V Is For Voice Cues! Some horses are more auditory than others, but Firefly needs to know them because she's blind on her right side and has some changes in her good eye. She's so good at backing now, I can be on her blind side and she backs up so well you'd never know! Most horses seem much more visual than anything - a blind horse that is well adjusted is quite impressive; a deaf horse is easy to communicate with via body language and conveniently doesn't spook at loud noises. There's actually quite a lot of deaf splash paint horses competing at national level reining. In this video, Firefly is learning to trust my voice cues (even when she can't see where she's going) by stepping not only backwards through a small space but by having to feel her way up the step. Even when she sort of ran into it, she didn't panic, she just shifted and navigated her way through it. Very proud of her!
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Here Firefly is learning voice cues for walking, trotting, and stopping on her blind side. We're helping her to learn that she doesn't always have to turn and face, she can stop and wait for further instruction. She gets a little stuck in the middle, but doesn't come in and gets going again, which is a great step for her!
Firefly is learning to respond to voice cues on her blind side and we're very impressed with her!
Short video of Charlie's jumping progress! I didn't set him up very well for the barrels but he went over them anyway. When I first started with him he was just about impossible to lead over grass, and here he is actually putting in some energy, and more interested in me! He's like playing with a big puppy, I love the days when he's first on the list!
Samson Day 11 - Accept the rider
Samson's first ride!
This was last Friday, finally posting! He was soo good. Actually one of the easiest horses I've started.
My video camera died at the end, so the last bit was taken with a phone. Thank you Liz and Joe for filming!
Samson Day 8 - First saddling experience
Samson wore his first saddle today. He was shockingly cavalier about it. Pushed him into a canter a few times and not a single buck! Bunched up and stopped a bit, but no fireworks. As you'll see... he expressed his opinions in other ways though! :) I just love his personality!
Thank you Becca for filming from the fence!
Samson Day 4
Samson learned lots of new things this evening! I caught him with the halter, no neck rope this time, just a few handfuls of treats. By the time I finished, I could touch him all over, even both back legs and his ears! Love our little wild pony! (And yes, the T-Swift was necessary!)
Samson Day 2
Second day with Samson. Caught him with the rope and slowly got him used to being touched and lead a bit. He was a good sport about it!
(Thanks Liz for your camera skills!)
Samson's First Day
Our project Mustang gelding, on his first day out playing with him. He's been in captivity for at least a year, perhaps more, but no one ever gentled him... Not sure if anyone tried, or if he was just a pasture pet. But he didn't know how to feel about human contact, and this is me beginning to teach him that people are pretty cool. Elapsed time: about an hour and a half.
...It's best, when you find yourself in a situation where you've just acquired an untouched wild horse, to keep him in a small enclosure or round pen until he trusts you and you can catch him in a bigger space. We had to unload him into the front paddock, so this is me playing the catching game with a wild horse in a one acre space!! Makes things interesting!
(Thank you Liz for filming!!!)
Missy - 3 yo filly - groundwork, riding, and trailer loading
Missy's progress so far, filmed after 12 training sessions total, and her 5th ride.
(This was her second time cantering with a rider, so she was still quite speedy in the beginning!)
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