Bodhi the Great

My friend Marci comes out and rides Bodhi sometimes. She will be looking in on him while I am gone in Africa which makes me feel better. Here is a lovely photo she took of him. This also captures the snow we had in mid April!

I have discovered that my horse is very opinionated. I have now had several people try Bodhi for partial boarding and it is very obvious who he prefers and who he does not. He always tries a bit of sass with any new person much to my dismay. He pretends he does not know a few things and tries to convince them that "actually riding is just standing in the middle of the ring!" He also likes to proudly show them things they did not ask for. "Look at what I can do!" He then settles right down when the person is not impressed...

But some people he just shuts down and completely disrespects. In some respects I am not happy he is ever disrespectful. I thought I raised him better! On the other hand it is interesting to see what he will just not stand for. It is neat to see the individual even though sometimes it is a bit embarrassing.

Firsts

First Photograph of Bodhi I took.


First time wearing the saddle (learning to kick the ball)

First time on his back.


First time with the side reins

First Dressage test

First crossrail

First group trail ride

First water experience (and first trace clip!)


Sometimes I feel like I am not progressing fast enough with Bodhi. Looking at all our firsts though I know we are off to a good start! What are you favorite firsts?

Shawna Karrasch

Hey folks! Bodhi and I are still around though I have been very busy with grad school and Bodhi has been busy making new friends and enjoying the mild weather. I have some pictures to share and some news but for now I just wanted to share a horse trainer I just became familar with.

Her name is Shawna Karrasch. Her website is here. She has a background in training marine mammals and now applies the same concepts to horses. Talk about a woman after my own heart.
Her website has some great information about how to incorporate positive reinforcement into your training regime. Have any of you heard of her?

Video of a horse free jumping from the horse's perspective

What is natural horsemanship?

I consider my horsemanship journey to be about discovering what is ethical not what is natural.
Keeping horses in general and riding them especially is the farthest thing from natural no matter what trainer you follow.

Ethical treatment is what has steered me towards positive reinforcement, bitless riding, and why Bodhi does not wear shoes and why he is on pasture board. Not because it is more natural for him but because I am concerned about his welfare and well being.

It seems like every time I look around one of the natural horsemanship trainers is caught doing something unethical-- I am sure I don't need to show anyone these examples, they seem to be talked about to death on other blogs and forums.

My request: Read this take on Natural Horsemanship. They said it more concisely then I ever could. What do you think of what this author has to say?

On the road again

I visited Bodhi on Sunday and the message on the white board read

"horses being moved Feb 27th"

That is still all I have heard from the actual barn manager about the move next weekend.

So I have obviously been busy investigating.

I went to visit the stable where Bodhi is being moved next weekend. Let me paint you a picture. Brand new facility. 60 stall barn. Riding arena the size of the Titanic. The office area has leather sofa's and a fire place. The viewing area has a full kitchen. The bathrooms have hand towels.

The pastures Bodhi is being moved to have no drainage (remember the flooding?) and get this--- no water troughs. Period. I asked the woman working at the time how they are planning on watering the horses that will be in the paddocks and she said "we are buying troughs and we will truck in water". Oh and the horses boarded currently get 6 hours of turn out a day. Without water evidently. Oh geese.

So i went barn shopping.... again....

I looked at 4 new facilities. I picked the farm with the nicest pastures (my number one priority). It is farther than our current digs. It has an indoor. And goats.

Would this weird you out?

I wanted to get the opinion of the masses here.

Scenario:


Bodhi's current farm has flooded in the spring in the past. The manager/owner is predicting it will flood again. I get a call from another boarder for something unrelated and she mentions that the owner is planning on moving the horses the 28th of February to a new farm. You have not gotten a call or email about this (He does not like to call my cell because it is long distance but he has my email).
He is moving the horses to a farm much farther away then the current location. The board will not go up but you have to pay for tack storage and use of arenas (which is currently included in my board). I have never been to this farm so know nothing about the reputation or facilities. The manager currently under contract to care for Bodhi will not be in charge of his care, he will be forwarding my checks directly to this new facility who will be providing all the care.

I feel really funny about this--- Is this normal? What would you think?

Snow bunny

Thank you for all the support and ideas last post! It was great to have support, and it is great to talk to folks who really understand how hard it is to do something like lease a very important horse

I like the idea about giving a few lessons to potential boarders first, so I can share with them things that work really well with Bodhi, and also to make sure the person is a good match. Call me crazy but I am not too worried about him getting "ruined" by someone. I know I do a lot of things differently then other horse trainers, but I think if I pick someone kind for Bodhi, even if they do train differently I think Bodhi is the kind of horse that can handle it. I think it will be good for his development.

Now: why you guys are really here- The ever elusive chunky monkey fluffy feral snow bunny....
click on the photos for up close cuteness...