The horse we may get...

[Ginevive]

By the way, I looked at your album, and your horse is cute.
Do you do English or Western? I think that by the bit you're using, it looks western?

[Schlyne]

Hrm. offer her an apple or a carrot or something? My paint loved carrots.

[SatanicIntention]

I ride both, but english is getting so much more comfortable and Dixie responds to the bit alot better than the curb bit.

Actually, treats can make a horse pushy since they will be expecting them every time you see them. It gets annoying. Here's an example of a pushy horse... Let's say you were walking along, do de do de do, with the horse just in a halter and lead rope. You stop but she doesn't and runs her chest into you or pulls you a good ways with you holding onto the lead. What do you do? Well... You get some body strength and using your thumb, press it into her shoulder fairly hard and push her back.Or you can, just using your hip, shove her back. This asserts dominance. Horses in herds do it all the time. Or they just glare at each other and don't even have bodily contact. If this is done consistently, the horse will understand that pushing and shoving to get her way isn't acceptable behavior and will usually quit.

During training sessions, alfalfa cubes are good as you can break them in little pieces and make them work for the whole cube. A 50lb bag is about $5 at the feed store. Or if you don't want to use treats, just some rubbing/scratching and calm talking is praise enough. They respond well to all of this. Carrots, apples and pears are good "every-so-often" treats, but are just too high in sugar, so the horse becomes pushy. Mine gets Cherry Pepsi every so often, remember, she's weird. And yes, they can burp. Eeeww...

So what is her conformation like? Is she long legged and long bodied or short-coupled?

[Ginevive]

I think she seems a bit leggy to me. I do not think she is underweight or anything, you can't see her ribs. But she seems to have an athletic-looking physique; she is pretty actuve compared to some of the other horses there, but it could just be her youth.
Personally I think my boyfriend is just a tad bit off his rocker, wanting to get such a young horse! But he has done a lot of riding in the past and is comfortable at all the gaits, and feels confident in being able to ride her once she gets some training. I think she's a great horse, don't get me wrong. But I am just hoping she will take to training well.
I have done both Eng and western, and I have to agree that english does seem a bit more comfortable, at least in saddle terms. Maybe I am just lazy, though, but neck reining seems a bit more relaxing to me. Maybe I could be an oddball, riding with a dressage saddle and a western bridle?
I am not sayin' I'm against english bits, but then again it depends on what each horse responds best to. I am pretty sure the trainer we are going through uses western; it's better to start with that anyway, since the big flappy fenders and stirrups let the horse know how it feels to have stuff on their back more. But I don't think she starts with a western bit.
Thanks for the awesome conversation!

[Schlyne]

I didn't mean all the time, I ment like once or twice when you started dealing with her. I really wouldn't call myself experienced with actual training. In fact, I probably know next to nothing about how to properly train a horse. I know how to stack haybales, muck out a stall, riding basics, and how to feed em properly, that's probably about it.

I've never ridden in any other style other than western.

Yeah, my parents have a horse that likes beer. We found this out once when my stepdad set down a can of beer he was drinking near the edge of the stall. Bam-Bam (the brown quarter horse that is part appalosa, so he has grey spots) picked up the can of beer with his lips, and tipped it back. Weirdo.

[Ginevive]

Haha, a horse getting himself drunk. That's funny.