All The Kings' Horses

Things with Gia started pretty much the same way they have the last several sessions.  We touched the tarp and the scary plastic bag, and they were non-issues today.  She was almost annoyed that I wouldn't let her have grass until she touched them, but she wasn't scared at all.  I groomed and saddled her with very little fidgeting.  Then I added the bridle today.  She has grown a lot since last fall, so I had to let it down a hole.  But she gave me no trouble putting it over her head and putting the bit in her mouth.  She is actually pretty willing to open her mouth for the bit, and she keeps her mouth pretty quiet as well.  Most young horses (and plenty of older ones) have a lot of fussiness with their bits.  One thing I like to do with young horses when bridling for a while, is to separate the noseband from the main headstall and put them on separately.  I put the noseband on first, and fasten it on the first hole, so that I have something to hold onto when trying to put the

I worked with Gia today on the same things we have done the last two sessions.  She was very willing to touch the scary flapping tarp today.  She didn't even flinch!  She was slightly startled by a plastic bag (only slightly though), and quickly touched it when she realized she would get a yummy grassy reward for doing so.  She was even pretty nonchalant about it!  She was super quiet for her grooming session.  She did move a little when I saddled and girthed her, but I really think it was more because she was trying to get the grass near the edge of the round pen.  When I moved her into the middle of the round pen to finish girthing, she was pretty still.  When I put her to work around the round pen, the saddle was definitely a non issue.  Her only issue was figuring out how to get me to let up on the pressure so that she could come in the middle and rest again.  She thought about intimidating me a few times, but as soon as I saw the glimmer in her eye, I made her change direction

Last week was a little crazy, so I did not get a chance to work with Gia at all, but she didn't forget a thing from the week prior!  As I was bringing her out of her field to the round pen, she was startled by a tarp blowing in the breeze.  She only jumped to the side a little, so it wasn't too bad.  However, I love using these times as learning opportunities.  She was very excited about the grass near the tarp, so I asked her to step closer to the tarp, and when she did, I allowed her to have a few bites of grass.  We repeated the process until she was actually touching the tarp, and then we repeated that several times as well.  The whole thing only took about 5-10 minutes, but she learned a BIG lesson that will last with her forever.  In her brain, she has connected that scary tarps = yummy grass.  With this type of method, I have seen horses in the past start approaching "scary" things all on their own, rather than running from them.  It's very simple, and it w

I worked with Gia today again in the round pen, repeating what she has done the last two times.  Just like on Tuesday, she was quick to be submissive and respectful.  As a reward, she received another good long grooming session.  Then it was time to add something new - the saddle.  It wasn't completely new, since she did wear the saddle a lot last year, but it's been about 6 months, so she definitely needed a refresher.  I did not really need to desensitize her to the process of putting it on, like I'm sure I had to do last year.  She did move around a little bit while I put the saddle pad and then the saddle on, but not too bad.  She did not move at all while I tightened the girth.  Once I had the saddle on and the girth tight, I asked her to move around the round pen.  It's one thing to be quiet when the saddle is on and the horse isn't moving, but when they start moving, they feel all sorts of things going on with the saddle on their back, and that will often get

I worked with Gia again today.  She definitely remembered everything we did yesterday.  Within ten minutes she was licking and chewing and following me around the arena with her head down.  There was no drama or fireworks today either.  She even remained completely focused on me despite her pasture mate hollering at her the entire time.  So, I decided to reward her with a nice long and thorough grooming session.  It's been a while since she's been brushed, so she really enjoyed it.  I lost her attention only once, when her pasture mate was brought into the barn and she couldn't see him anymore.  It only took a few minutes to get her focused on me again though.  She stood almost perfectly still the entire time, and she wasn't even tied to anything.  I think she almost fell asleep!  Since there isn't much to talk about Gia today, I would like to talk about the lost art of grooming your horse.  I know many people that don't need this lecture at all.  You probably

So, as promised, I will be blogging about Gia's journey as she progresses with her training.  Since she is almost three, I've already done a lot of stuff with her that I did not get a chance to write about, but I will try to catch you all up.  She was also born here on the farm, so her training started very much like Baker's.  She had to learn to lead and stand tied.  As I remember, she was much feistier about everything as compared to Baker, but for those of you who followed my blog about Baker, he was super easy as compared to most babies.  Gia was probably about average with most things I taught her except one - tying.  She had quite a hard time with that concept, and broke from what she was tied to many times.  The fact that she is pretty big, didn't help my side of things much either.  I ended up having to call in reinforcements - someone to come and give me a hand and show me some new techniques that definitely made a difference with her.  And now I have one more