Neptune had ride 4 today. It was a gorgeous day and a wonderful ride. Even better when my video works! I love seeing him trot under saddle haha, he's adorable. And its so cool to see! I have imagined it many times.
So yeah, as usual he had things all figured out and trotting was a piece of cake. He didn't mind my leg at all and understood it well. It was a rather warm day and I didn't want to wear out his good will so after a little bit of practice and just getting a feel for that trot we moved on to some steering work. Initially to the left he didn't quite understand he should follow his nose, but with the help of the panels (I do appreciate my round pen for things like this!) he was turning well in no time. To the right he had more of a tendency to get stuck with his nose to the left and unable to follow the feel of the rein but here too, with the help of the panels he had it figured out pretty quick.
Hoping to sneak away from work tomorrow morning and get in one last ride before the rain moves in later tomorrow.. it could be a while before things are dry enough for another ride after that. 😬
Neptune ride two in the books! It was a success! :D He's so fun when he's a good pony. Second smartest horse I've ever worked with. Close second :P
Today he was very different than yesterday, in a good way. We were off and walking before I could even ask for it, and he was all about the wandering around today. I loved that, I could spend time just being a passenger.. just letting him get used to carrying a person without any demands. And I loved how he just went around doing horsey things. Sniffing poop. Munching weeds. Trying to cram his head through the panels ( 🤦♀️ ok yeah I did ask that he not try to kill us with the panels just yet :P ). Not concerned about his passenger one bit.
As he wandered around I started to ask for some steering here and there, he did SO good with this. Ravenna really struggled with this.. I think I prepared Neptune WAY better for this part haha. It was easy to forget that this was the first time steering, it was like he already knew it. A little stiff/slow to give his nose in spots but always turned and no real confusion about what to do or which way the pressure was coming from. No objections to being guided.
Later in the ride I did get some opportunities to ask him to walk off instead of him going on his own. He was awesome, walking off with a light squeeze, he was really understanding the cue today. So then I started to play around with asking for him to speed up in the walk. This was harder, he thought my legs meant something else - yield the hindquarters or forequarters or a pretty shoulder out.. or why not a counterbend? Can't fault his try or his creativity haha but it took some guessing before he thought to just walk faster. I was able to get it and reward it a few times though so we'll see what he learned next ride.
Couldn't be happier with these first two rides on my "special" pony! 😁😁😁
So this happened today! Neptune's first ride! The weather is perfect this weekend, and finally everything came together and I was able to get this done. Yesterday I reviewed just sitting on him like I did back in December and he did great with that. This morning before I started filming I also reviewed just sitting on him and he was starting to take a step here and there, really thinking about walking off, so I knew it was definitely time.. haha. I was going to get a first ride whether I wanted it or not :P
I was really happy with how this went and where we ended. I had a better plan in my head than I did when I did Ravenna's first ride and I definitely did a better job this time haha. It did help that there wasn't deep inviting sand in the roundpen so I didn't have to worry about him rolling.. with Ravenna I was paranoid haha :P
Neptune did amazing, a little frustrated a couple times but he was able to come out of it. Of course he was his usual piranha self, everything went in his mouth, but that was to be expected. He is freakishly smart and catches on sooo quick.
Neptune's transformation into a water horse is complete. He is no longer an embarrassment to his name sake. 😂 Session 4 today and he had all the confidence and understanding I was looking for! And that was with us getting a quick 1/2 inch of rain last night that made all the water obstacles look different and more challenging not to mention adding a bunch of new ones. I love how careful he was in the second clip (when he's walking away from the camera) in picking his way through the rocks. This was his first time doing this section because its difficult, there's boulders under the water that create deep and shallow spots very abruptly. Love how he checked where to put his foot at the 20 second mark.
Neptune is a very rewarding horse to train. With something new he often starts out really quite horrible.. haha.. but he retains his training 100%, starts off right where he was the previous session, and has the most remarkable transformation from start to finish haha. The winner of the "most improved" award every time. 😂
Day 3 of Neptune's water obstacle training. Now he's starting to get confident! He did great today, even taking on new and different water obstacles on the first try. Next up - being able to send him through the water while I stay on the edge.
