The best things in life tend to come along when you are least expecting them...Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith, follow your heart, and do the crazy thing. This is the story of my first horse, a horse named Charlie.
Charlie has been doing really well with his round pen work, which is mostly what I've been doing with him due to the freezing cold weather. We've got inside and outside turns pretty much down pat and you can really tell it's helping with his listening and concentration skills. After only a few minutes the other day I had him following me around the ring with no lead, stopping, starting and backing on cue.
Yesterday we had a heat wave here (temps were above 20 degrees) and the outdoor ring and sunshine were beckoning so I decided to give it a go out there for once.
Heck yes!
Look at all that fresh unspoiled snow
Not anymore!
Charlie had a blast and it was a good workout for him. The snow was definitely deeper in some areas than I had expected.
The big boys are coming along. Finnagan is doing great, I have ridden a few times already and trotted both yesterday and today. Here's a short video. Sorry for the crappy quality, but Jan's camera phone wasn't set for hi-res.
Flint is also turning a corner. Last week he finally started to "get it" and stopped being so aggressive. We were able to saddle and bridle him and start with the long lines. Then today I got on him for the first time (wish I had pictures but, sadly, no). Here's one from the first day with a saddle (and let me tell you that's a looooong way to lift up a heavy Australian trail saddle!).
1/28/14
I rode Coty twice this week while both big boys were in the ring. A few weeks ago this would have caused a meltdown but his desensitizing sessions seem to be working. He didn't react at all when he was moving around either horse, beyond some ear pinning and a tail swish or two. When standing next to Flint he did squeal and strike twice but quickly realized that it wasn't fun to immediately yield his hindquarters and make a tight circle. After that he could stand relatively close to each of them without making a fuss.
Some of the biggest news, though, is that I finally got up on Sage, the chestnut mustang.
1/27/14
I am in love with this horse and really think she has a lot of potential. She is so sweet and smart and she definitely let us know when she was ready to do more than just groundwork. Here is a short video of her warming up before I got on, reinforcing voice commands and getting her acquainted with the feel of the saddle moving on her back (we'd been doing this for a few days). I'm really looking forward to working with her under saddle early next week.
The first time up on a new horse is one of my favorites, I think, because you get to feel them thinking in a whole new way. At first, having someone up there above them totally blows their mind! As long as you've prepped them correctly it's so cool to then watch the transition in their thought processes as they start making connections between the groundwork and what you're now cuing from the saddle and they realize that carrying a human around might actually be ok.
So that was the biggest news for today. We also were able to put a saddle on Flint and I worked for a good hour with Coty and Colby playing follow the leader, passing each other, and walking side-by-side to try and help overcome Coty's extreme sourness toward other horses (Coty's mom was there to ride him so I rode Colby and coached). Charlie got a mini roundpen workout since it was already noon by the time I finished with the other guys, and it was short but successful. More on that later. For now, off to bed!
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.
Since starting work at Spring Hill I've helped Jan break/train all different kinda of horses: Arabians, Quarter Horses, a Chincoteague pony, a Kentucky Mountain Gaited, and a couple of Mustangs....all of which are completely different from the Thoroughbreds I grew up with. However, the newest additions to our training team put them all to shame, at least in size. Meet The Big Boys:
Flint (Percheron) and Finnagan (American Spotted Draft)
That's 18+ hands and 2000 pounds of baby in each one (they're both 4), and we're going to teach them how to ride and drive. Now this is going to be fun!
