Cheyenne – 10/11/09

Cheyenne has been doing pretty well.  She was a lot like Apache when I first got on her – she didn’t care and couldn’t be bothered to react to the extra weight on her back.  I had ridden her twice before last weekend, and both times she was incredibly lazy and it was difficult to get her moving forward.  So last weekend when Jamie came out to do some work, I put her on Cheyenne while I supplemented her leg with the lunge whip.  We worked with her in the round pen for about 20 minutes, then I hopped on Willow to pony her around the pasture for a bit.   She has no problem with Whoa, in fact that seems to be her favorite part.  Oh, I can stop working?  Cool!

I’ve ridden her twice since, and she’s gotten a bit better about reacting to leg.  I wanted to get her out on the trails this weekend with someone else in the lead, but there were too many other things going on and it just never happened.  She’s pretty good about mud puddles, so I’m hoping a trail ride that takes us through a small stream will just be a simple extension of our pasture ride.  Maybe next weekend?  Hopefully!

General – 09/19/09

I must apologize profusely for the lack of updates to the training blog.  I guess I feel woefully inadequate next to the great training bloggers, like Mugwump, that I’ve just been quietly doing my thing and hoping no one asks for details.  :)

To catch everyone up, here’s a summary of what little training has been going on this summer.  I’m hoping to get a lot more done now that I’ve got a round pen for ground work.  I can’t wait to get going with Miles and Jasmine, but Jasmine’s training has to wait until Sky is weaned in a couple of weeks.

Miles is the unhandled 9yo BLM mustang that arrived with Beauty and TMan.  I have done no work with him yet, and he still only allows me within 10 feet of him before he gets nervous and moves away.  Once Jasmine and Jewel are going well under saddle, I’ll start with getting Miles lured into the round pen for dinner and get him comfortable in there, then get him halter broke and go from there.  That should be fun!

Cheyenne is just about ready to go to her new home.  I spent a few weeks just ground driving her and getting her used to the rubber full cheek snaffle, and understanding whoa.  I’ve gotten on her twice this week and she’s done very well.  I’ve stayed in the round pen since I was alone at the time, but hopefully one of my volunteers will come out tomorrow and I can get her out for a short trail ride.  I’d like to get her out at least a few times with success before I give the adopters a call to come and get her.  She’s such a sweet mare, and so willing to please, that I doubt I’ll have much trouble with her out on trail.  Especially if she has the wise and unspookable Willow to follow!

Kisses has been doing really well!  Her only problem is that she’s incredibly lazy in the round pen.  She just doesn’t see the need to do any work, when snuggling up with me and being scratched behind the ears is way more fun.  I just started doing ground work with her last weekend and would like to put a bit in her mouth and start ground driving her tomorrow.  I should be on her next weekend and headed out on trail with her shortly after. 

Jewel and Classy have been put on the back burner this year due to all the new unhandled horses coming in and needing work.  I’m hoping with my new volunteer that comes out weekly, we can start taking Classy out on trail rides and get more mileage on her and teach her that the bit is not something to fear.  Oh, how I would love to train all these greenies with a bitless bridle, but how many adopters do I really think will buy and use a bitless?  So I have to be realistic and train them all to a snaffle, whether we like it or not.

Maverick… oh how I love that pony.  He’s going to be three years old soon, so I guess it’s time I started his training.  He’ll be learning to drive first, so it looks like I need to start shopping around for a training cart!

Cheyenne –- 07/20/09

I worked mostly with tacking and untacking Cheyenne tonight.  She’s not afraid of the saddle, but she was nervous about the whole situation and wasn’t very tickled about the idea of having something on her back.  She danced around a bit the first time, even though I barely had the girth tight enough for her to feel it.  Once she was standing quietly with the saddle on, I’d take it off and walk her around a bit.  Back to the saddle, put it on again and if she stood quietly I’d tighten it up a little more than the last time.  Walk her around, take the saddle off.  We kept doing this until the girth was as tight as it needed to be and she was still accepting it graciously and without tap dancing on my toes.  I just walked her around the pasture with the saddle on the last time, then back to our starting place to untack and end the session.  I didn’t want her to associate the saddle with work just yet, since she had such a hard time accepting it in the first place.  We’ll see how she is next time!

