Saddlebred in Training!

Remington Day 4

 Remington is here in training at Windy Hill.  We adore "Remi" as we affectionately call him.  I spell his name (Remi/Remy/ Remie)  ~ it's all the same.  So, if you happen to catch that peculiarity, all hate emails shall be ignored.

Remi was terrified of trailers, I mean, really, really frightened.  To the point of breaking into a cold sweat and tying up just because he is close to one! 

Getting Remi in a trailer to actually get here was a night mare.  When the trembling Remi arrived here and unloaded from the trailer he was off his feed for three days.  Remi was scared.

I knew we would have our work cut out for us.

On Day one of his training my goal was simply to get him within 6 feet of the trailer without having a nervous breakdown.

By day 3 I had him touching the trailer with his nose comfortably and then walking away.   I used the Parelli touch game for this.

Here you see him below touching the trailer.  His owner and I were thrilled with his progress!

I was so happy to send the above video to Remi's owner!  In only three days, he had progressed from nervous wreck to trailer toucher!  Hurray for Remi!

Remi Day 6, he has his face in the trailer!! 

I know it doesn't seem like much for a horse to have his face in the very, very end of the trailer, but for Remi this was a really big step.  He spent days 4 and 5 eating just outside of the trailer.  This was only after a rousing game of touch the trailer for about 10 minutes first.  He wouldn't even consider eating near the trailer if I had not played touch the trailer first.

                                                                  ~ baby steps~

Days 7-10 eating with his head AND neck in the trailer!

Remy was breifly stuck at this point in regards to his comfort level.  He would rather walk away and not eat at all than to put even ONE foot in the trailer.  So, listening to the horse, I allowed him to eat this way for 3 days, each day asking him to juuust come a little further and gauging my next move based on his reaction.  This work was down twice a day, every day.  Starting first with touch the trailer, until on day 10 Remi ignored my request to touch the trailer and just calmly ate his meal.  I asked him to come forward and put one foot in the trailer.... Remi declined.

Day 11

 On day 11, we started out as normal with just head and neck in the trailer.  However, this time when I moved the food back a little bit further, instead of walking away...Remi did this ~

Remi stepped into the trailer!! Both front feet! 

And Calmly back out when he was finished eating! 

I was thrilled with this great leap of faith from Remi!

                                ~ Then the vet came~ 
Remi has to be the most observant horse I have ever met.  He watches everything.  He is always very interested in what the humans are doing.  He knows what is going on at all times.  When the red vet truck pulled up he promptly took himself to the very farthest reaches of the pasture.  How did he even know?  I can only presume vet trucks carry with them a certain "vet smell" that horses can pick up on.

I explained to the vet that the first time I had wormed Remi, I worked with him for over an hour in order to get him to accept worming without too much protest.  I further explained that I normally give my own vaccinations, however Remi was against that idea to the point of being dangerous.  The vet was very kind and worked with Remi for a good 35 minutes to get the 2 shots administered to Remi ~ this after being knocked over twice!  Remi's owner had really wanted Remi's teeth looked at, however Remi was having none of that!  Suffice it to say, it was a very traumatic experience for Remi.  Over the next few days, Remi regressed back to the horse that wouldn't step into a trailer even if you had baked apple surprise laid out on a buffet for him.

                                           ~I listened to the horse ~ 
In my years of training horses, so many people have commented that it just "takes so long" and "Why don't you just put him in the trailer already!"  I know there are many different ways to train a horse to trailer load.  In the case of Remi, due his great fear based on bad experiences he has had in the past with trailers, I chose to train him to trailer load the same way I do the mustangs straight off the range.  Yes, it does sometimes take a long time.  However, when I am finished with Remi, he will be more than happy to walk onto a trailer at any time ~ without the food as a reward ~ 

Fast Forward to Day 18

I worked with Remi every day, twice a day, concentrating on  getting him more and more comfortable with the trailer.  

After going through the different hills and valleys that are really part of training any horse, Day 18 proved to be a major breakthrough for Remi!

See the Video below!

I am so proud of him!  I have more work to do with Remi's trailer loading.  The final goal is to have Remi loading himself into the trailer and waiting patiently for the bar to be put up and the door to be closed.  We still have some work to do, but I am 100% confident in his ability to be a trailer loading champion!

