Lucy is a 4 yo BLM mustang mare. She stands 15.1 - 15.2 hands and is a sooty Buckskin from the Calico Mountain HMA. She was captured in December 2011 as a 3 year old. We picked her up from the Ridgecrest Holding Facility on April 17, 2013. Lucy was gentled as part of Mustang Heritage Foundations Trainer Incentive Program. I chose her name because she reminds me of the actress that played Xena: Warrior Princess, a show I loved when I was a kid. Her name is Lucy Lawless. Xena was a strong, yet feminine Amazon warrior princess with beautiful dark hair and usually clad in dark leather. Lucy is all that…in a horse! If you watch this video from start to finish you can see the transformation Lucy made. She started as a reactive, flighty, nervous wild horse and with only 34 days of training and building trust showed us how gentle, level headed and willing a mustang can be! Lucy has found an adopter.

Update!! - 11/08/2013

Lucy and her adopter are doing just great. She’s been started under saddle without any issue and had her first trail ride today! She’s got such a big stride when walking out the other horses have to jog to keep up! Way to go Lucy!

Day 82 - 07/07/2013

Training Day 34

Today Lucy learned how to load into the stock trailer without a chute. Took about 10 minutes of approach and retreat before she loaded the first time. With practice she became more and more confident. This video shows her first lesson with the trailer start to finish, and then the end result before she was loaded to go to her new home!

Day 73 - 06/27/2013

Training Day 33

Quick review tonight for Lucy. Spent about 15 minutes working on haltering and picking up all four feet. Her adopter has been approved and she’ll be moving to San Diego in a week or so!

Day 69 - 06/23/2013

Training Day 32

Lots of progress with Lucy’s feet this weekend. She now picks up all four feet when asked and holds them up. We’ll continue to work with her to gain confidence with other aspects of foot handling such as picking out her hind feet until she goes home. A friend is borrowing our trailer and as soon as that is back, hopefully this week, we’ll get video of her loading into the trailer. I’m sure she’ll be no problem as she is such a nice mare and has taken everything thrown at her in stride.

Day 65 - 06/19/2013

Training Day 31

Steady progress tonight! I haltered her and started with grooming her body / legs. She did so well with absolutely no issue I thought today is as good a day as any to ask for her back feet. Sometimes I’ll start them with a rope, sometimes with my hand. I thought Lucy would be OK with my hand since she’s never offered to kick. I was right. She did a couple of stomps but nothing too bad. The video is 9 min and shows all the work I did with picking up her feet today. We ended at a point where she’d pick up her feet without stomping them. At the end of our session we worked some more with her poll. She’s definitely sensitive in that area. Yesterday while brushing her mane I realized poll desensitization didn’t transfer from the side to the front to brush her forelock. So today we worked on both sides. We ended the lesson as I try to with all my horses, asking her to bend her face towards me as I let the halter come off. Its harder for a horse to turn and run off if they have their nose tipped in. I also believes it helps with getting them haltered, because I ask her to tip her nose in the same way when I catch her.

Day 64 - 06/18/2013

Training Day 30

Some more firsts for Lucy today. Once again she needed to move her feet before I could get her haltered so I helped her with that. I gave her plenty of opportunity to turn and face and stay with me but she kept backing away every time I would approach. Took about three min to get her locked and focused on me. Went in the house and grabbed a camera person and wormer. This video shows her first time being wormed without a chute and her first time having her legs touched. Both went way better than expected. She lifted her leg at first due to the unfamiliar sensation but NEVER offered to kick. She did stamp her hind foot at first. I was expecting her to either kick out or explode forward and pleasantly surprised when neither happened.

Where this video cuts of we worked for another 30 min or so. I re-braided her mane, worked on grooming, and worked on desensitization to her poll. For grooming I had no problem brushing all the way down all four feet with her standing still. The worst she did was lift a foot in uncertainty. I am very happy and hope to get video of that during her next lesson. I did lots of poll desensitization while brushing her mane. We worked on her allowing approach and touch while standing calmly and / or dropping her head. There was lots of licking and chewing and yawning.

