# One Step at a Time



## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Hello my fellow equine lovers 🙂 

I've decided to start up a thread to track the progress I make with my newest horse which you might've already heard about from a different post I made. For a while there, I wasnt sure I'd be able to get this guy as my time to get him, find somewhere to board him, and so on, was very limited. I basically had around 3 days to get things sorted out and the final thing to sort out was confirmed early this morning which isnt a moment too soon. If it hadn't worked out, then the gelding would be on his way to an auction tomorrow morning.

Anyways, some info about the horse to start off with:
- Gelding
- 2 - 4 years old. Owner got the guy last fall and was told he was a long yearling at the time, but she believes he is older due to the fact he hasn't grown much over the winter and size of his neck.
- breed is unknown. Current guess is Morgan, draft, pony cross.
- 13.2 - 14 hh 
- hooves are on the long side since it's been a long time since he's seen a farrier but looks to be sound. Hooves have grown out straight with no serious chipping or cracks. Will get his feet done ASAP once I get him used to having his feet handled more.
- hard to catch, will lift his feet but not for long, has had saddle on and someone sit on him, semi halter broke as he balks and pulls occassionally when being led, very good woah, no other ground work done.


Some other stuff I noticed about this guy when I met him was that he seems a bit fearful of humans. He doesnt trust people which is why he will balk when being led once he doesnt trust the human to lead him where it's safe.
He loves to get his head rubbed, but becomes nervous when you touch other areas of his body. He wont let you touch his ears. He seems to want affection and to be loved on, but the issue is like I stated before, he doesnt entirely trust people. 


And so that's about all I really know of this guy so far. He will be arriving at the stables on Tuesday evening (so in 3 days) and I cant wait. I still have yet to figure out a name for him though, so I'm open to any suggestions you guys might have.


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

Subbing ofc!  Glad to hear it worked out and you're getting him! He looks like a total sweetheart, has the cute Morgan look. A somewhat worried but kind eye. Excited to follow your progress with him


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

JoBlueQuarter said:


> Subbing ofc!  Glad to hear it worked out and you're getting him! He looks like a total sweetheart, has the cute Morgan look. A somewhat worried but kind eye. Excited to follow your progress with him


That he does! It's due to the kindness I can see in there that really pulls at me since I'm sure he'll become a pretty good horse with a bit of work. 


Also got some pictures of the stables. It's an old barn but this is a small town that doesn't need anything more than this really. I didn't get a chance to take pics of the outside, but will do that on Tuesday when the new guy gets brought in. He'll be in an outdoor paddock since he's not used to being at a place like this and I want to make him as comfortable as possible. Can't wait for Tuesday xD


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

That place is beautiful! Looks like my dream barn lol


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

Tippy! Lol


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## MissLulu (Feb 3, 2019)

He has such a sweet expression. I'm looking forward to reading about his progress.


Lovely barn, your boy is finally getting the life he deserves. I can't wait to hear what you decided to name him!


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## Saoirse (Jun 17, 2018)

That barn seems to be fantastic!!! And he's so handsome!!! I'll love to see his progress.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

I'm so happy it worked out to get him!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Oooh yay! I am so glad you are bringing him home.  He will be very happy. I love the barn too, it looks so nice.
As for a name, hmmm...I'm not so good with these, but:

Lucky
Toasty
Rio

Subbing, excited to see how your journey together goes!


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## carshon (Apr 7, 2015)

subbing. I am a sucker for an underdog.


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## Sanzia (Mar 19, 2019)

So glad everything worked out and you were able to get him, I am looking forward to following your progress! I'll be getting my new weanling filly as soon as she is old enough in July, granted they are able to catch her quickly as she is part of a wild herd.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

It has finally happened! 
The new guy has arrived  

He did fairly well being tied up for a few minutes as I got things sorted out with the barn owner, though he was definitely a bit nervous and anxious with being in a new place, but he honestly was a lot calmer and did much better than I expected. When I led him over to his new pen, he was walking a little fast, but listened when I told him "easy" and never went too far ahead of me. A time or two, he did move far enough ahead that my shoulder was in line with the middle of his neck, but he never went further, and that was with me walking him with a very slack rope as well. I basically acted like he would behave himself, remained calm, and he did indeed behave himself. 


Once in the pen, I took off his halter and let him go wander around. I thought that he would start running around like most horses do once they're let go in a new area, but he actually just walked around, sniffing the ground, fence, and looking around with his head held high. He wandered over to me a few times and touched my hand with his nose and accepted the occassional rub as well. With him in the pen, I then moved on to storing the hay and doing the last bit of stuff needed for boarding him there. But once that was all done and dealt with, I headed back to his paddock. 

I also noticed now that we are on more even ground, that he's taller than I first thought. I originally thought he was around 13.3 hh roughly since he looked shorter than the 14 hh I've been around before. However, now that we were on solid ground, I think he's actually 14 hh. I'll measure him once he's settled down and trusts me enough to have a measuring tape around him. 

Anyways, so I hung out with him for a bit after I was done dealing with everything else. He often came over to check me out and even followed me a bit at times. So I don't think it's going to take much for him to bond with me and get him fine with being caught. I was kind of surprised with how often he came over to me and would sniff me. With the way his last owner spoke of him, it sounded like she could never get very close to him, and yet he frequently came over to me today. But I also remained calmed and invited him in at different times and I think me being as calm as I was, helped him to relax as well. I did see him trot along the fence at one point, and his trot looks really nice. Can't wait until we get to the point that I can start riding him and see just nice his trot really is. But we're still a long ways off from that. 


So, that's about it for day one. I got some videos of him that I'll put together and share later on, but in the mean time, here's some pics I got from today  
Also, current guess on his breed is Morgan x Fjord or Haflinger. I looked up pics of these breeds and he looks very much like he may be a cross between them.


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## egrogan (Jun 1, 2011)

Congrats on a nice transition! He looks very sweet. In the walking picture especially, he does look Morgany. Are you in a place where they are common?


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

Cute little guy! He def has a Morgan look to him, one of my favorite breeds! He appears to be calmly interested in the environment. I think you have a gem :smile:


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

egrogan said:


> Congrats on a nice transition! He looks very sweet. In the walking picture especially, he does look Morgany. Are you in a place where they are common?


Thanks! And there are a few Morgans around here, but I'm not sure how common they really are. Quarter Horses are the main horses around here along with paints, but i do know a lady who owns 2 or 3 morgans herself, so it's possible there's more of them that I just haven't found out about yet. 



AnitaAnne said:


> Cute little guy! He def has a Morgan look to him, one of my favorite breeds! He appears to be calmly interested in the environment. I think you have a gem :smile:


Ya, I was quite surprised how calmly he took everything. Only once did see him attempt to do a short prance that lasted a few seconds, but otherwise he did very good, and I agree, I think he is a real gem.


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## Knave (Dec 16, 2015)

He looks great!! I am glad he seems so friendly.

I don’t think he is a fjord cross, because genetics require them to throw that coloring. That is part of the reason they look so negatively upon anyone crossing one.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Well, it's official. I've only had him for exactlyl 24 hours now and I'm in love xD 

This guy is just blowing me away! With what I'd heard about him and the that I saw of him the first time when I initially met him, I expected to have a bit of a wild horse on my hands. I was fully prepared to be dealing with a horse that would run around, be all anxious and nervous, and not let me near him when loose. And I gotta say, he's pretty much the exact opposite of that. 


*Morning*
I headed out to feed him and gave myself enough time that I'd be able to hang out with him for 45 mins to an hour before I'd have to head to work. Well, he came over to greet me by the fence, though when I entered the pen, he didn't really want to be touched initially. So I just stood by the fence and let him come to me, rather than me chase him which is something new to him as in the past, it's always been that people have gone after him. But he seems to naturally be very curious, so after standing on his own for a bit, he started to walk over and stretched out his neck. I lifted my hand a bit and he bumped his nose on my hand and sniffed and then just stood next to me. 

By the time I left, I was able to rub his face and his neck. Though I noticed that every time I'd go to touch his him, he'd tense up. But as soon as I actually made contact and simply gently pet him, he'd relax and lower his head again. I took my time though, and didn't push the contact on him. He enjoyed it when I pet him, even found a spot or two that made him want to stretch out his head and wiggle his top lip a little lol. It was just the few seconds before my hand would make contact with him that he'd tense up at. So i'm kind of wondering what's happened that would make him tense up at the thought of a touch.


*Evening*
He greeted me again when he saw him coming, though he actually came over sooner than he had in the morning. I think he's starting to recognize me. Once in the pen, I was able to touch and rub his forehead without an issue. I walked around his pen and he'd follow me at times. And if I walked in a circle around him, he'd pivot to make sure both eyes were on me the whole time. If I moved off somewhere and stood there, then he'd walk over and touch my arm or my back lightly with his nose, keeping his head lowered and relaxed. 
At one point, when I was asking him to follow me, he did for half a circle, and then he decided something at the fence line was more interesting and wandered off. So I gave one soft cluck and made a small motion with hands to get him moving away. He instantly trotted off, so I released the pressure and as I started to turn, he turned a little and looked at me. Keeping this going, I reached out hand as though grabbing an invisible lead rope, and continued to move in my small circle until my back was to him and I started to slowly walk away. Well, as soon as I'd reached out to him and walked away, he started following. And to give you a better picture of this, when I reached out to him for a moment like that, he was a good 8 - 10 feet away from. After that, he remained much more aware of me and followed me much better.


Things didn't stop there. 
I went on and worked on rubbing his neck again and he even relaxed so much he was on the verge of dozing off, so then I worked on running my hands along his shoulders, back, and rump. He stood there nicely for me the whole time. With him doing so well with this, I decided it was time to bring in the halter and lead rope since he seemed to be ready. So I grabbed them, and held them in my left hand. He became a little more nervous again, so I just continued to pet him with my right hand since the halter wasn't in it. It took him a little bit to relax with that, but once he did, I worked it up so that he sniffed the halter. At first, as soon as I brought the halter closer, he'd start backing up. So I just held it out a little and he came over to sniff it and wiggle his lip over it. Since he did good with that, I walked away. Well, he decided to follow, so we repeated this little game of catch the halter until I was able to pet his forehead while holding the halter in the same hand. 

We continued to slowly build things up this way until I was able to touch his neck with the halter. This was the big step as he resisted this a bit more, but the biggest reaction he had was just backing up and lifting his head a bit. No giraffe impressions with lifting his head though, and his backing up wasn't even all that fast. I feel like he expected me to just "pounce" on him so to speak to get the halter on, but since I just walked with him as calm as could be and not adding any extra pressure, he in turn, didn't freak out any more than that. And once he stood still for a few seconds, I walked away. 

We did a lot of this, but eventually it got the point I could pet either side of his head and neck with the halter. Then I moved to wrapping the string around his neck and rubbing him with it like that and walking off. once it got to the point that he was fine with that, I took the next step forward and actually put the halter on him. With the halter on, I made sure to give him a lot of praise and then take it off again and give him a bit of a break. I was able to halter him again a few minutes later and have that go over even better and even led him around a bit in the pen. He didn't do great with following, but he wasn't awful either. But i kept the walking to a minnimum as I didn't want to push things too far for our first day. So after maybe a minute of doing a little bit of walking, I took the halter off again. I was quite pleased and happy when he actually stayed by me even when I took the halter off. 

For the last few minutes I was there, I just stood with him. He seemed to want some contact, so I gently rested my hand on his face. He leaned into my hand and I closed my eyes, just relaxing in the calm, quiet moment. I could physically feel some of my anxiety and such from the day just fall away. I could feel his head drooping and him almost fully leaning his head right into my hand. When I opened my eyes and looked at him, he was practically asleep with how calm he was. It was really quite the experience to feel his calm and mine just kind of flowing together. It may sound silly or crazy, but it was a really nice bonding moment. 


*Other*
I'm failing on my name hunt for him. I tried a few names, but none are working. I've figured he needs a good, strong, noble type of name. But it sure is hard finding one that suits him. Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer until i get one picked out. Also I got him a red halter, as the store was out of other colors unless I wanted to go with nylon one, then I could have any color of the rainbow lol. But i think red looks rather nice on him actually.


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## MissLulu (Feb 3, 2019)

He really has a lovely face. So handsome! I like the red halter. I bought a red halter for Lulu last Christmas so I could take some festive photos of her and decided I love how she looks in red.


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## ACinATX (Sep 12, 2018)

You didn't exactly ask, but name = William (the conquerer, because he conquered your heart!). It's a strong yet (IMO) sweet name.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

ACinATX said:


> You didn't exactly ask, but name = William (the conquerer, because he conquered your heart!). It's a strong yet (IMO) sweet name.


Thanks for the suggestion! And I'd consider it, but that's my uncles name, as well as the name of my ex lol So I think I'll have to pass on giving that name to this fellow. Thanks anyways


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## CopperLove (Feb 14, 2019)

Congrats and good luck! He's a cutie. His ear tips (or at least that one) look curved so interestingly.


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## AnitaAnne (Oct 31, 2010)

I've been thinking of Charlie (Sir Charles) since I first saw him!

But maybe you want a fancier name...

Some other ideas:

Mercedes (Merci) 
Mahogany (Matt) 
Sebastian (Seb)
Trojan (Troy)
Alistair (Allie) 
Dominic (Dom) 
Fredrick (Freddie)
Jasper
Theodore (Teddy) (Teddy bear)
Napoleon (Polo)
Cesare
Quest
Legacy
Roscoe


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## laycswms (Apr 22, 2019)

I think he looks like a Griffin. 

Also:

Phoenix
Winston
Forest


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks everyone for all the name suggestions! I've tried most that listed, but there are some new ones there that I'll try out. 

So, I haven't done much with this guy yesterday or today. I totally would have, but my co-worker and I got ambushed with a cold that's decided to combine itself with the flue. So I'm not doing too great and if I move faster than a slow crawl, I get very dizzy and my whole body aches and so on. So it's not exactly ideal condition to work with a horse like him while feeling like this. 

On the plus side, he's starting to recognize me and will occasionally greet me at the fence or come over when I step into his pen. Also, I noticed yesterday morning that every time I'd reach to pet his head or neck (where he's most comfortable with right now), he'd lift his head and tense up. However, as soon as I'd make contact with him and give him gentle rubs, he'd relax and even lean into it and wiggle his lip against me too, like he wants to "pet" me too but is a bit shy about it. And when I'd stop and leave him him alone for a moment, once again he'd tense up when I'd reach to pet him, but settle as soon as he realized I was going to pet him. Kind of makes me wonder what's happened to him to make him anticipate something negitive from a touch. 

Thankfully though, this morning when I went out to see him, I was able to pet him without him really tensing. He did initially, but by the second and third rub, he was fine. I've also found that he's more comfortable with contact on his left side than he is with his right side. So I've also been making sure to pet him on both sides. And by the time I left this morning, I was able to actually loosely wrap my arms on either side of his neck and lean my head against him in a slight hug. He didn't tense or step back so I think progress is definitely being made even though it's currently just in very small steps. 

I didn't do anything with him this evening because I got worse with my cold. Actually left work early cause of it. Don't know if I'll be able to do anything tomorrow either, but I guess it's a wait and see how I feel. I try to make sure I can at least rub his head once or twice before I leave though to continue working on him allowing contact, which he does fairly well with actually when it comes with his head. 

Also got a better pic of his left ear to show you guys what the tear looks like.


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## MissLulu (Feb 3, 2019)

I'm so sorry you are not feeling well! I think I missed something. What happened to his ear? Love the photo where he is lying down.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

MissLulu said:


> I'm so sorry you are not feeling well! I think I missed something. What happened to his ear? Love the photo where he is lying down.


No one really knows. It happened during the time the previous owner had him and he's been in a field all winter apparently so we're not sure how he got his ear split.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I hope you feel better. I am sick with a cold myself, it's horrible. :sad: Ugh. But at least he is getting time to settle in, he is such a cutiepie. I think it's adorable how he is already greeting you at the fence. So sweet.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So I realize it's been a while since I've posted, but the cold i caught really kicked my butt. I had a bad fever, hallucinations, and muscles constantly wanting to seaze, including my tonuge cramping which I didn't even know was possible till now. So this last 5 or so days have not been pleasant. 

But now I'm doing better so I've started to work with this guy again. 
Due to the fact I've been down for the count for roughly 5 days, i figured I'd have to start over from square one, but really, it's not that big of a step back considering I'd hardly gotten started to begin with.

When I went to see him yesterday and this morning, both times he'd keep taking a few steps away whenever i'd try to pet him. Yesterday he even bolted slightly. When he did this, I followed behind a few steps and as he glanced at me, I reached out my hand like I was grabbing an invisilbe rope and brought it closer as I turned away. i took a few steps away from him and stopped, and soon enough, I heard foot steps and then the gentle touch of his nose at my back. When I turned around, I was able to rub his head and his neck a bit and from there things went smoother. Though, that was about all I had time for since it started to rain. 


Today, things went much better. He greeted me at the fence and I was able to go in and pet him without an issue. So I grabbed the leadrope and halter to see how he'd do that. He sniffed at it once, and was fine with me rubbing his neck. I brought it over to his neck and rubbed him with it and he didn't really care. So I then I decided to put it on, and again, he was fine with this. The first time I did this, it took me around 20 minutes for him to warm up to not only be touching his neck, but even rub his neck with the halter, and today I was able to halter him in maybe 2 minutes. 

With him doing so well with that, I started to lead him around the pen since he's not entirely halter broke and doesn't lead all that great sometimes. However, he again did great with this. Since he was listening so well, I figured it was safe enough to walk him around the outside of the pen. This went well as well. He was a bit more tense and nervous but he listened quite well. I also stopped a few times to let him just graze, but he was definitely wary of everything. And when i'd try to pet him, he'd start walking sideways and somewhat try to leave until he realized he was caught. So one thing I definitely have to work with him is getting him not only comfortable with me in his "safe space" like the paddock, but also to feel comfortable and safe with me in a new area. 


After a few minutes of that, I put him back into the paddock and took off the halter. I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't leave my side. In fact, he followed me quite closely as I walked around his pen. So I figured I might as well do a bit of liberty work with him. I walked in a few circles with him, but then went and did some smaller circles around him where I bent over slightly and pointed at his butt and wiggled my hand a bit as I started to move around him. He was hesitant at first but then moved over and would go in a circle like that with me. We didn't a full circle, but we did get around to doing half. Another thing we worked on was backing up. We'd walk along and then I'd say "woah" and he stopped. I'd then put my hands out low and say "back" as I started backing up. I had to push against his chest slightly the first time or two but after that, he got the idea and would back up with me when I did that. It's of course not good yet, but it's a start and I'm really enjoying it, and I think he is too. 

And so, that concludes today's activities. 
I still can't figure out a name for him though. i'm starting to think I'm just going to end up calling him Buddy since I've already been using Bud as a nickname when I greet him, and he honestly seems like he's going a good friend or "buddy" as we go along in his training.


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## MissLulu (Feb 3, 2019)

You didn't have a cold, that sounds like the flu! I like Buddy and if you decide to change his name later you can say "Buddy _____" with the new name after. I find that animals tend to hear the tone of our voice more then the actual words. My horse is named Too Da Loo and I call her that sometimes but I also call her Lulu, Miss Lulu, Lu Dee Lu, and Missy Lu and she responds to all those names.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I agree, it definitely sounds like you had the flu, not just a cold. The fever & achyness gives it away. Glad you are on the mend.

You are doing so good with him so far. Buddy is a cute name too.  I think it fits!
Liberty work is fun, and it will make you bond with him in no time. It sounds like he really is trying & although he's a bit hesitant (which is normal), he is doing so well!  So happy to hear.
I love the red on him, by the way. He is so cute. Even if you do a bit each day, it's something. It will pay off. So glad he is settling in and coming along.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So yesterday I again couldn't do anything. It rained the whole day and it wasn't a light rain either. It was pouring. Can't complain though as we really need the rain to prevent forest fires which are wanting to start burning again. Last year everyone here nearly had to evacuate with how close some fires got. So I'll gladly put up with lot of rain to help prevent that. 

Anyways, so today I spent some time just relaxing with Bud. I gave him his supper, but I've noticed that as long as I'm in the pen with him, he ignores his food and focuses 100% on me. I think part of it is because he feels like he can't fully relax around me. Like I'm going to do something that he needs to be ready to run from. But I'm sure with more time, he'll relax. He's already getting more and more comfortable with me so I'm sure it's just a matter of time before he's completely relaxed. 

I also took the oppertunity to introduce a brush to him. I just used a small soft brush for now and I let him sniff it and he wiggled his lips against the bristles and after a moment or two of this, he gave me quite the funny face lol. The first time the brush touched him on his neck, he did jump back a few steps, but came back almost right away when I showed him the brush again and he sniffed it once more. After that, he was better about me touching his neck wit the brush. I also ran my hand along his back and rump, and he jumped away again when I touched his butt, but again, after a moment I was about to pet him again and I was able to brush my hand along his butt again. 

So I took my time and worked on being able to touch his whole body. By the time I was done, I able to run my hand and brush along his neck, sides/back, and rump without him getting too worried. He even enjoyed some scratches around the poll of his head and ears. He's also totally fine with me wrapping my arm around his nose and holding his head "stuck" like that. He actually often brings his head over to me to nudge or nuzzle against me and enjoys head rubs.


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

He looks so goooood! Look at that coat, those bright eyes. Very cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

JoBlueQuarter said:


> He looks so goooood! Look at that coat, those bright eyes. Very cute!


He's definitely starting to look less worried! And speaking of his eyes, I've discovered that his left eye has a thin blue ring around the outside of the dark brown. Going to try to get a pic of it at some point cause it looks neat.


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

Sounds like he's going to be a real pocket pony once he settles in! I really like the look of him and think you got a great deal.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Omgosh, look at those funny faces! :lol: LOL, he is turning out to be quite the ham. Keep up the good work with him. Soon you will be able to use multiple brushes on him & everything.  He is adapting quite well. I agree, he probably won't eat with you in there because he is so focused on you, but in time he will learn you are just hanging out with him, no pressure.  He's so adorable!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

pasomountain said:


> Sounds like he's going to be a real pocket pony once he settles in! I really like the look of him and think you got a great deal.


Thanks, and I think so too! I'm sure in no time he'll be an amazing little guy worth his weight in gold ^.^




PoptartShop said:


> Omgosh, look at those funny faces! :lol: LOL, he is turning out to be quite the ham. Keep up the good work with him. Soon you will be able to use multiple brushes on him & everything.  He is adapting quite well. I agree, he probably won't eat with you in there because he is so focused on you, but in time he will learn you are just hanging out with him, no pressure.  He's so adorable!


Ya, I'm sure it won't be much longer until I can do much more with him! He's definitely coming a decent ways already in a short amount of time, so it'll be interesting to see where we'll be at by the end of the summer. And he's definitely very cute


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had a bit more rain today, but thankfully the sun came out for a bit after I was done work so that I was able to work with Bud again. It was cute to see him come over when he saw me approach and greet me at the fence. He's also getting better about when I toss food in to him and if I then hang through the fence. It's a tall fence and there's a big gap between the boards, so I occasionally lean through and reach out to pet him which used to spook him, but now he lifts his head to meet my hand accept a few head rubs. 

He also doesn't spook anymore when I climb under the fence to get in instead of walking all the way around to the gate. I was also able to approach and pet him a bit better today. He still tensed up and moved away slightly right before contact, but then once I touched him, he relaxed a bit and was fine. I think he's also finally 100% settled in and used to me. Reason I say this is because now he's trying to push his boundaries. Last few weeks he's been skittish and ready to flee at the drop of a hat. Today, he actually tried a few things. 

First Try
I was petting his neck a bit and he decided to try to bite my arm. Nothing super serious or aggressive, more of him being "frustrated" because of the bugs and having an itchy chest since for whatever reason, he thinks he can't scratch himself if I'm petting him or such. So he decided to go after my arm, though there was no contact, he didn't go full out with truly wanting to bite, more of a threat or a warning but unmistakable. Now, this is definitely a huge no, and I definitely want to nip that in bud and get the point across that under no circumstances is that ok. So I increased my energy, made myself taller and took a threatening step towards him and raised my voice as I said a sharp "hey!".

At that, he instantly sped backwards a few steps and turned to run off a little. He immediately wanted to come back in to me, but I made him stand away a bit to give him some time to think about it, especially since he wasn't coming in respectful but instead with head still high and almost wanting to prance a little. So he wasn't allowed to come in just yet. But after a moment or two, I changed my position and invited him in once more. This time, he had his head lowered and he walked over with a slower, calm walk, acting much more respectful and polite. 


Second Try
This time around, I was again petting him. Now, I don't pet constantly, I do leave gaps inbetween and will walk away, turn away, and so on to take the pressure off of him until he gets more used to contact and such. Anyways, I work on my way down to pet his side. Well, as I pet his side, he decides to turn his butt to me instead. So again, I make myself big, wave my arms a bit as I take a threatening step toward him and give a sharp word again. Well he takes off running down to nearly the other end of the paddock before settling down and coming back to me. He was politer about approaching me this time around too when I let him come in. 

After that, I was able to touch his side and all the way down to his rump without him throwing a fit. He stood still and allowed it, and even somewhat likes a few of the rubs, though it looked like he wasn't too sure about it still. But I was also able to move on to using the brush again a bit after that. I could brush his whole body and he was fine with it, though wanted to sniff the brush from time to time which I let him do. He was pretty good in between these little fits he was having. But this wasn't the end of it. 


Third Try
Towards the end, I wandered around a bit in the pen to look at some things of the other paddocks around. Anyways, I headed back over to him after a minute or so of looking at something. He was eating his supper while I was doing this and as I headed back over to him, he lifted his head slightly as he watched me approach, but then as I got a bit closer, he very abruptly decided to pivot around the hay to point his butt at me again. So once more I upped my energy and took some threatning steps towards him and gave one solid clap of my hands (which ended up being loud enough that someone else even looked over lol ). Bud bolted at this and I even chased him a few steps to really get after him and show him I wasn't messing around. Well, when he realized he'd pushed it too far and I was actually coming after him, he really ran off. 

After this and having him come back to me, I worked on approaching him some more from all angles. I let him eat his hay again to make sure he wouldn't do that again while he was eating. He no longer turned his butt to me and in fact, made very sure to always remain facing me and keeping his butt away. I was also able to walk up and pet him. He's still tense when I'd do that, but he did better. 
So after we did better with all of that, I figured I'd call it a day and have us ending things on a good note. 



But thanks to this, I think it's time to work with him in the round pen. I wasn't in a rush to put him in the round pen since I wanted him to first realize that I'm not going to hurt him and build the bond up enough that he is willing to come to me. Plus, allow him to get used to his new surroundings and get used to the halter since you kind of need to be able to catch a horse before you can lead them anywhere lol. 
And now that this is doing better, it's time to move on to the next step with the round pen. Should be interesting to see how this goes, but I'm looking forward to the end result of all the work him and I are doing and when I can go on my first real ride with him, which is still a ways off, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things have continued to go well with Jack. And yes, Jack is now his name. It's the only one that seems to suit him the best so that's the one I'm going to go with, but Bud is still going to be a nickname. 
The other day I was running late so I ended up actually eating my breakfast with him while he ate his. Was rather fun to do that actually and Jack frequently came over to check me out and is starting to relax around me a bit more. 

