Watching and Learning

I intended to work with either Gypsy or Indy today, but just ran out of time (I threw in pictures of Indy and Jake - just for interest's sake). I started the day by going to Ken's (the trainer who had Skittles for 2 weeks) in the morning to watch him working with a little 2-year old stud colt. Ken has had this colt for a few weeks now - I've been out to watch a couple other times as well - and he'll have him for another month or two until he's broke to ride from what I understand.

Normally Ken works about an hour each day with a horse. Today was a fair bit longer. He started out with working on things the colt has been working on for quite a while, moving off a feel and trying to get him to soften around a bend. At the moment, the colt (Joe is his name) is consistently counter-bent around the ring (bending to the outside around a turn rather than bending in around a turn). So Ken gets him to turn inwards and change direction often, and each time he does that, there's a brief moment when Joe is bent correctly. Eventually, Joe will start softening up around these bends more consistently. Not too long into the session, Ken put a saddle on Joe. I missed the last 2 sessions when the saddle was first introduced, which I hear was rather exciting. But even in this session, Joe was wound up and looked ready to bolt any second while Ken put the saddle on him. But he got it on him without incident and then let him move his feet. He trotted and galloped around Ken at the end of the lead. Once he settled, Ken asked him to move off the feel of the lead - same as before the saddle. It wasn't long before the saddle was not an issue at all. Toward the end of the session, Ken was standing up in the stirrup on both sides. Joe wasn't exactly OK with it, but he's the type of horse that is not relaxed about much of anything yet. But he's handling it and starting to think through things, so Ken is continually adding new challenges so eventually some of the older challenges will get easier and less scary each time. This colt is significantly more uptight than Skittles was. Skittles, apparently, is a WAY more confident horse and is able to handle and adjust to new challenges much easier than Joe is. An interesting contrast. If I had not seen the change in Skittles, I would not have thought that about her.

The entire session with Joe up to this point took about an hour and a half give or take, then as he was letting Joe out of the ring, Joe decided to bolt through the gate. Well, obviously this wasn't acceptable, so Ken spent ANOTHER HOUR working with Joe trying to get him through the gate and back into the round pen. Joe would have NONE of that, so Ken patiently kept making it more difficult to be away from the gate than it was to be near the gate. At one point Joe bolted to the arena door with Ken skiing behind and then took off outside, leaving Ken in the dust. Yikes! So Ken went to catch him up again (I followed to help), he brought Joe back to the arena and walked straight into that round pen without any hesitation! I just shook my head.... why now? And not before? The next half hour or so Ken had Joe go in and out of that round pen, eventually until he could do it both ways quietly with only Ken pointing in the direction Joe was supposed to go. Several times Ken had Joe stop half way through the gate and just stand there -- getting him used to the feeling of confinement and being relaxed about it.

What I took from this session was just how long it sometimes takes to help a horse get through some tough challenges. Joe was sweated up pretty good, but in the end he was relaxed and willing and at no point was he ever harmed or in danger of being hurt - even though the energy level got pretty high at one point. I don't think I would have stuck it out that long with a horse if I was on my own. Maybe, after seeing this session, I may think differently when things get challenging. I was impressed by Ken's patience and persistence and his ability to stay calm throughout. And I'm really glad I had the time to see this through to the end. It was inspiring.

Anyway, because I didn't leave there until noon, I only had time to get a few errands done before the kids got home, then it was off to gymnastics shortly after that... so no lessons with my own horses. But the weekend is supposed to be nice, so I hope to get lots done in the next couple of days.