A Quote Worth Remembering

Found this reference on Equine ER:

Louise Firouz helped save the Caspian from extinction. Before she died at 74 in 2008 she told Reuters that she had ignored doctors orders to stop riding horses. "I'm not too old to ride," she said. "I'm too old to fall off."


Amen, Louise. Amen.

Quote of the Day (or week or whatever)

The Carrot vs the Stick (from Horse and Rider)

Punishment as a training tool "should become obsolete," says clinician John Lyons. "It's unnecessary and counter-productive... When he isn't getting somethign you're trying to teach him, he's already unhappy. Punishing him at this point is backward thinking, and just causes anxiety...

"Think of it another way: If your boss only yelled at you whenever you made a mistake, and never praised you for doing something correctly, pretty soon you wouldn't want to go to work at all.

"It's the same for your horse."




(below excerpted from a conversation at the barn)



Me: Okay, what do YOU think? Frankly after my alpha mare episode, I'm a believer in a little stick - not punishment in the old cowboy sense, but certainly some attitude... If it's all carrots, it just doesn't seem to work...

Canyon (interrupting): Actually you just aren't using enough carrots.

Me: oh give me a break.

Lily: He's absolutely right. More carrots.

Canyon: I'm pretty sure you can get them in bulk.

Lily: And cookies. I'm good with cookies too.

Me: Cut it OUT! Back to the round pen!

Quote of the Day (or week or whatever)

Why did this animal that had prospered so in the Colorado desert leave his amiable homeland for Siberia? There is no answer. We know that when the horse negotiated the land bridge... he found on the other end an opportunity for varied development that is one of the bright aspects of animal history. He wandered into France and became the mighty Percheron, and into Arabia, where he developed into a lovely poem of a horse, and into Africa where he became the brilliant zebra, and into Scotland, where he bred selectively to form the massive Clydesdale. He would also journey into Spain, where his very name would become the designation for gentleman, a caballero, a man of the horse. There he would flourish mightily and serve the armies that would conquer much of the known world. ~James Michener

And he would come to Texas and become a pintabian with a penchant for freaking out. ~ Winter