Yesterday I headed out a bit earlier to make sure I'd have more time with him in the morning, and I'm pretty happy that I ended up doing that. 
As I headed over to him, he came over to the gate and even was on the verge of nickering a little in greeting which is awesome. As I stepped inside the pen, Jack came up and stood by my shoulder and stayed there as I grabbed his halter and I was able to step next to him and halter him without any issues. Within the first 10 seconds of being in his pen, I had him haltered. Such a huge improvement from what he was like when I first got him. 

With him haltered, I decided to go for a walk around the property with him. He was on high alert as we walked around the paddocks, but was honestly very easy to lead. He paused a few times, but that was because other horses were walking over since they saw us around, but even with that, he didn't do too bad. Only took a gentle tug on the lead rope to remind him to follow me and he'd follow me again. So that's an improvement too since when I first met him, he didn't want to follow you more than 4 steps and then pull back. So the fact that now I was able to lead him around a new area without him freaking out or stopping and pulling back is showing me that he's starting to trust me and that I'll only lead him where it's safe. 

We stopped by the huge out door arena and I let him graze for a while on the fresh grass which he enjoyed. I was also able to go over and pet him without him wanting to bolt at the fact i was approaching while he was eating. He did lift his head and tense a bit, but that was it. At the end, I tied him up for a moment and worked on being able to touch him all over which he's gotten better with as well. He still tenses and wants to back away whenever i touch his rump, but he's slowly coming along with that as well. 


























Also took a small video while he was grazing. Most things said you've probably heard but I figured I'd try to post more on youtube with him to track the progress. Going to try to get a gopro or something along that line to set up at different points when I work with him or my other horses to record how things go as well.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today turned out to be rather interesting. Jack got vacinated, we worked in the round pen for the first time, and I found out more information about his torn ear. 

So at the start, I had a guy come help me vaccinate Jack since I wanted another person around just in case something happened, along with the fact I have a bit of a fear of needles in general. Things went decently. He did freak out slightly when the needle went in, but didn't react as much as I expected. So that was nice. 
After that was done, the guy and I talked for a bit and we got to talking about Jack's torn ear. This guy grew up in Texas and raised on a ranch. So he's trained horses, worked with cattle, and been in the rodeo and so on for most of his life. He ended up telling me how horses get a cut in their ear like Jack has. 

Apparently, at a lot of breeding farms, when a foal is born and they don't think it'll be able to do what they bred it for, they'll cut the ear to mark them for meat and use the torn ear as a way to tell them apart from the other foals. I had no idea that was a thing until now and I both am and am not surprised that, that happens in our world. 
The guy also thinks Jack has thoroughbred in him, the biggest trait for that opinion is how narrow Jack's chest is. He also agrees with Morgan in there too. 

So that then leads to the theory that perhaps Jack's dam was a thoroughbred (or Morgan) and was on a breeding farm. Then perhaps a stud got loose, got into the pen with the mare, and it resulted in an accidental pregancy. So then the owners of the place decided to just label this guy for meat since he's a cross breed that they didn't want and wouldn't be suited for racing due to his size or such. But this is just a theory. And I have been told before that the lady I got Jack from doesn't always tell the truth about animals she sells. So it's possible this guy had a different origin than the one she told me or that she was told. 

But if it is the case that as a foal he was destined to go to slaughter, that means Jack has escaped death 3 times, and been passed around to over 4 people in the short 2 years of life he's lived so far. No wonder this guy is so cautious and hesitant around people. 



*Training*

Anyways, so today I worked with him in the round pen. Things went fairly well, though I did make a few mistakes, such as using a lunge wip. Didn't use it on him and he was terrified of it or anything, but it just wasn't the right thing to use. I son realized that and dropped it off to the side and things went smoother. I had him follow me around and I decided to see how he was with his feet. I was able to pick up his front feet without an issue and even pat them a bit. However his back feet were a completely different story. As soon as I reached for the first one, he started to swing his butt into me, so I chased him off for that since it wasn't the kind to offer me his foot, but instead in the way of threatening to kick. 

After sending him off, I made the mistake of trying again with his other side when i should've known already that I should have moved slower. Instead, when i went for his other foot, I got it but the he started kicking, got his foot free and gave another kick so we went back to having him around a bit. After that, I just worked with having him get used to having me touch his rump since he doesn't really accept that yet either. So for now, I'm going to get him fine with me touching him all over before I try again with picking up his back feet. And when I do try that again, I'm going to use a different approach to help keep me a bit more safe until he is safe to do that with and help build up his confidence with it as well. 

I also led him around a bit and can't help but be amused as I did so. I remember how the lady told me he was bull-headed and didn't lead well, and yet I was to lead him around while holding the lead rope between my thumb and forefinger and keeping a lot of slack in the rope (about 1-2 feet of loose rope). I was able to turn him by simply lifting my hand slightly and pointing it in the direction to go in and he went. To get him to back up, I just had to lift my hands, tell him "back", and take small step toward him and he'd back up. So I'm able to back him without applying any pressure on the halter or lead rope at all. He's honestly extremely sensitive so I wonder what she was doing with him for her to call him unsensitive. 

To finish things off, I worked on desensitizing him to swinging ropes and having the rope swing over his body as well. He did decent with this as well. He did move around a bit at first, but soon realized all I wanted him to do was stand while this was going on and he started to relax slightly while I did that. So by the end, I was able to touch his rump better than before, pick up his front feet, lead him with slack, twirl rope beside and above him, and able to swing the rope on him as well. So despite a rocky start, we still made progress and he didn't hold my mistakes against me. 



*Outside Thoughts*

Had some people tell me earlier in the day that he seems to trust me and that he was using me as protection (he was semi hiding behind me as a few people stood in front of us). 
Also had another lady stop by while I was working in the round pen and say that she really liked the work I was doing with him. I guess she's seen what he was like when I first brought him to the stables verses what he's like now and she thinks I'm doing great with him. 

It's honestly really nice to hear that and it made my day. After having my family criticize how I work with my mare and such and my approach to this guy, saying that I'm too soft and so on, it's nice to hear something positive. I want to develop a bond and partnership with my horses, not a slave/master relationship like most people in my family and people they know seem to believe it should be. So ya, the small discussion I had with that lady really made my day.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I like the name Jack for him.  It fits him! I'm sure when you went out there those mornings, he enjoyed it. The fact that he nickered to you a bit is such a good sign! So cute! You are apart of his herd.  I love that you are taking things slow, step by step with him. Most people are like that, like they don't take the time to learn the horse, they are only focused on getting things done. Nothing in-between. There is no rush with Jack. Each day you are making progress. 
Especially since he's so sensitive, going slow is the best thing for him. The fact that he is starting to trust you & knows you mean no harm is HUGE. 
Very interesting about what the guy said, that could very well be true about his ears. It makes sense. I'm glad he was good about the vaccinations too - yay! That's one less thing to worry about. He is very lucky to have you now. 

Roundpen work is great too, that will help you guys bond even more.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So the last few days have been interesting. After him having gotten vaccinated, we ended up back at the beginning. I kind of figured this would happen so I wasn't surprised that he became skittish and hard to catch again. I just went back a few steps myself. Instead of trying to do anything new with him, I simply sat with him. I'd bring my breakfast along and sit on the tire, eating my breakfast, while he ate his own beside me. I'd also approach once or twice, but not push it too much. Especially since the first time, as I took a step toward him, he shuffled backwards 6 six steps fairly quickly and at one point, even bolted. Trying to catch him had the same results. 

During one of those days, I also brought my grandma down to meet him. It was a cute little interaction between them, though he was being more cautious since the last time a stranger came around, it meant he got a needle in the neck. But i was able to catch him and brought him closer to the fence so my grandma could pet his face a bit which he allowed for a bit. I walked him around a moment more before letting him go, deciding to just have things be simple. 


Today things were better though. I hung out a bit with him in the morning, but when I went out after work, I went to fence and he met me there and lowered his head to watch me as I moved under the fence to enter the pen. It was a huge improvement that he actually came over while I was coming under the fence, and as I stood up, he actually leaned in to sniff at me. I was able to pet his head and reach out to rub his neck without him backing away. Happy with this, I started to walk around the pen, asking him to join me. He did. So we spent a few minutes walking around his pen at liberty. We practiced walking, turning, stopping, and backing up, which he did great with. I'm honestly super proud of him that to back up, all I have to do, is lift my hands out slightly to the side and start backing up, and he immediately backs up. No other pressure need. I go from backing up straight into walking and turning and he stays attached perfectly. I think he'll make a fantastic liberty horse and I think it'd be awesome to teach him to be able to be ridden with a neck rope once we get to the point of riding and such. 

After doing that for a bit, I went over to the halter and as I was grabbing that, he came over and tapped his nose on my arm a little. He tends to do that every time he decides to join me and be a team, he comes close enough that he can give my back, shoulder, or arm, a gentle tap with his nose, but doesn't do any crowding. Kind of like it's his signal that he's decided to be with me. 
So when I turned around with the halter, he stood perfectly still and let me slip it on him without a problem. 

From there, we walked around the stables a bit. I let him graze in a few spots, and have started using cues for it too. When he's allowed to graze, I tell him it's ok and give him lots of slack. When it's time to go, I give a small tug on the lead and tell him "done". This way, I'm hoping when I'm riding him, I can tell him when he can graze if we're just standing somewhere, but when I give him the other cue, he'll know to switch back to working and such. And while we were walking, there were a few things that surprised him or that he got worried about, but as soon as he felt the slack leaving the rope, he started walking again and followed me around the "scary" areas. Literally no fight or tug on the lead rope with this. 

I remember the very first time I led him, he'd stop every 3-5 steps despite the area being something he was used to, and resisiting due to no trust. But now that he's learning to trust me, he was willing to follow me in places that he was anxious about and has only walked around once before. He's also loosing the worry the in his eyes. There's still a bit left, but it's half or less than half of what it used to be. 
Also! I was able to pet him and have him graze at the exact same time! This is a first but a HUGE step since he's starting to feel relaxed and trust me enough that he feels like he can eat while I pet him. I honestly cannot say enough how huge this is since he's always been so scared of me touching him anywhere beyond his head and upper neck. And to pet him while he was eating was never happening. He'd either lift his head and focus on me until I was done, or he'd back away But today I was able to rub on his shoulder while he was grazing. So proud of this guy


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> I like the name Jack for him.  It fits him! I'm sure when you went out there those mornings, he enjoyed it. The fact that he nickered to you a bit is such a good sign! So cute! You are apart of his herd.  I love that you are taking things slow, step by step with him. Most people are like that, like they don't take the time to learn the horse, they are only focused on getting things done. Nothing in-between. There is no rush with Jack. Each day you are making progress.
> Especially since he's so sensitive, going slow is the best thing for him. The fact that he is starting to trust you & knows you mean no harm is HUGE.
> Very interesting about what the guy said, that could very well be true about his ears. It makes sense. I'm glad he was good about the vaccinations too - yay! That's one less thing to worry about. He is very lucky to have you now.
> 
> Roundpen work is great too, that will help you guys bond even more.


"I love that you are taking things slow, setp by step with him." That's why I titled the thread "One Step at a Time" lol. I knew I'd have to do things in stages and figured it'd be a fitting name as it's the approach I'm taking with him. The bond created for a natural and healthy relationship is far more valuable than a horse that's constantly pushed to accept everything to the point he doesn't trust anyone, but obeys out of fear.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Yes, couldn't have picked a perfect title for your journal! It's perfect!  I completely agree.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Haven't been able to do a whole lot with Jack these last few days since the arena has been swarming with people due to some event going on, along with having to haul hay, looking at different properties, and preparing for my final drivers test (You have to take about 3 tests in canada before you get your full liscene if any of you were wondering/didn't know). On top of that, I just became supervisor at work so things have been busy. But, a few things have still gotten done! 

Basically, I've spent my little time with him just working on things we've been doing instead of trying to teach him something new when I was unable to spend longer time with him if he was going to need it. So I've just been rubbing him, lightly brushing, going for walks, and doing a bit of liberty. 
Was able to pet him today without him twitching like crazy. When I first got him, every time I'd touch his mid neck and lower, his skin would twitch like crazy in the same way they do to get rid of flies and such. It was so hard to try to pet him when he was like that. But today, there was 0 of that which was great. 

Though, he was feeling slightly on the grumpy side today. He didn't really do anything, but did have his ears a bit further back than normal. Not quite pinning them, but was clearly unimpressed. Despite that, we've worked on building his tolerance of me rubbing his sides and rump. Some days are better than others. And he's starting to relax more too and will start eating while I'm petting his shoulder. He's also getting better about being more relaxed when I approach as well and not instantly back away a few steps and then stand tense, waiting for my arrival. 
It's like it's hardwired into him to always be tense and alert when people approach, or when anticipating any type of contact, and other stuff I've mentioned before. Makes me really wonder what experiences he's had before that's made him this way. But as soon as my hand touches him, it's like he suddenly remembers nothing's going to happen to him and he relaxes and is fine again. It's just the anticipation of an action that makes him tense. 

So ya, that's about all for now. Things are hopefully going to slow down a bit more in life and I'll be able to start doing more with him and work him in the round pen again. 

Oh! Best part is that he officially did a real nicker the other day when he saw me! Totally made my day when he did that. It was a quiet and hesitant nicker, but it was the first audible one he's made and it's still the only one, but it's made me excited.


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## MissLulu (Feb 3, 2019)

Don't you love it when they talk to you? I don't care that I get talked to because I bribe Miss Lulu with treats. I still appreciate the attention!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Great to hear he is doing well!  Nothing wrong with just hanging out, doing some liberty. Glad the twitching didn't occur, that is a step in the right direction. It's taking time, but he is getting used to you. The fact that you are making it a routine & you're staying consistent with him is great. I LOVE when they nicker, it's so sweet! Such a nice greeting. That is great!! He is so cute. I'm sure he will start to nicker each time he sees you eventually!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things have finally settled down and today I was able to do more with Jack, than just hang out for a few minutes before rushing off to do something. I originally planned to just take him for a walk since I'd had a busy day at work and was getting tired, but that didn't end up quite happening. As we started walking, I could tell he was full of energy and it was making him a little extra spooky and it didn't help that there was a rather strong wind which seems to increase a horses energy anyway. 

Instead of doing too much of a walk, I headed towards the round pen and during this, he did have a spook moment. A kid moved around a vehicle a few yards away and that was enough to get Jack to suddenly tense, head high, and jump one small step to the side, legs slightly splayed out as he braced himself. Despite him spooking, I'm honestly very happy that, that was the extent of his spook. In the past, that would have been a bigger reaction with him even pulling back or trying to bolt. But instead, this time he simply jumped to the side once and braced himself there, before continuing to follow me when I reminded him we were going somewhere. 

After that, we got into the round pen and I let him loose. I held the lead rope in my hand as I sent him around, working on getting his energy out. And due to the rain we've had, the dirt was a little on the muddy side so that also helped to work Jack's muscles a little more and give him the extra exercise he seemed to need today. Didn't do too much of this, and when we'd take breaks, I'd have him following me around the pen. There were times he was distracted by something else, but I'd literally just have to wave my finger at him a little and sometimes cluck a little and he'd snap right back and focus on what I was asking of him. 

I was also able to swing the rope over his neck and back while having him standing freely with me. I honestly love working like this with him where I don't have any ropes or halters keeping him with me, but him choosing to do so, even when I'm introducing something new to him that makes him feel a little uncomfortable at first. He's also been starting to drop his head to recieve rubs on his forehead both when I'm working with him, or when i reach out to him when he's in his paddock instead of hesitating or shying initially which is great to see. 
We did this a few times for a bit before heading out, and going for a small walk which included taking a moment to sit in a patch of grass and let him graze for a little while and ending it with him back in his paddock with a nice supper and a new friend in the neighboring paddock.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That little spook sounds like a great improvement to what he used to do. If all he did was jump to the side a bit, that's really not so bad. The fact that he recovered quickly & continued to follow you is great! Sounds like he's making some good progress. :smile: I know he enjoys spending time with you too. Even if sometimes all you do is hangout with him for a few minutes, it still counts. Probably makes his day! The fact you can just hang the rope over his neck & have him stand is awesome. I know eventually you'll be able to do some fun liberty stuff with him! The bond is definitely getting there!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> That little spook sounds like a great improvement to what he used to do. If all he did was jump to the side a bit, that's really not so bad. The fact that he recovered quickly & continued to follow you is great! Sounds like he's making some good progress. :smile: I know he enjoys spending time with you too. Even if sometimes all you do is hangout with him for a few minutes, it still counts. Probably makes his day! The fact you can just hang the rope over his neck & have him stand is awesome. I know eventually you'll be able to do some fun liberty stuff with him! The bond is definitely getting there!


Ya, it's definitely starting to show that he's learning to trust in me and gain confidence in himself as well. He's definitely going to be a pretty awesome horse before long since he's already pretty great as he is. And I definitely can't wait to do more liberty work with him and also teach him to be ridden in a neck rope since I think he'd be great at that.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Everything has continued to go well with Jack. So far we've only continued to move forward which great. I've continued to work on him getting used to me approaching since once in a while, he gets a little spooked by me coming towards him, especially if it's a windy day. But he's still doing better than he used to. He's also to the point he recognizes my car when I go see him and he'll leave his buddy to come over to the fence to greet me which is really nice to see.

I was also able to brush him today while he ate his breakfast much better than I have in the past. He no longer tenses or spooks at seeing the brush. I used to have to rub him with my hand first and then bring the brush to him. I could just go straight to brushing him or he'd spook a bit. I was also only able to brush his neck and shoulders for quite some time as he didn't like his mid section or rump being touched by a strange object. Today however, I was finally able to brush his sides, back, and even his rump! He tensed a little a few initial times, but that was it. No moving away, twitching, or anything else. It's the best he's done yet. So I brushed his rump a little but didn't push it too far since I wanted to make sure this left on as positive note as I could since that's a HUGE step for him since he's typically scared of anyone or anything being near his butt to the point he'll bolt if you persist too much on touching it. Even then, the bolt is more so backwards because he wants to keep his rump as far away from you as possible. I've honestly never seen a horse this scared about having their butt touched. Typically it's the part that they'll throw at you when feeling scared, not keep it away. 


Other than that, I just had a chill day with him after work. It was 30+ degrees celcious so both him and I were quite warm and would be sweating quite a bit if we did too much. So I figured I'd take him for a short walk over to some nice tall grass and just let him graze for a while. He's also gotten better with the halter where I can bump his nose and lips with the halter and "be clumsy" with it so to speak without him caring at all and continuing to stand nicely for me. I think he rather enjoys going out and about with me, especially since it means there's the chance for some nice fresh grass. Even with simply grazing, again there's improvement as I was able to approach him to pet him without him starting to panic like he used to. He still lifts his head when he sees me coming closer and might lean away slightly, but that's it and relaxes once I start petting him. He was also more relaxed when heading back to his paddock. While he was still very alert, his bottom lip was actually hanging rather loosely in the way they do when horses are relaxed. 

So ya, all in all, things are still going well. My next big thing to work on is definitely getting him better about me touching his butt and back legs so that I can get my farrier to give him another trim soon since his feet still have a ways to go before they'll be 100% again.
And I included a bonus pic of Jack with his new buddy. These two are so cute with how they hangout together. 
Also two pics of the scenery that I get to see every day at the stables since it's on the River front


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That is just precious that when he sees your car, he comes right over to greet you.  So sweet. I know it probably makes his days seeing you! Awesome about the brushing too!! That really is a big step, for him not to be twitching or trying to move away - that's amazing. He really is making some good progress. Beautiful pictures, too. Wow, what a view! I'm jealous! :O Jack & his new buddy are adorable too. I'm glad he made a friend!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> That is just precious that when he sees your car, he comes right over to greet you.  So sweet. I know it probably makes his days seeing you! Awesome about the brushing too!! That really is a big step, for him not to be twitching or trying to move away - that's amazing. He really is making some good progress. Beautiful pictures, too. Wow, what a view! I'm jealous! :O Jack & his new buddy are adorable too. I'm glad he made a friend!


Him coming over when I show up makes my day too xD And yes, he's making plenty of progress. And thanks, the views here are pretty nice! And Jack may soon have a new buddy as I'm hoping to bring my mare to the stables yet to work with her as well and then the two of them can hangout. My mare just tends to be bossy towards other horses so it'll be interesting to see how that goes. I wanted to just have enough time to establish a bond with him to have him easy enough to catch him before adding in anyone else, and by having his friend next to him, it's shown me he's willing to leave his buddies to come over which is nice.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had another great day with Jack and made more progress in his training. I had a whip along with me, that's longer than a crop, but shorter than a lunge whip and I figured I'd work with him in getting used to seeing that and use to desensitize him to the sounds and movements it can make and also get him used to contact with it. 


When I first showed it to him, he wasn't really worried about it at all, which was great to see. I didn't want to outright freak him out with it, so I started off with just gently and slowly lifting and lowering it to the ground and built up. He was a little uneasy for the first bit but settled down. However, when I picked up the speed to where there was a bit of sound of the whip going through the air, then he started to freak. He did start to run a little so I changed how I was facing him to be a bit more direct in a way I tend to do when I want him to focus on me again. Sure enough, he stopped in his tracks when he saw that and stood still as the whip kept going for a few seconds after. After that, I dropped the whip to the side. As he stood thinking about it, he soon was licking and chewing and even came closer to me to rest his nose against my arm. 

So I spent a bit of time waving the whip around both on his right and left side until he'd stand still, even when there was a tad bit of noise from it. It was really cool to see him changing before me actually. I could see him starting to think about it instead of just react and he started to lower his head and relax a bit more. Another thing he'd often do is touch my arm or hand with his nose with this slightly worried look in his eyes but also a clear expression that pretty much said he was choosing to trust me, despite him being worried about the whip. 

By the end, I was also rubbing it along his body and was actually able to rub the end of the whip along his butt and down his back legs with very little reaction. Most he did was tense up a few times, but never moved away and no kicking or stomping when I touched his legs with the whip. Since he did so well with that, I then ran my hands along his body and was able to run my hand along his flank a few times without him reacting. When I rubbed a bit more centered down his butt towards his tail, he did tense up and pull into himself, but he never took a step. So I'm very proud of him for that. I was also able to really touch and rub along his ears for the first time too since he typically turns his head away whenever I my fingers even slightly touched his ears before. 



Since he did so well with that, I ended the session there and gave him his supper. Though while he was eating, I brought in a wheelbarrow and fork to clean up his poop which was a first since I didn't want to have him freak out a whole lot before, but felt he was ready for this now. I started off in the end farthest from him and slowly worked my way closer and was eventually able to scoop the poop up that was right beside him. He did look up and watch me as I did this and would take a step at times, but that was it. He even came over near the end to check out the wheelbarrow before deciding the poop inside was not nearly as interesting as he'd thought and went off to hang out with his neighbor for a bit as he watched me. 

I can't help but be excited with how much he's improving and how he's starting to settle down and think things through or even come to me when he's unsure of things and trust me that I'll keep him safe since he used to be so mistrusting of people.


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

Jack sounds like the biggest sweetheart. I love the way he touches you with his nose for reassurance--so cute! You guys are surely a match made in Heaven.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

What a good boy with the whip! The fact that he wasn't reacting afterwards when you put your hands on him is awesome. He's becoming more comfortable with you. It is super exciting! Even if you look back from like a week ago, and see the progress...amazing!!  You are doing great with him!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks guys, and yes, Jack is definitely a huge sweetheat! And I know what you mean, his little nose touches just melted my heart when he did them xD He is for sure becoming more confident and trusting as time goes on which is amazing. 


--------------------------------------------------


Introduced some new things to Jack today. I started working on teaching him to lower his head when asked to and he didn't want to do that too much. A few times he tried to walk forward a step or two, but after a few minutes, he was lowering his head about half way to the ground. Since it's a big thing for him to lower his head for me at all, I figured we'd leave it there for today since he was trying his best and did pretty good. 

Also did a bit more work with the whip. He did even better today with his biggest reaction being to take about 3 steps away max before settling down and relaxing with me again, even if the whip made some noise. I was also able to lift the whip and hold it above his head and rub it down along his neck, back, and rump without any problems. He did get a little antsy when I brushed it under his belly, but even that wasn't too bad.

After a bit of that, I then took him outside his pen and took him over to the hitching post that's near the barn and tied him up to it. He isn't bad at being tied, but he isn't great either, so I figured we could practice that a bit. Since he seemed to be fairly calm, I walked a few feet away and he did good. So then I walked a little futher and stepped through the door and out of sight. The door has a window so I was able to keep an eye on him and after a little bit, I went back to him. The whole time he did great. He sniffed at the ground a bit but that was all. 

While I had him tied there and him doing so good, I decided to brush him. I was able to brush his face all the way down to his rump. I was even able to brush his butt properly, with several strokes without a single reaction from him. There was no twitching, flinching, or tensing of any sort when I was brushing his rump which was amazing! I of course, did this on both sides and had equally good results both ways. I also was able to brush him with faster strokes and didn't have to move as slowly or as gently as before. So I think he's finally ready to upgrade to a body brush and even finally brush out his mane lol. I also brushed his back legs a little without reaction so I'm sure it won't be much longer before I'll be able to pick up his back feet as well. And once I can do that, then it's time for a farrier visit since his feet still need quite a bit of work. 

To end the day, I walked Jack completely around the stables for the first time and like I expected, he did great. We even made one pit stop where he could grab some fresh grass before getting his supper back in his paddock. I cleaned up his pen some more and he came over a few times to check out what I was doing. It's really cute to see him starting to become more curious about things now too. And again, he relaxed enough to let me work behind him without feeling the need to swivel his butt away to keep an eye on me. This guy really has a heart of gold.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I finally got around to uploading my session with Jack. I recorded our first ever round pen experience together and then forgot to post it for the longest time. But it's done now and I figured I'd share it with you guys. 

Keep in mind, this took place roughly 2 - 3 weeks ago now and both him and I have done better with things since this. 
I did make some mistakes with the first time around that I should've realized ahead of time that I shouldn't do, but Jack was very forgiving and things went well in the end. And he's come a long ways since then and I've learnt to understand him better from this experience as well. 

So without further ado, here are the videos, enjoy. 

Part 1






Part 2


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Very excited today as Jack has just blown me away. I didn't have a whole lot of time to spend with him, but since he was rather dirty from rolling, I decided to brush him. I gave him his supper and then climbed into his pen with him. He didn't even move away or tense up when I reached out to pet him which is amazing. Typically he tenses at the very least before the first initial contact. And then I went and started brushing. As I started to do this, he continued to eat his hay and remained completely relaxed. 

