April, 2011:
Most of the time, we use Star on the obstacle course. He’s incredibly inquisitive and loves being with the children.
Now that we have children who’ve been involved in the program for several sessions, we have a few who are ready to ride with Star.
On a recent outing, one of our nonverbal children called out, “Giddy up, giddy up,giddy up” when Star stopped trotting. We had no idea that this child could speak. It was one of the most thrilling things to happen this season.
It’s common for Star to be so engaged in what the children are doing that we expect him to participate in the challenges that don’t require his assistance.
Star is the only horse who consistently wants to be a part of the action.
He and Trinity walk to the gate to go to therapy and are very social. They like being in the mix and a part of all of our activities.
December, 2009
Star is now a cart driving horse. The most high-spirited, rebellious horse in the herd has become a true champion in our eyes. Star ground ties and will stand like a statue to be harnessed; and he works on the slightest command; he is completely responsive.
Star is still high energy. He loves to trot fast. Driving him is like being on a ride at the amusement park. It’s more fun than anyone could imagine.
After driving Star, we realized that our vision for an equine therapy program with minis doing cart driving is perfect positioning for our organization.
Everything that we had hoped for in the therapeutic benefits of cart driving is being realized now that we’re behind the cart driving the horses.
The kids who’ve driven or ridden in the carts feel the same way.
If things couldn’t be better with Star, we also learned that our cart driving trainer let her young granddaughter ride Star down the road to visit a neighbor, so we now know that Star is also ridable. We don’t plan to ride him, but at least we know that he could do equine riding therapy for small children.
April, 2009:
Star is quickly becoming a superstar at White Bridle. He’s doing well in training for our therapy program for special needs kids. He’s also getting ready to go to the country for a few months for cart driving training.
Star has settled down a great deal since last year, and we’re now able to walk with him off lead by holding a small strand of his mane and directing him gently. He still has a great deal of speed and power, but he’s much calmer and easier to handle.
September, 2008:
Star is a two year old miniature horse who’s been living with Chieftain and Trinity in foster care and has now joined our larger herd at Martin Horse Farm in Arlington.
Of all of our minis, Star is most intelligent, high-spirited horse that we own. He knows how to open the gate to the back area where we store our feed and get into the containers of feed. We’ve actually seen him pry the containers off plastic garbage cans with his teeth in order to get into the feed.
But Star is obedient and will back out of the feed room on verbal command and also obey hand signals.
Star is the primary guardian for Trinity, our yearling mini. Star is most frequently seen grazing near Trinity in order to keep the bigger horses a safe distance from that “baby”. He has a good attitude and is a vey level headed horse.
Star will go to work in our children’s program as a therapy horse, and we expect him to be the most challenging of our horses. He likes people a great deal, but he’s high-spirited and is very particular about who hangs with him.
White Bridle Society
P. O. Box 177643 Irving, TX 75017-7643 972.740.0900
Star’s Story
November 2011:
Star is beyond amazing. The past year as a therapy horse has turned him into a superstar. If there’s a time when we need a horse who can cart drive for 4 hours continuously, Star is the horse of choice. He can do it all, and he does it so happily. He comes to the gate to go to therapy ever Saturday; he asks to go with us, and that makes all the difference in the world.
We love our work horse, and he loves his job. This is the perfect world.
