Thursday, October 22, 2009

Training update

Here is the latest from the trainer:

Some day I should hope that you should be able to tie Boomer up anywhere. I may try and find you a b-good halter just in case though so that you have one handy. Don't be scared of him when he flips out. Get behind him when he's jerking back. Clap your hands. Push him forward. Be aggressive towards him so that he knows he should be paying attention to You the whole time you're around him and not just jerking back just because he's impatient.
Also, a lot of the time, a horse will transfer over from using a b-good halter to a rope halter pretty well because it has the same feel on their head.
At first he was a little barn sour and did the whole stopping, spinning around, or backing. When he does this to you I really want to work with you on getting after him. All it took for me was to give him a swift kick in the ribs and deepen my voice and push him forward and he Knew he'd better move out. He knows what he's supposed to do and even though he tests you, what's nice about Boomer is that he's not mean. He doesn't want to hurt you.
If you're aggressive he's easy to push around.
Also, the first few rides I know what you mean by hyper-alert. He looked at Everything. Now he's beginning to focus on what I'm asking him to do instead of worrying about everything around him.
I plan on going out on Sunday afternoon and possibly riding with her. I am having a bit of an internal conflict because I am sort of getting the feeling that he is going to need more than 30 days. The only problem that this raises is that our boarding barn may not hold our spot for more than 30 days. However, there are other places to board around town and I don't want that to influence my decision, but its hard not to think of that.

1 comment:

Shanster said...

Same comments I get from my trainer - Rosso isn't mean, but he's trying to get his way.

Only now that he can unload me... well, what the heck do I do with that?? I mean yeah, we are teaching him that unloading me comes with consequenses of MUCH more work... but it really did a number on my confidence.

I'm so thankful to have Sera to ride 1. to ride 2. to keep some of my confidence so I don't feel like the biggest friggin idjit and 3. as a testament that Rosso and I can and will get there... cuz she and I sure have!!

As long as we are all learnin' sumthin right? :)