One on one walk

The morning was not raining so I decided we both needed to get out of the arena for a little one on one time.  So I hand walked Flash over to the Christmas tree farm next door. He was quite on alert and ready for action. I had to remind him a few times to walk by my side and not on top of me or in front of me. He quickly settled into my pace and was respectable.  When we got to the bottom of the hill, we walked through a few puddles boldly and stretched our legs into a trot. He got pretty revved up about going faster, but he was not unmanageable and settled into a nice gait when I reminded him he wasn't going to run off with me. Then we went back to walking and he kept thinking about the barn and his friends at the top of the hill. I continued to remind him I wanted his attention on me and not the barn. He gave me his attention for a few  a  seconds at a time and then back to staring up the hill while we walked. That's okay, he's still learning about work ethic. That's why we were out of his comfort zone today.

Growing again!

His back end took off again. Flash is taller at his hip than his wither and he's "race carring" again. (Jacked up in the back end like a race car!!)

He's gotta be in the 15.3 near 16 hand point in the back, I would say... his wither has got a bit of caching up to do, but he'll get there.

He's really starting to fill out in his chest too and looking less like a lanky baby and more like an adult horse!

Yeah, his mane is growing too... its wild and woolly for now
until it  is long enough to pull. 

A new game...

Flash has figured out it's pretty entertaining to chew on the clips in the cross ties.

Today this game transferred over to trying to chew on me when I am leading him, especially when we take off into a trot. Naughty! So I am deployed several different tactics to let him know that is not okay.

1)  John Lyons approach - you have 3 seconds to let him know it's the end of his world for that behavior then go back to acting as if nothing has happened. - So I stopped, yelled and screamed and got in his space (to back him up). Then it was right back to walking as if nothing happened.

2) direct his attention elsewhere - so if we are trotting along and he reaches down with teeth, I stop and send him forward into lunging around me for a a few minutes or stop and back up.

These two approaches seemed to have made a difference. After 4 times with a consistent "that's not okay" response from me, he did not offer his teeth at me again.

Not to say he won't try it again. But I will be ready for him with the same responses... patience and consistency.

Thankful

I am thankful Flash came into my life when he did. We both had a need and we were able to find it fulfilled in each other.

I am thankful for all the friends that I have that made it possible for us to find each other and were supportive in building our relationship.

I am thankful for the barn where Flash now lives and all the people that care for him.

I am thankful for all my family and friends who are encouraging and supportive of my journey with training a young horse.

I am especially thankful for Russ, who is patient and supportive of all of my horsing around.

A rare afternoon sunshine

Went to get Flash out of the pasture this afternoon and the sun was making a rare appearance around all the rain clouds....

                                                                                                            

Big steps.. at a trot!

Russ came out to the barn tonight to help with Flash. I gotta say. I am pretty proud of our work so far. I did the basic ground work and then we worked on mounting and dis mounting. Russ held him and this time I was not slow and gradual. I put my foot in the stirrup and swing on. Flash stood perfectly still and relaxed with the whole process. That is huge progress. Then when I signaled to walk, Russ walked and so did Flash! Again, nice and relaxed walk. We made several passes back and  forth across the arena then we made a big circle and Russ started walking faster.. and faster... then we were trotting! Flash was a little concerned about the weight on his back but he was not tense, it seemed more like he was a little unsure of how to balance the weight but the more steps he took at the trot the better he got. Another huge step tonight! He is getting quite comfortable with me on his back.

Multiple riding successes!

The past 3 evenings I have had help and been able to work on mounting and dismounting on Flash. He's been great! While someone holds him, I mount and dis mount and re mount then use my legs to ask him to move forward a few steps. He still gets a little tense every now and then but it doesn't feel like he is going to go into blow up mode. It feels more like an unsureness but nothing more.
I am quite pleased with our baby steps progress.

Russ was helping last night. He led Flash and me back and forth across the arena several times. Flash went calmly and seemed to be quite comfortable with me being in the saddle. He's got a very comfortable smooth walk and powerful shoulders.. I think he is going to be a lovely ride!!!

Tonight we had a mounting and un mounting session outdoors! The grass was a major distraction, but once we got him thinking a little more about paying attention, he stood quietly while I got in and out of the saddle multiple times. We even took a little walk to the fence and all seemed old hat for the little boy.
The baby steps approach seems to be working!

Ahhh!

It was going to be a late night at work so I decided to take the morning off and spend it at the barn. It was a beautiful sunshiny morning after a workout on Deuce, I took Flash (who never showed any signs of soreness from his crash last week - little boys are tough!)  along for a cool out ride around the fields.

It was a lovely, uneventful and quite ride.... we even stopped to explore the street sweeper brush cross country jump, which he found to be very fun to run his lips over. (the very stiff bristles made a scratchy, clicky noise on his chin, it was pretty cute to see him play.


At turn out time, I watched him wander off and then stop at a bare spot in the field. He dropped
and rolled... 

and rolled....

He is quite exuberant with his rolling. Not only does he go to both sides multiple times, he also sticks his hind legs straight up in the air as if he is doing some crazy equine yoga pose. These pictures don't really capture the extent of his poses but you get the idea. 

 What a way to start the morning!!

Wipe out (not me, this time!)

Deuce and Flash and I set out on a lovely early evening walk around the cross country field to enjoy the late fall sky colors as the sun sank lower on the horizon.

Flash has decided to take an interest in his surroundings while on trial rides. He looks around more and actually picks up his feet and moves with a bit more energy now. That's all well and good most of the time...

Tonight really was simply lovely in the field. We cruised around, looked at the sky and the horizon. We made big circles, and turns up and down the hill and all sorts of things. Flash stayed right by our sides and only tried to trot off once (mostly just to see what he could get away with and he was feeling good)  but Deuce and I both reminded him where he was supposed to be with little fuss.

Since both boys seemed to be mellow and on good behavior, I decided to take a small little venture down the driveway and over to the Christmas tree farm and then back past the driveway and down the dirt road just a little ways. All was well until we turned back towards home...

The neighbor's farm has a new horse in the front field, I learned in a rather unfortunate way. As we were headed back towards the barn and walking back up the dirt driveway, the new horse in the field came charging up along the fence line. The rapid hoof beats took Deuce and Flash by surprise. Flash wanted to run... and Deuce did too. I could not keep both from running off so I let Flash go. I figured we were close to the barn and that is very likely where he would go. And he did. Rather rapidly. He hit the asphalt driveway which was a little wet and flew around the corner and lost his back end. and thud!  He had a complete wipe out, all the way down on his side. He quickly got up and trotted around to the back of the barn. From where I was perched on a very amped up and trying to take off Deuce, it looked like the grey one trotted off sound, so I focused my efforts on settling a very hot spotted horse (who did some pretty fancy side stepping and nearly passage type moves) as we made our way back to the barn to go find and assess the damage on the poor kid.

He was grazing quietly behind the barn...on all 4 feet... good sign. I caught him easily enough, took a quick look over to determine nothing major was injured and then carried on with our ride. We were going to end on a good note, even if it was getting dark. I made a few more passes up and down the driveway then back for a small loop around the cross country field with no furhter incident or even really indication that anything had happened (both calm and relaxed!)

Back at the barn, I took a more through look at all the points of impact.... he had some pretty good road rash and will likely have some bruising. He'll be sore tomorrow but I don't think any major damage incurred.

I covered his owys thoroughly with ointment, gave his some bute and promised to check on him first thing in the morning.