[back to work]

After 2 months of not having a round pen, lots of rain, organizing events at my barn and working my horse… I finally got back to training Flicka this week again. I was a bit worried at first but It seems the time off did her good after all.

She was much quieter on her way to the pen (usually rears a bit and neighs out of excitement) but I don’t think she was depressed or anything; just serious I suppose. She did her run just fine, changed direction on queue without a problem and then walked by me for quite a lot longer than before with no regard for the usual distractions ( grass, other horses).  Flicka was paying a lot of attention, like she really wanted to do her work the best she could. After washing her down I put a bit in her mouth. She took to it with no hesitation, she didnt fight it. I know she might be a bit young for this, but I dont think it would do her harm to learn these things ahead of time… After 20 mins or so I took it out, rubbed her all over and took her back to her stall.
Next week, we’ll be doing some ’spooking’ work with the lasso…

Week 2

June 6th- After working in the round pen, I picked her front feet. She gave em easy, although she tried to kick a few times.  because of my back condition I didnt try the hind feet yet, but I think I will this week.

6 de junio- Luego de trabajar en la pista y de un buen baño, empece a enseñarle como dar las patas. Solo halo un poco. Como todavia mi espalda no esta bien, no he tratado las patas traseras… pero creo que lo hare esta semana.

Aqui unas fotos de esta session. Como ha estado lloviendo, no hemos hecho mas trabajo en la pista…

Dia 1

viernes 30 de mayo- Hoy fue nuestro primer trabajo en el ’round pen’. Al principio fue intimidante la energia de Flicka; es rapidisima y tiene mucho entusiasmo. Entendio rapido a ir en una direccion y luego cambiar con el mando. A principio se distraia mirando hacia afuera pero a los 5 minutos de dar vueltas comenzo a prestarme atencion sin interrupcion. Luego de las vueltas me le acerque, la premie por su buen trabajo y la hice seguirme.

Today was our first day in the round pen. It was a bit intimidating to see her running around me at first, tail up in the air, huffin n puffin… she learned how to change direction pretty easy and although at first she was distracted by everything outside of the pen, at about 5 minutes of running she got into it… ears pricked towards me, eyes fixed on me as well. After a while i told her to stop, made her turn towards me. She didnt walk forward but once i petted her and got her attention i walked away and she followed, so i played around a bit and kept changing direction on her to see if she was really following me. Flicka did good today, and that means so did I.