Friday, September 23, 2011

I worked with Snippy and Julie today. Spent the most time with Snippy because she needed some attention. Snippy continues to be head shy and is especially nervous about having her ears handled. Now I am sure the big name trainers have a fancy name for it but I just mess with them until they learn it isn't going to kill them and they learn to accept it. Spent a lot of time rubbing and scratching Snippy's head and poll. I really think she is starting to like it a bit. While we were getting used to each other, I brushed and curried her and even clipped her bridle path with a pair of scissors.  I also flagged her and sacked her out. She was a nervous ninny at first when I started with the flag but she finally settled down and stood rock solid for me. The same with the saddle blanket when I was sacking her out. She is doing better. She leads better each session and will get the hang of it before too much longer. Snippy just needs time and repetitions and she will be just fine.

I moved over to Julie and after grooming her a bit, I slapped the saddle on her. This time I was a lot more forceful when I put the saddle on her. Before I had been real quiet and had done everything slowly, not this time. If she was going to explode I wanted her to get it out of her system. She handled everything very well. I even saddled her with the lead draped over my arm like I would if she were a broke horse. I lunged her with the saddle on and while she is not the best at lunging she never once offered to fight the saddle.

Wednesday evening as we were coming back from Des Moines, I had a call from the Amish "trainer" who had Sweetie. She was dancing away from him whenever he tried to mount her. He wanted to know if I knew of anything to stop her from doing that. I told him I would think about it and I would be over Friday evening to see what was going on. After watching him work with her this evening, I paid him for his time to date, loaded Sweetie, and brought her home. I will be starting over from scratch with her and then work with her to get her ready to ride. Sometimes it is better to pay the price up front and get a better product than trying to cut corners. It is good to have Sweetie back home.  

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

This evening the horses were up so I cut Julie and Snippy out and put them in the round pen. Decided to start with Snippy. Not sure that was a smart move but that is what I did. Snippy started out still being very protective of her head and I had to work for the longest time to get a lead on her halter. As soon as I snapped the lead into the halter she calmed down and I was able to lead her all around the pen. She would lead in either direction and would back up just fine. She worked well just head shy still. The more she tried to duck away the more I messed with her head. I finally got her to the point I could rub her face and under her jaw without her pulling back. She actually acted like she enjoyed the attention and this time when I took the lead off her halter she didn't bolt away. 

I then wen to Julie. Not much to say about Julie, she leads well and is calm and accepting. She did get a nerved up when I sprayed  her with fly spray but allowed me to continue with it. I didn't saddle her but did slap the saddle pad on her back. Again she was calm and steady.

I fed both fillies tonight and rubbed, petted, smacked them while they were eating. Both took this in stride. I was even able to walk up and catch Snippy afterwards. Maybe she is finally coming around. Hope so.  

Tuesday, September 12, 2011

Today, I decided Julie and I needed a little one on one time. I brought her into the round pen and just spent some quiet time brushing her and treating a few little scrapes then I worked with her a little on the lead just to see where her mind was today. The good Julie had come to play today so I went to the tack room to get my old saddle.

I have taken Sweetie to a young Amishman to put the first rides on her. Everybody does things different and I realize that. he ties a horse to a hitch rail before he saddles them. I like to just put a long lead on them and then saddle the horse without too much fuss. My experience has been if they get nervous but can move their feet, they are fairly easy to control. They don't panic like they do if you have them restrained. Sweetie had a rough time fighting everything when the young guy saddled her and she couldn't move. I made up my mind I would prepare Julie better for this whole new experience.

My old saddle is lighter than the saddle I normally use and has seen a lot of young horses in its day. I hate to think just old that saddle is but I was a teenager when my father bought that saddle. It is still a good old saddle. It is just the thing for Julie to start with. I swung the saddle pad up on Julie's back and let her think about that for a bit then I put that old saddle on her and quietly went about adjusting the cinch and the rigging for Julie. Everything was going well so I tightened the cinch for the first time on my red roan filly. She took it like an old pro. Normally if they are going to blow up it happens when you ask them to move. So I moved her around the round pen for about a half hour and she was calm and easy going. I even used the flag on her and she stood like a rock. I am really proud of her.

