Hello again, happy holidays.

I’ve been away for a while in Las Angeles doing volunteer work again. Glad to get back. I have a great story today for you I’m just dying to tell. It’ll be quick so hold on this is rather interesting and concerning specific horse behavior.

I have a new client on the coast highway in California with 8 horses. It’s at a horse rental facility. The horses were in need of some pretty serious correcting to their feet to keep them sound. The woman who owns the horses is pretty cool and open minded. So my first visit and I shoe 4 of the horses and all goes real well. She shows me another horse she has and this is where the story gets interesting.

It’s a big , and I mean big 17-1 hand warm blood. He’s an old German bloodline that was used in Calvary , specifically known as the Rheinland line and quite famous known to have gone into battle. More of the bloodline name is the Phalz-Saar tagged as the G line if I’m relaying this information correctly to you.

Well the horse appears to be a big pussycat, He’s huge , and she warns me he has issues with the rear legs, particularly the left rear. So I handle his legs and he seems fairly OK to me and go ahead with shoeing as normal. Got the front done and he’s great, a gentle giant standing calmly. He’s also only 6 so he’s a lot like a big kid in personality acting somewhat shyly sometime. To cut to the chase here when it came time to work on his rear he simply wouldn’t stand and goes into a hopping on the rear wanting to put the leg I’m holding back on the ground , and he’s just way too big for me to want to just hang on and turn it all into a rodeo. So of course there’s more than one way to skin the cat so to speak and I / we , the owner and I , decide  to give the horse some training as it appeared the horse’s ground manners were quite lacking.

So , I go into backing the horse from the ground asking him to whoa , repeating the backing , asking him to come forward and then whoa and he’s quite reluctant and slow to respond to all the commands. Now previous to this when I was trying to get to his rear to shoe him he actually jumped and lunged forward and actually right on top of his owner knocking her down and by the grace of the almighty he’s stepping all around her although not actually stepping directly on her. So back to the story. Well , since he’s being so reluctant and rather defiant we decided to use more authority and use the stabilizer method which is a tool that fits under his lip and rests on the nerve above his teeth – when tapped it jolts the nerve there and really gets their attention usually making them much more willing to pay attention. Now hold on to your seat.

This all worked well for the "First" session of about 45 minutes "That day" and we decided I needed to come back another day to further the training as he just barely got the idea what we were asking him during that first session. He’s so big and strong and questioning everything I’m doing he’s just really a hand full. He’s the type when the going gets tough the tough get going which is coming from his battle worthy bloodline. Now two days later I come back for the second training – go immediately into the stabilizer training asking him to back and he’s doing better but suddenly he decides to put the brakes on the training and just refuses to comply to simple commands. So I get a little tougher with the tool. OH MY !!

As I was getting a little tougher with him suddenly he went into battle mode, his war bloodline came out, I was in front of him holding on to the lead rope attached to the stabilizer tool when his energy and demeanor seemed to swell up the size of a mountain  and he reared up front feet poised to strike at me ! He came back down arched his neck head down at me . He obviously was in attack mode. I’ve had horses pitch little fits and get feisty but never had one go into the "Kill Mode" on me like that. Whew ! I’m telling you , I actually got scared as it became obvious he was telling me he was about to chase me down to do me in and  possibly stomp me out ! LOL I’ll laugh now in hind site , because I love a challenge and I don’t begrudge the horse for his instincts but I tell you I quickly dropped that lead rope and jumped out of there as fast as I could. Fortunately he didn’t continue pursuit of me but Wow he was HUGE and FIERCE and Death was in the air.

He really is a good horse cause as soon as I dropped the lead rope it was enough to diffuse the situation and he just calmed down , he really is a sweet horse.

Well I snuck up gingerly and regrabbed the lead rope and told him it’s time to back and that we’re not done with this training , and he did. He and I were developing a relationship and becoming to understand each other and he was growing and learning in the process. In those two days he came from a kindergarten behavior acting like a little (Huge) child into a horse that was becoming aware of himself and growing up. It was a transformation right before our eyes. He now stands erect and in charge of himself with more confidence , what I call just more "Natural" horse behavior.

From there I put a short rope around his rear fetlock joint and started asking him to pick up his rear leg. Where he used to try to kick the rope off his leg and dance around he now understands more what I want from him and stood without kicking , I was actually able to easily get under him in the rear as though to shoe him.

I love horse behavior . I’ve heard of horses that will fight to the death. There are stories of how horses are picked by their markings based on past experiences that these horses will go into battle and fight for their rider. Imagine going into battle from horseback , Swords , blood everywhere , the horse seeing and smelling death all around him , the horse seeing other horses struck and falling to the ground, Most horses would run in terror , but some , will actually recognize what’s happening and actually participate in the event – charging others and striking out with it’s front legs in attack mode , knowing it’s own life is at stake yet pressing forward in the heat of battle, how amazing. I can only imagine, but I feel I bare witness to this quality now. In my mind this horse was very regal and Noble, and I admire him. I give him all the respect due to him.

I’m now due back to finish shoeing his rear feet this coming Tuesday , A little bit more training first and getting him used to picking up his rear feet first , but this is a great horse. What a magnificent animal.

Hope you enjoyed this little story as much as I enjoyed being in the middle of it.

I’ll see you guys.