Day 62 - 06/16/2013

Training Day 29

Great overall training session for Lucy. Lots of review. She wasn’t keen on standing still to be haltered at first but a couple of forced laps around her pen and she soon settled down. I played some with her mouth and was much more invasive than I’ve been in the past. She was OK with everything. Got some pictures and video which I’ll be sending to BLM because it looks like Lucy is 6 and not four as they had originally aged her. She has all her permanent teeth, her central incisors are longer than they are tall and she’s missing cups from her bottom central incisors. According to an AAEP article on aging…that puts her at six but not yet seven. I’ll see what BLM says.

I worked with her some on reinforcing the basics. We did some rope work, some leading, disengagement. That all went very well and I decided to work some more on picking up her front feet. This was also the first time I took a brush to them. It’s a much different sensation for her and she did very well. Soon we’ll progress to the hoof pick. During the grooming I try to keep her nose slightly tilted towards me. I like to be sure she can see me and if she were to get worried I have a better chance of disengaging her than having her shoot past me and kick me. Even though she’s never offered to kick there is no reason for me to not keep as safe as possible. While I was uhaltering her I inadvertently hit her in the face with the end of the halter…or at least I think I did. She reacted negatively (so would I!) and I made an effort to affirm to her that I wasn’t going to hurt her. I always end the session where I start which is disengagements with her focused on me. All in all a great training session. The video shows the end of her training session without edits.

Day 59 - 06/13/2013

Training Day 28

This video is the second time I haltered Lucy today. I went in with her for five min right when I got home, worked the other horses, then shot this video. She was better the first time. In the video she startles at the neighbor kids while being haltered and forgets I’ve got her foot for a minute too. That’s OK. She hasn’t even had 30 days of training yet. Considering she’s doing great!

Day 58 - 06/12/2013

Training Day 27

Another great lesson for Lucy. Once again she was fairly quiet to approach in her stall. She connected with me quickly and I disengaged her at liberty in both directions to ensure she was ready to focus. I introduced a green pool noodle at liberty. Lucy thought that sure was scary at first. It didn’t take her long to sniff it and pretty soon after that she decided it is nothing to worry about. She doesn’t like it on her back legs though. Although she never kicked on it she sure does pin her ears and hold up her leg in threat when the pool noodle is touching her. Such a drama queen! Lucy did so well with the pool noodle I decided to work on rubbing and petting. She is doing great with me rubbing and petting all down her front legs, body, and both sides of the neck. Today was the first time she was OK with ‘hugging’ around her neck. She was so nonchalant about it in fact that I decided to work on haltering. Getting the halter off was a bit of a chore as I had to work it loose for quite a while. The whole time she stood quietly. I was able to take the halter off and put it back on tonight five times in a row without very much effort at all. She still has her head high, I’d prefer it lower but we can work on that. Really happy though with today’s training lesson and now Lucy gets to live without her halter!

Day 55 - 06/09/2013

Training Day 26

Great session with Lucy. We spent some time in the 50 x 50 pen working on leading. I introduced a lunge whip for a “go forward” tool because Lucy tends to stick and really lag on the line. That worked really well and pretty soon she was leading and following nicely in the bigger pen. I decided she was soft enough to try on the obstacle course. We’ve spent a lot of time giving to the rope and yielding but I wasn’t sure she wasn’t going to try and pull away so I asked Joe to lead her. Of course he can’t stop her if she really gets scared but he can give her a much firmer reason to stay than I could if she does try to take off. She did VERY well and handled the obstacle course with ease. Joe is still refining his horsemanship skills and we reviewed the video for moments he should have offered more release or given her time to process. All in all a very productive day for Lucy though! At the end of the lesson I worked with her some more on her head dropping cue. She’s started bobbing in anticipation so I’ll spend some time over the next couple of lessons to some desensitizing to her poll area so she isn’t anticipating so much.

Day 49 - 06/03/2013

Training Day 25

Great session with Lucy today. We reviewed some rope work and desensitization to touch on her legs. She’s still apprehensive about being touched on her right front. We also worked on desensitization to the bareback pad. This is the first time she’s seen the bareback pad. If you remember we worked some with the saddle blanket on her left side. You can see when she is approached on the right side how she feels more comfortable touching the bareback pad with her cheek rather than letting it touch her neck or shoulder. Ideally I would have spent more time desensitizing her with the bareback pad. Hindsight is 20 / 20. The video cuts off at the end of our work with the bareback pad. After that I continued to work with Lucy for another 20 minutes. I wanted to do some work to prepare her to having the bareback pad fastened on. I started with my carrot stick to check her under belly desensitization. There sure was a hole there…she was very ticklish.

