Week one- COMPLETE!

It's a week today since I brought Ollie home. I think she's doing very well so far. I didn't mess with her Tuesday or Wednesday, but yesterday we had a pretty nice day. 

I walked her around the outdoor arena and let her sniff some stuff out. She did well, but she did call for other horses a couple of times. Then I put the bridle on her. She was being a brat so Angie helped out with it. I was going to lunge her right after that, but decided to tie her outside on the round pen so she could learn some patience. 

She stood there for a good 45 minutes. She pawed a lot when I wasn't out there, but whatever. Next we worked on lunging. She's doing FANTASTIC going to the left, but going to the right still needs a lot of work. She's really starting to listen well to voice commands. I was impressed with her yesterday. =)

Thennn I put her on the hot walker. She didn't freak out or anything. She did some circles, but quickly learned that she had to move forward, and keep moving forward. 

I've been keeping her in a stall, today was the first day I put her out to pasture. Bones was already out there. There is a field of mares right next to their pasture, and well I guess Bones thinks they're "his" mares. He was acting sooo possessive over them. He kept running Ollie off and wouldn't let her get near the fence line. Then Areem came in and Bones ran him off, too. 

 

SO MANY CIRCLES!

We did sooo many circles today.Whether it was lunging, teaching her to give her head to pressure, or circling her until she decides to stand still when I throw the stirrup up on the saddle. All of these freaking circles made me so dizzy and literally nauseous.

When I was tacking her up, I put boots on her (which I'm assuming was a first for her). She was so funny. At first she lifted her leg the first time I tightened it, but I grabbed it and put it down. After I got it all snug I stepped back and let her feel it out. She stepped back and put her leg up and looked at me like "Wha wha what's this?" Lol.

She's starting to understand the whole lunging thing a bit better. She is doing really well going counter-clockwise, but clockwise- she has trouble on. She'll start out okay, then just turn towards me and either stop or start going the other way. I figured it was because I was confusing her and stepping in front of her or something, so I tried standing further behind her to reeeeally drive her forward, but it didn't seem to help much. Maybe it just needs time and she will catch on. 

We worked on getting her to disengage her hindquarters, which she does well at.

Initially, I was planning on giving her a bath today, but I was tired and didn't feel like going through the process so i was just going to rinse her off. Then she started acting like a lune. She was prancing all over, and reared up. When she reared up I sprayed her in the face, she got down, and settled down a bit. I decided to go a head and give her a bath so she doesn't think acting up is going to get her out of there. She didn't really mind when I wetted her down, and she loooved when I scrubbed her with the soap, but she didn't like the standing there part. She will get better with time.

Overall, I think we had a pretty good day! By the way, she stands to be groomed AWESOME! So, so quiet. 

Short video

Here's a short video that I forgot to add to yesterday's post.

 Click Here 

Another successful day

Ollie and I had another successful day. We worked on several things today.

 

First we did a little lunging. She does well with lunging, but it definitely needs work. 

 

Then I decided to see how she does in cross ties. I only attached one at first to let her get the feel of it, then I added the other one but kept my lead rope on her as well. I let her stand there for a minute or two so she understood that she was tied. She did fine, I definitely think she has been in them before. 

 

( She got a boo-boo somehow on her face. =[ )

 

 

I cleaned her hooves and held them up a little longer each time. She is still a little weary of lifting her back feet up, she doesn't kick or anything.. I just have to pull them up. Sometimes she will stomp them down, then I'll pick it right back up and she'll be fine. I'm going to look for a farrier (I've been using the farrier that the barn owner uses, but I'd like to find my own) and set up an appointment to get her feet trimmed. Her left front is awful. 

 

I wanted to use the shedding stone on her, but she was so sweaty from lunging that I only got to do a little bit. I brushed her mane and tail out then clipped her bridle path. Did I make it too long?

 

Next I saddled her and let her run around the arena for a minute. She bucked a few times but, this time I screamed "EH! EH! EH!" each time she did it. This way she knows it's not good to buck. I put on the lunge line and lunged her for a few minutes.

 

 

She was so hot and sweaty after I was done, I thought I'd see how she did with water. She was unsure at first, then started licking and chewing constantly. I guess she decided it was okay! lol. All I did was rinse her off, tomorrow I'll give her a bath.

 

Day 2

I didn't work with Ollie very much today. (Ollie is her new name, by the way). I did take her to the round pen and worked on lunging a little bit. I tied her up first and groomed her and cleaned her feet out. Her feet are HORRIBLE and I need to have the farrier out ASAP. I want to make sure she will stand at least decently for him, so I want to work with her feet some more before I call him out. 

We did some free lunging, then I bridled her and lunged her on the line. At first I just snapped the line onto the halter so I could get a feel of how much she knew lunge wise. She did pretty good, listened to voice commands fairly well. Then I attached the line to her bridle and sent her around a few laps. That's where we stopped for the day. She was pretty wound up, so I decided to let her settle in another day or two before I work her more. I bet by next Saturday, I'll be on her.

Unbelievable

I can NOT believe how well EVERYTHING went today!

When we got there, we went to the pasture with some sweet feed. She came right up, and trotted off a few times.. but she wasn't very difficult to catch. I did put the chain on her, just because we were leaving the pasture and I wanted as much control as possible. Well, amazingly... she loaded right in the trailer. She was a little hyped up, but I mean come on. I was expecting rearing, bolting, refusing to move.. etc etc. What a GOOD GIRL! 

So when we got back to the barn, I unloaded her and walked her to the round pen. She was very alert, but not hard to control. I let her loose in the round pen and let her calm down a bit. I wasn't expecting to work with her at all today.. but it just kind of happened! 

I wanted to get her into a more sturdy halter, so that's what I did first. I chose a rope halter. I thought she would put up a fight switching halters, but she did great. She was already following me around, but I decided to round pen her a bit anyways. Within 3, maybe 4 minutes she was licking and chewing. I stopped her and she came right to me, and followed me around. I snapped the lead rope on and walked her around the round pen, doing frequent stops and backs. There is a little bridge type thing in there, so I thought I'd ask her to go over it. She stepped right on like it was nothing! That really amazed me considering just last week I watched someone fight with a horse for 10-15 minutes trying to get him to walk over the bridge! I also took her over some ground poles, and a larger pole, that were in the round pen. Next I picked up all four feet, she did pretty well.. didn't try to kick out or anything but I did have to work at it for a minute.

Ollie was doing so well with everything that I threw at her, I tied her up. She acted just fine, so I groomed her. She stood there perfectly still until I was finished. Next came the saddle pad. She did perfect with it, I threw it all over her body, including sitting it on her back then tossing it off the other side. She shuffled around a bit, but did very good. I put the bridle on her then realized I have the 4 1/2" bit on that headstall for Bones. 

THEN, I saddled her! She stood there like a good girl for the whole process (she wasn't tied, either). I took off the lead rope and made her walk on. She did one lap of just walking, then started to trot and thennnn BUCK BUCK BUCK BUCK! Lol it was so funny. She did maybe two laps of bucking, stopped, snorted, sighed, and stood still. I tightened up the cinch a notch or two and kept it on her for 10 minutes. I stopped there, that seems like a more than accomplished first day to me!

I'd say that's $200 well spent.