Callie day 6 and others

What a day. Callie was just great today. I got him in the pen and didn't even have to work him that much to know that he was going to stick with me and give me some good tries. I went through several of the exercises there real quick to see how he would do at liberty with all of it. It was good. I flagged him out and no problem. His bobbing of the head has diminished considerably. Then I took him to the back and saddled him and then out on field doing the gw exercises. I added a dog, my german shepherd, Prinz. He adds some increased intensity to the situation and I gotta say that Callie did fine. He was distracted but would come back to me with just a nudge. Today I introduced him to spurs too. He was rather dull on YH from saddle and moving his shoulders so I added the spurs. And boy did that wake him up. I also found this horse has a faster speed than plodding along. Prinz added the dynamic there. In fact, we used him like a cow and chased him all over the place. I was trying to move away from using the rein for direction and using my leg and seat. He is starting to catch it. I worked a lot on bending exercises with him at the walk and trot. I had no problem with the gas pedal today.
On another note, I started two Arabians today also. One Robbie a 9 yr old gelding, all black and the other one was Darkstar a 14 yr old black gelding. Both beautiful horses. There feet need some work but we have to get them to the place where they can be easy for the farrier.
Robbie I spent 30 minutes rd penning. The problem was that it is a 60' x 90' arena cut off at the corners. It worked but I could not get him in a good canter the whole time, so it mostly an extended trot, which he has a real nice one. I had him changing directions pretty good to the inside, in fact he was pretty much making me the center of the arena. I wanted to move on at  a certain point so I have another day to work in the arena. I desensitized him to the lead rope and stick and string and then had him yielding hindquarters. It didn't take him long to figure that out. He is somewhat pushy he tried to run into me a time or two but that was quickly taken care of. I also worked on the back up which he did as good as was expected. We capped it off with working on Yielding his forequarters. He did pretty good for not having worked in years more than likely. I am looking forward to see more of his personality and how he handles everything else.
Darkstar on the other hand was alot more reserved and protective. I had to round pen him for 50 minutes and he still didn't really hook on to me. I had to find a good place to stop rd penning him. He doesn't like me on his left side so I when he gave me two eyes on that side I let him stop. I had much trouble with him trying to get him to turn to the inside consistently but I ran out of time on this section. I did move on to desensitizing to lead and stick and string. Then worked on the YH which he took to real fast. We ran out of time so we will pick it up tomorrow. One thing I noticed about him is that he didn't like to lead very well, but by the end he was following me pretty good. Once he realizes I can move his feet in any direction I want he will come along nicely. I think these horses are going to make some nice horses to ride. Stay tuned for tomorrows results.

Callie Day 6

I didn't have time to post this yesterday so I will do it now. Today is a day off for him.
Yesterday we started in the rd pen and had a good session. He turned real good for me and started to hook on a lot better than the day before. I want him to want to be with me so this is important. He is also getting better with desensitizing. The flag doesn't seem to bother him too much. We went to the field and got him saddled, flexed and working on all the exercises. He does real good at lunging and circling now, with good shape and attention on me. I got on him and boy was he a good ride. He gave me some troubles in the beginning wanting to drift off to the sound of the neighing horses, but I kept him on track. He has such a nice laid back trot and canter, I just love it. He still has trouble following his nose, but we worked on that. The bending exercises as well as YH from standstill and YF from standstill are getting better. I loped him around quite abit too as he started to holler back at the horses up front. That kept his mind on me. When we were done he was done. I don't think he has ever had this much work on him, but he is doing well. Next week we see how much improvement we can get.

Callie day 5

He didn't want to go to work again today. I had to lead him into the rd pen. After a good brushing and rubbing we got to work. He turned for me pretty good but was real protective and wouldn't follow me like I like him to. So we worked at a lope for 30 minutes changing directions often and giving him an opportunity to stop and rest next to me but he would not Hook on to me. Finally though he did break free a little bit and I took the chance and gave him a five minute rest. He still really did not have his wind back but I desensitized him more and with the flag. Then back to the field for saddling and the rest of the gw. That did not go so well. I think it was the new area. But after a few intense conversations he came around to my way of thinking. Before I knew it an hour went by and I still had not got on him. So we transitioned to mounted. He did real good. He had a nice trot and has a rocking chair canter. I walked him around and worked on softness and following his nose. After 2x around my 2 acre field I started trotting him. 15 minutes later I started cantering him for 100 feet or do then back to a trot. We did this about 20 minutes straight then let him walk. I practiced stops and bending. He is a nice ride. can't wait to get on him tomorrow.

Callie day 4

It is kinda fun to see the transformation that takes place in a horses mind as I work with them day after day. Now Callie didn't want to go to work with me today. I tried to coax him to follow me into the pen, but he would just run off then when I followed he would give me two eyes and I would back off and he would follow me all the way to the gate, but no farther. I guess I don't like to go to work sometimes either. Anyway, had to put the halter on to get him inside the pen. Then it was rest for him while I groomed him.
I could tell a change in his attitude as soon as I sent him off in the rd pen. He moved off real quick and gave me quick turns. I made him do 10 laps each direction at a canter, he wanted too, then had him turn and started to shorten the turns/direction changes. Finally, I stopped him and did the desensitizing. I did the yh and yf at liberty. He did well. I disensitized him alot more without halter. Then I put halter on and did some backing up and lungeing. He is really bent well toward me when I lunge him so when I did the circling, which is kinda like lungeing only he is within my sticks range going around me at a trot. He just really did good. I was quit pleased with his shape on the arc of the circle. I had saddled him too by this time so he was already to be ridden. I desensitized between exercises a bunch, because he is rather head shy with the whirling of the string. But he is getting alot better. I even decided to get my little flag out and use that with him and he was real relaxed with that by the time I was done. An hour was gone by this time so I wanted to ride and we flexed, by the way he is getting real soft. He is better about moving off my leg so I can get a yh with him. His one rein stop is super soft. I got him trotting and I was acting like Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, just a drunk ready to fall off, that is how comfortable I was on him. We got some cantering out of him too and the stops in each gait are pretty good. I think it is time to get him out of the rd pen tomorrow and try some open field and see how that goes with him. He is making improvements every day, but still wants to throw in his union card once in a while. I just have to push him past that a little bit then let him rest and pretty soon he is ok with it. I think He is mainly looking for leadership so he can relax and not have to worry about things.

