Horse training

11th session
Tried to add a new page on here but can’t seem to figure it out, I guess I will start a new heading, Horse training part 2
10th session
Went up to Dean and Brad’s today and we worked their cattle. I took the colt and Mijo both. I gathered on the colt and then swapped over to Mijo for the rest of the day.
The colt, now renamed Brody, cuz he’s such a mellow kind a guy, like a surfer dude (Think of the character Patrick Swayze played in the film with Keanu Reeves, about bank robbing surfers)!
Anyway’s Me and Brody get started of tentatively but we followed Brad and his horse and managed to stay out of the way while we penned some bulls and cows. Then we ( Dean, Brad, Rick and I ) sorted the cows off. I don’t think me and Brody helped a whole lot, but we did have several quick side trips!
When we got that done we rode east and gathered the cows. At one point Brody got troubled about Dean over across from some trees in a windbreak and I had to bend him pretty good to control things. As we moved them I trotted up to the front where Dean was and then on to the house where I swapped him for Mijo. He spent the rest of the day in the trailer saddled, which I am sure did him good also. All in =all, it was great for him. His ears came up and he really seemed to enj7 it. Never did try to do anything other than spook and run and that was pretty easy to control. I think now I will be able to just get on and go outside the corral. I never warmed him up any when I got on or longed him or nothing. Just got on and went. I sure appreciate them guys helping me and allowing me to do this with him. Brad was a big help with lots of patient advice. Even tho’ at times I seemed to ignore him, I am sure, he thought.
9th session
I waited for Cindy and then I went out and saddled up, just let him stand there with the get down loose over my arm. He was good until Cindy walked up and then he got curious and had to turn to see her. I went out and rigged my mecate so the get down was longer for a longe line and ran it thru the ring on the front f the saddle so it was more of a pull back and less to the side, yet still close to where my hands would be in the saddle. Worked him around one side for a bit and it went real well, so worked him the other. I was more behind him than to the side and I would just walk or jog along with him. When it got too fast for me I would wiggle and apply no more pressure than I had to, to get him to tip his nose slightly and slow and stop. He accepted that real well so I just snugged up the front cinch and stepped o him there in the larger corral in front of the horse barn. I mostly just got him to step out and got and hit a trot and stay with it. When we’d come to a corner or spot where he was going to have to make a sharp turn to get out of it I would just quit riding and slump trying to get him to understand that cue. At one point I just sat and tipped his nose with a wiggle of the rein on that side until he tipped his nose while also putting some leg/heel pressure in to help him round/curve that way. This all went well. At one point when he wouldn’t get out and trot and keep it up, I got pretty serious about whacking him on the butt with the tail of my rope and he’d kind of shake his head and show he didn’t like it but he never did try to buck or get worried. He sure is laid back. Maybe I ought to change his name to Surfer Dude!
I mostly concentrated on my focus when he was moving and not truing to direct him too much and just get it across he is to move out at a set speed until I tell him different. Tomorrow I am supposed to go help a neighbor gather his cows and work them so I am going to take Colonel along and follow the other riders as we gather, just so he can get outside and see some of the world and the other horses along will help him to go and give him somebody to chum up with a bit, hopefully. I asked the owner of the cattle if that would be alright and he agreed as we should have plenty of help gathering. Then I will switch to Mijo for the rest of the work, pushing cattle down the chute.
8th session
Kind of a short one. I was tired and sore from a long quick trip we made. So I just saddled up, went to the round corral and worked Colonel on the ground for a bit with the flag and then stepped on. He was fine, but wanted to hang to the side where the other horses were of course. I worked on the ground and then in the saddle with him coming to a trot and keeping it going. I had to get pretty active in the saddle and use the end of my rope on the swells to encourage and as an addition to my leg pressure to move out and keep moving. But by the end he would trot along for quite a ways and when he was wanting to quit I would try to just quit riding. If I could get more attuned to him he will get more attuned to me. The wind is howling today so I don’t know if I will ride him in the shed or maybe go up and ride with Brad in Deans shed.
7th session
Well Colonel had to perform in front of a crowd. Had some young folks over, working on leather and jamming on guitar so when I went out to work the colt, they all followed me. Along with Chance and Hope and Brad, who showed up. Saddling went like an old broke horse. I put him in the back of the shed and worked him,but he was very conscious of the chattering group in the corner.

