I've only owned two horses (and my wife has owned two), I've played with a couple more and I'm relatively new to natural horsemanship (about 6 years). My point is, I'm not always sure if the behavior I see in my horse is due to my fab skills or just that I have a good horse (I'm fairly certain it's the horse). I don't really think it makes much of a difference as long as I am getting the behavior I want.

Here's what got me thinking about this: Catching my horse. I understand some folks have a problem with this. From the day I brought her home, I insisted Jessie walk up to me when I enter her pen. She didn't do it right away, but it didn't take her long to figure it out either. The way I developed this habit was to walk in and move to the center of her pen. I had either my stick and string or my halter lead rope with me. When she looked at me I would turn and step away and when she looked away I would twirl the stick or lead rope. She eventually would walk up to me and sometimes I would just pet her and leave. When I was there to halter her, I would start on the off side and rub her in her favorite spots all the way around to her on side. Then, I would do the drop-your-head exercise (applying thumb and finger pressure to the pole) before putting the halter on.

She soon learned to come straight away because she knew she would get a rub down. Sometimes when I would bring the saddle out she would move to the farthest corner of her pen (interestingly, this is the corner I tie her to sometimes as a "patience pole" after a training session) until I got all the gear arranged before going in after her, but she would drop her head and walk right up. And, it doesn't matter if she's eating either. Sometimes, I have to give a couple of clicks and wait a few seconds, but she walks right over. It's a nice feeling to be greeted like that.

It's not all peaches and lilacs tho. When I moved her to a bigger pen to work, I tried some exercises at liberty (no halter or lead rope). She spent about twenty minutes avoiding me and the exercises I wanted to do. She eventually figured it out, and has improved quite a bit since our first session.

I put one video up of our first at liberty session in March of 2008 which is funny (and sad-and unbearably long) to watch me running around chasing her. But, then there is the second at liberty session in November of 2008 where I think we both show some very marked improvement.