DAY 25-26: Days
off. Work related travel cut into our training time. You do what you have to do
to keep the horses fed, right?
DAY 27: Round pen
session with tack on! Roscoe still was a boo-boo head about the taking the bit
in his mouth. However you can hang the bridle off of his head using the brow
band…so it is just the bit he is fussing about. We made sure it was not causing
any pain issues…it was not (in fact we think the headstall may be too big for
him) so we started with advance/retreat and after tem minutes got it on. Off to
the round pen! Roscoe made up for being naughty in the round pen. Nice
direction changes at the walk and trot. Gave me “two eyes” when I asked and
really tried hard to show me what he understands. A nice 45 minute session and
then he got to hang out on the “tree of knowledge” for a bit.
A decent training session all in all. We’re seeing
improvements, not huge ones but they are consistent. Our next session will be
in the arena and I plan on taking him around a bit under saddle.
DAY 28: This day
was bound to happen. We get to the arena, we groom and we tack up and then we
fight over the bit issue. He really tested my patience on this as I know he is
not afraid of it, he just knows it means work and he doesn’t want to. When he
tried to be forceful with his head we had to increase the level of correction
until he gave in. Not fun. Now we will be working being respectful and taking
the bit nicely for the next few days. Once the tack/groom/.bit session is done
I let our friend Angela work with him on the ground. Not a bad start but she
gets flustered easy (over thinks the situation) and it caused some confusion. I
was not at my best patience level and stepped in to “get the job done” quite a
bit just so Roscoe was clear on what the expectations were. Daylight was
beginning to fade when I got in the saddle. Roscoe flexed well and even backed
up a bit when asked. By this time Laurie and Argent were riding so Roscoe
figured he had to keep up with his pasture mate. We “Followed the Fence” and
did some direction changes but it was not easy. He was ignoring the bit and my
leg cues. I had to increase the pressure in both areas to get the movement I
wanted. We worked at the walk most of the day but I did get him to trot a few
times in short bursts. It became obvious that the bridle will need to be
adjusted (more holes placed in the leather) as the bit was not being effective.
I had to actually thump him with my legs a bit too. Eventually he got his head
in the game and we got some nice movement. I let Angela do his “cool down” and
lap him some, doing only a few direction changes. He was mellow but not as
respectful as I would like. So now we have a list of “strengths and challenges”
to work in while we go through the program. Not a great training day but this
was expected.
DAY 29: Well, we
had 27 days of “pretty darned good” and now we are hitting the challenges I
expected to pop up sooner. Taking the bit respectfully…this is our new
challenge. He really fought the lesson. We did lots of advance and retreat. He
would doze off if you just put the bridle over ears and let the bit rub on his
face (which I did do). Not head shy at all. He will even lower his head when
you apply pressure to his pole. The “vibe” was disrespectful and not fearful.
He would just clamp his lips fish butt tight and move his head around. So we
hustled his feet A LOT and tried again. He
cracked me in the head with his jaw once.
Nice lump I am sporting today. He REALLY got his feet moved them in all
for directions. We tried again and got less fidgeting but still he would not
open his mouth. We did more advancing and retreating. We did more movement of
his feet too! During one of his fits I somehow opened up the skin on the back
of my hand so I had to take a break to fix that (must have been a buckle). We
tried again but this time I put the bridle over his ears and detached one of
the cheek straps. I then was able to use one hand to help encourage him to open
his mouth and then get the bit in. He then sat tied to the Tree of Knowledge
(by his rope halter) wearing the headstall for about an hour. We are going to
do this again tomorrow. It will be a bit of ground work and then we’ll try
again, hopefully without the minor injuries to the human. At least the needed
tweaks to the fit of the bridle could be made today! Here is hoping for a
better tomorrow. At least we got some decent saddle time in.
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