hobbyhorse23
Well-Known Member
EEEEEEE!!!
After a year and a half of waiting, we're almost there! Turbo is maturing beautifully under all that winter fur, he's lost some caps up front, his stifles (knock on wood) haven't locked for a long time, he got gelded Feb. 3rd and after he gets his teeth done this Friday he's ready to go into training!
The weather is going to slow our progress at first but once it starts getting nice I expect he'll come along rather quickly as I've been working on those foundation skills since he was a yearling and he's really getting them down. He WANTS to work, is dying to work, and halter practice simply isn't cutting it anymore.
He mastered sidepassing in a day, sets up like a pro now, freezes when I tell him to "Whoa, Stand" and once his teeth are good I think he'll continue to make progress towards accepting the bit.
The day before he got gelded I asked him to formally work in a harness saddle and crupper for the first time and he jumped right to going out ahead of me and long-lining past all sorts of scary things. I only had one lead rope on him as I was planning on leading, not long-lining, but he turned both directions, walked, trotted, whoa'd and backed quite nicely despite that. I was so proud of him! I don't think we're going to have much problem with spinning to face me except the first few times he spooks so I'm going to go right to working him through a homemade obstacle course in a halter and two leads to provoke that reaction so we can work through it. He's already used to the cart from being ponied and has worked between the shafts at liberty both forwards and backwards so I'm going to focus pretty quickly on working to the bit correctly and bending. I normally wouldn't do that with a green horse but Turbo's been learning lateral work in-hand for the last few months and only needs to learn to translate the cues into pressure from the bit. It shouldn't be a big step as it's only building on something he already knows.
Anyway, I'm really excited and can't wait to share pictures with you guys as we go. I've been off the box seat since late 2008 and it's been killing me! Driving other people's horses is not enough.
My only worry is that my assistant/photographer is laid up with a broken foot and my backup will be deployed to Iraq this summer.
Makes it hard to get pictures and do some of this stuff.
Leia
The weather is going to slow our progress at first but once it starts getting nice I expect he'll come along rather quickly as I've been working on those foundation skills since he was a yearling and he's really getting them down. He WANTS to work, is dying to work, and halter practice simply isn't cutting it anymore.
The day before he got gelded I asked him to formally work in a harness saddle and crupper for the first time and he jumped right to going out ahead of me and long-lining past all sorts of scary things. I only had one lead rope on him as I was planning on leading, not long-lining, but he turned both directions, walked, trotted, whoa'd and backed quite nicely despite that. I was so proud of him! I don't think we're going to have much problem with spinning to face me except the first few times he spooks so I'm going to go right to working him through a homemade obstacle course in a halter and two leads to provoke that reaction so we can work through it. He's already used to the cart from being ponied and has worked between the shafts at liberty both forwards and backwards so I'm going to focus pretty quickly on working to the bit correctly and bending. I normally wouldn't do that with a green horse but Turbo's been learning lateral work in-hand for the last few months and only needs to learn to translate the cues into pressure from the bit. It shouldn't be a big step as it's only building on something he already knows.
Anyway, I'm really excited and can't wait to share pictures with you guys as we go. I've been off the box seat since late 2008 and it's been killing me! Driving other people's horses is not enough.
Leia
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