Workin Workin Workin

I haven't blogged in a week or so. The reason for that is because after about the 5th or 6th ride, Sham came to life. I swung a leg over to get on and it was off to the races, I barely got on. I was completely surprised by this but I did what I could to help him through it. As the days progressed the problem got better but persisted. The approach that I took was just to keep working on getting him and keeping him soft in the face and body. I was more upset with my self because I felt like I had missed something in the preparation. I wasn't upset with him at all, he has told me all along that he was a touchy horse. I started finding that after he got a little run out of his system that he trained well. So I started taking him out and about to different arenas. He has handled the traveling well. I make sure that I have adequate time to warm him up before anyone else gets there. If he bolts I simply sit and let him go, I add some direction and he responds, very quickly he relaxes. However once he decides to slow down I ask him to keep going and going. He is starting to think hard before he runs. This is getting less and less and I imagine that it will stop before too long. Once he is relaxed and listening he is very soft and light in the bit and handles like a dream. He is light to my legs and I love that. He is stepping around nicely and side stepping a couple steps. He is a good horse!!!! He is trying very hard to let down and trust everything I can tell that much for certain. And he trys hard to figure out what I am asking him to do. I feel very good about our chances to show well. Until next time God Bless, BW

not about me

Training a mustang has to be one of the most exciting, humbling, frustrating, and fun things that anyone can do. I have a lot of people rooting for Sham and I to do well and a lot of interest in how we are doing. I had several people lined up to watch me put the first ride on Sham as I thought I was getting closer to getting ready. After a weekend trip, I came back and resumed work getting Sham ready to ride. He didn't miss a beat with the saddling and the ground work. I started jumping around him and eventually got to where I was able to lean over him. (I had done it from on Electra but not just me and him) it took only a minute for him to accept that it was just me up there. I then thought that I would call it a day and go call everyone that was wanting to watch ME put on a show. Just then I caught myself and stopped, I realized that I was starting to slip into the exact trap that I have been warned about and that I myself promised I wouldn't get into. That is forgetting why I train horses. I train horses for them, of course I have big dreams and I enjoy it, but I do my best to do it for them. Sham was screaming loud and clear he was ready for me to swing a leg over. And I was going to stop and go call people? It was a true revelation for me. It is easy to get caught up in the act as I start to put myself out to the public more and more. It is my name on the sign, it is my picture in the magazine, and it is me that is the center of attention. I am sooo happy I caught myself. As I went to step back up I looked toward Dad's house and I saw him give me a thumbs up. (I try not to put the first couple rides on any colt if no one is at least around to kick some dirt over my body) I swung my leg over. And so went the first ride. I could go way in depth about what kind of things I did, but mostly I just did my best to listen to him and let him tell me what he needed from me to help him through the experience, that is all. I have been getting caught up a lot in the what to do's, and that is still what I want to teach to people, to help them out, but training horses is all about your state of mind and considering and feeling for the horse. Period end of discussion. As we progressed through our first couple rides I would add some elements, smoother transitions, smoother turns, sniffling lol, waving my arms, and just getting him more broke. Today was ride 5 and we worked for a while in the round pen, then went for a quick trip around the front pasture and around the house, he isn't afraid of stuff, only of stuff that is happening to him, that is a very comforting thought for me. I am excited for this little guy, he tries so hard I can't get over him. I am also glad that I woke up and came to my senses before it was too late. First God, then horse, and I am way down on the chain. Until next time ride centered, and God Bless, BW.

One foot in front of the other

After getting Sham Saddled I have been riding electra and working with him from on top of her. He has been doing a good job, he tries so hard. I am not sure if I have ever seen a horse try as hard as he is. I can't get over it. The hard part about that is that I need to work at a pace that is allowing him to try. If I push to hard or too fast I will discourage him to try and that is not what I want. So I am not afraid to take my time. He was nervous when he first saw me and electra come in the round pen with him so I just road around Electra, and didn't do anything with him. soon he was watching curiously instead of nervous. After I got him used to ponying around we went out for about a 45 minute ride. I took him through brush and hills and anywhere I could to get him used to things, he didn't mind most of it. There were time when he wanted to just stall out and not move. I just simple dallied and stopped and held until he gave, pretty soon he was trotting along with us, I think that it helped his leading as well. I have leaned over him, from on electra and he is watching but he is thinking and getting better, he lets me jump around him, once I start laying over him I am going to complete the step and swing a leg over. I hope that the next posting is one describing how the first ride went. God Bless, BW

