Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Training






















Since I lost a whole year of working with my horses, due to my back injury, I'm WAY behind in their training. Sunni needs the most work. As a quarter horse, he's pretty laid back, but he is also spooky. So, I'm trying to work with him as much as I can now, before school starts. He had a lesson with my cousin yesterday morning and he's made a lot of progress this past week. I've worked him in the round pen and he can now "stay" while she or I walk around behind him or beside him. YEAH~progress! He's still a little "iffy" when we walk toward his rear and he can't see us, so I'll work on that with him today. But, he's a big, loveable LUG and I want his confidence to improve. I feel sad that I lost a year's training with my horses, but there just wasn't anything I could do with them while dragging my leg behind me! Now that time has mostly healed my back (I still have tingling and numbness in my left leg) and permanent nerve damage and I haven't been on a horse again, at least I can do their ground training. I took these pics yesterday when my cousin, Valerie, was working with Sunni in the round pen. GOOD BOY!

2 comments:

Katharine Swan said...

My husband had a badly herniated disk that required surgery in early 2006. He says the numbness and a little of the tingling never fully went away. I guess the nerves that run down the spinal column and control sensation in the extremeties don't bounce back very quickly (if at all) when the damage to them is severe.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I'm glad to read that you're still able to do ground work and just be with your horses. You've made me realize that having horses, doesn't have to just mean 'riding'. Horses and humans still benefit for lots of quality one-on-one, don't they?

Sounds like you're making some huge strides with Sunni. Yay for you and good boy!

~Lisa