October 28, 2014

Moved Willie to a different stall to kinda simulate how he will be in a new area. He was fine with it, just wanted his dinner 😀 Practiced trailer loading again since it was hooked up and he was going in and out with very little light left. We’ll be sure to get more video before he goes home its just tough with how dark it is 😀

October 27, 2014

More catching without carrots and practicing for bridling where we put the halter on by going up over his ears. Desensitized with the flag, he could care less. Backing is getting a lot softer and while he is slow, he is getting lighter.

October 22, 2014 

Reviewed catching without carrots.  Reviewed picking up feet. He’s doing good with that now. Continued to review backing. He wants to push on me with his nose. He’ll get lighter with practice!

October 21, 2014

Reviewed working with Kenos back feet. He was much improved and now we’ll be able to start teaching him to stand for basic foot handling like having his feet picked out. We reviewed haltering, yielding and desensitization . Finally he ended his lesson by learning to tie. I left him tied in his pen for about a half hour. He did some fidgeting but never set back. Such a good boy.

October 20, 2014

Worked with Keno on haltering. He isn’t bad at all but wants to ignore you if you don’t have a carrot. I don’t feel carrots should be necessary for haltering so we’ve been working on that. We reviewed yielding hindquarters and started teaching him to back in response to pressure on the lead rope. We also started working on picking up his back feet.

October 19, 2014 – OFF

October 18, 2014

Today we did some review with Keno in his stall on leading. He’s still a little pushy / hard on the rope but was doing well enough to come out of his stall and go for a walk. Initially we were just going to take him around the property but he was doing well enough to try the obstacle course. He’ll still need to get a little lighter on the lead line but he is doing great! Video of his first adventure out will be uploaded by Monday.

October 17 – Off

October 16, 2014

Things went very smoothly for Keno this evening. I left a drag line on him last night and this evening he was MUCH more comfortable with having pressure on his face. He was accepting directly nicely and now leads fairly well. Now that he is respecting the halter I was able to rub on his body. He initially was concerned with the right side but soon got over it. We worked on picking up both front feet. We did take video but unfortunately his pen has the least light of all so only some parts are visible. The video shows some leading, yielding hindquarters and picking up both front feet. We are hoping to be able to get Keno going over our obstacle course this weekend!

Arrival Day – October 15, 2014

Keno arrived today and settled in nicely. This evening we worked with him on changing directions, he isn’t too keen on being asked to move. He likes it to be his idea. One thing he does love is CARROTS! We were able to get  a lead line on him and start him with the foundation of leading. Again, he’s going to need some practice because he wants it to be his idea. We’ll help him get comfortable over the next couple of days.