I was able to actually brush him at a normal pace and I could even go fast if I wanted to without him caring. So I acted like this was totally normal and moved on to brush his rump. To my surprise and great joy, he also acted like this was a totally normal thing. There was no tensing, no raising of the head to see what I was doing, nothing. In fact, he even let out a deep sigh as though he was actually enjoying this little grooming session while he was able to enjoy his supper. I was also able to brush under his belly, his chest, and all the way down his front and back legs without a single reaction. So we had a normal grooming session for the first time ever and it felt great. 

I also talked to my farrier when he was out doing my other horses hooves and told him I'd need him to fix up Jack's feet sometime soon since they're still quite long. The guy suggested to tie up Jack so that his feet could be done, in the kind of way where they can't move and/or are hobbled so they can't kick or anything. 
First reaction to this is an absolute "no". It's taken me nearly 2 months to simply be able to touch his butt and back legs without him having a panic attack. So there's no way I'd risk loosing this trust he has in me by then forcing him to be hobbled to have his feet trimmed. I can see it doing more harm than good. Instead, I'm going to keep working with Jack until I am able to pick up his feet and move them around and so on so he's comfortable with it before he gets his next trim job done. 

And sorry, no pics today. Was too excited in the moment to think to take pictures xD 
I'm also planning on bringing some carrots and horse treats with me this week sometime to see what he prefers, and then try to clicker train him a bit as well since it seems like fun and something he'd enjoy.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Love the videos. You are doing great with Jack. That is fantastic!!  Huge breakthrough! I am so glad he wasn't tense, & he stayed relaxed while you groomed him. Him sighing is a huge deal too. I am sure he was enjoying it! What a good boy! 

I wouldn't tie him up either...no way. I don't think that's necessary, at ALL. I agree with you completely. Just keep working with him until you are able to pick up his feet. That's all. It may take time, but it's better than taking steps backwards & losing his trust by tying him up/hobbling him...not necessary. 

Hopefully he enjoys the carrots & treats!  He deserves them!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> Love the videos. You are doing great with Jack. That is fantastic!!  Huge breakthrough! I am so glad he wasn't tense, & he stayed relaxed while you groomed him. Him sighing is a huge deal too. I am sure he was enjoying it! What a good boy!
> 
> I wouldn't tie him up either...no way. I don't think that's necessary, at ALL. I agree with you completely. Just keep working with him until you are able to pick up his feet. That's all. It may take time, but it's better than taking steps backwards & losing his trust by tying him up/hobbling him...not necessary.
> 
> Hopefully he enjoys the carrots & treats!  He deserves them!


Thanks! And I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that thinks tying him up is a bad idea. In general, it's not something I'd like to do with any horse, unless it absolutely necessay (life if it's a bad injury that needs immediate attention or something like that). And while his hooves are long, they'll be fine for a bit longer as I work with him. 

Also, I gave him cookies today and he was so unsure about what he was supposed to with them lol. He took one and held it between his teeth for a bit before biting down and making weird movements with his mouth. Soon after was followed with that head shake/nod they do whenever they taste something weird. But he ate all 3 of the little treats so I guess he didn't mind them too much. Next time I'm going to try carrots and see what he does with those.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Yesterday and today have been quite good. I didn't have a whole lot of time with him yesterday, so I just spent the time hanging out with him while he was eating his supper and petting him, running my hands all along his body again. I think he's pretty ready to start working on picking up his feet again, though I'm going to go with a bit of a different approach this time around. 
There was one point where I rubbed his head a bit and started walking away and I heard footsteps behind me. When I turned around, I saw that Jack was following me away from his food. So I started to pet him again and just completely relaxed. He moved closer and put his heads in my arms. So I just gently rubbed his face and gave him kind of light massage. Had him pretty much falling asleep like that actually. It was just a really neat moment of him choosing me over his food which and simply wanting and enjoying my company. It was a truly special moment that I'm so glad we had. 



As for today, I figured it was time to change things up to give a bit more variety to the stuff we do so he doesn't get bored with the other training. I brought out a small tarp. When I entered the pen, I had it balled up under one arm and Jack still came to greet me and stand by me as I locked the gate. He even continued to hold still when I put the halter on him and the balled up tarp was maybe an inch from his face when I had to tie the knot. He really impressed me with that, since even though it's balled up, it's not a small. 

I then took a step back and took the tarp in my right hand which was the farthest from him, and I let it open up. I was expecting a bit a reaction, but he did nothing. His head perked up a bit and he looked at it, but really didn't care. Even when it fluttered a bit in the wind or if I lifted it up and down a bit, he didn't care and in fact, almost looked bored with this lol. So I brought a corner of it closer and he instantly reached out to sniff it. 

I've actually been doing things that whenever I show him something new, I bring it a bit closer and he'll cover the rest of the distance to sniff it. When he sniffs it or touches his nose to it, I take it away. As he gets better with that, I lengthen the time the object is near him and build up from there which seems to work quite well with him. I've actually him start to become more curious by doing this and with things that are new and "scary" he doesn't run instantly, but if it's sitting still, he'll actually go up to sniff it. So, slowly, it's turning that if he's scared or worried about something, he'll go sniff it before reacting too much to it. It's really great to see his confidence growing like this and for it bring out his curious side as well. 

Anyways, after fluttering the tarp around a bit and with him starting to walk towards it, I half balled it up again, and it held it out in front and led him around after it. I had it fluttering around a bit and he did balk slightly once, but it took very little to encourage him to continue following me and the tarp. 
Since that also went well and he was fine with it, I balled up the tarp again started to ask him to let me touch his neck with it. He didn't like this at first and would put his head up and just start backing up. So I started to softly talk to him and tell him "woah" or "easy" since he knows what those mean. When I started using woah, his feet slowed and he did actually stop and stand still so that I was able to touch his neck for a moment. As soon as he let me do this, I released the pressure and gave him huge praise and he did a lot of licking and chewing after that. 

He only moved twice more after that, each time lessening in length of his feet moving until he'd stand still and allow me to actually rub his neck with it and do this on both sides. There were a few times he sought me out to touch his nose to my hand and arm again for a bit of comfort as he let me touch him with the tarp. After that, I opened up the tarp again, and set it on the ground. Walking over it seemed be an entirely new deal. While he was fine with it fluttering around and such, he didn't exactly want to step on it. Though he was willing to wiggle his lips over it and bite it a few times lol. 
So we ended up going in circles for a bit but whenever he'd come to it and touch it with even one foot, I'd praise him for it. After a little bit, he did walk over it. Though cause of the wind, it'd rolled up a little so that it was only a foot and a half wide and he just took a giant step over it. But I still praised him for that cause that was still the first time he'd stepped over it, even if he didn't touch it. By that point, it started to rain. And lately, when you feel a few drops, a down pour is only seconds away. So I let Jack go and gathered up the tarp, and gave him his food. 

In total, all of that took less than an hour. So while I wasn't there long, it felt like we got a decent amount accomplished. Very happy with this guy and how hard he's trying at everything.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Jack was good today like he always is. Brought Roxy into the pen for the first time and while he did crowd her a few times and got kicked twice for it (minor kicks that didn't really even make contact), behaved himself after that. He followed Roxy around a bit like a shadow as he tried to figure out who she is. Roxy completely blew him off 80% of the time though xD. She got infatuated with the paint gelding next to them. So Jack figured he'd eat his supper and hang out with me for a bit since Roxy wasn't willing to hang out. 

There were a few times the three of them hung out along the fence line and Jack did start to approach Roxy more and she let him. So they sniffed each other a few more times and walked around a bit. It was so uneventful it great. I stayed for several hours anyways, just to make sure things were going though. But their personalities go along quite nicely. By the time I left, Jack and Roxy where eating from the same hay pile as though they'd been hanging out forever at this point. Hopefully things continue to go this well. I plan to see them early in the morning to check up on them and make sure they continue to get along. If not, I do have a way to separate them until they get along. I rather doubt I'll have to do that though.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

There was a break through today! Jack has honestly made me so happy and really made my day with how he did this morning. 

To start things off, I was originally just planning on doing a bit of a walk and introduce him to some new stuff. Like the bridge, some trails, and that kind of stuff. Well, we did go over the bridge which he was a bit unsure about, but braved it like a champ. Then as we were heading back, he seemed to have plenty of energy so I figured I'd work him in the round pen for a bit before I had to head to work since I had some time. 

Well, that was an interesting experience. He actually decided to test me a bit today and at times when I was sending him around the pen, he'd try to go the opposite direction. He did that several times or when he'd stop, he'd turn his butt to me. So I had to get after him for a while to get his attention and have him actually listen to me. It took probably about 15 minutes before he finally started to relax and would listen and turned in to face me when I asked him to stop. From there, he'd join me and walk around the pen by my side. 

So with him attached and focused on me, I worked with him and the rope again. Tossing it around his body and under his body. At one point, I rested the rope on his back while I was rubbing his head and it ended up slipping and falling. He flinched and took a step to the side, so I then worked on having the rope slide off him randomly on different sides and even tossed it over him. It really didn't take long for him to be fine with that. And then I decided to brave the part of picking up his feet. 

With this, I figured I'd first focus on having him fine with me handling his front feet, and then move on to his back feet later when I felt he was ready. Well, when I asked for his first foot, he gave it and tried to take it away a bit, but it was barely anything and after maybe one second, relented and let me hold it and tap on it. 
From there, I praised him and and rubbed him. I ran my hands along his body and when I got to his rump, my hands went a little lower (I was not going for his foot, just having my hands there) and he ended up lifting that foot. Kind of like how they do to rest it type of thing but a bit different. It honestly felt like he was offering me his foot. So, despite nearly being kicked in the head last time when I did this, I reached down and asked for his foot. He lifted it, resisted for maybe 2 seconds, and then relaxed and allowed me to hold his back foot. I only held it for a few seconds before letting him have it back as I didn't want to push it too far and I gave him a ton of praise. 

After that, I went to his other side and repeated the process. Again, he gave me his other two feet and there was even less resistance than before. I was honestly so happy with this that I nearly cried lol. It's a huge change compared to what the first time around was like. But I think one thing that helped, was that I was listening to him more and I really got the feeling like he was offering his back feet to me. Like he was ready for that step. Where is the last time, I was just doing it cause it's something that has to be done and thus resulted in a near head injury. 

So ya, today was pretty awesome with Jack. I'm still super excited that he let me pick up his back feet today. I also love that all of this is happening at liberty. It just goes to show how much of a bond is building between us that he's willing to do these things and work with me without the use of hopes or halters keeping him with me. 
I actually also tied the lead rope around his neck at one point and held it from the top by his withers to see how he'd do if I tried neck reining him that way to gauge how he might be if I were to try riding him with only a rope at some time in the future. I didn't have to do a whole lot to get him to back up or turn side to side. So I think once the time's right, he'll be a great horse to ride around with in only a neck rope.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

More progress is being made ^.^ 

Had Jack doing pretty good today with having him walk over the tarp, sniff it and stick his nose it and being an overall goof with nibbling on it lol as well as him allowing it to sit on his back and slide over to the other side. This was only his second time exposed to the tarp so I'm pretty pleased with how far he let me go with it. 

We also worked more on his feet and making progress there. He still gets worried at times but as long as I don't rush things, he does pretty good. Also practicing yielding the front and back end. Front end needs work, but of course, he's great when it comes to the back end. I was also able to lead him around with only a rope around his neck. He was actually almost responsive to that then having a halter on. To finish off the day, we also worked on him lowering his head. So it's been a simple day for Jack, but still moving forward quite a bit.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

YAY!!! I love your last few posts!! That is a huge break-through, him letting you pick up those feet.  Agreed, things work out a lot better when you don't rush them. I knew eventually he'd allow you to do those things, but it was just a matter of when! 

Such a good boy with the tarp too, I love it. He's so cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

@PoptartShop 
Thanks ^.^ And he definitely is doing pretty good with the progress he continues to make and how much he tries with everything.



------- Update --------------


Not a whole lot has happened the last week. Just continuing to go over the stuff I've introduced to him and also took him for a walk in some new places, including down a trail which he did really good with. There were few signs and those public large trashcans that he actually spooked at slightly the first time he saw them. But when I let him stand there and look at him, he actually steppe towards them to touch them with his nose. So he's starting to approach the things that spook him and touch them with his nose which is awesome. It definitely makes him braver and more confident in himself when he approaches something new and realizes it's not so scary. 


He also got a new hair cut. He rubbed off about a foot worth of his mane a little bit ago so I figured I'd cut it all short so that it looked better. He honestly doesn't even look half bad with such a short mane and now he can show off that neck of his. Going to need to trim his tail soon too since it's getting close to touching the ground. 


Other than that, he continues to get better with his feet. I'm fairly confident that he'll get his next hoof trim by the end of the month. Besides that, I also brought out a saddle pad and a thing that I currently can't remember the name of. You'll see it in the pics. He did fine with the pad and I was able to pat it all over and toss it over and around him without much of a reaction, which I think is due to the work with the tarp we've done. After all, a tarp is much bigger, louder, and scarier than a little ol' saddle pad lol. 
He did get a little nervous when I put the cinch thing on him so I spent some time wiggling that around being very "clumsy" with it so to speak until he settled down. When he was fine with that, I cinched him up without problem. That thing doesn't actually cinch up tight enough, but it's good enough to introduce the feeling of a cinch to him anyways. 

Once he was cinched up, I had him walk around with it which he did fine. No issues. So i sent him around the round pen a bit and there was a moment or two where he thought about bucking, did maybe two crow hops forward, and that was it. I also didn't give him too much of a chance to loose himself to bucking by asking him to switch directions. He was paying more attention to me than the contraption on his back and was fine after that. Since it doesn't go tight enough, I didn't send him around with it too much since it would slide around if I did that. But after that, I asked him to join up with me and he followed me around at liberty with that stuff on him. I even led him around outside the round pen with him still carrying it and he did great. 


So with how well he's doing, he might have his first ride on him at the end of the month. I'm also going to be working with another trainer soon to help me make sure that he is 100% ready and also to make sure when the first ride happens, that it goes as smoothly as it possibly can. But I'm really excited with the progress he's made.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I'm super excited today! Worked with Jack for a little while today and made a good chunk of progress. 

I got a tent that is no longer functional, and used that in some desensitizing since it's basically just an extra large tarp. It didn't take too long before I was able to completely cover Jack with it and even wrap it around his belly a bit. He did spook slightly when I had him walk around with it on, but even so, he quickly settled down and relaxed again. 

From there, I introduced him to a plastic bag on the end of a whip, and he had pretty much no reaction to that. He did get a bit nervous when I was swinging it around, but then he settled and I was able to touch him all over with it and swing it around his head and even touch his face with it. 
My cousin actually joined me during this and I had her doing some of this as well to have Jack get used to having others handling him as well and he did good. 




Now here's the exciting part. 

I decided he was ready for the saddle. He didn't care when I put the saddle pad on him and then I let him sniff at the saddle for a bit before going and putting that on him as well. He had basically no reaction to this at all. So I took things a step further and cinched him up. He did flinch slightly when I touched him so I rubbed him a bit until he relaxed and from there, I was able to fully cinch him up without issue. I even put on the breast collar without incident. 

All of this was done without halter or lead rope on him. He willing stood for me to tack him up. Once it was on, I walked around and he followed like usually and then I sent him off. He didn't buck, bolt, rear, NOTHING as he ran around the pen. I had him walk, trot, canter, and turn different times with the saddle on. He literally had no reaction to this. So I led him around afterwards to do some grazing while he was tacked up and he did great. It didn't bother him at all 

So ya, I'm pretty excited about how well he took that. But I have been working on prepping him for this so I'm glad all that work is paying off. It'll be interesting to see what he'll be like it comes time for the first ride ride on him. It still won't be for a bit, but this has me hopeful for the kind of horse he'll be under saddle. Also, he looks absolutely stunning as he moves around the arena. He's such a handsome fellow.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Love seeing your progress with Jack!  So exciting, look at him all saddled up! What a good boy! I love how he is becoming pretty unbothered by a lot of things. The saddle is a HUGE deal! This is fantastic. I am also excited for you to ride him, but I am glad you are taking your time with that. The plastic bag at the end of the whip was also a good thing to get him used to. Really great progress!  I am so happy for you both!


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

He is such a cutie. And built really nice too. You're doing such a lovely job with him. I can't help but see that last trot picture of him loose and tacked up and think he'd be a lovely dressage pony.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks guys  And I agree, I do think he'd make a very fancy show horse in general with the way he carries himself. 


Onto the Update:

Jack is continuing to do well. He got his booster shots and while he did freak out a bit, he didn't do too terrible either. Made sure to give him some treats after each needle which seemed to help make him more ok with it. And we did more ground work with some days having a break to go grazing or walking along some trails. 

Today i took things a step further with jumping around him. The first few initially jumps startled him but he soon relaxed and couldn't care less about me jumping around him. So I then went and put my hands on his back, and jumped, putting pressure on him as a way to help me jump higher. He didn't mind this at all and never moved a step. I also took him to a tall platform that I got on and walked around on with him walking beside me. He was unfazed with me being higher than him and didn't care when i ran my hands along his back and put a bit of pressure on him. I was almost tempted to just slide on and see what would happen. 

But I didn't want there to be a chance for things to go wrong, so first I'm making a dummy to put on him. Basically getting some old pants and filling it with sand and hay to add weight to it, add on some clips so that I can clip it to the saddle, and see how he does with the extra weight on his back when he moves around. Then I'm going to fill a shirt full of hay and attach it to the pants so that it's about the same size as a person and see how he does with that. If all goes and I have someone around, I'll get on and have the other person lead him around and see what happens. 

I'm honestly super excited when it comes time for the first ride and can't wait for it. I'm also really torn between actually selling him at the end of summer like my original plan was, or to keep him. 

Oh! Also, my new riding instructor took a look at him and she said she was impressed with what I've done with him. What seemed to really surprise her and make her the most impressed was the fact that I taught him to lower his head when asked. Apparently very few people around here actually teach their horses that cue. So I felt pretty accomplished and happy that I could impress a lady who's been working with and training horses most of her life. 

And the pic is with a new saddle I just bought the other day for Roxy. But since Jack was curious about it, I put it on him as well. He was a little nervous about it but for me suddenly approaching him with a saddle and this one being a bit heavier than the other, he did very good with staying still and being decently calm about it. I find it looks really nice on him since it's so light and he's dark.


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## pasomountain (Dec 19, 2018)

So if your cousin takes Roxy would you keep Jack then? Roxy in a lovely mare but Jack is so endearing! I really hope it works out for all of you.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

You really are doing so well with him, I'd hate to see you sell him. But you will make the right decision. I just feel like you are Jack's person.  You guys seemed to click, right away. He needs a good person like you, who is willing to put in the work, but stay patient with him. I think you guys are a good match.

What a good boy with the jumping, and the saddle! I think it looks good on him, I'm also excited to have you ride him, but it's good you are taking it slow.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

pasomountain said:


> So if your cousin takes Roxy would you keep Jack then? Roxy in a lovely mare but Jack is so endearing! I really hope it works out for all of you.


I think I would most likely keep Jack if I no longer had Roxy, but I'm not sure yet. He is a total sweatheart and love him to bits so if things work out to just keep him, I probably will xD




PoptartShop said:


> You really are doing so well with him, I'd hate to see you sell him. But you will make the right decision. I just feel like you are Jack's person.  You guys seemed to click, right away. He needs a good person like you, who is willing to put in the work, but stay patient with him. I think you guys are a good match.
> 
> What a good boy with the jumping, and the saddle! I think it looks good on him, I'm also excited to have you ride him, but it's good you are taking it slow.


Thanks, I'm glad you think so. It's definitely a hard decision to make and I've given myself till about the end of August. That way if I do decide to sell him, I have the fall to do so. Most people don't buy horses during the winter. So we'll see what happens by then. Though thanks to my friend and cousin coming out with some days, I've been able to see that thanks to the work I've done, Jack listens to them as well, despite never having met them before. He'll follow them at liberty when they give him the correct cues that I use with him. So at the very least, I know that he's ready and willing to trust any human that comes along and not just me which is great if I do end up selling him.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Jack is coming along quite well. I've been working on taking him to new areas and doing the ground work there so he learns that even if we aren't in the round pen, he still needs to listen. He actually does quite well and even if he gets concerned about something new in the environment, he still listens to what I ask of him. 

The other day, I decided it was time to see how he would handle going into the stables since he's never been in anything like that before. He did some sniffing and slight snorting at the entrance, but then decided to trust me and followed me inside and down the isle. He was a bit tense since it was new to him, but he actually remained decently level headed about it. And when we got into the arena, I let him go so he could check it out on his own for a bit. 

I was actually really impressed with how well he handled everything and how well he listened while we worked in there. I did some free lunging, but instead of moving around the entire arena, he actually just went around me in a large circle. He even listened to the cues that I've been working with him to walk, trot, and halt. In the past in the round pen, when I'd send him off, he'd immediately jump to trotting. But doing this free lunge, he started off at a walk and went up to a trot when asked, and back down to a walk when asked to and his halt is improving too. 
Other than that, I mostly stuck to the basics of everything I've gone over and done with him in the past just so he had something familiar to work with while in a new area. 

Towards the end, I figured it was time to take things a step further since Jack seemed ready for something new. So I grabbed the stool and set it beside him, standing on it. He didn't seem to care that I was up higher than normal and I rubbed his back which he didn't mind either. I went further and leaned over his back to rub the other side as well, and eventually worked up to leaning half way on him. He didn't seem to mind the extra weight or the feel of me semi draped over his back and rubbing both his sides at once. 

With this progress, I don't think it'll be much longer until I sit on him for the first time and then go for our first ride. 
Some of that is going to have to wait though, as i'm going off to visit family for about 5 days, so I won't be able to work with them. But I have someone else arranged to tend to them while I'm gone.


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## Sanzia (Mar 19, 2019)

You are doing great work with him! It seems like he really sees you as his leader and trusts you. He is a looker ❤❤


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Love seeing your progress with Jack. What a good boy with the stool! I like how you challenge him, trying different things etc. Such a good boy. And so cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I was very impressed by Jack yesterday. I had the farrier come out to give Roxy a trim and figured Jack was far enough along in his training and trust to have his feet done as well. And even if he hadn't been, I would still have done it as his hooves were far too long and needed to be trimmed before it'd turn into health problems. I've seen the way hooves grown when they're good or bad and with Jack, I was fine prolonging a trim until now because his hooves grew out well enough that I knew no damage would be done. 

Well, Jack was a little shy with my farrier and did occasionally try to walk sideways away from him, but with some gentle rubbing and soft words, he relaxed and stood still. There was no kicking, serious pulling away, rearing, or bolting. He did surprisingly good. Especially considering the first time I tried handling his feet I nearly got kicked in the head xD. So this is huge progress, that's for sure. 
Got a pic of Jack's trimmed hoof next his other untrimmed one. Farrier took off probably about an inch on each foot. And he agreed with me that despite his feet not being for so long, he had very good legs and hooves so there was no damage. In fact, his feet are naturally very good and sturdy so I don't really have to worry about foot troubles with him which is nice to hear.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

First time getting teeth done went well today. Jack was a little nervous around the vet but did very good accepting the needle with sedation and was a champ when it came to putting on the special halter thing to open up his mouth. He was given less than the normal sedation amount, but he turned out to be a rather lightweight with it lol. Even so, he was very good about his first teeth floating experience. 

I also found out that Jack is younger than I was told by the lady I got him from. I was originally told Jack was close to three, or already 3 due a few things about his size and his neck. However today, when the vet was around, she said that not all of his molars have grown in and he still has all his baby teeth. So she said he must've only recently turned two and we pretty much figured he turned two sometime in April or May. So Jack's even more of a baby than I thought he was. 

This means any thoughts or ideas I had about getting Jack started under saddle this summer/fall is now going to wait until next summer. Instead, I'll just continue to work on different tasks from the ground, some liberty work, and maybe even try my hand at teaching some tricks. I'll continue to put the saddle on him and work him with it on so that he's at least totally fine with that when it comes time to take the next step with a rider. But for now, he waits. 

This also makes me more curious as to how tall he'll get. He's currently around the 14 - 14.1 hh mark and I've noticed him getting a little butt high since I got him so I think he's going to grow a bit more but I have no idea how much. Hoping to try doing the string test on him soon and see what that has to say. 



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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Very glad to hear Jack's farrier visit & his first teeth floating experience went well. For it to be so new to him & for him to take it like a champ, what a good boy. It doesn't surprise me that he is that young either, I think it's a blessing because now you can continue to just focus on groundwork. This way, when you do end up starting him under-saddle, things will probably go much smoother.

Glad to hear he has good feet, too! Yay!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop
I agree, him being younger is nice in that sense. It also means he has more growing to do so he'll be taller than the 14hh he's currently at which is exciting to think about xD


~~ Thread Update ~~

So I've allowed Jack some time to just run around and not worry about work other than going on a few walks around and doing some grazing. I've found that with young horses, it can really help them out by giving them some time off of work and just unwind. Quite often after getting some time off, they come back to work with a fresh mind and learn almost quicker or are more willing to keep going. But starting tomorrow, it's back to work for him. I've been looking up more things to do with him as well to avoid doing the same thing too often to the point it gets boring and annoying. 

I plan to start a few sessions by tying him and grooming before doing work, similar to how we start sessions with our older horses of grooming them before saddling and riding. This way it'll develop a routine that'll remain pretty much the same for his whole life. The first one or two session back into work will be simply going over everything he's already learnt to make sure he's still all good and fresh on it and I can take an extra day or something if he ends up needing a bit of extra work in one of those areas. 

From there, I'm going to start saddling him at the start of each session and have him wear the saddle while we go out and do different things so he gets used to it more. I'll build on it and attach the tarp onto the saddle and get him moving around like that. Then build up to putting fake legs and maybe even a dummy on him to simulate the feeling of having a person up on him.


What I'm looking forward to most is ground driving him. The lady I got him from said he wasn't sensitive so he'd never be able to be ground driven. I've found him to be _over_ sensitive so you need far less pressure on him to get him to do things than you would need for the average horse. So I'm super excited to see Jack excel at this and prove just how wrong that lady was about him and show how amazing of a horse he really is. I also think he'd make a very fancy/flashy carriage horse so I'd love to teach him eventually to pull a cart or a sleigh just for fun. 