I spent some time getting her used to being rubbed with the stick under her belly until she stopped trying to move away every time I would touch her. Once that was OK I used another of my long ropes to loop around her cinch area. Once I had the tail of the rope threaded through the carabiner I went ahead and used pressure and release to get her ready for “cinching”. She was OK with that so I adjusted my rope and tightened it up on her belly. I use a “ring” rope so that if she panics really hard I can just release her. All of the pressure is held by my hand. It’s a great tool because when she started bucking I was able to “release” her when she would stop and stand. She figured that out pretty quick and soon I was able to move her off at a walk and a trot without her offering to buck. In fact, she started GIVING to the pressure on her girth area. That’s fine by me. I spent about five minutes leading her by her the rope around her belly.

By the end of the work with the rope around her girth area she had accepted it and quit bucking. Next training session we’ll review and start at the beginning. I wanted to finish by working with her on a cue to drop her head. Lucy is very naturally high headed. I don’t want to have to stand on my tip toes to get her haltered. I used pressure and release and was able to get her to consistently lower her head about six inches from either side when cued. Today was the first time I felt like she actually understood what was being asked so I feel we made great progress! Ideally I’d like to see her get to a point where she will drop her head level with her withers. That way I can practice putting my arm over her neck and slipping a halter on and off. All in all a very productive training session!

Day 44 - 05/30/2013

Training Day 24

More review today of leading, rope work. Started grooming with the brush. The bristles are a much different sensation than just a hand so that takes some getting used to. Asked for Lucy’s left front again and asked for the right front first time on the video. Still playing with her mouth to get her to relax. Her forequarter yields are getting better and will continue to do so if I can just organized my rope better! Great review session for Lucy today!

Day 43 - 05/29/2013

Training Day 23

After six days without work Lucy and I started off with review of what we’d learned so far. To begin I waited to see how many laps she felt she needed to do before she started looking to come in to me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that she only needed about two laps and started being attentive, walking towards me etc. She wasn’t ready to be touched yet though so we worked on reviewing desensitization with the rope. She started off wary of the rope and needing to leave when it was coming toward her but soon settled. She was better to start on the left side than the right. I put more effort tonight into exaggerating my hand movements when I’d throw the rope at her. I maintained rhythm but made myself bigger. She got it and pretty soon she was connected mentally and physically disengaging her hindquarters when asked and standing for the rope to be thrown on and around her.

Now that I had her brain connected to me I snapped the lead rope on. We practiced leading. I still would prefer her lighter on the line and practiced asking as softly as I could getting firmer with her when necessary. It took quite a bit of repetition but pretty soon she was leading forward in a circle about 40% of the time when I would lift up on the leadline and walk off. I practiced approach and retreat on the line. To take her out of her pen I need to have a good idea what she’s going to do if she gets scared and bolts. Is she going to hit the end of the line and keep going or is she going to give. I approached her with more energy that I normally used but still in a friendly manner. The change in my body position put her on high alert and sure enough she bolted off. When she hit the end of the rope she’d keep her nose turned toward me. That’s a GOOD thing! I continued until she was no longer afraid of my hyper walk and we moved on. I’ll want to test her leadline response in the big pen before I take her outside but she did well with this lesson. I played some friendly games with her mouth and head. Started to teach her a cue to drop her head as she’s naturally very high headed. Also started sticking my finger in her mouth and getting her used to parting her lips so I can have a look at her teeth.

After leading I felt she was still nicely connected to me and relaxed so I decided to introduce something new….the dreaded blue saddle blanket. It may not seem scary but Lucy was pretty positive it was capable of eating her. Her way of dealing with the horse eating saddle pad approaching her front end?? She rests her left cheek on it. Weirdo. Did that six or seven times…if she were human I’d say she was reasoning that if she had her face on it it couldn’t touch her anywhere else and she could “keep an eye on it”. She never did blow up or bolt off. I started slowly unfolding the saddle blanket and playing approach and retreat with her shoulder, then her back, then finally opening the blanket up and throwing it over her with energy repetitively. Everything only from the left tonight but she did VERY well. As I was waiting for my photographer I decided to see what she thought about me rubbing her cannons and fetlocks on her left fore. Today was the first day she offered no resistance! I was pretty darn happy with that. The pics show me rubbing her leg and then asking her, for the VERY first time, to pick the foot up. She was super confused but didn’t panic, strike or set back. That was a GREAT note to end the lesson on so I pet her, unsnapped her lead and gave her 2 nice big flakes of hay and some rice bran as a treat. She yawned four or five times…I’ll have to try to be more interesting next time!

