November 22, 2013

My Horsey Future

Being horseless makes it hard to keep up with regular posting due to lack of fodder. I do hope to have a lot to blog about again soon, and rest assured I'm not leaving the bloggosphere. This blog is staying right here, and staying alive. Until I have a new horse this blog will just be slow. I will still post when things come up, but my posts are likely to be few and far between for the rest of the winter.

The current game plan, in terms of my horsey future, is that we are currently listing our house and searching for horse property. Once we finally own a nice horse friendly plot of land the horse search will begin. I am very excited for the future, but for now I am trying to enjoy the perks of a horse free life. I've had a horse for so long now I had forgotten how much more you can do with your finances when you don't have board, feed, vet bill, tack, and equipment to pay for and maintain. It's been a bit of a (pleasant) shock really.

The main non-horse thing I'm working on at the most is doing little renovation and interior decorating projects around our house. These are things that I wanted to do three years ago when we moved back, but never got around to due to lack of time (horse) and finances (horse). So now I'm reveling in them. The house is starting to really look like a place that I want to live in, which when it is finished is going to make selling it rather bittersweet.

I will post about much of these domestic adventures on my other blog: http://suddenlysettled.blogspot.com/. So if you are interested in hearing my random tales of being a work/stay-at-home-mom coupled with house renovation/decoration topics, feel free to follow my other blog. I'll likely be posting there more regularly for the time being.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 20, 2013

Marketing a Horse For Sale

Most horses I've sold, I haven't had to market. Granted last time I sold a horse the internet had just been born and barely anyone used email frequently. Those that did had something call an AOL account. Yes, I am really dating myself. Things have changed in terms of marketing horses.

Anyhow....I've never had to market a horse before because I would generally just go to local shows, list the horse for sale on my entry, and eventually a buyer would come along. This is also easy to do with low price point horses. Not that it doesn't work with higher price point horses too, but you have to go to rated shows, which obviously ups your costs. If you are going to those shows anyway it's not really an added cost, but if you are showing only to sell the horse it can get expensive quick.

My initial intent was to show Rose on the circuit this past summer and sell her that way. Mostly because I really wanted to enjoy one show season my horse that I had poured nearly four years of blood sweat and tears into. I wanted to have that exhilarating experience showing her at least a couple more times before I sold her.

The problem with this most excellent show/sales plan? The baby of course. The baby meant lack of time to really ride regularly and prep for shows. I don't go to rated shows to loose, so I don't go if my horse isn't ready. There was no way to be ready.

That left me in a pickle. How do you market a horse these days without hitting the circuit? I may not have sold a horse since the internet was birthed, but I have window shopped as any good horse addict does. As such, I certainly had an idea where to start. The following list is my current guide to selling a horse in the age of the internet.

How to Market Your Horse for Sale

Option 1: This sales method has been around as long as horse trainers have existed (I assume) and requires little to no effort on the sellers part.

Have your trainer sell the horse for you. This option is good for busy people, who have a horse in training or are willing to put it in training, board at a trainer's barn, and don't mind losing about 10% of the sale price to the trainer. Because the trainer gets a commission on the sale, they generally try and get your horse sold quickly. Most will sell in barn so that they keep the horse as a client, but the horse could easily end up going out of barn.

Note that if you own a really expensive and awesome performance horse that your trainer often shows and wins on, they won't be inclined to lose the horse from their program. Because of this, some unscrupulous trainers will not put much effort into selling your horse. Bare this in mind if you are among the 1% with a grandprix horse in training. In the mean time, if you need your horse hacked give me a call!

Option 2: Sell the horse yourself.

There are a few things you must do to sell your horse yourself. Here is my little guideline.
Conformation Photo
  1. Price your horse. Consult a trainer(s) regarding the price you are asking and see what other people are asking for a horse of similar breeding and training. Be realistic about the price. I find it is good to ask a little more than what you want, because everyone wants to bargain when it comes to horse sales. However, don't expect to sell a young horse that has never been backed and has no performance record for much more than the costs involved in breeding said horse. If it has been inspected by a breed registry and got a premium score you can expect to get a little more. However, if you really want a good price for a baby you must be very well handled, have manners, tie, load, pick up feet, etc. AND have a performance record. Take it to schooling shows and rated shows and show in hand. Once your baby is bringing home ribbons you can realistically ask for more.

