When Dutch came to me, he was labeled as “unruly”. The reality is he was severely mistreated by humans sometime in his past that has caused emotional trauma. This causes him to have fear-based reactions. He is not phased by anything else, really…. Sights, sounds, etc. So long as none of the above are human-related. One of his “absolutely NOT spots” were his ears. He did not want me touching his ears for quite a long time. Particularly his left one. This is likely a result of past ear “twitchings”. A method that humans do to obtain pain compliance from horses. Check him out now…. He now leans INTO me brushing his ears. 🥰 Every horse deserves a second chance and to be given the opportunity to heal. And, of course, to have their very own middle-aged horse lady to dote on them💞
VonDutch is getting more and more consistent in hos way of going, even though I am not riding him near as much as I need to be. Here he is after having three weeks off 💞
Teaching a giant ex-Amish work horse to do a little jumping and hillwork isn’t particularly pretty to watch. But I think it is neat to observe the process as the horse learns to navigate challenges, use their body, overcome weaknesses, make mistakes, correct those mistakes, gather confidence, and begin to put the puzzle together! Here is Dutch and I dabbling with ground poles and our very first couple of tiny fences 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼 God he tries to hard 😭🥺😭🥺
I guess you could say that things are gettin pretty serious…. First gallop sets with VonDutch. It started out as awkwardly as you can imagine. No persons, horses, dogs, or phones were injured during the production of this video. 🍿 🎥 🐎
I guess you could say that things are gettin pretty serious…. First gallop sets with VonDutch. It started out as awkwardly as you can imagine. No persons, horses, dogs, or phones were injured during the production of this video. 🍿 🎥 🐎