[allo vera]

7/29/2015

Today I worked on more leading with Danny. We started off in the round pen, then progressed to the pasture. He was a good boy, and pretty attentive. I worked with him in shorter sessions again, as I tried a longer one at first and he got distracted after a while. I worked mainly on teaching him to pay attention to me. By the end, when I walked, he walked. When I stopped, he immediately stopped. He barely even threw his head as well.

I also groomed Danny for the first time today, although I didn't pick up his feet. I'm saving that for another day. Once I teach him to stand tied (which will probably happen this week), I'll pull his mane. I think Danny's probably ready to progress to work outside of the pasture and round pen, but first I think I'll desensitize him some first. It wouldn't do for our first adventure outside to end in a spooking, bolting horse.

[allo vera]

7/30/2015

More leading work for the first part of the day. He's very attentive, and although I'll need to keep up the practice with him, I think Danny's introduction to leading is almost over. I also worked on yielding with him, and now Danny yields his hindquarters very nicely. He also moves over at a cluck and touch. Groomed him again, and this time picked up his feet. He flinched when I picked his hooves for the first time, but didn't kick or take off running, which is good.

The second part of the day, we worked on standing while tied. I set up a post in the round pen, and fed his lead rope through a pulley. Danny stood at one end, and I was at the other, holding his lead rope. When he pulled back the first couple times, I let the lead rope slide and give him slack. I gradually stopped giving him slack, and by the time we were done, Danny had learned that he couldn't break free. I had him stand tied for fifteen minutes or so, and he just sat there chilling.

Apparently by sometime this week, I meant Danny would be standing tied the next day. I'll wait to pull his mane though.

[allo vera]

7/30/2015

Well, this is daunting. I decided to make a list of things Danny needed to learn, and it's HUGE. It's not even that thorough! We've got a lot of work ahead of us.

Here's the list.

Desensitize
- clippers
- pulling mane
- dogs
- loud noises
- lots of horses
- water


Tack
- saddle pad
-saddle
-girth
-hackamore
-bitted bridle


Riding
- walk
- trot
- canter
- halt
- trotting poles
- lead changes
- jumps
- trail rides

Experiences
-trailering
-showing
-meeting new horses
-handled/ridden by other people


And that's just a very very basic list. I'm not sure I'll get all this done, but I'm not going to rush it. I can always continue training after the competition is over. I don't want to scare Danny, and I want him to have as much trust in me as possible.

[allo vera]

7/31/2015

I decided that today should be a review day for Danny. Over the course of the day, I free-lunged him, ponied him, led him around the arena, and groomed him while he stood tied. He was a very good boy for all of it. I combed out his mane and tail as well, which he didn't seem to mind too much. It was a pretty busy day, but we didn't make a lot of progress. That's fine, I just wanted to reinforce what he already knew.

I'm very pleased with Danny, he's a very smart horse. Once I teach him something new, he tends to retain it very well. Storm Man was the opposite. He learned very quickly, but we had to repeat the same lesson ten times for it to really sink in.

[allo vera]

8/1/2015

My friend Katrine came over to help me today. She brought her dog, Remington, a border collie. We were going to get Danny comfortable around dogs over the next two days. So, tacked up Storm Man, and ponied Danny. Remington is an expertly trained and perfectly behaved dog, so as we walked around Danny's pasture, Katrine had Remington to lope into the middle of the pasture, and then sit.

When Danny saw Remington, he spooked, reared, and tried to bolt. He didn't get very far with his last attempt, as Storm Man and I cut him off and I kept hold of the lead rope. Katrine motioned for the dog to lie down, and he did. Still atop Storm Man, I led Danny closer to the dog, and when he started freaking out, we turned around and walked away. Every time we did this, Danny resisted less, and we got a bit closer to the dog.

After an hour or so of pacing back and forth, Danny let us get two horse=lenghts away from the dog, but he refused to come any closer.
Instead of trying to force the issue, we took a break. In two hours we came back and tried again. This time, Danny got one horse length away. I called Remington, and the dog approached us as slowly and non-threateningly as possible. Danny was freaking out more the closer the dog got, but I kept a hold on his lead rope.

Suddenly, it all clicked for Danny. He stopped fighting the lead rope, and put his head down. He still was extremely nervous and tense, but Danny was willing to try what I wanted, to trust me. This was almost as big of a step and letting Remington run around near him.

Katrine's here tomorrow as well, and we'll work on more stuff with Remington tomorrow.

[allo vera]

8/2/2015

Today, I led Danny around, while Katrine called Remington here and there. Danny had a few minor freak-outs, but besides that he did pretty well. There was one time that we had Remington run directly in front of Danny. That time did not go well. He freaked out, reared backwards, and took off. I couldn't hold onto his lead rope, so just had to let him go. When I finally caught Danny, I was really tempted to pop him, but had to remember that he was still just learning. If Storm had done something like that, I would have gotten on to him with a vengeance, but Storm Man knows what dogs are. Danny's still learning.

