Janice Terra | The Lady Horse Whisperer

24/03/2025

16/08/2024

Several have asked, and I neglected to mention in my previous post what the condition is. I have what is known as a dissecting aorta. I did not know what that meant 11 years ago, but it means that the aorta is tearing and falling apart from the inside out. part of my aorta feeds the right side of the body while the other side feeds the left side. Very confusing to me, and this is the first I’ve heard of this one. sorry if this is TMI.

14/05/2023

19/12/2020

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11/10/2019

Our training sessions are never planned out. In 40 years of teaching and training I just never did. Now, I might have an idea of what I want to do, yet I just go with the moment and what that moment and the horses’ have decided what we should do. It has always, always worked out for the best when I let the horses run the lesson.
You know, in some lessons the best thing you can do is listen and sometimes talk. There is something about being around a horse that helps release people’s fears and personal inhibitions and gives them the safety to talk about things in their life. So – you listen. Then you talk. Together you work out the world for that day. The world, as you know, changes from day to day.
The horses and donkeys needed worming, so we took care of that; building her confidence that she was capable of doing this. To veteran horse people this is an easy task, yet for a novice it can be intimidating. They just aren’t sure if they are going to do it right, and how to get that syringe in to a mouth that is moving all over the place? Taught he to do what seems illogical, and administer from the side not from the front of the horse.
There is more to teaching and training than simply ‘doing’. I taught Lady L to ‘be’. There is no greater way to communicate with a horse. A horse seldom ‘does’ – he just ‘is’. As their trainer if we will become human ‘beings’ instead of human ‘doings’, our success at communication becomes exponentially enhanced. It becomes such a simple matter then, that the horse will do as we ‘request’ – not demand. It truly is that simple.

27/08/2019

LADY L – 2

JETT-2

This is the second installment of the young c**t’s training process. I will number them so that it will be easier to identify them at a later time. Lady L named her horse Jett. Lady L had gotten Jett used to seeing the halter, as she would rub it on his head and neck through the fence at his previous home. That made haltering him much easier than if she had not done that.

Our first session involved officially haltering him. Lady L rubbed the halter on his head and neck, then stood at the horses’ left shoulder with the halter. When he relaxed she brought the nose piece of the halter beneath and behind his chin, bring it on his face from the rear – not the front. She easily tightened the halter behind his ears. Horses really hate when people try to shove a halter up their face from the front. For continued success in haltering – stand behind the ears and bring the halter from behind and under the jaw.

Halter on, now for leading a horse that had never been led. One thing we wanted was to keep everything quiet and easy. The tendency I had often seen was for humans to pull real hard on the halter. What we did was have Lady L pull him off balance to one side – then praise him for moving. She would pull one direction, then the other, pulling him off balance so that he would move his feet naturally to maintain balance. She performed this technique several times until he would move forward with a short, easy tug. For even one small step forward he was praised.

The only problem we encountered was his overwhelming tendency to bite. That was very irritating! It seemed like he tried to bite every couple of minutes. My usual response for this type of behavior was to pinch the muzzle with my fingernails fairly hard. That usually worked on most horses. You see, as a baby the mama horse will bite and kick her baby to teach him manners. Of course, she would not bite or kick hard enough to hurt him, just enough to get his attention. Well, Jett had lost his mama at an early age, and was not with a herd to teach him.

I was a bit frustrated, as that technique had always worked! This is where ‘horse whispering’ came in. We do some things just a little different than the norm to achieve desired results. I asked Lady L to obtain one of those high-frequency dog whistles, which only dogs can hear. I checked with my vet friend and he confirmed that horses could also hear at that frequency.

Next session we had the whistle. Every time he tried to bite she blew the whistle. That first session reduced his biting attempts by 70%. Next session he only tried to bite 20% of the time – and after that session he quit trying to bite! Yup! A dog whistle!

23/08/2019

I'm trying post another segment of the young horse, but it's not working!

11/08/2019

LADY “L”

I would not have picked him for her, yet she had a dream. This poor horse – all alone. Lady L would drive by this young horse who was out there all alone in a big pasture, and she felt sorry for him. The loneliness in this animal was evident. He got fed every day, but otherwise experienced no human or horse contact. Not even a chicken or goat was to be had for a companion. It got so that she would go by almost every day to pet him through the fence and tell him how beautiful he was. She felt sorry for him, then fell in love with him. That’s how things go sometimes you know. You don’t always fall for the best prospect, but sometimes the one that needs you the most.
Lady L called me and asked if I would consider evaluating a horse for her, and she shared her dream with me. We will talk about her dream in a minute, but let’s focus on the horse first. This horse was a stallion, 3 yrs. Old. He was owned by a woman who wanted to race him and restart herself a herd of Thoroughbreds. Seems she and her husband used to raise Thoroughbreds until her husband passed. This c**t (any male horse is referred to as a c**t until they are four years old.) was orphaned at a young age. He received some handling as a baby, then turned loose in a pasture all by himself. He was fed, but no companion or handling by humans. He wasn’t even halter broke. So we had an uncut spunky, lonely stallion that lost his mama, never ran with a herd and wasn’t even halter broke. When I went to evaluate him he tried to charge through the fence to get to me, because I had pinched his muzzle when he tried to bite me! His conformation was exceptionally ordinary and not even close to stallion material.
Yet - Lady L had a dream burning inside her. Though she was not a horse trainer and never had been (she was a novice rider), she had this dream, this strong desire to train a horse from the ground up. Her kids were older, as was she, and now was the time to chase her dreams.
I advised her that I could find her a horse that would have fewer problems to start with, and a little easier to train, but her heart was for this guy. This was what her heart wanted. I also advised her that he should be gelded as soon as possible, and should not be handled until that task was done. I really wanted him gelded before she bought him so I could see if his aggression would abate, or if he was rank. At this point she did not know if the owner would even sell him. Well, she did talk the owner into selling him, as he wasn’t really for sale. The owner realized that this might be what is best for this horse, so she sold the horse to Lady L.
Lady L called me one day a couple months later and told me that she had already ‘done the deed’ (bought the horse). I had always taught my students to listen to their heart, and that if he was what she wanted that I would support her in that and guide her in training this horse. I cautioned her to not try anything unless I was there to guide and support. She had bought a roundpen and set it up under a tree in her pasture. He was kept in there for six weeks following his gelding until the hormones could ‘fade’ away more thoroughly. After that period he was turned loose with Grace (Lady L’s other horse and very much in charge!) to learn how to be a horse!

As we go along on this journey I shall chronicle it on my Lady Horse Whisperer page so you may ride along with us, and just perhaps learn something which can help you also.

29/04/2019

I'm going to attempt to put more content on this page. Especially since I lost my website, this is the only way outside people can find me. I will start putting tips on here and answering any questions about horses that someone may have.