A husband and wife couple had tickets to a Linda Tellington-Jones mini clinic. Something came up so she wasn't able to go and he and I went along. I went along mostly to keep him company and to gather some info for a possible article. I was a freelance author back then and wrote articles on various subjects to sell to various publications. A cowboy's perspective on hoity-toity horse handling, especially when it featured a world famous horse authority, was sure to sell to pretty much any horse mag.

The clinic began and the first demo horse was an Arab. In the arena it came, jigging, back hollowed out, face level as an aircraft carrier deck, mouth gapped as the rider white knuckled the reins to hopefully aim the horse in the desired direction. I took one look and thought, "Yep. Typical Arab." The Arab made a couple passes around the arena and then Linda took the horse from the rider and began talking

She began to talk about halters and the way they worked and then she threaded the leadline chain through the halter a different way and then using two fingers with obvious lightness she placed the horse's head in various positions using what was an incredibly obvious and subtle movement.

I thought to myself, "Hmmm... I can't do that."

By the end of the mini-clinic I was ready to sell all I owned and follow her to the ends of the earth. I signed up for several things, bought all the official equipment, read everything I could find about her.

Linda and I have identical personalities and we soon went our separate ways, not that she was all that aware of my presence or departure, but by then I was well aware there was a different way of dealing with horses other than the way I was doing it. Not that my way wasn't producing fine horses, I already had quite a local reputation for getting inside the head of a horse. It was just that I quickly realized my way was costly in time and injuries. I was on my way to discovering there was a better way.

Make no mistake. Linda Tellington-Jones is the only person to bring something totally new into horse training in the last 4,000 or so years and that is her TTouch. I know of no one who has worked with more horses than she has.

It wasn't too long before I developed a criteria anything for anything I do with horses. (1.) It has to be reasonably safe for human and horse. (2.) It has to work consistently during consistent situations. If a technique did not fit those conditions, I dumped it.

I looked at how people were dealing with their horses in a whole new way. What were they doing? How were they doing it. Why were they doing it? What was the result?

Almost immediately the sudden volatile displays of rebellion and confusion that occasionally popped up in my horse handling began to dwindle away. The horses became far more co-operative. The more co-operative they became the more eager I became to learn how to make them co-operative.

In my research I came across a book written by one of the media darlings. Being a voracious reader who can't put down a book until it's read, I read through the angst- riddled tome and came away with just one bit of useful information - the acknowledging ear. I had noticed the acknowledging ear but had not given it that much credence until that moment. When I read that, I knew instantly how to do in mere minutes what had taken me months, even years to do before.

I left the house to go to the barn and my eyes fell on Dee...

We used to have a bunch of Morgan horses scattered across several states with most of them being on the New England show circuit. We had our trainer at the time bring some of our horses down to Georgia to show at a regional Morgan show a few days after we bought Dee. Our vet suggested we clean Dee up and show her at the show. We asked the trainer if he would show her. Dee was the hit of the show. Our trainer asked if he could take her back with him. He was just starting off on his own and he needed show horses. The deal was he'd handle everything, all we needed to do was to pay the same costs we'd pay keeping her in the pasture at home.

For the next 16 years or so Dee was his ribbon horse. When he would take his client horses to a show he'd take her along. If his client horses didn't do well he'd enter Dee in a bunch of classes. If you were on her back or in the cart at the end of the class you placed high, most often blue. Show gawkers walking down the barn aisles would see all the displayed ribbons and think, "Wow! This guy is really good!" At the right time we got out of the show horse business. The trainer was burning out and we were about to burst into flames ourselves.

"Do not let anyone ride that horse," the trainer warned just before she left to come home.

When the trainer's brother unloaded her from the trailer and handed me her leadline, he looked at her and said, "I rode that horse, once."

A couple others who had been on her at one time did not give glowing reports of the experience. When I expressed my intentions to ride her I was strenuously warned not to.

She was crazy. Spooky and jittery. If you were leading her you better know where she was and where she was heading at all times. You needed your wits about you. Something spook her she was as likely to go over you as not. If she was loose and heading up the barn aisle you didn't stand in the aisle waving your arms yelling, "Whoa! Whoa!" Generally speaking I found her a pain to deal with.

I left the house after reading the book to go to the barn and my eyes fell on Dee. In my new found awareness I thought, "I'm going to put some leading manners on her." I took her in the round pen and in five minutes I had a totally different horse. I wandered around the pen in a daze as she stayed patiently glued to my side matching step for step listening to me going, "D#%$! D#%$! D#%$!"

When I calmed down I knew, "I can ride this horse!"

I gathered up all my western gear and threw it on a back that had never seen a western saddle before while she stood rock solid totally unconcerned. I put my boot in a stirrup and put weight in it and she didn't move.

"Yep, I can ride this horse," I said gleefully to myself. This voice in my head called out, "You are the only one here and if something happens you are going to be laying here all day yelling 'Hep me! Hep me! Hep me!'"

The next day there was someone on the farm and I saddled her up and climbed on. From that moment on she was my favorite horse of all time, a trail rider's dream. From that day on until she could no longer be ridden because of age related issues she was a perfect horse. She was a perfect horse in retirement as well, albeit a bit bossy and demanding.

This eBook covers using the ins and outs of using a horse's genetic instincts to form a connected relation with any horse. I, and many people around the world, have used this information to build and polish their horse relationship. Many have turned their demon into a darling.

This ebook will take the mystery and the frustration out of getting your horse to pay attention to you and ignore all the distractions around it.

Like all my horse ebooks, this ebook will take you deep into the world of horses and bring you to a new awareness of yourself and horses.

Click here to download your no obligation copy Subject Horses Issue 1

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