Remi's owner loves to trail ride ~ Remi was newly obtained July 15th and she hopes to have him trailer ready prior to the end of trail riding season.  She even plans to take him all the way to Florida this winter!  Based on this information, I want Remi to love the trailer.  

I love a hot blooded horse with some interesting quirks to fix!  Remi is right up my alley!  His other issues include:

• A huge ~ dangerous aversion to shots ~ anything shot like and all pokey things in general
• Any kind of pressure on the crest of his neck or pole
• Anything that looks like wormer anywhere near his face.

I intend to get Remi's normal "before" reactions on video and keep you updated as we go along.  I have already missed a little bit of the before part, as I have begun working with him on these things already.  I shall get his reactions on film ASAP!

~ As a trainer I feel it is really important to get "points" of progress on film, or in someway documented.  The biggest reason is because, quite often from the owners perspective, it appears that the animal has not made any progress, or that it is taking too long.  I never push the horse beyond his mental, physical, or emotional ability to comply with the desired action.  I DO push the horses boundaries, but I never push beyond.  It's a fine line.  

BlackStones Progress...

Blackstone has proven to be quite the astute pupil.  I am enjoying him very much.  We have progressed from not being able to "catch" him at all to him greeting me at the gate, to being able to brush him all over,  to picking up all four feet, leading, giving to pressure, lunging, backing up, coming forward, disengaging the hip,  and putting on the saddle pad, with a little bit of desensitizing thrown in for good measure.  We have a long way to go, but we sure are proud of him so far.

BlackStone Lunging

He has not been too pushy or too spooky to over come his fears, and he really loves to please.  He actively looks for rewards and responds to them with great relish.

As time goes on, we will be working on the more difficult stuff, so stay tuned!

Saddle pad with Saddle

Standing quietly with lead over withers while saddle is put on

BlackStone gets an A+ for standing while I put the saddle on for the first time!  I love the lead over the withers as a stand still quietly cue for the horses.  It makes life sooo much easier.  I did not cinch the saddle this day, as it was his first time ever having it on his back.  Cinching will come soon:)

Today, after this session, I took his halter off in the pasture....I don't like them with halters on in the pasture in the first place, however for the purpose of ease I have left it on him thus far.  Today, he is rewarded with having no halter and tomorrow, I (hopefully) shall be rewarded with him coming to me willingly and dropping his head to be haltered. ! 

The Arrival of BlackStone ~ new Training Horse.

Meet BlackStone: Blackstone is my new Dales Pony in training.  He is owned by the same person that owned Argent.  See, all you doubting Nelly's out there, I told you that she would come back. (whew)

BlackStone Dales Pony in training

BlackStone is four years old, and has not been worked with much.  It all started on a dark, drizzly, windy, cold night here at Windy Hill...as if we ever have any other kind of weather here.

What preceded the event was many hours of my son saying "Is her son coming with her?  He is really nice, and he is a good boy too!  Are they  here yet?  When are they going to be here?"

Finally, we got the phone call that BlackStone and company had arrived.  I glanced at my son, he was sleeping soundly...it was a school night...I hate to wake him up so late on a school night...after an internal debate, I let him sleep.

In deference to the cursed and dangerous driveway, Blackstones owner and I mututally agreed that it would be best  (and safest) to meet at the end of the driveway.  This meant it was necessary for me to walk down said lonely, long, dark, dreary driveway by myself, alone, with no one else...hmmm.  That seemed silly, so I left the Mastiff with my son and took the Dane Lab cross ~ I wasn't sure how the Mastiff would greet people in the dark, even if I did tell him it was okay.  I knew that that Kharma would listen to me when I said "It's okay, they are friendly" and not eat anyone.  Besides, I wanted my son to have the Mastiff (Doom) with him while he snoozed away.  I put Doom on "guard" before I left the house, and Kharma and I traversed the dark, lonely driveway.  Read as; Kharma barked her fool head off and raced ahead of me to ward off all impending danger of small children, horses and fancy standard poodle with a cute show groom.   I was left to fumble my way down the driveway; alone.  At least the Mastiff would have stayed right at my side.  Sigh.