Day 37 - 05/23/2013

Training Day 22

Great session for Lucy tonight. We started off with yielding hindquarters and petting. Worked at liberty petting all the way down both front legs. She’s doing great at that. She is apprehensive on the right front leg and left twice but came right back to me. After working on petting I decided to snap my rope on her and do some more rope work. She usually is very worried when we start and by the time we finish she is very calm. The same was true today. I did increase the pressure level for her towards the end and she handled that very well.

We worked on leading and she was very stiff and bracy. I wasn’t quite sure what to do about that. She’s been super light in the past but even with pressure and release she was really making me pull on her to get steps forward. I remembered something I had read in True Horsemanship Through Feel about a horse not being as light as it could be moving his forequarters around his hind end and a Buck Brannaman asking Bill Dorrance what he could do to fix it. Bill’s answer to Buck was to work on his horse’s hind end. I thought to myself well..leading forward isn’t working, and when I lead her to the side she just turns and faces so I don’t get any forward motion out of her that way, lets do something different. So I did. I worked with her on yielding her forequarters in response to pressure on her face and encouragement from the lead rope, much as you would do when sending a horse out on a circle to lunge. Boy was that ever confusing and frustrating for her. She swished her tail in protest, stomped her feet as if to try to shake off a fly. The first 10 minutes or so she would hold her ground as long as she could bare and then bolt off in the direction I was asking her to go. I rewarded every step in the right direction no matter how she did it. So even when she bolted as long as it was the right direction she was rewarded. Slowly but surely she started to lick her lips in understanding and after about 20 minutes or so she understood. By the end of the lesson on moving her forequarters I could consistently get two or three light steps in each direction with just a suggestion.

I thought about quitting right there but I really wanted to see if anything I did helped her out with leading. Well I’ll be darned if she didn’t lead light as a feather and follow me around her pen both directions and in figure eights. Now I can’t be 100% sure it was the forequarter work but I am 100% sure it was a whole lot better than where we started. We ended on a good note and I am excited to see what we get accomplished this weekend. I’d like to get her tying, start doing cinch prep on her and get her through the obstacle. We’ll see what happens though, it all depends on her.

Day 36 - 05/22/2013

Took about 5 min today at feeding time to just stop into Lucy’s stall and pet her on both sides. She was a little more reactive than I thought she would be so I worked on yielding her hindquarters and facing in until she settled. It only took a few minutes, I pet her on both sides and left her to her dinner. Doesn’t really count as a “training” session for me…more of a reminder for Lucy that humans don’t eat horses.

Day 34 - 05/20/2013

Training Day 21

Tonights lesson with Lucy covered a lot of different ground. We started off with crossing a new plastic object, a cut open feed bag. That proved to be a non-issue and Lucy stood on it as if she were trained to do so (she’s not). I didn’t expect a big problem because she did so well with the tarp but this plastic makes a louder noise. She’s so brave when it comes to objects she can stand on. The height stick, on the other hand, was not something she wanted anything to do with. With consistent approach and retreat she did finally allow herself to be measured. She stands a solid 15.1 - 15.2 depending on where she is standing. Her pen is not level and I had her loose but she is definitely one big girl! After the measuring stick (which is where the video ends) Lucy and I did some rope work, practiced leading until she was nice and light for a couple of circuits around her pen and worked on touch. We worked until she was comfortable being touched all over her front legs all the way down to the hoof. She did very well and I should be able to start brushing her in the next training session. She seemed to understand that when I reach for her feet it’s not to cut them off…its just to rub on her! We ended with lots of petting on her face and some flexing to left in preparation for eventually needing to be able to halter her. Video is being edited and will be uploaded soon.

