Today I found myself procrastinating again, but I did get working with them before it got too dark. But, because I procrastinated so long, I didn't work as long as I usually do, but I think that's okay.

Kachina was first. I haltered her right away and brushed her out with a regular old horse brush. She seemed to enjoy it, and I got down to the hocks on her back legs before I backed off...not because she was uncomfortable, but because I'm a big chicken. She was fine. I probably could have brushed all the way to her back hooves, but there's always tomorrow! Might as well not get my head kicked off today.

Then I played with her mouth and picked up her front feet briefly. She's getting better about it on her bad side and she's pretty good on her right side. She was a little sticky with leading today. She just wanted to stand there, but we got unstuck and moved around. I was going to work on her hind feet with a rope, but I decided that I really needed to get over and work with Griffin instead. So I spent time just standing by her head, kissing her on the face, and telling her how much I liked her too. She is so sweet. We whiffle noses all the time. I think the other thing I need to do with her now, is starting acting more crazy around her when I have her on the leadline. I need her to not freak out and want to fly away anytime I do something unusual. I don't tiptoe around her, for the most part, but if I trip, or jump, she does get worried.

I made a lot of progress with Griffin today. I was able to halter him right away without throwing the long rope onto him. I just approached him and let him check out the halter and lead rope for a while, then rubbed his face, and slipped it right on! He was very good. But he, of course, did have that distrustful eye turned on me. I tried to really take my time and give him a ton of breaks where I backed completely away from him and turned away to look at something other than him. It did seem to help, although I caught him trying to withdraw a couple of times while I was out letting him relax, so I jumped quick just to get his attention back on me. That seems to work. He flinches and then just looks at me.

Next, I just approached him, rubbed his face and neck and then walked away many many times. I want him to quit thinking about leaving when I approach. He's really good about respecting the pull on the halter, but I don't want to have to pull him back toward me. I want him to just stay. So we worked on that. And he did stay better by the end. Griffin is very uncomfortable with me anywhere but near his head, so I grabbed my stick and string and decided to touch him all over with that. He'd never seen the stick and string before and it's been a while since I've used the pole on him. He tensed up and flinched the first few times, but other than that was very okay with it. I just rubbed him with the stick first, then I progressed to tossing the string over his back. He's a very brave horse and isn't generally afraid of many things, just me! He calmed down very quickly with the string touching him all over.

Then I decided that I wanted to work on getting him to "lead" or at least give to the halter. He will give his nose, but I have to hold steady pressure for a long time before his feet will follow. I stood to his side and just pulled on the halter until he stepped one front foot toward me. We need to keep working on that. I thought it might help if I could get his feet freed up because he seems very sticky and spurty. When he gets worried, it's a sudden violent leap away, then he stops and looks at me again...which is good, but at the same time, I think he needs to not be so tense and able to move around me more comfortably. So I asked him to move away from me to lunge around his pen. This was very hard to do! He wanted to just stand there! I guess the desensitizing worked! I had to hiss at him and kick dirt at him, and swing my rope very violently to get him to move off (didn't want to hit him with it yet). Then I asked him to stop and face up. We did this many times until he would keep a steady pace instead of trying to stop and face me on his own all the time. I know it seems like a good thing that he wants to face me, but I feel like he is really stuck and NEEDS to move. I think that when he stands still too much, he's not all there with me.

He is definitely getting more comfortable with me rubbing his face though. I figure we'll build on that little by little! The last thing I did was rub him with my hands and try to get further back than his neck. He's okay with the neck and head, and only somewhat okay with the chest. I could rub his withers, and a little bit down his side, and his girth area, but when I got to his forearm, he was definitely not liking it! On his right side, he tucked his butt, sucked back against the fence and really thought about wheeling away from me showing his butt to protect himself! But, he just tucked his butt and really tensed up his body in an arc, showing me what he was about to do, and I backed up a step and rubbed his neck. I went to his forearm and then backed off several times until he quit tensing. Then we were okay. I need more control over his head with the halter before I progress any further back, and even though I can touch him down his legs with my stick, that doesn't mean that I can do it! We'll get there!