Well, I made it to the end of the driveway with out being attacked by coyotes, wild banshees, or other creepy wildlife lurking in the fields on either side of me.

BlackStone Handsome boy

I finally meet BlackStone, a simply lovely coal black example of the Dales Pony with a cute baby doll head, a willing attitude and just enough snort and blow to tell me that he will be super fun to train.  We led him up the driveway with no incidents despite my dog leaping for joy around his legs and pestering poor Poodle to no end.  

Next day, *B_______ noted with interest that Blackstone had arrived and I was treated to all manner of dirty looks, and accusations of not wanting him to ever do anything fun!  I apologized several times.  He seemed mollified in the end, realizing that sleep is very important before school.  Glad the crisis was averted!

Now, I must go, I hear a Dales pony wanting to learn!

Argent Update!

Well, it was time to put Argent in his harness and see how we fared with that.  I had grand plans of going down the road....we made it to the end of the driveway.

He was great for the harnessing process.  My  little picture taker got every moment of it on film.  Don't worry, I won't be  posting every second of it here, as I'm pretty sure the server would crash.

My son proudly told me...I've taken 254 pictures already!  Oh for joy, that means I'll be wading through them for hours to choose the best ones....but at least we have pictures!

I'll let Argent tell the rest of the story:)

Argent here, the Great Dales Pony, visiting Windy Hill and the Woman.  She's okay, she brings me food, that part I like.  Let me tell you how it really went yesterday..

First of all, she came in my home dragging this big unwieldy bag, of course I had to investigate being the oh-so-curious horse that I am...

Whacha got there woman?

I immediately recognized the smell, it's the harness.  This is the crazy thing that humans put on me so I will pull the cart.  I look GREAT pulling a cart.  But what fun is it to just pull a cart without some trickery?  I love to play tricks on the humans.

Hemes first

The Hemes is the easy part, and since the woman has been working with me on putting my head down all the time, I went ahead and put my nose into it since I figured that is what she wanted, then I put my head down and it slid off. hahahaha.  Oddly, she behaved as if she didn't want that.  She put it back on me.

I better get carrots for this

I was kind enough to put my nose in it again, she was on to my trickery by this time, so she moved on to the next part of my fancy duds.  I stood very quietly while she did this, as it was blatantly obvious that she was confused; the poor thing.  

The next part is the bridle, the bridle is my least favorite part, but since the woman was moving slowly and being kind I was very nice about it.  All of my glorious hair gets in the way and she has to fuss with my ears a lot, I was very good about that.  I know she secretly wants to give me a bridle  path so that my bridles will fit properly in their place when she puts them on.  

I'll even keep my head down for this

The woman checked and double checked everything to see if it was on right and comfortable, I'm pretty sure I took a small nap while she fussed around with all of that.   Even the boy got tired at some point and sat down to take the photos.

checking and double checking

After all of that standing around, when it was time for me to actually walk, I wondered if she was serious or if she was just testing me.  She had to tell me 3 times to go ahead and walk.  I did and I was very lazy about it.  I think the woman liked that though because she said "Good boy " a lot.  

walking in the round pen.

Well, walking in the round pen is easy stuff, so the woman decided she wanted to take me out into the open. Snicker.  When we first went out there I pretended I was frightened of everything.  The blue flower that was blowing in the breeze, the long blade of grass, the dark colored dirt.  I even snorted once!  I also discovered that if I turn around really quick it confused the woman and was able to walk whatever direction I wanted to.  I walked back towards the round pen.  However, the woman did catch on to my little trick of turning fast ~ she was mumbling something about "quick Arabian turns" and "compensating" ...I don't know, but I couldn't do it anymore once she figured that game out.  She completely ignored me when I told her there were scary things ahead and pranced, she just kept on going along.  So, I had to stop that too.  Then I tried going in reverse!  Well, when she figured that one out, she just asked me to keep going in reverse.  That was no fun!  I tried it a few more times and then gave up on that one too.  I did try the quick turns a few more times, but she got really good at anticipating my next move, so I couldn't do that either.  I threw my head up in protest several times when I thought she was really using too much pressure on the bit to tell me when to stop.  I know she was trying to be gentle, but this is a big bit and a little goes a long way.  I did stop tossing my head when she was softer with her hands.  (sheesh)  The things I have to teach people.  When I had stopped using  all of my tricks in the yard, we went down the driveway.

in the yard.

