This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] He is home now and I work with him as often as I can with the weather being bad now. Today my husband and I worked with him. Sonny ran away from us because he was so strong we couldn't hold onto the rope while lunging him. We got him under control there, lunged some more until we felt he knew we were boss. I rode him next and he did okay but I could feel he wanted to run away. My husband said let me get on him, so he got on and Sonny took off and my husband slid off the side when Sonny rounded the corner. Here we have the problem, I don't mind keeping Sonny, never riding again, just letting him be a lawn mower and buddy to my other horse or should I sell him to someone who would use him to his full potential. There are people who say I am wrong to keep him and not use him. They say I am not being fair to him. What do you all think, it is a fact I am not going to do any more work on him. I will lunge him and walk him around but that is it. I am too old and I can not do it. I know I should have thought of that before I bought him but we are here now. Should I sell him or keep him? What is best for Sonny? Beth Knuth Don't despair. I see a few possible issues based on what you said. First, don't ever put yourself into a situation that you feel is unsafe, and if what I'm saying to you doesn't make sense for your situation, ignore it.
Fjords have strong necks and if they want to set them against you, especially on a longe line, they can. I had some problems longeing a young fjord who knew her strength. First, do NOT use just a halter and a line. They can just tear away from you. I use cavessons, but the cavessons I had were way too gentle, very padded and it was nothing to pull away from me. I discussed the situation with my dressage trainer and he recommended I think it is called a Portuguese cavesson (if you are interested I will find the site and send it to you). It has no padding and if a horse decides to misbehave he/she punishes themself. To be fair, I don't want to punish a fresh horse just out of its stall that has pent up energy, so I allow some turnout time before longeing. Then when the cavesson is on, it is time for business. They learn pretty quickly that they cannot pull shenanigans on the longe line and you can then go forward with your lessons. Next, I wouldn't even attempt to ride the horse at all until it understood the basics on the longe. It just isn't safe. Even my very talented instructor won't get on a horse that is not safe. I don't know what style riding you are doing, but check out this website if you are interested (it's my instructor's site) www.Classicaldressage.com Even if you don't want to ride dressage, it is a good way to get any horse started for any discipline. He has a lot of great training articles there. When you had the horse at the trainer, did you ride under his/her supervision, so you knew what had been done with the horse, and what buttons he had installed in his training? Good luck, and I hope this was of at least a little help to you. Pamela
