WORKSHOP PREP & SHOWING THE FLAME

GEARING UP FOR A WORKSHOP: We are hosting/teaching a workshop for members and friends of the Golden State Horsemanship Club on Sunday. Annie is going to be helping us out as a “teacher’s aide” to demonstrate how improvement in hose/human communication can be achieved. She will also help demonstrate how best to work with a horse on the trail and with obstacles. Should be a fun day.

Low pressure is the goal this week. Annie has been working really hard and showing like a champion to many families and we are VERY proud of her. We figured that giving her some time off would really be good for her spirit and her mind. Plus this allows us to see how she deals with low levels of maintenance. We have dome some pretty mellow groundwork with her this week. More like playing around. Nothing intensive, new or “high impact” at all. She has played on all the obstacles and on the trail course before this week but now we want to refine and engage more. Lots of loving and rubbing is happening.

SHOWING THE FLAME: We have been getting a number of questions from readers of this journal about how showing Annie is going. As you may have read, she is doing great with all the wild a crazy people who have come out to see her but we, as her custodians and “trainers” for lack of a better word, are really frustrated with HUMANS at this point. Why? Showing her to al these “interested” families…wow, there is no easy way to say this…feels like we are wasting time because it seems like either these folks are not really serious/committed to horse ownership or want to low ball offer us which is both insulting and rude. Annie handles like a dream, adapts to the wide variety of riders and performs really well. She takes swapping saddles and several different riders all in one visit without any fuss. In short, she is a rock star! So why do we have to field low ball offers and plain old flakes? It is enough to make you want to shout at people since being kind and trying to gently educate them does not seem to get through. We have her priced fairly and give everyone who expresses interest ALL of her information (including this blog). They know where she is in her development and what she can do. Still we get the questions that show these “interested” people never read a damn word of the information we provided! Still we have to deal with “not really ready to commit” and ridiculous low ball offers (If is she is priced at $3500 how is it logical, especially after a great performance, to offer $1200 and then get pissed when we laugh in your face? Or better yet “fire” you because you lied about your ability or about who the horse is really for. Yes, that has happened a few times already.) as well as generally uninformed people who should not be on a horse much less own a horse. Make us just want to keep her and forget dealing with the uneducated masses.

Sigh.

If you are reading this because you have an interest in being Annie’s new family please DO NOT low ball us with some bullshit offer. We will tell you to get lost. Please for all that is holy, BE READY to take a horse home! Don’t be unclear about where it is going to live! DON’T LIE ABOUT YOUR ABILITY to work with a horse. We can tell if you do and you will be fired from the process.

Sigh.

We have begun a process of tougher pre-screening potential buyers. At first we wanted to be "nice" to people. Learned that lesson. Being "nice" in this situation is different than being fair to the horse first and the human second. We have "fired" folks based on phone and email conversations. If they are really interested and out type of people they can answer a few questions about themselves and their real ability. In our minds and hearts they, the potential family, need to prove to us that they are worthy of a great horse like Flames Remedy. This means it may be harder to find the right fit but we also hope that it reduces the level of time wasted. We will see!