Besides that one incident, today went fairly well. We got Danny almost entirely desensitized to the dog running about. He still always kept an eye on Remington, but seemed to have come to the conclusion that the canine was not going to kill him.

I also finally got around to pulling his mane. Instead of actually pulling it, I just cut the mane with scissors. Although he jumped at the snipping noise at first, I think it was less stressful for my mustang than yanking the hair out.

EDIT: Danny with his fancy hair in his run-in shed.

[allo vera]

8/3/2015

After all our hard work, I decided this should be a rest day for both me and Danny. I stayed inside for most of the day, and may or may not have watched three movies. When I looked out on Danny, he seemed to just be relaxing.

I did go out and groom him once, and just hang out with him for a couple minutes. I'm very pleased that he seems to have no fear of me anymore.

[allo vera]

8/4/2015

Today I brought Danny in and tied him up to his post in the round pen. I got out a saddle blanket, and rubbed it all over him. Danny didn't really seem to care, even when I placed it on his back. I kept it on for a little bit, just to see if he would care at all. He didn't. Since that was going so well, I went ahead and got a gel pad. Danny flicked an ear at the unfamiliar weight, but did nothing else. He'd taken what was supposed to be all of today's training in stride, so I decided to go a little farther. I leaned over his back, placing pressure and weight on him. Danny shifted a bit, stepping away. I tried it again. This time he flicked his ears and shifted his weight a bit, but didn't do anything else. After three or four more times, he ignored me.

I untied him and took off the pads, then left him in the round pen for an hour. When I came back out, I tried the same thing again. Since Danny seemed to be learning very quickly today, I went ahead and placed the saddle on his back. When I did so, Danny lifted his head and pranced around for a minute. I stroked him and talked to him, and eventually Danny calmed down. He turned his head and sniffed the saddle. When he realized it was essentially the same thing that had been in his pasture, my mustang calmed down a bit. He tried to bite it, but I lightly smacked his nose and told him no.

I decided that was enough new stuff for today, and for the rest of the day just came out and repeated the lesson.

[allo vera]

8/5/2015

My mom wanted me to run some errands for her, so I didn't have a lot of time to work with Danny today, because Storm Man needed to be ridden as well. I hacked Storm quickly, so I could spend as much time as possible with Danny. Today, I worked more with the saddle blanket, gel pad, and saddle. Danny was quiet and uninterested the whole time.

When I got done with the errands (who knew Walmart could take so much time?), I went out and worked with Danny again. This time, I just got him used to a rope, which I'll use tomorrow. At first I think he thought it was a snake, and danced away. There was one terrifying time that he reared up and pulled against the post. Understandably, I backed off after that. Soon enough though, he was ignoring both the rope and me. Danny was done with training today, and he was letting me know.

I let him loose, and instead of walking away as I expected, Danny came up and rubbed his head on me a bit. I started scratching his ears, which the mustang seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Eventually he wandered off, but I was pleased that he chose to spend time with me.

[allo vera]

8/6/2015

So, since Danny was used to the rope from yesterday's training, I tied it around where his girth would be. I started out really loose, then gradually tightened it. When I got it to as tight as a girth would be, Danny took off. I hadn't tied him up, which was a good thing, because he would have killed himself.

Danny galloped and leaped all over the pen, bucking and kicking out. He looked very very unhappy. Of course I couldn't exactly take it off now, so I had to let him run it out. All I thought is that Danny would continue kicking and galloping. I was not expecting what came next. Danny leaped. It was huge, magnificent, and utterly terrifying. My little mustang somehow jumped the round pen fence. That is high. Really high. He got caught on the top bar, but luckily for him, it was already loose and broke. I stood there in astonishment, then jolted into action. Danny was running.

I first tried to call him, but that didn't work. He wasn't listening. I ran inside the barn, trying to watch Danny at the same time. I grabbed two halters. I watched as Danny took off into the woods bordering our property, just as I put Storm Man's halter on. I mounted Storm Man bareback, and took off after my mustang. But by the time that we got into the woods, Danny was gone.

We searched for hours, Storm Man and I. We searched until it was too dark, and I was afraid Storm would hurt himself. So I took Storm home. My mother rubbed him down for me, and I set off into the woods with a flashlight, Danny's halter and lead, and my phone. My mom helped me look until about 11, then went home to wait for Danny if he came back. I took the car for a while and drove slowly down the roads, with the window open, calling Danny's name.

What will I do if I can't find my mustang? Is he hurt? Did he gallop onto one of the local roads? Is he alive?

EDIT:
9/19/2015
well, guess what one of the neighbor's brought me today? Apparently they had seen a "lovely wild horse" a while ago, and they thought they'd show me the picture! Guess who?