Congratulations, you have intelligently chosen a qualified instructor, and you are ready to take your first official riding lesson.  Good for you.  If you own your own horse, or if you are using one of the trainers lesson horses, please arrive at least twenty minutes early.  If you own your own horse ask the trainer ahead of time if you will be riding first or doing ground work.  Sometimes trainers want to work with students on the ground first to see how competent and confident he or she is.

Insist on learning to groom the horse yourself.  Do not tie the horse on your own however.  Let the trainer show you how, and where, to tie the horse.  Horses should NEVER be tied below the withers.  Withers are the bone that protrudes at the bottom of the neck, above the shoulders.  If your instructor/trainer instructs you to tie the horse below the withers, maybe this should be your last lesson with this person.  A horse that spooks when it is tied below the withers can pull back and break it's neck.  Wouldn't that be a fun lesson?

If you are riding, learn how to saddle and bridle and groom yourself.  If it takes an entire lesson or two to learn these skills, so be it.  During the lesson, keep your mouth shut and your ears open.  Do not forget to breath!  So many students begin to breath very shallow, or stop breathing altogether as soon as the horse takes it's first step.  If you have taken lessons before, from another instructor, do not say "Well my last instructor told me to do this exercise …blah…blah".  If you are going to doubt your instructor/trainer, then TEACH YOURSELF!  Listen and breath, listen and breath.  Do what you are instructed to do. Do not make the instructor have to tell you eight or nine times not to look down at the horses left or right shoulder.  Beginners tend to do this a lot.  Listen and breath and enjoy.

When the lesson is over, ask questions that you want to ask.  Then learn how to unsaddle and once again groom the horse yourself.  If another question pops up during the week be sure and ask it at your next lesson.  Go over in your head what you learned during the week.  Visualize what you learned.  Or if you took the lesson on your own horse, practice, visualize, practice, practice, practice, visualize and practice.

A QUESTION…Do you think a person can become a competent instructor in just two weeks?

LET US HEAR FROM YOU.

Yes, I said llamas.  If you noticed, we are advertising for a new venture that moved into Yorba Linda, CA recently.  Shangrillama.com has a herd of five llamas and is establishing a business for their son putting walks together on the many trails and parks of Yorba Linda.

With this in mind, I did a little research myself to find out just what a llama is all about.  According to Wikipedia the llama actually originated in the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago.  They migrated to South America about 3 million years ago.  Between 10 and 12 thousand years ago they became extinct in North America.  So they are more native to North America than the horse!  Isn’t that an interesting fact? There are now over 100,000 llamas in the U.S. and Canada.

Some interesting facts about the llama:

 Llamas are classified with the camel.
 
 Baby llamas are called cria. (pronounced cree-ah)
 
 The llama gestation period is 11-1/2 months.

 Llamas spit only when they are extremely upset or when a male tries to breed a female and she is already pregnant.

 Llamas cannot lick.  Their tongues extend only about a ½ inch out of their mouth.

 Some parts of North America use the llama to guard their herds of sheep or goats.

It appears that the llama is a great domesticated animal and useful in many ways.  They can carry up to 30% of their body weight for several miles.

A client's horse, "Refund", had a tummy ache.  Refund had colic.  It was pretty bad.  The Vet made arrangements at the equine hospital.  We loaded Refund into a big four horse trailer, leaving the seperators open, and did not tie Refund in case he layed down again during the trip.  When we arrived at the hospital Refund was down in the trailer.  Everyone at the hospital helped to drag him out of the trailer.  One of the Vets stuck her finger in Refunds ear and he got up right away and shook his head.  The Vet in charge of Refunds case then scoped his tummy by putting a tiny camera down into his tummy through his nose.  They also did an ultrasound.

The results were clear.  Refund was full of sand!  At least 10 pounds or maybe more.  And he had a few stones that were developing as a result of the sand.  Horses get full of sand when they have to eat their meals off of the dirt instead of out of a feeder.  Or if their stall does not have bedding, or stall mats, and the hay falls out of the feeder onto the dirt they will ingest the dirt or sand.  Every horse that we own, or that comes to us for training, has a feeder, stall mats and bedding.  Apparently Refund did not have any of these before he came to us and as a result of ignorant owners was full of sand.  The sand was all through his intestines and stomach..

Refund would have to stay at the hospital for a few days.  Of course the Vet pumped him full of mineral oil and they gave him I.V. fluids for the first 24 hours to make sure he would not become de-hydrated, and to also help get everything moving.  But, how do we get rid of the sand in his belly without surgery so that he doesn't get sick again.?  The Vet gave me the recipe for "boiled flax seed".  I was to feed Refund 1/4 cup of boiled flax seed every day for sixty days and then bring him back to the hospital to get his tummy re-examined.

Here is the recipe for for "boiled flax seed" and remember, flax seed is dirt cheap and can be purchased at most of your local feed stores.  A five pound bag is under $10.00. 

   1 cup flax seed
   3-1/2 cups water
   1 teaspoon of salt
   1 teaspoon of corn oil (to keep it from sticking)

Put all the ingredients into a large pot and heat on high while continually stirring until it boils.  Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often.  It is finished when it is thick and gooey, usually 30 to 40 minutes.  It will almost look like it has really thick snot in it.  It expands more than rice does so make sure you have a large enough pot.  Now put the pot in the refrigerator and let it cool for about 30 minutes so it can become cool enough to handle.  It will become even thicker with cooling.  Now measure about 1/4 cup and put into individual Zip-lock Baggies and store in the refrigerator because it goes bad quickly without refrigeration.  Feed one baggie of boilded flax seed to the horse per day.  If you have to drive to feed your horse be sure and put the baggie in a portable cooler.  You can mix the boiled flax seed with O and M, or wet bran, or whatever else your horse likes.  Refund liked it so much that he would just slurp it right out of my hand mixed with nothing.  The gooey, boiled flax seed grabs the sand as it moves through the horses intestinal tract.  It is 100 times more effective than syluim, and it is very oily with all of the omegas, so it is also great for the immune system as well as for the hair and skin.  His coat will look better.

So I fed Refund his boiled flax seed every single day for sixty days.  At the end of sixty days we trailered him back to the hospital to be examined.  The results were amazing.  He was completely sand and stone free!  His intestinal tract was completely clean and his coat was beautiful. 

Since our experience with Refund we feed all of our horses 1/4 cup of boiled flax seed two or three times a week.  This will be a part of their diet forever.  It is not too much trouble when you truely want your horse to be healthy and you want to keep the Vet bills down.

NOTE:  Don' feed any more than 1/4 cup of boiled flax seed at a time.  Too much can have the opposite affect and clog your horse up.  Use common sense.

May we have your response to this advise?