Never's Training Progress

Never has gone through some big changes in the past few weeks. The first week, the trainer could hardly get near him. He would hide behind other horses or just run off. When I came for my first 'lesson' (mostly just watching her train), we corralled him in a smaller paddock so she could work with him up close and personal. By the end of the lesson, he was following her around and would allow her to touch his face.

During his stay in the corral, the trainer would spend her spare time sitting with him, or would send her working students out with a book, just so he would get used to new and different people

The second lesson was so nice. He came up to the trainer after a few minutes and let himself be haltered. He was somewhat distracted, but he eventually let her pick up his feet without too much fuss. Yay!

Just a few days before the third lesson this past Wednesday, he relaxed enough to pick on the ponies he was in with, so back out with the herd he went. When we went to get him, he played hard to get for about five minutes. He went to show his dominance to a new horse to the herd, and when the new horse pinned his ears at him, he jumped straight in the air and ran to hide by the trainer. She was laughing so hard she could hardly fasten the halter!

We walked up to the arena, where they worked on different things: yielding front and hindquarters, desensitizing to different objects (he loved the big ball!), and finally, the saddle. He had had the saddle and pad on before, but never cinched up. She tossed the saddle and pad on him a few times, and he really didn't care. She attached the girth, and he flinched a little when the girth brushed his leg, but he stood still. She led him around a little then reached under, grabbed the girth, and carefully cinched him up. He didn't seem to care. The trainer walked him around a bit, then fully tightened the girth. She kept waiting for him to blow up, and he didn't. He did plod around like a zombie plow horse, though!

After some more walking, the trainer tried a couple of steps of trot, saying that he will most probably blow up when he feels the saddle bounce. She asked for a trot, he trotted for about three strides, then did his zombie walk again. Twice more they trotted, and twice more he just plodded along.

It was getting close to the end of the lesson, but the trainer decided to try one more thing because he was being so good. She stood at his side and bounced up and down. No real reaction. She did it again, and still nothing. So she stood on the mounting block, and then jumped up and down again. He looked at her, but didn't move.

Eventually she got to the point where she draped herself over his back. He seemed a little surprised that she was on both sides of him, but still didn't move. He did try and eat her shoes, so she called him to his other side and gave him a treat. He then went back to play with her shoes again! Once again she got his attention to his other side and gave him the last treat. I'm on the other side so I couldn't see, but I guess after the last treat he was so thankful that he gave her a big kiss!

Another bitter cold day

After enjoying an almost warm week (highs in the 20's), we're back to single digits and less. It's currently bright, sunny, and 2 degrees with a wind chill of -12. Needless to day, Sparky stayed in with Gem for company. I hope to find a turnout sheet/lightweight blanket for her so she can go outside without getting too chilled and thus lose more weight. I wish I could afford a chiropractor for her, to align her hips, but all I can really do at this point is to keep her comfortable until Spring.

I've been doing some training this week, mostly with standing quietly and picking up feet. Alex was so good that Ken was actually able to trim his front hooves! We're still working on the hind feet, but he's getting better. He's a bit of a 'cookie monster' at the moment, but I'm going to cut back as he does better.

Ken was able to trim Willow's front hooves today. Her near front hoof has a long toe crack that fortunately is starting to grow out. She stood pretty well while Ken trimmed and rasped it, but she got antsy with the far front hoof and barely let him finish trimming.

Never is going to take more work. He picks up his near front hoof pretty well, but he won't relax and let Ken hold it for trimming. He's worse with his far front, he keeps pulling it out of Ken's hands. As for his hinds, right now we're just getting him used to being touched on his hips, legs and hooves. He's very sensitive and nervous about anyone doing anything back there, but with time I think he'll get better. I'm really hoping to get some more ground work done with him this Spring so I can take him in some halter/in hand classes this summer. I'm also hoping to introduce him to a saddle before Autumn.

Since it's so cold out, and there's nothing on TV this evening, I think I'm going to update my website for (shameless plug) Duchess Hill Photography, work on a blog to go with it (I know, yet another photo blog...), and maybe I'll finally get at least the home page for the farm site up and running. I should also get some more stuff on my Cafe Press site (another shameless plug!), but I'm going to need to find some more pics suitable for cards and such. Snow shots would be nice, but it's so freaking cold out and I don't have a back up camera if something goes wrong. I've also been thinking about possible quotes, phrases and logos for more marketable t-shirts and such, but I've been having the darnedest case of 'writers block'. If anyone has ideas or suggestions... *S*