I sacked on him and tried to get him to “like” the corner where every one was. so we worked on that. Never did get him to plumb go over there, but got him better. I wiggled the saddle horn and stepped up and then on. No big deal. The only problem I had with him was getting him to move out. At one point he stopped alongside the wall where I had left my soft nylon rope hanging, so I took it down and recoiled it and he just stood and waited for me. so I used it to flop and rub around on him and as an aid to get him to move out. I am sure when we get in a bigger ,en with out so many watching him he will do better. All in all, a good session.
6th session
Took the filly and Colonel up to Brad’s this morning after chores. Really good session and found out the filly has some fire when Brad saddled her!

I backed the trailer up to the trailer chute and had a little trouble loading Col and made kind of a poor decision when he turned around and refused to enter. I should have just let him come back, turned him around and sent him again, which is what eventually happened but I tried to encourage him by waving my chinks at him, which I had in my hand. As he came back by me he hooked a coil of rope o a spike sticking out of a narrow entry into that loading area. Didn’t hurt anything and at least I found out my rope strap was good and solid. I got around him and the filly and she lead them in and I was ready when she came back and encouraged both to go in. they did. But maybe in the future he will be scared of a tight spot. Made him a little nervous about loading in the trailer, but after being loaded and unloaded at Brad’s and when I got home, he is fine with it.

I turned Col loose in the shed with some colts Brad was working. He worked them all from horseback and got them all moving freely. Col was very interested in the other horses and worried about his sister left in the trailer. After Brad got done working a colt he took him out and left me to prepare Col to get on. I used a flag on him at a suggestion from Brad. I had flagged him in the past, but was not being very effective to what Brad taught me to do. We rectified that and then I got on and things went smooth. Brad kept directing me to do different things and had a hard time getting me to understand his meaning at times, but it was fun and we had a great session. Had to get Dean in there on a horse with a flag to help me to teach Col the cues to move out when I asked him to. Dean did a great job and Brad was on a colt in there also, so it was great fun and good for me and the colt. Can’t wait for the next session!

