Make Me Worthy Of My Horse

horse like this will continually injure himself and is often unfairly thought of as a klutz or a wingnut when all it would have taken is patient understanding and a respectful approach in the beginning to allow that horse to feel safe and to maintain a reasonable level of trust in humans. I think back to when I first encountered Noel due to the torment he endured he was not just afraid he was unreservedly terrified of virtually everything around him
To Noel doorways were daunting human presence was horrifying and in the first few weeks we worked with him he was even afraid of his own hair as he shed out! I consulted my friend Jonathan Field and as we discussed Noels case we had to accept the grim possibility that this may be a horse so spiritually damaged that we had to at least consider the option of putting him down as it was questionable whether he would ever be confident enough to function in a domestic world. It took a long time for Noel to gain the selfconfidence he needed and the results of that time are still at work today.
We took our time with Noel allowed him to learn on his own terms and never restrained or forced him into anything he wasnt willing to do by himself. The results seemed to take forever and there were countless setbacks but over time we eventually began to see Noel gain the confidence he needed. As a result that little horse went on to become first a liberty horse for Field then a trusted mount for a lady who exposed him to trail obstacles cow work and many other disciplines. Her remarks to me some months after owning Noel were of amazement not only did Noel display virtually no fear with new experiences he eagerly anticipated them. This is what patient consideration can do and what fostering an environment of security can offer a horse. This is not training this is learning theres a big difference between the two.