# One horse at a Time



## knightrider (Jun 27, 2014)

These are such interesting training projects, I would like to see this turn into a journal so we could read about your progress.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Introduction to Mia*

As I said previously, this girl showed up in rough shape. Currently she's put on weight to the point her hips and ribs don't jut anymore. Still needs to build up muscle along her back and get rid of the left over mom belly. I have a feeling she's been worked with at some point in her life, but not in a long time and most recent handling hasn't been the greatest. The hauler I used said the people used whips to get her moved around. And I've also noticed when working with her, if she feels unsure about something or is hesitant in trusting me, her go to thing is to threaten or try to bit me. She's a fighter instead of a runner. 

When she first showed up, she was also very reserved and shut down almost. Now that she's put on weight and had a month to adjust, she's full of spunk and energy. She's been very hard to catch. I have to use a lariat as she'll let me get close enough to slip the lasso part over her head with some approach and retreat. This is getting better though. Last time I was able to get next to her and put the rope around her neck before haltering. Once caught and working with her starts, she settles down and very quickly starts to fall asleep. She seems to want to be sweet, but just isn't 100% trusting yet but getting there.

Currently only focusing on getting her used to be touched all over and having her feet handled. Poor girl hasn't had a trim in who knows how long. So she needs a trim before too much work can be done as I can't imagine it being comfortable moving around with extra 3-4 inches of hoof on. 


This is the pic I was sent of her to show how she was in the summer. 












These pics are how she looked upon arrival. Keep in mind her winter coat is about 3 inches thick as well.




















After 1 month, this is how she looks now after being with me. Hooves will be trimmed this coming Monday and then she'll really be feeling better.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

That little mare reminds me of my pony mare Bella, who is 1/4 Newfoundland pony. She came from a home where she was quite underweight with prominent hip bones, had lice and was full of worms. My friend brought her home because she felt sorry for her, kept her a few months and then offered her to me when I told her I was looking for a companion horse. She had been trained to drive a little, but since she was only 2, hadn't been backed yet. Sweet mare. And with some care (deworming, de-licing and a good diet), she really shone! Shedding her winter coat was a revelation! Here's her before and after:


















And a before and after headshot:

















She was a bit of an ugly duckling when we got her which might also have partly just been her age, but since I was just looking for a companion horse, I didn't care, and she was cheap. Who knew that under all that fur, there wassuch a pretty little face? She's shaggy again now with her winter coat, but still looks much better than when we first brought her home.

She was started under saddle lightly by my daughter a bit after she turned 3 and has done tons of free-jumping. She's definitely showing talent and interest for jumping, so my daughter hopes to turn her into a little hunter/jumper pony.

I love that you're taking on these project horses and successfully re-homing them. There is such a need for this. Please keep posting updates on all your pretty ponies!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So the gelding I was going to take on from my aunt isn't going to happen till summer now. Due to his previous foundering issues, I need to wait until I can get grass hay for him which won't happen until the next haying season. I spoke with my aunt and offered to help him find a good home where he'd get the care he needs as well, but she said she'd rather wait until the summer when I can take him on. So that's what's going to happen. Feel kind of special that she's willing to trust his care to me when she won't really consider anyone else. Definitely means a lot. 


Also, the two babies are arriving early Tuesday morning! Can't wait to meet them. The colt got his feet done yesterday. Was his first ever trim and he apparently did pretty good for a first time. And the filly already is starting to boss him around lol. They just got put in a pen together today since they're leaving to head my way tomorrow and will be sharing a stall on the trailer coming up. 










As for Mia, she's making great progress! 
I've been working on making it that she has to touch my hand or let me touch her nose before I feed her breakfast or supper. She's been catching on and getting more and more willing to allow touch. Twice now I haven't had to use the lariat to catch her, just halter her almost like you would normally. I never roped her, just slip the rope over her head since that's as close as she'd allow for the longest time to be caught. 

Also been practicing desensitizing and giving her feet. I'm waiting until her hooves get trimmed before taking her to the roundpen since her one hoof has nearly 3 extra inches on it. Others are chipped and long as well. Her first hoof trim will be tomorrow and I'm both excited and a hint nervous about how it'll go. I'm optimistic it'll go well. I've been practicing holding her feet up, wiggling them, holding them like a farrier does, tapping on them, and even bringing brushes she's never seen and moving them around her feet like a farrier does when reaching for their tools. 

