Letters of the Month

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Hi Sylvia! I must say that I really, really enjoy your website! It is the best website that I have seen on the internet yet! It is very easy to read, and actually very informative. YOU ARE SO INCREDIBLY DETAILED! You don't mind typing a long response when you are responding to someone's problem question! You truly realize that there are people who are new to the whole equine thing! Most sites that I get on (and tapes that I've purchased) use words like "drive", etc. I don't know what that means!!!! But I noticed right away that you start from the very beginning! I can't stop reading your site!!! I especially enjoyed you sharing you and your husband's horses with us on the site. Their stories are phenomenal! I felt as if I were reading Black Beauty!

My horse background: I have none! My sister (who lives on a small 9 acre ranch) lives about 10 minutes from me. She has 2 quarter horses (geldings). Her next door neighbor breeds Arabians. I ended up purchasing a 9-year-old mare Arabian from her next door neighbor for my 3 daughters, who are 10, 11 & 13. Neither my husband nor myself (or girls) knew anything about riding. Our horse has not been ridden in 4 years. She was used mostly for showing. We got a so-called "trainer" for her, and this trainer immediately put my girls on the saddle the first time, which was not good. By the way, within 1 minute of her meeting our horse, this trainer beat Annie down to a pulp! It was the worst thing I had ever witnessed! She said that in order to have dominance over a horse, you have to "beat the crap out of them!" My husband and I could not do it, because we have never even treated our children in that way. And besides, our horse would never even warrant such punishment. After "her beating" she looked at my family as if to say, "why did you let her do that to me!" We were "green" and didn't know any better. We were going on what "the trainer" said.  But at that point, we had decided that horsemanship was not for us, because we did not want to beat her to get respect. We don't want her to be afraid of us. So with this going through my mind, you can only imagine how that first training session went. I couldn't get that out of my mind....and our poor horse should not have been expected to perform top notch at that point. She was really afraid of that trainer. She would act as if she wanted to buck and rear. Groundwork? The trainer never told us what groundwork was, nor did she ever teach us about groundwork. I found out about that through reading. She just put my girls on the saddle. They didn't enjoy it, and neither did Annie. They all were emotionally scarred by what occurred, including our horse. Needless to say, I told the trainer that we did not need her anymore, because although we did not know what we were doing, we felt that there was a better way to raise horses, and we wanted our horse in a loving environment, not hostile and unhappy.

We've had her for about 5 months now. She really likes the girls. They groom her every single day, and she loves that. She has never kicked or displayed any mean temperaments with them. The only incident was the saddle incident, and that wasn't that bad. I don't necessarily think it was against the girls, I just think it was attributed to the trainer trying to take "short cuts" which you are against on your site!

Again, you are awesome! God put you here for this purpose. There are endless trainers on the web....but none has ever touched me like you.....although you have never even met my horse yet, I can tell that you truly care about her and horses all over!!!!

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Dear Sylvia -- What a wealth of info you presented in your newsletter. It is not only substantively full but well presented and in an esthetically pleasing way to boot! Thanks for going to that trouble! Terrific to hear about your progress on your facility as well. Please continue to keep me informed of your goings-on.

S. B.

Colorado Springs, Colorado

 

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Sylvia, I emailed about a month ago about my horse eating on the trail. Very obnoxiously, I might add. You said to pull his head to one side and make a "shhhh" sound at the same time. I have been using this method and although he will still occasionally take a bite, he is much better and not as grabby. I can see him thinking it through first because he knows he will get corrected immediately. He is much better when walking under branches on the trail now. Before, his head was up in the branch. Now he is keeping his head down better. As I said, he is still trying to take a bite when he can, but is paying attention to the correction. Just wanted to let you know.  This is a very smart horse and I have found that I have to be a step ahead of him. He is pushy and dominant in the field with the other horses and I have to work to make sure I am his leader. Whenever I can learn a new method, it sure is a help. Thank you,

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Hi Sylvia. 12 September 2005 I wrote my first e-mail to you. I was devastated and down in the dumps with this "abused Horse" of mine!

Today, 19 September 2005, I write to you with a smile on my face! Words can't start to describe how I feel about your help and the easily obtained information on your website. If you love horses, it is not to say you have lots of money. Most of the websites out there you need to pay for information, which I just cannot afford. Thank you so so very much for your help. In 7 days time my horse is already letting me walk straight up to him in the camp without running away! Yes, this is the same horse I had trouble approaching in a stall even. I did not yet attempt catching him in the camp, for I did not want to break down our trust that we are building.

