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!

Cheyenne –- 07/16/09

When Cheyenne and Apache first got here they were skittish and jumpy and didn’t let me come very close.  Now that they’ve had a chance to settle in and make some friends, their personalities are starting to show and they’re both sweet little pocket ponies!

I was told by their previous owner that they had both had ground work done already.  Cheyenne is very good about picking up her feet, leading, and standing tied.  However, I put her on the longe line and she acted like she’d never walked a circle before.  So I spent most my 20 minutes with her just teaching her to WALK and WHOA on command, and to not stop on the gate side of the circle.  She was doing pretty well by the end of the session so hopefully we can do some trotting and transitions next time.