This past weekend we had Keith Schafer come out and look at my horse. He brought his saddle and decided that it would be ok to get on him. We saddled him there at the trailer and then took him to the “round pen” that we have at the trailer park. We had a nice round pen setup in the north west corner of the arena. Aparently there’s people there who think they own the place and setup a calf roping chute there. I can understand that when the team ropers get in there, that they can rope for hours… but there’s already 1 roping chute, why do we really need two, can’t you learn to share. Oh well. So the solution is to adjust some of the pannels in a corner, by some cow stalls and an alley way from the stalls to the ropin’ chute. Keith worked with coors for a little while and then got on… almost as simply as that. After Keith worked him and rode him for a while, we ended for the day. The next day Keith called and wanted to ride him again, so we repeated the proccess. Keith got on him quicker that day, and it was quite awesome to see. Coors ran down the alley way there for the ropin’ chutes, and then ran back. This happened several times. Finally he decided it was ok to walk down the alley way and Keith decided that it would be ok for Jessi and I to ride him. He asked who wanted to go first, I said hell yeah it’s me. So I hopped up on him. It was a great feeling to know that the ground work we had done (Mostly Jessi) was paying off. I was sitting on top of my horse and that was quite nice. We rode around in a circle a little bit, and then coors stopped. He did this little hop and I sat down, pushed my heels down, and started to pull on the reigns to stop him. I did everything right and I stopped him and it was awesome. One of those “I’m a real cowboy” moment. I got off, cause Jess had come back with her helmet, and she hopped on him. She rode around for a while and then got off, and our lesson ended.
-Jonathan
Jon and I took Coors out for a walk around the block. He was quite behaved and the donkey wasn’t that scary today. Coors also let the neighbor pet him that was amazing. Also was able to get his fly mash on with little trouble.
I took Coors for his first walk around the block. We’re not too keen on the neighbors donkey, he as ok after we passed it the 2ed time but the 3ed time it spoke so know were not a donkey fan. We found a lot of horses that we like to talk to talk to and some really cute mares. We have such a big boy voice it’s loud and strong.
Today we put on and off the fly mask with little problems. We put a bridal and headstall on for the first time without any problems. Bags are still a little scary. I worked with him earlier with bags and he seemed to be ok with one side.
Worked on the squeeze game with the barrels and also jumping the barrels and not scooting them out of the way,… stinker. Worked on standing tied while picking up his feet and getting brushed.
Fly Mask. We are cool with putting Shawn’s fly mask on. No big deal. Taking off whole other issue. Today we worked on taking that off. It took almost an hour before I could safely pull the fly mask off.
Today we started bag training. Bags are very scary, even if they are on the end of a carrot stick.
Well after having two days off Coors was a bit of a stinker. It took a lot of working him in his pen to get his halter on, but once on we were good to go. Worked with the carrot stick and also hobbling it went grate. We did some lunging and worked on trotting. Worked on sending him through the barrels and then over the barrels. HE JUMPED them!! It was perfect he picked up his feet and tucked the front legs. He’s going to be an amazing little jumper.
Today Coors got his feet trimed and was on his best maners for 1 having a stranger he just met pick up his feet and 2 just standing there having his feet held up for a long peirod of time.
Today was the first day that I (Jessi) caught Coors and put on his halter, he was a bit of a tured about it but I got it. He did a lot better on leading today it’s not right next to you but he’s following were ever I go. He did a lot better on standing still while being brushed. Coors found out that the curry come feels really good and got in to it. Worked with the caret stick and like always it went awesome. Also worked on lunging and sending between 2 barrels, both need some more work. Also worked with the saddle blanket and that went quite nicely. I was able to swing the saddle blanket up on to his back, neck, and head. Also went and played in the water puddle by the house.
