Day Eight

Today was pretty chilly so I left the cameras indoors with the dogs.

In yesterday's session, Kasper (having not been away from his buddies for ten days) was skittery again, worried about what might be down the road, or what might come roaring up the road. Every time I led him down the road a litte way--and I mean a little way, like ten feet--when we'd turn around he'd try to dash home as if demons were nipping at his heels.

So today I focussed on getting him comfortable with turning in a calm manner and not dashing off. I led him down the road, made him do lots of turns on the hind quarters, and then stood him and flapped the flag around him, which seems to relax him. I stood him facing down the road, and made him stand facing home (which makes him more nervous). We did the turns both ways, backing up facing both ways, and lots of flapping. He didn't dash off once today. Yay!

I've added a new link that has a brief description of training a young horse to harness. Their method took about two years. That's the kind of timeline I'm prepared for, since Kasper has big confidence issues, and since I'm willing to take as long as he needs to be comfortable with every stage.

Day Six - The Movie

Here it is! The movie I couldn't load...I'm learning so much about computers...

Day Seven

I found out I passed Stage One of the natural horsemanship courses I'm taking. Yay!

Today, Kasper and I took a step back, since I haven't worked with him for ten days, and we just did some ground work. I had him walk parallel to me down the road, making him stay at the other side of the road, and had him stop whenever I stopped.

Day Six - The Truth

Okay, back from the tropics...Now for the truth (which you could have seen if that movie I made would load!): Kasper and I weren't amazing on Day Six. I had bought some new reins that morning, because the other ones were stiff like cardboard, and the new smoother reins helped a lot. But Kasper wanted to keep turning towards me and I wasn't quick enough to correct him. He'd end up facing me and then we'd have to get reorganized and start over. By the end, I just kept him on a circle and that worked pretty well. I've since had some tips from my natural horsemanship friends and I have a new way to work on keeping Kasper from turning into me. Hopefully I can get that on video next time.

Yesterday was a blustery day so I just took pictures instead of training:

My plan for the next few days (when I get out and brave the North Wind) is to ground drive Peter (below) who I've ground driven before and is happy to have me behind him. I'll get some more practice at it, and get a better feel for the reins and the contact with his mouth, and then I'll go back to Kasper.

Here's my two wheeled cart for the summer:

And here's the sleigh waiting patiently indoors:

This is apparently a Quebec type sleigh. It is very compact; just wide enough for two people on each seat.

Today is brilliantly sunny, but it's also -21 C! We'll see if it warms up...

Day Six

Kasper and I were amazing today! Too bad the movie I made, complete with soundtrack, refused to load onto the blog. Oh well, no time to mess with it, we're off to the tropics for a week!

Day Five

Today, well, we got a little tangled. After a warm-up of ground work in the halter, I hooked the long reins to his bridle and we tried ground driving, but he wasn't so sure about being out there ahead of me and kept wanting to turn back. We worked back and forth along the road, doing several unintentional circles along the way. At the end we were kind of getting the hang of it, and I got a beautiful back-up from him at the gate. Of course, the video camera didn't catch any of it this time...somehow...

Day Four

Okay, the video loaded. Wahoo! This is called: Standing at Attention for the Flag

It appears, in the video, that I magically cued Kasper to stand up straight and hold absolutely still for the flag routine, which is pretty cute. But in reality, he's staring at my car which is parked on the road ahead of him in a place where there usually aren't any cars. The flag is nothing new, but that car sure is!

After the flag routine, I did ground work with him for a while and then we headed over to check out the car. He wasn't sure about it at first, but after several minutes of walking all around it and nuzzling it, he became quite friendly with it. I now have green tinged lipsmear marks all over the hood and down the fenders!

Today was much better than yesterday. Kasper was calmer and only had one little crowhop. I might just attach the reins and try ground driving tomorrow. We'll see!