I was whining to my mother about not having a horse to train. She had been looking at a nice little reining type quarter horse with a friend, why didn’t I get him she asked. I don’t want a quarter horse I whined.  You have Princess Onna, my daughters mare, why don’t you train on her? My mom is so patient and apparently I whine a lot because she just wasn’t what I wanted either she’s old and broke good enough. I wanted a nice young, unstarted, western bred Morgan. Not that I’m picky or anything.

“Fine” she said “I wasn’t going to mention this but Forever Morgans has a three year old on their Facebook page that’s in the kill pen and needs a home. Today.” I went and looked. He was everything I wanted, royally western bred, right age and, as far as anyone knew, untouched.  This was on Halloween, there was no time for paper work, we had two small children who needed to get ready to trick or treat. They keep me from riding regularly and the two horses that we have already are perfect and the perfect number for us besides he was in far eastern Oregon. It would never work. So of course I volunteered to foster him. I didn’t even try to get the paperwork in until the next Monday. Many others had offered homes too, for foster and to adopt, so imagine my surprise when they told me he would be coming to our house.

http://pumpkinvinefarms.com/?p=710

From there it has been a long and interesting journey. I have learned about training I never knew was possible. In the beginning we work in the usual fashion, then I read a blog about a lady who taught her horse to fetch. I wanted to try. My horse was mouthy and eager to learn, surely it wouldn't be hard. It wasn't but I the process of learning how to teach I learned a new way to teach. We fell into clicker training completely by accident but have been loving the fall. The old ways have not been completely tossed aside. The end result is a combination of old and new as we find what works best for us and a horse that nickers hopefully every time I step out the door, hoping that he is going to be worked.