Sugarfoot's first saddling was today.  She accepted it like she had been doing it all her life.  She is not claustrophobic and didn't jump or do anything out of the ordinary.  Her main problems still are pushing into you and wanting to walk all over you.  We are still working ground skills and she seems to be getting over that some.  Today she spent some time on the "Patience Tree" to get her used to standing and waiting for her human.  She did very well with that. 

Fred is the Great Licker now.  He licks everybody.  And not just a little bit.  He slobbers all over you.  He is a very smart horse and figured out how to untie the Blocker Ring today.  We worked on the ground skills and did figure eights around the cones on line.  He also has a real problem with spooking at anything different and with the rope.  We worked a lot on that by throwing the rope over his head and doing the "drunken cowboy" act.  Fred is a very likable horse and has a real personality.

Cinco is still working on his ground skills.  When you combine the skills and ask for more preciseness, he becomes more unconfident.  This is where working him through it and showing him that everything is going to come out all right on the other end is very important.  He has tendencies to go right brained and this is mostly on the right side.  We have been directing his feet and giving them something to do and having him do it precisely.  That breaks his pattern of going right brained. 

 We are still working on the ground skills with Gully, and he is playing a lot.  He has a lot of curiosity and is extremely athletic.  He has settled down and is following his nose and there is still a little brace in his body.  This may be due to the fact that this is the first time we have driven him. 

Prince was ridden today.  Today was probably the best day he has had so far, here.  We worked circles to supple him and soften his mouth.  We also did  straight lines to teach him to follow the focus.  It also helps his impulsion, which is still his hardest thing to do.  His stops were ok today, but he still wants to push into the bridle.  That is still part of his impulsion thing where he goes downhill and gradually coasts to a stop.  This problem has improved a lot since we have been riding, but is still a problem.  His owner came and rode him and got along very well.   

George was first again.  George is doing beautifully.  He is becoming very supple and losing the brace in his mind and body.  He is becoming reactive to his leg aids.  The lady who rides him is going to do some work to be able to ride him and he will turn out to be a great horse. 

Prince was first this morning.  We warmed up on the ground and drove him.  We then started riding him.  We worked a lot more on impulsion as this is really his Achilles heel.  We did circles, transitions, stop and back.  Circles soften his body and make him more flexible.  Transitions help with impulsion and improve his gait.  The stop was worked on because he has a tendency to dribble out and he is still heavy in his front end.  Backing is to engage the hindquarters.

George was warmed up on the ground too and then ridden.  We worked on circles and stopping.  He is very stiff on the right side and circles will help him with that.  Today the owners came to ride some of these horses and we gave them a mini lesson. 

Cinco is so much better.  He is asking questions much more and settling down.  He is gaining trust in humans now because his owner worked him and he wasn't near as scared as he was at first.  Today we pushed him through some things he didn't want to go through to let him know he was going to come out alright on the other end. 

Gully had an extremely good day.  His ground skills have gotten a lot better.  He has lost his bullying attitude and is very interested in what we are trying to get him to do.  He is the kind of horse that has to have his mind challenged all the time.  His owner also worked him and she played the ground skills.  He worked well with her, with no sign of the teenager coming out. 

 

Gully is progressing nicely and his ground skills have greatly improved.  He is showing a lot of initiative and curiosity.  He really wants to please now.  He has pretty much quit being a teenager and just needs a job to do. 

George did ground exercises for just a few minutes this morning.  Then we rode him.  We did circles on him to soften his mouth.  He was ridden in the arena this morning instead of the round pen.  This allows him to free up and move out a little better.  We worked on stopping and backing and he showed a lot of improvement in all areas.  Being in the arena helped him a lot with his forward motion. 

We rode Prince too.  His ground skills are very good so we don't have to do much of that with him.  We drove him and he is still heavy in the front.  After that we rode him and worked on circles, engaging his hindquarters, and going forward.  He still wants to get his head down and coast to a stop.  After we get him to where he will stop and turn, we will take him to the arena and maybe that will help with his impulsion.  This horse is like a colt.  He has no foundation training on him.  He doesn't turn or stop or back up.  All of this has to be taught before you can ride him in a big arena.  No wonder he has a history of getting scared and running and bucking.   

Cinco turned a little corner today.  He wasn't near as scared as he has been in previous sessions.  He is asking questions, and can learn new tasks if given time to assimilate them.  This is a big step for Cinco.  If you can ever get him to think instead of reacting from fear, he can learn something.  His owners know that this horse may take a little more time than the average horse, because of the fear and trust factor. 

Fred had a really good day today.  His ground games have really improved and he is one of the smartest horses we have seen.  His trust factor is way up.  But it is still somewhat of an issue with Fred.  Over time though, he will get to trust humans more and more.  Usually he is a pain to catch, but he let himself be caught easily today. 

Sugarfoot is always easy to catch, because she catches you in hopes of having a treat.  She is very food orientated.  She still doesn't lead too well, but she has only been broke to lead for about two weeks.  She did relatively well in the ground skills.  We taught her to find a cone and touch it and she learned it very fast.  Sugarfoot's owner is a 14 year old boy, who has done a lot of work on her, since we got her.  He is going to try to show her in open shows.  She has a really nice personality and they should do well. 

Hopefully, I can get some pictures posted tomorrow so you can see what each horse looks like. 