    If you have a started green horse, you can ask a bit more, since it's had some training. I have found that most people either buy foals or backed three year olds, but nothing in between. So don't expect to ask more for a 2 year old than you would be able to ask the same horse as a foal. Remember, you are not selling the horse based on what it might be worth in a few years. You are selling it for what it is worth now. For a green horse that has been started, calculate breeding costs and add in a bit more for training. Don't try and recoup boarding and vet costs. That's just the cost of your hobby, so don't even try to go there.

    If your horse is finished it's usually a bit easier to come up with an average cost based on the horse's training, health, temperament, breed, and performance record. This is where a trainer can really help you determine the horse's current market value.
  2. Quality photos. A picture is worth a thousand words, or so they say. This is one of those times that saying couldn't be more true. A good photo will have your phone (or email) ringing off the hook with serious buyers. A bad or average photo will mostly send tire kickers your way. If you want your horse to sell for a good price and quickly, then invest the time and effort in taking good photos.

    Find a friend with a good camera (or hire a photographer). Do your prep work. Bath your horse, braid it if the main doesn't lay flat, oil or polish the hooves, and take the photos in the morning on a sunny day for the best light. There are two types of photos you will want to take, conformation and action.

    Note: You do not need a butt photo. Honestly, I don't actually understand why people do this. Even if you wanted to buy a horse based on the size of its rear, a photo from that angle is extremely distorted and will not tell you much in regard to how robust the rear is. Also, do not use photos of the horse grazing, dirty, standing uphill, or downhill.


    Conformation Photo: This is the one most important photo you will take, as it tells the buyer the most about the horse. In my experience, it is this photo will sell your horse. Find a nice bridle or leather halter with a leather or black lead rope. Locate an area of level ground with a good backdrop with nothing distracting in the distance. Standing the horse outside a dark barn isle way or arena works well as a backdrop, otherwise look for a plain wall, barn doors, or some decent shrubbery. Ideally you want the horse standing on asphalt or concrete so that all four hooves can easily be seen. When you take the photo you want to be square with the horse's body, see all four legs in the photo, with the legs closest to the camera on the outside and the other two on the inside. This allows the buyer to see all four legs and to see if there are any obvious injuries (i.e. bowed tendon). The horses' neck should be posed in its most flattering angle for the horse's build and you should not see the handler (or any appendage) in the photo.

    Action Shots: These should be good clear photos and are best done in an outdoor arena or paddock. You don't want to post warm fuzzy portraits of you and your horse. You want the buyer to envision owning that horse, not have a searing memory of you in pigtails on your beloved pony. To this end, wear a helmet, classic understated clothing like a plain polo shirt and beige britches, and proper footwear. Again, even if you don't normally wear a helmet, you don't want a buyer fixating on the fact that you aren't wearing one and that you once attended an AC/DC concert. Clean your tack and use clean coordinating and understated saddle pads, wraps, boots, etc. This is when a white saddle pad and white polo wraps really work well, for any discipline. In the absence of four white socks, the white wraps help to highlight the horse's movement (especially in video).

    Only bother taking action photos highlighting a good trot and the horses jumping abilities (if applicable), or whatever discipline it is the horse is trained in. Walk and canter photos don't tell a buyer much. Fewer excellent photos are better than lots of mediocre photos, so strive to get that one really great trot photo. Ideally, this will show all four feet off the ground and your bum down in the saddle (not up at the post).

    If your horse is super green and hasn't been started, you can still take action pictures in a round pen. Free longe your horse while the photographer takes photos. Get a good trot picture. If you can free jump your horse in an outdoor arena have a photographer on hand and get a photo of the horse at the crest of the jump with nice square knees (hopefully).
  3. Quality Video. Video is a better option if your only option is an indoor arena. Video obviously works well in an outdoor arena as well and is a nice addition to photos as most buyers these days expect a video of some sort.

    Keep the video short, remove all sound (talking etc.) and replace with an understated sound track ideally without vocals. Try to match the beat of the music to the pace of the horse. Again you don't want the buyer focusing on the music, but your horse. Video the horse at the walk, trot, canter in each direction, and over a couple jumps. If you have video of a nice jump round from a horse show that is a nice additional video to compliment your basic w/t/c/j video. If you horse doesn't jump under saddle but is a jumping prospect, take a video of the horse free jumping as well. When you've got all your video sorted, edit the video with something like windows movie maker, remove the sound, and keep it short. You can add music when you upload to YouTube if you don't have other means.
  4. Describe your horse. This sounds simple but it's not that easy for most people. Leave your feelings out of it. You want to describe your horse in a positive light, but keep it short and simple. State what skills your horse has, what its experience level is and rate its temperament. Buyers won't read a big drawn out description of everything your horse has ever done. Any additional info they may want they can ask over the phone or in person. Your goal with the description is to peak the buyer's interest enough that they will contact you. That is all.