Day 33 - 05/19/2013

Training Day 20

I had a busy week this week so Lucy had 3 days off. Today’s video shows our training session less the first five minutes it took for her to settle and focus on me and allow herself to be caught. Today’s session was meant only as a review. Her leading today was subpar…she was too heavy for my liking however, I wanted to continue to focus on touch and desensitization. Eventually I need to be able to touch Lucy all over her body and halter her. In order to do that I need to desensitize her body and face to touch. She is doing very well with her body but still protective of her legs. She’s gaining much more confidence having me on her right side which is a plus. Throwing the rope over her head does 2 things for me: 1. it gets her used to exaggerated movement of my arm and teachers her she doesn’t need to move when I swing my arm in an arc like that and 2. she learns that if she raises her head she gets the rope tangled..some times I do that anyway accidentally..in either case its light enough that she has learned its not really that bad. Overall a good session today. If I had my druthers I would have started earlier in the day and worked with Lucy until she was a lot softer on the line. That will have to wait for another training session.

Video uplaoding

Day 29 - 05/15/2013

Training Day 19

Good session today with Lucy. In the beginning of our session I made the mistake of rushing her for the sake of rushing getting a video (I’m always worried about the failing light). She’s was a lot lighter for me yesterday when first asking her to give to just pressure on the poll and I should have taken more time to get her lighter before I switched to the neck rope. I’m using a neck rope because I haven’t done enough work with her to be able to get the snap under her jaw, well at least not at the beginning of today’s session. I worked a lot on it at the end of today’s session, mostly because I can’t keep leading her by her neck, and feel confident I’ll be able to use her halter from now on. As you can see in the video, today is her first day out of her pen since she arrived. She did fairly well with the threshold. I can’t think of one mustang that DIDN’T worry about coming out of its stall for the first time. I’m pretty happy with how she did that. There are three gates to squeeze through in order for Lucy to get from her pen to the 50×50 pen. She did very well.

I use approach and retreat, pressure and release to help teach her to lead. She understands this very well and was surprisingly not too distracted by the boisterous stud colts in the adjacent pen. We had a nice leading session in the big corral. My worries about her getting scared and pulling off were justified, she got loose 3 times when I would approach to pet her. I was able to work with her to build her confidence in the larger pen and ended the session after I was able to approach and pet her on both sides without her trying to escape. The longer line definitely prevented her from being able to leave a few times. If I would have had her on a 12′ leadline I am certain she would have learned a bad habit that she can get away from me. The 50 x 50 pen worked to my advantage giving her only so much distance she could travel before hitting the end of the line. She’ll still need a few more days of reinforcement and confidence building on the lead line but I am optimistic that we may be able to get her out onto the main property as soon as this weekend.

Today’s training session finished in her stall reinforcing pressure and release. I played the friendly game with her and the end of the rope throwing it over her back from left to right about a hundred times. Throwing the rope around the front canons about 50 times and doing lots of approach and retreat and scratching of both sides. On both sides I worked my way to where she can tolerate my hand just behind her ears, she’s really apprehensive about it, but she tolerates it. Also worked to where she would tolerate me rubbing / scratching on her from her poll to the point of the hip on both sides. Her right side was a real challenge for her to accept contact that far back. I also worked on desensitizing her to touch all the way down to the knee on the left side. She’s still unsure but only lifted her leg and never tried to leave. Using the rope again I played the friendly game flicking the rope so it would cup her belly. A flurry of tail swishing ensued but she never kicked at it. We kept that up until she stopped with her tail. The end of the session for the evening I need to get the rope off her neck. The ring on it is so big it auto loosens so that is never an issue, which is the reason I like it as a neck rope, but sliding it off is too easy. We worked on throwing the end of the line over her head / ears. The motion is very similar to what the horse would see / feel if you were riding in a halter and needed to flip the lead rope from one side of the neck to the other. As with other desensitization exercises Lucy started off really resistant and worried and as I flipped the rope from side to side with rhythm she began to realize that keeping her head still actually results in less chance of the rope hitting her in the eye. Pretty soon she just stood there only bobbing her head a bit when I’d throw the rope over. All in all nice progress today.

Day 28 - 05/14/2013

Training Day 18

This was a good day for Lucy. Things started off a couple steps backwards. She was really flighty and really needed to move. While that in and of itself is normal she wasn’t focusing and was crashing around which she hasn’t done for atleast the past four or five sessions. I let her do what she needed to do just requiring that she change directions when I asked. Once she had settled and started looking for permission to come in we were able to get down to business. I reinforced touch on the left side of her neck all the way up her neck, at her crest and started scratching and rubbing her all the way down her spine (she has lots of loose hair there), over the top half of her barrel and down to her thigh on the front. Also started under her neck some and reinforced touching and rubbing her cheek. She still won’t let me touch her anywhere else on her face. We then moved to the right side, she needed to leave a few times on that side. Started by rubbing her cheek. She needed to leave a few times before she would let me get to her neck. From there I was able to build her confidence with approach and retreat until I could consistently walk up to her and pet her on the neck and shoulder. I did do a couple scratches on her withers but she was clearly uncomfortable with that so I pushed it just enough to where she didn’t need to leave but wasn’t sure she should stay. She’ll gain more confidence with time.