Since Julie did so well with the saddling for the first time. I got her feed bag out and gave her a little oats and alfalfa pellets. I think this is the part of the round pen session she likes the best.

I will ground drive her next time while she is saddled. I want her to get used to the saddle and moving under it. After a few ground driving sessions with the the saddle I will progress to ponying her with a saddle on.



Monday, September 12, 2011

I have been busy doing a little carpenter work on a few projects around the place. Just not enough hours in the day to do everything. Seems like something is always coming up to take time away from the round pen sessions. Today it was working on fence to allow the brood mares to have the last hay field for pasture then making shelving to store things on in my wood shop. Did manage to spend a little time with my fillies while the water tank was filling. Julie was as always Julie. She wanted to be made over today and allowed me to pet her and rub all over her. I have to make time to get her in the round pen tomorrow. I think we both want that.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Since it was a cooler afternoon today, I decided to start working the fillies a little earlier this afternoon. I brought Julie and Snippy into the round pen and caught Julie. We reviewed a lot of things and then I got the clippers out. I clipped her bridle path for her. She was a little nervous at first but she settled right down and let me do my job. I then ground drove her in the rope bosal and the in the snaffle bit. She is doing well. The more I work with her the more I like her.

Then I moved to Snippy. I tried working with her without restraining her but she kept throwing her head away from me. She is very protective of her head especially  her nose. Since we weren't making any progress like this I decided to go old school on her and I roped her. After a bit of discussion she finally learned it didn't do any good to try and run away from me in the round pen while wearing a rope. Every time I tried to halter her she would throw her nose away from me so I made a loop in my lariat and used it as halter for a while. Finally I managed to get a regular halter on her and a 16 foot lead rope, She really didn't like that halter putting pressure on her face and she let me know about it. When the dust finally settled and she had been thrown a couple of times, I started to lead to the hip to get her feet moving. She finally figured what I was asking for and started to work with me. I then started leading her in a circle and she got to be fairly decent for her first time. I had a phone call come in so I leaned against Snippy and she stood there like a broke horse the whole time I was on the phone. I was impressed with her. we worked with the flags for a bit and that livened her up. She was still very protective of her head but finally got to the point she would accept the flag running down her face. I thought maybe the feedbag trick might make her a little less nervous about my handling her face so I got a couple of bags out, put in some feed, slipped them on the girls. Snippy wasn't too sure about this whole deal but seemed to like the idea of some feed. Everything was going fine until I went to take her feedbag off of her. She jerked away from me and since we had already spent most of the afternoon working on her handling and with me rubbing her face and nose, I proceeded to catch her again and since she wanted to keep jerking away I lounged her for a bit. I then lead her around some more before I turned her loose. Since she is being such a pain about her face I decided I would do something I seldom do, I left the halter on her for this evening. I don't know why Snippy is so protective of her nose and face but I have been rubbing her and trying to get her used to being handled. Also noticed that when the rope slipped behind her one time she kicked and bucked a bit so I will have to watch that for a while. Snippy is a much different critter than Julie or Sweetie but I think she will be fine with a little handling.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Yesterday, Saturday, I loaded Sweetie in the trailer and took her to a young Amishman to have him put some rides on her. Since I am not as agile as I used to be, not that I was ever that agile, I let others have the honor of putting the first rides on my horses. After they have the horses going well, I will take them back and do any fine tuning. I would rather get them working off the leg cues and neck reining myself. Sweetie will get three to four weeks with the Amishman then then I will take Julie over to him. Let me say right here that some make a lot of claims about horses being Amished trained. Amish trainers are like "English" trainers, some good and some not so good. I researched this young man and he seems to be good.

Today, Sunday, my good friend Courtney, her husband, Brandon, and their young son Ty, came down to take pictures of my horses. Courtney has been working on build a website for me and she needed these pictures for the website. Since my stallion Bonitas Little Boon (Boonie) is the heart and soul of our operation we spent the most time getting him ready and then taking his pictures. We finished the day by taking pictures of the foals and other horses. It was a fun day with good friends and what I feel are some decent horses. Thank you Courtney, Brandon, and Ty for everything.