Also, as you see in the pics, Jack is not the fastest horse ever xD 
Roxy repeatedly left him in the dust. Poor guy doesn't seem to understand the concept of running around for fun. He'd much rather just take his time and trot or canter around than bother to actually gallop or try to keep up with Roxy. He looked a few times at me and at Roxy with this look that was almost like he was asking me if Roxy was ok or if she was losing her mind lol. He does have energy and spunk, but he isn't a sprinter. I think he'd do pretty good in endurance with the way he seems to pace himself and not expend energy unnecessarily.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Despite not being able to work with Jack for the last nearly 3 weeks, he did very good today. I worked with him in the round pen again and he's starting to understand voice cues for speeding up and slowing down which is great. We practiced yielding the front and stepping over which he does fairly well. He'll normally get it on the first or second try which is pretty good. He's also gotten better about willingly dropping his head to the ground. He used to be really stubborn with that but today it only took very little to get him to lower it. 

I brought out the tarp again and he wasn't fazed by it all. He didn't tense up or flinch when I took it towards him, rubbed him with it, and then tossed it over his back. With him doing so well, I lunged him a bit with it on to see how he'd react with it falling off while he was moving. He spooked slightly the first time but all he did was lift his head higher and take two quick sideways steps before settling down and being fine. The next few times, there was no reaction at all. 

Also practiced jumping around him and acting like I was going to jump on him and again he didn't care. He stood nicely and was patient about everything I did. I then proceeded to put the saddle pad on him and have him carry that while walking over the tarp. I actually had the pad folded up and balancing on his butt during this, thinking it'd fall off but it didn't. I then placed it properly on his back and put the tarp on top of that and let him carry that around as we left the pen and went grazing for a little bit before going back to the paddock. 

One thing I noticed is that when Jack is carrying something, he becomes much more careful about what he does. He takes slower but smoother steps. He's careful about where he puts his feet too. It's very cute to see him take care of the load placed on him. Can't wait to see what he'll be like once I actually am the one up on him. But that'll wait for a little while yet. Next step will be to work on flexing his neck and ground driving him.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Lovely update!  For him not being worked in a few weeks, he did really well it looks like. That is fantastic. I also think that's good he is more careful when something is on his back. Just think, when you ride him (eventually down the road) I feel like he will be the kind of horse that takes care of you/their rider.
What a good boy Jack!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> Lovely update!  For him not being worked in a few weeks, he did really well it looks like. That is fantastic. I also think that's good he is more careful when something is on his back. Just think, when you ride him (eventually down the road) I feel like he will be the kind of horse that takes care of you/their rider.
> What a good boy Jack!


He was the best considering how long the break was. And that's definitely what I'm hoping for when it's time to get on him for the first time. Should be interesting to see how that goes xD


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Alright, so I've got some BIG news... I have a new horse! 

Now, what's happened is that Roxy has left to go into retirement. I know it's early as she is only 15, but the more I worked with her, the more I took the time to just listen to her, I realized it's time. She's been through a lot in her life and her heart isn't into work or anything like that anymore. Honestly, the moment that everything clicked that it was time for her to retire, I couldn't help but shed a few tears. She has taught me so much in the year that I've had her and am very grateful for each moment, but now it's time I give her what she needs and wants most. 
So now, she's living on a large pasture with other horses with very knowledgeable horse people. They are going to bring her back to proper health and leave her as a pasture horse with their others for company. I was able to see their horses as well and all of them were well cared for and in very good health. Everything just worked out that Roxy found herself a new place to call home that she needed. 

So, with her gone, I went on the search for a new horse so that I'd be able to continue riding. Around here, you typically can't get lessons unless you have your own horse since most instructors only have their personal horse and don't use them for lessons. So, I went on a search. I found two horses in my town that could've worked out, but then I found a horse located 4 hours away. 
Honestly, this gelding was the one I doubted I would take because 1 - he was located 4 hours away and 2 - he sounded like he could be a little spookish at times (mostly if there are cows as he's scared of them) and stuff in general that made me doubtful of him. 

However, as soon as I met this gelding, (I drove 8 hours that day purely to meet this one horse that I highly doubted I would get xP ) I fell in love with him. Literally, 3 minutes since stepping into his pen, my hands were pretty much black with dirt because of all the head scratches he wanted. He's an absolute love bug and was more than happy to just stand around to be scratched and loved on. I was able to see him caught, groomed, and ridden. I also took a moment to hop on him and boy was that quite the experience. When I got off, I knew I liked him quite a bit but figured I'd think on it before making up my mind. 

But as I stood there with him, talking to the owner, he put his head in my arms and just melted my heart even more. So I rubbed him as we spoke and as I scratched his shoulder, he'd stick his nose up in the air, wiggling his lips around in pure bliss. A moment or two of this and yawns were triggered. He yawned a good 5 times in succession lol. The more time I spent with him, the more he stole my heart. I ended up leaving a deposit for him and now, 3 days later, he's standing in my paddock with Jack. 

*New Horse Info:
*
- Gelding
- 8 years old
- 16.1 hh
- thoroughbred
- never raced but was started on dressage when he was 4/5 but then sold when he was 5 since the owner was moving and couldn't take all her horses along so he became a western trail horse to bum around on for the last 3 years. But due to his fear of cows and owners lack of time to work with him on this, she has sold him to me. 


This guy is honestly like a giant teddy bear. Even when ridden, he's a little more on the lazy side and enjoys simply puttering along. He's not hot or overly forward and when you ask him to stand, he'll stand there forever. I've never been on a horse as big as him and when I sat up on him, I could feel the power that he has. It was such a weird experience since it felt like I was connecting with him on a totally different level than I have with any other horse. Kind of like things just clicked and there was a mutual agreement that we had respect for each other and just an understanding. I honestly don't know how to put the experience into words properly. I also tend to get an anxiety attack when meeting new horses or riding ones that I may be buying, and i had these attacks with the first two horses I met, but with this guy, there was nothing. Despite never being on a horse as big as him, I was unfazed. No anxiety at all. 
Meeting Jack was similar in the fact him and I connected as well, but it was in a bit of a different way. 


When he arrived, he was a little excited coming off the trailer, but wasn't bad. And when put in the pen with Jack, the two sniffed at each other for a bit and became instant friends xD 
Within minutes the two of them were going around like they'd known each other forever and even shared food. Made me really happy to see the boys getting along. I even walked around their pen a bit and ended up having a horse on either side of me, wanting to get rubbed and loved on. They were such big babies lol. 

So now, I'm going to let him settle in and take him for walks around the place so him and I can get better acquainted before trying out my saddles on him and start riding. So now, this thread will be about Jack and the new guy who I have yet to name ><


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had an interesting two days. New guy is starting to warm up to me more which is nice. He's starting to show off his personality a bit more too and getting a little frisky as the weather is starting to cool off. So I took him for a walk around the property yesterday to help him get used to his new surroundings and let him graze in different areas. By the end, I brought him into the stables to see how he handled it since he hasn't been in one for about 3 years. It went fairly well, though he was hesitant about it at first. 

Today I took him for another walk around the property and even went part way down one of the trails before making our way into the stables again. This time around, I let him loose in the arena and free lunged him a bit just so that him and I could get used to moving around on the ground first. He was feeling quite playful and a few times when I asked for direction change, he turned on a dime and tossed a few big bucks before running around. It was really fun to see him feeling so good. 

After maybe 5 mins of this, I got him tacked up and I adjusted everything to his size. The saddle seemed to fit alright so I hopped on and we went for about a 10 ish minute ride around the arena. We did alright with walking around, but trotting wasn't that great. Partially because he was a little spooky about the corners (jump poles stacked behind gates are very scare lol). I also recorded the session so that I'd be able to see how things looked from the ground. And when I looked back at the video, I realized that the saddle was putting me into more of an armchair position. It's not major so at first, it's not even noticeble, but when looking more closely, it's very clear. And because of being thrown into the wrong position, it was always very hard for me to be balanced when doing more than walk. I'd been wondering why trotting went from feeling very natural and easy to suddenly wobbly and unstable. But now seeing what the saddle did to my position, it makes sense. 
Thankfully I have a western saddle as well so I'm going to try that and hopefully it works out. If not, then I'll have to start on the saddle hunt all over again. 

To finish off the ride, I had a very ungraceful dismount. As in, as soon as my feet hit the ground, my legs buckled and I was on my butt in the next second lol. As soon as I hit the ground, I couldn't help laughing and gave the big guy a hug since he didn't even bat an eye as I fell down. I also got it on video so I've been watching it back and laughing at myself. I've never gotten off of a horse as tall as him, plus my legs being sore, so I guess the combo of those resulted in me landing on my but haha. Fun times.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I've been working on spending some time just hanging out with my boys the last few days. The new guy still tends to keep a bit of a distance and I think he's a little homesick, but he seems to be coming around. He's started to nicker out greetings when he sees my car pull up and gets excited when he knows breakfast is coming by trotting along the paddock, tossing out the occassional head toss or buck in his excitement lol. 

Jack of course, has remained as my shadow. If I'm in the pen, he tends to choose to come hang out with me which is quite nice. So him and I have had several moments where he leans into some scratches, is pretty much falling asleep next to me, or simply enjoys resting his nose/head against my arm. He's also totally comfortable with me moving around behind him now. It's a regular thing of him being absolutely chill with me being anywhere behind him and touching all over without any fuss. The fact that he will stand with his butt towards me as I move around speaks volumes of just how far he's come considering how terrified he used to be of anyone getting remotely close to his rump. Makes me really happy to see how big of a love bug he's becoming. 


I also rode the new guy today. I'm thinking of naming him Samuel or Sam for short. It was actually suggested to me by my trainer and I like it so far. Actually had a lesson with her today and I've come to realize a few things in this lesson. 1 - the endurance saddle puts me into an armchair position but the western saddle has me in the correct position. 2 - My right leg is extremely weak due to a riding accident I had a while back so I'm in pain just 5 mins into walking around. 3 - Sam likes to lick metal when he's feeling nervous. 4 - Despite being nervous, Sam is a brave boy and after a few laps around the arena, was pretty calm with it. 

My trainer actually commented about how good of a horse this guy is when she asked how much he was and I told her, she said I got a steal of a deal for him. So I guess Sam is even better than what I already thought he was xD Though honestly, it makes me really happy knowing that someone more skilled and knowledgible than I am sees the same good things I do in him, plus more. 
And this guy is an absolute angel. When we went to work on trotting, he was super good with dealing with my mess ups lol. I didn't mess up too much and managed to actually get into a rythem with him which was really nice. I just have to get used to his really fast pace. Considering he's 16.1 hh, his trot feels like it's as fast as a canter haha. But then, I've ridden short, slow horses most of my life to hop on this giant guy, we move much quicker. Makes rather excited to see what his canter feels like. But for now, we stick to walking and trotting and reteaching him lateral work, though my trainer said he was doing pretty good with that. He's a bit rusty after not doing it for 3 years, but she can see that he has had previous training for it. So it'll be a wait and see how we progress from here.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had a lot of fun today with Sam. He's started to now greet me at the gate of the paddock with Jack and will hang around nearby as I did a few things with Jack before moving to halter Sam. From there, we made our way inside the barn which he's getting better about. I decided to not rush things and really took my time just grooming him, working on him getting better with giving his feet and cleaning them, brushing out his mane, and so on. He was a little fidgety at first and a tad stressed from being in somewhere new, but after a few minutes, he settled down. By the end, his head was drooping and he had a lazy look on his face. There were even a few times he'd turn his head to watch what I was doing. His bottom lip would quiver at times as well when I was brushing out his mane and even started to lick to my hand/arm/shirt lol. 

I also gotta say that I've never met a horse before that all you had to do was hold out the bit to him, and he lowers his head to take it and holds still for me to slip the rest of the bridle on. It's honestly super nice that he's that easy to bridle considering he's a giant and if he really wanted to avoid it, then he'd be able to put his head up too high for me to reach very easily. One of the reins was also hanging rather loose and rubbed against his lip a little so he decided to try and grab that too, kinda like how a dog with grab a hold of their leash. 


As for the actual ride, it was pretty good. There's already improvement despite it only being the 3rd ride. We practiced different turns, going in squares and cirlces, half passes, and halts. We actually got to the point where all I had to do was say "woah" and lean back slightly in the saddle and he'd stop. I haven't ridden a horse that responsive before so it feels pretty cool to have a response like this. 
We also worked on some trotting and oh my goodness, did that go well! With how well he was listening at the walk, I decided to try something new. My trainer has been telling me before to gather up my reins before asking for the trot (with Roxy and now this guy too). But I instead, left the reins loose when I asked for the trot. All i got to say is that we were seriously in sync! We trotted along the arena walls with pretty much perfect rythem and it felt so natural and good. I'm pretty sure I was a little wrong in some of my posture as I'm sure my heels weren't down as much as they should of been, but I was still balanced and I was able to work with Sam as we moved around, rather than feel like a fish out of water on his back. 

That isn't to say there weren't a few hiccups here and there where I did lose balance for a moment as he somewhat shied a time or two from some corners and there were times he wanted to speed up or slow down. But all in all, it was MUCH better than before. He also yawned a few times at the end of the ride. All in all, the ride only lasted 25 - 30 mins with maybe 5 -10 mins total of it being trotting. But even though it was a short ride, he was starting to sweat already. So he's out of shape but that's why we're starting with basics to refresh his memory of a few things he learnt several years ago and to help condition his body more. I've also put him on a new feeding program to help him gain some more weight and muscle as well. 

I'm pretty excited to see where we'll be at by the end of the winter. 

























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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Spent some more time just hanging out with the horses. I brought out a folding fabric chair thing to set up and sit in for a bit. Jack came over to check me out and nuzzle at my head and shoulder a bit before simply standing a foot or two away from me, looking totally relaxed. It was really cute to watch though, cause he seemed to be keeping an eye on me and making sure that I'd remain safe. There were times he'd glance at me a little like he was checking up on me and then would continue to watch everything else again, remaining relaxed the whole time. When Sam started to come over, Jack turned and actually stood in his way, blocking Sam from coming over xD It didn't last long as they sniffed at each other and then Jack moved and Sam was able to come over to say hi to me as well. I think if something were to happen or be a threat to me, Jack just might try to protect me which is really sweet of him. 


I've also spent some time working with Sam and taking him into the stables which he's getting much calmer about. I introduced him to pole bending today as well as walking over poles as well and worked with him with a tarp. When that all went well on the ground, I hopped on and rode him around as well. He was pretty calm the whole time and did good. Our trotting is also continuing to improve. His woah is pretty good, but his backing up needs work and some turning needs work but is not bad at all. 


Also got a video up of the first week with Samual if you feel like checking it out and watching how sweet of a boy he is.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today definitely could have gone better. Well, it was really a combo of good and bad. 

Starting with the good, I got Jack to do some stuff that the previous owner said would be impossible to do with him. I did some ground driving with him for the first time ever. It wasn't perfect, but he did good and tried his best. And that's on top of not doing too much with him in the last month and it was raining and windy today too, but we still managed to move around the round pen and cut across it and so on with ground driving. He made me so proud of him for that. The last owner said he wasn't sensitive enough to do that so he'd never be able to be ground driven. Well, Jack proved her wrong today xD. 


Bad end of things was later in the evening with Sam. 
I was told before I got him that Sam has a fear of vets and today was the day I was able to get vaccinations for him. However, because of his fear of vets, I got someone else to come help me since I wasn't sure how much of that translated into a fear of needles. I'm very glad I got that help. 

Sam reared, bolted forward and backwards, and even tried to bite the guy at one point who was helping me. Due to all his moving around, the needle would fall out at times before we'd get a chance to shoot the vaccine in. I don't entirely agree with the guys method of dealing with Sam the way he did, but there wasn't much else we could do considering how crazy he'd go. One thing we ended up doing was tying him up and the guy helping me used a rope to put around Sam's mid section, then run it through his front legs and through the halter before tying it to the stall. This way, Sam wouldn't be able to rear up or bolt as much. Normally this is something I'd never do, but in order for Sam to stay, he has to be vaccinated and we're already a bit late with doing that and in general, if it didn't happen now, then it wouldn't be so good with winter coming and everything else. We also tried using grain to distract him but he's not a food hog so that didn't work.

By the end, I could see Sam was starting to shut down. His fight was gone and he was standing frozen. So we got the vaccination in and while he refused the grain, I pulled out some other treats I had in my pocket that are associated with me more (the grain was from the guy and is a kind I've never fed Sam before) and when I offered him the treat, he slowly took it. He wouldn't take the grain, but with every treat I gave him, I saw him start to actually look at me and even seek me out a bit more. And due to his freak outs, he managed to rub the hair off of part of his face and shoulder. No scratches or injuries, just some fur pulled off >< 

With that done, I took him to the arena and the walking helped loosen him up and then he was wanting the grain which I let him eat and I just worked on petting him and letting him relax after that. Once done the grain, I figured the best thing to do would be to do some liberty work to help reset his mind a bit and get him thinking on other things than what had just happened. I let him go free and we just did some free lunging a bit to help get him loosened up and whatnot and after a bit, he was looking much better and starting to bounce back. We finished with me leading him around the arena at liberty, getting a few more treats, and rubbing his neck a bit. 


I won't be surprised if he sulks a bit the next few days, but I'm also not going to do too much with him as I'm sure his neck is going to be sore from all that. But I also know now, that I need to definitely work on him with needles, especially since he's going to be getting his teeth floated in about a months time. So I kept one of the syringes to practice with. I don't have the needle part anymore, but I'm going to use the syringe in the hopes that by the time the vet comes, he'll be much better.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I found out something rather interesting yesterday about Jack. A lady needed help catching a horse she got from auction that hadn't been handled for 7 years previously and didn't have a good experience being over here, so he wasn't being very nice to catch. And she needed to get him in order to tend to his feet and get a proper vet check done. So I went out to help her (and caught the guy withing 5-10 mins applying what I learnt from Jack when I first got him which worked very well). And as it turns out, this lady had owned Jack at one point. 

So I managed to find out some more information about Jack's history. Basically, Jack, at 7/8 months old, was going to be coyote bait because the people who had him, couldn't afford to feed him anymore. But this lady got wind of this, and she rescues horses to rehome them and such, and so she decided to get Jack. She got him December and had him for about 2 months before letting him go to a new home where he was supposed to be long-term. So when he went to his 3rd (or 4th as I don't know if the people before this lady had bred for him or bought him as a 5/6 month old) home, he was 10 months old. 

In this new home, he was there from February until October. This lady claims she gelded him and then let him go to a new home to the lady I got him from who was person number 4 to get him. This means I am actually the 5th person to have him and he's only 2 years old. 

Now, what really stands out to me, is the fact that what the lady i got him from told me, isn't exactly true about his past. She told me one of the homes he went to, the lady was a horse hoarder. Well, if I match up the time lines, the "horse hoarder" was actually the lady who rescues and rehomes horses. So she doesn't hoard them. She just takes them in, gets them in health and gets them trained and sends them to a new home that should be their long-term or forever home. So really, the lady I got him from lied to me about that. 

Then, I found out the person in between those two was apparently the one to geld him, not the lady I got him from which would be another lie. She'd also tried to pass him off as a 3 year old to me when I got him. So that was another little lie. So right there, that's 3 lies about Jack that the lady I got him from told me. So who knows what else she's lied about to do with him and what she's done to him. I still wonder what's happened to him that made him so terrified to have his rump touched in the first place, because it was that fear was put into him after his first rescue. I found the middle person on FB yesterday so I'm going to see if I can get in touch with her and see if I can get some more info from her. 


Also, another I found out about the lady I got Jack from, is that at one point (a couple years ago or something) she bought the wrong kind of hay for her horses. And despite knowing that it was not right for them, wouldn't get them anything else and had 2 or 3 horses die because of it. She also tends to act like she knows a lot about horses and all that, but really isn't the skilled horsewoman she claims she is. I've also seen the result of her training methods with how terrified Jack was when I got him. So I honestly feel bad for the horses remaining in her care now and what she's teaching her kids of how to handle them. But I'm glad I managed to get Jack out of that situation and have him avoid auction as well. He's quite the horse and am so glad I was about to him another chance at life that he needed and deserved.


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## Aprilswissmiss (May 12, 2019)

Sorry to interject, but I think this video might help you with your vet/needle-shy horse:






Good luck with them, they both look great!


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I am glad you started this journal. I really liked the horse when you were looking at him.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Aprilswissmiss said:


> Sorry to interject, but I think this video might help you with your vet/needle-shy horse:
> 
> Good luck with them, they both look great!


Thanks for the video ^.^ I'm not sure how well that'll work for Sam, but I'll try it. The issue is, he doesn't go for a body slam like that horse does. Sam throws his head up in the air and runs backwards. Or, his head shoots, he rears, and runs backwards still rearing up. He will full on throw himself around everywhere. I WISH his response was as mild as that horse in the video was. Multiply that horses response but 10 x and then you're getting close to what Sam was like. But there are good points in there that I'll try to apply and hopefully I can bring his reactions down and help him to realize that it isn't the end of the world.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Congrats on the new horse!  I hope Roxy enjoys her retirement as well.
He is so cute! Sounds like he chose you, you didn't choose him!

LOL, Jack is so possessive of you! My horse is the same way, I board her with my BF's horse & whenever she comes near, my horse is like, no, that's my momma! :lol: All in good fun. Sounds like Sam is settling in nicely. I'm sorry to hear that about the needles, but I think in time it's something that can be worked on & will get better. I think you will really be able to help him through this, since you are very patient. Jack & Sam are in the right place!

That's crazy you ran into someone who previously owned Jack. Sheesh, it sucks a lot of people lie about the horses they sell. :icon_rolleyes: Jack is very lucky to have you. Poor boy, sounds like he was definitely passed around a lot. You are giving him the home and life he deserves; that's all that matters.  So glad to hear everything is going so well!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks @PoptartShop and I'm sure Roxy is enjoying it. 
And Sam is actually starting to get possessive as well so it lead to some interesting moments at times lol. It feels kinda nice when they're like that though isn't it?


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Things did not go as planned/expected today. 

The original plan was to go for a ride on Sam, but after he was saddled and I'd left him tied to set up some ground poles, he freaked out. I'd only taken a few steps into the arena (keep in mind the grooming/saddling hitch area is right in front of the arena and horses/people are able to see into the arena just fine) and I heard something behind me. Glancing back, I saw Sam had ran backwards and was pulling back. So I walked back over, making sure not to run as I didn't want to make him react worse. As I stepped back out of the arena, now only about 6/7 feet away from same and he was facing towards the arena, he suddenly decided that since pulling back wasn't working, that he was going rear, and a second later jump launched himself forward. 

I spoke to him in soft, low tones and he seemed to snap out of it a little and looked over at me, breathing hard and clearly still anxious, but he stepped back from pulling on the rope as much and I moved closer, keeping my body relaxed and as non threatening as possible. I undid the rope and he continued to fidget around for a bit but every time he'd relax a little, I'd rub his head/neck and tell him he was a good boy which he's learning that those words = good, positive inforcement with occasional treats attached lol. So by letting him move around a bit and be able to look around and rub on him, he started to relax more. Once he was better relaxed, I led him into the arena and simply walked around in there with him. This also helped to relax him more but as I stood with him in the center, I could see he was still worried. 

So I closed the gate to the arena, and unclipped the lead rope. I sent him off and free lunged him around the arena. At first he was still worried and was looking at the walls and the gate area rather than focusing too much on me, and tried changing the direction twice, but he soon started to settle down more. Towards the end, he paid attention to me more and was even moving in an almost near perfect circle around me. He was even listening to my body language of how I slowed down, so he'd slow to a walk. If I picked up my feet more and sped up slightly, he'd start to trot. So when I finally asked him to stop, he did and when he looked fully at me, I relaxed my body language even more and literally not a second later, he walked in to stand with me. 

I stood with him for a bit, rubbing his neck a little and after a bit, asked him to follow me. So we walked around the arena at liberty which included him walking over poles with me instead of walking around them. He kept up perfectly with me and while his stop response were a touch on the delayed side, they were still very good. He'd even lower his head when I simply said "head" and used one hand to gesture down. From there, I led him back to the gate and told him "woah" and began taking the saddle off. He also gave several huge yawns which I've found is something he does when he's just done a lot of learning. With this, I've also found that his ground tying skills are very good. I was able to walk to the other side of the arena and he remained standing where I left him. I did at one point tell him he could walk on and do as he pleased, and after a bit, he did go roll as I put the poles away, but then immediately came back to follow me. 



I think the fact that there were other people in the barn when I went into the arena initially was what made him on edge. It wasn't until we did some free lunging that he started to relax, and relaxed even more when the people were gone. Yesterday I had him tied there and grooming him with no issues but it was also just the two of us. He was more relaxed during that then I've seen him be yet. But when a lady arrived to allow me to try out a saddle on him, he became more fidgety. No pulling or freak out, but he definitely became more anxious. 

So I think the whole scenario with the vaccinations has made him very wary and skeptical of people in general because the guy that vaccinated him, isn't someone Sam had met before other than seeing him around the stables but no interaction. So I think Sam sees me as his safe place/guardian, but all other people are potential enemies in his eyes. I'm not really sure as of yet how I'm going to address and get him to relax and not freak out when tied and I move somewhere else for purely a few minutes while remaining in sight. I also think getting in his face to correct him about pulling back and such isn't the way to go. I'd rather not beat him into listening to me and ignoring everything else. I'd rather have him calm down and realize that there is no danger on his own and see that I'm a safe place and not going to go after him just because he's scared. 

But this also makes my job harder for when it comes time to get his teeth done. Cause if he sees strangers and possible enemies on top of a phobia of needles, then it doesn't matter if he's great with needles for me, cause the fact it'll be a stranger going to give him a needle will surely set him off again. I do have a few small ideas brewing in my head, but I'm open to hearing your guys suggestions about this as well.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So it's been a little while since I've posted. I honestly forgot about it for a little bit as well as really struggling with motivation since work tends to drain me it's hard to get an extra energy burst for the horses. Sam was loosing more weight too which didn't help either, among other things. But I'm working on getting out of the that little rut that I fell into for a bit. It also doesn't help that it's been raining nearly non stop for the last month, making it hard to do anything with all the mud around. 

I've taken Sam out for a bit of a walk recently and took him over one of the bridges for the first time and he didn't even bat an eye at it so that was great. Even walked him into town a little and he seemed pretty good with that too. A little more tense than a normal walk, but not bad. 

Then yesterday, I took him into the arena let him loose. We sure had fun at that point lol. He rolled a couple of times before getting up and bucking as he ran around. So for the next few 20 - 30 mins, him and I just had fun playing in the arena together. I'd run and he'd come running with me, sometimes he'd just wonder around at a walk before finding another spot where he wanted to roll, and there were also a few moments where he stood for a bit so I could give him at least a basic brush down since he was quite dirty by that point. But all in all, it was a lot of fun. Really happy with how that went as it was a lot of fun. I got some good laughs and I'm pretty sure he loved being somewhere that he was sinking ankle deep in mud. 

I did notice though, that his back seems to be a tad sore, along with his back end so I'm planning on getting in touch with a chiropractor to come look a him sometime soon. But I'm sure when he puts on more weight that that'll help him to feel better too. 

Also got a video of how things went with Sam last night, so enjoy


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So, I'm extremely happy today  

I got on Jack for the very first time! 

