July 1, 2014

Worked with Duke on the new obstacle, the sand box. He was great!

June 26, 2014

Check out Duke loading like a good boy onto a 2 horse trailer!

 

June 24, 2014

Worked with Duke again loading into the 2 horse trailer. He’s not afraid of it but doesn’t REALLY want to get in so tonight we made it a little more fun for him and baited the manger with a carrot. Every time he got in he got a carrot.We always reinforce that he has to wait to be asked to back out. He thought the carrots were great!! And after a couple times quit trying to avoid the entrance and was hoping right in like an old pro!

June 18, 2014

Duke still practicing loading into a 2 horse trailer. He gets better each day we practice!

 

June 13, 2014

Taught Duke how to load into

June 3, 2014

Continued basic training for Duke. Haltered him and tied him at the tie rail. Made sure he’s still A-OK with his feet. He’ll be learning to trailer load soon!

June 1, 2014

Switched stalls for Duke so he can get more exposure to other horses (mares) in preparation from going home. Soon he’ll be moving to a 5′ stall so we can be sure he’s OK with the lower fence line. He’s definitely a goof ball and the chore for the weekend was making him a new toy out of an empty milk jug. He sure loves his Jolly balls so this one is tied to his shelter for him to knock around and play with.

May 30 & 31, 2014

Continued to reinforce haltering / picking up feet then Duke had some more patience training at the tie rail.

May 28, 2014

Duke is haltering very nicely. He’s a big goof ball and really starting to seek out attention and affection. Today he was tied at the tie rail, away from horses, for the first time. He wasn’t too happy but never called out for the others. Just couldn’t figure out why he was stuck!

 

May 25, 2014

Quite the adventurous day for Duke. Things started out with a morning trim. His first time ever and he did great…well at least with the front. He wasn’t quite ready / patient enough to let a stranger handle his back feet in the manner that was needed to get him trimmed so we decided to save that for another day. The farrier was able to even up both feet and we could immediately tell he was walking much better. One foot was about a half inch longer than the other!

Later in the day we decided to take Duke out for a stroll through the obstacle course for the first time. Talk about a BRAVE boy. Even some of my resident horses don’t like the cans! He took everything in stride. This is going to be one heck of a trail horse!

 

May 23, 2014

Worked with Duke on desensitization to the plastic bag and holding up his feet for increasingly longer duration in preparation for the farrier. Then Vivian worked with him introducing the saddle blanket for the first time. He was great. Didn’t really bother him at all. Check out his video!

 

May 21, 2014

Worked with Duke with a plastic bag tonight. He was AWESOME. Stood very quietly for the left side. A little more worried about the right side and his chest but I was VERY happy with how well he responded to the “stimulus” of a plastic bag! Then we worked some more on feet handling. Dukes front feet are uneven. One is about a half inch or so higher than the other so we feel its in his best interests to have the farrier come out and even things up. In preparation for that we’ve needed to focus more on foot handling than we normally would at this stage. Boy does Duke step up to the plate though. He is great with his front feet and today was A-OK with his hind too! Yesterday we had started and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hold them up. Today he held them up just fine. We’ll continue working with positioning and the main concern IS his front feet but if we can get all four done well that would be great!

May 20, 2014

Continuing to work with Duke on haltering. He is doing great! He has been improving each day about being approached and even comes up to see the manure cart when we are cleaning stalls. Tonight I was working with him some on turning his head towards me when haltering / un-haltering. Then we picked out his front feet and I started working with him to pick up is hind. NO kicking. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hold up his foot but didn’t have any negative reactions. Another successful day!

May 19, 2014

Worked with Duke tonight on approach and retreat and haltering. He is getting more confident each day with being approached! I think its time to break out the big guns and start introducing carrots!

Duke was also introduced to a Jolly Ball this evening. I think he likes it!!

 

May 18, 2014

Worked with Duke on haltering tonight. He was much better than his session last night. Sleeping on it and daylight must have helped him out a little bit. It still did take him a couple of minutes to want to stand still for my approach but once he did haltering was pretty easy. We put the halter on and off twice and ended on a good note!

May 17, 2014

Quick review for Duke this evening. We started with a little approach and retreat. I haltered him and picked up both front feet which he is very good about. Then he had a little stranger training with a visitor in his pen. Good session for Duke 😀

May 11, 2014 – Day 13
Training Day 9

Lead Duke outside for a walk around the property. He was excellent! No trouble at all. Worked with him on picking up and holding his front feet so they can be picked out. He did very well!

May 8&9, 2014 – Day 10-11
Training Day 7, 8

Continued to work with Duke on leading and desensitization. Started working on picking up front feet and working towards touching hind.

