Ray of Sunshine Training

06/25/2024

Meet Denali! 🌸🌷

Denali is the newest addition to the family. I bought her about a week ago to be my college horse! 🌟

She is 4 years old, and green broke. She has had about 60 rides on her but then had a few months off so she just needs a little bit of a refresh to get back to where she was. ✨

Denali is very sweet, curious, and smart. She loves working and learning new things. I am very excited to see what we are capable of achieving together. 🌹🩷

06/24/2024

Ray update ☀️🌻

In the past couple weeks I made the decision to modify my plans for Radar and his future with me. We got to the point in our training timeline that it didn’t seem likely for him to be ready to go to college with me in the fall. It was an incredibly hard step to take and I had to work through the feeling of both failing him and myself. I’ve been able to resolve those feelings and settle into knowing that we both have made incredible progress with each other in the past year and it simply was not meant to be for him to be my college horse💛. I am keeping him as more of a long term project and he is currently staying in pasture living his best life napping in the sun and playing in the swamp🌿. I will continue to work with him in a different capacity and I am hopeful that the new relaxed timeline and lack of expectations will be a much better fit for him🌼

This means I needed to find a replacement horse to take to college so I’ll make another post introducing her! 🌸🌷

01/22/2024

It's about time for a Ray update!🌼💛

He has been doing absolutely amazing!🌟

He is good to be haltered and he picks both front feet up!⭐️🎉

We are working on some rope desensitization and I'm hoping to start picking up his hind feet soon as well as begin introducing a saddle pad and the surcingle!🏆✨

10/31/2023

Ray is enjoying the snow!☃️✨

He is growing a nice fuzzy coat for winter and is having lots of fun running around in the snow and sunshine! 🫶☀️❄️

10/18/2023

This week with Ray!🌼

PROGRESS:

✅relaxation with me near him and touching him

✅not leaving whenever things get difficult or scary. He is learning how to stop and think things through

✅creating more draw through the use of both positive reinforcement and pressure and release

✅letting me be on his left side instead of just his right

✅better at being haltered around the neck

GOALS:

☑️be able to leave the pasture to go work in the round pen

☑️work on picking up all four feet to prep for farrier

☑️touching all over body

☑️more comfortable with haltering

Overall I'm so happy with how this cuddle bug is coming along!🐝✨

10/09/2023

10/09/2023

Then vs now! 🌅☀️

It has been almost a month since I got Ray! Already I can see such a difference. He has gained some good weight making it so that his ribs aren’t as prominent and his hindquarters and shoulders are filling out. His coat has also gotten so much glossier!✨

It makes me so happy to see the positive change in both his appearance and attitude. As his scars fade, his personality is able to come out and I get to see the cuddle bug inside him. 🌻🧡

10/08/2023

Finally got the huge wind knot out of Rays mane today! He stood so nicely for me to braid it all afterwards and just had a little nap 💤

10/07/2023

Just leaving Prosperity Farms where I’ve spent the past week! Sam Vanfleet's training bootcamp was absolutely incredible. I was able to learn so much about running a training business, starting young horses, and working with a mustang. I also had the opportunity to work on my personal riding skills throughout the week.

This week was absolutely amazing and I’m so grateful I was able to have this opportunity to come. Also thank you to KJ Stables for being so much fun to hang around and learn with.

Will miss all the wonderful people and amazing animals I got to know 🫶🫶🫶

10/07/2023

Hi my name is Anastasia, I am 18 years old. I have been riding and working with horses for the past 3 and a half years. I have been leasing a horse for about 2 years and a couple weeks ago I bought my first horse, Radar.

I work at my barn doing chores and teaching lessons. I ride primarily English, focusing on jumping, dressage and some working equitation. One of my biggest goals for myself and Radar is to learn more about liberty and tricks. I also want to fine tune my own skills in being able to teach each horse in a clear and concise way. I would love to eventually start working with more horses and start to develop my business by taking in client horses.

10/06/2023

Meet Ray ☀️

Radar is a 5 year old draft cross who was an ex-bucking horse. He went to a trainer who misunderstood him and pushed him too hard too fast. Ray is very sensitive to emotions and energy. He is extremely curious and smart which means that he is smart enough to understand that some humans are bad news.

Since he has been with me for the past few weeks we have worked on building a base of trust in order to restart his training in a way that works best for him.

The goal for Ray is to get him to a place where he can be an all around riding horse. We’d like to go out on trails, go through a jump course, and be able to work at liberty.

First steps will be getting him more comfortable with haltering and gaining confidence through groundwork.