February 25, 2015

Practiced picking up the three feet that he knows how to pick up and then also trailer loaded him for the second (and third) time. He was a good boy with no issues! Also practiced tying.

 

February 24, 2015

Continuing to work with Quincy reinforcing the basics. Tonight he learned how to pick up his left hind foot. We had been working on just touching the cannon and today asked him to pick it up. There was no attempts to kick or protest. He’s such a good boy! We will be working with his right hind foot tomorrow! Stay tuned!

February 10-12, 2015

Continuing to work on the basic requirements with Quincy and he is progressing nicely. We spent a lot of the time he has been here getting him comfortable with people. Now that he is pretty good we have been able to concentrate on other requirements such as picking up his feet. His first lesson went awesome and he was able to pick up both front feet. We’ll be able to start his back feet soon!

February 8, 2015

Finally have a working camera again! Just a sort of review for Quincy today. Obstacle course with a twist. The twist was Joe was taking him around not me. I had a LONG day and it was a great opportunity for somebody that wasn’t me to work with him. Quincy was awesome. He didn’t care. He was a little concerned about Joe touching him though. Kind of an ewwww, you are NOT my mom, why are you touching me attitude but he got over it with a couple minutes of approach and retreat.

February 5, 2015

Today I haltered Quincy and took him out on the obstacle course again. I didn’t ask him to send on any obstacles (and won’t till he is more comfortable with the exercise). I did ask him to approach the tire for the first time. He’s a good boy and tried to figure it out but was confused about what I was asking. I accepted him stepping up with one foot twice and ended our obstacle course practice on a good note. On the way back to his stall I decided to practice some sending both ways where he had the pipe corrals as a barrier on one side (for security). He was great! I’ll start working with him on that exercise more outside building his confidence until he can do it both ways off the fence before we try again on the obstacle course. Now that we have overcome that small hurdle we can get back to working on feet again so he can go home!

February 4, 2015

Break through! Finally he started the lesson tonight where yesterdays lesson ended. Consistency really does pay off! Very happy with him tonight. Was sending both ways easily. Finished our short lesson with a walk around the property in the dark.

February 3, 2015

Tonight we reviewed the lesson from the 29th on sending both ways. Again we started at a point where the exercise REALLY concerned him and ended at a point where he was doing well both ways. This time the lesson only took about 1/3 of the time. Progress!

February 1, 2015

I was pretty tired from Horse Expo all day Saturday so today Quincy and I just worked on haltering in his pen. I haltered him four or five times without issue. Did some desensitization review and left him alone.

 January 30, 31 – OFF

January 29, 2015

Worked with Quincy tonight on the obstacle course and he was great as always UNTIL I decided to ask him to “send” over an obstacle instead of lead straight over it. He got scared and took off for the first time. So I tried again with the same result. Instead of teaching him a bad habit of pulling away I decided to take him into a smaller area, my 50×50 and teach him to send in there. You see, he already can do it in his stall I just hadn’t thought about asking him outside before now. It was pretty difficult lesson for him. He was really worried about the tail end of the rope swinging at him actively (asking him to lead) instead of passively (asking him to stand while I throw the rope over his back). We worked on it until he was calmly sending left and right and quit for the night.

January 18, 2015

Great day for Quincy. We went for another spin around the obstacle course, worked on haltering, and also taught him to trailer load. Trailer loading was awesome. He walked right in as if he had done it every day of his life. Backed out nicely too. Additional Video Loading

Obstacle Course

Haltering Practice

January 15, 2015

Today, again, we worked on haltering. This time I took video so I know we worked for exactly 13 minutes. About 10 minutes to halter which is GREAT improvement from yesterday and another three or four minutes of grooming review in his stall. Again, I wanted to make it positive so I just loved on him, made sure I could groom to his buttocks and down his front legs, and let him go and fed him dinner. Video was too dark to publish. All you can make out is shadows moving 🙁

January 14, 2015

After being off since the 10th due to rain Quincy was quite the animated guy when I went to halter him today. He is still living in a big pen and tonight we played the catching game. Thats not some fancy Parelli game, no, its the game where he runs off every time I go to halter him 😛 It took about 30 minutes to catch him tonight. Once he was caught I brought him out of his stall and groomed on him in front of my tack room, tried to give him carrots (he refused) and put him away. I wanted to reassure him that being haltered doesn’t always mean work, it can just mean hey, lets go hang out!

January 6, 2015

I’m missing a few days training in here. I need to get caught up and have a couple of videos to add too. Right now I have Quincy living in a 12 x 16 stall with full access to a 50 x 50 pen. Tonight we worked on catching / haltering in the 50×50 pen. Thats a little tougher because he has SO much space to get away he has to want to be caught. It took about 15 minutes but it was his first time being caught in this pen and it WAS night so I’m pretty happy with him on that. Then we practiced leading around the pen. Not your average leading around though…the “my trainer looks like she is drunk” leading around. Mustangs can be very sensitive to a persons body language so if you walk normally they are OK with it but if you do something abnormal like stumble or stop abruptly they can panic. Quincy was a little worried at first and snorted and shied a bit but never took off. By the time we were done he thought I was normal (I’m clearly not!) Great training session for him.