At this rate, we should be able to geld him very soon. I don't think the castration is going to do all that much for his personality though. This is who he is. Maybe he'll mellow out, but I don't see him as acting studdy. I see a very self protective horse. Testosterone may or may not exaggerate his self preservation instinct...I don't know. Anyone else have any experience with this? He's two years old. I've never seen him call to my other horses like a stallion does. He nickers to them when he sees them coming in from the pasture, just like any other horse friend would do when they have to stand in a pen all alone all day.

At the end, I slid his halter off, he was calm and I walked away. He stood and watched me as I climbed out over the panels very near him.

Today, I did the same thing as yesterday with Griffin, but I tried to give him more complete breaks. I was able to get his halter on, but he is so uncomfortable with me. I wonder if things will get better as I work with him after I halter him with a leadrope. Yeah, his halter doesn't fit very well, but it doesn't matter. I never leave these halters on the horses. I'm so afraid that one will get hung up on something. It'd be so easy to do.

With Kachina, I basically repeated yesterday with even better results (much calmer horse). She's doing well, and I'm very pleased with her progress and our connection.

Doing good for having a week off!

It's been almost a week since I've worked with Griffin and Kachina, but I think they remembered their previous lessons...and they might have even missed me! They both seemed fairly eager to approach me when I went down to work with them today.

I was able to halter Kachina with the lead rope attached, without having to toss the big rope coil onto her to get her to stand. I just had to be patient and keep approaching her with it, then eventually rubbing her face, then sliding the halter on. She took it like a pro today! Once haltered, I rubbed her all over, and put fly spray on (she only ran just a bit in the beginning, but then let me spray her whole body on both sides). Then I brushed her mane and forelock out with hair lotion.

Next, I decided to get her used to me scratching her with my training stick with string attached. I'd like to work to feeling comfortable handling her back end, and I decided that using the stick to reach her for now would be the way to go. I know she'll be less comfortable with objects than with me, so if I get her used to the objects touching her back there, then she should accept me pretty well. She took the stick pretty well, but did tuck her butt the first time I rubbed her there. She also did pick up one foot a couple times and kick out halfheartedly with it, but she quit when I just kept at it. She didn't necessarily like the stick touching her back legs, but she tolerated it. She did tense up at first when I started touching her with the new stick, but she got over it fast, and she didn't run!

Then I tossed the string over her back repeatedly to desensitize her to having something thrown at her. She did think about running around me, but actually took this surprisingly well, considering her reaction to me throwing the big rope at her. Perhaps the big rope didn't scare her as much as I'd thought! I basically kept at the tossing at her until she licked her lips and relaxed. She was a little tense at first, but I was able to do her whole topline, and around her back and front legs, and she just stood. She really did relax after a while and didn't even flinch when I missed with the rope and hit her in the side instead of getting it over her back!

After that, I spent more time rubbing her with my hands over her hips and under her belly. I'm too chicken to go down her back legs yet. I'll work them with a rope first before we get there. She's not completely comfortable with me toward her butt yet. Then I rubbed down her front legs and asked her to pick up a foot when I pulled on her fetlock hair. I just got her to pick up the foot so far. I'm not asking her to let me hold it. She's getting better at that...she does take a little bit of time with me waiting while I pull on her hair before she'll pick up her foot. I sure do like mustang's fetlock hair...it makes a great handle for hoof handling!

She's leading pretty well now, too.

It's hard to get pictures of a horse that won't stand where you leave them and keeps following you around! I think Kachina has gained quite a bit of weight now that she's not putting so much energy into fighting an illness!







After that, I called it a night with Kachina and moved to Griffin.

I was pleased that Griffin seemed to want to approach me.



His abscess is all healed up and the swelling is gone.


He sniffed me pretty comfortably, but when I went to scratch his neck and face, he moved off, so I got him moving and then got the rope on him again.


Once I had the rope on, I was able to apply fly spray with the spray bottle! He did get worried at first, but I just kept at it and rewarded him the second he thought about standing still. And in just a couple attempts, he stood still and I applied it to his whole body!