Callie day 3

Ok, I need to get this done. We had a good day today. Not that everything went well or right, but that in the end we ended well. Here's what I mean. We started outside the pen. He didn't want to go to work with me today, but I led him into it anyway. Then He showed me a few things that were hidden under the surface, in his mind while I worked him in rd pen. That is, he would rather run than spend time with me. So that is what he did. Oh, he tried to stop a few times and he turned to the inside almost every time I asked him to. But he tried to beat me to the punch but anticipating that I wanted him to turn to the inside. In that case, I just pressed him forward in the same direction. Then going to the right, he wanted his butt canted towards me, going to the left he had a nice shape. Then when I gave him opportunity to stop he would not follow me. He just stopped and stood there and would not break free in his shoulders. Without lots of my moving around to get him too. So I had to make him go again. This went on for 20 minutes and I thought well there goes my plan for the day. I had to stick with this until he at least gave me a good follow/hooking on. He finally did so we could then move on to the other exercises. I gave him a good rest then desensitized more. He doesn't like the swinging of the string, so he won't like a lariat or flag for sure. But we worked on this till there was some improvement. We went on to YH, backups, YF. He did pretty good on these making good improvements. His sending is getting better, his flexion is getting real soft, though at times he stiffens right up. Circling was way better then yesterday. I got three good laps at a continuous trot each way. His lunging for respect is getting better too. I have to watch him though. I am certain that he would tag me with a hind foot if I gave him the chance. Not that he is mean, but that he doesn't like being pushed. He has never been pushed probably in most or all of his 18 years. So He doesn't like when I do. I know to give him lots of breaks, because of his personality he gets pushed, then I back off. For example, when I ask for a trot under saddle instead of expecting a complete lap I only had him take a couple strides then stopped him, which was easy because that is what he wanted to do in the first place. Then keep increasing the distance til I get a full lap and then can keep him going several times. But it is a gradual thing. He offered me some cantering too so not wanting to kill the forward motion I let him and then asked him to stop.
He saddled well and I got on and that is exactly what we did after practicing lateral flexion and one rein stops. He gave me a half hearted kick back with his feet when he wanted to stop and I wouldn't let him, but that was all. In the end he was keeping forward without much of a fit and when I asked him to stop I got a good one. We flexed and then quit. I am certain he will keep making improvements. I hope to get him out of the rd pen in the next day or two and see how that goes.

callie day 2

I promise I will get some pics on here. He got a real workout. He was baptized into the GBH horse training method.  We started with rd pen and he got it in 5 minutes. Quite an improvement from Saturday. Then we went through the list of 13 exercises in Ground work (GW). He did ok on most of them. He doesn't like the right side and he is real pushy. So I had to really get after him a couple times. He doesn't like the stick and string swinging so I have to do alot of desensitizing of him. But he is making improvements. That showed up on the lunging and backup exercises I do. He is real stiff flexing wise. But I am sure he will get better. It took about an hour to go through them all. Then I did the jeffries method, and he took that well so we moved on to saddling which he took real good. No problem. I know he has been ridden but I like to make sure that I let him tell me where he is at. I got on and had him moving out and bending, yielding hindquarters (yh) and then moving forward and kept alternating that til he was just going forward and then doing one rein stops. I worked both sides of him. He got real stiff on his left side so I had to get off and put his feet to work doing the YH and YF exercises. Then got back on and flexed him and then asked him to trot. This is where his sticky feet came into play. By this time we had been working an hour and half so he was ready to throw in the towel, but we weren't finished yet. So I finally got him trotting, but not without a few kickbacks but I got after him again with YH and then let him go straight and he was much better. We quit on that note with some flexing both sides and then on the ground the same thing. I am sure that tomorrow will see much improvement.

callie day 1

I have another horse to work with again. His name is Callie and 18 yrs old? qtr horse/Paint. He is just here to be ridden for his owner for a couple weeks. I'm told he doesn't even have 40 hrs of riding on him. I don't know but I do know this is one pushy horse. I will put some pics up later. I sensed his pushiness as soon as I started leading him around his new pen. But it really showed up when I had him in the round pen today. His personality is cold, not a hot horse at all, which means he really has to be pushed to get him to go. I worked him about 20 minutes in the pen just trying to get him to turn into me. He did pretty good. I had to stop so He and I could catch our breath. Although, he was turning in pretty consistently by the time we finished. Then I desensitized him to the stick and string and he didn't like that at all. But he finally settled down. Then started working on Yielding hindquarters. It took him a bit but he finally got it on both sides. Then it was on to yielding forequarters. As I said he is quite pushy and sticky footed. So I practically had to push him over in order to get him to move. He finally got that though. Then it was on to backing and again his sticky feet showed up again. One final exercise to work on was lunging for respect. He didn't do that very well, but again we finally made some progress. All of the exercises we went through he by no means has real good, but we do have a good start. I think in the next week we will make real good progress and be on to putting lots of time in the saddle. We shall see how it goes.