After all the rubbing on both sides I decided to use my 22 foot rope for some desensitization exercises. She did very well. She is not quite sure about the rope wrapping around her cannon but she stood for it. Also worked on throwing the rope over her back in a rhythmic motion from both the left and right sides. We worked until she learned that too was nothing to be worried about. Towards the end of our session I wanted to see where she was on leading but she’s not comfortable with me reaching under her jaw yet to get the leadline back on the halter. Instead I used my ring rope around her neck. I was pleasantly surprised that she was super light and soft on the line, both left and right and was easily leading forward today. Our last leading session was good, don’t get me wrong, but this one was GREAT. If she does that well tomorrow I’ll take her across the alley to the 50 x 50 pen to see how she does in a bigger area while still maintaining a fenced perimeter as a safety net. Even though Lucy is doing well, she needs to “leave” if she gets scared or worried. That’s fine in her pen. My three acres are fenced but not really something I need anybody loose in so we’ll make sure to take the couple extra steps to build her confidence before we take her out into the open. No pictures or video tonight.

Day 26 - 05/12/2013

Training Day 17

I personally LOVE a long mane and also take much pleasure in detangling and braiding them. I was super frustrated at not being able to get to her mane in a couple of days like I did all the others. She seemed to remember yesterdays lesson. Everyday she needs to move her feet for the first 10 minutes or so. She’s gotten to where she is no longer frantic about it though. I think its more self soothing than anything else. I was able to braid up to the point where I’d have to mess with her halter. The mane flips over up at that point and I don’t need to be slipping my fingers under her halter until she is more comfortable with me so that will come later. No video today, here are some pics.

Day 25 - 05/11/2013

Training Day 16

Lots of progress today with Lucy. Took about 15 - 20 minutes this afternoon for her to finally figure out she COULD tolerate me petting the left side of her neck and standing next to her. Lots of approach and retreat. She did so well I decided to introduce the spray bottle. She left the first time I sprayed it and after that it was not really any issue. I am still letting her make her own decision if she needs to leave. If she does we work on changes of direction and yielding her forequarters or hindquarters and then I approach again. She let me mess with her hair for about an hour before I decided she deserved a break. I’m still not all the way done with it but I did put a huge dent in the massive knot she had. It was one of the worst mane knots I’ve seen. Luckily I’ve dealt with a tail that was worse! This was one time I wish I had purchased a new bottle of detangler! On a tame horse I’d do WD-40 in a pinch and wash it with Orvus but can’t do that on a wild one until I’m sure I can wash it out! Oh well, the 50/50 conditioner and water works well enough in the spray bottle, just have to keep applying to keep the hair wet. I am very careful to keep hair loss down to a minimum. There was a lot of detached mane tangled up in the knot. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to get the rest of it out and braid her up. Might even try to wash it. We’ll see what happens. I have more video from today I’ll be editing and putting together at some point this weekend. In the meantime here are some pictures and video I shot myself before my cameraman was available!
These training videos will open Youtube in another tab: Training Video Part 1 – Training Video Part 2

Day 23 - 05/09/2013

I don’t consider today a training day. The video below is 30 seconds or so short of the entirety of our session tonight which totaled under 5 min. With the combination of rain, wind and traffic it was dark and I was tired by the time I got home. I thought there might be just enough light to get a bit of video so used the opportunity to review what we’d worked on yesterday. Her energy level was definitely up but she was able to settle and stop and think. Towards the end of the video I ask her to stop along the rail. She really uses the corners as her “safe spot” which is great when I’m teaching new stuff because she’ll tolerate more in a corner but as soon as possible I like to ask her to stand outside her comfort zone letting me know she’s accepting the lesson not just “dealing” with it. You can see her flip her head towards the end. She was irritated, the plastic bag came too far forward and she didn’t like it!

