Quarter horse sorrel mare with lots of chrome and papered. Well bred with great performance type pedigree. She was broke years ago in the BYU horse program. We got her and she was in foal, and has been a broodmare for us for the last 6 years. Her babies are gorgeous. We are currently using a 6yr old daughter of hers. Babies are athletic, big hips, pretty head, and fast. We are selling her open we didn't breed her this year as we don't have time. Easy to catch, trim, great mama, easy keeper and will load herself into the trailer. A GOOD HOME is a must.
As you might expect of a project horse, Lily-Dezzi has a few kinks to work out. She is friendly and likes to be petted, but she can be extremely pushy and dominant. She's a big girl and has learned to use her size to push people around.
I almost didn't bring her home, not because she's pushy--I can fix that--but because at some point, someone taught her that she could rear to escape pressure. Many horses will rear a couple times when you first start working with them--especially when you first try to teach them to back up. It's usually just a half rear. Rearing takes a lot of energy, so most horses don't rear too much. Not Lily-Dezzi!
Lily-Dezzi initially ignored my cue to back or lunge and when I increased the pressure, she went all the way up and boxed her front feet at me. Aggressively and repeatedly.
The key to fixing this behavior is to stay out of harm's way while calmly maintaining the pressure of the cue and then releasing pressure instantly when she responds correctly. I have no problem doing this from the ground--I just didn't know how long it would take to fix and I wasn't excited about dealing with any rearing under saddle.
I worked with her at the seller's for a while and was seriously thinking of leaving without her when she finally lowered her head and began behaving appropriately. That submission gave me hope that she was not a lost cause.
Since then, each day I've worked with her, I've seen less and less aggressive rearing. My take on Lily-Dezzi is that she is scared and un-confident and when she doesn't understand, she rears. I've been doing ground exercises to build her confidence in me and in herself and they seem to be working. I have high hopes that the rearing will be fully extinguished by the time I am ready to move on to working under saddle. I'm really pleased with her progress so far.