She writes:
Hi Marv Walker,
I emailed you probably about 3 months ago about my horse, Trav. Trav had been abused and had responded super well the the natural horsemanship I've learned except he would want to bolt, especially when he was in a more open area. You immediately shot me back an email to have C1-5 checked by a Vet Chiro. Trav's had 3 sessions w/ the Chiro (actually two different ones: L***** C******** and then an actual Vet Chiro from Colorado who comes out to see P***** W*****'s jumpers). By the time the 2nd Chiro checked him, his neck was good as new. Dr C********* saw him first and definitely felt saw problems he had w/ his neck and w/ his adjustments and my daily exercises, Trav's neck is in great shape now.
Well today was the big test. The last time I rode him at Hard Labor Creek, he was horrible...just as nuts as he could be...that was before I contacted you. Today we rode there and he was a perfect gentleman!!! It was just amazing. So you have my utmost respect, gratitude and respect! Thank you so very much 'cause now I feel I can ride my horse (no longer need to wonder if I should sell him) and my risk of getting hurt is so much lower!
I've gotten a couple of emails from Esther reporting her discoveries with her horse and praising my abilities. A good number of people seem amazed by my ability to diagnose horse problems through emails and phone conversations. No brag, just fact.
I've said this before and it bears repeating, if I were to ask any number of horse folks to tell me how many horse problems they think there are in the world, 98.4689432% would answer, "Thousands!" (Okay, I made up the percentage statistic, but it's really close.)
I'd be surprised if there are much more than 40 horse problems. I haven't sat down and wrote them all out but experience indicates to me that's about right.A horse that bucks is a horse that bucks. A horse who bites is a horse that bites. A disrespectful horse is a disrespectful horse. An unfocused horse is an unfocused horse. It doesn't matter whether it is a short one, tall one, black one, bay or ol' dapple grey. It makes little difference if it is a stallion or a mare.
If you learn to deal with the 40 or so horse problems in the world you can handle pretty much any horse problem.
Many of the people contacting me with problems say something along the lines of, "I read on your site about the Palomino horse that stands on its nose and how to deal with it. Mine does that too, but it's not a Palomino, it's an Appaloosa or (Fill In The Blank). Can you help me out too?"
When we eliminate characteristics that are common to a large number of horses who don't share the problem we zone in a little closer to the real problem. We become more able to discover the things that are uncommon to the main population but common to the problem population. (Might have to read that a couple of times. It is so simple it may be hard to grasp.)
Let's take spooking for instance. Yes, horses are spooky by nature but they are not continually spooky. I have seen horses quickly get used to some pretty mean looking sights and sounds and pay no attention to them. If you have a horse that spooks at EVERYTHING for no rhyme or reason that you can figure out, the first place I look at is the neck. Why? Because a large number of the excessively spooky horses I've seen have had cervical subluxations. When the subluxations are addressed, the spookiness is dramatically lessened, if not eliminated, in the large percentage of those horses.
If I find no cervical subluxations, the horse is usually just a little spookier than the owner cares for. Then experience has taught me the horse likely has no sense of place. No sense of place is a term I use to describe the condition where the horse is unsure of where it falls in the herd dynamic. It does not know who to look for for spook evaluation. Its leader/follower status may need clarification.
We see this demonstrated in horse herds. If a herd leader spooks, all of the horses in the herd will spook with her (almost always a "her") for as far and as long as she spooks. If a lower ranked horse spooks it will look to the lead mare. If she is not spooking the spookee will quickly come back to the herd with a "I was just practicing" air. Lower ranked horses always look to the leader for spooking validation.
By establishing the leader/follower relationship I give the horse a sense of place (I am the leader you are the follower look to me) and then I teach the horse to look to me to evaluate the spook.
Since I ignore the spook as the herd leader, the follower does as well.
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