September 20 & 21, 2014

Continued to work with Harley on desensitization. Introduced picking up his hind feet. That went well. He’s almost ready to go home!

September 19, 2014

Introduced Harley to the fly spray bottle. He was startled at first but soon figured it out. He is a pretty smart guy!

September 18, 2014

Another great review session for Harley. Haltering and desensitization. He was great. Nothing new introduced.

September 17, 2014

Great session with Harley. He was good to be haltered. We reviewed desensitization to the leadrope and the flag. Then we worked on grooming with the brush all over his body. He isn’t sure about having his legs brushed but is starting to understand he doesn’t have to pick his feet up. From there we worked on leading by his front feet. He was very good for that and soon he was picking up both front feet without issue.

September 16, 2014

Worked with Harley again on desensitization. Tonight I introduced a fabric flag. He was startled at first but started to get better with it after some repetition. Really working on sacking him out before I start to work with his feet since he is a little jumpy about being touched. He has been very easy to approach and catch so from now on he won’t need to wear his halter in his stall.

September 15, 2014

Lots of fun with Harley tonight. Worked on desensitization to the stick and string and the lead rope. Started with getting him used to being brushed. We also worked on yielding his hindquarters, yielding his forequarters and backing up in response to pressure.

September 11, 2014

Lots of fun work with Harley tonight. He came out of his stall for the first time. Just a walk down the alley to switch stalls but still, he was very good for it. The pen he is in now has more light for me to be able to work him at night. We worked on more desensitization to the stick and string, worked on getting him comfortable with being touched by the stick all over his body including his legs. We worked on yielding the hindquarters in response to steady pressure from the stick as well as rhythmic pressure from the tail end of the lead rope. We started on the foundations of yielding his front end left and right. Worked on backing up in response to pressure on the nose and worked on simulating haltering. Even unhaltered him and haltered him with no problem. It will be a couple days still before I’ll leave him with the halter off. All in all a really good training session. LOTS accomplished.

September 9, 2014

Worked with Harley on being touched all over his body with the stick and string. He started out jumpy but soon settled and relaxed nicely as the lesson progressed!

September 8, 2014

Harley got to spend some time with some visitors today. They were able to come in and pet him and get to know him a little bit. We are happy to announce he is adoption pending!

September 7, 2014

Great training session with Harley. Spent about 30 minutes with him and he now leads and accepts touch on his left side. The leading came easy. Touch was a big problem for him. He was OK with having his face touched on his terms but try and touch his cheek or his neck and he had to move his feet / evade you. It took lots of repetition of me touching his shoulder and neck with my carrot stick. Up and down up and down till finally he realized it didn’t help to move and it wasn’t that bad to be touched. Once he was comfortable with the carrot stick touching him my hand was no big deal. I was able to touch his neck and cheek etc. He wasn’t afraid of me at any point, it was touch and the anticipation of touch that worried him. With touch out of the way I worked with him for just a couple minutes and was able to get his halter switched from the Nylon halter he came with to the rope halter I prefer to train in. All in all a great day!

September 6, 2014

Spent just a few minutes with Harley. First impressions are that he is a pretty quiet, curious horse. Discovered he loves carrots. He’s curious about me and willing to come up and say hi when I am in the pen with him. If I am outside the pen he is much braver and confident. I was able to use a carrot as a lure to get a drag line on him pretty successfully so I am going to let him drag that around for the evening and start playing with him tomorrow hopefully!

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September 5, 2014 – Arrival Day!

Always fun when new horses and burros come in! Here are some pictures!!