Day 22 - 05/08/2013

Training Day 15

Worked with Lucy on desensitization with a plastic bag tonight. Attached the white plastic bag to the end of my carrot stick and moved her around with it. I was finally was able to work to scratching her with it (on the end of my carrot stick) on the left side, buttocks and side. She never did get overly worried about it and never broke a sweat it just took her about 10 minutes of approach and retreat before she could stand to have the bag near her.
She was more comfortable with the bag on her butt than near her forequarters. When I would first start putting it on her rump she’d swish her tail in protest. Never offered to kick though. If it got too worrisome she would trot off. She’s pretty much stopped leaving explosively though, when she leaves now she generally does so with grace and at a nice slow trot. It was too dark for video tonight.

Day 20 - 05/06/2013

Training Day 14

GREAT session tonight for Lucy. Started off just by ascertaining where we were after a couple days off. She still needed to move her feet when I first stepped into her pen but was much more relaxed than her previous sessions. After about 10 laps she stopped and looked at me as if to ask “OK, what are we doing today”. I thought I’d start by seeing what she thought of the tarp. As you can see by the video of her crossing it for the first time, she’s not worried about it. She even got it tangled up on her feet a couple of times when I asked her to back over it but never worried. After the tarp we worked on approach and retreat, desensitization and touch. She is getting MUCH more confident in me. She now allows me to be all but straight behind her without moving off. She’s doing great with the carrot stick on both her left and right sides all over her upper body (above the elbow and hock). We worked on yielding the forequarters in and yielding the hindquarters away. The hindquarters were fun today because for the first time she realized she could move JUST her butt to get a release. Her eyes lit up the first time she got that answer right! From there she just “got it”. Now I’m working on teaching her the difference between an approach to her hind end that means “I’m going to pet you” vs. “Would you please step aside”. She’s well on her way. I decided to remove her lead rope today. I’ve been pretty consistently able to pet her head and lead her so I feel confident if I need to I can get it back on her, but right now everything we are doing is liberty work to build her confidence in me so there is really no more reason for her to be constantly pulling on her own face in her pen. I won’t be able to refine her leading and get her out of her pen until I have her confidence so that is our main concern for now. We ended today’s session working on me touching her with my hand. This is much more worrisome for her than me touching her with the stick. Today I was able to work to where I consistently could rub on her left cheek without her darting away. She was concerned, but not enough to leave. All in all a really great session and I don’t feel the couple days off set us back at all!

Day 19 - 05/05/2013

No training at all this weekend but FINALLY Lucy started eating grain (rice bran, soaked beet pulp, with a little four way)! She’s first up for training tomorrow night!

Day 16 - 05/02/2013

Training Day 13

Good session with Lucy this evening. We started with letting her move her feet a few laps then I started asking for changes in direction to the inside which she is already a pro at. Worked with more approach and retreat, leading and desensitization with the carrot stick. Today I was able to consistently and fairly easily rub her on her left side from her poll to the point of her hip. On the right side we got all the way from the poll to the rib cage. Video was taken but didn’t turn out due to poor light.

Day 15 - 05/01/2013

Training Day 12

Great progress today with Lucy. She had yesterday off so was a little more flighty in her pen than I expected. She calmed herself down after a few laps and started thinking instead of running. We repeated all of the rubbing on both the left and right sides of her neck with little effort. I also continued to work getting Lucy comfortable with me in close proximity to her in preparation to be able to start to touch her somewhere other than her nostril. She even accepted her first hand-fed carrots from me this evening. Towards the end of our session we practiced leading and made great strides forward. I had previously only concentrated on getting Lucy to move her front feet in the direction asked in response to pressure on the lead rope. One of the normal things I like to do when teaching these mustangs to lead is to lead them in circles around their pen. Every time in the past I would attempt this with Lucy she’d wind up with her hind end smack in the middle of the pen and, because I was only focused on the front feet moving, she would wind up pivoting on her hind end in a circle as I walked around her pen…essentially lunging me! I decided to change tactics and release only when Lucy moved a back foot forward. That worked out great and pretty soon she was leading around the perimeter of her pen. We completed two laps in each direction without any trouble.