He is definitely only tolerating me being with him. I think I might be overwhelming him...he is almost shutting off when I back away from him to give him a break. Instead of relaxing and licking his lips, he often starts blinking his eyes like he's falling asleep, but what he's really doing is blocking me out, I think. So a couple of times, I just did a really fast jump to startle him back to the world, and that caused him to freak for a second, then lick his lips. So, I think I must be pushing him to hard when he's got the rope on - he can't escape from me, so he's almost shutting off, but not quite. I'm going to have to do some more thinking about how to approach that. I don't think I'm moving to fast because he's taking things well, but something about when I have the rope on him...I must just not be giving him enough complete breaks where I back completely off and ignore him. I think I'm just backing up and staring at him, so he's still in the "hot-seat". I'll have to change that...

However, we did progress to him letting me rub his face with two hands and also with the halter (that's first!). Prior to this, I'd never even attempted to touch him with the halter. I was also able to rub his neck with it. He seemed pretty relaxed about me rubbing his face and breathing into his nose by the end. I left it at that. I was able to pull the rope off his head over his ears with my hand without causing him to move away too!

Griffin is very uncomfortable with me anywhere but up by his head, so I'll work with that, and get him comfortable letting me halter him, and we'll slowly move back. I really, really want to get him gelded soon. Perhaps as soon as I get him handled up front, I can get the vet out and we can work out a squeeze chute to administer the anesthetic.

Griffin gets the rope, Kachina gets hair lotion

I worked with both Kachina and Griffin yesterday. I don't have much time to write up a detailed post, so I'll quickly do my best! I'm leaving in the morning for WY, and will be gone all week.

Griffin:

I've been thinking about the differences between Griffin and Kachina and what I need to do to get him to be a little more willing to work with me, like she is. Kachina will follow me and stand in the middle with me, whereas I have to approach Griffin, and I often feel like I'm pinning him against the panels to be able to touch him. So with Griffin, I spent more time driving him around the pen, and asking him to turn in off the fence to me. I then decided to try the rope with him, and test him out how he would handle if I threw it at him. I started by approaching him with it, and he was very cool about it. He bravely sniffed the coil, so I backed off and tossed it to the ground in front of his feet. He snorted, but did not move, and reached down to sniff it. I did that a few times, and then went ahead and tossed it over his back. I got it on him within 3 tosses! He did run, but he was not super panicked, so I felt okay about tossing it at him. Once the rope stayed on over his back, he stopped running and sniffed at it. He's a brave boy, just not so trusting of me. I eventually got it around his neck, then did more mini-roundpenning with him, asking him to turn into me when I stepped in front and pulled on the rope. I got him to turn in and face me, and not in a corner! Then I spent time approaching and rubbing his neck, then I progressed to his face. He needs to let me rub his face if I am to halter him, and he's not so comfortable yet. He tries to evade my hand to move away. By the end of the lesson, he was pretty good about letting me approach and rub his forehead from the front. A good first step toward haltering! He's not so afraid of the rope either, so I hope this goes well! He is feeling so much better. When I was mini-roundpenning him, he was trotting out really well, and confidently. He has a huge stride! No more catwalking! By the end of our session, he was not snorting anymore when I asked him to trot out. He was snorting every breath when I first started.

Kachina:

Kachina had a good lesson, except that I had to throw the rope at her again in order for her to let me halter her today. I think that was because my parents were watching, so she was nervous. Plus she obviously just needed to move. In addition, my halter also had a leadrope attached this time, so she was leery of that new thing. Once I had the rope on her, it didn't take too long, and then she was haltered, with a long lead rope! I spend time mini-roundpenning and asking her to stop and face me with a step in front and a pull on the halter. She did freak out a few times with the new feeling, but she got it. I also "led" her around in circles and she follows the feel of the rope really well. I also gave a steady pull from the front, and it took a while, but she eventually figured out that she should take a few steps foward when she feels that pressure. I didn't do too much of that because she wasn't quite ready for that. Then, I decided to see how she's take fly spray from a spray bottle. She was very nervous at first, but let be get her good side (even her belly and down her back legs!). Her bad side took her a little longer to settle down, but I solved the problem by adjusting the nozzle so I could stand back farther and spray her. It was the noise of the spray bottle that bothered her the most. So, I sprayed my wild mustang with fly spray!