Down the driveway and back up.

See how relaxed I am going down the driveway?  That took some time and I played a lot of tricks on the woman first, but if you look closely, you can see that she is driving me with her palms open, this means there is not a lot of pressure on my mouth and I like that.  I also liked that she was very confident about nothing trying to eat me.  Even though I was pretending that I was scared, she sensed that I needed a leader and thank goodness she chose to show me that she is going to be the leader when we are together. 

Now down the driveway

turning around to go back down the driveway

Once the woman figured out that I would walk with my head down and my body relaxed if she would anticipate my every move before I did it, I went ahead and relaxed and let her do the steering.  I was sort of looking forward to going down the road too, because I thought I might be able to try some more games with her.  But evidently she decided that we had played enough games that day and when I was moving quietly and obediently she unharnessed me and put me in the larger corral with some grass in it as a reward.  I loved my reward as you can clearly see!

playing in the bigger field! 

I can't wait until we do this again, I  haven't decided if I want to play new games or if I should just let her be the leader.  I'm not entirely certain I trust her completely yet.  

Argent ~ Let the Betting Begin!

Alright Cue Argent the Dales Pony here in training.  I spent 20 minutes yesterday trying to put a saddle on an already broke horse!  I mean it, he really IS broke, children have ridden him.  He's been doing this for a long time.

Before we put the saddle on, I wanted to make sure he would soften to the bit willingly.  Before those of you that know me send me nasty emails pertaining to practicing what I preach in regards to a full cheek snaffle bit etc. etc.  please note that this is the bridle he came with and we can work our way "up" to a nice soft snaffle bit.  Right now, we are working on a horses personality disorder...I mean a relationship with the horse.

Asking for a "give to the bit"

He gives I release immediately

Okay, so we got the bit/bridle thing worked out really quickly, in fact, he seemed to enjoy the ground work with the bridle on.  He was lovely, he was giving, he was responding, he was so soft eyed and willing....

So, next, I get out the saddle ~ an English saddle at that because my Western training saddle is in the back of my dead battery car (another blog people)

Putting on of the saddle

Argent was NOT at all happy about the saddle.  

WHAT?! Get that thing off of me now!

I'm serious!  I do not WANT!

Then he got over that, due to my gentle correction ~ disengage the hip, stop, back up...OR if you want to move your feet, lets move them the way I want you to.  This took all of...oh 5 minutes...

The second time I put on the saddle

Good Boy Argent!

Now THAT is what I like to see.   What a difference.  The REAL trick is...will he stand like the above pictures from the very start when I do the very same thing tomorrow or act like he's never seen a saddle before?  I think he stand quietly...

If anyone is starting a betting pool, let me know how you all do.  Ashley you best be betting on ME!

The next thing I did with Argent today was bring out the big, bad horse eating childs motorized tractor.  Confession time:  I did not get a photo of the *actual* tractor because my son is the photographer in all these  Argent photos, and when he was on the tractor he couldn't very well be taking pictures....and I couldn't take pictures because I was working with Argent.

SO...about Argent and the tractor...he is supposed to be terrified of said tractor, apparently this only occurs when he is not eating it or following it around.  My son drove that tractor around in the round pen with us being as obnoxious as he could possibly be (and he is VERY good at obnoxious)  the first 4 years of his life the only thing he heard when we were in the barn was "B----- Stop that! You are going to kill me!  I am on a horse."  Well, that and the sound of me hitting the dirt.  

But I digress, Argent was completely focused on me and what I was doing and did not pay any attention to the tractor at all.  We were doing simple ground work in the bridle, nothing too taxing, and he didn't even flick an ear in the direction of maniacal child and whirring, moving, wheel spinning tractor!

Afraid indeed.

***Side note*** has anyone else noticed that it is always overcast in all  of these photos?  Is it true that a rain cloud is sitting over my house at all times?  

You be the judge

Does any one else see the doggie? Hmmm, maybe I should have gone with the gothic style roof after all....