Margot's Intro to In Hand Trail
And last but not least, a very, very basic introduction for Margot in the world of ground poles and in hand trail. Even with getting "tangled" in a ground pole during the back up exercises, she kept her "cool" and tried very hard to THINK through the situation rather than react. She had actually rolled that pole up onto her hoof a bit and her other hoof was holding it in place like that but her first thought was to drop her head, and look to me for guidance! What a good girl!
Margot
2yr old Clydesdale/Belgian cross filly
Margot, another draft horse in our Young Horse Development Program has had minimal handling prior to coming here. Was purchased by her owner as a completely unhandled, untouched 2yr old draft mare. She has come along way since her first 30 day training period in the spring which was JUST the basic handling, foot handling, and body control type stuff so she could clamly recieve her first ever hoof trim. This 30 day period Oct 2024 that she is just finishing up as allowed her to advance into obstacle work and some more advanced groundwork!
Deebo heads home in a few days after another awesome training period with our Young Horse Development Program and boy do his owner and I have a wicked plan for his future after some conversations! Let's just say I need to make a bunch of new obstacles over the winter for his return in the spring. Deebo will not only be part of our 2025 show string (2yr old In Hand Classes, all breed), but will also be advancing and continuing his Young Horse Development Program over the spring and summer next year as a 2yr old which allows us to advance into a bit more other stuff, but still keeping it "baby friendly" as he still has tons of growing to do. But so many underestimate the HUGE, wide world of things you can introduce on the ground! #futuresuperstar #drafthorse #dreamscapehorsemanship #ZSfarms #wolfhollowranch
Deebo - Saddle, Ground Driving Progress, Sled
Deebo has been trucking right along. We are now trotting on the ground driving lines without issue, steering is coming along well, he now packs around the western saddle (prior was just a pad and surcingle) with all the "fixings" - back cinch, breastcollar etc. And the reason for the saddle was to have a horn to be able to "dally" to be able to introduce "pulling" something. Fret not, no weight will be added to him yet, he is still young! But the sled, and the dally has JUST enough resistance to teach him the idea, and to get used to things "following" him like that and I adjust the distance to have it a ways back, and to have it close so he gets used to that as well. Only a few days left of his current training period, then he heads home for the winter and will return in the spring to not only be part of our 2025 show string, but also to advance and continue with his overall training as well and boy, do we have some ideas for him after some conversation with his owner. The end goal for Deebo is wicked and we are SO GAME! At first I thought the owner just wanted a super versatile dude, which naturally, I'm all for, but there is so much more to it than that and I can't wait to start working on it all with Deebo come spring! I've got new obstacles to make over the winter, let's just say that! ;)
Margot Meets the Big Tires!
Another clip from Margot's recent sessions, where she meets the big tire platforms. The amount of willingness and try she has been developing lately is amazing to see! Just watch her try so hard to be the best Margot she can be, which considering how nervous she was of being handled back in the spring when we saw her for the initial 30days to get her handled enough to be able to get her feet trimmed (that had never been trimmed minus once or twice in her life in a tip table), she has come a long way this current training period! She is going to be a wicked horse in the future as she matures. Under all that anxiety in the unknown, there IS a very willing, thinking temperment that comes with a lot of curiosity and try and I can't wait to watch that develop more as she gets older and closer to being under saddle.
Margot
2yr old Clydesdale/Belgian cross filly
A 20min "mini session" within the main training session Oct 24th for Margot - Margot meets Tetter Totter. This was the first time I had asked her to not only check out the tetter totter but also lets see if we can cross it, or even just step on it. So enjoy that 20min session, compressed into 3 and half minutes. Do take the time to watch the whole thing so you can understand the post, because you can SEE it all happen in the video. This is a fantastic video to use to show how you can introduce an obstacle AND nurture a whole lot of try and willingness in a young horse all at the same time, but if done incorrectly, is also a fantastic way to slowly start chopping away any natural curiosity, try and willingness a horse may have.
Generally, when introducing an obstacle for the first time, especially a more complex one like this, there are ZERO expectations. If they want to paw at it, sniff it, sometimes they slam their foot down on it, sometimes they jump it, whatever she needs to do to work through the "problem" in her mind, as long as she isn't dragging me across the arena, I help her out, but I don't get after her. For some horses, crossing the entire thing can happen in a short period of time like it did for Margot (and by short I mean the 20mins we played with it, GoPro showed like 24mins approx for that video clip), other times it can take multiple sessions to get them confident enough with it to cross it entirely. I don't rush them. I want them to learn it is ok, forcing them through it by demanding they cross a specific way and giving them heck for anything that isn't that 1 way is not only unhelpful at this stage, but it also does NOTHING to nurture the willingness and try in a horse. If you watch Margot, you can see, she is trying! She is nervous, but she is looking to me for some guidance to help her figure it out, she is willing to stand there with me, and she tries. Numerous times, I simply put her there, and I let her decide what she wants to do. She
Farrah - Oct 15 2024 flatwork
Just some flat work and a couple ride overs from Farrah's video clips Oct 15th.
This training period, Farrah had about 40 days under saddle, 20 days of groundwork/body work to sort out a couple issues, after approx 2 years off with her owner and the last time we saw Farrah in 2022.