I've been dying to get the tangles out of her mane for a long time. Yesterday, I accomplished it! I had to cut them out with scissors, but it didn't shorten it too much. Her mane is very brittle, so then, I put hair lotion on it (called Pink - get it in the African American hair section at the store - it works great at moisturizing!), and brushed it out with a brush. I was even able to brush her forelock, AND trim her a short bridle path for her halter! I'd say she's a tame horse! I just need to get her more comfortable with letting me halter her, and then get this leading thing down, then I'm ready to begin some more hard core stuff...possibly taking her out of her pen for a walk soon!

Kachina is a tame horse

Things have been crazy for me the last few days. I have a job interview in Wyoming next week for a really exciting position! WY State Wildlife Disease Biologist. If I do not get this job, I am heading to vet school this fall, with the goal that I'll be focusing on wildlife so that I can do the job that oversees the position I would have had in WY. That's my life goal right now. Funny how they change, or stay the same, rather. I've decided that as a vet, I don't want to treat other people's animals. I want to simply enjoy my own, and still make a difference in the wildlife conservation world, which has been my specialty previously.

I have been working with Kachina the last few days. I've ignored Griffin a little but that only started out because I had to spend so much time on Kachina after her day off, but it's also because he's more challenging and I was having more fun with Kachina, so he got ignored. I will work with him today! I promise.

Anyway, back to Kachina. Sorry, I have no pictured because I was the only one there, which I prefer, by the way. When I work them alone, I focus much better on their responses and reactions, and I talk to them constantly. When I have an audience, I don't talk as much and we all suffer for it. The connection is not the same.

So, I had decided that I wanted to get a rope on her because I want to start getting closer, haltering her, and I wanted a way to tell her that she needs to stick with me rather than leaving when she's a little nervous. I've watched a lot of clinicians work horses with ropes by throwing them at them repeatedly until they finally get the rope over the horse and in the right position. They say that doing that will show the horse that they aren't going to be killed by things coming at them, so it is a good way to also desensitive them while you work to catching them. Now, Kachina is very reactive, so I was cautious about doing this, but I just went ahead and did it anyway.

My rope is a very long coil of cotton rope (maybe close to 50 ft?). I always start working Kachina by throwing whatever I'm doing to use that day (rope, halter, brush) over the panels into her pen so that she can check them out. She did and she was relatively calm as I entered the pen, until I picked up the rope and started coiling it so that I could handle it. She snorted, ran around, then stopped and watched me (head high, nostrils flared) as I finished coiling it.

Then I just started walking around with it. I wanted to give her a chance to sniff it, but she was having none of that. She just ran from me and the rope. So I started swinging it and tossing it at her. She ran and ran and searched corners to get out. I would toss it at her, and sometimes I'd get it over her butt, but she was spurting forward so fast, that it would come right off. This went on for a long time. I was starting to worry that I was sending the wrong message...spurt forward when the rope comes at you and the rope will not touch you! But I just kept at it. I'd never done this before, so I had some doubts about what I was doing, but I just kept at it. I was very nonchalant as I stood in the middle. Kachina became very sweaty and was breathing hard. A couple of times, the rope was over her back and stayed on her for a lap around the pen. Finally I managed to get it over the neck (it had been over her back, but then she turned into the fence and it went right into position!). I let her trail it out so that I could pick up both ends of the rope, then I had the rope around her neck. Once the rope was on her, she really wasn't so freaked out. She was nervous, but stood and looked at me. I could wiggle the ropes and swing them, and she might jump, but she didn't take off. I asked her to move around a couple of times and then stop and face up. When I asked her to face up, I stepped in front and pulled on the rope, releasing the pull as soon as she made to turn in and look at me. She did this pretty well, but was still a little panicky, and at one point, I lost on end of the rope. It slowly fell off as she moved around, but that was fine. Then I coiled it back up, and approached her with it so that she could check it out. It had been touching her already. She was very tense as she stretched out her neck to sniff at the rope, but I just kept taking it away, walking away from her whenever she reached to check it out, and pretty soon, she was following me just a bit, then sniffing it a little more confidently. So then I reached out with the coil to touch her on the shoulder with it. She made to move away, so I retreated and did that a few times till she was standing well, then finally did touch her shoulder with it. Then I scratched her with the rope and she thought that was okay. At that point, she was a little more secure with it. I did that on both sides, then thought I'd see if I could get it around her neck without throwing it at her again, but as soon as I put it over her neck, she was off. And it stayed on for a little bit, but then fell off.

