Raven is a 5 yo BLM mustang mare. She is 15.2 hands (but massive so she “seems” bigger)! Raven is a dark brown mare captured from Calico HMA in Nevada in December of 2011. She is a BIG BIG Girl with lots of hair! Raven is not broke to ride although with training she should make a very nice riding horse. Be sure to bookmark this page, like us on Facebook and subscribe on YouTube to ensure you have the most up to date information about Raven’s training progress!!
March 22, 2014 – Day 20
Raven attended and was adopted at the Backcountry Horeman’s Rendezvous in Norco, CA! We delivered her to a wonderful new home where she will be pampered and loved! Here is a video of her loading the morning of.
We got her dressed up in flowers which were really pretty at first…till we turned her loose in a pen and then they didn’t last so long. Oh well! She met lots of people and was in and out of her stall walking around all day. She handled being “surrounded” very well. Sometimes folks don’t realize that being on both sides of a horse to come in for a pet can be a lot of pressure! She handled golf carts, pack mules, trailers and cars all without trouble! She even let a stranger halter her!! All in all a great day for Raven…even better news is she was adopted at the event and went home to a wonderful new family!!
March 21, 2014 – Day 19
Bath for Raven this evening. She did great. She stood tied at the tie rail while I soaped her up including a full shampoo and conditioner treatment on her mane and tail which was quite a bit more work than I am used to because of all her THICK mane! All in all she was perfect!!
March 20, 2014 – Day 18
More tie rail practice for Raven today in addition to more stranger desensitization. She is doing nicely now and accepting strangers that approach!
March 19, 2014 – Day 17
More tie rail practice for Raven plus additional “Stranger Danger” desensitization! She’s getting a little better about letting strangers approach her! It’s so interesting for me to watch her reaction to someone new approaching her because she has NO fear when I walk up to her but somebody new whoa nelly she is SURE they are gonna eat her!!
March 18, 2014 – Day 16
Had some guests out yesterday. Raven was a good girl, I haltered her for them and led her up but boy she was NOT thrilled about somebody other than me petting her! Made her really nervous! A reminder that even though I can do something with her, its because she trusts me. Her adopter will have to earn her trust…and if they are willing to do that, she’s going to be a GREAT horse for somebody. It’s only taken me 2 weeks to get her to where she is now. With a consistent 30 days this mare could easily be under saddle and riding trail by Summer!!
March 17, 2014 – Day 15
Raven spent an hour and a half tied to the railroad tie of patience. Seems like she already has plenty of that…it was a non-issue. She didn’t paw, whinny or set back.
March 16, 2014 – Day 14
Another great day with Raven. Haltering went really well. I made a point to go out three or four times during the day just to put her halter on, pet her and leave. She was great. Less than 2 min each time to get her haltered. Today is the first day we have actually worked on feet. We’ve been doing lots of desensitization getting her comfortable to being touched all over. That hard work paid off. Picking up her feet was a non-issue! I practiced two or three times and then shot this video at liberty!
March 15, 2014 – Day 13
Quite an eventful day of firsts for Raven today and we are super happy with how well she did! Today Raven was introduced to the obstacle course for the very first time. Overall it was a great success and we are super pleased with how brave she is! She tackled most of the obstacles without incident. She did get scared of me kicking around plastics in the plastics box and got loose but I was able to catch her up and continue on as if nothing happened! She’s got such a great mind and naturally wants to be quiet. We’ve only had her 14 days, and fewer than that of actual training so she is doing exceptionally well! She’s going to make a nice quiet mare for somebody!
After the obstacle course lesson we headed over to the tie rail to introduce tying and bathing. She was A-OK with both of those! Didn’t even mind water on her face. The video is 7 min. The first 2 min shows a sample of what we are working on teaching her to lunge. That is followed by her obstacle course work and finally her bath! Because she has been so good I decided today was the day she could finally be in her stall without her halter!
March 13, 2014 – Day 11
Another great day with Raven. Once again we ventured out of the stall without incident. This time covering about 1 acre of our property. We also worked on some groundwork exercises like sending out on the line each way, disengaging the hindquarters and bringing the front end around. Worked on walking forward then stopping. All in all another great lesson!
March 12, 2014 – Day 10
Today’s leading / giving to pressure lesson was going really well in Raven’s 24×24 stall. The problem is she is so big she can take 3 steps forward before we turn so she was getting “stuck”. It was clearly time to venture outside. I have a long alley way in front of the BLM mustang pens. It is what we use to get the horses into their stalls when they first arrive since they don’t lead. I had Joe stand at the end of the alley just in case and took Raven out of her stall for the first time. She was great, didn’t have any trouble coming over the threshold through the gate which a lot of mustangs worry about the first time. From there we worked on leading forward up and down the aisle. She got worried a few times and scooted ahead of me but respected the pull on the lead rope and stopped or stopped and turn. All in all a VERY good session. I was really worried about her breaking free because she does have a tendency to lean on the halter which is why we have been working on lightness. That hard work paid off and resulted in a successful session!
Next we’ll see if we can repeat this success in a bigger area. My 50×50 pen is just the space to try! Keep an eye on Raven’s blog for updates on her training progress!
