First Blog, First Day Training Whats-Her-Name

Yeah, alright. So I finally go up off my ass to do something constructive.

I haven't done much since the end of summer when I found that I was pregnant. Since then I've quit my training job in Georgia and have moved up to Ohio with my boyfriend. He owns two horses, one of them is an old show horse named Dusty. The other one is a paint that I'm going to guess...goes by the name of Shiloh? I haven't the foggiest clue.

Don't really know how old this paint is, but I'm sure it's a classic "7 year old horse thats never been trained". Uselss? You betcha!

Mare at that...yay. Love the mares.

So now that I'm all moved in and have gotten bored with just growing a baby, it occured to me that...hey, there was an untrained animal just over the hill that I'm allowed to play with. Whats the harm in that?

If I could break her, she's mine. Boy...how many times have I heard that before? I don't want the god damn horse, I just want to train it. Besides, I've got my eyes set on a gelding...

So I bundle up (because today was like...50 degrees or something. Chilling!), got in my little blue economy sized car and drove down the road with a bunch of cookies in my pocket.

Cookies were for me, not the horses.

Got there, haltered the paint mare, and broke a stick off of a branch because I couldn't find a whip for the life of me. Pathetic replacement, I know. But give me a break. I know theres a whip in that little barn of theirs. It was just covered in so much dust I had to shake a thin layer of dirt from myself when I came walking out of the stable. Can't blame me for overlooking it.

Theres no place but the pasture to work in, so I just used what I could. Most people will see what I'm doing and comment "But the horse already knows how to lead"....this is usually right before the horse kicks me in the thigh. So regardless of what the owner says the horse knows, I start them out with the very basics. Luckily I was alone so no one could snark any commentry about something they don't know how to do and don't understand.

I placed myself right at this mare's shoulder, leaned forward a bit, lifted a foot and tapped her on the rearend with the stick. She moved forward and I stepped with her. She followed the aid pretty well. Stopping was the hard part.

I go for a down transition from a walk to a stop by closing my body off and turning my shoulders in, away from the open direction we were traveling, and putting pressure on her pec muscle.

Cue explosion. How dare I tell her what to do!

She charges forward to the end of the lead, bronc, hop, buck...and I hang on thinking "Dear god, if she kicks me in the stomach..."

When she calms down, we try again.

Again, the same thing happens, only this time she lifts the inside hind leg and I saw the bottom of her hoof. She threatened to kick, but didn't follow through with it. By this time I'd had enough.

Insisting that she stand still, I slip the chain which was connected to the leadline under her halter and gave a sharp tug on it so she realized it was there. We tried again. I returned to her shoulder, asked her to step forward, and she complied. I asked her to stop by placing pressure on her chest and she went bonkers.

But this time I had a bit of leverage.

I instantly grabbed the lead and shanked down hard on it once. She stopped and looked at me. Blinked.

This was the last time she tried anything like that. We had some trouble walking past the area that she was always fed at...had a bit of a hissy there where she tried to turn in on me. But I got her past that and decided not to go past that part of the pasture again until she was under more control.

Today, Shiloh (I think?) learned how to start and stop with only the use of my body language. I hardly had to touch her by the end of the 20 minute training period. I'd reach behind me with the stick and step a foot out, and she's instantly walk. I'd blow a breath out and turn my shoulders into her, raising the hand with the whip in it slightly, and she'd stop.

We had a little bit of trouble in the turn-aways...she's used to invading human spaces, I'm assuming. But other than that, she did rather well.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring more progress.