[smrobs]

One other thing that sometimes works is when she starts to get jiggy, stop her, back her up 8 or 10 strides then ask for the walk again. The second that she starts to jig or speed up, stop her and back her another 8 or 10 strides. I ride a lot like RD, most of the training type riding that I do is at either a long trot or a lope. My Dad always told me "When you have a horse that you are having a problem with, get on them then pick out a place on the horizon and lope them to it. When you reach that place, pick out another on the horizon and lope them to it. Then pick out another place and lope them to that one. When they kinda start having trouble keeping the lope, ease them down to a long trot and let them get their air for a minute then put them in a lope again. When you can't get them to lope anymore without just shagging their butt, you have a good start on getting their mind right."

 

[smrobs]

I have a semi-automatic .40 and I love it. I carry it with me when I go riding on the trail. Fortunately, I haven't had to use it yet but the one time I didn't take it with me, I wished I would have had it. Last summer I came across a Rattler that was about 5 feet long. I didn't have anything to kill it with so I had to leave it. IMHO, the only good rattler is a dead rattler so that's why I carry my gun. We don't really have any predator animals around here that I need to worry about and I am confident that I could either get away or defend myself against a human predator. All my horses have been shot off of and they are cool with it, that is also a big thing to consider.

 

[smrobs]

I would always start them by shooting off them. I would always take the clip out of my gun and put it in my pocket so that there was only 1 round in there (no chance of misfire if I drop it). All of them that I have done that on jumped but didn't really spook. I would do that the first few times and after that, they were always cool with it.