5th session
While I was waiting for Cindy to get home, I went out to catch the colts. Colonel followed me into the barn, so I put a halter on him, very easily, then tied him to the fence and saddled him up. Brushed him a bit as his hair showed tracks from the last snow fall. He handled it all well, but seemed a little impatient with me. Seeing as my round corral is slippery and snow packed, I took him in the back of the shed, 40 x 40 feet. The filly followed us in, so I tied Col to a gentle post and then shut the door on them both, went and got my soft nylon rope and hackamore and chinks. When I came in the shed I hung up all but the rope and went to working with the filly.
I had made a contract with her yesterday that if she faced me I would take the pressure off. If she tried to turn her butt to me I would swing what ever was in my hand to agitate her a bit. She remembered her lesson well and in just a short time I could walk up to almost touch her. But I didn’t. I waited for her to touch me with her nose and sniff me. After she got very comfortable with that, I moved her off and let her circle and started throwing the coils of ropes over her back. Of course that upset her a bit at first, but in just a minute or two she wouldn’t even flinch when I threw them at her or if I flipped it around on her back and neck and hindquarters. Pretty amazing when you remember how snorty she is.
Pretty soon I had her circling away from me, backwards and dragging quite a bit of the rope from her neck, so I just reached down and picked it up and then I had a lop around her neck and worked her back and forth like that. When I felt she was ready for the halter I went over and took the halter off Colonel who had been an impatient audience for all this. He immediately walked over and hooked up with his half sister. I stuck the lead rope and a part of the halter thru’ my belt so that it would be handy when I needed it, but still out of the way of my hands. I again threw part of the rope over her back and worked to get it up around her neck at the throat latch area. I picked up the extra and again had control. She is very light and sensitive. In just a few minutes she would let me rub all over her with the coils of the rope in my hand, on both sides, clear over her butt. She was nervous and watchful, but stood for it well. I love a horse with brains.
I rubbed on her with my hand where I was going to be working to get the halter on and in a few more minutes had it carefully slipped over her nose and the poll and tied it off.
All this time Colonel was watching or pestering us wanting to be a part of it. Soon I had her moving from side to side with just very gentle pressure on the lead rope. I asked her to walk by me and turn her butt away and step across with her hind feet as she did so. It took a few tries for her to understand this, but she soon was doing that also. About then Colonel was right there and she kind of got on the other side of him from me so I just let the lead rope go behind him and then watched to see what would happen. Nothing, tho’ he did kind of look to me to see what it was I wanted. So I stepped back and flipped the rope up over the saddle and took a half turn on the horn and asked him to move off a little. When the pressure came to the horn he never even twitched. Just moved until he felt the pressure and stopped. So I decided to kill two birds with one stone and set out to let him lead her from the horn. Worked well. She was more willing to go along with him and he found he could walk into the pressure from the rope on the horn. Neither got excited and when the filly did set back a bit, he just kept on going and she gave to pressure. When she did, he stopped and I didn’t even have to let slack in the rope for her to get the release. She gave it to herself. Beautiful!
I messed with her a bit more and then removed the halter off her and put her out of the shed and put my hackamore on Colonel and let him wander around the shed as I put on my chinks. As I was doing this he was nuzzling me for a bit then walked off to make sure he really couldn’t get out of the shed to go with his sister. I walked over and asked him to move off and when he was a bit lazy about it, I took my soft nylon rope and used it to encourage him to move off. I threw the loose end over his back and saddle and as soon as it would get snug he would yield to pressure and come towards me. I then had him trot and lope a few strides,both directions to make sure he had all the kinks out. Cindy had come out to watch and in case I got into a wreck. I have an old oblong water tank setting along side the wall, upside down which I can use for a platform to walk these horses up to me and then I can lean over them and get them used to switching eyes so they are not startled when I swing a leg over. And I don’t put much pull on the saddle when I step on either, so they get to liking it and it’s easier for an old fat man to get on one, especially when you are bundled up or it’s muddy. Comes in real handy later on in their career.
I had him step up to it so I was on his right side and leaned over with a little weight in the stirrup, flopped the off side stirrup around and made sure he was cool with all of that. I then sent him past and turned him and had him come up with his left side to me. For some reason he doesn’t do that as well, so it took several tries to get him positioned where I wanted him. I did the same as the other side and then just stepped on. I had rigged up a night latch for my left hand and also a loop on the rear jockey on the right side. I also have my rope tied on good and solid on the front of the right side, so I have several good hand holds if a colt wants to get frisky. Might not save me but it might help me get thru’ a rough patch or two. I reached back with my right hand and got a good hold and went to petting and rubbing him with my left hand on his neck. He turned his head and sniffed of my toe in the stirrup a bit and then moved off easy. I kept petting and rubbing his neck and then switched handholds and rubbed with the right hand. All this time he was just moving around freely and not getting tight in any way. Pretty son, I would pick up the mecate, which I had crossed and loped over the horn and give a slight touch with it, on the side he was starting to go towards, so he will learn and understand that signal. He stopped over by Cindy who was standing behind a couple of panels in the corner. So I reached and lightly pulled back on the left rein and as his head came that way he started to move and I never did have to take all the float out. I did that on both sides several times and then decided that was a good first ride. I did get him to circle pretty tight to set him up for a one rein stop. About then he walked over to
Cindy and sniffed her so I had her just take a hold of the rein and hold him so I could step off. I wiggled back and forth a little as a signal to him I was gong to get off and then stepped down smoothly. He got startled a bit and moved away as far as he could, but with her hold on the rein it wasn’t too far. It was nice Cindy had a hold of him, sure avoided a bad deal and him getting scared of a person getting off in the future.
I then worked on stepping on and off from the left side and got him to stand good for that. I attempted to get on from the right, but I am just too uncoordinated! I decided that was a good place to quit. So this session went real well. He is a long ways from a gentle horse, but shows the makings of a good one so far.

4th session
I skipped a couple days working with the colt between the weather and other things. So today after working with a filly and doing chores, I played with him a little. Just tied the halter rope back to the halter in a loop, like the mecate will be on the bosal and walked beside him and worked on getting him to move forward, stop and back up and also left and right, off very little effort. He did well. Next step is getting on and just being a passenger and then slowly add all this I while I am setting on him. When that is all good, then we just refine and refine until my thought becomes his.

