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On a hot, sultry Southeast Texas Sunday back in 2001, we received an email indicating that a Thoroughbred Breeder/Trainer, located only several miles from our farm, wanted to donate two registered Thoroughbreds to Lone Star Equine Rescue. The email indicated that this was labeled as an emergency rescue so my wife, Terry, and myself fired up "Big Red" the Dually and headed over to the horse farm. We traveled to a five-acre farm, fully fenced with a mobile home and barn. On the property were two thoroughbreds that were so portly and stout that we questioned what breed they were, as they looked more like Quarter Horses. But no, they were TBs that were on a strict diet of Purina Senior and free grass. They were extremely obese with very bad feet…both were limping and lame. The donor’s wife informed us that they had sold their property and were moving and the horses had to be off from the property immediately. To add injury to insult, these two bulging babies had never been trained to load and they could not get them into a trailer. The owner was already enroute with the rest of the horses to a northern state and with him was all of the paperwork for these two; therefore, we could not move them until several days later. Our farrier/trainer tried his best to get those horses to load the following Wednesday, but to no avail. Bart and Star would have nothing to do with it as they had never been out of that pasture their entire lives and they were not going to go anywhere, now. So, I latched lead lines to their halters and in 100 degree heat we started walking them to our farm…which, I might add was no easy job. However, I learned a lot about Bart on that trek; I learned mostly about his fears. It became readily apparent that telephone poles, mailboxes, and drainage culverts all ate horses and produce a low, deep, threatening growl that only horses can hear as nerves would tense and ears would lean forward hundreds of yards away from these monsters. And that is how Bart came into our lives. Several months later, Bart’s brother was adopted out to a loving new Mom who had plans for dressage in mind. Star preformed well in training and enjoyed his new life until unhealthy feet caused him to trot across Rainbow Bridge. In the meantime, I fell in love with Bart’s cranky attitude and we decided to adopt him to be my riding horse. A young, green horse with no issues…what could be better than that? So off to training camp he went to become a laid-back trail horse for the old man…yeah, right! Bart has yet to get to that laid-back trail horse level…his youth, energy, and inexperience seem to outpace the thought processes that get blurred in his left-brain. But we have bonded and it WILL work. I look at Bart as being my lifetime partner as I am 51 years of age and there is no reason that Bart should not live a happy life for the next 30 years. In reality, he will probably outlive me. However, we have to get over this training hump. After several broken ribs (mine), we have come to the realization that we needed to go back to square one so Bart is now being trained by me, using Parelli Natural-Horse-Manship training techniques. Bart and I are learning to work together and teaching each other how to communicate correctly with one another. We are actively working our way though Level One training using the Parelli system and during the weekend of March 6-7 2004, Bart and I were chosen to be the selected students for a private personal coaching/training session with Linda Parelli during their tour through Louisiana. Bart was a comedy act all in himself and a great time was had by not only we participants, but the audience as well. As of this writing, ‘The Bart Show’ is scheduled to appear on the RDF-TV channel for Parelli in the very near future. Linda Parelli, Bart, and Dad, R.T.
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