Comments on: HI Spy: What???s the biggest challenge that you and your horse have overcome?

By: Abbey

Abbey — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 09:07:11 +0000

The biggest challenge my horse and I have over come is getting him on the trail believe it or not!!He’s had a very bad lawnmower experience even though he’s 17 hands and 2 inches he’s still gets really scared! So when I tried to take him on the trail with my friend there was the barn owner mowing the lawn, so even though he’s going to be 21 In a few days you would never know it. He started to buck and even rear a bit!! My trainer thought he was 2 when we brought him to the barn and he’s was 19 and so she thought well if he’s younger then he might relax on the trail:( but through lots of trail rides with my trainer we are able to enjoy the trip!!

By: Lauren

Lauren — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 21:00:53 +0000

Probly the biggest challenge my horse and I have overcome is when we got stuck in mud.
I was gathering cows when they crossed a creek,my trustworthy,grey,gelding,started to cross, when we found out there was no floor.My horse,CJ began to sink and thrash.I jumped off,while he struggled to get out.Once he sat still I got his attention.Seeing me he seemed to put all his trust in me.Because of that I was able to pull his reins out of the mud and get him out.
Yet,the most amasing part was a few minutes after I got him out of it,he crossed the creek,wear a cow trail was,without hesitation.

By: Louise

Louise — Tue, 08 May 2012 21:15:52 +0000

I do believe my horse was abused before she came to us. My biggest challenge was overcoming her aggressive attitude towards anything that came within ten feet of her. It took years of patience but I hardly recognize the horse that first came here. We still have a ways to go, but with continued patience and persistence we will work our way to total faith and trust in each other.

By: Mikayla

Mikayla — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:06:34 +0000

My horse Hannah spooks at everything, in her early training, it was a windy day and a plastic bag came out of no where! She went side ways so fast, I was still in proper riding position in the air right before I hit the ground, over and over, we did this ending up with me on the ground, I started teaching her not to spook, and a week later on our normal riding trail, this huge snake is just lying in the middle of the road! I am braced and scared that when she spooked I would fly of right onto the snake. But hannah just kept walking and walked around it like it wasn’t there at all. Way to go Hannah!

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:41:52 +0000

When I first bought my horse he tried to run off with me every chance he got. I couldn’t even get him to walk. But after 5 months of patience and help of a family friend me and him are now a good team. i even ride him bareback and bridle now.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:38:23 +0000

I met my horse a bit over a year and a half ago. I had just started riding at a new barn, and he was being boarded there. His owners never rode him, so he wasn’t handled too much. I started to ride him, and discovered he had many anxiety problems and the way he dealt with them was by running like a maniac. During the first lessons I had with him, we were simply trying to get him to calm down enough to at least slow down to a trot. And those weren’t his only problems! He hates cross-ties, and would always shift around nervously in them. Plus he was extremely spookish. After about a month of riding him, I got free-lease on him. The following summer, we had made enough progress that we took him trail riding. He was AMAZING! Never spooked once, even when all the school horses had a fit over something. That was also the first time we knew of him being around cows. By the end of the day, I had him herding cows like a pro. So that weekend, we took him team penning. He did well for the first half of the night, learning quickly. But then he started getting anxiety attacks, so we left him tied to the trailer the rest of the night. But throughout last summer, he improved a lot and we started taking him more places and doing more things with him. Last November I bought him. We are still working on a lot of stuff, but now he stands calmly in cross-ties, will walk calmly, trot calmly on good days, and even sometimes canter calmly. Overall, he has gone from the horse that got no attention to being the horse that is often a favorite of any kid that comes to the barn – whether I let them have a pony ride on him or not!

By: Lane

Lane — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:51:46 +0000

Our fear that we have overcome is having a fear of failure. I always wanted to make others proud, and please others. My horse has taught me, that as long as we did our best and had fun, we’ve pleased everyone out there!

By: Judy Tomlian

Judy Tomlian — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:21:43 +0000

The biggest challenge I ever had was when our Quarter Horse mare Jessie fell one winter and broke her pelvic. She had to be kept in her stall for six months, and then turned out in a very tight area for another month after that. The work I went through taking care of her and the many trips I made to the barn to break up her boredom everyday ended up being very rewarding, They thought she would founder, but she came through the whole ordeal and we were back riding once again.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:35:42 +0000

Working with my horse has been so “metaphoric” in my own life. I once was controlled by fear, and so was my Arab! One of his fears was water and even though we had a large pond on our property, I never took him there in close to 10 years. One summer day, with my 8 year old in tow, we walked him to the edge. The next day, another inch. The next day, two inches. After several weeks, he was in the water knee deep. Now, 2 years later, he RUNS into the pond from the ground or with me on his back. NO FEAR!

By: Danelle

Danelle — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:03:19 +0000

The biggest obstacle my horse and I have over come have been health related. He has COPD and this past fall had a bad flare-up from it. As he was recovering from this, he developed an acute laminitis in a reaction to the steroids we were using as treatment for his breathing. It hasn’t always been easy and he is twenty years old. Now, we are taking it one day at a time, and I let him tell me what he’s up to for work. We may no longer be galloping around a cross-country course, but I still love him dearly as I have the twelve years I’ve ridden him. Sure, it would be easy to retire him and get another younger horse, but I could never do so.