The Art of Natural Dressage

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 Post subject: Hello from Susie in US
PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2007 4:44 am 

Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 10:56 pm
Posts: 26
Location: United States
Hello all. Had time to read a little bit here - what a breath of fresh air! :lol: Thank you Miriam for inviting me over here. I really look forward to a friendly place where I can read and discuss and learn without feeling people are censored and criticized for silly little things. I love the concept of NHE but the darkness over there would sometimes depress me so I wasn't over there a whole lot. I like to be able to have a logical discussion. :D

Just a bit about me - don't have much time right now to write a lot (and I still don't know how to do all the camera stuff - will try to get something going with that :) ) so I'll try to condense a quick intro.

I'm 53, had horses all my life, and I live in the midwest of the US. Done a little bit of everything with horses over the years except dressage. I've always beem fortunate to have my horses live at home with me except for a brief time, so its always been about the relationship for me above anything else. I showed on and off a bit years ago but really didn't care about it. I just like playing with my horses and learning new things together. Each horse teaches something different. I took some dressage lessons a few years ago and didn't like the method or the teacher and there are no other choices of dressage instructors around here so I put that idea aside. Got involved with Parelli stuff and had lots of fun, learned a lot about horse behavior and discovered how much fun ground work is - I have more fun doing that now and riding has taken a back seat. I guess I'm different than so many Parelli people I've read at NHE - I never did go for any upping phases stuff - I could never bring myself to whack on my horses but found that I didn't need to anyway since I had raised them gently and respectfully. Actually, the new Parelli material is getting away from that and they are focusing on being lighter and reading horse behavior better. Through Parelli, I discovered how much fun liberty training is, and Parelli showed me the way to riding bitless. I will never use a bit on a horse again. I have friends who do use bits and show and I do not condemn them. I feel everyone has their own journey and it's no use to judge, force or condemn (unless someone is abusing in a bad way). I love the beauty and art of dressage but only if done in a natural and kind way. When I found NHE, I was totally fascinated and it really opened my mind to what lightness could be and how to develop an even better relationship with horses. Plus, one of my Trakehners, Crystal, hates to have anything on her head at all so it was great to start learning new ways to do things with her that made her happy.

About my horses. Well, I have too many. :lol: But I love each one. I keep all my horses for life - most I got as weanlings and a couple were born from my mares, so I have some older ones and some with medical problems who are happy to be pretty much retired but I groom and visit with them all every day - just a big happy herd family. There is Dunn, QH mare 25 yrs; Lucky, QH mare 21 yrs; Pageboy, QH gelding 19 yrs; Annie, QH mare 17 yrs; Ketcher, QH gelding 3yrs; Shi, QH filly 1 yr; Ebony, Russian Trakehner mare, 5 yrs; Crystal, Russian Trakehner mare 4 yrs; Splash, Spotted Tennessee Walking Horse mare 6 yrs; and then there are Sugar and Spice, mares 5 and 7 yrs - 2 miniature horses (not the dwarf size) who are too much fun! And then there is Lucy, a 23 yr old QH mare who is now retired at my friend's farm. Lucy was a broodmare all her life - she had 16 babies! I bought her with a foal by her side which is Ketcher. She was supposed to be pregnant when I got her and Ketcher but she wasn't - the poor old girl was just done having babies and people sticking their hands inside of her. :lol: Had she gone back to the breeder, she would have been sent to an auction, very likely end up at a slaughter because few people want a horse who isn't friendly, can't produce babies, can't ride her, etc. So I vowed to Lucy, who had never known love and affection from people until she came to me, that she would have a good retirement and permanent home after spending her whole life being a baby machine. After living a couple years here, a very good friend of mine was so very kind to invite Lucy to live on her 150 acre farm with lush pastures with some other retired horses so now she is in paradise and loving every minute of it.

So, more later. Happy to be here and looking forward to learning more from everyone and enjoying good exchange of knowledge. :D

Kind regards.

_________________
"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism, 1709


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PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2007 5:45 am 
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Joined: Fri May 18, 2007 1:20 pm
Posts: 760
Location: Poland
crystalite wrote:
I love the concept of NHE but the darkness over there would sometimes depress me so I wasn't over there a whole lot. I like to be able to have a logical discussion. :D

Haha, I just noticed this now - look how bright and optimistic are the colours of this website :D maybe people get depressive because of that black bacground? ;)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2007 8:39 am 
Site Admin

Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 2:44 pm
Posts: 1940
Location: The Hague, Netherlands
A great welcome here to you and your herd! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Indeed nice to see the bond you can have with retired horses. No expectations anymore... not now and not in the future... only the moment counts. I have this also with my old mare and it tops everything else!

Kind regards

Bianca


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 Post subject: Hello from Susie in US
PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2007 2:07 pm 

Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 10:56 pm
Posts: 26
Location: United States
Thanks for the welcome - so nice to read and visit here with people who are warm and have sense of humor.

And I really like the happy colors! :lol:

_________________
"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism, 1709


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:19 pm 
Site Admin

Joined: Wed May 16, 2007 7:51 pm
Posts: 2055
Location: Netherlands
Welcome Susie!

I'd love to see yur pictures, and I'm especially curious of your Spotted Tennessee Walker, I didn't know they came in that colour too. 8)

An yes, broodmares are most of the time only used for producing foals, also in the Netherlands. Today there was a newsflash on a big Dutch forum on a Shetland Mare who's now 37 and had produced her 31th foal this year - and everybody being really happy for the breeder, how great she's that fertile... I love foals (and I would have loved to see pictures of Blacky being all foaly, fluffy and cuddly too! :D ), but is that a faith that benefits the horse, being a such breeding factory that has to produce foals every year?


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 Post subject: Hello from Susie in US
PostPosted: Sun May 27, 2007 10:25 pm 

Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 10:56 pm
Posts: 26
Location: United States
I'll try to learn how to do all the picture stuff this week.

Oh my gosh, that poor mare who had 31 babies. Hard to believe the poor thing has been able to produce year after year and still another one at 37. And here I was feeling sorry for Lucy and her 16 babies. :lol:

TWH's come in all colors now. Splash is a bay tobiano with a beautiful long flowing mane. I can't wait to get the picture thing figured out so I can post some pictures here to share.

_________________
"A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again."
Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism, 1709


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2007 3:03 pm 
Site Admin
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Joined: Tue May 15, 2007 2:40 pm
Posts: 4733
Location: Belgium
Welcome Susie,

really wonderful to have you here.

What wonderful to have room to rescue so many horses and how fantastic to be able to simply watch and learn a herd that large... aah!

_________________
www.equusuniversalis.com


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