Worrell Horsemanship

Colton doing all 4s before I trimmed him.

Ground driving Theo with the bit! I am actually really impressed with how he did. I didn't record it but even did this at the trot and worked on backing.

Day 1 ground driving with Theo! He is such a fast learner! This was just hooked to his halter. Probably in about 2 sessions I can drive him from the bit.

I played around with ground driving Cooper without the lines connected to his face! This is solely off of body language and him yielding to the pressure off his haunches from the driving lines. He went from kicking at the rope on his butt to being very supple with this! Will hookup the lines to his halter and then bit! Also some desensitizing I've been doing.

Tossing long lines around on Cooper and working him through his insecurities of it around his hind end.

Theo's first time in a surcingle and he was unphased! I think a saddle is next along with ground driving. I'm very pleased with how quickly he is learning. This is his 2nd time lunging with me too! Not sure how much he's lunged before here, but his first time trying to lunge here was a bit chaotic as there were 2 other horses in the arena at the time to add to his ADHD 🤣.

Doll wore a saddle today for the first time in a while! She is our one border horse (friends horse) and I had some spare time to mess with her today.

Late night post of Theo's day 2 session.

Day 1 with Prometheus (Theo). He learns super quick and I think will be really fun :)

*Keep in mind Cooper is available for adoption to a BLM approved home! * Some pretty great progress with Cooper over the weekend. As you see, we can now cinch the saddle on with him holding still. Of course some days he may be more squirmy dependent on his mindset that day. He jumped when I crossed over and swung the cinch up at the end, but before that would have totally set him off, so the way he handled that is wonderful! Another huge success, his first time keeping his head down and relaxed after I ask while wearing a saddle ❤️. He does still buck a little at a canter with the rear cinch on, and doesn't hold very still for putting that on either, so still work ahead of us with the back cinch, but again, he isn't completely losing his mind anymore, and can relax after a bit and hold still for me to put it on, it just takes a little convincing and going at his pace. He has not bucked at all for a while with just the saddle and no back cinch, so that's another plus. Still unsure if he'll get a first ride this month since he has a lot of reactiveness in there, and tiny holes I keep uncovering, but we will see. This bit of progress over the weekend is making me a little more hopeful 🤞

I don't think it's talked about enough how important this is to take time doing. I did this in the beginning when he got here, but wanted to take time checking in and giving him a nice relaxing session with this. Let's them know we don't always just work them, and it let's me check in with where they are emotionally. Even just doing this at the beginning and/or end of every session is very beneficial. So simple, but so good for them to just relax. With Cooper today I did this until he licked and chewed, as he was holding some good amount of tension today and it took some time to get that complete relaxation. Of course it wasn't on video though 😔

Cooper :) he's doing great. We're ready to focus on standing totally still while tightening the cinches, and then me walking at his side with the saddle while I move the stirrups.