Once the body work was sorted, Farrah came right back into under saddle work with no issue, did some obstacles, some ground pole work, trails and a couple of the Medieval Skills at Arms tasks/obstacles in our very basic, introduction fashion until I get better stands set up for ours!
Farrah headed home yesterday (Oct 15), but before she did, I took a second to introduce the Reeds and Rings "games", which in this VERY basic introduction for Farrah, introduces the idea of 2 of the skills at arms games for the Medievial Skills At Arms tasks that Lori and Brad touch on in their Smith's Medieval Clinic days. We hope to have Lori and Brad back a couple times next year as clincians, hoping now, Farrah's owner has a reason to come on over to participate. ;)
Wink wink, hint hint. ;) Farrah has no issue with the first 3 concepts of those clinic days! Didn't have time to introduce the quintane, long lance or pig sticking as I don't yet have a spear for the pig sticking or spear throw tasks figured out yet.
Farrah - Trails - Helmet Cam Time Lapse
Wading through ankle deep leaves, all noisy and such is no problem for Farrah! Full length time lapse of the reel that went live earlier of Farrah, 6yr old APHA mare, on our "Fitness Track", which is a bunch of trails through the main yard of the property. 1 "lap" of these trails is equivalent to 1km, not including all the spots where you can circle and serpentine trees and do other work. A few raised logs along the way add a ride over or jump depending on the gait. This video is timelapsed, at a walk, its about a 10min ride.
Farrah, previously known as Mouse, as a total of about 1 year of training with us over the 4 years we have known her, starting with a light start when she was 2 with us for about 4 months, a couple months during her 4yr old year and then she sat for a bit with her owners for a couple years before returning for 60 days this fall! Not bad progress this training period once we got some body work dealt with and having about 2 years off. She is pending a dental when she goes home and should be golden for her owner to continue with some lessons and some future clinics and such that her owner wishes to participate in.
Farrah hitting the trails - time lapsed. The total length of our "fitness track trails" through the main yard is approx 1km per
"lap". There is a "map" on our page that shows where all the trails go. She not only worked a bit in the arena today but also did 2 laps of the trails for a 2km trail ride! 6yr old APHA mare, with a total of 1 year of training with us over the course of 4 years!
Part 2 of Margot's update from Thanksgiving Saturday.
In this short clip, we were playing with some groundwork to test her response to the halter. The ultimate goal, is that no matter where I go, she follows at what ever speed I ask, keeping slack in the line. Obviously not perfect, but she did find that sweet spot of "neutral" pressure a few times on her own, which is what I was looking for. The reason I messed around with some of this, and though Perry didn't get the clip of her, I purposefully let her "hit" the end of the lead/halter a few times to test her response, as her owner did mention she pulled away a couple times one day, but hadn't since. She figured it was a day where the triggers just stacked up and Margot just couldn't handle it and thus pulled away out of her owner's hands (Warwick Schiller has a fantastic podcast somewhere explaining his "rabbit story" that touches on that trigger stacking subject). I just wanted to be sure it was one of those "one offs" and not something that was going to become a habit, so first we test it with little to no triggers, just seeing how she responds to "hitting" the end of the halter or lead if she doesn't follow that feel. Next we add some obstacles and some other "triggers" to build her confidence and training which we will do for the remainder 2 weeks of her training period and hopefully we will have some obstacle video later this week. But this week is insanely hectic, as we are also prepping for the fall Stony Plain tack sale with our leatherwork, have a horse heading home today, and other typical farm stuff, AS WELL as all the regular training sessions so we shall see if I can set up the camera if weather holds this week. Next week, looks like training sessions will be in the WET snow which limits bridge obstacle work but still lots of other stuff we can do. ;)
Margot's video from Saturday will be in 2 parts. Here is the last half of her foot trim from Saturday. This is the second time she has been trimmed in her life outside of a tip table, to our knowledge anyways. Her owner purchased her as an unhandled, unhalter broke 2yr old who was pretty apprehensive of people. She had 30days with us back in May after being halter broke by her owner. No fault of Margot or her owner, the owner was injured and sent her to us for some extra handling in May, to get her able to be trimmed and all the basic handling. Now she is back for October, half way through her current 30 day training period and is doing fantastic!
This video has sections that are sped up 4x just to make sure the video isn't 20minutes long so if it looks like she was fussing FAST, that is why. She wasn't, things were just as calm as the non sped up videos which you will see there as well. Basically, the videos that have less wind noise and look speedier, are the sped up pieces that are time lapsed.
The first time we trimmed her in May, after 3 weeks of handling, it took us 2 hours to get her trimmed. Mostly because if she needed a second or two to recollect herself, we were patient. It wasn't because she was bad. We gave her all the time she needed to be able to have it be a good experience, even if it took us a while. Lots of praise, reassurance and yes, the odd alfalfa cube here and there. We followed the same concept this time around and got the whole trim done in about 45 minutes which is actually pretty standard for Perry, maybe a smidge longer than the horses that stand perfectly. The only fuss Margot had this time around was the occasional taking away of the foot but it was calm and gentle so we would just give her a second without getting "big" about it and just ask for her foot back. With these young ones, what is the point of yelling or getting mad or "whacking" them? It does NOTHING to build their confidence or trust that you don't mean any harm when t