So, I went back to throwing it at her and she ran and searched corners. She still reacted to the tossing of the rope. Finally, I got it over her neck again (which took a while - I have bad aim). Then I just got to work on her rubbing her all over and moving that rope (which I had hold of both ends around her neck). She LOVES to be rubbed, especially her belly. She has some very thin skin and the gnats have really irritated her under there. Her skin is so thin that it lookes like they held the freeze brand on too long, but probably they didn't hold it on any longer than any other horse. Most of her freeze brand is bare skin. No hair grew back. There is only white hair on the first character.

Prior to this session, she'd only allowed me to touch her with one hand - two hands was just too much and she'd move away, then I'd have to ask her to come back. This time, I had used the rope to pull her back when she left - well, I used a combination of the rope and stepping out in front of her with always gets her to turn into me. Pretty soon, I could put a little pressure on that rope, when she'd lean out to start leaving, and she was choosing to stay with me. I kept rubbing her, and eventually, I was using both hand, rubbing in all her good spots, and I progressed to rubbing her up on her neck and head as well. I've been staying away from the back end until I get a rope on her. I don't think she's a kicker, but I've seen her panic response to an unknown object and that was to kick, so I'll stay away from that until I have control of her head. I was even able to rub down her front legs to the hoof and she stood very well!

Once I'd gotten to where she was letting me rub her head with both hands and touch her nose and put my hand on the bridge of her nose without her trying to pull her head away, I picked up the halter and repeated all the rubbing with it. I progressed to all over her face. Then I slipped it on over her nose and continued to rub her and move it around as I tied it. Kachina is haltered!!!! She was unfazed by the halter. I just continued to rub and rub her body. She loves to be rubbed, which I knew she would. I still had the rope around her neck. Now, Kachina did still every once in a while become bothered by something I was doing, and move away, but I just used the rope to bring her back.

This whole process probably took 2 hours. I could have had her haltered sooner, but I didn't want to rush and make a bad experience, so I was really slow with it all. When I was finished rubbing her, I took the halter back off and continued to rub her as I slowly pulled the rope off her neck. She stood, I gave her one last rub, then walked away. At the end of that lesson, she was very relaxed and had completely dried off - no more sweat.

The next day (which was yesterday), I started by throwing the rope, halter, and a lead rope into her pen. I meant to use the rope again, but I approached her with the halter first and just started rubbing her. She stayed with me really well. I could still use both hands to rub her and rub all over her face. So I didn't end up using the rope at all. I still got the halter on her and then just spent a lot of time rubbing her all over. The flies were bad again, so then I went to get a rag and my bottle of fly spray. She was uncerain about the rag at first (it is bright blue), but I just let her check it out, walked away from her with it, got her to follow me, then I went ahead and started touching her with it. She was quite nervous about it, but she stood and let me do it. So then I sprayed fly spray on it (while standing next to her!), and then proceeded to rub her down with fly spray! I got her whole body except down her back legs and her butt...those are still off limits for me until I get a leadrope on her. I'll do that soon, but I don't anticipate a problem with her back legs. Now, I didn't have a lead rope on her at all yet. Just the halter, and she did leave a few times when that blue rag became to much, but for the most part, she stayed right with me! After the fly spray, I took hold of the halter loop (I use a rope halter), and gently pulled it toward me as I stood at her side. She turned her head toward me instead of pulling away, so I rubbed and rubbed her. I did that a few times on each side, just asking her to give just a little. I think we are now well prepared to me to get a halter on her with a lead rope. That basically means that she's a tame horse! Yay!