A couple videos I've taken through the month of owning her if you want to see her personality for yourself


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Mia got her hooves trimmed for the first time today. 
Started off not too great. While my prep work helps her be great for me, she wasn't so keen on a stranger handling her feet. She danced around a lot with the first two feet and even tried to bolt and rear a time or two despite us trying to go slow. 
She threw one big tantrum and when she didn't get away with that, she settled and the rest of the trim went uneventfully. 

With her feet finally being in better shape, we can start working in the roundpen at last! I may also have found her a new home come spring lol. My farrier's aunt has been looking for a pony her age and size. So come spring, Mia just might go to her and be part of a therapy program. 

















Also, the two babies are arriving early tomorrow morning. Can't wait!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

The babies have arrived! 

Colt is definitely underweight (was told this beforehand). He was a rescue case with his mom, both of which were malnourished upon rescue. The lady I bought him from had only had him for 2ish months and put some weight on him. Now I get to help him finish filling out. He's also in a growth spurt so that doesn't help either lol.
The filly looks to be in good health and spirits for her age and what she's gone through the last month. She's sticking to the colts side like glue while they were investigating the pen.

A horse in the pen behind them wants to adopt them too haha. He/she gets upset when the babies go into the shelter and out of eyesight. Pretty cute to see actually.
Also, the halters will be coming off. I'm giving them a bit of time to settle in first to minimize stress. But it looks like the youngsters are already on the verge of outgrowing their halters. Good thing I have some more to use that are bigger.

Also wouldn't mind name suggestions for them. Here are some names I've thought of so far.
*Colt: * 


Ranger - Arctic Prince (aka Prince) 
Arlo - Tex 
Maverick - Rost 
Link - Sarge 
Kei - Sky Dancer (aka Sky) 
 * Filly*

- Shimmer 
- Aloy - Epona 
- Piper - Ella/Ellia 
- Bold Dreamer (aka Dreamer) 
- Roulette (Rue) - Sakura 
- Rae


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Mia is making good progress. She got her hooves trimmed. She wasn't too keen on a stranger handling her feet and threw a tantrum when on the second foot. After not getting away with that, she realized it was just simpler to stand and was nearly perfect for having the last two feet done.
With her feet done, I'm now more comfortable with starting to truly work her since I don't have to worry about her hurting herself accidentally. 

I've got 3 sessions of work with her in the roundpen done. She was unsure about going into the alley way and into the arena, but she took to it much easier than I expected. Barely had any hesitant moments going in. 
In the roundpen, I got her moving out but never pushed her too much as she's very out of shape. Majority of it was walk and trot with an introduction to a cue to cantering but she couldn't do more than a few spurts of cantering. Which is fine, we're just at a starting point and slowly increase her conditioning. 

I'm also joining a horsemanship challenge of sorts with her. So it should be interesting to see where things go there. 











As for the youngsters, they're doing well. I just hang out with them in their paddock and love on them. The filly is coming around quickly and the colt can't get enough of attention lol. I've learnt more of their personalities as well and picked names for them.
Astrea (the filly) is quiet, observant, and sweet. 
Spencer (colt) is bold, yet flighty, curious, and goofy. 

It's a lot of fun messing with these two. Spencer also loves to get and give kisses lol. Thinking I'll turn that into a trick. And Astrea is just a little calm shadow following along behind. She's just so shy and...I guess soft would be another way to describe her personality. I just adore her! Spencer also has a lot of extra white in her eyes which makes his expressions all the more comical lol. Almost named him Bugsy because of it. But his silliness always bring a smile and laugh. Needs filling out to do though. He's underweight enough you can still see his spine. But it's only been 10 days so it'll take time to put weight on. But I've got good quality hay, temperatures are staying warmer than usual, and got extra feed to give. So I'm hoping it'll help him get to a good weight soon.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things are going well with the horses so far. Mia learns everything fast but seems to have an issue when it comes to learning how to lunge. It takes very little for her to suddenly freak out and bolt backwards/try to turn away and run. I've pretty much come to the conclusion she has been messed with once before and has some sort of trauma/PTSD when it comes to lunging. Most horses, including feral ones I've worked with, learn to lunge within 3-4 sessions and that includes walk-trot-canter. With Mia, we're only now on session 6 and at most, she can walk one to one and a half small circles without freaking out. If we try to trot, she only makes it maybe 3-4 steps before freaking out. So lunging is going to take a bit of time for her to figure out. 

