Friday, January 30, 2015

Training Frosty

Frosty
This is Frosty.  I've been working Frosty through the Method in preparation for our visit to the Bar SZ Ranch with the Norcal Downunder Brumbies in May.  I'll be doing a presentation and I want to get my act together.  Working with one horse has its disadvantages.  Yes, you can become a little complacent.  Working Jessie doing the same exercises can get a little boring.  Not only for me but for for Jessie too.

We've had three sessions so far.  Frosty is a mare.  Sorry, don't know too much about her background - I should.  She is far more sensitive than Jessie.  We've been doing a lot more desensitizing.  She has some very quick moves and has dumped a few people over the years.  I'm quite interested to see how her training progresses compared to Jessie's training.  My goal is to see if I can get her as bombproof as Jessie.  I think this could be quite a challenge.  It will demonstrate to me the differences between horse personalities and training.  I'm excited by the thought of discover.

Frosty has had a good amount of training from some trainers in town.  The owner has taken her to a couple of clinics.  She doesn't get ridden very much and with any horse that can be a challenge.

Today we started with a little desensitizing, then went to lunging.  First, Stage One, then Stage Two.  She has a nice little roll back.  She is a smaller horse and I can see her quickness from the ground.

Last work out we tried the run-up-and-rub exercise, and while we were mildly successful, I went back to the head-shy exercise.  I must have worked on this as an exercise between impulsion exercises three times for a total of 30 minutes. By the end of the session, I think she was connecting with it.  

I also liked the reaction I got to the throw-the-rope-to-a-stop exercise.  Frosty's back end would kick out and she would step her shoulders toward me.  That just gave us something to work on.  I was able to see improvement going to the left.  The right, not so much.

I'm hoping to work with her tomorrow and Sunday.  I have no thoughts of riding her for the future.  I am trying to keep the thought of "I'll know when to ride her, when I know she can be ridden safely."


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