HORSE: From the lady's mouth

To the lady who said she witnessed horse cruelty, and trashed a 4-H group. You made a judgment call on a 30-second snipit of time and a spoken phrase that you didn’t understand. I am the adult in question and the child who was told to discipline her misbehaving horse is my almost 18-year-old daughter. The horse was not spooked, he had been being disrespectful of his rider and other horses around him for some time before the discipline that you saw took place. Including kicking my horse and hitting my leg as I rode close to comfort and relax him. Then his bad behavior escalated and he went to bucking and rearing, moving into other horses/kids and innocent bystanders such as yourself, which he could have hurt badly.

So as the parent and owner of this horse, and yes the 4-H leader who was trying to keep 15 other kids safe, I used words to get my daughter to react right now! “Get off and beat his butt.” She and everyone else watching understood exactly what that meant. To get off, back the horse up and move his feet around by whirling the rope, to redirect his focus and regain control and respect. And that is just what happened — NO BEATING as you claim.

This horse shaped right up and had an amazing rest of his ride with lots of praising and petting as he deserved for good behavior. Discipline the bad, reward good is what we teach!

COLLEEN RIPATTI

Hayden