Ground Driving

Ran out to play with Booker a bit this week in the rain. Anyway I grabbed Booker and the rain had made him super soft. His haircoat was awesome, like someone had spray him with show sheen or something. So smooth and soft. Too bad he was caked in mud from the knees down. Heh. So I groomed quick and ignored his feet cuz yuck. Still has two shoes on though.

I brought the training surcingle with and threw that on and took him into the arena. We did a minute or two of some work on the lead just to make sure he was paying attention to me. Then I worked with the umbrella a bit for my "something old." I had a small umbrella that was one of those that pop open from a button so I did that and he backed up a step but was okay with it. Took a lot less time for him to get used to the umbrella. He didn't like it over his head at first but was fine with it on his back even when it fell off on the ground - he tried to eat it then. After it was on his back he was fine with it over his head and was mostly just trying to see it.

So I hooked up the long lines and did a little ground driving. Mostly figure 8s. At first he was confused. I had the lines on the highest loop in case he didn't like the at his sides but on that setting he was holding his head so high and just sort of spinning himself in circles so I moved the lines down to his sides and he went much better. Did well with the turns but he did not do well with the halt at all. Needs a lot more practice in the arena before he's ready for a drive down the road or something like that. Once he gets that pretty well we can attach the pool noodles to the lines to simulate shafts and when he gets that we can start him on pulling something light from the saddle horn. I dunno what yet though. If we can find that race car tire he could try and pull that, I haven't seen it in the pasture in a while though.

So then I free lunged him a bit since I figured they've been standing still for a while in the pasture and mud. He was pretty amped up, lots of head tossing but didn't seem too sore or anything. Snatched some hay from the pile in the arena ;) I decided to clean off his leg quick, I didn't scrub down past the scab though. I figured any protection against the mud would be good at this point. It could be healed under that more than we think though. We'll see if it falls off next cleaning. He had his usual treats and went back out to the paddock.

Future Flag Horse?

Today's lesson was about "flappy" things on our back.  We did start with firing some blanks in the arena, a little louder than outside and Booker was a little surprised by it.  Gonna do a few more sessions of that from the ground before we get on his back since he did react more than we expected this time around.

We worked a bit with a lasso as well.  Swung that around from the ground and from his back to get him used to different flappy things.  He did pretty well with that so we moved onto the flag.  Worked with the flag on the ground on all sides before we mounted up.  He was actually really good with the flag on his back. Even did some trotting with no issues.

After he trotted for a while and was used to the flag we hiked it up higher to make sure it was flapping as much as possible.  Then we moved to dragging the flag down by his rear legs.  That concerned him more than anything so we worked on that for a while until he settled in.

Sometime in the future we'll work on more dragging items and ground driving.

What next?

Pretty sure every time we go out to the barn, Booker thinks, "okay what next?" Which is actually our plan.  We think if he's always expecting the unexpected he'll be that better of a horse because of it.  He'll always be ready for something crazy and will know that none of these crazy things will hurt him.  Well that's the theory at least ;)

So we popped out to the barn on Friday to do some more crazy things.  Our .22 blanks have arrived so we want to work as much as possible with Booker and our revolvers and keep getting him used to that both on the ground and under saddle.  Eventually we'll work up to the 45 and also figure out a way to work on the muzzle flare issue (we're thinking roman candles - stay tuned).

So we split up, one with a revolver one of us with the horse.  Walked Booker and shot and he did well.  Switched to walking next to him while fire, again did really well.  Finally ended up one person shooting while leading and again no issues.  We were going to end on shooting from the ground over his back to simulate being on his back but he was not thrilled about us even waving an arm up over his back before even firing.  So we guess Booker needs a little sacking out in addition to the shooting training.

Part of our sacking out we decided should be umbrellas.  What's more scary than a big umbrella?  So we worked on that in the arena for a while just from the ground.  He was a little hesitant about the umbrella and it seems like things on his left side are more scary (if I'm recalling correctly).  I was holding the lead and N was manning the umbrella. At one point when she opened the umbrella, Booker looked very concerned and walked around behind me to hide like a little kid hiding behind his mom.  It was pretty funny.  But in the end he did just fine with the umbrella and got lots of praise and treats when we finished.

What's next?  I have a marching band practice flag in my car right now, stay tuned ...