--- In IceHorses@yahoogroups.com, "Karen Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 6. If you've had other breeds of horses, do you see your need for a trainer > as more necessary or less necessary with Icelandics than with other breeds? > If it's different, is it because of your increasing experience, the breed's > easy-going nature, or the particular problems of individual horses? I think the Icelandics are way easier than the mules are, much, much easier. I am not finding that training the Icelandics is very difficult, 2 of them and Snorri will only be 3 this year. Snorri has had his moments, but he seems to give in and cooperate very easily. Honestly I haven't been doing much with any of them, first there was freezing rain, then snow, now mud, and I don't have a great place to work with them in this weather. I am not really worried about it. I have two 3 year olds and I am sure we will do something this summer. Snorri is friendly, likes treats, leads well (will go at different sppeds and stops when I ask), lets me handle his hooves, put a bareback pad on him. He is scared of some objects, so there is something, but I think he has a lot in place and that is why I am not worried. It hasn't taken much to get here with him, he's pretty easy. I think the mules are just more reactive, bigger reactions, easily distracted, bigger in size, so their reactions seem that much bigger, and more fearful of new situations, it takes a lot more work to convince them they want to do certain things. If I don't do things perfectly, they don't do it:) I have to say I am impressed with my KMSH mare, who will be two this year. She is friendly, calm, easy to handle, is very brave in new situations, not spooky (the other day a neighbor started target shooting and she just turned and looked, didn't even jump) I think her temperament is comparable to an Icelandic and the learning/ teaching process should be pretty easy with her. I sent Celie to a trainer for a month a while back. I think that trainer was pretty decent, he was doing some good things with mules, was gentle with them. He did ground driving for most of the time she was there, and did a little bit of riding. I don't think it's that easy to find a good trainer around here, I worry that people are too rough. I would have to watch them with other horses first. The one trainer I am talking about is gone now, I heard he left the area, otherwise I might use him for some help if I needed it. There is a mule/horse trainer around here. I am not totally oppossed to the possibility of getting help someday if I need it. I would want to watch what he does a little more. I did go watch once, he was trying to get me to leave my mule with him for a while. I know he gets good results, they take their mules to Mule Days in Bishop and I think they have champion gaited mules, but we all know that how you get your results is pretty important, I just don't know enough about how he does things. I also think Celie might be more challenging than the average mule. We had 4 mules out of the same jack, and Celie has the most challenging personality out of them, I also think she is highly intelligent, moody, willful, also sweet and attention seeking, just a special combination of a lot of traits:) All this means to me is that this one needs the most attention to her education, that's all, and basically. There is nothing dangerous going on, basically she will do what I ask, maybe with some balking and avoidance mixed in there, but we get there. I'm not sure where this comes from, the KMSH filly is out of the same dam as Celie, and Rose is very easy. I think Icelandics tend to be easy, but I'm sure there are some difficult cases out there > > 7. Would you buy fewer horse-training/riding videos if you had more access > to a good trainer? > I don't think so because ultimately we are the ones handling our own horses, right? I think they are learning from us all the time, I don't believe they are just trained and that is it, that they are set for life, never to have any issue ever come up in the future. I think it's important to learn, and why not get material from the best of the best, which is many times only available in videos and books? I think because I have had horses so long it is easier for me to pick up on what is going on in videos and implement it than it would be for someone new to riding, but I can't see how watching videos would hurt anyone. Kim