Day 13 - 04/29/2013

Training Day 11

This video starts about 5 minutes into our session. Today I was consistently able to rub the left side of Lucy’s neck. She still has resistance and uncertainty though so she is going to need a lot more desensitization to touch but she is progressing nicely. Lucy was also able to accept, for the first time, the stick on the right side of her neck. Lucy is very protective of that right side so it was a big deal for her to stand there while I rubbed her. I’m not a fan of sneaking around horses but I do believe in numerous slow initial approaches to build a horse’s confidence. Once I start to gain her confidence I can work on a more normal approach. Lucy is very in tune to my body language and understands pretty well when I want her to move and when I want her to face up. All in all it was a good session for her.

Day 12 - 04/28/2013

Training Day 10

This afternoon’s session was a repeat of yesterday. Lucy had a visitor from San Diego who was able to observe her training session. Lucy was a little concerned about the observer but soon settled right back down. We were able to repeat everything we accomplished yesterday without too much trouble. We are also happy to say that Lucy’s visitor has committed to adopt her once she meets program requirements.

Day 11 - 04/27/2013

Training Day 9

Today was a great training session for Lucy. We made “first contact” when she reached out to touch me with her nose. We’ve been working on proximity and today she bridged the gap. Today was also the first day she allowed the carrot stick to touch somewhere OTHER than her muzzle. She finally felt OK with it touching and scratching the left side of her neck. We did lots of approach and retreat. She needed to leave a few times but overall did very well!

Day 10 - 04/26/2013

Training Day 8

Worked with Lucy today on leading and yielding her hindquarters. She is doing well but not leading light enough forward. I know that is because she is still afraid of people and I am sure her leading will come along much better once she gains confidence and trust in me.

Day 9 - 04/25/2013

Training Day 7

Shorter session with Lucy today. She was getting worried about me working Kiara so Joe went in to play with her. Asked for disengagement of the hindquarters. At first she ignored him, still worried about what Kiara and I were doing. As he asked for changes in directions she quickly remembered the easiest way to get out of work is to face up. Joe was able to grab her leadrope and reinforce leading in response to light pressure. Around this time I finished with Kiara and worked with Lucy on disengaging her hindquarters when asked. We ended our session by working on proximity. Lucy was consistently able to cope with my hand about an inch or two from her nose. I probably could have touched her but I’ll let her decide to close that gap another day. All in all a very productive session for her!

Day 8 - 04/24/2013

Training Day 6

We are continuing to work on increasing Lucy’s comfort with people in proximity. Also asking her to give to pressure on the halter using body language she already knows to help get her to turn in to the handler.

Day 7 - 04/23/2013

Training Day 5

She’s really starting to get the hang of coming in now. We are also gradually able to get closer to her. She’s making positive strides forward everyday but still not quite sure about us!

Day 6 - 04/22/2013

Training Day 4

Lucy is still apprehensive of me being in her pen and trying to decease proximity so today we worked on accepting touch. She’s worried about me so I introduced her to the pole. I wanted her to feel something touch her and move on her and learn to relax. She responded very well, quickly learning that she doesn’t need to move her feet and I am happy with her progress so far. For information on this method be sure to check out this YouTube Channel Kitty Lauman & Ranger.

Day 5 - 04/21/2013

Training Day 3

Today Lucy and I worked through some of her proximity issues. In order to get to where we can touch her and pet her we must first be able to walk up to her. We also worked on leading. She is rewarded for the slightest try. Any attempt to give into the pressure I am putting on the lead rope is rewarded with release. Overall a very good session with her today. Included a picture of Lucy’s super neat ventral mane. Only the second one I’ve ever seen. I’ve been told it will “shed” so we’ll see once I start grooming on her. In any case it sure is neat

Day 4 - 04/20/2013

Training Day 2

Great session with Lucy. Was pleased that she is not as frantic when I am in the stall anymore. I think twice daily visits during feeding / stall cleaning help a lot. We Worked with desensitization to the stick and string and turns to the inside. Was able to grab her lead rope and start her on stepping towards the pressure. All in all a good day.

Day 1 - 04/17/2013

Training Day 1

The video below shows the entirety of Lucys first training session. I just wanted to evaluate where she is now so I can set a plan for her progression towards a gentled, adoptable mustang. My goals for her today were just to get both eyes looking at me and have her turn to the inside if she was going to turn. She is very fearful. I could see her quivering in her stall just because I was in there. She is very good about keeping her eyes on me when she turns. Her next few lessons will be to work on decreasing her personal space bubble so I can get closer to her without her feeling she needs to leave in fear.