    Note: Unless you are selling a foal, do not write a long winded explanation of the horse's breeding, that's what the pedigree is for. If the buyer wants to know more about a certain stallion they will look the horse up. If a buyer is interested in your horse because of the breeding, they already know what they want about the stallion or dam, which is likely what led them to your advertisement.
  5. YouTube. Upload your video(s) to YouTube.com. Make sure you provide some sort of contact info on the video description and key words that will help buyers find your horse's video. Good key words include your horse's registered name, age, lineage, and skills. For contact info, I like to link everything back to my sales website (see below).
  6. Website/Blog. Create a page just for selling your horse. I like to create a whole separate blog just as a sales site, simply because it is easier than buying a domain name and throwing together a website and sorting out hosting stuff. Blogger.com is great for this sort of thing. List your description of the horse, sales price, upload your photos and embed your YouTube video(s), etc. Link to your horse's pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com. If it's not already on there, add your horses pedigree (it's free and easy).
  7. Post on Sales Websites. There are a lot of free horse websites. Some are better than others. There are a few that are breed specific, and a few that cost a little bit to post on but are well worth the quality advertising. Sites I recommend are dreamhorse.com and warmbloods-for-sale.com. Clearly if you are selling a quarter horse you won't use warmbloods, but there may be other breed specific sites out there that will work well for you. Dreamhorse seems to have everyone covered, and is my go-to window shopping site. Post your photos and video, and again link to your sales website for more info.

    Posting on craigslist.com can work for lower price point horse sales, but it is rare to see higher price horses (5k +) posted. So, post on there if you like, just don't have high expectations if you are selling a higher end horse.
I hope this has helped you if you soon find yourself needing to market a horse. If anyone else has additional tips, I'd love to hear them.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 14, 2013

Preparing for the pre-purchase exam or vetting, Part 4

Ethics - Things in my opinion you should never do:

  1. Drug your horse
    Whether it is to calm the horse down (sedative) or to block pain (ie. Bute), doing this to fool a buyer is just unscrupulous. I personally couldn't live with myself if I tried to fool a buyer by drugging a horse.
  2. Ride/longe right before
    Again, some people do this because they have a horse with a physical issue and it might work the issue out before the vetting. This isn't as bad as drugging a horse, but is still a somewhat dodgy thing to do in my opinion.
So, that's what I learned. I'm curious if anyone has any additional suggestions of things to do/or not to do before a vetting to put your horses best hoof forward? Let hear it!

