*Bently in the Beginning*

Before I parted ways with my Spirit, I purchased my second horse. Bently--a then 4 year old Appendix Quarter Horse. (part Thoroughbred/part Quarter Horse) Bently was a much more challenging horse then Spirit. He definitely was not an easy ride for me. I had to spend quite a bit of time with him. I tried to keep them both for a time (about a year) but realized that I was not being fair to Spirit, as I was spending more time with Bently. Also I had outgrown Spirit and though it broke a piece of my heart I gave him to another girl for her to enjoy.

Things just never seemed to improve that much with Bently. He was okay just as long as nothing scared him, then he took over and you had no say. He would often run off in a panic at the slightest things. (Sometimes I never could figure out what spooked him.) It took a long time to even start making some progress with him. I read book upon book about horses, and training, and got help from instructors, and he improved, but he never seemed to improve past a certain point. He was manageable most of the time now, but he was unpredictable. He would be fine one moment and the next he would be tense ready to bolt. He bucked me off several times, bolted and reared with me, refused jumps, and was generally a hard horse to ride. Gradually the bad behaviors started getting less and less, but it never seemed to get better past a certain point. by this time Bently was about 6 years old, and I was debating on whether or not I should sell him and get a different horse, I decided to not give up on him just yet and decided to try something a little different....