Second session working with Neptune on crossing water and we have some success! He needs more confidence but did end with him walking calmly through it. Our work is far from done though. But based on the weather forecast our natural water obstacles will be around for a while also. 😏🌧🌧
What better way to spend Christmas morning than out riding the ponies at a nearby reservoir. The quietness of Christmas morning cannot be beat. This time we went to Millerton Lake and rode around the beach / shore area. I was surprised at how beautiful it was, it was really neat riding among all the rocks and such. Better than expected! It was also more difficult for the ponies than expected haha.. Magic thought the entire area and whole experience was just weird and creepy. Every rock could have been a troll you know. Ravenna was great until we got out to where she could see the whole lake, I should have seen this coming haha.. she had trouble at Fiesta Island also with anything on the water. Well as it turns out that includes geese on the water😂 And boats. And waves from the boat wakes.. So we spent quite a while just watching these things and by the end she was good with these. Great place for "beach" training, we will be back!
Ravenna cracks me up. She sees the water and she just guns for it.. If I let her I think we'd just go swimming. 100% water horse! haha.
An excessively warm day in December is the perfect day to do first sits! Guaranteed quiet pony.. haha. So.. I did Neptune's official first sits! His training has been very inconsistent due to a lack of daylight, this was the first time I'd worked with him since November. He retains everything very well though. Very happy with how this went, no stress or freeze from him and he was confident about standing still too which was the real challenge for him haha.. I was hoping a first sit wouldn't turn into a first ride whether I wanted it or not and it didn't.😅
Harassed Neptune with the aliens today. I got a good chuckle out of his initial reaction at a trot. Like his hind feet had a mind of their own. His brain was perfectly fine with the bouncing stuffy, but his hind end was not. 😂 This video shows the few moments where he had some concern, there was lots of him being perfectly relaxed also, but that makes for some boring video.
Neptune.. the happy piranha-horse. 😂🙄
Neptune’s training session today, working from the fence. I keep one hand and one foot on the fence at all times so that I can just step off if he gets worried, so I’m still not ‘committed’ here.
Neptune’s training session today, working from the fence. I keep one hand and one foot on the fence at all times so that I can just step off if he gets worried, so I’m still not ‘committed’ here. He’s really not giving me any warning signs that he will have trouble accepting a rider. He will have other challenges such as being overly wiggly, lacking patience, easily frustrated, likely to lie down 🙄 etc but not fear of his rider. I like that :p
I figure I should start sharing more about Neptune's training. I am slowly working towards first sits, 10 minutes at a time. He is much more settled here than he was at the previous place, all this open space for running does him good. But, he's still Neptune which means he's wiggly and perpetual motion, so we are taking it slow. This 'colt starting' journey will look quite a bit different from Ravenna, slower as mentioned but also more positive reinforcement based. He doesn't tolerate mixing positive and negative reinforcement as well as Ravenna does. I have to keep the rate of reinforcement pretty high or he starts to get frustrated and throw everything he knows at me. 😅 I can do some things to help with that too, such as switching to timothy pellets from the alfalfa pellets I am using now. But for now we are doing this with R+! Here we are doing some version of the "jeffries method" where you lay across their back, being careful not to straddle them because as long as I am not straddling I can easily slip off if he got scared. As you can see, that's not really an issue. This was the first time I tried feeding him from his back like this, as compared to clicking, getting off and feeding. He did great!
Ever since we came to see this property back in July (aka, a lifetime ago, haha) I’ve been looking forward to riding down this driveway, through the pasture. Today I finally did it! It did not disappoint. So pretty and relaxing. 🥰
Ever since we came to see this property back in July (aka, a lifetime ago, haha) I’ve been looking forward to riding down this driveway, through the pasture. Today I finally did it! It did not disappoint. So pretty and relaxing. 🥰
When your pony has the perfect life but is still glad to see you anyway 🥰
When your pony has the perfect life but is still glad to see you anyway 🥰
Ravenna
Ravenna and I have been going for strolls around the yard. She’s happy to be getting out to explore! Here riding back along the driveway.
Dinner time
Called the ponies in yesterday evening. They are getting the idea. Go Toaster! 🥰
Let the girls out this morning for the first time. Ravenna went long. And fast. Poor Magic! Haha… they got about 45 mins then I put them back, Magic needs a rest. Hard work running around with all that blubber 😛 More photos later!