I put a saddle pad and surcingle on him and led him around the arena as two other people rode and worked their horses, which was something new for Jack to experience. At first he wanted to bow up and prance like he was trying to show off to these other horses who were totally ignoring him. So I had to do some direction changes and get him doing some things that got him moving his feet to get his attention back on me. Once he realized the other horses didn't care about him and weren't going to come over and that I wasn't going to let him do what he wanted, he settled down and listened to me quite nicely. I even lunged him a bit and for a moment, he forgot he was on a lead and started to just take off, feeling frisky. But once he felt the tug of the rope, he remembered I hadn't just let him go so then he settled and walk and trotted around me nicely lol. 

Only did about two circles each way and by that point, the other two people left. So I grabbed the stool and put that around Jack, making sure he was fine with it, jumped around him, got him to flex his neck, and all that good stuff before leaning over his back, patting the other side and putting weight on him. He genuinely didn't seem to care, so I swung a leg up on his back. Still didn't bat an eye. Everything felt right in that moment, and like Jack was ready, so I listened to my gut and I swung up onto his back. 

Jack didn't shift his weight, tense, or anything. He didn't seem to really care and since he did so good, I got him to flex his neck and gave him a treat. I sat on him for a few more seconds, petting and rubbing his neck, loving on him before sliding off and giving him another treat. When I went to mount from the right side, he did get distracted at one point and side stepped a bit so I had to readjust before getting on. I misjudged the distance between him and the stool a bit, so it wasn't as smooth of a mount up that I wanted, but despite my slipping for a moment, all he did was take one calm step sideways before settling again as the lady who'd joined me in the arena stood in front of him. When I wiggled around to adjust myself and sit on him properly, he didn't seem to care and was more than happy to flex his neck to get another treat. 


Honestly, I couldn't be more happy, excited, or proud than I am now. Makes me so excited at the fact that I was able to do this with Jack and have him remain so calm. He's come such a long ways since the day I first got him. I also was glad to have that other lady around just in case things didn't go as planned, but she never held the rope or anything, and Jack was so good. Makes me very excited to see where he'll be once he's started with proper riding. For now, All I plan to do is just sit on him from time to time, maybe have someone lead him around a bit as I sit on him to get him used to the sensation but not really start any real riding until spring comes around again.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Sounds like a great start.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had another fun session with Jack today. He was feeling rather frisky so when I went to lunge him for a few circles (only a handful each way) he decided he wanted to have some fun. He was fine at a walk but when I asked for a trot, he sprung forward and sent a few kicks and bucks lol. When we changed direction and I asked for a trot again, he acted like he completely forgot how and just back peddled a few steps before it suddenly clicked in his head again, but then he did the smallest rear I've ever seen as he jumped forward to start trotting like I'd asked him to. It was really funny to watch him since it's so rare that he actually plays around at all. And honestly, his bucks and kicks are so tiny that it's hilarious and cute xD. 

Since he was feeling so spunky, I decided to take his halter off and just let him run around the arena which he really enjoyed. He completely let loose and just ran around bucking and kicking up his heels and tore around the place. It only lasted a minute or two, but it was fun to watch. 

Once he got that out of his system, he came over and hooked onto me again. So we did some liberty work and he's still amazing at it. Then moved on to introducing him to a small pole and cavoletti. He stepped over the pole nicely, but he kept hitting his back feet on the cavoletti when he'd step over it. He did manage to clear it a few times, but I think he hasn't figured out where his feet are in relation to it yet. After walking him over that a few times, I worked on sending him over the ground pole. At first he didn't want to be sent over it and kept backing up instead, but with a bit of patience and changing things slightly, we soon had it that I could send him over the pole a few times, though he was unsure about it and kept glancing at me like he was asking if I was sure I wanted him to go over it himself. But then he'd move on and step over it, soon realizing it wasn't going to eat him lol. 

All in all, our session lasted less than 30 mins and he seemed to enjoy it. Pretty happy with this guys progress.
Also, he's definitely gotten taller since I got him. He's also starting to fill out more too and is starting look like he's going to be a very solid horse. He was about 14 hh when I got him, and I think at this point, he's around the 14.1 - 14.2 hh mark. Not totally sure, but I'm going to try to measure him again sometime soon.


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## lostastirrup (Jan 6, 2015)

Sam looks like a killer horse. I love how he's put together. Really you have two lovely lovely horses.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Wow, so happy it went well with Jack!  YAY!! What a good boy. It definitely shows that patience & taking the time to work with these guys at a gradual pace pays off. What a good boy. Liberty work is a lot of fun, it really shows that he trusts you.  You two make such a good team.
Sounds like Sam is also coming along quite nicely. I am so happy for you! I agree with @lostastirrup, you really do have such great boys!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks guys for your encouraging words  The boys are definitely pretty great and I'm quite pleased with them. They're honestly teaching me as much as I'm teaching them, if not more lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So, time for another bit of an update. 


*Sam* is currently continuing his break from riding. This'll make 4 or 5 weeks off now. I wasn't riding him in October because during the transition of summer to winter, we've gotten a sudden burst of cold weather, tons of rain, freezing rain, and small spots of warmth. So with the shock of the temps, he lost a decent amount of weight that my trainer and I figured it wasn't fair to make him work. I also gave him another dewormer since it was starting to look like he needed it. So that, plus, going through 3 1,600 pound bales, and getting a mash of alfalfa cubes, beet pulp, and Step 8 food for all of October, he's finally putting on weight again! Oh, and he's been getting blanketed practically every night to help him out since he doesn't have enough of a natural coat to deal with the cold yet. But at least he's getting back to having proper weight on him. 

On the downside, last week he freaked out during the night. One morning I got up and an hour later, I had the lady at the barn who helps take care of it send me a message. She said two of the fence railings were broken to my paddock and she'd found Sam several yards off near the walking trail that's behind the paddocks. So the guess is that he either went under the fence, or over it. I'm thinking over it because of the way the broken boards are laying on the ground, and the fact the electric wire/fence is still up in the middle as well. Also, the metal piping on top of the fence in the one spot is also dented. So something seriously spooked Sam enough to break the fence, and then jump over it without getting a proper running start since the paddock is so muddy. 

As a result of this, his lower back and hips are sore. So that means it's time to call out a chiro. However, I'll have to wait to do that until my next paycheck as this one has to go towards his teeth which despertly need to be done, plus he's still able to move around just fine. My trainer actually thought he totally normal and good when he was free lunged since he still tore around the arena like crazy with bucks and kicks and whatnot the whole time. He's scheduled to have his teeth done on the 18th. I'm just hoping it goes better then when I got him vaccinated. But at least this time I'll have my trainer with me to help out which is good. 




As for* Jack*, I got to introduce him to my trainer for the first time the other day. She's also a trainer and since Sam is out of commission for the moment, she's going to focus on helping me out with Jack. 

Our first session was just for her to meet him and get an idea as to where his training level is at and spot any holes I may have missed. We did a bit of free lunging first so he could get out his initial burst of energy and she could see his movement (which she called cute) before catching him again. She went on to see how he was to lead and how he responded to being asked to yeild different parts of his body before moving to lunge him. It was kind of funny to watch her try to lunge him since she used different cues than I do and when I tried to explain it to her, she decided to let me do it so she could see how I got him to do it. 

The thing is with Jack, I realized early on that he's very sensitive so I worked that to our advantage. Despite not having done a whole lot of lunging, he knows all his cues verbally. So I just have to tell him to walk and he does, same with trot. I typically point in the direction I want him to go in so he knows where I want him to head off to, but otherwise, that's it. And once he's trotting, all I have to do is say "and walk" and he pretty much immediately goes back to a walk. Even when asking him to stop and turn, I either can do it almost completely with just words, or purely just with a point of my finger. Of course it's not perfect all the time, but he's one of the best horses I've ever lunged and he's the most green horse I've ever lunged lol. 

We did do a few other things as well, such as brush him, clean out his feet, lower his head and generally get a feel for him. At the end, she told me she was rather impressed with him. Makes me very excited to know that she's impressed since I know he's an awesome little horse and also considering he's the first horse I've "rehabbed" so to speak with his fear of humans and then to actually start his training from scratch, it makes me feel like I'm actually managing to do something right lol, despite feeling a little lost sometimes. 

Can't wait until our next session and we can do something new with him and get some more pointers.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today, I got kicked by Jack. Definitely was not how I saw the day going. 

He wasn't wanting to listen when I was leading him from one pen to another so I started to work on getting him to listen to me by having him back up, yeild different parts of body, and such. I'd barely gotten started when a truck started to pull up so I stopped for a moment, letting Jack just stand there for a moment as I glanced back to see where the truck would be going. While I did so, I suddenly felt something hard hit my left shoulder and as I turned, I saw Jack landing. He'd reared up and struck out, hitting me in the shoulder. Thankfully he wasn't out to really get me or anything since it honestly felt more like a hard shove or push from behind than a kick, but I think it helped I wore a fluffy vest which helped absorb the impact. 

Needless to say, I really got after him for that. I wasn't able to take him to the indoor arena since it was in use, and I couldn't work him in the round pen since most of it was covered in ice and water. So I worked with him the best I could in the mud of the grounds a little ways in front of the paddock. 

When I asked him to walk off to lunge him a bit, he started tossing his head and wanting to take off into a trot and prance. Due to how disresptecful he'd been acting prior, and him showing signs that he might try something again, I shut it down immediately and got him to move his feet backwards. We had to do this a few times before he realized that his little prancing and head tossing fits were pointless. After about the 3rd correction, he started to settle down and would around me calmly, and even started lowering his head. So I got him to stop and walk a few more times to make sure he was listening. 

Once he was listening, we went back to the paddock and he walked calmly beside me with his head lowered and actually paying attention. Even when I let him go in the paddock, he remained standing where I put him until I'd left the pen, rubbed his head and told him to go enjoy his supper. Only then did he leave to join Sam to eat. 

So I think tomorrow, I'm going to work him a bit more in the arena. It's been super muddy around here so the boys have some pent up energy. It'll be good for them to go into the arena and just run. No work, nothing, just let them play and run around to get rid of some of that excess energy that they have. 
Plus, Sam's getting his teeth floated tomorrow so I don't want him bursting with energy when it comes time for the needle since he doesn't much like those. 


And I don't have any pics today, but I should have some more tomorrow of the vet visit and everything.


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## JoBlueQuarter (Jan 20, 2017)

I just got caught up on your journal @SummerBliss. And omg. First off: you've done some amazing work with Jack and he has changed from a fearful, not-so-healthy horse with an uncertain future into a gorgeous, healthy, wellbehaved, _learning_, well adjusted/developed young horse. You should be really proud of what you've done with him. He is absolutely gorgeous and it sounds like you two have a great bond! Big kudos! I love how lil and stocky he is. :lol: Totally adorable lil pony <3

So cool reading about Sam. He is also an absolutely beautiful horse and I'm glad you have a horse to ride now! And it's also really nice that you listened to and retired Roxy! You could tell that she was ready to not work anymore so I'm really glad you gave her that.

What about Ren? How's the little darling doing?

Re: Jack kicking you. Our young ones (and older ones too) are bound to test the waters sometimes, but you dealt with it perfectly! In fact, that's something that stood out in all your latest posts - how well you deal with tricky situations. I'm really glad you are unhurt too! Hopefully he'll remember not to try anything like that again. I have yet to be kicked by Heidi (though she got me with a foreleg once) but she has definitely tried in that same way; I just got lucky to not be within reach ever.

Anywho, great job with all of your horses! It's been really fun catching up on all your fun endeavors!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

JoBlueQuarter said:


> I just got caught up on your journal @SummerBliss. And omg. First off: you've done some amazing work with Jack and he has changed from a fearful, not-so-healthy horse with an uncertain future into a gorgeous, healthy, wellbehaved, _learning_, well adjusted/developed young horse. You should be really proud of what you've done with him. He is absolutely gorgeous and it sounds like you two have a great bond! Big kudos! I love how lil and stocky he is. :lol: Totally adorable lil pony <3
> 
> Thanks, and it definitely has been a lot of fun to see Jack bloom and grow into quite the young horse! But he's honestly helped me just as much as I helped him out. Mutual growth for the both of us lol
> 
> ...


Thanks, and I'm glad you enjoy reading the journal  I appreciate your encouragement and other comments as well.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Sam made it to the vet yesterday and things went better than expected which was great. I also learnt more about Sam and the connection we have since when it was time to load him up in the trailer to go to the vet, he refused to get in when my instructor/trainer was leading him. But once I took the rope, I did a small circle to get him lined back up and went to the trailer and he popped right in with 0 hesitation. So it was rather amusing that he refused to go in for my trainer multiple times, but for me, he was willing to go in the first time. 

Then, once at the vets, he was given an oral paste that would make him really calm and sleepy to make it easier to get a needle in him to sedate him. Again, he refused to let my trainer get near him with the syringe so I took it and 2 seconds later, he had the paste in his mouth. 

Once he had the paste, we went into the barn to have him practice into the stocks since it was doubtful he'd ever done it before. He was a little skittish around it at first, but by the 4th time, he was already much better. So from there, we let him graze until the vet was able to come out. 
During this time, we realized Sam is a bit of a light weight as it took only about 5 - 10 mins before he started getting all sleepy and dopey from the calming gell. There were times he'd even stand a little cross legged and have to work at keeping himself standing. But at the same time, it wore off sooner than it does normally and was already wearing off by the time the vet came out which was only about 15 maybe 20 mins later. 
Even when he got sedated, that started to fade and wear off sooner than expected, despite how quickly it had an effect on him. 

The vet also said that his teeth were absolutely awful and were cutting into his cheeks. It pretty much looked like he'd never had his teeth done before. So she got them all nice and smooth again and said we'd need to do this again in the spring simply because of how bad they were. 



And I was told that Sam is a very unusual thoroughbred, for the fact that he is as calm and lazy he is, especially only being 8. 
I've also realized that Sam is quite brave and willing to do whatever it is I ask of him. I lunged him a bit at one point and I set up a pole and he was fine with trotting over that. So I raised the pole up and again he was fine with that. I then put two poles up side by side and he didn't even bat an eye at it. He would zone in on what was in front of him and readjust his stride every time he came to it until he figured the best way to move his feet to be able to go over it without hitting the poles. It'd take about the 3rd time going over it before he'd have it figured out and after that, he would pretty much never hit it. So I think he'd do well in jumping with how he handles this. 


And now some pics. There's one of him all crosslegged thanks to how dopey the drugs were making him feel lol


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I think you handled Jack's little tantrum very well. He is young, & they definitely do test. My horse is 6 & she still has her baby moments. :lol: You have to be quick, & redirect them ASAP! That's exactly what you did, which is great. He learned pretty quickly that those little hissy fits weren't going to get him anywhere!

It definitely shows that Sam trusts you too. They know their people. I feel like he may just be a 'one person' horse. Most TB's (IMO) are. Mine is that way too, she knows I'm her person & trusts me. Other people...she definitely doesn't act the same towards them. It's definitely a respect thing. Sam respects you & knows you are helping him. They just know. <3

As for his temperament, it sounds like he is very calm. Which is great. 

Glad he was good at the vet & I'm sure he feels a lot better now that his teeth are filed down a bit!  So cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

The boys got their feet done now too. It was quite something actually. This was only Jack's second trim ever. He was supposed to have it done a bit sooner, but then things just were't lining up with my farrier. He cancelled and when we tried to reschedule, it just wasn't lining up so I finally managed to get a hold of someone else. She actually worked with another lady on rescue horses so she's good at handling all kinds of horses. 


Anyway, so Jack really impressed me. He was a bit unsure about her and would shift sideways a bit when she would move next to him to grab a foot, but that was it. Once she had it, he was great. He's still not great with giving his feet, as in he'll let you pick it up, but it's dead weight since he doesn't help out lol. He's a million times better than what he was like when he arrived. So ya, I was pretty proud of him for that. 
He's also been behaving much better since the other night when he was being a turd so I guess he's learnt his lesson. 


Sam wasn't as nice lol. But I've come to realize that he likes to test people he doesn't know since he's trying to see if he can trust them, but another factor is that he needs some chiro done. When he managed to escape, he must've hurt himself since he's pretty sensitive in his lower back and hips and I think having his back feet trimmed bothered him a bit. So I'm in the process of finding someone to work on him but that might not happen till half way through December unless I get lucky enough to find someone sooner than that. 

In the mean time, Sam gets continued time off from riding. So when it does come time to hop back on him, it'll be interesting to see how he'll be lol. Though him being sore isn't stopping him from tearing around the arena and tossing out some bucks as he stretches his legs haha. So I'm glad he's still feeling good despite being a bit sore. 



And some pics of Jack being a good boy while getting his feet done. He's also such a goof. Every time the camera is out, he has to sniff it and come over and basically make it impossible to get a decent pic of him since he likes to just in it's face xD. Not only that, but I've also been feeding the boys some special mash. It's mostly for Sam to help him gain weight, but I put a little bit into another bin for jack so that he feels like he's included. Now what he's doing, is picking these rubber bucket/bins and shaking them when they're empty. If they're on the other side of the fence, he'll reach his head through, grab it and drag it back into his pen to check it out. If it's empty, he tosses it around. So now if I leave while they're eating it, I'll come back later to find it in the middle of their pen thanks to him tossing it around, wanting more. Thankfully Sam won't let him steal his food so I never have to worry about Sam loosing out on what he needs. If Jack gets remotely too close, Sam chases him off. Only I am allowed to take away his food without fuss. If Jack tries, he just gets a bit to the rump for that lol. I'm going to try to get some pics yet of Jack goofing around with the food bins since it is pretty amusing to watch.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Jack is just so darn cute. He looks so sweet!  Omg, too funny about the food bins, he must think it's a toy! :lol: Definitely try to get a picture!

Sounds like Jack was really good for the farrier. Considering it's only his second trim, that's pretty darn good. Sam will come around. I think the chiro will be a good idea as well. He may definitely have misaligned something. Glad he's still in good spirits, bucking & stretching his legs! Once you are able to get back on him, I'm sure he will feel a lot better!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So, I'm finally back. I took off for the last 4 days due to a grandparent being close to death so I went to go visit one last time. 
That means I haven't been able to be around the horses for the last few days and it felt rather weird not to have to go out and feed them and work with them. 

Today was my first full day back (arrived home late yesterday) and it was refreshing to be able to go out to the horses. After an emotionally hard weekend, it was refreshing to be able to laugh and have fun with the boys again. 

I free lunged Jack in the morning and boy was he feeling good! He tossed out so many bucks today. Got a few pics so you guys can see just how tiny his bucks really are lol. It also snowed here while I was gone so Jack was covered in a good amount of frost for a bit as well which just adds to his cuteness. He's also still quite bum high so hopefully his front end catches up soon lol. That's pretty much all I did with him in the morning was just let him stretch his legs since the paddock was icy and has holes in it thanks to the mud freezing that way. He had a serious case of zoomies and even went full on sprinting from one end of the arena to the other a couple times which was hilarious to watch. 


Sam was also free lunged in the morning and it was pretty much the same case with him as it was with Jack. He felt good and tore around the arena like crazy, just having a grand ol' time. It was maybe 10 mins of him trotting and cantering around (pretty much all on his own without encouragement from me since he didn't want to slow down xP ) and was on the verge of starting to sweat. Since I had work after that, I figured I'd get him to settle down and spent some time having him walk and groom him to give his body some time to calm down and prevent him from going back outside all sweaty. 

After work, Sam got his chiro appointment and he did pretty good. At first he wasn't too sure about the lady and threatened to rear a few times but soon settled once he realized that what she was doing made him feel good. We talked about him and his past a bit and one comment she made part way through the session was that he was more than likely abused at some point. I told her I had no way of knowing, but did give her the general rundown of his history and how he is registered and even has his lip tattooed, though never actually raced. So she figured that he was probably trained to run on the racetrack, stuck with a bunch of needles to have him drugged a lot of the time for various reasons (hence his extreme phobia of needles), and why he's now so quick to flee if a stranger or anything else comes along to try to get him to do something that he doesn't trust/fears.
But I'll never have any way to know what's actually true about his history so while speculating is fun, I'll just enjoy the fact that he currently trusts me more than anyone else right now and does stuff for me that he won't do for others. 


By the end of the session, Sam was back to feeling good. There were 3 vertibrae that had to be realigned in his neck, 2 ribs, his shoulders worked on, and both stiffles put back in place as well. 
So he was definitely out a decent amount. Before chiro, he ran quickly and was a little stiff and had no jiggle to him really, despite him gaining weight. After chiro, his pace was more calm and even and his whole body jiggled lol xD But I'm glad to see him doing better. So, starting friday, I'll probably be starting to ride him again in some short sessions to build up his muscle and lunge him over some raised poles to work on building up his topline. I'm just glad that he's finally put on weight (almost looking pregnant with the way his belly sticks out now lol) and that his teeth are done, and now he's had chiro as well. Hopefully it's nothing but good things from here on out! 





And of course, pics of the horses having their zoomies and sam getting chiro done lol


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Looks like they were feeling GOOOOOD! :rofl: So cute when they have the zoomies, I love it haha.

Glad you reuinited with your boys. Even a few days seems like a lot, doesn't it?! Sorry to hear about your grandparent, though. 

Poor Sam, I'm glad he has you, thank goodness. I'm glad the chiro appt. went well too. I'm sure he felt a lot better afterwards. Hopefully eventually he will think that needles aren't so bad! What a good boy!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> Looks like they were feeling GOOOOOD! :rofl: So cute when they have the zoomies, I love it haha.
> 
> Glad you reuinited with your boys. Even a few days seems like a lot, doesn't it?! Sorry to hear about your grandparent, though.
> 
> Poor Sam, I'm glad he has you, thank goodness. I'm glad the chiro appt. went well too. I'm sure he felt a lot better afterwards. Hopefully eventually he will think that needles aren't so bad! What a good boy!


It is very cute! and I agree, it does feel like a life time when you don't see the horses for a few days lol. 

And I think he'll get used to them. He wasn't too terrible when it came to the vet, so I think with some time, he'll get better.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Well, now that Sam has had time to rest from his chiro appointment, has had his teeth done, has gained weight, and in general is in better health, I finally rode him again! Hard to believe it's been 2 months since our last ride. Considering it's been a while, I wasn't sure what to expect from him since some horses act crazy after time off, and others couldn't care less and are fine. 

I did put him in the arena first so he could run around a bit if he wanted as I grabbed the saddle and brushes so he could get some of his energy out. But unlike the last few days, he didn't leave my side when I took off his halter, and he just hung around the entrance of the arena as I grabbed my stuff. And even when I came back, he still didn't want to move so I started to brush him and he just stood there. I even tacked him up once I was done brushing him. 


Hopping on him, I was quite happy with him that he stood still for me to get on. He typically stands still till I ask him to go, but like I said, after a bit of time off, I wasn't sure how well behaved he'd be. Also, it was after I got on him that I realized I forgot to attach the breast collar so it was just hanging off on the right side of the saddle lol. So I took it off and he walked nicely over to the gate and even moved sideways to get closer to it as I asked him to and didn't spook as I tossed the breast collar over it. So we'd barely taken a few steps and I was already quite happy with him. 

The rest of the ride was lasted maybe 15 mins and it was all just walking. We did some squares, circles, weaving through some pylons someone else left, and went over 2 poles. There were a few times he wanted to trot and do his own thing, but with a gentle reminder, he settled down again. (Part of his attitude was my fault as I forgot to adjust the bridle to make to make it longer since I'd had a hackamore type piece attached instead of a bit) 

I also didn't go into a trot or ride longer due to an old injury. In 2016/17, I rode a mare that tripped and fell on me. She only landed on my right leg, but since then, I have an indent that starts mid calf and goes down since it got flattened and it's affected my ankle as well. It honestly really hurts within 5 mins of riding and it's so weak that once I hit that 5 - 7 min mark, my heel no longer can go down and my toes go in to face the horse. So I didn't feel like my ankle would be able to handle trotting at that point, especially if Sam decided to get a little excited since I'd probably lose my balance pretty easily. 


Anyway, after the ride, i untacked him and sent off to free lunge so he could get some of his energy out which he more than happily did. But he eventually settled and we worked on him following me around at liberty and we're starting to communicate better. Such as, once he's stopped lunging and hold out a hand to him, he knows he can come in to me. He stayed glued as I did a few things but when I asked him to stand in one spot, he stood there faithfully, not moving a muscle as I cleaned up the poles and walked around the arena. Only time he moved was when I asked him to follow me again. He honestly amazes me sometimes with how patient and willing to please he is with the way he'll just stay where I put him and not move in the slightest until I call him.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

What a good boy Sam!  He really trusts you & enjoys being around you. I think that's awesome. For not being ridden in 2mos, that's pretty impressive. Nothing wrong with short rides. Sometimes I only ride for 20mins, always ending on a good note. Sorry about your injury though, I know that is no fun. :sad: 

He is really coming along nicely.


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## whisper2myhorse (Dec 8, 2019)

I am so happy for you and your new horse, it looks like he is going to have a great new home. As for a name, I like names that will fit my horses. I named my newest colt Lakota because it means companion , allied and partners. Which is what I am hoping is what we become. Good luck, I can't wait to follow your adventures with your new adventure. Let me know what you decide to name him. You can look up names on the website for horses.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> What a good boy Sam!  He really trusts you & enjoys being around you. I think that's awesome. For not being ridden in 2mos, that's pretty impressive. Nothing wrong with short rides. Sometimes I only ride for 20mins, always ending on a good note. Sorry about your injury though, I know that is no fun. :sad:
> 
> He is really coming along nicely.


Good to know I'm not the only one that enjoys some shorter rides  And he definitely was pretty good for his first ride back. Now to just keep working at it. 



whisper2myhorse said:


> I am so happy for you and your new horse, it looks like he is going to have a great new home. As for a name, I like names that will fit my horses. I named my newest colt Lakota because it means companion , allied and partners. Which is what I am hoping is what we become. Good luck, I can't wait to follow your adventures with your new adventure. Let me know what you decide to name him. You can look up names on the website for horses.


Thanks! And yes, finding names is definitely a challenge and I do the same as you by having names that have meanings that fit the horse. I've had Sam for 4 months now so it seems that he's keeping the name Sam lol. He responds to it now too.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Alright, so I managed to get a lesson on Sam again. I also took the opportunity to try out an jumper saddle on him which saddle didn't end up fitting him >< it fit worse than my western saddle. Though I found it interesting that I never noticed a difference between riding in either saddle. Well, I mean yes it's obvious the western is more bulky, but I've heard people talk about how it's hard to go from western to english since there's less saddle and it can be a bit of a challenge. I didn't find it challenging at all actually and it was a close contact saddle as well. 

