Brandy

New York's First Competition Agility Horse

Brandy was found wandering loose in New York state, so feral it took months to trap her so she could be hauled off to a rescue farm. Scars showed significant wounds, and her udder indicated she’d had a foal. Her teeth said she was only three. I met her three years later when I volunteered to foster and train a rescued horse with the goal of making her more adoptable. At that point Brandy was dangerously fearful. Her adoption prospects were non-existent. Brandy’s fear prompted me to radically change the way I relate to horses. Conventional pressure-release training applied by a dominant leader had been disastrous, so I focused instead on earning her trust by offering protection instead of pressure. I call this Protector Leadership. My article The Wayward Recycle Bin and Other Adventures shows how this works in real world situations. Then I restarted her training by inviting her to copy me, a method that Vanessa Bee describes clearly in The Horse Agility Handbook. Thus I could teach her cues using little or no pressure. Five months later Brandy became one of the first horses in the United States to compete in Horse Agility. Brandy now competes at liberty in upper level agility courses Play Video and enjoys doing agility with my grandchildren Play Video. Brandy’s transformation from “wild” pony to confident, reliable partner inspired me to research and write "What Horses Really Want: Unlocking the Secrets to Trust, Cooperation, and Reliability". In it I explain how and why Protector Leadership works. Brandy and her friends help me demonstrate how you can use it to create a successful partnership with your horse.
“What Horses Really Want” is available from Amazon and directly from the publisher.
Amazon
Horse and Rider Books
It is also available in Polish from Galaktyka