Goose- Bluebonnet Equine Humane Society

Goose working on getting used to the wagon. He was a little nervous about it at first but calmed down and thought through everything. I won't say he enjoyed pulling that noisy thing behind him, but he did tolerate it 😄.

Goose trotting some figure 8's in hand and working on sidepassing. He's improved so much with all of his ground work over the past few months. I wished I could have gotten him farther under saddle, but his progress from where we started to accepting a saddle and having someone sit on him and stay relaxed is huge for him. He will be ready for someone to progress under saddle or I could see him being an in hand show horse of some type with those looks 😉 #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Working on our pivot in hand, not perfect but getting there! Goose will now trot beside me and in a liberty draw also (haven't tried without halter at a trot yet). This is huge progress for him, before we started on some liberty basics, he would not trot beside me in hand and definitely was not getting in any hurry to come towards me. I had 0 experience with liberty techniques before playing around with it with Goose, but have to say it is pretty fun, and Goose really seems to enjoy it! #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Goose walk, trot, canter both directions being lunged. He tends to be a little nervous at first when lunging but calms down quickly. I usually warm him up slowly letting him walk and trot for a little bit and won't ask him to canter until he relaxes. He continues to seem more comfortable with an english saddle vs western so he may just make a better english "pony" (he's at least 16HH) 😆 He did spook when warming up when the stirrup fell and hit his side but he just bolted and then stopped, no bucking! #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Goose would like to call this activity "PUT THAT THING BACK WHERE IT CAME FROM!" 😆 This was our 2nd day working with the flag/banner and today was MUCH better than yesterday. He's not quite comfortable with the banner touching him past the shoulder yet but did much better with the noise and was ok with it touching him on the shoulder. He was a little more reactive with it being on his right side compared to left so we will keep working on that. #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

First ride... ish 😄 this video is actually from last week, the first time sitting on him with halter then we moved to the bridle. We repeated the same exercise today with me spending more time sitting on him and he did relax more today with lowering his head and chewing after getting off and on and sitting on him for a few minutes. My goal before asking for any movement is for him to relax with me in the saddle and not become tense or nervous with me moving around in the saddle. #TeamGoose #bouebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Working on saddling while tied. Goose tends to be more comfortable with being saddled in an open space/not tied so we are working on being saddled in the barn and walking to the round pen as well as walking back to the barn to be untacked. Goose works best with taking each new step slowly. I do have him tied with a Blocker ring just in case he spooks or sets back to avoid any accidents or making him more fearful of standing tied while being saddled. Overall he did great and even though he was a little nervous about this new thing, he thought through it and did not become reactive. #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Video 3 ok maybe it's not that scary, I'll get in 😄 this whole session only took about 30-45 minutes from starting with him not even wanting to be near the trailer to getting all the way in and backing out. We just worked on gentle pressure and release as he stepped closer to the trailer since I was working alone. He loaded in and backed out about 5 times. Even with things he's unsure about he's trying so hard to think through it. Way to go Goose! #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024

Video 2 making progress.. fine I'll touch it but im absolutely not getting in that thing 😆

Well my plan yesterday was to haul Goose along with a couple other horses to a barrel race to see how he did away from home but.... I was reminded by Goose that not all trailers are created equal 😆. When I took him to the vet for his yearly I took him in a stock trailer which is very open with a wide door and lots of light. When I went to load him in the horse trailer yesterday, he said heck no I'm not getting in that little black box! We were short on time yesterday and I didn't want to get in a hurry trying to load him and make things worse so he got left at home and we picked up with trailer loading in the horse trailer today. FB will only let me post 1 video at a time so first I'll post the video of when I first started today's session. He would not get within several feet of the door of the trailer and was very nervous.

We worked on taking a little bit of weight over Goose's back today and getting him used to someone stepping onto a step/bucket beside him. Since he is pretty tall it's important to get him used to someone using a mounting block or bucket to mount up. I did the same exercise with leaning over his back on both sides and he did really well even on the right side. In this video he is a little distracted by Wyatt walking through the gate to catch his horse, but he stood very relaxed before the video was taken. I guess I'll have to do some brainstorming to make my bucket a little taller to actually lay all the way over his back 😅 lol

Goose lunging with the surgincle. This may seem like a small step from hand walking with the surcingle to lunging, but each little step forward with Goose staying relaxed is big progress! He was able to lunge at a walk and trot both directions and work on some liberty circles at the walk also. One thing I have noticed since beginning liberty work with him is that instead of tolerating me being close to him he actually WANTS to be near me. He would now rather stay close to me than be sent away and also comes all the way to me when being asked to join up with lunging. Before we started liberty, he would turn and face me when lunging, but would not take steps towards me. Way to go big dude! #TeamGoose #bluebonnettrainingchallenge2024