Anyway, the ride went decently, though we definitely have a lot of work to do. We did good walking around and was starting to get it that I just have to look where I go and use my legs to get him to respond and move the exact way I wanted. We're both learning in this area as I was never taught too much how to use my legs to steer the horse, it was more through the reins in the past. And Sam has also mostly done neck reining with small leg cues at times, plus time off, so now he has to remember that just cause I squeeze one leg to get him to move over, doesn't equal going faster lol. 


*Tiny Rant ahead here*
Trotting didn't go very well. I've adapted a bit more to his longer stride so his trot doesn't feel as fast anymore, however I haven't mastered doing a slow rising trot while he tries to go fast in order to encourage him to slow down. And steering him with legs when trotting also was a challenge cause again, he figured it meant faster. We did have a moment where he broke into a canter for two strides but that was it. 

And can I just say the arena annoys me an insane amount! It's small, so that means we trot about 5 strides (roughly, I'm not too good at counting strides yet) before you have to turn to go down the short end, before turning down the longer end which just isn't very long. And when riding a tall horse that eats up the ground fast, it felt like every 2 seconds I had to also focus on turning him, plus making sure he doesn't break into a canter, and not pull too much on the reins, keep my balance, try to slow my rise and fall with his trot, and not lean in at the turn. So it gets overwhelming since it feels like we're just doing a giant oval and I have a hard time focusing on all of it. 

When I lived in a different town 4 years ago, I got to ride in an arena that big! It was meant to handle barrel races, calf roping, and other competition type things so it was quite large. When I would ride there, there was plenty enough space that if the horse I rode was throwing a fit or I was off balance, I'd have plenty of time to be able to get it sorted out before going into the turn and I'd actually be prepared for the turn and it'd all go smoothly. I even rode a horse that liked to buck when going into the canter! And because of the size of the arena, I was able to ride out the buck the length of arena without problem! (I seem to have glue on my seat lol I've never been tossed off a horse even though I'm not an overly skilled rider xD ) So ya, that arena was fantastic and it was so much easier to be able to handle what the horse through at me since I had the space to get things figured out. 

This arena in the town I'm in now that I ride feels massively restricting. At first, I liked it. It works great for Jack. But that's cause he's small and he's still in the stage of training where a smaller space is nice. It's bigger than the round pen, but small enough that if he were to get away from me, I'm not having to run around 100+ feet of arena lol. But for Sam, it's awful! 


The stable does have a very large outdoor arena though. So I'm thinking that one of these days, I'm going to go out and see what the condition of that arena is. We had a lot of rain and then it froze with giant puddles that turned it into an ice rink for a bit. But now it's snowed quite a bit so if the snow is packed down and it's not a sheet of ice and in good, safe condition, I'm going to ride Sam there. That way if he wants to through a fit, I'll be able to ride it out. I think him and I need to work things out and we aren't able to do it in the tiny arena. But once in the outdoor one, I think we'll be able to get things sorted out. On the ground, him and I are a force to be recond with so to speak lol. In the saddle, we're horribly out of sync. And we need to remedy that. So I'm hoping that the arena is going to be in good condition soon so we can get over this bump. 





Oh! And to end things on a positive note, I've discovered Sam is a peacekeeper. There was a new horse in the paddock next Sam and Jack and some hay lay under the connecting fence. Well, as I was tossing hay in with Sam hanging by me, Jack and the other horse screeched at each other, turned butts, and the other horse kicked the fence a couple times. Literally as soon as the first kick hit the fence, Sam spun around, pinned his ears, and charged forward, snapping his teeth at both Jack and the other horse. He chased the other one away best he could before turning and driving Jack towards me. 
It was so awesome to see Sam step in like that and separate the two so well. His response was so quick as well that I was just left standing speechless for a bit since I've never seen a horse break up a "fight" before.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Got off work early today which was nice! Managed to have time to work both boys today and it was a lot of fun. 

Jack got to run around and play for a bit before we got to business. Just worked on desensitizing him to the giant lunge whip and then with a plastic bag filled with empty water bottles. The sound unnerved him a bit but by the end, I was able to toss it all around him without issue. I also put some on hay twine and tied that around his neck and worked him like that so that he got used to the sound of something different, and feeling something moving around on him. He did great with everything like always. I thought about saddling him as well, but after the time we spent with that stuff, I could see that for the time being, his mind had enough to deal with so I kept the session short and fun. 



Sam got to try jumping today. I was originally planning on riding him but for some reason, that didn't end up happening. Instead, I let him run around a bit before I set up a jump. I started off with ground poles and slowly built up from there. He decided to spook at them today and would charge past the jump or turn back and I realized it was because as he'd approach, he'd slow down, over think it, and freak out which resulted him in turning and bolting to the other direction. So the next time around, just when I noticed the slightest hesitation start, I clucked to him again and he charged forward and went over it. Once he realized he could get over the poles without issue, he was more than happy to get going. There were a few times he just didn't want to stop and he'd just keep going around and jumping it even when I wasn't asking for it. 


By the end, the tallest he jumped was about 2 feet. We'd been at it for about 45 mins at that point and even though he still wanted to sprint over it still, i got him to stop so I could start working on cooling him off since he was sweating (first time he's sweat since I've had him too). It was taking a little while for him to dry off, so I spent some time braiding his mane as well. Didn't have any elastics but it was fun to braid and also taught him to be patient, though once he'd settled, he realized he was ready for a rest lol. We did more walking around after and once he was pretty much dry, I tossed on his rain sheet before putting him back in his paddock to help keep him warm through the night since I know how it is to do a work out, settle down, and then go where it's colder. Not fun >< Plus I don't want him getting sick. 



So ya, had a pretty good day with the boys. And got some pics of them like usual. Sam shows off his jumping potential as he sores over the jump which is at 12 inches high roughly in the pics lol
Also, I love the pic of Jack with all 4 feet off the ground. It just looks so funny how his whole body is very forward and his legs are behind him xD


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Woke up earlier than I intended to today, but as it turns out, it was for the better. I was energized enough that I headed out to the stables and hopped on Sam to go for a morning ride. 

Everything started off fairly well and he's getting more responses. And when we went into the trot, we managed to actually get a rythem going and I was able to actually ride him straight and not have him drifting all over the place or in circles so that was nice. There still was a time or two where he wanted to break into a canter, but otherwise he did fairly well. 

When trying to get him to walk again, that was another story. He'd walk, but he'd constantly try to trot. Making him stop and back up everytime he wants to go into a trot without being asked doesn't work to correct this. And just giving him reminders with pulling back on the reins a bit only works for a few steps. But then I remembered something I was told by a guy who ran a clinic that I went to 4 years about how making the horse do tight circles can help. I haven't really used this before as the horses I rode, this wasn't the greatest method for them. However with Sam, once I started applying it (make him do a tight circle until he started to walk and then let him straighten out and repeat every time he tried to trot on his own), he soon settled down and started to relax to the point that he'd walk a slower pace and lower his head and walk calmly along. Even his trot was more "controlled" so to speak and not as crazy. 


Our ride only last about 20 mins, but it seemed to be the perfect amount for the day. We'd done more trotting than we had in the last few rides and since he's out of shape, i could tell he was getting a tad more tired and he was starting to sweat. So I figured I'd keep it short and walked him around a bit more to cool him off. So I'm pretty happy that we made progress today! Definitely a big step up from the last two rides so I look forward to seeing how we'll be doing by the time spring comes around again.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

The day has come where Jack has had his very first ride! It wasn't much of a ride though lol. It pretty much consisted of only a couple of steps and then that was it. But hey, I still sat on him and got him to walk around a bit so it's still some type of a ride lol. 

I practiced flexing with him before I got on so when I hopped up, I just got him to turn left and told him to walk on and for a moment, he wasn't sure what I wanted. So I gently squeezed my heels and clucked to him as well and so he started to think about it and moved one foot. Instantly praised him for that. Second step went about the same way. By the third time, he actually took three steps in a row. And the 4th time, he took nearly ten steps and even started to walk out straight a bit. And that's when I hopped off and gave him plenty of praise because of how good he was. 

Honestly am super proud of him and just how well he did with that. He thought about it all very carefully and walked slowly and with careful steps, listening to me the whole time. 


Also, my saddle is annoying with the fact it's a touch too big for Sam, and it's a tad too small for Jack >< Finding a proper saddle is such a pain. 


Sam also got a light 10 min ride today but I could tell he wasn't feeling totally great since he has been doing a decent amount more the last few days than he has in the last 2 months so he may be a tad sore with getting back into work. So I kept it short and simple so that he still had a chance to stretch out his muscles but tomorrow I'm probably going to give him the whole day off.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Had a nice ride on Sam today. Thanks to the help of some suggestions from fellow members of this forum, I figured out the cause of Sam's trouble when being restarted under saddle. Turns out that after having 2 months off, he's decided he hates the bit. The reason why I didn't think too much of it off hand was because my instructor told me he was fine and would adjust to it soon enough. And she's been the person that's helped me get the right food for Sam to put on weight so I trusted her in this as well. But after some stuff you guys said as well as just how I felt about the situation, I decided to ride Sam in a halter today instead to see how that went. 


With the bit:
Lots of head tossing, pushing through the bit no matter how loose it was, constantly playing with it, always trying to faster by breaking into a trot or canter without being asked for it, slow stop, and won't take the bit willingly when being bridled. 


With the halter:
More relaxed, no head tossing, more sensitive to leg cues, barely have to squeeze the reins and say woah to get a nearly instant stop, no pushing through, and rarely tries to break into a faster pace unprompted.



So ya, he definitely prefers being ridden in the halter now and apprently he's never been ridden in a halter before. But I'm fine with that as I wanted to transition him to bitless at some point as well and this just makes it easier. Now I just have to get myself a bitless bridle. We did have one incident while riding though.
Everything was going all well and good and we were trotting around. At the side of the arena, are large doors that can be opened to the outside. Well, we were passing one and I guess he suddenly decided it was a giant monster out to get him and darted sideways to the left. My left foot fell out of the stirrup and for a split second the thought that "this is the day a horse will get me off" or something close to that (only time I've ever fallen off a horse was bareback and loosing my balance, or a horse falling on me but I've stayed on bucking and spooking horses before). Well, as soon as that thought had finished, I suddenly found myself sitting properly in the saddle again, riding a sitting trot as Sam continued trotting forward at a nicely, slow paced trot. I managed to get my foot back in the stirrup and we continued trotting a few more strides before I got him to settle into a walk. It was quite something lol. But it seems like my seat of glue manages to hold me in a bit longer yet. I honestly thought I was coming off him when he spooked, I really don't know how I managed to stay on end up riding a trot out of that and get my stirrup back since I normally have to reach down to help hold the stirrup still to get my foot in it. 

It was definitely a fun and eventful morning, that's for sure lol. 


And I thought I'd include some pics from around the stables I got this morning as well.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

Yea, I read your other post. Trying with a halter (you can always just hop off it things go wrong) would have been my advice, too. I am interested in bridles to the point that I make my own. I have ridden bitless, too. The general feeling is that some designs work for a particular horse and not for another horse. 

In other words, what works on one horse will not work on another, and different situations can change the workability of the bridle. I would suggest not spending the big bucks (some of them are quite expensive) until you have at least tried out a design.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

For the last 5 days, I've been rather sick. So the horses are getting some time off since my throat feels like there's a thousand knives stabbing it every time I breath outside and I'm incredibly light headed when I move around. 


But it is a little tiring just sitting around at home so I figured I'd make a post about the very first horse I owned since I found some pics of her from when I had her. So if you like stories, have a seat and I hope you enjoy reading about this girl. 

*Basic Info:* 
Mare, 5 years old, appy QH cross, 14 hh. Above average smart for a horse (was told this by other more experienced horse people).


*Story*:
So a week before I graduated from high school, my parents took me out to a relatives place since the guy was selling his horse and if I liked this horse, my parents would buy her for me as a grad gift. Needless to say, I was ecstatic for this. The guy had gotten this mare when she was a foal and raised her himself and also started her under saddle. So when I met her, she'd only had about 30 rides on her roughly. 
So when I saw the guy work her in the round pen, I was instantly in love with her color since I'd never seen it before. She moved nicely and responded quite well to his direction. He even got up on her and rode her around a bit before I was allowed to go in and hop on her too and after a few minutes, I was allowed to ride her down the fence line of his large pasture and back again. I was absolutely thrilled about this and loved having the oppertunity to ride her and the fact that she could potentially be my horse. 

When I got back to my family and the guy, my dad asked me if I liked her. I immediately said yes but then he said, a bit more seriously, "Do you love her?" Well at that, I hesitated. I liked her, but I didn't love her or feel any real connection. But during my slight pause, one of my sisters chimed in "Of course she loves her! She's a horse after all" and I basically went along with that. At that time, I thought that if I didn't take her, then I'd never be able to get a horse. Totally wrong move for me to make but you'll understand better why this was mistake as I continue to tell of my time with her. 


About two weeks after I graduated, my dad borrowed a horse trailer from the vet in town to haul the mare to a lady's pasture. At the time, her name was Popsicle as the guy who had her let his 7 year old son name her and the logic behind that name was that she looked like orange Popsicle lol. I didn't think the name fit and with the roan spots she had, I thought about naming her Freckles, but that didn't fit either. It wasn't until my sister wore a sweater with the the word/brand on it being Ecko, that I decided to name her Echo and it fit. Anyway, so Echo was brought to her new home. 

Echo was at this place for about 2 ish months before I ended up boarding her at the stables in town. The reason why she was there so short of time was because the lady who owned the land and had her own horses there, she really damaged my confidence in myself and we believe she hit Echo as well when we weren't around as Echo would be fine if it was just her and I, but as soon as that lady would pull up, Echo would start throwing fits, and we'd find some marks on her (which we could't prove to be by the lady as she was in with other horses and horses do like to nip at each other in play in such but some marks were lower on her legs which didn't make sense to me how they got there). So ya, Echo and I both got a little damaged mentally there so we switched locations to the stables. Also, in that time, I'd had maybe 5 rides on her because my confidence was so shattered and Echo refused to behave when that lady was around and the lady was around most of the time I was. 


The stables were honestly the best place for Echo and I to end up at. That's where I learnt A LOT and what I learnt from there and from Echo, I now use to apply to any horses I work with now. 
However, due to how damaged my confidence was, October to December were not too good. There was a lady who boarded her horse in the same isle as me and she kind of took me under her wing which I really appreciated. She gave me a winter blanket for Echo that she no longer used for a decent price. And I realized the saddle blanket I used was rubbing off Echo's fur, so the lady also gave me one of her older pads for free (which I still have). Everyone in the isle also took turns turning out everyone's horses into the outdoor paddocks and bringing them in so it was a nice little community we had going on. 

During these months, Echo and I had trouble. There were times she'd refused to lead. She'd plant her feet and wouldn't budge. Riding wasn't fun and the core reason for that was because she wouldn't go straight which annoyed me so much and at that time, I'd never learnt how to use my legs as aids. I honestly didn't know about how to use your legs properly until now with the riding instructor I have currently. Anyway, so that drove me nuts. Our personalities just didn't work well together at all either. My sister and I nicknamed her Miss Sassy Pants or just Sassy (which I've now come to find out is a normal trait for mares). Also, Saddling her up become more and more dangerous. She actually nearly kicked me in the head at one point when I was reaching for the cinch. Thankfully she's not a mean horse so she didn't actually make contact as she wasn't out to get me, but that was the real wake up call that I needed help. 

Then, in January, Doug Mills was coming to run a clinic. The lady that had helped me out so much told me about him and that she somewhat worked for him too/knew him very well. Well, I wasn't in a financial situation to afford the clinic, but thanks to the lady putting in a word for me, I was able to make 3 payments. One in advance, one on the day of the clinic, and one in February. 
When the day of the clinic came, the lady introduced me to Doug and told him I showed promise and some other stuff I don't remember. Well, lesson for the first day, was round pen work. It took Echo and I 45 mins total to get things sorted out. First 15 mins were just establishing that I could make her feet move and turn her and get her to join up. The last 30 mins were of me trying to get Echo do an inside turn and she'd refuse to turn and/or turn the wrong way and so on. But after 30 mins, she finally relented and got it and after 2 more times of her getting it instantly, that was that. (also, despite canter for 30 mins straight and being out of shape, she never broke into a sweat.)


Basically, by the end of the 3 days, Echo and I understood each other better and I knew what to do if she tried to be "sassy" again and such. 
Things went much smoother after that for a time. Though at one point, when I was trying to get up on Echo again outside, I got one foot in the stirrup and was pulling myself up when she decided to break into a trot. I fell and she stopped, and I got after her instantly for that. After that, she never moved a muscle until I gave her the go ahead to move forward. So there were plenty of times we made progress. 

But despite this, we still had trouble. Our personalities clashed so much that I started to hate riding. She still wouldn't go straight very well and progress was slow and little for that. There were times we'd ride and I'd get so angry that I'd want to just beat her black and blue into submission, which I realized were bad and dangerous thoughts/feelings, so I'd always make sure we'd do 1 thing right, then immediately end the session there so we'd end on a good note, but I'd ride her less because it scared me to feel like that since I very rarely get angry. (Also I never laid a hand on her, I just wanted to sometimes because of how bad of a match we were)


In May, I boarded Echo in another pasture with a girl who I knew a bit better. However, that didn't last long as she claimed my mare would go through the electric fence to get to her two geldings. She never saw it happen though, and I can say she didn't do that, because she'd been in electic fencing before where there were horses on the other side she really wanted to be with but never pushed through, plus the different times I went there, the fencing would always be pulled towards Echo's direction, not towards the geldings. So if Echo went to be with the geldings, the wire would be pushed towards the geldings since she'd have to push through it that way, not somehow grab it and pull back towards herself. 

But regardless, about a month and a half later, I moved her to a new pasture of a lady who also helped me out a lot and I'll always be grateful to her for everything she did for me. At this point, I'd had Echo for a year and I decided that I had to sell her because it wasn't fair to her to keep her when we didn't get along. So at the end of August, I sold her to a guy who had great references and I liked him when I met him. He also had an appy stud who was one of the most well behaved horses ever and I had a good feeling about it, so she went to him. 


Now, 4 years later, my parents ran into that guy and got an update about Echo which they passed on to me. 
Basically, the second or 3rd day the guy had Echo, he took her for a ride to the highway and back. To drive that distance, it was about an hour roughly. So he rode her that distance and back, and she still had tons of energy and hadn't even broken into a sweat. So he figured he'd take her for a ride to all his neighbors and show off his new horse. That took him the rest of the day and when they finally got home, she still had plenty of energy left to keep going. And keep in mind, she was out of shape at this point since I didn't ride her much all summer or winter really. So she's definitely an endurance type of horse. 
And she apparently now has a foal as well. The guy bred her to his appy stallion. I don't know anything more than that, but that she's quite happy and doing well which I'm glad for. 



*End Note:*
Honestly, now that I've had more experience with other horses and I've had some decent riding lessons that have taught me how to handle things better, I wouldn't mind having her now since I'm sure we'd get along much better. She taught me a lot and I appreciate that. Perhaps one day, I'll try to get in touch with the guy and see if maybe I can get one of her babies since it'd be kind of cool to do that. But we'll see what the future brings. 

I won't lie though, I do have issues from my time with her. One side effect I now have, is anxiety at the thought of going for a ride. When I got Roxy, an OTTB mare I had last year, she helped me heal since she was a decent amount like Echo. Through Roxy, I was able to confront that part of my past and make it so that I can look back fondly and appreciate the good times that I had with Echo since not all of it was bad. Echo was a good horse. I just made some mistakes that resulted in the very hard year I had with her but I'm grateful the experience anyway since it did teach me a lot. 
And I've also learnt to listen to my gut as well. I do get anxiety at the the thought of riding but only for certain horses now and normally, that's for horses that I wouldn't get along with it. My anxiety levels will be low or non existant for horses that I do get along with. For example, I have no anxiety when it comes to Sam or Jack. 




*Other Experiences within the Stable Time frame:*

First major accident
Basically, the farrier had trimmed Echo's hooves so badly that she'd constantly stumble and trip. So one day, during a ride, Echo tripped but wasn't able to recover in time so she fell and landed on my right leg. Apparently with the way she fell, 9/10 horses would do a full roll over. And if she'd done that, the horn of my saddle would have gutted me. But thankfully she didn't. She just fell on my right leg, got up, and bolted to the other end of the arena. One of the ladies that was riding at the time actually was a nurse so she was instantly by my side along with the other 10 riders and they told me to lay still. The barn manager came out and when I said I was doing alright other than a massive pain in my leg, she said I could sit up but slowly. I did, and I was good for about 30 seconds before I looked directly at the manager and told her that my vision was going all static-y. Like those old TV's with the "snow" kind of thing was how my vision started going. So they told me to lay down and once I laid down and blinked, my vision was completely back. So the nurse lady held my head so I couldn't move it and both my parents and the ambulance were called which at that point, I also became aware of my shoulders aching along with my head. 

The ambulance drove right up into the arena and that's how I went to the hospital. I remembered from shows and such that it's important for a person to talk when injured as a way to keep them awake and whatnot is just a good thing. So I became a literal chatterbox and both while waiting for the ambulance and then during the drive, I didn't stop talking xD I just rattled on about one thing after another haha. 
Long story short, I didn't break anything. I couldn't walk for about 3 days due to how bad my leg was, but there wasn't even a fracture. However, my muscles from mid calf and down are now permanently indented and that ankle is much weaker than the left. With exercise and work, my ankle is just fine, but if I don't ride for a while, then it hurts within 5 mins of just walking around on a horse. Also, Echo was never hurt in all this. My family took care of her while I wasn't able to move. Also I found out from the new farrier I got for her, that her hooves had been do so poorly that one more trim like that last one and her tendons would've been ruined. But thankfully I knew what the cause was and got a good farrier to fix the problem. He cost more than average, but it was worth it to know her feet were being properly taken care of. 


Bareback Ride
I didn't really ever ride her bareback, but the first time I did, she turned a little too sharply and I lost my balance slightly, which made my leg tighten around her which spooked her, which then knocked me more off balance, which spooked her more to the point I fell off. I felt bad after since when I got off the ground, I realized I'd pulled out some of her mane with how much I'd been holding onto her. However, after that incident, she trotted and turned much slower and more carefully when I rode bareback to try to make sure we didn't have a repeat of that lol. 


Very Tolerant
I could honestly do pretty much anything to her. Wrap ropes around her, jump around like a lunatic, bring random things around her, and so on without her caring. My younger sister, who had 0 horse experience, also learnt how to lunge her and she was so patient and well mannered for her with that. So she was a good horse with those things. I actually wold get some odd looks with the things I'd do to Echo haha. 


Puddles + General Riding
She hated puddles. During the start of spring, there were plenty of them and she needed to go through one in order to go onto a field for us to ride. Well, after long deliberation, she finally launched herself over it lol. So after that, I was much more careful about us crossing puddles. She honestly hated getting dirty and when the paddock was muddy, she'd walk, maybe trot occassionally, but otherwise would do nothing to get dirty. She hated being dirty. So I appreciated her for that since she was a very light horse. 
Also, just riding her in general was quite something. Every time she'd stop or slow down, it was instant. So the first few rides, I almost ended up sitting on the horn due to how instantly she'd slow down or stop. So at least it wasn't like she had no brakes. 





And now some pics of the lovely girl. Hard to believe it's been 4 years since the last time I saw her.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I'm starting to feel better so I managed to take Jack for a short walk today. He did fairly well for the most part, minus a few moments of acting up, but he is a baby still, so I'm not surprised that he had some baby moments. I honestly tend to forget sometimes that he's still a baby in many ways since he's getting so big. 

We also faced the grate bridge once again on our walk. The very first time we encountered it, Jack refused to go over. The second time was in July and the only reason I got him over it was because I had someone else lead Roxy over it first and since Jack didn't want to be left behind, launched himself over it after her. Today, he literally froze as soon as he saw it, but with slow steps forward and giving it a good sniff and watching me walk around on it, he finally decided to once more, launch himself over it lol. I was very impressed with him that he went over it and now we just have to work on him walking over it and not launching himself forward. 

There were a few times on the walk that Jack got excited or rather unsure of things and his response to that was to bow up and pin his ears. Sometimes he'd look at me and touch me with his nose for reassurance. There was one point though, that he was a little overwhelmed and decided nipping me was a good idea. He got corrected instantly and didn't try it again during the walk, but there were a few times he got ahead of himself or forgot about me so I had to get after him. But all in all, he did really good. Just goes to show that I need to take him out for walks to explore more places than just the stables yard. 

We also passed by a kid and her dad and she was so excited to see a horse lol. And one of the houses we passed (the trail goes through some forest and through town) another little girl was by the large livingroom window and was staring out at us in awe. It was so cute and I love how just seeing horses often makes other people smile and be happy.


Also, discovered that Jack loves to dig around in deep snow. There were many moments he wanted to just stop and stick his nose in a snow bank before pawing it. He always looked so pleased and would get a little frisky after which was cute. At one point, he actually found a tiny stick during a moment he had shoved his nose into a snow pile. He of course had to take the stick and shake it around a bit before turning back to me and practically dropping it in my hands lol. 
And can I just say, he looks like a tank of a horse already haha. I think once he's matured, he's going to be one of the most stocky horses ever with the way he's looking now. 
When I measured him, he's closeto 14.2 hh now. And he turns 3 in about 3 months now. So I'm guessing when he turns 3, he's going to be at or slightly over 14.2 hh. His butt is still a bit higher than his withers, so I'm fairly certain his rump has reached that mark already.
And with another few years to grow, I think he's going to finish off at 14.3 - 15 hh depending how long it takes him to grow.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

So happy to see your progress with these guys.  Keeping it short & simple with Jack is definitely the way to go. He looks great! I agree, saddle searching/fitting can be a pain in the butt. A lot of it is trial & error.

Going bitless for Sam isn't a bad idea at all, at least until you find a good bit for him. They are a bit expensive (although I got mine gently used on ebay), but Myler bits are pretty good. The one I use is super gentle, no nutcracker affect or anything. Smooth.

If you want, you can try a bitless noseband converter instead of buying a whole bridle - that's what I do, I've gone bitless with my mare a few times now & the noseband converter is super easy to use.  This is what I have: 

https://www.ridingwarehouse.com/Thi..._Noseband_Bridle_Converter/descpage-THEB.html

Nothing wrong with riding him in the halter too though for now - what a good boy!  

Loved reading about Echo. I do feel like each horse teaches us something different. You learned a lot from her. I'm glad you were okay after that incident, as they could've been really bad. Hopefully that farrier isn't a farrier anymore...sheesh!! & you definitely got lucky that she didn't like getting dirty like most horses! :lol: Glad to hear she is happy though. I bet she made a cute foal!


Jack is so darn cute in the snow! He definitely looks like a stocky boy!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

@PoptartShop
Thanks for the link! I've been on the lookout for something like that for a bit and they seem to normally cost an arm and a leg lol. This one definitely looks much more affordable. 

