Downunder Training

Lia has a new project. Lia is an eight week camper who likes challenges. She also loves Casper and wants to see him be a more useable pony. He is fun to ride but adopts a 'pony attitude' when it comes to bridle time because he doesn't appreciate people touching his ears.

So Kristin and Alie are schooling Lia in Clinton Anderson's Downunder Training Techniques for horses and ponies. They are having great success and Casper is back to college getting educated in basic 'social skills for behaving during bridling'.

Kristin and Alie worked magic with Sunrise, a horse they took home for the winter two years ago. Sunrise has managed herself really well since her educational winter with Clinton Anderson techniques. She learned to accept anything and be comfortable around obstacles, machinery, and

even those unexpected surprises that pop up on a farm or at a horse show. Sunrise has become one of the prize rides at camp. The training made a huge difference.

So Lia is working along with Alie and Kristin. Gradually she is becoming comfortable with the principles of the approach to training. She is learning how to use the wand and long rope, and she is becoming quite expert at how to make Casper move away from her and around her.

It's fun to see the progress. Lia actually succeeded at getting Casper to accept the bridle the other day. She mounted and rode him just

fine. So this training and a few treats here and there are making Casper into a socially proper gentleman in the Sprucelands riding program.

Hurray for Lia! What an experience. Of course, that is what Sprucelands is all about, learning new things and then passing what you know on to others. That's what Alie and Kristin have been doing.

And when you are an Accelerated Horsemaster like Lia, there are opportunities like this that evolve to make the horsemanship experience very rich. I so wish I'd had the same chances as a kid. Guess I still am a kid because I continue to learn too and that learning is awesome.