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Aug. 14th, 2006 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI was so tired on Sunday that I didn't do a particularly stellar job on the updates. Trys took the grey gelding Phantom on the trail ride and he did a really good job. She rode him with my black rope halter, not with a bit. I don't think he's ever had a bit in his mouth, to be honest. That's scheduled for later this week. His trailer-loading ain't all that yet but I think we can get him better in fairly short order. It's on the list. He's a good boy and I think he can have a good home if we put a little foundation in place.
At the trail ride, I asked Trys to run him through all his rope tricks. He laid his ears flat back and swished his tail at her. (That's disrespectful and he knows better what I expect from him.) I was like, "Dude, he's never done that to me..." and she handed him over to me and he did that crap to me so I whapped him one on the shoulder and *flick*, the ears went forward, the head went down, and the eyeball I could see softened. There was respect. There was politeness. Judging from that one instance, he's going to try to game the system with a new person. It's not something he's real aggressive about. He's willing enough to bend the knee if the new person asserts bossness -- new-owner is going to have to assert and kind of keep watching for a lack of respect.
I took Wren out of the field today and sacked her out with a feed sack. I also picked up all four of her feet, one at a time, for what was probably the first time in her life. I can't hold them real long, but I can hold them, front and back. She's really coming along -- yesterday, I couldn't touch her feet (on the ground) for more than a few seconds without her trying to take them away from me. I ran a brush all over all of her body. Those activities all went well but she's very much a less-is-more horse. She's going to need an owner who understands about being light and being quick with the release. On the plus side, she's fairly quiet, kind, and slow to react. These things will help her get along with a less-than-perfect person.
I feel kind of weird discussing how to train horses when the IRH still dumps me on my butt after four years of messing with her. I mean honestly, shouldn't she be *done* by now? Thing is, the IRH requires lightness AND is hot, unkind, and lightning fast to react. She also gets frustrated easily. The problems I have with the IRH are at least partially because she's not a very easy horse. It's not JUST that my skills fall short with her. It's also that she's sort of complicated. Relatively uncomplicated horses can be broke enough to be trusted in thirty days or so. That's enough for a good, solid foundation on an average horse. I can do *average* horses. What I have in the IRH is a horse that is slightly beyond my abilities. At this point I do not know if I will ever get her broke to ride. I still want to keep trying, though... if nothing else, she makes every other damn horse on the place easy to work with.
Also, I'm down to two primary difficulties. First, she spooks at vehicles. Not much else makes her spook -- just vehicles. She is *getting* better with those, but not quickly. When we first started out, she could not stand still at all when a car came by, not even if I was on the ground, holding her on a lead rope. I think it's going to be a matter of exposure, a matter of years, to get her better with that. Also, I've implemented the leading-with-cars activity where she leads from the driver-side window, on the road. That's also useful for her to do on the car front. Second, when I come off, she pulls like hell until I let go or until the reins break... and then she runs for the freaking hills. I have rerigged with the extra thirteen feet of oh-shit line for when I come off. Also we're practicing-falling-off so that she gets used to seeing me on the ground and can learn not to pull back when she's NOT scared so that maybe she'll remember when she *is* scared. This sounds dumb as shit, but I can't have her running off to play in traffic. She could die that way.
At the trail ride, I asked Trys to run him through all his rope tricks. He laid his ears flat back and swished his tail at her. (That's disrespectful and he knows better what I expect from him.) I was like, "Dude, he's never done that to me..." and she handed him over to me and he did that crap to me so I whapped him one on the shoulder and *flick*, the ears went forward, the head went down, and the eyeball I could see softened. There was respect. There was politeness. Judging from that one instance, he's going to try to game the system with a new person. It's not something he's real aggressive about. He's willing enough to bend the knee if the new person asserts bossness -- new-owner is going to have to assert and kind of keep watching for a lack of respect.
I took Wren out of the field today and sacked her out with a feed sack. I also picked up all four of her feet, one at a time, for what was probably the first time in her life. I can't hold them real long, but I can hold them, front and back. She's really coming along -- yesterday, I couldn't touch her feet (on the ground) for more than a few seconds without her trying to take them away from me. I ran a brush all over all of her body. Those activities all went well but she's very much a less-is-more horse. She's going to need an owner who understands about being light and being quick with the release. On the plus side, she's fairly quiet, kind, and slow to react. These things will help her get along with a less-than-perfect person.
I feel kind of weird discussing how to train horses when the IRH still dumps me on my butt after four years of messing with her. I mean honestly, shouldn't she be *done* by now? Thing is, the IRH requires lightness AND is hot, unkind, and lightning fast to react. She also gets frustrated easily. The problems I have with the IRH are at least partially because she's not a very easy horse. It's not JUST that my skills fall short with her. It's also that she's sort of complicated. Relatively uncomplicated horses can be broke enough to be trusted in thirty days or so. That's enough for a good, solid foundation on an average horse. I can do *average* horses. What I have in the IRH is a horse that is slightly beyond my abilities. At this point I do not know if I will ever get her broke to ride. I still want to keep trying, though... if nothing else, she makes every other damn horse on the place easy to work with.
Also, I'm down to two primary difficulties. First, she spooks at vehicles. Not much else makes her spook -- just vehicles. She is *getting* better with those, but not quickly. When we first started out, she could not stand still at all when a car came by, not even if I was on the ground, holding her on a lead rope. I think it's going to be a matter of exposure, a matter of years, to get her better with that. Also, I've implemented the leading-with-cars activity where she leads from the driver-side window, on the road. That's also useful for her to do on the car front. Second, when I come off, she pulls like hell until I let go or until the reins break... and then she runs for the freaking hills. I have rerigged with the extra thirteen feet of oh-shit line for when I come off. Also we're practicing-falling-off so that she gets used to seeing me on the ground and can learn not to pull back when she's NOT scared so that maybe she'll remember when she *is* scared. This sounds dumb as shit, but I can't have her running off to play in traffic. She could die that way.
