Some Progress

The first day I got the new filly home, I round penned her for two hours as sparse gentle snowflakes fell down on us. She definitely had some flight and fight in her. Eventually, I was able to rub her forehead with my training stick. By the end of the session, I was able to get her to square up and change directions a little bit.

We've had some bumps along the way this time and I feel very behind in her training. The weather has been horrible. We usually don't have this much snow until sometime in January. At first there was a cold snap that was unbearably cold. Then it snowed for a week straight and froze everything. One day after Christmas it got to 50 degrees and melted all of the snow. Now we are dealing with A LOT of MUD. My round pen is too slick to work her. It makes me wish I had an indoor round pen!

In three weeks, I haven't got to ride her yet. I have caught her everyday and I'm trying to get her to the point where she faces up to me in her pen. When I go feed her, I try to get her use to me to the point she loses the fear and gains the trust. It's been working, but it is a day by day process. I am feeling disappointed at this point. I wish I could have had that extra week with her so that she would have been gentled up and ready to take out in the hills or to an indoor arena somewhere.

The last time I worked with her, I human curry combed her. (I jumped on her back and rubbed her all over to desensitize her.) I also desensitized her with the lead rope by throwing it up over her back and between her legs. When she was calm to all of this, I put a surcingle on her and then hung rubber boat buoys off the side of her. I let her pack the buoys all day. Initially she tried to kick the buoys and after time she accepted them. She never did buck which was a bit of a surprise to me.

Hopefully soon I can get a chance to work more with her. I am getting to train most of my customer horses because they had their round pen work and first rides before the change in weather. We go out to the BLM hills or over to a friend's covered arena, where it is not as muddy as it is here. Surly soon it has to dry up a little bit, huh? Maybe we can get a windy day that has a little bit of sun.