Everything else she learns is fine. She's fine with the rope and whip moving around her and touching her. She's learning to yield her HQ quite well. Backing up she caught onto pretty fast. None of this is perfect by any means, but the willingness and try is there. She's also fine with having a saddle pad on her and carrying that around. I've also introduced her to the surcingle. No issues there either. Though with that, I couldn't do it as tight as normal as she's too small for even a short dressage girth lol. 

Today was one of the biggest break throughs though. I went to clean up her paddock and for the first time ever, she followed me around. She even let me love on her and just hung out with me. This is a HUGE difference. When I first got her, she wanted nothing to do with people and steered clear of me at all costs almost. Now she's actually following me around. She even let down her guard so she could enjoy some neck scratches. 

I've also got 2-3 people interested in buying her in the spring. One person would like her for a therapy type of horse and help others build confidence with her. And the other person wants to train her to pull a cart. So we'll see what the spring brings for her. 










As for the babies, Spencer is doing well. The goop around his eyes is clearing up. Only has a little bit in one eye now. He's also getting easier to catch. Only have done about 3 sessions with him so far. Just getting him used to being caught and desensitizing to the lead rope. He really freaked out over that at first. But now doesn't care so much about it. We've also gone on some walks around the paddocks and barn and he's getting better about not rushing past me. These sessions are short and he really enjoys them so far. 


But little Astrea is a different case. She's got a lot of eye goop that started to go away but seems to be coming back a bit now. She doesn't like/trust ropes and halters but twice now I've managed to get it on without much incident. Something we definitely have to work on as she might need to see the vet. Today I noticed she's developing some snot. And the vet said to look out for that and now that I see it, I'm going to be getting in touch with them again and find out what they want done next. She seems even more mellow than before. Part of it could be she's enjoying the warmer weather and just relaxed, or it could be a sign she's not doing too well. I'm not sure so definitely took pictures and sending that in. Hopefully nothing's seriously wrong and this gets cleared up soon.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Lots of stuff happening lately. Mia has found herself a new home. Wasn't planning on rehoming her already, but a lady I know asked about her. So after talking a bit and letting her meet Mia, she took her home. And Mia has been doing well there. Also turns out I trained her better than I thought since the lady's dad went out and saddled her up (lady forgot to tell him she isn't broke lol) and she didn't react at all. So glad all my prep worked paid off so things are going smoothly for her already. 











And then there's the foals. First off, Spencer. He's been becoming increasingly aggressive to the filly and yesterday he did something that cemented my thoughts of separating them. He was racing around, filling frisky, and chased Astrea into the shelter where he proceeded to purposefully bowl her over/make her fall. Considering how little Astrea is and how meek her personality is, she definitely can't handle Spencer now. 

So, I took spencer to the roundpen first where it's just dirt and no ice so he could burn off some of this excess energy. Also we started training right away too since he's been getting a bit pushy towards me too. He really didn't like that lol. He threw a bit of a tantrum. But once we got through that, it went well (roundpen session lasted maybe 10 min). Mostly just did some desensitizing, leading practice, and starting to learn to stand tied for 30 sec - 1 min. 

Because of his age, I don't plan to roundpen him much. I'm only going to do this one or two more times to get the concept down and get him to understand how to move out of my space and then that'll be pretty much it. I just need to get some manners taught before he gets bigger. He has a very reactive and spicy nature to him so ya, he needs to know how to behave with people and other horses lol. 

And then in March, Astrea will have my mare Ren for company so she won't be alone for too long.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Spencer is making progress. Did some work with him last night and this morning. Last night he had a blast racing around in the arena. He threw out all kinds of bucks and sharp turns that show he'd make a great cow horse but also speed that shows he'd be an awesome competition horse lol. He certainly has quite the moves. 

Today he was a lot calmer though. Just went over a few things from the other days and then went for a walk to switch things up. Figured he'd enjoy getting out and about. 
He's also become very talkative. Anytime I'm walking by his pen, he has to follow me and talk the whole time lol. 











Then there's little Astrea. She's doing well too. She nickers a greeting when she sees me as well and meets me at the gate. She still doesn't care for the haltering process, but it's getting better. At least she isn't running from it anymore, just slowly backing away. She did really good with letting me desensitizing her to the lead rope as well. Since she was doing so well, I decided to try leading her outside of the paddock. She was really unsure for the first 5-8 steps past the gate. But once we got past that little point, she did really well. She got braver and braver the more we walked. So it was a good day for her. 

Also, she's starting to look all mottled. Looks like she's shedding out her baby fuzz ^.^ Looks like she's going to turn out to be a pretty dark bay girl once she's shed out.


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