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 12, 2013

Preparing for the pre-purchase exam or vetting, Part 3

How to prepare for the vetting:
  1. Vet the vet
    If the buyer wants to use a vet that you have never met/heard of, do your homework. Ask around if anyone has used them. If they have a bad reputation, do not agree for the buyer to use them. You have this right. A bad vet won't just miss something on the buyer's behalf, but could also imagine they see something is not there, drop some scary words, and send the buyer running for the hills, away from a perfectly sound animal. I also like to make sure that any equine vet that does a pre-purchase exam on a sport horse is an equestrian themselves. I guess I like my horse vets to have some street smarts, not just book smarts. Just a little personal preference.
  2. Plan your week prior
    Once the appointment is all set, look at your calendar and prepare how you will get your horse ready.
  3. Trot/flex the horse yourself
    For your own piece of mind it is good to have an idea if your horse is sound prior to the vetting. Most seasoned horseman and/or farriers can easily pick up on a lameness when being trotted out on concrete/asphalt. So, get a trusty observer and trot out your horse. If you have a few free moments you might even want to do a 60-second flex on each leg and trot out the horse to see if anything arthritic will show up. Always do a baseline trot before a flex. That way you know if a lameness is the cause of stress from the flex (ie. arthritis) or if it was there before (ie. sore hoof). If the horse bob's it's head up as it is trotting, the foot that hits the ground at the moment the head bobs up is the unsound leg. Remember "down on the sound" (ie. head goes up on the unsound foot).
  4. If horse is in work, keep it in work, but don't do anything strenuous or new
    By all means still enjoy riding your horse, but it is a good idea to consciously keep the rides relaxed and easy. Don't do anything new or very strenuous that would cause muscle soreness, which could present as a false lameness.
  5. Give the horse a couple days off before the exam
    Just to be certain that the horse does not have any sore muscles, from work or ill fitting tack, let them have a couple days off before the exam. If you have a high energy horse that needs to be worked in order to be safely handled during the exam, longeing them would probably be okay, so long as it's not a long strenuous longe. Most vets however prefer the horse not be longed the day of the exam.
  6. Day of the exam:
    Show up early enough to pull your horse, groom them, and calm your own nerves. If you are relaxed your horse is more likely to be and the exam will go more smoothly. After that, stand back, let the vet and their helper do their thing and hope for the best. If things do come up that are unexpected have the vet show you, explain it, and video tape it...especially if the buyer is not present for the vetting. A picture is worth a thousand words and seeing a minor lameness or positive flexion in person or on video is very different than how it might be conjured in one's imagination from a vet's technical description.
Rose being trotted on asphalt during her third vetting in August.
Where I mainly went wrong on the first go around is that I didn't research the vet that did the exam, and as I mentioned in my previous post I was trying to be nice and stupidly offered to haul her to the vet. That vet, as I later found out, has a horrendous reputation in town. Apparently he told one of my fellow boarders (after a full vet inspection) that her lame gelding was a hopeless case and on the bright side she could use him as a broodmare. Her GELDING! She promptly took her horse to another vet who gave her a recovery plan and that horse was sound within a month and has never been lame since. He still has yet to start his broodmare career.

My personal beef with this vet (because I know you want to juicy details)? He dropped a bunch of unfounded and scary words on the buyer like neurological, spinal, etc. There was absolutely nothing neurologically wrong with my horse. He even said that to me. So why the hell say those words to a buyer? Why plant a scary word like that in someone's head? Rose had a sore butt muscle, at most. In addition to that, I over heard him telling one of his vet tech's how much I was asking for her (I didn't tell them this info) and that it was a ridiculous price tag. This from a man that breeds cows and has never ridden a horse that I know of as he's a known non-equestrian. I doubt he knows the value difference between dude ranch trail horse and Totilas. End rant. Phew, I've been bottling that up for a LONG time.

So, yes, research the vet. Had I known anything about him previously, I never would have agreed to haul her out there in the first place. But now, I'll never haul a horse for a vet check again, period.

On the second go round, I had no idea Rose was lame on front. I knew she had been lame in March from the bad trim job, but she seemingly recovered form it. She was sound longeing and riding in the arena. However, once she was trotted on the asphalt the head bob showed up.

This is where flexing her and trotting her out myself ahead of time would have been a good thing to do. I would have known something was up. I probably would have put shoes on her right away and put the vetting off another week. However, as it turns out I decided to not sell her to buyer No. 2 regardless (they wanted me to follow up once she came sound again) due to the buyer's very apparent greenness. Rose was a good horse, but had too much personality and youthful sass for a beginner rider. I just wouldn't have been able to sleep at night had I sold her to that person. This is the same person that I had to explain negative flexions to.

Stay tuned for...

Part 4: Ethics-things in my opinion you should never do

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 7, 2013

Preparing for the pre-purchase exam or vetting, Part 2

When it comes to preparing for your horse to be vetted, you need to think ahead. Most vets won't be able to come out at a moment's notice, so you should have at least a few days to prepare for the exam. You want to prepare, that is if you want to sell your horse. I didn't realize this at first, and pretty much missed out on selling Rose to buyer No. 1 because of lack of preparation. The more preparation you have the better, so if you can get a week advanced notice do it!

