Tessa
Tessa is a 5yo gray mare gathered from Saulsbury HMA in Nevada. This pretty mare is in training as part of the Trainer Incentive Program. She will lead, load and pick up all four feet before she goes home. She is NOT trained to ride but should make an excellent trail horse with additional training.
April 18, 2016
Video showing a bad day for Tessa haltering. We’re still working very hard on her poll sensitivity / haltering issues although this will be something that will take her lots of repetition to get over. Normally she has a morning session and an evening session for haltering. This day she had not had her morning session AND it was windy. While normally we can approach, ask for her muzzle, then halter within 2-3 minutes. We wanted to be sure to show a worse case scenario.
April 17, 2016
April 11, 2016
We’re continuing to work with Tessa on her poll / muzzle sensitivity. Here is a quick video from the few minutes a day we spend reinforcing picking up feet.
A video posted by April Lee (@familyhorses) on
March 31, 2016
Continuing to work with Tessa. She’s finally overcomed some of her muzzle sensitivity to start letting us train her to accept haltering normally. Still working on poll sensitivity and tying but making good progress. She’s great to lead around the property and good with her feet so once we can get her a little farther along with her head sensitivity she’ll be on her way to her new home!
March 15, 2016
March 1, 2016
Been continuing to work with Tessa on picking up her back feet. She still gets worried initially but after a couple tries she is fine. We have also been working on tying. She has done great when she is tied by herself but would set back when approached so we moved her to her stall for tying lessons (for comfort) and she’s really progressing now. Even though she gets worried she tries hard to not set back. The puppy shouldn’t have been in the stall…When I realized she was I cut the video short and removed her.
A video posted by April Lee (@familyhorses) on
February 24, 2016
Tessa is still working on haltering but starting to understand how to pick up her back feet. She’s never kicked out when asking for the foot but, instead, pulls it away and walks off. She’s starting to be able to hold it up for us for a second or two before getting uncomfortable. We’ll build on that! She’s also been doing really good with her poll desensitization. She’s now allowing us to simulate bridling with a lead rope. She still needs refinement but we’re very happy about the progress.
February 23, 2016
Tessa is doing great with picking up her front feet and we’ve continued to work on hindquarter desensitization. Still also working with her on desensitization. She wants to run off for the initial approach when our training session starts. After a couple of times of approach and retreat she is great. We’re working on getting her to where she can be more confident when we go to approach her for haltering at the start of each training session.
February 18, 2016
We’ve been working with Tessa on desensitization and she’s been doing great. Today was the first day she consistently picked up both front feet without worrying. We’re also working on desensitizing her poll / ear are which has been super sensitive for her. We have also been working on hindquarter desensitization and she should be ready to start picking up her back feet soon!
February 14, 2016
Tessa had her first trip on the obstacle course today. She did great! Took her time to think about the obstacles and never panicked. We’ll have video coming soon!
January 10, 2016
Great first lesson for Tessa leading outside her pen. This was the first time Joe had handled her so she was worried when he approached her the first time. For size reference Joe is 6′ tall.
January 1, 2016
I’ve been working with Tessa off and on. She’s gotten much better at leading and should be able to come out of her pen soon on her first walk around. Here is a video from today.
December 17, 2015
Started working with Tessa for the first time on leading. She started off very impressively soft to the left. She was, however, very resistant to the right. Certainly not an atypical response by any means. I continued to work with her and she was soon starting to understand what was being asked. Here is some video from our training session.
December 16, 2015
1st haltering accomplished! For the next two or three days she will wear a drag line to learn about giving to pressure. We’ll work with her in coming days to teach her to lead and once she is doing good we’ll pull the drag line off of her.
December 15, 2015
So we spent today working on haltering. I had thought I would be able to halter her today but instead I worked on her confidence being rubbed with the halter on the off side of her neck. She was brave and stood for me to rub the left side of the neck, closest to me, but would worry every time I reached the halter under her neck to the right side. When she got worried I’d let her walk off and then I would re-approach and try again. By the end of our training session she was calmly standing still while I rubbed both sides of her neck with the halter.
December 14, 2015
Tessa is doing great. She’s building confidence and I’m hoping to be able to halter her in our next training session. Here is a quick video:
December 9, 2015
Lots of great progress with Tessa tonight. We started with review of turning to the inside and facing up. We also reviewed being touched with the lash. I decided to throw a soft rope on her to start teaching her to give to pressure in preparation for haltering and leading. She got a little worried at first about the pressure. We waited until she softened and were very careful to reward her as soon as she tried. Within a few minutes she understood how to get rid of the pressure and was easily coming in toward us. I was able to use some approach and retreat and walk right up to her and pet her on the left side of her neck several times. We ended on a very positive note.
December 7 & 8, 2015 – Off
December 6, 2015
Worked with Tessa on desensitizing to the lash of the lunge whip and turning to the inside. Today she wasn’t focusing on me and was trying to do her turns to the inside. We worked quite a bit at turning to the inside and she finally remembered / decided to cooperate. Love working this mare. She is smart and brave.
December 5, 2015 – Off
Took a couple of pictures and a quick video 😀
A video posted by April Lee (@familyhorses) on
December 4, 2015
Worked with Tessa some more on turning to the inside. Started working with her with desensitizing to the lash of a lunge whip. She wasn’t worried about it at all!
December 3, 2015
Worked with Tessa on turning the inside and facing up. She is super smart and was able to learn very quickly what I was asking over her.
December 2, 2015 – Arrival Day
Today we just did a quick 3 min evaluation of Tessas temperament. It is absolutely normal for mustangs to come in scared, worried and flighty. Tessa is super calm, curious, and already brave enough to walk up and smell us. We’re very excited to be able to work with her.