Gully, the new horse is the first one we did this morning.  His owner was here from Bandera to see how he was getting along.  The first thing we did this morning was to review his ground skills.  He is starting to get all of them.  However, when you try to circle Gully, he tosses his head, jumps in the air and paws at you while coming towards you.  He is pretty much of a teenager.  He also has some stallion behaviour.   When we worked on finding the cone with his feet,  his mind became a lot more engaged and he quit being so much of a teenager and settles down.  This is all part of his left brained extrovert personality.  He has to be challenged all the time. 

George was the next horse we worked.  We spent only about ten minutes working on the ground skills.  He does very well at all those skills.  Then he was ridden and this is only the third time he has been ridden here.  We worked on circles to soften his face and get him over the fear of being pulled on.  He will sidepass, and will two-track.  He must have had some training on him to do such intricate  manuevers.  Tomorrow,  we will ride in the arena. 

Prince was next and we rode him for the first time, here.  We discovered he is just like a colt, with no basic foundation on him at all.  He doesn't turn, he doesn't go with the feel, and he braces at everything.  He travels downhill, pushing all his weight onto the front legs, so therefore can't get his front feet out of the way to go forward.  Consequently, he slows to a stop a lot and has no forward momentum.  Today we worked on stopping him and giving to the bit.  Prince braces to everything and this has become an automatic reaction by now, to protect himself.  We worked on circles and leading off with the correct foot on the turn.  The horse must lead off with the correct foot so that he has momentum for his body to leave. 

Cinco was the last one.  He is still fairly scared, but is getting better with trusting us.  We only did on line work with him today.  We did a lot of getting him to drop his head and relax.  Because he is a right brained introvert, it is a slow process to get him to trust us.  We have to teach him two or three things and then quit.  Today we worked on giving to steady pressure, circling, and back up.  He got the steady pressure quickly.  Circling to the left, he was fairly well connected to us, but circling to the right he would leave pretty fast.  He would have his head turned away with his ribs poked right at you.  Backing was also pretty easy for him today. 

Tomorrow we will try for some pictures.  Stay tuned!

We got a new horse yesterday to train. His name is Gully and he is a bay three year old Quarter Horse Gelding. He is a left brained extrovert. He has been handled quite a lot. We started teaching him the ground skills on line and how to be respectful of our space. He is a high energy horse, so if he gets pushy he is rather dangerous.

Prince was our first horse today. We have had him about a month and have gotten him over some of his worst dominance problems. His ground skills are improving and he is being driven. He still trips all over the obstacles, due to not paying any attention to where he puts his feet. This also follows through to not paying any attention to his handler. But, he is turning, backing and sidepassing in the driving reins. We are driving this horse to soften him up, and give him the confidence to follow his nose. This will lead to riding him.

We played the catching game with Fred today. Fred has a lot of fear about people. We worked with him with steady pressure to move his body around. We did desensitization at liberty so he could make his own decision to stay or leave. When he gets over his fear of humans, this will be a very nice gelding.

Cinco is the scared one. Even more scared than Fred. We played the catching game at liberty. His draw and join up was much faster today. We also worked on getting him to turn his feet loose, so he can travel with more cadence in his gaits. We also desensitized him at liberty. He could make the choice to stay or go. When the pressure is too much he can leave at liberty. This is vital with a scared horse like this one is. They have to be able to get their feet moving, because a horse only has one good weapon, and that is being able to run. When you trap them in any way, they think they are going to be eaten.

George is a real nice horse, who just needs a leader that will set perameters for him. His ground skills have really improved. He asks a lot of questions and is very curious about what is going on. Today we worked on teaching him all the ground skills. He is very willing and curious.

Sugarfoot found out that she has to follow a leader today. And she didn't want to! She showed her dominant side. This mare looks like a sweet little mare and she is, but she is also trying to be the alpha of her herd of two. Her herd of two consists of horseman and horse. We played the catching game at liberty and she wouldn't join on. Then, she finally decided to. We think tomorrow she will be better at this game, but you just never know.

Today, we are going to introduce you to the 2 free horses we have.

The first is Fred, a bay Quarter Horse gelding. Fred is 11 years old, and the lady we got him from said someone roped on him. According to his registration papers, he has some very nice bloodlines. He is a right brained extrovert, with a lot of fear and confidence issues.

The second free horse is an unregistered Quarter Horse, named Sugarfoot. She is a sorrel filly, three years old. She has only been handled by the lady who gave her to us and has had only kind handling. She is a left brained introvert, who thinks her only job is to be loved on. She is very dominant.

In the next blog we will tell you what we are doing with these horses.

The Natural Journey

We have received several horses in for Natural Training and thought we might share what they are learning with you. When each horse arrives at our facility, we explain to the owners that this is not just the horse's journey; it is also the horseman's journey. Their horse changes and so do they.

Prince is a big 16 hand Paint Gelding. He is a left brained extrovert. He is pushy and believes that people don't rank very high on his scale. We have had him for a month now and he is making real progress.

George is a nice little horse with a sweet nature. He is a sorrel Quarter Horse, about 15 hands tall. He is a gelding. He is a left brained extrovert and asks lots of questions, which indicates curiosity.

Cinco is a palomino Quarter Horse gelding. He floats between right brained extrovert and a right brained introvert. He lives in a very dark place and is afraid for his life.

We will talk about each of these horses and how they are coming along in the coming weeks. Also, I will be posting some pictures.