King
King is a 7yo ~15.3h Bay Roan gelding gathered from Owyhee HMA. This handsome gelding is in training as part of the Trainer Incentive Program. He will lead, load and pick up all four feet before he goes home. He is NOT trained to ride but should make an excellent trail horse with additional training. He is adoption pending.
September 21, 2015 Update
We decided, after approximately seven weeks of training and discussion with Kings adopter that he isn’t a good candidate for the TIP program. He remained reactive and resistant to touch. While we do believe he can be a good horse with additional training, he was not going to be a good fit for his adopter and was not going to reach TIP requirements in the time allotted by the program. He is available at the Ridgecrest Corrals and would be a good / fun challenge for experienced adopters. He isn’t aggressive or mean at all just scared and defensive.
September 1, 2015 Update
We are continuing to work with King on desensitization. He still doesn’t have enough contact to allow me to touch him but thats OK. He is fine with me standing right next to him and rubbing him with the stick. Every day I get a little closer. He has been VERY touchy about his legs, especially so with the back ones. We’ve been spending a lot of time just standing close by and letting the string touch / gently wrap around his back legs the past couple of days. He has made GREAT progress. He only now rarely kicks at the string and while he is still uncomfortable with it (you can see him flinch in the video) he tolerates it more and more each day. We’ve had horses sensitive about their legs like this before and we are sure he’ll be fine but he’s going to have LOTS of other stuff touch his legs before we ever bend down to touch them with our hands. Please note that due to the editing style of this video (which was necessary b/c its black and white which improved video quality in low light) and also King’s reaction, it looks like the rope /string is touching him harshly. It was only lightly touching him.
August 25, 2015 Update
King is doing great. He is learning how to think and process with me standing on his side rather than bolting off. Having me approach him from the side has been difficult for him and he is getting better each session. For now we are working on the left side. He is leading nicely in his stall. We’ve also worked on touch. So far he thinks its OK if I touch his nose, forehead and side of his muzzle as long as I stay below the halter.
August 10, 2015 – Training Day 5
King started out as he always does, alert and attentive with both eyes on me. He’d let me brush my hand on his nose but that’s it. I started off with some desensitization to the rope. He didn’t seem to mind that at all. When I started tossing the rope over his back I noticed that also didn’t bother him but I did. He really wanted me to stay right in front of him. Every time I’d try and step off to the side, to get a better angle to throw the rope, he’d block me. So that gave us something to work on for the rest of the training session! In the video you can really see the transition from him blocking me initially to finally being able to stand quietly with his side to me rather than having to look at me straight on. He also started off noticeably flighty at first and then settled very nicely. Video being uploaded.
August 6, 2015 – Training Day 3
Worked with King. Another short session. He makes such good progress with his confidence in short sessions I don’t want to blow it and scare him. Today he was able to stand pretty quietly while I touched him all over his neck and barrel on both sides with the lunge whip. This is a preparation step for me working closer to him to touch him with my hand. He’s still leading very nicely. Video below.
August 5, 2015 – Training Day 2
Worked with King only for about five minutes. The goal continues to be just to build his confidence in me. He is still VERY curious so we’re allowing him time to make a decision about approach because we can see he wants to! He is doing very well with leading. He WANTS to follow. Super neat horse to work with. I haven’t had one act like this so I’m interested to see how we develop together. Here is a brief clip of our training session.
August 4, 2015 – Training Day 1
August 3, 2015 – Arrival Day
