CCRRRAAZZZYYY Blizzard

Wow, what a rough couple of days, I don't think I have ever seen this much snow before. I have a feeling it will be a few weeks before I will be able to work JR much, luckily I was able to work him on Tuesday for a half hour or so. We worked on standing tied and he did wonderful with no pawing, then I lounged him for awhile and he did really well on that as well, he doesn't get turning around yet, but I think that will come more when/if I get a round pen, he does understand that when I pull him to me and cluck right away he has to move off, he just doesn't understand why I get to choose the direction ;-)

Jr and I worked on patience again today. He is really cute when he eats his grain, he will paw at the ground..but unfortunately he does it while he is tied up, being groomed, etc. So we worked at standing tied before and after being lounged for a bit. He is really getting the hang of lounging down. I put the surcingle on him as well, but he just doesn't care about it one way or the other. I really hope he gets some size to him this winter as I don't think I can put enough holes in my harness to get it to fit him correctly. He has been acting strange the past couple of days and I thought that maybe the coyotes were coming closer but I came home early a day ago and figured out what it was. The tree trimmer guys are here cleaning up after a fire and they are dumping the branches and stuff in a draw in the horses pasture. I was watching them dump it and when they tried to leave the horses were wanting to go with them, cause 1000 acres just isn't big enough for them, and the trimmers had to be very quick to get out. I thought about offering to pull them in, but it was too fun to watch.

Yet another super nice day to play with the horses. I figured I had better get a jump on it because the forecast for my next day off doesn't look pretty. I think I was wrong with my first impression of Jr, he has come into his own and no longer seems to be timid, quite the opposite. And he seems to be very logical. I worked some more on lounging him today (I can't wait for a round pen) and introduced him to a lounge whip. He jumped away from it at first but only once, then he came to the conclusion that it woudn't bite and actually felt kinda good when it was scratching him. By the end of the session he was even yeilding to it, not perfectly but I got the impression he understood the basics, he knew he should move, just not quite sure in which direction.

Pictures are here

(Infrared or Jr is the, obviously, red horse, I had to throw in a picture of Annie too though) Had a good day with Jr today. It was gorgeous outside and the perfect weather to play with the ponies, and seeing as how it was my only day off this week, it had to be taken advantage of. I started out by lounging my mare to take the edge off of her in preparation of her trimming this afternoon. While I lounged her I had Jr tied up. He tried digging a hole to China, but stopped after a few minutes. When I was through with Annie I took Jr out and tried lounging him, he did very well at it so I figured he had done some before. I then put the training surcingle on him and expected a bit of crow hop or something, but he acted as though he had done it all his life. I then added the bridle, just to wear it and I could tell that it was new to him. I am going to have to punch holes in all my tack though, I ended up tying a temporary knot in the bridle just to make sure it was up high enough. I wrote to his old owner to see what kind of stuff he had been exposed to and I was right about the lounging, he had learned some of the basics of it, but had never had anything tightened around his middle before, so judging by his reactions to the surcingle this afternoon I think he is going to be very sensible and fairly easy to train, getting the patience needed as a carriage horse will take some time though. Now to get him to grow!!

First 'training' day

I finally have a day off so I decided it was a good day to get tails up for the winter and to spend some time getting to know Jr. He is very much a 'lap' horse, but I found a few of his 'problem' areas today. For one, he is VERY impatient about standing still, as I was trying to put his tail up he just kept moving from side to side, so I see plenty of time standing tied up in his future. He also does not like his hind feet messed with much, and was not shy in letting me know this. Jr is very attached to my mare right now and while I was doing her tail and lunging her he wanted to stay as close as possible, but he wasn't screaming or acting as if he was going to pass out from loneliness, just wanted to be near. He is also learning that he has to eat fast, even though I keep them separated while they eat grain, I have been untying Annie once the grain is gone..to her credit she still hasn't insisted on musical buckets and will eat all of her hay before eating what is left of his. I spent about an hour with him today, in two separate times, his attention span doesn't seem like its at its peak right now so I figure that will be the way to go for awhile. I can't wait to get a round pen set up though, things will go so much smoother.

Day 1

Infrared or Jr as I will call him came today. I am very excited about having another 'project' and think this will be good for me. After a run of bad luck I figure I am due for something fun to happen. Jr is a 2 year old morgan gelding that I am going to train to drive, with our ultimate goal to be the Walnut Hill show in New York in 2008, so I really have no intense pressure, yet. We put Jr in the pens with my 13 year old mare. It was actually quite interesting to see her reactions as she hasn't had a horsy friend for over 8 months. Annie was definately more interested in her old friend who was in the trailer then the newcomer. After Jr's 'mom' left I went ahead and fed them. Jr is on the small side and Annie looks like she is ready to drop twins, so it could get interesting...and it did, but not in the way I expected. I tied Annie up so she wouldn't play musical buckets and to allow Jr to eat all his grain, then after the grain was gone went ahead and untied her..she really didn't seem to care and stayed at her own spot to finish her hay instead of trying to take Jr's, so he actually got to eat most of his food. My only concern with him right now is that he seems too timid to be a lead horse in a tandem (one of our goals), but it may just be the insecurity of moving to a different place and having a different buddy. I figure I am going to let them bond and get used to me for awhile then I will turn them out to pasture until December, it definately won't do Jr any harm to get a few extra groceries under his belt.