3rd day
I went out and did my chores. It was windy and spitting a little snow. I grained the horses then caught the colt and lead him into the barn. We had a little go around going in to the barn, but I just circled him and lead by pointing, so to speak. Soon he figured out it was easiest to just follow me in the barn. I got the pad and he wasn’t concerned when I flopped it on him from either side. So I left it and grabbed the saddle and set it on. I did not hobble him and he was cool with every thing I did. Stood there quietly while I cinched up good and snug, front and back. I then got the bigger Willy bosal hackamore set up and put it on him. No big deal. Didn’t mind me messing with his ears and mane getting it all set. I led him out of the barn and into the round corral. I rigged up the “get down” and reins to the saddlehorn and moved him around a bit. He never got tight in any way. I took the “get down” rope down off the horn and worked him around me in a circle and then stepped up closer to the fence and asked him to come between me and the fence. He did it well going counter clockwise, but was a bit uncertain when I asked him to go clockwise around me. We worked on that and got him comfortable with doing it. Coming back around counter clockwise he would stop beside me in the position for me to step on if I wanted to. I do this so when I step up on the catwalk he will walk up alongside of me so I can work over and above him and get him used to switching eyes, when I do step on. I will probably work on that tomorrow. Short, easy sessions with some improvement or learning new things each day seems to be working good so far.

2nd day
Tain’t fittin’ out! Snow and wind. As I walked back to the house from the corrals, you can’t hardly see. As I look out the window as I type this, I can just make out the larger tree’s east of the house, but when I look to the northwest, I can see the outlines of the hill about 200 yards away. Perfect weather for working a colt!

I had grained the horses and left them in the coral this morning. Got a late start as a guy I have not seen for quite a few years called and we had a good, long conversation. So I planned on going out to work with Colonel this afternoon, but decided to wait for Cindy to get home because I got another call and was on the phone with a neighbor. That reminded me I needed to call another friend back who was looking for some summer pasture for some cows. So Cindy was home before I got off the phone.

I went out and caught up the little bay and it was easy. Put it in the round corral and worked just a little on him following the lead rope, got the cotton rope, hobbled him with no trouble. Went and got the pad and saddle and his eyes got pretty big as I approached him, so I set the saddle down and we had a short session of sacking out with the pad from both sides. Don’t want him to get “one sided”. Took about half as much time as yesterday. I set the pad on his back, patted it pretty firmly and then picked up the saddle and set it on. No big deal. Cinched up gently, but firmly, front and back and real snug. He accepted that fine so I undid the hobbles and turned him loose, but hung on to the lead rope in case he got wild. No big deal.

I moved him back and forth with the lead, and had him follow me a bit. He wasn’t bothered in the slightest. So I tied the lead rope up loosely to the saddle horn and then stepped back and asked him to move out. Again, no big deal.

I had a bit of a problem to get him to move off away from me as he had to turn his hindquarters towards me slightly and he must have remembered his lesson that he was not to walk away from me. I was slow and easy and got him to understand it was okay to walk and then trot around the pen. I let him stop and set him up to turn the other way. He had a bit of a problem doing that, but it eventually came. I thnk he was having problems switching eyes. I was in no big hurry and neither was he. I got him to go the other direction, at a walk and then a trot. Turned him back to go the other way and made a couple circles and then switched him back and sent him the other way. All real slow and easy. He was in no way troubled or bothered so I let him stand and moved off and took the pressure off him. He wandered over to the side, so he was closest to the other horses, two corrals away.I let him stand for a bit then stamped my foot until I got his attention. When he turned to me I again walked farther away to reward him and take pressure off. He looked at me for a half a minute and then slowly strolled over, almost to me. I approached him slowly, but firmly with out any attitude of harm to him and petted his face a few times and decided that was a good place to quit. I am in no hurry on this project. I did not hobble him to unsaddle and he stood like an ol’ broke horse. I removed the halter and then just picked up all my gear and walked away. As I was putting the saddle and pad away he walked up and into the front of the barn. I took that as a good sign. Looking forward to tomorrow.

I have decided as one of my Lenten vows to work with Colonel every day, thru’ Lent. He is a coming 3 year old gelding. He is out of Plumb Pepinic by Smart Little Pepinic / DrySilver Scotch.
On the bottom side, his Dam is Flips Dusty Socks by Flipmia / Cool Lassie.