March 10, 2014 – Day 8
Another excellent session with Raven. I was very pleased that she was MUCH more willing to look at me with both eyes today. That has been a big struggle and most days I have to encourage her with the lead rope in order to get her to consistently look at me. Today she was offering to look at me at liberty! We worked some more on yielding the hindquarters, sending to the left and right and changes of direction while staying soft on the lead line. Because she has had a tendency to want to pull away when she is worried my focus has been lightness / softness and really discouraging her from leaning on the halter. Today was the first day she did not try to leave even once! Very very pleased with that. We had a very good session!
March 8, 2014 – Day 6
She did not get any work today but here are some pictures 😀
March 8, 2014 – Day 6
Today was another good day for Raven. She got last night off. Today I went to the local Walmart and picked up a bottle of Pinks Glosser to use on Ravens mane. After 2 hours and only getting a two inch section detangled I was more than ready to try something different. Boy was I impressed with this product. It took about 15 min to finish de tangling her mane. The product worked great for her dreadlocks which have been 5 years in the making! At $4 for an 8oz bottle this is definitely something you should try next time you encounter a horse with a severely matted mane or tail!
After her mane was detangled I worked on reinforcing our previous lessons. She made great progress today being soft while disengaging her hindquarters and yielding her front end. She’s still about a week from being able to come out of her stall but I love that she is not overly reactive or spooky and especially love that she retains so much from session to session!
March 6, 2014 – Day 4
Quick video from this AM. Remember we’ve only had her 4 days! She’s a pretty quiet mare don’t you think!!
This evening worked with Raven for about 15 min. She was GREAT. I really felt like my hard work from yesterday really paid off. She remembered our lesson and was able to stay soft and light which was exactly what I was hoping for!
March 5, 2014 – Day 3
Tonight’s training goal was two fold. 1. Get Raven to look at me. 2. Change her halter to a rope halter. 2 hours of training and we were able to get both accomplished. Raven is by far the worst horse I’ve had as far as her absolute resistance to looking at me. She leads very lightly now to the right side but when working on the left in her nylon halter, she’d just pull and brace and let me tell you, thee is NO way to overpower this girl! Rather than let her develop a bad habit I knew I needed to get a rope halter on her to continue leading training.
Normally quiet Raven also REFUSES to look at me with both eyes. Always left eye or right eye, never two. In fact, tonight I was pretty pleased she offered up her left side very willingly. That was what we had worked on last night and the smart cookie didn’t need a refresher course this morning! Awesome. What I didn’t anticipate is the hour and a half it would take me to teach her to look at me with two eyes. Boy did I have to think outside the box on that one! She’ll definitely need a refresher course on that next lesson!
Switching the halter was pretty uneventful. After we were done with our turning lesson, I let her stand quietly by the side of the fence adjacent to my other TIP mare. This is her “comfort zone”. I worked to teach her to allow me to touch her face. Then I worked to have her allow my hands on both sides of her neck which went pretty easy. Finally I just slid the rope halter up under her nylon halter, got it all attached and slipped the old one off! We did a quick 15 min leading lesson which went SOO much better!!
I also spent another hour on Raven’s mane this evening. Introduced the spray bottle which was no problem! Luckily she is quite content to just stand quietly while I comb out her mane!
- This pile of dead hair is just from ONE section!
- The ONE braid we were able to get tonight.
- Her mane goes down past her elbow!
March 4, 2014 – Day 2
Pictures from this AM so you can get an idea of the gorgeous tresses on this black (ok dark brown) beauty!
Training session for the evening went REALLY well. I am very happy. I think the drag line went a long way towards helping soften her up. Tonight there was a lot less brace. We worked together until she was VERY light responding to my requests to step off to the side and step forward. She’s extremely resistant to having me on her left side, so we also worked on that. By the end of the training session she was OK with me standing on her left side and I could consistently get her to move forward and stop without trying to turn to get me on her right side. VERY excited to work with her again!
March 3, 2014 – Day 1
Evening session with Raven went very well. I was able to start detangling her MASSIVE mane. It is super thick and was super dreadlocked. I got most of the dreads out but we’ll still need to work on it more. She doesn’t want to look at me much, she’d rather pretend I’m not there. That’s OK, we’ll build her confidence! I worked with her to get consistent turns to the inside. She’s happy to walk when I ask her to move off, not flighty AT ALL so I let her walk. She is one of the VERY few naturally right sided horses I’ve had in. She prefers I stay on her right side, in her right eye. She doesn’t like me to be on her left side at all and will reposition me to where she thinks I should be, on her right side.
Raven is next to Sugar who is super quiet also but super friendly. Because of that, Sugar would hang out next to us in the pen which would give Raven the confidence to stand there too. I worked on approach and retreat first with the stick, then with my hand. She was very good and stood for me to pet her shoulder, neck and cheek. I used Coconut Oil to work out the biggest part of dreads but got tired of that after about 30 minutes! We ended the session with me putting a drag line on her so she can teach herself a little bit about giving to pressure. Really excited to continue working with her. She’s going to make somebody a VERY nice horse!
