Rita after our ground work session

Rita has progressed in leaps and bounds through December. She learns everything I teach her the first time and stores it away in her memory banks for the next session. She seems to be a seasoned professional in a 2 year old body. 

I continue daily since July detoxing, giving her "The InBalance Oil" around her nostrils and mouth, feeding her 100% organically, grooming and doing body work and stretching as she needs it.

She has been walking and trotting over poles, taking one foot, one step at a time through poles, forward and backward, spiraling toward and away from me as I stay stationary on circles around me, going in and out of gates, her stall, wash stalls and just about anywhere I ask her to go without me moving, and enjoying long walks around the farm together even on windy, cold days.

Rita expresses herself by rearing occasionally and we are working on controlling that impulse. She will learn as we do more and more athletic work with her that she can channel her energy in other ways and rearing is not acceptable.

She is just incredibly intelligent and ready to move on to the next thing. Rita gets bored easily, (as many of us girls do!), so I have added a saddle pad and curcingle, and more recently a bridle and snaffle bit without reins, to our routines without any fuss from her. She will just be carrying the bit with no contact during our ground work sessions for awhile. This will add a bit of interest in our work together.

Rita talks to me all the time. When she sees me or my car, I get a whinny, when I bring her food, water, or just when I walk toward her she verbalizes her hello. 

I am so proud of her transformation from wild and incorrigable to willing and able student.

Background: Rita (as I am calling her now until she gets her official name) is a March 2009 Thoroughbred filly who came to me to be prepared, trained and managed toward a performance career. My husband and I now own 40% of her. She is by Andromeda's Hero (by Fusaichi Pegasus) out of Blondz Away (by Skip Away). She is bred to race.

Rita's owners were told by her breeding farm's managers that as a foal and yearling she was "different". She was said to be wary of people, standoffish, suspicious, spooky, very hard to catch even in the stall and when confined, out and out crazy with panic. She was not going to work with any type of "traditional" approach to training her. She came to me on July 31, 2010. This column is news about her journey.

Fly Lite Meets Me and the Audience

Clean out her nose with damp cloth first

Rub InBalance oil blend into your hands then into the horse's nostrils

No matter how resistive you must keep massaging the nostrils and the corners of the mouth

Let the horse process inbetween each endorphin release in the nostrils then begin mouth massage techniques

Include energy tapping on the forehead if the horse needs more internal focus

Now she is getting a good endorphin release, relaxed, focused and ready to accept Melissa's guidance

Again this was all accomplished in 30 minutes in front of a large audience in a strange environment. Imagine what Melissa and Fly Lite will now be able to accomplish daily at home. Work with the horse's natural chemistry, shift the emotions, allow the horse to see what is possible with you and they will trust you heart and soul when it really matters.

Suzanna will work with Ferdy daily and the two inseparable horses will be able to work together or apart looking to the human for safety and leadership. 

I hope all of you will let go of your agendas, empty your mind and begin to work with your horses naturally, holistically and consider their individual and collective world view in your training and handling processes.