The taming of Anna Dusean

This is a variation of a horse story that many of us tell. A story of youth spent with horses where ideas of insurmountable difficulties like that of a horse that couldn’t be ridden safely never made themselves known.

It’s About the Books

I’ve always got lots of great books that I am excited to tell you about…
Here’s a picture of all these wonderful books stacked up waiting for consideration to be featured in the HoofPrints product line.

How to repurpose old barn wood in just 31 easy steps!

Step 1: Buy a farm with an old barn on it.

I Train Horses to Eat Carrots

It started out as a fun joke “I Train Horses to Eat Carrots”… What’s so hard about that, right? The idea behind allegedly teaching a horse to do something he already likes to do is far-reaching. And that’s what positive training does – it shifts your horse’s perspective so that he likes to do ALL the things you ask him to. Just like eating carrots. And it’s not that hard. Just use something your horse likes, to help him figure out what you want.

Dressage rider Ivetta Harte coined this cute phrase, and she’s written this short how-to article so that you, too, can train your horse to eat carrots! The horse in the picture with Ivetta is her own Zena. Ivetta trained A few years ago Zena was in an accident and fractured her neck. This serious injury required a lengthy stay at a vet hospital, and stall rest after that. Ivetta tells me that Zena recovered well, and that her portion of the proceeds from the sales of our “I Train Horses to Eat Carrots” garments will be put to good use – paying the hospital and vet bills!

Scroll down to read the article, and be sure to check out the “training tools” that HoofPrints offers: the perfect Horse Training Garments AND a super useful Treat Pouch – so you can keep your carrots close at hand. Enjoy!

New book is an old favorite.

I am surprised this classic book is selling so well because I assumed everyone already has a beloved copy on their shelves. 

Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell.

According to Wikipedia, it was composed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying just five months after its publication, but having lived long enough to see her only novel become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the best-selling books of all time.

When one of the publishers I deal with announced this “new” reprint of the original, complete with Cecil Aldin‘s wonderful illustrations, I was delighted but didn’t seriously consider it for my HoofPrints customers, who all surely have a treasured copy already. What I did NOT consider was these same folks would be buying copies to gift to friends, and a careful replication of the original hard cover, cloth bound version, with embossed silver lettering makes the best gift EVER. The only thing missing is the wonderful old book smell.

Oops! I did it again.

This is the second story that I will start off with a nod to my parents, whose mantra is:

“If you really want to get your place cleaned up, schedule a meeting.”

We learned how powerful the “people-are-coming-over=MUST-CLEAN-UP” hormones can be five years ago when we hosted our son’s high school graduation reception here at the farm. Next was a visit from a magazine photographer who’d asked to document our fireplace restoration project (full story here). To say that our home is not BHG-worthy is a massive understatement, and my husband adamantly requested that I never, EVER cause such a thing to happen again.

Jordan’s high school graduation reception endeavor also morphed into an emergency landscaping project that involved renting things like sod cutters, hauling in 2 ton boulders and dump truck loads of landscape stone.

However, The most recent home “tour” was quite a bit more unexpected. We were eating lunch one day and a strange car came up the driveway. HoofPrints frequently gets deliveries from vendors, plus the mail comes around lunchtime so I didn’t pay much attention. But this car was going MUCH slower than normal and didn’t seem to be delivering anything. I left my food and went stomping out to see what the heck they were doing.

My stupidest horse training mistake

What I learned from this one set me on a whole new path with horses…

A while back, I revealed my stupidest dog training mistake, ever, involving our Jack Russell Terrier Lucy. That’s here.

This one’s a doozy; my Arabian mare Allarista was on the receiving end of a desensitizing effort gone very, very wrong. I bought her as a green-broke 3-year-old. I had started and ridden youngsters before, so it was no big deal (so I thought). However, a few years off to have a baby can change a lot about a woman manages dicey situations involving horses. Allie was (is) a good girl. She was started right by her breeder and has excellent ground manners. But she wasn’t too sure about her new owner (me) who didn’t seem to have her act together.

I quickly realized that I was in over my head, and set about getting some professional help.