And I'm glad you enjoyed hearing about Echo. I actually joined this forum when I got her, but I forgot about this place so much that I never really ever posted anything about her back then lol. And that farrier still practices I think. She also used to board at that stable as well and apparently got suspended 3 times before being perminatly banned from there. No idea what happened to cause that, but it must've been bad. Never really heard of anyone being banned from a stable before.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Another little update. 
I'm finally feeling pretty close to 100% at last! However, had a minor set back when it came to working with the horses as the boots I'd been wearing when I took Jack for a walk rubbed my heels raw. So for a few days, it was painful to even wear socks. So I had to take another mini break to let my skin heal up before I could walk properly. 

Today though, I spent some time with Sam. One thing I've noticed, is that when it comes to lunging him or letting him just run around the arena, he always does a fast trot. Very rarely will he have a slow, relaxed trot. He also tends to tuck his back end under himself a bit, kinda like what horses do when you put a saddle on their back for the first time and they're trying to get away from it or something. He was also a lot calmer today though, as in he had maybe one half hearted buck and otherwise was quite content to just be lazy. 

I thought about riding but decided I need to do some bonding stuff and not just ride. So we did some liberty work. I had him follow me around the arena at a walk, and even job around. I threw in a few sudden stops as well as trot to walk and walk to trot transitions. He does fantastically at this and seemed to really love it. After a few minutes of this, we stopped and I gave him lots of scratches and took the braids out of his mane. as I loved on him, he got super relaxed and even a little sleepy which was cute. 

There was one thing I noticed though. On his right side of his wither, he was very sensitive. If I put any pressure on it, he'd instantly take a step or two backwards so that my hands were at his neck instead. And he was sensitive close to his spine. His left side was totally fine. The right side also felt slightly off. Almost like a knot was there, but it was so small that I can't be entirely sure. 
So with his sensitive spot and the way he's tucking in his back end when trotting, I'm thinking I'm going to call the chiro lady out again to work on him since the last time he was sore, it was because he needed an adjustment. So hopefully that's all it is and he'll be fine again after. 


Also gotta say, I love how he returns affection when he gets treats xD. I gave him some special treats and once he'd eaten it, he instantly started licking my arm and anywhere else he could reach lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Today went a bit differently than normal. I feel like I mentioned this once before but I'm not sure so I'll briefly explain it now. 
Basically, due to work things and plans for the future, I'm more than likely going to have to sell one of the boys in the spring. Reason 1 - I plan to try to go for an apprenticeship in the spring at a stable which will require me to relocate and I can only have one horse along to board during that time at the stable I work at. Reason 2 - I've been made aware that several of the employees at my work place are testing my boss about every little thing I do and blow it out of proportions in order to get me in trouble, which means I very well may lose my job thanks to what these people spread around about me (found out about this from the supervisor who is on my side at this point). And if I lose my job before I'm able to find another decent paying one, i cannot afford to feed 2 horses and things will just get 10 x more stressful and whatnot. 


What that's leading up to, is that I've met a girl who seems to really like Sam. She's 13 but is a bit more advanced in riding than I am and as it turns out, she also has uses the same riding instructor that I do. Her last horse was getting older and unfortunately passed away due to colic this last fall. So her parents are going to get her a new horse in the spring. So the current thought, is that if she and her parents like Sam enough, they'll put a small deposit on him and during the winter, he will remain with me and I can continue to improve my riding and learn all the basics that I can before spring so that I'll be more prepared and have a better "resume" so to speak for when I apply to different apprentice oppertunities. During this, she will be able to come out and see Sam as well, and ride him on occassion so that the two of them can form a bit of a bond. Then come spring, her family pay for him completely, and when he goes with them, he'll already know the girl and it'll make the transition a bit smoother for him, and the money I'll get from him, will cover the costs of moving and relocating myself and Jack. 
So ya, that's the general gist of the idea/plan going on now. Nothing's been set in stone yet. 



Now that the explanation is over, here's how the day went with that in mind. 

The girl was coming to try him out today, so I arrived at the stables early and took Jack for a mini walk and brought him to some deeper snow. He absolutely loved that and tried to climb up one of the snow hills that are made from plowing snow out of the way lol. He's definitely a winter horse with how much he loves to play in the snow. At one point, we were practicing just standing around to work on his patient. Well, he decided at one point that he didn't want to anymore and "tried" to nip at my leg. So I gave a sharp instant correction and he immediately backed up, giving me more space, and stood nicely. From there, we walked around a little more before putting him back in the paddock and I decided to just hang out with the boys until the girl and her dad arrived. 

During this time, Jack and Sam took turns pushing each other away from me lol. If Sam was by me and Jack approached, Sam would pin his ears and nip at him if he came close enough and sent him away. But as soon as Sam went off for some reason or another, Jack was instantly back at my side, absorbing all the attention he could get. If Sam walked up, Jack would constantly pin his ears at him but if Sam got serious, Jack ultimately gave in and wandered off. It was just funny to watch since they were jealous of each other but Jack was definitely the more persistent one and as long as I was in the pen, he wouldn't leave my side unless Sam made him. On the other hand, Sam liked to come around for attention at times and didn't like to share those times with Jack, but he also wanted to eat food so wouldn't stay by me all the time. 



When the girl and her dad arrived, I showed them my whole process of catching Sam, bringing him in, grooming, tacking up, and riding, plus some liberty. Everything went very well and super smooth. I also had lengthened my stirrups from the last ride and that really helped! So our ride went pretty well. I also showed them how he is at liberty and got Sam to follow me around both walking, jogging, stopping, and backing up. Before the ride actually started, I wasn't even holding onto him as I got a ground pole set up and got out the mounting step stool but he followed me perfectly. And when I needed to take off my coat before riding, I told him "woah" and he stayed exactly where I put him as I went to the end of the arena, put my jacket down out of it, and went back and got on. He never moved a muscle so he did very good at showing his ground tying skills. 

The ride went went quite well too. By lowering the stirrups a notch, I was able to ride the trot much better so it wasn't like we were just speeding around the arena and we actually managed to do a few turns and small circles instead of just trot around the outside of the arena. So that was nice. 

When the girl hopped on, Sam looked back at her, like he was trying to figure out who she was and what he exactly thought of having someone new on him. She pretty much only rode him around at a walk until the last minute when she decided to be brave and trot him a bit. When she did, she said it was fun and trotted a bit more before having to hop off since there was an event scheduled in the next couple minutes. She also groomed him a bit, gave him a treat at the end, and led him back to the paddock. 

One thing I'll say, is that Sam is more relaxed around this girl, than he's been around any other stranger so far. The two definitely get along. It's nice to see him finally take to someone else and not be a butt, but at the same time, kind of makes me sad since it means he may have found his new home and I won't have him much longer. But at least I know he'll be going to a good home. 
So ya, she liked, he liked her. The dad said they'd more than likely come out to see him again and the girl said she quite liked him. So it could be that Sam will be sold in the spring. Nothing was decided today which is fine, and they're going to talk about it and we're going to see when it will work for her to meet him again. 

Oh, and all this was after having 2 weeks off due to me being sick. So he went 2 months, then had 4 rides, then another 2 weeks off, and then we had this ride today. Pretty proud of him and how well he did. 




And of course, can't forget the pics lol 
































































And these pics are to compare how Jack takes selfies with me, versus how Sam takes selfies xD


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Sorry to hear that about your job, but at least you are being proactive. 
Doing liberty work is awesome, & fun!  I hope Sam feels better, hopefully all he needs is an adjustment. He may have pulled something while rolling or playing in the pasture. I am glad the visit with the girl went well too, even though I know it's bittersweet. It's good you're not just gonna sell him to just anyone, and the girl isn't an impulsive buyer. Sounds like she wants to take time to think it over too. If they do end up getting him, you will definitely know he went to a good home & that's all that matters.  I can tell you want what is best for these guys. 

They are so cute in the snow too. LOL, that's too funny about how possessive they are over you! :lol: I know they love how much time you spend with them.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So since that other day, I rode Sam again and it didn't go as well. I think I've learnt with him, is that if you go to ride sometime during the day, he's pretty good. He's calm and willing and so on. However, ride him in the morning, he's ready to just run. Ride him late in the evening after work (during winter), and he's ready to run as well, though not as bad as in the mornings. So what I may have to do, is free lunge him a bit to get the initial burst of energy out in the mornings or evenings so that when we go for a ride, he's got his antics out of the way and is ready to work with me instead of trying to drag me along for the ride. 


Also, I haven't ridden since then because I got snowed in a few days ago, and then the temperatures have dropped drastically. It's so bad that Sam is shaking with how cold he is, so now he gets to wear a winter blanket until things warm up again which is supposed to be by next Saturday. Jack is totally fine though. His winter coat is so thick that he's immune to the cold lol. He honestly seems to love the snow and cold so he's definitely a winter horse. 


So ya, both boys are just hanging out with tons of hay and doing well.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That is funny about the time of day. Maybe he's excited about breakfast/dinner? :lol: My old lease horse used to be VERY rowdy if I rode him before dinner. Doing some free lunging will help get all that energy out before you ride, good idea. They're so cute in the snow! I bet Sam is nice & warm in his blanket!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Temperatures have continued to drop. It has gotten to be -47 C and much too cold to do anything with the boys as much as I may want to. 

Sam is not impressed with the cold, but thanks to the blanket and lots of food, he's doing fine. 

Jack on the other hand, is quite happy. I've been watching him carefully and he's not shivering in the slightest. In fact, he's still running around and playing in the snow, totally unfazed by the cold or the frost that completely covers him. 
So I'm thinking instead of his name being "Jack of all Trades", his name should be "Jack Frost" lol. Besides, he has the same goofy, carefree personality that Jack Frost in the Guardians movie had, plus he's often covered in frost in the cold/chilly morning. Plus he loves the snow and winter. So I think it rather fits him lol.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That is COLD! The boys look so cute though. Jack seems very hardy & as long as he's not shivering, he should be just fine. Jack Frost is a good one! :lol: That definitely works. Or you can just call him that in the winter!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> That is COLD! The boys look so cute though. Jack seems very hardy & as long as he's not shivering, he should be just fine. Jack Frost is a good one! :lol: That definitely works. Or you can just call him that in the winter!


And it's supposed to get even colder for February! It's supposed to get to -60 to - 65 C but thankfully, so far that cold is going to pass by us and I hope it stays that way. Jack is probably going to need a blanket if it does get that cold here ><


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So we have finally hit a point where the weather has warmed up nicely. Sam no longer needs his blanket and Jack is starting to shed out. I've spent some time just hanging out with the boys and having fun like that. Sam is now deciding that he doesn't like to share me and if Jack starts approaching me, Sam will get in between us and shoo off Jack lol. If I get in between them, then they're both fine and I can give both boys attention. But otherwise, Sam wants all the attention on him. 

Got some good pictures of them lately though, so here's how they're looking after the cold has left.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I love the photos, especially with the sun hitting them. So cute! LOL @ the second one, silly face! :lol: They are adorable!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> I love the photos, especially with the sun hitting them. So cute! LOL @ the second one, silly face! :lol: They are adorable!


Thank! And ya, Sam loves to make silly faces xD Geldings seem to be such goofballs lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Took Sam into the arena to let him run around and get some energy out but we also worked on him listening to when I ask for transitions down. He does great moving faster as soon as I tell him to, but he's really bad at slowing down when asked like he doesn't understand it. So I free lunged him for about 5 - 10 mins working on him changing sides and getting him to go to a trot, then to a walk, to canter, then back to trot, and then stop and much more mixing it up. I think one reason why we have some difficulty in saddle in staying at a slower pace or going back down to a slower pace is because even on the ground, he doesn't listen to those cues very well. So I think we definitely need to work on this some more on the ground. 

Also, it kinda sucks but now because of the warmer weather, it literally only takes 10 mins of moving around the arena and Sam is sweating. Not too bad, but enough that's it's definitely noticible. So I think when I work him, it'll have to be before work so that even if I don't have time to completely cool him down, he'll be fine going outside slightly sweaty because of how insanely warm it's been. 


Also took him for a bit of a walk to see more of the area. We went down one walking trail and decided to see how he would do with the grate bridge. He was super unsure about it at first and would stick his head up and back away from it. But with some gentle coaxing, he finally went over it. Thankfully he didn't launch himself over it like Jack did, but just kinda scooted over it. I had treats along so I was able to give him a big reward for it. We then went back over it and this time he hesitated for a few seconds before scooting over it again which was way better, so he got even more treats. So it was pretty fun to go for a walk with him and see how he did with that little bridge. 


Oh, and his mane has decided to get badly knotted fairly easy so I'm going to put his mane into different braids and such now. Here's what I did for this time around and honestly I quite like this style. Now to work on the tail as well.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Groundwork is always good to work on. Even going back to basics. I think that's a good idea. That's awesome you explored a little bit too, I bet he enjoyed that. It's fun to try new things. What a good boy with the little bridge! His mane looks cute!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Did some more work with Sam. I think I'm starting to realize why we're having some trouble under saddle. There are some holes in his ground work. Now, it could be that he hasn't had to do that for the last few years, or it's due to him forgetting over the last few months with the time off he's had, I'm not sure. Either way, I need to do ground work with him again to refresh him on a few things. 

The things he needs to work on is disengaging his hind quarters, backing up, and slowing down on cue. For the first one, he does step away, however, he thinks it means to move his whole body away and/or to walk off. So after we did some free lunging over some poles, I worked on him with this and started to teach him to how to pivot around his front end. I even added that when at liberty, I give cues for him to face me while also moving his butt away. It was a lot of fun and he caught on pretty quick. 

As for backing up, he does back up, but it's very slow and lazy. So really, all I want to do there is encourage him to have a bit more energy when asked for that extra energy. So it's not really all that big of a thing to work on, but definitely something to work on a bit before he gets too sticky and doesn't want to move. 
And I already talked about his transitions in my last post so I won't repeat that here, but it's a work in progress. 


And Jack is still just enjoying very minimal work since he's still young. He knows his basics and is good when handled. Though I have noticed he's starting to get more attitude. Not with me, but between him and Sam. I think Jack is just in that little bratty, testing every boundary kind of phase. He's starting to challenge Sam a little more but the two of them are still getting along just fine.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

I've done some more work with Sam and today was pretty much day 3 of consistent work. By the end of the 10 min lunge that consisted 50% walking 50% trotting with two circles both ways canter, he did much better! He's starting to recognize voice cues which is great. So by the end of the lunge session, if he was trotting, I could tell him "walk" and he'd slow to a walk. Same when I asked for a halt. I played around with asking for transitions at different times and he did good. At one point as he was trotting, I asked him to halt, he stopped almost instantly. Such a huge improvement from the first lunge session back in work. 

During the lunging, he also started to lower his head a bit more which is great. My instructor came out on Monday and she said he's put on great weight, but he deffinetely needs to build a better topline. So now I'm working on lunging at a walk and trot as well as riding at those speeds and going to start incorporating poles as well to help with this. Can't use hills since I don't really have those around the stables. 

We've also worked on yeilding his hindquarters and he's getting better with that too. Also worked on his front half as well and getting him to do a proper crossover of his feet which he honestly does quite well. His backup is getting better too. He's not quite as sticky and is starting to lower and soften his head and neck as he backs up as well which is great. 


So if all works out, I'm going to do a brief exercise and review of a few of these things tomorrow morning before hopping on him and seeing how that goes. 



As for Jack, I did work with him the other day. I had the boys tied up as we waited the last few mins for the farrier to arrive but Jack was incredibly fidgety so I decided to lunge him a bit too. He figured he'd rather be with Sam. So as I lunged him, he threw quite the fit lol. There were lots of bucks, kicks, and attempted bolts towards Sam. So I made him work hard and he started to realize that misbehaving wasn't getting him anywhere. After a few rounds of that, he settled down and started to listen to me and would walk and trot on command and no more crazy bolting attempts or bucks. He became much nicer and soft so I was glad for that. I think I need to practice working the boys around each other in the arena cause it's not good especially for Jack to be "explosive" so to speak when Sam is on the other side of the arena gate. It'd be nice to go for rides with the two of them together but if he acts like this now, it's going to create bigger problems down the line when someone rides Sam and I ride Jack and there happens to be a gab between the horses. So it's definitely something I'd much rather address now to prevent future problems.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Got up bright and early today to work with Sam. Today's lunge session was even better. Nearly the whole time he worked off of only voice cues which was awesome. Since he was so relaxed and well behaved, I figured I'd hop up on him. 

We stuck to half the arena when riding, and I only rode him at a walk but did lots of circles, serpentine, squares, and other random directions and shapes. I figured if we have problems at a walk, then we should work on that and master it before we move on to trotting. Within the first 5 mins, he was incredibly spookish. Every couple strides, he'd find something to spook at. Thankfully his spooks only consisted of like flinches. Basically, if there was a random sound, flinch. A horse moved in its stall, flinch. Spotting the pylons on the wall that are always there, flinch.
So that was a fun start to the ride xD.

We also had a few times where he'd try to go the opposite direction I was asking of him. Then we had the moment where I had him halt near the wall, facing the "scary" pylons and then he was grumpy. He basically started backing up and refused to stop or go forward until he'd taken 6 steps back. We did work past that and he only refused about 2 or 3 times. Then later on, he tried to break into a trot a couple of times. 
Needless to say, he wasn't behaving himself today. I think since he's had such a long break and the past couple of lessons weren't necessarily great, he's now testing me and seeing just what he can get away with. And he tests me in every gait. But since we had "problems" at a walk, the trot was always worse. 

So now, I'm going to work on riding at only the walk until we're on the same page there, then move onto the trot and work on that. And after that, we'll work on canter. 
But by the end of our riding session (which lasted about 15 - 20 mins of just walking), he finally started to soften. He dropped his head into a much more relaxed position and I could feel that he was less tense. He was actually getting comfortable and becoming willing to move around with me. So I only rode him a minute or two longer when he began to soften and ended the ride on a positive note. 




As for Jack, I noticed in pics that I take of him, he looks so stocky lol. But then you look at from head on, and he looks so narrow. Never realized a horse could look stock and narrow at the same time lol. I also may have found a saddle to use to start him under saddle since he's going to be 3 soon. It's an english saddle and I believe it's also AP. It's rather cheap but it's because it's been well used so I figured it could be a good starting saddle since I'm sure that as Jack gets a bit older, his body is going to keep changing and then I'll need a new saddle. So a cheap one that fits well enough now is all that I really need. I'm pretty excited to start him under saddle actually. But first, I'm going to finish working on Sam. And by the time I have things sorted out with Sam and getting to one of the goals I have, Jack should basically be 3 at that point. 










This pic is at the start of our ride, head high and spooking at many things










This pic part way through the ride, starting to relax an be a little more interested in paying attention to me asking him to around the stool










At the end of the ride, nice and relaxed


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Groundwork can really help you under-saddle. It's super important. I think that's great you are taking a step back with Sam. It's important to get a good walk down first, then move onto trotting. I ended up recently working with my mare just at the walk for a few months, then we started going back to trotting. The walk really is the most important gait! It sets the foundation for the others.  I'm glad he became more relaxed as the ride went on. Sometimes they can just be in spooky moods! :lol: Good boy Sam! I think you also keeping his brain busy is good, with lots of changes of directions, patterns etc. As for Jack, I agree that working him when Sam is around is a good idea. Let him know that throwing those fits won't get anywhere & that it's not so bad to behave when his friend is in the arena! :lol: Jack does look stocky, LOL he's so cute! They are both adorable.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> Groundwork can really help you under-saddle. It's super important. I think that's great you are taking a step back with Sam. It's important to get a good walk down first, then move onto trotting. I ended up recently working with my mare just at the walk for a few months, then we started going back to trotting. The walk really is the most important gait! It sets the foundation for the others.  I'm glad he became more relaxed as the ride went on. Sometimes they can just be in spooky moods! :lol: Good boy Sam! I think you also keeping his brain busy is good, with lots of changes of directions, patterns etc. As for Jack, I agree that working him when Sam is around is a good idea. Let him know that throwing those fits won't get anywhere & that it's not so bad to behave when his friend is in the arena! :lol: Jack does look stocky, LOL he's so cute! They are both adorable.


Yes, it's very much like starting him for the first time but with a few advantages of him already fine with saddles and trained in most things, I just have to remind him that he knows the correct answers lol. But when the weather is nice, they don't always feel like they need to remember their manners xD And I hope I don't have to spend months at a walk with him like you did with your mare, but I guess if that's what he needs, that's what I'll give him lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Since the last ride, I've worked with Sam some more and also spent some time desensitizing him since he'd been acting so spooky. So I brought out a large ball, tarp, poles, whip, lariat, and pool noodles. 

Well, the part that Sam definitely struggled with most were the pool noodles lol. They freaked him out a lot xD So we spent a solid 15 - 20 mins working purely with the pool noodles. By the end he was much better with them and I could even rub his face with them. Then we went onto the ball. He was really fascinated by that. He was a little uncertain when it touched his legs, but every time it moved, he'd lower his head, ears *****ed as he watched it roll. It was so cute to watch. And I got him to move to bump it with his legs on his own and he became rather interested with that, though still didn't care much for it. 

After those, I worked on him with the lariat which he couldn't care less about really. So we spent maybe 5 mins on that one. From there, we went to the ground poles and tarp. Of course he was fine with the poles, but he did give the tarp the side eye and it took a few seconds to convince him to go over it instead of around it, but then he was fine. So I even got him to carry it around and then he was fine. 

We finished by working around the extra fence panels in the arena. He's been spooking A LOT about those so I definitely wanted to build his confidence with everything else before I brought him over there. And I made sure he wasn't able to always focuse 100% on the panels either. Got him to do some work beside them such as different yields, backing up, slight lunging, lowering his head, and so on. By the end, he even touched the panels with his nose and became relaxed around them which was great. I don't think he'll be totally fine around them next time we go in, but I think with some more work like that, he'll be fine soon enough with it since he's now had positive experiences around it and they didn't jump out to eat him lol. 




























Today I started to feel sick and decided I didn't want to work with Sam, so I got Jack instead. He had a taste of being a big boy since I tied him up at the rails outside of the arena first and groomed him there before taking him inside which I've never done before. I mean, he has been tied there and I've groomed, but never before doing any work. But he did very good with it. Maybe a touch impatient towards the end, but was pretty good in general. 

Once in the arena, I lunged him a little and taught him how to change directions without having to stop which he caught on very quickly to. Then we worked on giving two eyes and yielding his back end. He caught on pretty quick to that as well. However, when I started to desensitize him to the whip making nose, he got a bit spooked and tried taking off a few times but soon enough, he settled down and was fine. Same thing with swinging the lead rope around and over him. I've also found that a majority of the time, if I desensitize him to something on the left side, he'll have little to no reaction when I go to do it on his right side. So i think for him, his left side is highly reactive and flighty, while his right side is much more calm and thinks things through more. 

To finish off the day, I tried out a saddle I got to try for Sam just for the fun of it. He definitely looks pretty fancy with an english saddle, but while it seemed to fit him better than Sam, it was too narrow. So I'm thinking about getting a wintec to start with so I can change the gullet as needed as he grows and once he's basically done growing, then invest in a good, new saddle for him. In the mean time, I just need something that fits him well enough but not overly fancy so it doesn't matter as much if it takes a bit of a beating or such.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

That sounds like so much fun with Sam!  Desensitizing can be really fun. Pool noodles and all. That is awesome and really good for him. What a good boy! I agree that he will be fine with the extra fence panels in time. Exposing him to them more is a great idea!

Jack is such a cutie, sounds like he is doing great with lunging!  Wintecs can be good, but even ones with interchangeable gullets don't always fit/workout. But they are a good option especially since leather can be annoying (having to keep it clean/in good shape). I think that'd be perfectly fine to get. It won't break the bank either! :lol:


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

It's been a little while since the last time I updated this. So here we go, a new update!

I got hurt at work. 
I got hurt bad enough I went to the hospital. 
I hurt my knee. Again. This is the 3rd injury I've had to my right knee and the doctor has said that I should go to physio. And depending on how that goes, I may need to take x-rays and have surgery. How fun xP. 
So at this point, the best I can do is go to work and have a LOT of sit down breaks cause my knee will get too sore if I don't. I also have to use a cane or crutch when it's hurting enough to make me limp a lot, though I don't have to use the crutch all the time. But this also means that I can't work with the horses. Even if I lunge them and stand perfectly still while they run around, my knee will become so sore by the end of the day that I have to take some stronger pain killers. So riding is definitely out of the picture. 


And since I could need surgery but am at the very least going to be dealing with physio soon, I decided to put Sam up for lease. I've met with 2 people so far who are interested in him and both have a reference that's someone I know and trust so that helps a lot too. Nothing has been figured out for sure yet, but it's quite likely that in another week or two, a contract will be signed. This way Sam can continue to get the exercise he needs, and then when I am all good to ride again, he won't be as fresh as he would be if he sat around the whole time and will make it easier for me to get back to riding. 

As for Jack, he's fine sitting around longer. He's turning 3 sometime this month so he's young enough and whatnot that he's fine to have more off time. Also! It's super excited that once April hits, I'll have had Jack for a full year! Can't believe that time of year is coming around again but I sure am happy to have him in my life 

I also dewormed the boys yesterday. Needless to say, neither were impressed lol. Jack practically gagged after and went to go drink his water and when it didn't refill fast enough to his liking, he'd kick at it a bit, then drink, and kick at it when he had to wait again. It was quite funny to watch and felt kinda bad for them, but it's one of those necessarily evils.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

I hope the lease works out for you.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

whisperbaby22 said:


> I hope the lease works out for you.


Thanks, i hope so too. She'll be coming to see him again Monday so I'll probably know then if it's going to happen or not. So many mixed emotions over this lol.


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## Ridingthatgrey (Dec 3, 2019)

I love his ears they are soo cute lol and he has a lovely kind eye. Wish you luck!!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

So sorry to hear that about your knee. :sad: Knee pain is no joke. I am glad you are taking care of yourself though.

I think putting Sam up for lease is a good idea, and I hope it works out for you both. He really is a good boy, & I think letting him get exercise while you are out of commission will benefit him. And you, so when you are back to riding, he won't be so rusty.

Aww, I can't believe you've had Jack for almost a year either! Time really flew!


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## csimkunas6 (Apr 18, 2010)

Crazy you've had Jack for a year already! I remember when you just started posting about him! Sucks about your knee! Hopefully you wont need surgery.....good luck on the lease!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks for the well wishes. And ya, time really has flown by for Jack. I'm thinking of making some sort of treat for Jack as both to celebrate having him for a year, as well as celebrating his birthday. Not sure what to make yet but I'll be looking up some recipies online. Though if you guys have any suggestions for good, special treats, feel free to let me know! 


Also, unrelated to that, I'm feeling rather excited/happy about Sam. Not to do with the lease, but that I've gotten a 3rd comment in the last week or so of how how good he's looking compared to where he was at in October. Considering how much time and money I've put into Sam to get him in better health, it feels really good knowing that it shows to everyone else. Now just to build up some muscle and shed out his winter coat and he'll look all fancy again. 