Apache –- 07/20/09

Since I saddled Apache last time without problem, I went ahead and longed him with the saddle tonight.  I only longed him for a few minutes, just to make sure he still remembered WHOA.  Then I put a bridle with a full cheek snaffle bit on him, got a second longe line, ran both longe lines thru the D-rings on the front of the synthetic western saddle and did some ground driving with him.  He chewed on the bit for a few minutes, then settled down into his job.  He quickly learned that a light tug on the bit along with a spoken WHOA meant for him to come to a stop.  He didn’t move off again until I asked with a “Walk on!” and a cluck. 

It took him a few tries to understand what I wanted when I asked him to turn, but picked that up pretty quickly.  I like using a full cheek snaffle on youngsters because when you pull on one side, the full cheek part of the bit presses against their face on the other side, helping them to move their head away from the pressure, which usually means their feet follow their head and you have a successful turn.  We did circles and figure eights at the walk, with lots of stopping and standing patiently until asked to move on again.  He was quite the student!

I think one more ground driving session and he’ll be ready to be ridden.  I’d like to find someone smaller than me that knows how to ride to get on him first, but it’s not looking like that’s going to be an option any time soon.  I have smaller people lined up to ride him once he’s got a few rides under him, so at least he’ll only have to put up with me for a little while. :)

Ellie –- 07/20/09

What a smart pony!  I hate to admit it, but I’m afraid this mare is smarter than me.  It was obvious from the start that she had never been longed before.  I have a feeling her previous “training” was being dressed in a harness, hooked to something heavy, and whipped till she pulled it.  She was terrified of the longe whip in the beginning, so I spent some time just rubbing her all over with it and talking quietly to her.  Within a few minutes she was standing quietly with lids drooping while I was rubbing the whip all over her back, rump, and legs.  Gee, that was easy.

She didn’t understand at first what I wanted when I asked her to walk off without me, but picked it up very quickly!  I made sure to keep my body in line with her hip and the whip behind her when I wanted forward motion and she had the idea in no time.  Once I had her out on the circle and walking calmly, I moved my body to put it in line with her shoulder, moved the whip to my other hand and put it in front of her line of sight, but not in front of her body.  I accompanied that with a WHOA and the little mare stopped.  In her tracks.   And stood there.  Quietly.   I praised her up and down, then changed directions and did the same thing.  She performed flawlessly. 

I stopped there since she did so well.  Next time we’ll work on trotting on the longe and doing walk/trot transitions.

Ellie – 07/18/09

Ellie was used as a “pulling pony” before she came here, but I’d like to turn her into a kid’s pony for at least trail riding, maybe more.  I can just picture her popping over little jumps with her wild mane braided with red ribbons. :)

Ellie had a heart murmur when she got here, but it was unclear at the time if it was just because she was emaciated or if it were a more permanent problem.  I completely forgot to have Doc check for it the last time he was out, but will have him check the next time.  For now, I’m just going to keep things slow with her and stick to longing, voice commands, ground driving, and sacking out so that she’s ready for whatever a little kid will throw at her.  I hope to get started with her training this coming week so check back soon!

Apache -– 07/16/09

Apache has turned out to be a very friendly little mustang!  It’s obvious that his previous owner cared for him and spent a lot of time with him.  He’s great about picking up his feet, stands tied, and longes fairly well.  He did so well today that I put a saddle on him and cinched him up.  I stood on my mounting log so I’d be above him, put weight in the stirrup, laid across his back and patted him all over, and shifted the saddle around and made a bunch of noise over him.  He really couldn’t have cared less about any of it. 

Next time I’ll put a bridle and snaffle bit on him and line drive to make sure he understands the bit.  After that, it’s just a matter of hopping on and getting his under saddle training going.  He’s going to make some little kid a heck of a good horse!