Day 8
Today should be a day off for Freckles. We work 3 days, one off, 2 days, one off. But because we just mounted her for the first time yesterday, we want to confirm that today. This time Erwin will make his presence more clear to her. He will wiggle in the saddle, pick up reins, pet her, slightly put his legs on. We also start the transfer of aids from the ground to the person in the saddle. I will turn right, Erwin will pick up the right rein and pressure with his left leg. I will say whoo and stop, Erwin will take the stop position. Freckles was a good girl about it all. If anything she wanted to stop if she was not sure of what was happening.
Day 9
Freckles has a day off. She did well during her first two rides. When a horse is doing well it is sometimes hard to stop. You always want more. But especially with starting a horse, it is important to give them time to think things over. They might be physically up for the job, but they have to be ready for it mentally as well.
Day 10
The start of every new day is a repetition of the previous day. We just check if what we did before is still working. If not we work on it again. If all is the same as the day before we take it one step further. So today we walked around with Freckles on the lead rope again, Erwin making himself known to her. Then he started taking over more cues from me on the ground. Freckles was responding well, so we took her to the next level; lunging. I still have her on the lunge, but Erwin does all the steering and stopping in a walk. When she did that well, I asked for a trot. Especially with more lazy horses we prefer to make them go forward by the person on the ground. This way Erwin doesn't have to keep nagging her with his legs. We also use voice commands; clicking for a trot, kissing for a canter. Freckles seems to have a nice forward trot.
Day 11
After a quick lunge, Erwin and Freckles were off by themselves. What we want to accomplish in the round yard is a comfortable walk and trot, some steering, stopping and that the horse gives to the pressure of the rein. We use the outside of the round yard to help them with steering and stopping if need be. With the steering we lightly pick up the rein in the direction we want to go and use the leg on the other side to make her go there. If she responds that is great, if she doesn't she will get to the edge of the round yard and we use the wall to make her go in the direction we want. They pick it up pretty quickly on light rein and leg pressure. We do the same for a stop. Erwin will sit in the stop position and well say whoo. If the horse doesn't stop we take her head slowly to the outside against the wall and ask her to turn. This way her hindquarters have to stop and eventually she doesn't want to do the turn any more but is happy to just stop. Freckles doesn't need this, she likes to stop.
Day 12
Although it was a day off for Freckles today, she still had a big challenge. Her first trim. Our farrier is very quiet around the horses. He is really good with nervous and young horses. So after Freckles checked him and his gear out she let him pick up her hooves. Once she pulled back, but for the rest she behaved like a pro. I swear she looks like she can walk on air now!
Day 13
Because Freckles is such a big horse and she is doing all the exercises we want her to do in the round yard, we will take her into the arena today. Some horses need more time in the round yard, especially the more forward once or the horses with problems like bucking or rearing.
The first day in the arena is just getting the feel of the big open space. We concentrate mainly on steering. We like to use cones for this. Just making big circles and getting the general direction right. The first day is just a walk. Most horses don't steer well enough to go into a trot yet.
Day 14
This is the second day in the arena. We will mainly work on teaching Freckles the correct cues for steering. Very basic principle, open the door with your inside rein, push her trough with your outside leg. Freckles needs to supple up, so we will do lots of turns left and right. She also had a little trot today. Surprisingly she is very forward and it looks like we will have no trouble getting her into a canter later on. At this stage she still feels like a boat, straight in her body and drifting out. This will get better and better because of all the flexing and steering we do in the walk. Remember if something is not right in the walk, it will be bad in the trot and even worse in the canter. That's why we do a lot of walking in the beginning. Continue ...
