Fitzin

Fitzin is our other horse story. We didn't know anything about natural horsemanship when we got Fitzin. We just knew he had been neglected. Don't know about abused, but definitely neglected.

The guy we bought him from said he had found Fitzin at a quarter horse breeding farm. Fitzin's sire was unknown (mustang?) Fitzin was way in the back away from the area where all the other horses were kept. He was in a 12X12 enclosure. The guy who found him there is a farrier. He said he doubted Fitzin had ever had his feet trimmed. Fitzin was also about one hundred and fifty pounds under weight when he found him. Just skin and bones.

By the time we first saw Fitzin, the guy had trimmed his feet and had him haltered and leading. Fitzin was still very thin, showing a lot of shoulder and hip bones yet, but maybe only one hundred pounds underweight. He said he was two years old, but Fitzin looked more like a yearling.

Fitzin was to be Mica's replacement. Mica was my horse. He was getting older and had started to trip and stumble a bunch. He had been used as a jumper before we owned him, and was developing arthritis in his shoulders. It was time for him to slow down and get to just be a pet.

So, we bought Fitzin. We never should have bought him because we didn't have the experience to be starting a horse. But, he was so little and cute, and just needed love and attention.

Yah, right!

That was back in June of 1997. We still have Fitzin today. Nobody rides him. He is not a safe horse. I don't mean this as in my previous blog about there is no such thing as a safe horse. I mean, Fitzin, is not a safe horse. He is scared of everything, but he is the dominant horse in our herd. Even when we had seven horses, he was the dominant horse. Does that make sense?

One friend said he thought Fitzin might be that way because he was so insecure. He had to be a bully to make up for those insecurities.

Then, Fitzin is not afraid of some things the other horses are. For awhile we parked our horse trailer in our arena to get the horses used to it. We even fed a couple of them in it to get them to think being in a cave might not be so bad.

One day I was up at my house and just looking out at my horses. I didn't see Fitzin. He and Dakota had been in the arena earlier. Dakota was still there, but no Fitzin. Then I noticed movement in the horse trailer. Fitzin was just standing in the horse trailer all nice and calm. Just standing there with his head hanging out the back door. He just stood in there for a long time.

After that day I'd see him in there quite often. It was shady inside the trailer.

Also in our arena we had built a bridge out of railroad ties and plank. On occasion I'd look down and there'd be Fitzin, just standing on that bridge. He and Dakota would even play games based on that bridge. It was king of the mountain (bridge). Fitzin would be on the bridge and wouldn't let Dakota on it. They'd play the biting game horses play with one another with Fitzin standing on that bridge.

Fitzin knows the seven games and plays them well. We haven't tried the circling game at liberty, but he can do a forequarter and hindquarter disengage, the yoyo game, and will stay with me at a walk and trot going forward, and at the walk will back with me, all at liberty.

But, if I push just too much at the wrong time, pouff, he's gone. That's even if he's on a line. That's why he is not safe. Just all of sudden, he's gone. He can turn so fast on those hind leg's of his and be gone. He's taken more than one person on a ski trip. A couple on their faces.

This brings me to my previous blog about the horses brain.

Can he be retrained to not be so scared, so unconfident? Can I build a true trust between he and I? Can some more dendrites be grown on the left side of his brain to override the presence of those on the right side of his brain? Can he become more willing to learn?

Yes, Fitzin has been trained using some natural horsemanship methods. But there were things I still didn't know, that I believe created the Fitzin we have today. I didn't know proper approach and retreat methods, I didn't know how to read my horse, plus numerous other things.

I would leave a training session with Fitzin not calm and relaxed, just because I had no idea of where to go with the problem I was having.

Hubby Honey and I really starting putting natural horsemanship methods to use in about the year 2000 or maybe 2001. We watched some clinics put on by Clinton Anderson and then Pat and Linda Parelli. We bought the videos and watched and rewatched. But, it's only been in the past about three years that we learned how to refine these methods. Things finally started to click when we met a lady in our local area putting on natural horsemanship clinics. She put it all together for us.

Now I spend way more time watching my horse and trying to read what it is he might be thinking.

Hopefully, there is time for Fitzin to yet become a confident and trusting horse. He really does try. I just never saw that before, I wasn't looking before. I was too concerned with just perfecting the moves and making the machine do what I wanted it to. A horse is not a machine. Each is an individual. Just like each person. Each child. An individual.