His registered name is Plumb Dusty Colonel. I call him Colonel, pronounced kur a nell, like Sargent Shultz pronounced it on Hogan’s Hero’s TV show, years ago. “Colonel Klink!” With a decidedly German accent.

Like the character of Sargent Shultz on the show, “he knows NOTHINGK!”

Well, that isn’t quite true. He is sort of halter broke and knows to come to grain in a bucket. Kind of an easy going dude. Doesn’t seem to let much ruffle his feathers. So I decided that I wanted to try to train him myself, with coaching and encouragement from some others. I had promisd to send him to Brad, this spring, along with his half sister, for Brad to start. When I told Brad of my plans he was encouraging and said he would help me in any way he could. Little does he know, he may have bite off more than he can chew!

Me also, perhaps.

I have always liked using a hackamore set up. Well made rawhide bosal and a mecate set up, to start horses. When Chance was breaking colts for people, he started many of them this way and some with a ring or broken moth snaffle. (Not the kind with shanks, which really are not a snaffle anyway. To be a snaffle, there can be no shanks so there is no leverage with one. It is a bit that is to be used primarily with just one rein at a time.)

A bosal is very similar, but there are some people whom I admire, who say a bosal is still different. Or at least they use it slightly different. They hold that the bosal is used much like the bit that will go in the horses mouth at a later date, so the signals, or cues, are much the same. Kind of like teaching a person to drive a pickup with a four speed instead of a tractor, so when they get in a race car with a four speed, they will be doing the same things and not have to re-learn a different way or set of skills. It supposedly transfers the knowledge over to the pupil, or in this case, horse, better.

In the past I have sent my young horses off to several of these young guys around this country who are great horse hands and they always return a very nice horse who will do all anyone would ask of it, at that point in their training. But…they have used a snaffle or bosal, in the way most would use a snaffle. I have never had a problem switching them over to a bosal after I get them back, if they were started in the snaffle. But I am now learning that some of the cues they were taught are slightly different than what I want to use, so in order to improve myself and hopefully, help the horse and not have him have to re-learn these subtle cues, I am going to attempt to just do it myself. I will try and write on here every day as to what we worked on and how it went.

I have been keeping Colonel in with a couple horses I have close and been graining every day. I have played with him a couple times in the last few days. Today we started getting serious.

I sorted Col off into a corral by himself and let him have a little grain. I haltered him and we did have a little session about him wanting to turn his butt to me when I went to catch him. No big deal, I just made it easier for him to stand and let me approach him from the front, where I carefully put the halter on and adjusted it so it fit snug but not too tight.

I had noticed his feet needed trimming, so while he was interested in his grain, I cleaned and trimmed his right front foot. Evidently I have done this to him at some time in the past as he was very good to let me hold his foot. When got to his left front foot, his grain was gone and he didn’t want to let me hold his foot as well as the other, but he didn’t really fight. So I tied him by the halter rope, high with a quick release knot and cleaned and trimmed that front foot. At some point further along I will trim his back feet.

I then got a soft cotton rope about 3/4 inch and used it to hobble his front feet. He took it well and when I asked him to move his front feet from side to side, did not get too excited. I then got a pad and a saddle. I had the cinches tied up and the pad was soft, but firm. When I went to “sack him out” with the pad, he did show more reaction! There is some fire n there. Nothing to extreme, but it was a good thing I did it. By the time I was done he stood very quietly. So I went and picked up the saddle, let him smell it a bit and then set it on his back. I didn’t flop it, I didn’t drop it, I, in the words of some of these guys, “set it on him like I was putting my hat on my head”. I wiggled it and then walked to the other side, let down the cincha’s and adjusted them to fit him and then walked back over and snugged up the front cinch and then the back one. He took all that real well. I was going to unhobble him, but decided that the corral I was in wasn’t the best place to do that if he got too excited. So I uncinched, pulled the saddle and pad off and re-set it again a couple times, went to the other side and did the same, then took the saddle and pad off that side and put it away. I came back and unhobbled him and fussed over him and scratched his ears. He wanted to pull away from me as I was taking the halter off so I worked on that and showed him to stay with me and lower his head. When he accepted all that well I just turned and walked away. The first real session went well.