Jump into Spring Contest
I was recently honored as the second place winner of The Horse Studio, Jump into Spring Writing Contest. The topic to be written about was “When did you fall in love with horses?”. Below is my entry:
2006 Kissing Minnow
My Little Chincoteague Pony
I’ve been involved with horses since the day I was born, but I didn’t really fall in love with them until I was 18 and Chincoteague Minnow came into my life. He was a short, rotund Chincoteague pony that started his life as a wild pony on Assateague Island. I didn’t know much about him except for the fact that an owner in his past had neglected him and his care for several months, and I quickly found that he had deep trust issues as well as a nasty buck.
For two years Minnow and I battled to gain an understanding of each other. He constantly ran away with me and wanted nothing to do with me. He ignored scary situations and refused to confront anything he felt threatened by. But I loved him anyway and I refused to give up on him.
2007 Me and Minnow
It wasn’t until a simple book came into my life that things began to change. Trickonometry by Carole Fletcher was a book that detailed a multitude of tricks to teach your horse. As I taught Minnow his very first trick, to give me a kiss, something began to happen. Minnow began to light up as he discovered what it meant to learn. We flew through the book as he learned to play fetch, shake hands, and even bow. Minnow and I were now communicating and understanding each other.
A year passed and I could barely recognize him as the pony that had appeared in my life 3 years earlier. He was bright eyed and excited for my daily visits to see him. He no longer ran away with me and most importantly we were a team. Minnow had showed me how to teach him and in doing so we opened up a whole door to the world of horse training. And I loved him more every day.
Minnow is now an accomplished trick pony as well as an exceptional riding pony. As he now enters into the retirement phase of his life we enjoy spending time together even more. I have him to thank for my love of horses, although I can be sure that I will never love another horse the way I love him.
Excitingly my prize is an Imagine A Horse DVD, Using Treats as a Training Tool. I can’t wait for it to arrive – as I have actually been dying to see the video. I will be sure to post a full review on it after I watch it.
If you would like to read the rest of the winning entries click here.
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Kyley–
Your essay is great! Minnow is such a great little pony and your story definitely deserved to win the contest!
I love that ’06 picture of him kissing you.
I’ll be interested to hear your review of the Allen Pogue Treats DVD. I have seen it, and was less than impressed by some parts of it. I wrote a review of it, but never got around to publishing it. I’ll refrain from saying more, though, as I don’t want to bias you before you even watch it!
I did think some of the points he made were good. However, I think I have too many differences with him on both the philosophical and the strategic levels.
Mary
now I’m definitely intrigued to see what its all about!
Some of Allen’s tricks and routines he does with his horses show a high level of training–especially some of his multi-horse liberty acts.
However, he is ADAMANTLY opposed to clicker training.
I think his food delivery and timing could be improved by the addition of a clear and consistent marker signal, though.
Mary