Today, I'll work Griffin. He needs to get to this point too, but I know it will take a little more work because it is me he is leery of. Kachina likes me, just not "things", but she's becoming so brave about things now. Griffin is feeling much much better these days. He is walking around his pen again, instead of just standing in a corner (when I'm not in there with), and the other day, when I asked him to let me scratch his neck when I was feeding him, his ran into the barn, then back out, and he was REALLY fast! He's feeling good. But he did calm down and then let me scratch his neck. I think I'll use the pole to get a rope around him, instead of throwing it at him. I don't want to push him into the panels again!

Kachina has figured out this pole thing!

Kachina is doing so well! Now she's better than Griffin! All along, she's been pretty comfortable with me, but really scared of the pole. The next session after I got her to stop running around when I was touching her with the pole, I started off by approaching her without the pole (I had planned to use it) and she allowed me to touch her face! I had to do a lot of movement over her face with my hand, and she wanted to move away at first, but she did let me rub her!

Then I progressed to rubbing her neck under her mane (she's very itchy there) and her chest. She was quite relaxed with me, and she let me touch her for real for the first time!

The next day, I started by rubbing her face and neck with just my hand, then I introduced her to the halter. I rubbed her face, neck and chest with it. She became pretty comfortable with the strings swinging all over. I didn't try to put it on her because she's done so well with this new thing and I didn't want to end on a bad note.




Instead, I introduced her to the curry comb. She kind of liked it, but it makes a funny noise when you brush her with it, so that made her nervous. I only brushed her a little bit before I called it good for that session! Awesome!


Today, I had a larger audience. My sister, mom, dad, great aunt and great uncle all watched and I think it made both Kachina and I nervous. Plus the flies were really bad today, so after she kept trying to evade me when I was rubbing her face (she was stomping her feet and really irritated by the flies), I decided it wasn't going to work this way, so I decided to try to apply fly spray to her. Previously she had not let me touch her anywhere other than her topline with the pole. This time, the pole was also wrapped in a smelly dripping rag.

She was nervous at first, and not so happy that the pole was back, but she did stand, and I slowly worked down her legs. Then, she seemed to almost understand that the pole was keeping flies away (or maybe I somehow communicated effectively to her that the pole wasn't going to break her legs off), because she stood perfectly still and let me wipe every inch of her body!!! No kicking this time either! She thought about it on one side, but I just stopped moving the pole and waited for her to put her foot back on the ground before I continued. She did so great!

Then I left her to work with Griffin. When I came back, my audience was gone, and I was able to rub her with my hand all over her neck, face, chest, and a little under her belly and behind her elbows.

Now, she wants to be with me. I can "mini-roundpen" her and it is a punishment for not wanting to stay with me when I am touching her. She definitely wants to come in to me and if I keep her out moving around, she does try to stay with me a little better.

Fall 2006 - Spring 2007, getting Chico ready to ride

In the last installment of working with the mustangs "Mustangs 2 year old year 2006", I described how by leaving Chico be, he decided that maybe he'd like to be with people after all. By that fall, I could approach him and he'd follow me all over the place, but he wasn't quite easily haltered.

I'd spent that previous summer ignoring the mustangs and riding my 3 year old quarter horse who had been with a trainer for 30 days in the spring. By that fall, I was wondering what we were going to do with the mustangs. People had told me that no one would train mustangs because they were "crazy" or "wild" or whatever they used to describe it. These people who told me these things don't especially like mustangs. Now, I'm sure that if I had asked around, I could have found a trainer, but at the time, I was also concerned about how much it would cost to send them to a trainer, so I decided that I was going to do it myself.

I had never trained a horse before, ever, so I started by reading some books, and I researched some videos. I had a few older books that talked about exercises to prepare a young horse for the saddle, but I didn't have anything that described behaviors to watch for or how to continue if a horse presented a certain behavior as a response to something you did. I understood basic horse behavior, but on a subconscious level. I could ride well and my horses were fairly sensitive and soft in the mouth, but I didn't necessarily know how to teach them further things. I'd only ever worked with or ridden horses that were already broke. While I had taught Chico to lead using pressure and release, I didn't completely understand that to teach a more complex activity, you have to break it into simple steps with pressure and release concepts. That is why I had difficulty with getting Cody to walk with me on her back in the round pen. I hadn't gone through the prior steps to teach to to move in response to cues. I know horses are likely to explode when they are balky like that under the first ride, and I know that I will fall off it they start bucking. I also had great respect for the power of horses and I honestly was a bit intimidated with the thought of working with the mustangs and especially riding them. I knew I had a lot to learn. Looking back, I know that concept of breaking an activity into smaller steps was what was missing in my understanding, that I've since learned and been very successful at applying it to work with the mustangs.

