. So after a few days, I brought my long lunge whip in. She was shocked and betrayed and terrified and wanted to attack, but kept restraining herself. And pretty soon learned what it was like to be stroked gently with the flexible whip. And learned to accept it. Funny thing, though. After a few days of this, I forgot and left the whip in her pen overnight. The next morning I found it thoroughly stomped and killed. Ruined. And she was done and has never done anything like that again. Sadie stayed on and is now the horse dearest to my heart. This is so interesting. When I got Sadie, a 3 y.o. mustang mare who came to me for last chance training, she was very angry. Sadie’s inexperienced adopters thought that “round penning” a horse meant running them past exhaustion until it gives in. But Sadie is a fighter (she also had pneumonia, so exhaustion came early) so after a while she charged at the person running her. He ran out of the pen, and the pattern was set. When Sadie came to me three months later, just walking past her pen would cause her to charge with her ears pinned. Going in was flat dangerous, and our first several sessions were pretty scary. I know absolutely that in her earlier sessions with her first adopters, Sadie had tried to communicate with them, but they could not see the subtle horse language and continued to chase her, and eventually she gave up trying to communicate and turned to attack. I could actually see the moment when she realized that I could understand her and respond.

In mustang gentling, I use a lunge whip to stroke the horse all over while maintaining body distance, and also as a means of getting a rope on a horse that arrives without a halter, as Sadie did. So after a few days, I brought my long lunge whip in. She was shocked and betrayed and terrified and wanted to attack, but kept restraining herself. And pretty soon learned what it was like to be stroked gently with the flexible whip. And learned to accept it. Funny thing, though. After a few days of this, I forgot and left the whip in her pen overnight. The next morning I found it thoroughly stomped and killed. Ruined. And she was done and has never done anything like that again.

Sadie stayed on and is now the horse dearest to my heart.

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