Working the drafts: introducing long lines

Jan and I have been making a lot of progress with Finnagan, the spotted draft, and were able to put a saddle and bridle on him last week. Now that that's done, we've started using long lines to teach him to respond to rein and voice cues from the ground before anyone gets up in the saddle. He's picking things up so fast! Often I'll work the long lines with Finnagan while Jan works with Flint. I don't have a video of me driving him (since I'm the videographer), but here are a few videos of Jan introducing him to long lines and having him trot. By Monday I had him trotting Figure 8s which was pretty exciting :) 

Introducing the long lines 1/10/14

Learning to trot 1/13/14

Flint is proving to be a bit more stubborn and bullyish, which cannot be tolerated in a horse this big. We've been doing a lot of round pen work with him to try and get some energy out while instilling respect for people on the ground. He needs a lot of desensitization around his head and hindquarters too. Unlike Finnagan, he is not comfortable at all with having his ears touched and was very wary about having someone be taller than him. However, we have made progress on the ground and I can get him to stop, back and turn both directions, and give a hindquarters over without much fuss. If he gets excited, though, he gets pushy. He will definitely take more time than Finnagan.