December 31, 2014 – Training Day 19

Worked today to introduce Quincy to the flag in his stall. He took a few minutes to get used to it and is still skeptical but all in all he did very well. We also continue to work on putting the lead rope on and off over his ears. Check out his video!

 

December 28, 2014 – Training Day 18

Major accomplishment for Quincy today as it was his first trip to the obstacle course!! ALSO his first trip outside of a confined area. I am very PLEASED to say that it went pretty darn smoothly. He didn’t get loose once (most horses will get loose on us at least once while they are with us, usually their first time out in the open). He did test the line a few times and tried to take off twice but both times when he felt the lead line against his but he yielded and turned around and stopped. For the most part he was pretty calm. A little worried but really took everything in stride. In fact, the video will show his first time going over the mattress, he thought about it for a minute and then walked on over.  He had a little trouble at first going over the bridges. He didn’t understand wanted him to walk on top of it. With a some repetition he figured it out. The video also shows his first time with the teeter bridge. A lot of horses will spook the first time it moves and/or the first time it pops up behind them as they walk off. We think he handled it pretty darn good. His first time going over it is shown on the video as well! All in all a super great day for Quincy.

 

December 26, 2014 – Training Day 17

Today focused on review in his stall. He was pretty darn good for haltering. He still needs a few minutes to warm up to being touched but once he settled in he was good to halter. We worked some with the lead rope over his ears that is going to take some more practice as it worries him quite a bit at this stage. We reviewed backing in response to nose pressure and pressure on the lead line. Once all the basics were reviewed, and in light of some of the trouble we had leading outside yesterday I decided to go ahead and teach him how to yield his hindquarters. This is something I sometimes forget to do but is a great tool because it teaches the horse to think through a tough situation and yield his hindquarters. The first time you get the rope around a horses back end a lot of them want to kick at it pretty good. I 100% expected Quincy to be one of those horses. Boy did he show me not to make assumptions. While he didn’t kick he did brace but it only took about 10 minutes to teach him each direction. Really positive training session for him.

 

December 25, 2014 – Training Day 16

Worked with Quincy again on approach and retreat and haltering. Decided to try leading him outside for the first time. We normally do this in our 50×50 pen in case the horses try to bolt, which he did. We spent some time with him teaching him to lunge both ways. By the end of our training session we were able to get nice, calm departures at a walk to the right and was able to stay light on the line at the trot both ways. We’ll need to practice to be able to get the walk departure for the left. Being outside today made him very nervous but we are sure he’ll do better as he gains confidence in the larger area.

December 24, 2014 – Training Day 15

Worked with Quincy again on approach and retreat. Had to cut the session prematurely short so we only worked on the left side. It was good review for him though.

Dec 21 -23. 

I’ve been sidelined with a shoulder / arm injury not related to this horse. Dr. took X rays and I have the all clear to work horses again just can’t have anything pull on me for a while. I hope to get back in with him tomorrow.

December 20, 2014 – Training Day 14

After three days off Quincy and I had quite the review session. He started off wanting to be good but just couldnt handle the approach at first so we spent most of the session working at liberty on approach and retreat. He was really wanting to block me on the right side which is evident in the video. Worked some on haltering. It took a bit but we were able to end on a good note being able to approach and touch him on the neck on both sides at liberty.

This is a full length video almost 40 minutes. It covers start to finish our training session on Saturday with no edits or cuts. During the week typically I would have split this training session in half finding a good place to rest when he was accepting contact on the right side in the corner. Because it was a Saturday and I had good light I decided I wanted to stick with him until he could accept approach on the right side without blocking in a spot OTHER than his safe corner. This video also shows how you have to be flexible when training horses. I went in thinking I was going to repeat our last training session and build on it. With three days off what he needed was more of a review.

December 17-19, 2014 – Off – Pens Too Wet

December 16, 2014 – Training Day 13

Another great day with Quincy. Worked only at liberty today on haltering and approach and retreat. Got him very confident with me walking up and petting him on the left side although without the lead rope he isn’t keen on my approaching his right side.

December 15, 2014 -Training Day 12

Worked with Quincy on approach and retreat. He was quite fresh after the rains plus he has no halter on now so he has to want to stay with me. I was able to approach on both the left and right side and practice haltering. I left him without the halter again. The more we do it the better he’ll get!

December 13-4, 2014 – Off 

Stall was too wet.

December 11-12 – Off due to rain.

December 10, 2014 – Training Day 11

Worked with Quincy at liberty. He’s doing great. We simulated haltering but didn’t actually put the halter on. Lots of approach and retreat. He did really well.

December 9, 2014 – Training Day 10

Worked with Quincy today with a little bit of desensitization. Then we worked on backing up in response to the lead rope. That was a really difficult concept for him even though he is doing great backing up to pressure on his nose. He’d either plant his feet or bolt off confused. I was persistent and rewarded him every time he tried to think about going backward. Pretty soon he was backing up very nicely! With that accomplished, his halter had gotten a little low / loose. He’s been in his stall with a drag line because he’s still a little too flighty but I decided tonight we either needed to tighten his halter or take it off. He was doing GREAT with being touched on the left side of his neck, simulating haltering and being approached so I made the decision to go ahead and take it off. While it’s earlier than I would like I feel confident his trust level in me is increasing sufficiently to allow me to be able to re-halter him in the next few days .

