GoodBye Dreamer

Dreamer left for his new home today. He hopped right in the trailer and off to his new life as a mostly trail horse. I hope he is happy and well cared for.

With Dreamer gone, I will move Rocky and Rocket back to the run way for a bit, and then I will have to find a new horse to go out front with them. I don't like leaving only two out front as the horses in that feild can't see other horses, and I don't like leaving anyone all alone while the other horse is being worked.

The new mare is going to get to out with Bliss and the girls on grass tomorrow...I wonder what she will think of that? I am hoping she will become friends with Coregel as I want to split Coregel and Piper up this fall as they are a little too attached.

I have yet another name floating in my head for the new filly: "Gemma". Her registered name is "Found A Gem" so it comes from that. I did like Anna's suggestion of Suki, until I realized how much it sounds like Sucky. I was sort of thinking Whisky too, but I think I like Gemma the best when I actually go to use the name.

I went to elementary school with a girl named Gemma. Nice girl, liked horses, and had the same birthday as me. She got picked on though by the teachers as she just could not come up with the right answers and couldn't read aloud. They got frustrated with her and thought yelling would help for some reason. It was rare that we had a teacher that could see beyond that and see how smart she really was. The subs would always pronouce her name wrong too, and the other kids would laugh...but what sort of teacher wouldn't know to pronouce a G followed by an E as soft? I think Gemma turned out to be dyslexic or something, and I still cringe when I think of how mean certain teachers could be to her out of frustration, when really shouldn't it be the teacher's responsiblity to find a way to teach, and if they can't, then isn't it their failing not the students? Saying the same thing over and over, louder and louder is not good teaching.

That lesson kind of mirrors horse training issues though. How often do horses suffer punishment and strong methods when the trainer/rider runs out of skill or patience? How often to people just use stronger and stronger aids to convey what they want, rather than step back and think that maybe the horse doens't understand, or is otherwise unable to do it? Or maybe that the rider/trainer is the one at fault for using incorrect or conflicting aids?

Something to think about next time you start considering your horse as "Stupid".

Karen