Since her arrival at SAFE, Lexee N has been working with Violet to help her find freedom in her feet and life in her movements. The last few times Joel visited us, he worked alongside Lexee and Violet, and Lexee has the following to say about this beautiful mare:
“The lovely Violet has been a tough horse to get along with. She has a lot of resentment towards people and this reflects through her by being stuck in the feet and her tendencies to resort to biting or kicking. However, when shown the wonders of freedom of the feet her eyes open and soften, and she begins to trust the process. This mare has been set in her ways for the past 12 years of life and as amazing as this horsemanship is, it will take time to change her mind.
Everyday she gets lighter and softer in her movements and with her small but meaningful changes we were able to get our first rides on her. And although likely ridden before, the concept of human legs creating movement in hers was unbeknownst to her on the first ride with Joel. However, introduction to forward movement was only accomplished from movement of the flag from me on the ground. She slowly began to step forward, each time with less efforts from both Joel’s legs and my flag. We got her to move out at the walk and a few steps at the trot, introducing a bend to stop. Always ending with a good change for a dull horse such as herself.
Each day this built and built. She welcomed the good deal of Joel’s legs to both move forward and through the bend. To the point she felt safe enough for Joel to allow me to ride her. And with only riding her twice she has come through some huge strides where I can move her forward without an aid and around my leg. That said, we will continue to have me flagged around so I can be the good guy, just riding supple and relaxed with her through all movements to keep getting her more comfortable with a rider. She is a horse that would easily become irritated and could bite or kick out, and to keep things pleasant for the first rides we want to show her freedom of her feet moving forward is always the best answer. We want to always make the right thing easy, and with these small strides and short sessions Violet will be on her way out the doors in no time.”
