Iota McHippus is a pretty small miniature horse. Small though he may be, his ‘horseanality’ is humongous! He maintains a presence on Facebook (www.facebook.com/iotamchippus) where he makes snarky updates throughout his busy day. He calls me The Lady and he usually doesn’t think highly of my decisions for his care.
Take for example this past weekend when I had the equine dentist come in and do some maintenance.
Sometimes fortune joins us in our horseman’s journey by arranging for a head-banging, eye opening incident to add movement and vibrant color to what up to then may have been a black and white still photo of one’s own horse & human show.
In the case with me and Mu, it took place this past summer when I found out the hard way that, in fact, I had not instilled in this young horse a Very Reliable whoa. Oh sure, I had a pretty good whoa, a sort of ‘if you’re not too busy with other things’ type of whoa – but no way had I trained into him the “don’t you DARE take another step or you will get a bite on the ass from your Marti-Mare, Mr.” sort of whoa one wishes to have in an emergency situation. He spooked, galloped and bucked his way back into the barn. I hit the dirt somewhere in between buck 3 and there he goes and ‘came to’ in a weird ‘who am I’ sort of way.
Thus we went back to square one in our training. But luck has a way of shining upon us, and right around this time we made contact with a talented, very down to earth horsewoman who believes in safety above all else. She has agreed to help us discover and fill in any gaps in our training regimen. Shelby Hume has earned high level honors in various riding disciplines and has shared some of her at liberty and bareback riding accomplishments with one of her drop-dead gorgeous Andalusian horses at brand name Natural Horsemanship clinics. She is decidedly down to earth, is a clear communicator and very deeply skilled trainer. Her website is Excelsior Farm.
Below is some video I shot so I could reference it out in the barnyard on my iPhone to refresh what she shares before Mu and I get to work. Sometimes I just love modern technology!
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