I also got a knee brace and wearing that while I work. It's definitely helped a lot. So I'm thinking maybe what I'll do is while Sam is leased (if all goes well on Monday), then I'll very lightly work with Jack. Mostly just work on his lunging skills but do it while he's tacked and introduce poles and some ground driving. He's sensitive enough and listens to my cues well that I can stand in one spot and have him do all the moving (occasional exception as he does have baby brain at times still lol). I can also hop on bareback from time to time and work at riding around at the walk. This way it's light work and very little stress to the knee and I'll have the knee brace for support. And I don't mind the thought of hopping on bareback on Jack because every time he has something on his back, he suddenly takes things 10x more seriously and is very careful about what he does. So I'm pretty sure he'd take care of me while I was on him. Of course this doesn't mean there can't be moments he spooks, but he's short so the fall won't be bad if I do come off lol. 

Speaking of which, I'm hoping to measure Jack again and see where he's at with his height. A year ago, he was just under the 14 hand mark. I think he was like, 13.3 or so and sometime during the winter, I think November/December, his withers measured 14.1 hh. String test that I did a month after I got him said he'd mature between the 15 - 16 hh range. So I'm really curious as to how tall he's going to get since Morgans usually keep growing till they're 8. But if he's a cross, he could very well stop growing sooner. 
That's another thing I'd love to do this spring/summer is to get his DNA tested and see if he is morgan and potentially register him if all works out. 


Anyway, that's the update for now. Time for pics and please excuse Sam's scruffy appearance. I litterally groomed him the day before and got enough hair to make a foal but he still has more to shed ><


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Sam*

So the lady was interested in leasing him and I did send her a contract to sign. We were going to start off with 1 month as a trial run but I haven't heard back from her (I sent the contract and had her confirm she got it about 2 weeks ago now) and due the change in circumstances, if she does get in touch again, I don't think I'm going to go with it. I've had more time to think about it too and in general, I have more time on my hands since my work is closed down for the time being due to the virus. 

Anyway, so with more time on my hands, I've been able to go out and spend time with the horses more. So I worked Sam a bit the other day. I took him into the stable, groomed him, then took him out. Since the weather was nice, I went walking around the yard with him. He was acting a little spooky with things but it went well enough and did some ground work out there. 


Today I went out and actually rode him. Started off with a bit of lunging which I'm really glad I did since he was feeling really good and was bucking and tearing around lol. So I let him run around but after a bit, asked him to stop and he was starting to sweat a bit, but he was still having fun with wanting to run. I didn't want to tire him out too much and instead, hopped on him. This was my first ride on him since I got hurt nearly exactly 4 weeks ago now. I did plenty of circles and serpentines and going over poles to keep his mind focused on me since he kept wanting to act spooky and once he settled down, was lowering his head and had his brain back, we went outside. 

The arena has gates at the end that allow to go out so I never had to hop off him, just ride him through the gate. My foot even banged on the gate a bit but he didn't care so we were off to a good start. He was hesitant about going around the corner to the front of the stable but I kept him moving forward and we practiced turns and serpentines some more, but in the front yard. He did a bit better than I expected since the last time we rode outside, he had thrown a fit about not being allowed to go back to Jack. But today, we ended on a good note and I definitely needed a change of scenery and I'm quite certain he did too when it came to a ride so today was really nice. 



*Jack
*
Starting to work with this guy again too. Honestly, despite having some time off of any sort of work, I think we're only going to need one or two refresher lessons before I'll be able to start hopping on him and going for little mini rides to get him started under saddle. 

He was feeling spunky when I lunged him a bit and threw a bit of an attitude since he wanted to stop and sniff a dark part of the sand where a rider had previously kicked up some of the dirt. He even threatened to turn his butt to me when I asked him to keep going and not stop there. So I made him work. Made him trot or canter and do a lot of direction changes. He ended up being too busy changing direction and speeding up or down to give the spot a second look. After maybe 5 or 6 laps like that, he settled down and would trot and walk over the spot without issue. After that, he found his brain and nothing else fazed him. 

I've also taken him outside for some walks as well. And unlike Sam, Jack was totally unbothered about walking around and instead, kept his nose to the ground 60% of the time, occassionally played in a puddle, and wiggled his lip against the dirt cause he's a doofus like that lol. So we've had some fun just doing some more relaxed things like that. 


Oh! I also measured him today. When I measured his height in December/January, he was around 14.1 hh at the withers. Well today, it looks like he's roughly at the 14.2 hh! My little guy has grown up so much! I can hardly believe that in 1 year, he's gone from a terrified 13.3 ish hh colt, to now being 14.2 hh confident, curious, affectionate gelding. 
And he's also loosing his two top teeth. He lost his bottoms in December, and now he's loosing the top ones. It looks really funny since I've never seen this before but here's a pic I got of it the other day.


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## whisperbaby22 (Jan 25, 2013)

That one picture of Jack is really nice.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Ok, I'm officially loving this quarantine time where I get endless amounts of time to spend with the horses. Worked with the boys today and it turns out I was with them for nearly 4 hours which kind of surprised me cause I didn't even keep track of the time while I was out there. 


Started off the day with *Jack* today. 

Took the time to tie him up before the arena to work on getting him the habit of doing some grooming before going into work. He did pretty good and having him on fairly level ground really showed me just how much taller he's gotten. He still feels short compared to Sam, but he definitely looks taller than he did last summer. 

Anyway, after some grooming, we did a few laps lunging and getting him to respond at all 3 gates. He didn't want to listen too well at the canter so I only asked enough to have him behaving before letting him settle down and we moved onto introducing him to the pool noodle. He found it strange but honestly, couldn't care less about it. So then we went on to the tarp. He again, didn't care about that either. 
The next step was to saddle him and he acted like we'd done it a thousand times before so that was awesome. Once ha had the saddle on, I lunged him a little again to make sure he was fine moving around with it since I haven't saddled him since November/December sometime. 

Of course he was totally fine being saddled. So we moved to the next step. Exposing him to the pool noodle again. At first he didn't care, but as soon as I thumbed it on his back and it made noise since it was against the saddle, he spooked. We ended up traveling all the way to the other side of the arena. He spooked just as much when we went to the other side. But after those two big spooks, he started to realize it really wasn't that bad and calmed down and didn't care about it again. He was still totally fine with the tarp though. 
I ended up tying the tarp to the saddle to get him to drag it which was something new. He was pretty unsure about it at first and had a few skittish moments when I asked him to trot with it. But after the initial uncertainity, he was pretty chill with it. We ended the sessions with just a bit of leading and getting him to trot along side me since that's something he's not good at yet. 

Then I spent some time braiding his mane to try to train his mane to lay on one side and he was pretty happy to have such a chill moment after all the thinking he had to do today. He was just barely starting to sweat when I called it good for the day. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the progress we made today. I honestly love seeing how serious he gets when it's time to work and how hard he tries with everything. I'm so excited to start him under saddle this summer and I can't wait to go for trail rides once he's ready. 



































And now time for *Sam. *

I decided I might as well go over the same things with Sam since the last time I showed him the pool noodled, he freaked out pretty bad, plus I had no idea how he'd handle pulling the tarp. And depending on how that went, I would either ride him after or call it good with that. 

To start with, I lunged him in the "scary" corner to warm him up and show him that the extra railings over there aren't going to eat him. He's getting more comfortable over there, but now he's decided the giant door at the end of the arena next to the panels is scary cause normally they're closed, but yesterday it was open, and today it was closed again. So that warented some spooks. But after a few laps, he started to relax and lower his head and act sensible again. 

We moved on to the pool noodle from there. Despite how freaked out he was about it the first time I showed it to him, today he couldn't care less about it. So that didn't take long and we moved onto the tarp. He also didn't care about the tarp so I went onto tying it to the saddle as well and lunge him like that. Well he didn't like that lol. He had a few spook/skittish moments but after a few laps, he soon settled down and would even canter with it. So, since that didn't take long, I figured I'd hop on him. 

I've come to notice that even though he may get all quiet on the ground, once I'm on him, he perks up and wants to test the boundaries all over again. He's not bad and is actually getting better about it, but it's just something I've noticed. 
Anyway, so we rode around at a walk for a while and I made him go towards the scary end as well. We're not to the point of walking the full perimiter of the arena just yet, but it's getting better. We're getting close. He did have one moment where we were down there that he spoked and shot sideways a little, but thankfully it was a minor spook and I didn't even lose my balance during it. 

We also did a bit of trotting work and I definitely need to practice that a bit more, but we both did better than previous sessions. So I'm really happy to see us making progress. By the end, he was starting to really relax and responding better to my seat where I could get him to turn and do some circles almost purely off my seat and not reins so that's exciting. 

And that's about how that session went. Our ride was probably about 15 minutes but I figured that was more than enough considered I'd lunged a few times anyway and we ended things on a really positive note. 




So ya, I'm pretty happy with how things are going with both boys and I'm excited to do more and keep seeing them progress 
Also, if you read all that, I'm impressed since this posted ended up being way longer than I expected it to be lol.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

I am so glad you've been able to spend more time with the boys! It's nice being able to hangout with them & not keep track of time.

I agree, and she definitely should've reached out to you by now if she was still interested. I know a lot is going on, but still, she should have kept in contact. I don't blame you at all for probably not going with it if she does reach out. 

Such good boys with all the groundwork, & good with Sam too, sounds like you had a good ride. Always good to end on a good note. I'm sure they are loving how much time you are spending with them.  They are so cute.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Jack Update*

Well, the boy is growing again lol. I noticed last week that his butt is starting to get high again so he's entering another growth spurt. I was thinking of trying to put a ride on him, but if he's going to be low in the front and high in the back, then I might just put a bareback pad on and do a bit of hopping on/off and a few walking steps, but just leave it at that since I don't really want to affect him too much since he's growing. Even so, he's doing decent. 

I have two jugs that are about 2 or 3 gallon water jugs that I put some rocks inside. So they're super light but make noise when moved around. Now, I did make an oops moment the first time I introduced it. There was another person riding in the arena and I asked them first if they were fine with this and they agreed. So I did work Jack with someone else around and he actually surprised me by not paying attention to the other at all. Maybe an occassional look here and there, but otherwise ignored them. Last time he was in with someone else working their horse, he totally put on a show for that other horse by bowing up, prancing, semi ignoring me. But he did perfectly this time. 

So since things were going so well, I introduced these jugs. He was worried about them, but didn't do too bad. I did push it too far by putting it on him and attaching it to the saddle. The reason why I say I pushed him too far, is because looking back, I should have known he wasn't comfortable with it enough yet since he was giving me plenty of signals that I just missed. He did walk around ok with it. I lunged him at a walk and he was frequently stopping because of it bumping his shoulders and making noise. But he was walking better but I didn't wait long enough before I asked him to trot. Well, as soon as he started trotting, he completely lost it since it made the containers bump around and make even more noise. He spooked so bad that he spun, wrapping the rope around his neck and I ended up dropping the rope so that I didn't choke him and cause him to freak out more. But he went into a blind bolt and I did give the other person in the arena a heads up that he was loose. 

I managed to get Jacks attention enough to keep sending him back and forth on the one end of the arena, preventing him from getting past me to the other rider. He did come within a meter or two of running me over at first since he was freaked out but once he started to notice I was there, I was able to control his feet and after a few more bolts back and forth, he slowed down and stopped like I was asking him to. Once he stopped, he stood nicely for me to come over and untangle the rope from his neck (it was only wrapped around once from when he freaked while lunging and no other tangles) and once that was done, I worked on getting him to relax with a little desensitizing and then got him to take a few walking steps with the jugs still on which he did do, though hesitantly. After he took about five or six steps, I praised him like crazy and took the jugs off. From there, I just walked around with him for a little bit and finished the session with a bit of grooming. So it was quite the exciting session. But it all ended on good notes so that's a positive.

When I did another session a little while later where I brought the jugs back, I took my time and desesitized him to the sound and just shaking the jugs around in the air. Once he was fine with that, I went on to rubbing/scratching his neck while holding the jugs. So they'd make noise and bang around, but it was also associated with getting scratches that he really loves. So after a bit, he was fine with that. From there, I moved on to putting it on his back (no saddle this time) and got him to walk around with them. He was still hesitant when it came to walking around with them, but he did pretty decent. All in all, we had no big spooks. Several side eye moments and lots of sniffing and nose wiggles against the jugs, but that was it. I didn't push it any farther than that as I was quite happy with how much better he took it this time around and didn't want to repeat my mistake from the previous session. 



















*Sam Update:*

Worked with Sam a bit more and even have gone for 2 trail rides. The first trail ride we went on was decent but there was one point I nearly fell off since he was having a big spook over the grated bridge. I managed to stay on, but my phone fell out into the snow. So once I had him calmed down, I got off to grab that and led him over the bridge. First go he didn't want to go, but second time I asked, he went over it and I was able to use a cement pillar as a stepping stool and hop back on him and keep going. Rest of the ride he did pretty good actually. 

Second ride didn't go too well and he was starting to throw some fits and when going back to the stables, he wanted to run most of the time. I didn't let him but as we entered the arena (can ride right in), I made him work. He was in such a rush to get there, I figured I'd put him to work. I made him trot lots of zigzags, circles, patterns, and whatever shape to keep him busy. By the end, he was happy to just walk around and relax and stop being in such a rush. So we walked a bit and did one last trotting around the arena to make sure he was really listening and he was so we settled down and did a bit of walking to help cool him down before I hopped off. By the end, he was actually starting to sweat so he definitely got a work out in as well as I did since it felt like for a bit there, it was a battle to see who would have more endurance to see this through. 

So now, I'm thinking to try to set him up for better success in the future, I'm just going to work on riding him in the arena as well as in the front and around the stable to get him more comfortable outside and less pushy and spooky. I think the spook and insecurity is due to the fact we haven't ridden outside much and he apparently always had a buddy when riding the trails with the previous owner so he's also not too used to being out and about without another horse buddy with him. So we'll take this one step at a time and see how that goes.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

*Jack Update:*

So yesterday I took Jack for a walk through town to one of the parks 2 blocks away that allows horses. We had lots of fun walking around and Jack enjoyed it quite a bit. There were plenty of people who loved seeing him so it was a bonus that he was able to bring smiles to some other people. I also brought treats along so whenever he listened really well and was doing good, I'd give him a treat. I even lunged him a little out in the field and he listened perfectly. 

Today was also really good. Jack got his first real official first ride. I did some basic groundwork review to get him thinking and comfortable. Once he was doing good, I ended up hopping up on him. At first I'd get on, give him some scratches, then hop off and reward him. I'd get on and off on both sides two or three times before I stayed on and asked him to move off. He was hesitant, but we slowly walked around in a circle. He paused plenty of times but I'm fine with that. Better than him bursting into bucks or anything like that. I did manage to keep him going for a couple extra strides before I asked him to stop which he did fantastic at and then hopped off and rewarded him. 

From there, I gave him a small break before hopping on again from the opposite side and got him to walk a circle the other direction. Again, I managed to get him to keep moving before asking him to stop. He did so good that I gave him lots of rewards and scratches. There was even big machinery moving around outside and he totally ignored the loud noises of it. After that, I hopped off and called it a day. In total, I was on him and rode him about 10 mins I think, roughly. He was such a good boy and I can't wait for our future rides.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So with Jack, I decided to go back to the very beginning of my groundwork training with him. Only reason for this is because I am now following along with a professional training program to make sure that I don't have any holes in his training as he is the very first horse that I've ever trained from the ground up and before I get too far into riding, I want to make sure I haven't missed anything on the ground.

Yesterday was his first day into it, and the session only lasted 30 mins since he flew through it with flying colors. There was stuff in it that I never originally taught him, but it was similar enough that he caught on really quick and he's very much the kind of horse that does his best to please, so it only took a few mins for each "new" lesson before he got it. 

Today, we reviewed things from yesterday and added in a few more new things. Again, he soared through it. I think our session only lasted 30 mins again. He is a little stiff when it comes to flexing though, but I think part of it is because he has such a thick neck, flexing is a little more of a challenge for him. Which is fine, I'll take what he'll give, but he does need to work on telling the difference between flexing and me wanting him to back up, despite the fact I stand in different spots and one involves pulling the rope straight back and the other is to the side. But oh well, that's what this review is for, to refine and clear things up. 

But ya, i don't think it'll be much longer before I'll be back on him and we'll be doing more rides. Super excited for that!


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

What a good boy Jack!  He is so smart! Sounds like you are on the right track with him & there is nothing wrong with going back to basics/groundwork. So happy he is doing well. What a willing boy too.

I'm glad you got Sam out on a trail & then over the bridge, but I think it's good you are going to take him out of his 'comfort zone' a bit more, that will really help.  Sounds like you have a good plan for each of them! They are so cute!

So happy to read your updates!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> What a good boy Jack!  He is so smart! Sounds like you are on the right track with him & there is nothing wrong with going back to basics/groundwork. So happy he is doing well. What a willing boy too.
> 
> I'm glad you got Sam out on a trail & then over the bridge, but I think it's good you are going to take him out of his 'comfort zone' a bit more, that will really help.  Sounds like you have a good plan for each of them! They are so cute!
> 
> So happy to read your updates!


I'm glad you're enjoying the updates  And Jack is a very good boy! He does better than Sam in some areas haha. Definitely easier to work with a horse that's a clean slate than one that needs retraining.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Update time.

So I've been doing groundwork with Jack for nearly a week now and he's doing great at everything and just keeps getting better. So today I figured I'd hop on him again. Like usual, he stood perfectly for me to hop on and rub him. I honestly can now mount him as though we've been doing this forever. Even if I bump him with my leg as I swing over, he stands totally chill. 

It was really windy out so the ride was in the arena which he seems to feel a little lost in since it's a decently big space so I think tomorrow I'll take him into the round pen and see if the smaller space will help him out a bit more. I'm also thinking I'll see if I can get someone to come and lunge him a little from the ground while I just remain a passenger on him to get him used to moving with me on him. Either way, he was good today. After a bit he started to get the hang of things and started to move around better before long. All in all, I think our ride lasted 10 mins roughly. 

Also, I noticed he's getting butt high again. Wonder just how tall he's really going to grow. Thinking I might try the string test on him again to see what it has to say since he's basically 3 now.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Jack is continuing to do well. I put another short ride on him yesterday and while he did do better, he tends to be a bit sticky and doesn't want to move forward too much when I'm on. He is the first horse I'm starting under saddle. I did get him to trot a few steps and that was interesting but went well. I think I might have also found a saddle that might fit him better than the saddles I currently have and is fairly cheap which is awesome since I don't want to spend a lot on a saddle that he'll most likely outgrow before too long. 

Didn't really do anything with the boys today though as it's been raining and I've been working them pretty much every single day for about a week or a little over so I was fine leaving today as a break for them. Tomorrow is also supposed to rain, but sunshine in the morning. So as long as the weather sticks with that, I may work with them again tomorrow, but if nothing else, they'll just get 2 days off in a row. I don't mind giving them a bit of a break since they've been doing so good. And I only plan to get Jack to decently understand the whole concept of being ridden and then I'm going to leave him be for a while to keep growing before working on him a bit more.


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

Sounds like Jack is doing well. Oh yes! It definitely is nice to work with a horse that has a clean slate, rather than some baggage. So lovely!  That is great he stands still when mounting too! Yay!! I agree, no point in spending a ton on a saddle that he will outgrow since he will continue to gain muscle. I wonder how tall he will get!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> Sounds like Jack is doing well. Oh yes! It definitely is nice to work with a horse that has a clean slate, rather than some baggage. So lovely!  That is great he stands still when mounting too! Yay!! I agree, no point in spending a ton on a saddle that he will outgrow since he will continue to gain muscle. I wonder how tall he will get!


Ya, having him stand still is quite nice! Thinking I might get a wintec saddle so I can just adjust it as he grows instead of always having to hunt for a new saddle xP . Last time I did the string test on him (when he was 2.5 years old) I tried it the two different ways that I was told to do it and one test said 15 hh and the other said 16 hh! So I think he's going to grow to be somewhere in between there lol. I would be surprised if he made it to 16 hh but I can see him easily reaching 15 hh by the time he's 4 - 5 years old since his butt is quite high again and he's already around 14.2 xP


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## PoptartShop (Jul 25, 2010)

The Wintec is a good idea. They're affordable too. Another good adjustable synthetic brand is Tekna. I have one & I LOVE it! It's super comfortable! 

He is definitely going to be nice size!  It's fun to measure them too! They grow pretty fast don't they?!


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

PoptartShop said:


> The Wintec is a good idea. They're affordable too. Another good adjustable synthetic brand is Tekna. I have one & I LOVE it! It's super comfortable!
> 
> He is definitely going to be nice size!  It's fun to measure them too! They grow pretty fast don't they?!


I'll have to look into those, thanks for the recommendation! Saddle shopping is hard so I'm always grateful for any suggestions of some good saddles. And yes, they grow up very fast! It feels like you blink and next thing you know, your little shrimp is now a hunk of a horse lol.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Alright, so I've worked Jack some more, no surprise there haha. He's continuing to progress well and I've hopped on him some more and worked on having him accept me on him bareback some more. The one day he didn't like how I was wiggling my legs around and decided to buck! I was in the middle of shifting more into the Jefforys method where you're the human curry comb but he figured he wanted nothing with my feet on his butt. Well, I hit the ground but the air wasn't even knocked out me. I think if I'd been in a saddle, I'm fairly confident I wouldn't even have come off since he's not a big bucker. Either way, I hopped back on and worked on it some more and he was fine by the end. 

I've also worked on hopping on him bareback a bit more out in the round pen as well which is going much better. He did hit a stubborn stage so I had to get after him a bit since he wanted to keep turning his butt to me when I'd send him off and do turns. So for about 2 ish days we worked on that and today he was back to being perfect lol. 
I also put the water jugs with a handful of rocks inside back onto him. With that on, I free lunged him to get him used to something bumping him and making noise. First time I did, he hated it and freaked out. It's been a few weeks since then and today, he only had one minor spook moment that lasted maybe 30 seconds of him spinning in a circle before he realized he was fine and went on his merry way. I got him walking, trotting, and even cantering a bit with those on him and having him not worry about it too much. 

We've done some liberty work as well and of course he was perfect with that. Worked on his yielding and that was good too, along with his flexing. So ya, all in all he was pretty good. 



Oh! And I think I may have found a trainer to properly start him under saddle! If it all woks out, Jack will get 30 days put on him and I'm super excited for that. Although another part of me is feeling very possessive about him and wanting to do everything by myself. However, I do have to be realistic and my level of riding isn't good enough to do the actual starting. Also, Jack does need to gain skills and confidence when being handled by someone else as he's very much my horse right now and doesn't even want to approach strangers right now since he'd rather not have to deal with them and just stick with me. And while I love that, I think it's also vital that he learns to trust other people as well. 

If this person does start him, then he'll basically get 5 - 6 days of riding per week and he'll be started with a bit. While I love going bitless, I think it'll also be good for him to learn to accept a bit so that if for some crazy reason he goes somewhere else, then he won't be caught majorly off guard and act out if they put a bit in him. So when I get him back, I'll probably alternate between bitless and with a bit just to make sure he remembers how it works. 
Another positive is that I'd be able to have a month straight of purely focussing on Sam and by the end of that, I'm fairly certain my riding skills will be better as well and Sam will be even better and further in his training as well. And the lady is willing to do a payment plan since this covid situation has made it so that I don't have a job so that's also really nice. 


So ya, that's about where things are at. I'll be meeting this lady either tomorrow or next week, depending on whatever ends up working out. Can't wait to meet her and see if we really do agree on things and can go ahead with this or if I'll see that she's not quite what I'm looking for.


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

So it's official. Jack has gone to a trainer to get started under saddle properly and learn to trust other people and not just me. 

First half of yesterday was spent just hanging out with the horses and dealing with Jack wanting attention and being a goof. But then in the afternoon, the lady showed up and I loaded Jack into her trailer. He actually loaded really well so that was nice. I went with them to her place and unloaded Jack. He was rather nervous and since he'd never met her before, he was rather nervous around her but as soon as I stepped in and pet him a bit and he realized it was me, he settled down. When backing him off, he spooked when his first hoof hit the ground and for a second he wanted to bolt back onto the trailer. I'm pretty sure if it was anyone else there, he would've bolted over them and back inside. But since it was me, he managed to bring his mind back to me and calmed down. He trusted me enough to take his second step off and then finish unloading. Once he was outside, he calmed down more and he was fine with her being around him again. 

She has 4 other horses on the property as well in a 9 acre pen and when I put him in, they all seemed to actually get along just fine. She has a 2 year old that's a very light palomino and his name is Goose. Well Goose decided Jack was his new best friend and followed Jack like a shadow and frequently rested his head on Jack's butt. Jack got a little annoyed and popped his back end up a little but not an actual kick. After that, he didn't seem to care too much and the two continued to roam the area. It was really cute to watch actually. 


In the evening, I got a text from the lady and the horses are still doing fine so I'm glad they're getting along. His training starts tomorrow and next week I'll be stopping by to see the progress. Can't wait and I'm so glad the transition seems to have been fairly easy for him besides unloading from the trailer. 


These pics are from in the morning before everything happened


















These two were when we arrived at the trainers and he got introduced to the horses. Light palomino is Goose


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## SummerBliss (Jan 7, 2017)

Jack had his second ride at the trainers today and I got sent some video clips of it and am very pleased with how it was going. He's had a bit of a time prior to get used to a bit since I didn't really work with him on that but I figured it'd be good for him to get used to it so that if anything happens to me and he goes somewhere else, he'll be prepared. Anyway, so he's been worked with that, gone over groudwork since they're new to him and they have to build some sort of trust with him since he's a little skeptical of strangers, but now today, he's had his second ride. 

First ride apparently only involved a couple of crow hops before the ride really began since again, it's someone new and not me working with him. But after that, there's been nothing since. And the clips I've seen from the ride from today, he's doing pretty good! He was changing direction fairly well when asked, he walked properly without wanting to stop every couple of steps, and he even trotted a bit. When trotting, I could tell he was still unsure since he did slow to a walk after a couple of strides but it's still progress and he was fairly calm during it all.

It's quite something to see this. Honestly, I teared up a little as I watched the videos just because I'm so proud of him and how far he's come since I first got him. Also slightly proud of myself for the fact that I was able to work with him the way he needed to help him get to this point that he's ready for this and is handling it all so well. Makes me quite happy to know that I prepared him so well for this day and that he's benefiting from the start I gave him and that he naturally has such a curious, forgiving, and willing to please nature. And now, I'm literally seeing him growing up before my eyes and it's...an emotional moment. I don't entirely know how to describe it much better than that. 

So ya, I just figured I'd pop by to give a little update as to how Jack is doing. And since it looks like the pictures didn't upload in my other post like I thought they did, I'll add them now.


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