This past Saturday he let me wave a plastic bag all around him attached to a training whip. He was so very afraid of it, I could see it in the way he all tensed up, and by just going in and bonding and then doing a little bit more, he soon let me slide the bag all over his eyes and ears and his whole body! I can see he is trusting me more every day and his confidence level is also rising the more we accomplish. If I should have tried waving a bag at him a week ago I think I would still have been looking for him! By following your directions in bonding and winning trust, I have a horse now that is starting to trust me even if he is scared right out of his skin. We are both learning every day and I can only thank you and your website. I can also not wait to get my hands on your products. I realize that if I really want to become this NH person, I must do everything from my side to learn more about NH.

Thank you so much for helping me and giving me advice. People like you are very rare and I can see you have tremendous love for horses. I really appreciate your help.

Kind Regards,

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Sylvia, I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you would take the time to respond to me at such length. It speaks very highly of you and I enjoy being able to communicate with you in this way. So many of the big-name trainers are like unapproachable celebrities. You can never actually communicate with them directly, only through some intermediary. I understand what you mean about the inviting the horse in thing. Sometimes I guess I enjoy touching them so much that I let them crowd me a bit and I know I need to work on that. All of these [NH trainers] seem to achieve remarkable results in no time at all with any horse. I guess my fear in trying to copy any one person's style is that a novice like me is probably not going to see those same types of results in such a short period of time and then I might get frustrated thinking I am doing something wrong and give up. I think Mark Rashid makes a very good point in his book “Horses Never Lie” when he talks about how focused some people get on training techniques and on getting results that they lose their connection with their horse. Maybe they make the animal perform in a certain way but there is no feeling between horse and human, no joy in being together, just master and servant. I do not want a relationship like that with my horses. I want them to respect me obviously, and work with me, but always I want them to trust me. I want them to know that I will never intentionally hurt them or push them beyond their limits. If it takes me longer to train them because I work with them at a pace they are comfortable with, so be it. I am in no hurry. I guess if there is someone I would like to emulate it would be the “old man” in Mark Rashid’s books. The kind of person who builds the horse's trust, who doesn’t force the horse to do things just to do them but tries to listen to the horses and get a feel for what they are comfortable with and go from there. Might take longer but the end result is worth it.

Thank you so much for communicating with me. I really like that you encourage people to learn from all the trainers out there and do not promote just one technique. That is what I am trying to do, gather all the information I can from every source available to me and try to apply the best of what I learn.

By the way, you suggested some methods for catching a reluctant horse of mine. Want you to know that it worked! I did the approach and retreat and now he does not shy away nearly as much as he did. I have even been able to halter him twice and he accepts willingly. I never had to force him and that is the best feeling. He stands still because he trusts me.

Sylvia, I really want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to respond to my questions so deeply. Yes, what you have said does make very good sense and it makes what Mark is talking about more clear.

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Hi Sylvia! The weaning of my filly has been quite an ordeal! Two of the mares had to leave the farm altogether because one was absolutely dangerous to the baby and the other was just a little hateful. The gelding and my old pony love the filly and all three are doing fine in the same field. The whole situation took about 3 weeks to get sorted out. Thank you for all of your wise input and suggestions---they all worked well to find out who loved her and who did not! The dangerouse mare was the only mare on the farm that had ever had a baby before---I found this to be strange. Then my old pony which had never had a baby before absolutely loved her--the gelding too! Thanks for everything and I hope to see you at a clinic in the future. Take care,

LETTER OF THE MONTH:

September 2005

Hi Sylvia. The place is looking great. Thanks for sharing all your photos. You make me feel like I was right there with you.

I received your book and read the ink off. It really explains your training concepts. It's wonderful. I love the stories.

I have been having pretty good results with our boy. Ground work, ground work. I'm getting a lot of yawns, mouthing and his version of hugs. His attitude is much better and there is much improvement with handling of his feet. He LOVES our grooming time, cocking his head to show me where to rub and scratch.

D. R.

Altamont, New York

If you have a horse problem or question and you

don't see it addressed in TRAINING TIPS or if you

would like to share your success story with our

natural horsemanship training methods...

Contact Sylvia Scott

Email: Sylvia@NaturalHorseTraining.com

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