May 7, 2014 – Day 9
Training Day 6

This clown had escaped from his stall while we were out and came back to him eating the hay bales  so he technically had his first outing! He led back to his stall without too much trouble…once we caught him 😀 Approach and retreat was the main focus, desensitization to the stick and string and reinforcement of touch again. Leading practice left and right. He yields well when it is his idea, when it is not he tends to lean on the halter so we’ll be working to develop lightness in him as much as possible the next few days!

May 5, 2014 – Day 7
Training Day 5

Tonight we spent about 10 minutes reviewing desensitization lessons and then yielding with Duke. At first he was still a bit reactive with the string being thrown over his back but settled very quickly on both sides. From there I worked with him on yielding to pressure from the lead rope. He was a LOT lighter today to both directions. So much so that I quit him for the night to end on a good note. Can’t wait to continue to develop his leading.

May 3, 2014 – Day 5
Training Day 4

We began where we had left off with the stick and string and had to repeat that lesson though the review went much quicker. Then I used my long rope to toss over his back for additional desensitization. Once he was comfortable with that I was able to secure that longer rope around his neck and begin teaching (or attempting to teach) the basics of leading. He was pretty resistant to yielding to pressure. There is no way you or I can out pull a horse that doesn’t want to give. It wasn’t that Duke didn’t want to give its just that he had no idea what I wanted and so his reaction was to brace and run, and he’s a BIG boy so where normally I can still get a little give it was pretty tough with him.

I had to kind of regroup / rethink the way that I was going to get him to yield so he could start to understand the concept. Duke and I had already done lots of changes of direction, he knows how to turn to the inside so while he was bracing against me I stepped to the side and invited him to turn to the inside. When he did, that brief moment he was looking at me with two eyes I released the line. Once he got going back in the other direction, I applied pressure. He would resist and I’d ask for a change of direction. Again when he was looking at me with two eyes I’d release. He really started to grasp the concept after a few minutes and started slowing down and just moving one or two steps in the direction I was pulling instead of switching directions completely.

The new goal for today was to get a leadline/dragline on Duke so he could start teaching himself a little bit about pull and release while he is in his stall. I started again with approach and retreat and he was able to confidently stand while I rubbed his neck and shoulder with my horseman’s stick. I then decreased the distance between him and I until I was instead stroking his neck and shoulder with my hand. Once that was accomplished I still needed to snap the leadline on so I grabbed that. He was a bit concerned at first with the new “tool” over my shoulder but a few seconds later he allowed me again to approach and rub his shoulder. I worked my way from his shoulder to his neck to his jowl and was then able to clip the line to his halter.

PM – I had wanted to measure Duke and totally forgot about that during my morning session. The leadrope I had fastened to him earlier in the day was brand new and when I went to feed in the evening the rope was on the floor but the snap still attached. That was a first!! I went and picked up the rope and realized the back splice had come loose. I still wanted Duke to be using the drag line, at least until tomorrow, so I used approach and retreat to get the line back on him, this time tying it with a knot instead of using the snap. Once I had the leadline on him we practiced leading and he was MUCH better. Yielding both ways. Still very heavy but he is trying and starting to understand the concept. Then I grabbed my measuring stick and worked on approach and retreat with that. He was worried about it at first but within about 2 minutes he figured out it was nothing to be worried about. Then I measured two or three times in different spots and each time he measured a solid 15.1.

 

May 2, 2014 – Day 4
Training Day 3

Approach and retreat today with Duke. He was much better at maintaining eye contact this evening. So todays goal was to work on decreasing his flight distance. He isn’t sure he wants me to come too close even though he is gaining confidence maintaining eye contact. I started to try approaching with the intent to touch him on the shoulder or whither with my stick but he was a bit to concerned with that. Instead I switched gears and went to lightly tossing a string over his back. The string is attached to my horsemans stick and so I was able to use that and a little bit of rhythm to get Duke used to the feeling of the string landing on his back and then moving around. I worked with both sides until he was able to stand still and relax with the string up on his back and moving around.

May 1, 2014 – Day 3
Training Day 2

Worked with Duke today on maintaining eye contact. He’s such a quiet boy and doesn’t have trouble looking at you but tonight he was sure having a hard time maintaining that visual connection for more than a moment. It took a lot of changes of directions and approach and retreat but eventually Duke was able to hold eye contact a couple of times. Good session for him!

April 30, 2014 – Day 2 – Off

April 29, 2014 – Day 1

PM: Worked with Duke briefly this evening to assess him. He’s a quiet, confident kind of horse. Readily makes eye contact but isn’t sure he wants me too close yet.  He isn’t very flighty or reactive at all and should come along pretty quickly once he decides its OK for us to be near him!

AM: Duke unloaded nicely and is  settling in well!

 

At the Corrals

Here are some pictures of Duke at the corrals.