...But Fear Itself

A hinny is the offspring of a female donkey and a male horse. It is the inverse of a mule. Lucy is a beautiful hinny that just joined our program. We picked her up on Friday. She was halter broke but had never had anything on her back. I saddled her within the first hour of getting her home. Ashley stood up in the stirrup as did Amanda. Neither sat in the saddle. There was no need to overload Lucy's mind. She did great with her first hour of training.

Our training process has at its core the promotion of trust and confidence in each animal. We teach the equine that just because something is scary, it is not necessarily painful. A flapping plastic bag is terrifying, but causes no pain. As the horse learns this he develops confidence.Confidence breeds courage.

Wendy is shown mounting Lucy just moments after Jacob had done so. Jacob was the first to set in the saddle yesterday. Jacob is a kid and his body has the resilience and healing power of youth. Wendy is not a kid. Had things gone wrong she was at risk of painful injury. (We seek to minimize that risk with helmets and rib protectors.)

She got on any way. She and I were confident that she had the skills to do so. That confidence bred courage.

No one who knew this hinny would have expected her to take a rider on her back within 24 hours of coming to our place. No one who knew Wendy would have expected her to risk getting on Lucy (except me.)

Confidence breeds courage, and in training wild horses or starting colts, courage is one of the corner stones of competence.

Wendy is quickly developing that competence.