May 26, 2014

Worked with Blondie to review picking up feet and haltering. She picks up all four feet and is doing great. She should be going home very soon!

May 25, 2014

Took Blondie out on the obstacle course for the first time. She was a little apprehensive about being on that side of the property but still did very well. Here is a quick video and some pictures from her outing!

 

May 23, 2014

Continued review with the flag and then worked with Blondie on picking up all four feet. This time she was able to pick up all four without trying to run off at all! Still needs some refinement but the past couple of days taking time to work with desensitizing her lower legs has really helped!

 

May 21, 2014

Desensitization continued tonight with a plastic bag instead of the flag. I expected things to go smooth as silk with Blondie being such a nice, level headed mare. Everything started off pretty good. Got her haltered and started working with her and the plastic bag on the left side of her body. She was a little concerned with it up by her chest but soon got over it. OK on to the right side. WOW did I wake a sleeping dragon! She was NOT happy about the bag on her front legs from this side. Rearing and striking at the bag. Trying to get it off her any way she could. This continued for at least 20 minutes. We worked and worked and worked at it. Anywhere else on her body was fine, back, butt, back legs, shoulder but her chest and front legs, from the right side, NO WAY JOSE! Persistance paid off and we were able to quit on a good note after she accepted the bag on her legs a few times without striking. Definitely will need to review this again!

May 20, 2014

Blondie is sensitive about her legs being touched so today I switched things up by sacking her out with a flag. She’s seen it before but not for a while and boy was she not OK with it at first! Lots of jumping around and moving off. Pretty soon, when the flag didn’t go away and didn’t hurt her she stood nice and quietly for it to be on her body on both sides. Then we went to work on her legs. Once again she was super concerned, even reared a few times. Definitely the most action we got out of her in a single training session! She just normally isn’t very excitable. Anyhow, we worked with her to get through it and she did. By the end of her training session she was standing quietly for the flag to be all over her body, including her legs, on both sides! Up next is the plastic bag!

May 19, 2014

Worked some more on haltering. Getting up to her the first time is where she is the most concerned. Once I have touched her she is fine with approach and retreat from both sides so that is where we will keep working to improve!

May 18, 2014

Worked today on haltering using approach and retreat. She is getting much better but not quite where she needs to be to go home yet. She is such a good mare she just needs a little more time to gain confidence with all the activity around her head when she is being haltered!

May 14, 2014

Worked with Blondie last night approach and retreat to get her haltered. From there we reviewed picking up her left front and left hind. That went very well. She had to warm up to it but was 10x better than the first day. The back feet she has started being able to hold up for a few seconds. Once we were done reviewing on the left we started to teach the right. The goal tonight was originally to be able to just touch the right front and right hind. She again showed how sensitive she is about her legs being touched so we instead just worked till she was OK with having her left front touched all the way down. We’ll continue working with her feet in our next training session. She isn’t doing anything bad just unsure she wants us to touch her legs.

May 13, 2014 – 

Great training session with Blondie tonight. Worked on re-haltering her and then worked a lot on desensitizing her legs. She is VERY sensitive about being touched on her legs when I do it but doesn’t really mind when it is a stick or string or rope. We spent about 30 minutes practicing with approach and retreat. Finally she was able to accept me touching her front left and hind left with my hand. From there we started to work on picking up the front left and hind left. She is getting very good about picking up her front left and well started on her hind left. We’ll continue working with her on this.

May 12, 2014

Blondies halter had slipped over her ear during the day. Worked with her on desensitization to pressure around her face so I could slip the halter off. She did very well and will stay without a halter tonight.

May 9, 2014 – Day 10

Continued desensitization with Blondie on the left and right sides.

May 7, 2014 – Day 9

Worked with Blondie tonight on desensitization. Started with the stick and string and continued on to the burlap sack, saddle blanket and eventually securing a bareback pad. She is such a good girl! Not one buck or bolt. She is more accepting of contact. Such a smart mare and a pleasure to work with!

 

May 5, 2014 – Day 7

We stepped up Blondie’s training this evening putting her a little outside her comfort zone. Our goal this evening was to secure a lead rope to her halter so she could begin teaching herself a little bit about approach and retreat. We started slowly, first by reviewing previous lessons about maintaining eye contact. Then we continued with desensitization to the string until she was OK with the string being tossed over her back from either side. Slowly we used approach and retreat to decrease her flight distance until she could stand still and allow the stick to stroke her shoulder.

From there we switched gears a little bit and I worked to throw my long rope over her back. Once draped over her back we had several opportunities to use the rope as a desensitization tool for her body, barrel, and even legs. The great thing about the rope I use is its large diameter and soft feel make it very easy for the horse to accept with very little risk of a horse getting tangled or hurt by it.

Once she was comfortable with the rope swinging various different ways I secured the rope around her neck to begin teaching her to yield to pressure. We worked to the left and right and she picked it up pretty quickly! She is going to be a nice, light horse. I continued to work to decrease her flight zone until she was finally OK with me stroking her shoulder and neck. Once we reached that point she still wasn’t comfortable with me touching her head, jowl or chin so I worked to desensitize the space under her jaw and was finally able to secure the lead rope on her. We yielded a couple times left and right and she was excellent. Can’t wait to continue working with her on yielding!

May 2, 2014 – Day 4

Blondie’s training session once again was focused on maintaining eye contact with work started with desensitization to the string across her back.

May 1, 2014 – Day 3

More work with Blondie on getting and then maintaining eye contact. She still is wanting to ostrich and pretend we don’t exist. Like the picture at right but a horse version! Blondie worked on turns to the inside, which she isn’t horrible at, and maintaining eye contact for more than just a couple seconds.

April 30, 2014 – Day 2

Worked with Blondie again today for 10 or 15 minutes. She was considerably better today about making eye contact! We practiced turns to the inside. She is such a naturally quiet mare. She finally broke into a trot when I used my horseman’s stick to throw a string over her back for “first contact”. We worked on that for a little bit and she started to do very well! We will continue to use approach and retreat to work towards decreasing her flight distance in future lessons.

April 29, 2014 – Day 1 

PM: 

Worked with Blondie this evening briefly just to assess her. She is a very QUIET mare. Not friendly, but quiet. She wants to ostrich and avoids making eye contact. We call this game “Can’t See Me” where the horse acts as if, if she doesn’t look at you / make eye contact then you probably can’t see her and will just go away 😀 I worked with Blondie in two sessions this evening just getting her to look at me and then retreating. She is already OK with turns to the inside so we will just have to work towards building her confidence in being able to make eye contact.

AM:

Blondie unloaded super quietly and is settling in very nicely.

 

At the Corrals

Here are some pictures of Blondie at the corrals.