January 23rd Training

Monday, January 23, 2017

First of all on Monday (its currently 9:51pm on Friday Jan 27)

I started out by catching Smoochie, Wyatt, Snickers and Faith and tying them all up in a line down our steel arena.

Faith was the first to the round pen! Our session started and ended very nicely. He came in for training on Saturday January 21st. Faith had a rough past before his current owner Linda Wheeler rescued him. Despite already being failed by humans, he didn't loose his love for attention and affection. So Monday we started out by lightly lounging Faith. He did very well, carrying his head low and relaxed, nice and slow, not pushing him, just letting him choose his speed. He was very responsive, but in a positive way. He was playful but never took his attention off me. We decided to try the surcingle. He walked calmly around the round pen on the line with no problem. Saddle time! I started by letting him sniff the saddle pad, followed by many pets, baby talk and kisses. Its so hard not to love on this guy. He's a gem! I rubbed the saddle pad on his face, neck, legs, back, rump, No Problem! Awesome! Let's try the saddle. Same steps applied, but I did not cinch the saddle right away. I let the cinch hang and I led him around the round pen wiggling the saddle a bit, letting him get used to the little weight on his back. I then cinched up the saddle a little, letting him feel the cinch, and led him around. Good to go! A little tighter! Walk, no problem. Now the cinch is nice and snug, walking and trotting like he's been doing this for ages. Faith did fabulous! He was then untacked, blanketed, treated and returned to his paddock. Yay Faith!

Snickers

So we don't know much about Snickers past. He was rescued for a kill pen in October of 2016 by his current owner, Janet Matthews. When he arrived on Jan 12th, he was in a real need of farrier work. Again, we don't know when the last time he had any done. He also hasn't been a fan of having his legs touched, let alone his hooves being picked up and held. We've been working on that since he arrived. On Monday he got his first ride! I started by lounging him at a walk and trot both directions in the round pen. He kept his attention on me during this process. He is very in your pocket and just like his paddock buddy Faith, he would roll over for some good scratches! I started him by walking him by our mounting block, kicking it lightly, trying to make noise with it so he would realize its not a silent object, but its nothing to be afraid of. No big deal. He didn't bat an eye. I squared him up to the mounting block, tied the lead rope like a rein to the halter and stood on the mounting block above his head. I began rubbing his neck, sides and rump. No nervous twitch. Ok great! I then layed across his back, flexing his neck to the left, then to the right, then a few steps back. Boring. Fine I'll mount! Back to the mounting block we went! Lay across the back, swing a leg while he was flexed to the left. Neck scratches. "good boy" Circle right, circle left. Perfect. Back up a few steps. No big deal. While I'm doing this there was 2 people standing outside the round pen, having a fun conversation and he kept his attention on me. He did absolutely everything I asked. We walked for about 5 minutes both directions. Stopping, backing, flexing, circles. Fabulous! Mister Snickers was loving having a job. Let's end on a good note! Good Job Snick!

Wyatt!

Wyatt is a young ApHc (appaloosa) gelding who we had in training last fall for a tune-up. He has been sold to a new owner who returned him to us for training to work on confidence building and some fine tuning. He came in the first week of January. We have been working on our soft feel. He is coming along nicely! I do believe he is in need of a float(his owner agrees!) so I'm waiting on a call back from out vet to schedule his float. Currently Wyatt is being rode in a bosal.

Lil Red

This pretty lady has been in training with us for almost 2 months now. When she came in, she liked to just do her own thing. She was already started under saddle. She came to us for problem solving. Lil Red had an extremely bad and dangerous habit of when she didn't feel like working, she would half rear, throw her nose in the air and run right through the bit. That needed to stop. For 30 days, we would warm her up in draw reins. That asked her to give to pressure, lower that noggin and just relax. Guess what? It's worked! She is learning to work with the bit and not against it! We can't wait for her owner Kathy Morphis to stop by and see for herself how her lovely mare (who is a barn favorite) is progressing! I jumped on Lil Red today with the bosal to see how she would respond. Not to bad pretty lady! 

Smoochie

Smoochie is a beautiful young paint mare owned by Mariel Ouradnik! Smoochie started her training with us at the beginning of January. We have been doing ground work and building a foundation. She has been started in the past, but we found holes in her training and wanted to fix those before climbing aboard! Today was her first ride with us, and first ride in months! We started nice and slow, asking for flexing to the left and right, small circles, larger circles, halt and back. We then asked for a trot, circles, halt back. No problems! Great job Smoochie! You'll be hitting the trails soon!