Wow! That sounds awesome, Deborah! I'll put you in the line-up for the month of May. :)

Thank you for your kind post Deborah, I think its great you have started some ground work. I am more than happy to help answer any questions that may come up... I first started with horses as an intimidating leader and I remember nearly going into tears during one jumping lesson when my coach was yelling at me to whip my horse for being scared of a barrel jump.... making the transition to natural horsemanship was challenging though because not many people practiced it so I didn't have a lot of support......... if you have any questions at all I am certainly happy to help!!

Thats great!! It's so exciting when you meet the milestones of getting your horse to follow you and being able to communicate with nothing but your body language - there are many more milestones to come!!

Hi Deborah, that is so strange - I haven't heard of it happening before! Here's what I suggest:
1. Delete the blog post you are working on and just go to any other page on site.
2. Copy and paste your blog into a word document on your computer.
3. Open a new blog and copy and paste the document from your word document on your computer and press Save.
Let me know what happens!

Hi Deborah, I've just featured it. :)
I generally go through our daily blog posts and feature some of them. As long as they are not commercial posts, I generally like to showcase our members.
By the way, I'm thoroughly enjoying your blog!

Thank you so much for the comment on my blog Deborah. It really did help to hear you say such nice things :)

~Hannah

Spanish walk is simple to train with a lot of patience and praise. Training should be kept short and sweet and not done too often or the horse will either a) try and do it al the time and may end up hurting you or B) wont want to do it at all.
I start simply by getting my horse to raise her leg as if you were going to pick out her hoof, keep rewarding and gradually stop grasping her leg to pick it up, tap it and if she lifts it lots of praise, gradually move the tap onto a whip signal, where you can tap her leg with the whip and she will raise her leg. As she gets more confident she will start to stretch her leg out more. The key is praise, timing and not over doing it. You can see more of Navara at www.youtube.com/thundersrose

Aww I always think trick training and games is THE way to get through to any horse and release who they really are, many horses become very inverted in life as they are so used to being told what to do and think constantly and are never allowed to just 'be' Navara has come out of her shell so much since November and actively seeks new games, and fun whenever I am around. Make sure you dont reward your mares impatient leg lifting. E.g if I had a horse that reared and I wanted to teach it to rear, on command I would not reward it for rearing when it does it naturally (impatience/aggression)thats a path to disaster, a taught rear should not be aggressive, it should be passive and completely controlled (if that makes sense) just like your mares spanish walk should not be her aggressively pawing the ground. So if your mare randomly gets impatient and leg lifts, ignore it, only click and reward if she does it when you ask either by touching her leg, or tapping it, or eventually by adding a voice or visual command. Horses need definate commands, and rewards of they will start doing things willy nilly in hopes of a reward. Tricks are fun and most horses get much enjoyment out of it. Keep it fun and always try and introduce new things, as well as rewarding them with different treats etc. Would love to hear how you get on, do keep me informed. Hope that all made sense :)

Hi Deborah,
Sorry have not been on in sssoooooo long.Thanks for the note. I am actually doing great with Sienna.I have Tom Shields, a Chris Irwin instructor working with Sienna and I. He is a silver level trainer. He is amazing! Are you going to Chris's clinic in Barrie on Sept.11th and 12th? I am. It will be great to meet Chris.Tom and Anne will be there, too. I am learning how to talk to Sienna and in that I am not afraid anymore. Will respect comes peace! Good to hear from you.Sorry so long in coming.
Barbara

Hi Deborah - Thanks for joining the OEF group! Please feel free to use the group to ask questions, post comments, share ideas, etc.

Hi Deborah, the author went out of town almost immediately after she and I connected. I am in the process of arranging other books. Thanks so much for getting back to me - I have been really remiss about letting you know! So sorry!!