Things to avoid before a vetting (3 days - 1 week), and why:
  1. Do not trim, shoe and/or change farriers
    God forbid a trim job ends up being too short, a toe or heel gets a new angle, or a nail hits a funny spot. The horse may come up lame, or present a false gate lameness. It's always best to make sure that you have at least one week between any farrier work and a vetting.
  2. Do not jump a horse that is not regularly jumped or increase workload
    If I do any new physical activities my muscles gets sore and will be sore for 2-3 days after. It is no different for a horse. Therefore you certainly do not want to do anything that will cause them to be sore, again possibly presenting as a lameness or gate lameness.
  3. Do not trailer anywhere
    It can be really tempting to want to go for a few last trail rides, a clinic, or one last schooling show before your horse possibly sells. It is also a really nice gesture as the seller to offer to take the horse to the preferred vet clinic for the vetting. However, the horse could easily tweak a pastern or worse in the trailer, and come up looking lame. Be smart, not nice, and have the vet do a farm call. Leaving the farm also increases the chance of anything else going wrong and causing potential injuries. Just don't do it!
  4. Do not change turnout/feed/routine, etc.
    Keep life predictable before the exam. This will reduce stress on the horse, and you, reducing the number of unknowns that could go wrong and will allow the horse to preform at it's best for the vetting.
Icy February schooling show.
As my story goes, I made several fatal errors the first go around. I took Rose to a horse show a week and a half before the vetting. A winter horse show. There was ice all over the place. At one point she fell really hard whilst freaking out about some baby calves that were jumping around in an adjoining pasture. Silly horse. She had seen cows so many times before and never cared about them at all. Long story short, she pulled a hamstring in the process. Granted, at the time I had no idea she was going to be vetted, but still it was stupid to take her to that show.

The second mistake I made was offering to trailer her more than an hour away to the chosen vet. So either her sore butt muscles were presenting as a very mild hind lameness or she tweaked something in the trailering process. I'll never really know, because I let the stupid vet and my husband (I wasn't trailering Rose on my own yet at this point) convince me to leave Rose and go back to town for a few hours because the vetting at this particular place would take many hours and Hubs wanted to get some work done.

After the first vetting, I learned a lot and was much wiser come June when Rose got vetted for the second time. However, that time around Rose was coming up a tad lame in the front. This was due to a really bad trim job she got by a "barefoot" quack trimmer in March. That person cut all her soles off, so short, that I eventually put shoes on Rose in July. Once the shoes were on she was sound again. So don't mess with your horse's feet if they are good. However, she was still barefoot for the vetting, so of course she wasn't completely sound that day.

Stay tuned for...

Part 3: How to prepare for the vetting

Part 4: Ethics -things in my opinion you should never do

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 5, 2013

Preparing for the pre-purchase exam or vetting, Part 1

In the past I have easily sold my horses simply by taking them to horse shows. I never had to worry much about the vetting process, because they were low price-point horses. They had known issues (arthritis in the hocks, etc.) that we knew would come up and that was disclosed ahead of time and a reflection of the sale price. At the low price-point X-rays never came into the picture, and/or the horse wouldn't be vetted at all. Yes, I am of the opinion that even a free horse should be vetted, but at the same time I understand why people see it as a waste of money. It happens, that's a reality, and as a seller I'm all for a buyer skipping that step. It certainly makes it easier on me, though I still think it is a bad idea from a buyer's standpoint.

Rose being worth quite a bit more than my previous horses, required vetting and X-ray's by all serious buyers. This is where I got a big education and it was also the part of the selling process that made me the most nervous. I was nervous because quite simply she'd never been vetted since I bought her and she hadn't ever had X-rays taken.

What is a vetting or pre-purchase exam? Quite simply it is a finding of the vet's opinion on the soundness and health of the horse on that day and it's suitability for the buyer's intended use. For example, a horse that is in its mid-teens and is intended for trail riding might have some arthritic issues but would still be completely appropriate at its soundness level for that purpose. If later on the new owner wanted to start jumping that horse they might have issues. So a good vet will inquire as to the intended use and workload of the horse and keep that in mind when discussing any soundness issues that come up on the exam with the buyer.

Sadly some buyers don't understand this because they are not experienced horsemen and think that all horses should vet "perfect" or be put down. These people drive me nuts, and I'm quite happy they get scared off so easily, because any time I have to explain to someone that a negative flexion is a good thing I've already made up my mind to not sell my horse to them. Yes this happened. That was potential buyer No. 2. Also if the horse is normally sound, but tweaked it's pastern that morning, it will be unsound for the vetting. This can lead the buyer and vet to wonder if the horse did just tweak something like the seller claims or if it is chronically lame and the seller is lying. Who's to say? And yes this happened too. With potential buyer No. 1.

However, that is all over now. So the following list is comprised of the pre-vetting topics and the subsequent posts which will discuss the specific issues that I had to deal with and caused me to learn my lesson the hard way. Luckily, after learning my lesson the third vetting was a charm and Rose was sold that day.

