My latest project is this cute Gypsy Vanner mare. She is 4 years old with a colt by her side and was just bred back. I am putting her first 30 days of training on her and then she will be for sale. The colt is already sold. She is doing well and has a very lovely trot I may add! Here is just a sample, she is mouthing the bit quite a bit since this is the first time I actually used it to ride her in. I have had her carry it a couple of times but did not use it. So she is just learning to respond to it rather than the halter which is what I start all horses in. She would have responded better if I had just used the halter. But she will get it. She is pretty quick learner.
Destin's first gymnastic exercise
So this is my new mare. I bought her this spring as an unstarted 6 year old. Olivia and I started her together and both of us have been riding her since about March or April. I started jumping her on line, and Olivia jumped her 1 time, but this is her first gymnastic exercise and only second time jumping with a person on her. I think she is doing very well with this and seems to enjoy it too! My camera messed up on the last time she went over the gymnastic with both of the last cross rails up which she did as perfectly as she did this time. So tomorrow, we plan to repeat the exercise and if still good we may add to it.
Horse Behavior
Some interesting horse behavior, Haflinger is a new addition and Destin is letting her know who will be alpha! They are getting along better now though.
This is Lee Hart on my horse Destin. I took her to his clinic this past weekend and asked him to check out her lope. I think she may be a bit more forward than what I am looking for....
Hudson's First Ride (long video)
Hudson, an 8 year old grade gelding, that I bought as a project. I have done the ground work to prepare him to go under saddle, but didnt want to be the first to back him since I splat instead of bounce these days, LOL. So Rebecca has offered to help me with him. This is his first ever ride.
Here is more of Hudson's first ride.
Hudson's first ride.
This is just a little piece of the first ride on my little project horse! Rebecca Schrank is the rider. I think she is doing a great job. She was on him for over 30 minutes today with NO bucks. We are off to a good start! I will post more, they are still uploading.
Destin is doing so well! Been taking her to 3 creeks and she is going through the water now, over ditches and in some mud. All of those were a challenge for her but she learns so fast. I am a bit concerned for her posture though, being an Arab and a bit on the nervous side she can go quite hollow. So I have started teaching her long and low, and have her in a new exercise program to work on that top line. I can tell she is starting to muscle up already.
My newest project horse has made a definite change. He is getting easier to catch and seems to have decided that he is starting to like his sessions with Olivia and myself. I believe he is starting to see a good purpose for us humans and is even starting to bond with us. I have named him Hudson...
Took Destin to 3 Creeks on Tuesday for the first time. She didn't care for the muddy spots, but otherwise did very well.
Olivia on my new horse, Destin.
Destin is still very green. I think this is like ride number 14. So she is not well balanced and not very relaxed yet but is doing well.
Long Time Coming!
This little simple manuever was very difficult for Nemo, but he finally has it! He would freak everytime I tried this before. So I broke it down for him, there were 2 factors that were preventing him from being comfortable doing this. 1. He was uncomfortable with people behind him and 2. He was uncomfortable with the rope around his hindquarters. So we took those two things and worked on them separately. We worked in him getting used to us walking behind him and we also got him used to the rope all over his body including the hindquarters (especially in motion). Then we put it together and whaaalaa! Success. He is still a little uncomfortable in one direction but that will go away with practice. He gets a bit uptight anytime you change the direction of any manuever, but again we just work through it. He is very challenging but is progressing well. Oh and I find that he seems to like kids!
