I'll soon be caretaker for a property, and one of my tasks is to help the aging owner care for his three horses. Though he loves his horses, the owner doesn't get to give them the attention he once could. I think they're probably bored and I'd like to change that.
To be honest, I've never considered myself a horse person before (I hope that's ok to say! and I think that's changing...); they seemed out of my reach, and I guess I never really thought about it much. Now I'm an adult with virtually no horse experience, finding myself interested in these horses' wellbeing.
These horses are well-fed and get human contact daily, but as far as I can tell, they spend their time in a paddock that, from my human perspective, looks boring and kind of sad: it's 1-2 acres, a couple dozen trees (so they can at least wander many different routes) and otherwise just dirt (presumably they eat anything that grows). The owner says he used to ride the older one (who's over 15 years old), but the younger two have little training (I'm not sure how old they are yet). They're all sweet and docile, seem to like people.
I've been learning about horses voraciously for a few days now, and of course it's fascinating and complicated and daunting, so I'm turning to this community for guidance. You all clearly know and love horses!
I'd like to increase my knowledge on how to interact with horses. I'd like to be competent enough to gain these horses respect and trust. Ideally, I'd eventually like to be able to take them out on some local trails. I recognize that I'm the one who needs a lot of training here. I've started watching Clinton Anderson's series on training a rescue horse, since I figured I should err on the side of caution. I'm learning a lot, but I get the impression that he's a little divisive in the community, and I want to be well-rounded. How would you recommend I proceed? Thanks for your help!
Eponii - Earth ponies (in reference to a theoretical etymological connection between the word "Pony" the name "Epona")
Pegasii (Pegasi)
Unicornus Arcanus(Unicorns)