Part 2: Things to avoid before a vetting (3 days - 1 week), and why

Part 3: How to prepare for the vetting

Part 4: Ethics -things in my opinion you should never do

Stay tuned...

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 4, 2013

Super Sweet Contest...hurry before it ends!

I don't usually enter these contests, because really I NEVER win anything. Not by luck anyway. Working my tail off and putting in a good day's work at something...that's how I've generally managed to eek out a win in my life, be it horses or my career. The irony? I am actually a pretty lucky person. I just never win contests. However, after reading SprinklerBandits' post about her new Dream Horse Studios patent leather jump boots, I decided to at least give it a shot. Maybe, just maybe, there will be a snow ball melting in hell with my name on it?

Now, now, I can hear you saying "but Renee, you are horseless, so why even bother?" Why? Because when it come to pretty shiny things made of leather I am a closet tack whore. Shhh...don't tell anyone. The only reason I ever get rid of any tack is generally to make room for more things, and I will at some point get another horse. So there. That's my justification.

If you haven't heard about the contest go to SprinklerBandits' post here: http://iamthesprinklerbandit.blogspot.com/2013/10/dream-horse-studios-contest-plus-review.html and enter yourself before Midnight tonight. Or actually, please don't. That might help my unlikely statistics of winning. So yeah, I guess forget all about this post. Definitely don't read about SprinklerBandits awesome new jump boots. Just don't.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

November 3, 2013

Hugo tests his ground

Disclaimer: If you are into Natural Horsemanship (NH) please don't take my ranting personally. I do believe in a lot of NH ideas and training techniques. However there are a lot of NH "people", who I refer to as back yard NH, who don't know a horse's dock from its pole. They read books and watch videos and don't have a clue how to train a horse or why or how to do whatever "training" technique it is they are doing. They subsequently really mess up otherwise perfectly good horses (granted with the best of intentions) and then end up paying a trainer to fix their mess. I have met a lot of these people over the years. I have no issue with good NH trainers and their clients who do it right and well and turn out really nicely trained happy horses. That's my perspective, and I hope this helps you all understand where my apparent dislike and ranting about NH's comes from. 

I went out to longe Hugo again this past Wednesday. Unfortunately, it had been two weeks since our first longe lesson. Why you might ask? Well, in the wonderful world of stay at home mommy-ness, JR and Hubs got a stomach virus and subsequently puked all over my house for a week, which was immediately followed by a 10-day "vacation" to visit friends and family in Portland and Seattle. Hubs of course mentioned that it was great that I didn't get sick. Ha. I felt that virus trying it's best to get at me, but I willed it away. After all, someone has to take care of JR and with Hubs down for the count that left little ole me. I couldn't get sick, bottom line. Anyway, I digress.

Hugo started out surprisingly good. Walking and trotting around on the longe, seemingly picking up right where we left off. Then, he got tired and decided to test me. I think. I asked for a walk transition, and he did the damn NH halt spin and face me thing. I asked him to walk on. He backed. I got my longe whip toward his haunches applying pressure to move forward. He kept spinning away from me, in a backward motion, doing his damndest to face me like he's been "taught". I HATE when horses do this. This poor horse has been mentally screwed really badly by some back yard "horse whisperer" to the point where he doesn't know how to go forward. I could physically see him shaking while he halted facing me worried about what I might do. What the hell did someone do to him? I stopped myself from going off on a mental deep end rant about back yard NH people and focused on how to fix this problem.

I had to get him going forward, but I also need him to trust that I was not going to do something unpleasant to him. He was refusing to even walk while being led, so we started there. Anytime he halted when not asked I would make him move his feet. Sideways, backward, I didn't care. He had to move when I asked. Quickly he figured that out and started walking on the lead on a big circle. We worked on this a while. Then I gave the longe another try and he started going around at the walk and trot again. Just when I was about to quit, asked for the walk and he halted and spun to look at me again. Damn! He immediately started doing the whole halt and back away from me in circles routine again. Every time I moved the whip toward his hind end he would spin away from it and face me. As such, I couldn't get the longewhip behind him and he refused to go forward again. So, we did some more leading at the walk. He was better this time and it was getting dark. I ended working on walk transitions while leading in hopes that it was enough of a success on my terms that next time he'll be more cooperative on the longe. We shall see.

Happy trails and swooshing tails!
•Renee•

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