Patience

Now two and a half weeks into work with Sham, I must say that I feel like we are gaining at a reasonable pace. After a couple days of touching and working on leading I felt good enough to take off his halter. He has been great to catch and re halter. He doesn't quite stick his nose in the halter for me but we work every day. I have to remember that everything is very new to him. He is still not sure about tying it but he tolerates it well. I am starting to see a good amount of trust and try coming out of him. Once I led him into the round pen we had some great break throughs. I started moving him around, and he was great, it took him a while to figure out how to lope the circle but he has it figured out pretty good now. I never had to work him facing me because that was the very first thing that I taught him in his pen at the barn. I started with the flag almost right away. I presented it to him in the exact same way that I presented myself to him and he handled it great without me holding him he just stood and trusted that it wouldn't hurt him. As a matter of fact there hasn't been too much that he has been afraid of. What he is afraid of however is the manner in which I present it. For example he didn't care about the saddle pad at all, even when I tossed it to him but when I swung way around and flung it like a saddle it upset him. I have learned to really prepare him for such things and prepare myself to keep going and not get upset if he spooks. He is quite a bit more spooky of me than Bailey was and that has helped me understand where he is coming from much more. It is easy not to get upset when I know he is afraid. After a couple of days of desensitizing with several things he learned not to blow away and to stick it out as long as he could. With this in mind I have been very careful not to betray this and push him away with too much pressure. I try to back it off right at the breaking point before he goes away. He responds well to this. If he does go I maintain what I was doing until he stops and relaxes, he has learned that this gets the object taken away quicker than anything. With these approaches I have graduated him to the saddle. He doesn't mind the saddle on his back near as much as he minds the act of throwing it on. I have saddled him 3 times now and worked carefully at it each time. The good news is, so far he hasn't bucked once. I have been told however to be careful, because he may be just caught in the moment and may soon try to buck it off. He does however look intelligently at me and at the saddle, so I remain optimistic. With his increased level of trust he has started testing the waters. Good news, I was ready for it. He tried to refuse going into the round pen, he has tried to bolt past me leaving the round pen, and he has tried to hustle back into his stall. I had already prepared him in the round pen, backing him up and sending him past me and the fence. With these tools I was ready to stop and correct these bad habits before they got started, I simply stayed steady with him until he gave in. Careful all the while to not get upset with him and turn it into a fight. He didn't take long to act like a gentleman. The next while I will spend working on more softness and ponying him along with Electra (my good mare). I will not rush getting on him as much as I can't wait to get in the saddle. I need to remind my self this competition is not about me, it is about the horse and helping him get into a long term home when I am done. I also need to remember that the contest is not who can get their horse broke first, it is who's horse is the most broke at the end. I am confident that he will be among the best in that category as long as I take things at his time. Until next time God Bless, BW

Slow and Steady

I wasn't able to go pick up my mustang, I was working in Denver on the pick up days. I sent a good friend of mine down to do it. This is where I got lucky, and God had a huge hand in it. They jumped me in a big bay horse, where I would have more than likely gotten in the truck and drove off my friend Serenity stepped out and took a good look at him. She noticed that he had an infected cut on his cheek that had some swelling. She brought it up to the folks there and they decided to give me another one. That is when Sham was run in, a cute little roan horse. He had to sit for a couple of days until i was able to start work with him on Monday morning. All I wanted to do was get him used to me on the first day. He is very skittish and uncertain, so taking my time was and is a huge priority. On the first day I simply put passive pressure on him and moved him around when he tried to leave and go away from me. Every time he looked at me I would over exaggerate taking the pressure away. Soon he was facing me consistently, even taking a couple of steps toward me. That is all that happened on the first day. On the next day I started approach and retreat in the morning after a while he let me get close enough to sniff and lip my hand, It was important to me that he took that first step. I didn't want to rope him. That evening we got the camera out and after a short amount of time he let me touch him, he had to make the first move to let me know that it would be ok. I pet him for a couple minutes then left him before he decided to leave me. The following morning I worked my way up to clipping the lead rope on. Once I got it, I put some pressure on his hind quarters, I was only after him following me with his nose, he tried to pull away a couple times. I simple held the pressure and the very instant he turned his nose toward me, released the pressure on the lead rope. I eased up to touching him everywhere I could within reason, (without exposing my self to getting kicked) and he handled it all fairly well. He was very weary but I have been able see him slowly letting down. One of the biggest feats of the week was fixing the halter. I didn't quite like the was the halter was tied and it was very loose. I started fixing it and he definitely didn't like the noise and my hands by his ears. It took a lot of working up to get it the way that I wanted it. He is now leading around his pen pretty fair, and is letting me catch him rather quickly. I don't want to take off the halter yet, but we will work up to that, in no time. He is showing me great signs of intelligence, and showing that he wants to trust me. I don't want to do anything to betray his trust like pushing him too hard, and too fast. I know more about what to expect at the show so I am taking a much different approach this year. I am not going to read up on too many other horses in the competition because I want to work my horse one day at a time at our pace. Last year I saw that others where doing things that I thought I should be doing and that distracted me. I hope to be able to get him to the round pen in the next couple days and then a lot more should start happening. I hope to have a lot more to report next week. Until next time, God Bless, BW