I also knew that I wanted to use treats as rewards for desired behaviors, primarily because it was through treats that Chico became interested in working with me. I didn't want to destroy that interest in me...it had taken all summer before he, by his own choice, decided that I didn't always just have annoying things to do to him. I thought treats would be a great incentive to do what I asked. One of the first books that I got (shopping on half.com) was called "New Sensations for Horse and Rider: Introducing Voice Training" by Tanya Larrigan. This book introduced me to the vast capability of horses to learn voice cues. The author also used treats as reward for behaviors, and it worked well. Then I received an early Christmas present from Todd "True Horsemanship Through Feel" by Tom Dorrance and Leslie Desmond. In this book, they discuss the concept of feel and working with horses so that they understand. One of the first exercises that I used in this book with all three of the horses was leading up real free and dropping the head to halter pressure. I think the dropping the head exercise is a great one for teaching a person the concepts of pressure and release. This book was great, but still didn't quite give me the step by step "how to get a horse ready to ride then ride him" that I was hoping for. My parents knew I wanted horse training books, so for Christmas from them, I got Clinton Anderson's "Downunder Horsemanship". This book has many exercises that I applied right away (ground work ones), but again, still didn't have that "How to Start a Horse" section. Then I discovered horse training videos on Ebay. My friend's trainer had recommended that she see Clinton Anderson's groundwork videos to really learn how to deal with her huge, dominant, fearful horse, so I focused my search on his video's. The first ones I got were "Roundpenning" and "Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground, series 1". Then I got "Starting Under Saddle". With that repertoire of information, I was able to get Chico from wild to willing (to steal a phrase from Kitty Lauman).

First off, I needed to get him to accept the leadrope and haltering. Late summer, he was still not excited about getting caught, although he'd willingly approach me. He had a halter on all the time, and with treats I was able to clip his leadrope on. But I wanted to be able to easily catch and halter him if he didn't have on one. So, I got a bag of horse treats, stuck a bunch in my pocket, then, I brought him into the round pen in the barn to work with him. I took his halter off, then practiced sliding it back on over his nose. He really fought that (he still isn't 100% with letting people just touch his face), but I started with just rubbing the halter on the side of his face, and on his neck. And I tried to touch him all over with my hands, and when he stood still (instead of pulling back away from me) he'd get a big "good boy!" and a treat. He wasn't too thrilled with me pulling the halter over his nose, he really tried to pull away, but I bribed him with a treat (or rather, dangled the incentive in front of his nose) So there I am, standing next to his head, holding the halter just right with a treat on my hand so he'd have to stick his nose into the halter to take the treat. Chico stood there indecisive reaching then pulling up, then reaching again, and finally, he decided he wanted that treat more than he hated that halter touching his face, and he reached in and took it! While he chewed, I buckled it behind his ears. Then I slid it off and we did it again. This time, he didn't hesitate at all. We practiced a few times until I knew he understood it. After that session, I took his halter off and he has not worn it while in the pasture since. It was easy to halter him, once he understood that he got a treat reward for letting me halter him. He very quickly got to where he'd approach me, and stand with his head just right and his nose tucked in so I could slide the halter on. Then as soon as I had buckled it (or later, tied it), he was bobbing his head waiting for his deserved treat. Chico's previous difficulty with letting us catch and halter him probably had a lot to do with a lack of respect. I don't think he really feared people at that point, but he did dislike all the things we did and he chose not to let us get near enough to do them.

