Natural Horsemanship and Liberty Work<\/a> to learn more about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut ultimately, Natural Horsemanship is the style I wanted to go with, whatever that ended up meaning. Besides not really knowing what direction I wanted to go, I had no real experience either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then Fury surprised me yet again.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Fury progressed extremely fast and teaching him was a breeze. All of his disrespectful behaviors went away almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His hooves had not been trimmed in 3 years and we were now picking them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was able to walk with a loose lead respectfully and he was learning how to lunge correctly and respectfully. We even set up small jumps for him to walk over, and we were able to ride him bare back with someone holding the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this all happened in only 8 short weeks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was taxing. During this time, we were driving an hour and a half EACH WAY to get to Fury. It was 3 hours of travel time to work with Fury every other day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fury Moves to a New Home<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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We would go get hay for Fury at the same place for a while during this time. We met some people there and we would talk to them whenever we came in. After a time we all became pretty good friends – or I thought we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They offered to rent us out the place next door to them. It had a trailer and a few acres on it. We of course accepted because that meant we could have Fury on the land with us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we – my husband, my daughter and I – uprooted our whole lives so we could be with Fury. But we were excited because this meant we could work with him for longer and more easily than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were some contingencies upon moving in, and one was to get Fury gelded before moving him to the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Getting Fury Gelded<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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In March of 2016, we got Fury gelded at an extremely reputable vet in our area. The vet specialized in horses so we felt very comfortable putting Fury in his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keep in mind that Fury was a stallion all throughout his training thus far. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe vet reported that the surgery went well so we moved him to the new property with us. Fury started to really show typical stallion behaviors after we moved. Our landlord and neighbor had three mares and a gelding that Fury could see from across the fence. At the closest point, our fence and their fence had only a 12 foot gap between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was not alarming to any of us, however, since we knew that it takes time for all the testosterone to leave a gelding’s body after the procedure. In Fury’s case this was especially true, since he was gelded so late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this time I had very strict instructions to keep him moving and to work with him at least 3 times a day for a minimum of 20 minutes per session. So that’s what I did. I was happy about it too, since that is precisely why we all moved to the new piece of land in the first place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fury Changes – the Beginning of Aggressive Horse Behavior<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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One of our landlords – who was also my friend at the time – was able to see me work with Fury during his healing period, since she lived right next door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By this point, I had figured out that my version of Natural Horsemanship and Liberty Work suited me very well and I had gravitated towards this soft and connected method of training. Furthermore, I thought that Fury was responding very well to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friend, however, was not impressed with how soft I was with Fury. She asked me if she could work with Fury so she could give me some “pointers”. Unfortunately I agreed. Although I was starting to get comfortable with my training style at this point, I was still learning and am naturally open-minded so I wanted to hear her suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n