December 8, 2014 – Off

December 7, 2014 – Training Day 9

Worked with Quincy again today on being touched on the sides of his neck. He’s getting better but still very concerned about it. He’s doing great with desensitization and he’ll react to most things when they are brand new but understands the concept now so quickly gets a hold of his emotions if he does need to leave, most of the time though we’re reading each other’s body language well enough that I can introduce things without going to fast and making him feel like he needs to leave.

December 6, 2014 – Training Day 8

Worked some more with Quincy on desensitization. Started teaching him how to back in response to pressure on the bridge of his nose. Also started working towards being able to stand on the side of him. He is very confident when standing in front of me but gets really worried if I stand on either side. He’s Ok with being touched by a rope on the sides but gets really worried if I touch him with my hand and he KNOWS the difference! He’s so silly! This video shows us working on backing up and me trying to offer him a carrot. He wasn’t interested.

 

December 1, 2014 – Training Day 7

Worked with Quincy some more on leading. He retained his lesson well and is still REALLY light…until he’s not. Then he gets scared and tries to leave. But I really love that he wants to be light. Today I worked with him on desensitization and leading then we conquered the SUPER SCARY THRESHOLD…what is that you may ask? A threshold is like a door, or entry way. The horse can feel trapped because of the narrow gap they have to pass through. When it is a door it is a threshold, when it is anything else its just a “squeeze” obstacle. It could  be going in between the tack room and the stall panel, going in between a tire and a log, etc. A lot of times they will walk right up to the threshold then panic or refuse when asked to step or “squeeze” through it. That is exactly what Quincy did. He’d walk right up and put his nose through the gate then panic and shoot backwards. Walk up again and refuse to come forward. Totally normal the first time a horse is asked to lead out of its stall because, unlike when being pushed or shooed, it has time to think about what it is doing and analyze the possibility of danger. The good thing is each time Quincy backed away he got more confidence coming forward and soon was able to cross into my alley and lead into his new pen. It was very mentally taxing for him but he has a lot of try and we were able to get it done.

November 30, 2014 – Training Day 6

Worked with Quincy to start teaching him the fundamentals of leading. At first he was very concerned with the pressure on the lead line and would try and bolt off. With patience and persistence he was soon yielding lightly to pressure on the lead rope left and right as well as forward. Very good training session for him.

November 28 & 29, 2014 – OFF 

November 27, 2014 – Training Day 5

Great training session with Quincy. Wanna see how he did? Video of the entire training session is posted below.

November 26, 2014 – Training Day 4

Worked with Quincy practicing more approach and retreat. He is much quieter when we enter his pen now and consistently looks to me for an answer even when he is worried. Finally he reached out and touched me with the tip of his nose today. Only our fourth training session and he is doing great! Here is a few minutes from our training session today.

 

November 25, 2014 – OFF 

November 24, 2014 – Training Day 3

Worked with Quincy reviewing the previous lesson. Today we worked together to build his confidence where he could stand still while I flicked my string on and off his back and around his neck from either side. He would occasionally still need to walk or trot off but made great progress and was much more often able to just keep his feet still and wait. As his confidence has built he continues to follow me whenever I back away from him. He’s also started coming in closer on his own. As we practiced with the stick and string I was able to get close enough to him today to be able to rub his neck and shoulder with the stick on both sides. We practiced that several times and he did very well.

November 23, 2014 – Training Day 2

Spent about 10 min with Quincy reviewing yesterdays lesson. He’s still got enough confidence to stay within about 6′ or so of me when I am in his pen which is great. He’s watching me and able to turn to the inside both directions when asked. I have some video I’ll upload tomorrow.

 

November 22, 2014 – Training Day 1

Lots of fun working Quincy this afternoon. My goal for the day was to have him accept me flicking the string over his back while he stood. I started off just encouraging him to look at me and he got pretty good at that game both directions. Then I moved on to seeing if he could tolerate the string over his back. It took him awhile but he was finally able to stand and look at me while I flicked the string on and off his back repeatedly. By the time I was done every time I’d back away from him to give him relief he’d take 2 or three steps towards me. Great training session for him tonight. He has definitely settled down a lot since he came in.

November 20, 2014 

Video taken just before feeding time:

 

November 19, 2014 – Arrival Day

Didn’t actually work any of the new arrivals today but did take a couple minutes each to assess them. Mostly looking for flight distance, curiousity, and general personality clues. Quincy is scared. He will follow me if I walk around the inside perimeter of his stall but if I am facing him he needs to be 24′ away from me to feel comfortable. He’ll make eye contact but doesn’t want to hold it too long. We’ll see how he is after a day or two to settle. He’s a BIG guy. Definitely big enough for a man.

At the Facility