Next, I started working Chico in the round pen. I just want to clarify that all my training and working with him was done in the confines of the round pen, unless I was leading him out on the trails. I wasn't always "round penning". In fact, I didn't "round pen" much at all, only in the begining. When I did, I used the methods taught in the Clinton Anderson videos (keep a consistent direction, turn to the inside, stop and face up). I never had to be aggressive to urge Chico forward, he's a naturally forward horse, and he's very sensitive. With the round penning exercises, he responded beautifully. He became very in tuned to my body language, and because I rewarded him when I asked him to whoa and come into me (treat), he was always looking for the next way to earn his reward. All I can say is that he was very willing. I then started combining the round penning with teaching him voice cues. For this, I kept him on the lunge line. When I was first teaching the cues to him, I had to use my body language to cause him to speed up, if that was what I was asking, or slow down. Sometimes I had to pull-release on the lunge line to remind him to listen to me when I asked him to slow down. It was very easy to teach him the voice cues and within a matter of weeks (a few sessions each week), he was obeying my words the instant I spoke them. My cues were "walk", "trot-trot" (said very staccato), and "can-ter" (said fluidly with an upturn in tone and a clear "t" on the -ter), and of course "whoa". To ask him to slow down from a canter, I said "easy trot" in a very drawn out voice. Because "whoa" was the command after which he generally got a treat, he learned that cue VERY well. (I have to be careful when I ride him, because when we are cantering, I tend to talk to him quite a bit, and if he hears a world that sounds like "whoa", he'll come to a sliding stop. It's nice that he's that in tune to my voice). I started with just "walk" and "whoa" and when he was really good at hearing those cues, I sped it up to "trot-trot" and eventually to "can-ter". I like the voice cues, and I've taught them to all my horses. The best part is when we are out trail riding and I can feel them get ready to pick up the trot, all I have to do is catch it before they do it, and say "walk" firmly and they'll come back down, without me having to tug on their mouths.

Once he was getting the voice cues pretty well, I introduced him to the circingle. He was pretty relaxed when I first introduced it to him (although I wasn't sure what to expect from him). When I slung it over his back and he stood still, I gave him a reward. When I buckled it, just barely snug, and he stood still, he got a reward. When I asked him to walk out and also trot and canter with it, he completely ignored it! I think, because he was busy cueing in on me for the next thing to get him a reward). I rewarded him everytime he did a desired behavior when I introduced something to him for the first time. In no time at all, he was walk, trot, and cantering with with a completely tightened circingle without batting an eye at it.

Chico was a little obese this late fall. Todd's mom had gotten pelleted feed in addition to hay and was often giving it to her horses free choice (mine were pastured with hers). I think the feed was alfalfa pellets so everyone scarfed it down and became quite fat that year. Look at Chico's rolls!


These pictures are pretty bad quality. They are the only pics I have of working with Chico because I did everything myself and did not carry a camera with me then. I had a friend along this session, so he took some pics.


During these times, I also got Chico flexing laterally, then progressed to ground-driving him with long lines through the circingle rings. He did great. Chico was always looking to do what I was asking. He never even bucked when I saddled him for the first time! The very first time I brought the saddle out, he wasn't sure about me swinging it up on his back, but I did it all in steps with throwing the saddle pad over his back a million times, then throwing the saddle over, and then taking it back off. Chico is generally wary about new objects the first time they are introduced to him...not scared, but wary. He has to investigate the new object, and if you try to force it on him before he has a chance to check it out, he will run away, and refuse it. But if you step back and let him check it out, he will calmly accept whatever you want to do with it. With the saddle on, I repeated laterally flexing to halter pressure and did the ground driving exercises (with the longlines through the stirrups). I also did a bunch of desensitizing exercises with the saddle. I slapped the stirrups on the saddle skirt repeatedly, until he calmly accepted it (first time I did it, he freaked). I also practiced putting weight in both stirrups without actually getting in the saddle. I'd half mount up, hang there, then get down while he was standing still and give him a reward. Because I wanted to desensitize him to everything he'd experience with a rider in the saddle, I filled 2 liter bottles with water and hung one on each side of the saddle, rigged just right so that they'd hang and bump him where my calves would if I was riding (the very first time, the 2 liter bottles were empty so that he didn't completely freak out). He accepted the bottles with no problem and never a sideways look. Like I said, he was always very focused on me in the center of the round pen.

The three that winter. Cody on left, Catlow in middle, Chico right.

Cute picture of Cody napping and Chico standing watch over her


Check the next post as the continuation of this post…