[deerly.]

Breed:
Mustang
Color:
Cherry Bay
Gender:
Gelding
Owned By:
Oliviaoi

[deerly.]

You never know what you have when you open the door.....
He doesn't really want to come from the trailer, so i opened the door and watched for a bit. You never want to put on to much pressure at once, because they will try to fight it. After a while, he started to get comfortable with me standing there and moved a few feet from the back of the trailer. Then started to play with the hay bag i had hung for him. I decided at this point i could put a little more pressure on him, and started to walk towards him. He showed no signs of distress until i tried to pet him. His ears went back. So i decided to stand with him and try again every few minutes. Eventually, he allowed me to pet his neck. Then i stepped into the trailer with him. I stayed to the side, so it didn't feel like I was invading his space. He reached over and sniffed me when i got in and stood there. After a minute or to, he hopped out of the trailer. At first he looked around and cantered around the round pen, but then he realized he was in a round pen and couldn't go anywhere so he reached down to eat some grass. I decided to take a break here. When i came back, I started to walk in a 180 around him, And went to his side spinning the rope. He didn't like me being at his side, so i went back around to the front. After a few minutes, i walked over to his sides and petted his neck, he seemed slightly more relaxed. I didn't want to spin the rope around him to much, but i did try again. To reward him, i walked away for a while. I didn't really want to look into his eyes much, it can turn them away. I started to play a "Game" with him. I would walk away a few steps, and hold out my hand. He would then walk up to my hand and sniff it, and i walk off again and so on and so forth. I think he was starting to trust me more. Next we worked on the water bucket. He was afraid to drink from it. So i walked him over to it, and started to play with the water with my hand. Then i rubbed some water onto his nose. After a while, he became ok with the water, and took a drink. Next, i went to his sides and tried jumping by him. He didn't flinch, and was pretty calm about it. Next i tried to put the rope over his back. He slightly flinched, and i rubbed his neck, but he soon relaxed. Next i tried putting my arm around his back, and he was ok with that. But when i tried to touch his front legs, he showed signs of stress, so i decided we would work on that later. I decided i had put enough pressure on him for one day, so i left the pen to come back tomorrow.


7:00 - Romeo arrived in the trailer.
8:00 - Really started to work with him
9:00 - I took a break and came back to him
12:00 - Started again.
1:00 - We are making good progress
2:00 - He is a little scared by some of the things i do, but we will work on it
3:00 - Gave him a break for the rest of the day

Art:

[deerly.]

The biggest key is to listen to what they tell you.....
Romeo and i worked on bathing, lunging and more today! I have figured out that he is actually not as bad as the typical mustangs. Some are to much to handle, but he is a little easier to work with. I started out on the lunging. I wanted to see him transition to different speeds. He kept trying to invade my space, so i got out a flag stick and when he came to close i would wave it. Dominance helps you train horses. They must understand that you are the boss, then they will start to listen more. I got him used to things waving around him a bit more with the flag, and it helped me get him into faster speeds. We can now get up to a canter on the lunge line! This will help me as we get more into saddle and riding things. The next thing we did was what i call a half mount. I jumped onto his shoulders and stayed there. He went in circles, and when he settled i got off. I did this a few times until he realized that if he stayed calm, i would come off of him. Next, i got a sack of feed out. I wanted to see his reaction to weight on his back. He did great!! He did try to buck some while i was leading him around, but other than that he did wonderful! I think i may try and mount tomorrow. After a break to let him cool off, I tried bathing him. It took a while for him to get used to the water, but once he did he still fought! I ended up just hosing him down instead of shampooing to because he was afraid, and i didn't want to push him to much. Body language is key. If your pushing to hard, you need to back off normally there will come a point where you say, you know maybe we should try something else. And it happened to be that time. Then i tried to trim his mane a bit. It was a tangled mess!! A life in the wild really tangles the mane. He was very tolerant to that, so i got to finish. Next we went back to his feet problem from yesterday. I was slightly nervous to how he would react. First, i took the flag stick again and poked near his feet and on his legs. At first he was alarmed, but then he started to calm down. after he did, i tried to lift his feet. he actually let me! I was so proud of him!! Then i put him in the pasture to graze and took the rest of the day off.



7:00 - Got Romeo from the fields
8:00 - Started to work with him on the lunge line
9:00 - Played the Half mount game with him for a while
9:30 - Feed bag trials
10:00 - Break time
12:00 - Bath time!! Boy he cant stand water...
1:00 - Trim up His mane was a mess!!!
2:00 - The horrors of feet! Just kidding made good progress on his feet
3:00 - Put him in the pasture to rest up, big day tomorrow!


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