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| Nevada's life history! |
| Early History Nevada was born in the summer of 1994. He was "captured" during October of 1994 at approx. 4 months of age. I adopted him in December of 1994 when he was approx. 6 months old. He had never been touched other then being run into a chute for his shots and worming. A BLM wrangler delivered him to my house that evening and gave me a 20 minute lesson on how to gain his trust (and not get killed in the process :-> ). Nevada was *very* skinny. You could feel bones everywhere, and he had hollows above each eye. He had tons of caked on manure and mud on his legs and 1/2 way up his sides. I worked for days on being able to approach him without him showing signs of fear. His defense was to kick. I only got nailed good once (in the hand). We were able to take off the leadrope in about 3 days and the halter after about a month. I worked for hours gently combing out all the mud and manure. Nevada eventually grew to enjoy our grooming times. Nevada was gelded in January of 1995. By this time we were learning to lead and still spending hours each week working on all that "gunk". After several wormings, lots of good quality hay, a developing taste for grain and the arrival of spring, a young prince emerged from our little ball of fur and bones. He was still a little gangly, but the bone structure was there and people stopped asking "Why?" :-) Ground training That summer we worked on leading and we learned how to "pony". Over the next year, he was mainly allowed to just be a horse while we had our first baby. In the summer of 1996, I worked on teaching Nevada how to lunge. Unfortunately, we don't have a round pen, so we never did learn how to canter on the lunge, but we learned how to wear a bridle, saddle, how to long line, and I stood in the saddle on each side. Saddle training In November of 1996, Nevada went to spend a month with our farrier who also trains horses. Nevada did quite well with his training and was ridden 20 time during his 30 days there. He learned how to walk, trot, whoa, rein and was cantering for short distances. Having a small child, I wasn't able to devote the time needed to Nevada. I rode him once a week at most. He did great for the riding he got, but he never advanced in his training. We had the most fun when we would go on trail rides, because we were both happy and relaxed. I would then commit to start working on his cantering again and would ride him once a week in the arena. We would both get frustrated, because he would get confused, my confidence wasn't there (from not riding often), and I wouldn't push him too far. I then started trying to work the cantering into our trail rides by cantering on the trails. He did fine until I started pushing for maintaining the canter on curves and keeping the canter despite changes in the trail. Then he started baulking at going on trails alone where he *knows* I'm going to ask for the canter. Now even trails weren't fun. I gave him some time off and resumed the trail rides and everything was fine. I would sometimes put him back in the arena and try the cantering again, and he always pick |
