One of my dearest friends is a furry creature with long legs, a very soft nose and beautiful brown eyes that I can see my reflection in sometimes. My horse Cody has been a priceless part of my life for around 6 years. When I first met him, he acted very much like a big dog who thought he was still a little puppy. When I walked out into the pasture to meet him, he came deliberately up to me and instead of stopping nearby to sniff my hand as a horse usually would with a stranger, he came up very close and actually put his big head over my shoulder. I was startled and unsure if I should let this horse come directly into my personal space, but when he nickered a soft little greeting in my ear, I felt quite touched and knew I did not want to move away. I loved my Cody right from that first meeting, but it was quite a long time before I was able to get anywhere with his training. He was very easy to get along with as long as you were only petting or feeding him and not asking him to work or to listen to your commands. I had taken riding lessons for about a year and I had studied Clinton Anderson's method of horse training. I thought that once I had my own horse and was not under the restraint of riding teachers whom I did not always agree with, that I would quickly learn the trick of training and that I would have far fewer frustrations than I'd had when I took lessons. I couldn't have been more wrong. Cody, the sweetest horse you'd ever meet, was also as stubborn as a piece of bubble gum stuck in your hair. He refused to trot when I tried to lunge him, he tossed his head repeatedly in defiance when I commanded him to back up and he had a bigger tantrum than a two year old child in a toy store when I tried to put his bridle on. He tried everything he could think of to avoid doing what I said. Rearing, rolling his eyes and rooting his feet to the ground, kicking, bucking, and biting and sometimes when he looked back at me running up behind him to try to catch him, it seriously looked like he was laughing at me. I got so frustrated, scared, and even angry at Cody, and even more angry at myself because no matter how hard I tried, I felt like I would never get good at this training business. I came close to quitting, but I loved my horse and I had too strong a desire to be a really good horsewoman to give up. So I kept at it. After reaching a point of extreme despair, things gradually took a better turn. Slowly, Cody began to listen more of the time and to frequently enjoy his training times. Finally, we had become a team. Cody still has his stubborn moods and sometimes we both have a bad day, but they are very seldom now, and the biggest reason for this is that I persevered using Clinton Anderson's Downunder Horsemanship method. It is a truly amazing method that teaches you to really get inside the mind of these amazing creatures and try to work with them, instead of forcing them to do what you want. The main reason that it took me so long to get to a good place with Cody was that I had not learned the method well enough to use it on a horse that had not been trained that way. And the other reason was that I lacked confidence in myself, a confidence that I have gained now. My Cody is truly a blessing in my life.
(photos below are taken byfamily members or me)
(the photo below was taken in August 2010, very soon after I got my Cody)
