I got a little behind in my writing, so I'm going to combine the last two training sessions in one blog. I worked with Baker for about 21 minutes on Tuesday, and about 18 minutes today. I had some help on both days, so I decided to work with him on something new. I started on Tuesday by making a short video of how to properly put a halter on a young or nervous horse. I won't go into detail here, but check out the video. Baker was very "helpful" during the filming, so it might be a little silly ☺. After the video, I walked him towards the tying tree. I feel like he has been a bit sluggish in his walk work using the butt rope, so on Tuesday, I had someone help me by tapping him on his hind end with a long whip anytime I applied pressure on his halter and gave him the verbal command "walk on". It is very important that the helper only taps him with the whip at the same time I apply pressure on the halter. When I give him the voice command, that is the signal to my helper to use the whip. As soon as he steps forward, I say "good boy!", release pressure on the halter, and the helper knows to stop tapping. It is very important that all the commands to go forward happen simultaneously until I get what I want, and that all the commands stop as soon as I get what I want. Baker reacted with a very forward walk, and even broke into a little trot at times, but he was responding much more promptly. He did seem a little miffed about the whip too! Today, when we tried it, he remembered what went on yesterday, and was much more obedient with much less whip to walk on. He also wasn't as pissy about it. On both days, once we got to the tree, I tied him securely and flysprayed him. He stood perfectly still both days, so that means I can add something new to the grooming session next time! I groomed him and picked up his feet both days as well. As usual, he was perfect for all that. On Tuesday, after I had finished grooming him, I untied him, and together with my whip person, we started to teach him to trot in hand. We used the same process for the trot work as we did for the walk work. The only difference was that I said the word "trot" when I asked him to go forward. He was VERY anxious about the trot work on Tuesday. He tried bolting off several times, and each time I had to tell him "whoa" and stop him quickly. We did manage to get three good trot sets (no more than about 10-20 steps of trot at a time), before I let him quit. On Wednesday, when we worked on the trot, he was much less upset about the idea of being tapped with the whip, and much more willing to go forward when I asked. It took less pressure on the halter, less tapping with the whip, and less tries to get three good trot sets. He definitely seemed to understand the idea better the second day. Once, he even moved up to trot when he saw me start to move my body faster, and he came back to walk when he saw me slow my body down. He sure is a quick learner! At the end of both sessions, I walked him back to Fiona and worked on a few halts. He was not very interested in listening and halting on Tuesday, probably because he was still upset about the trot work. But on Wednesday, he was much more calm and better about his halts. Once I got him close to Fiona, I asked him to put his head down. On Tuesday, It took several tries before he complied, probably because he was so upset still. But on Wednesday, he put his head down before I even asked, and kept it there. I actually had to pull his head up to unbuckle the halter, and then he dropped it back down again before I could ask. He really is a quick learner and a pleaser!
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