Working with ponies went pretty well yesterday. I might try to saddle Autumn today.
No big deal to saddle Symphony, tack doesn't worry her. Will do weight on the back exercises today with her.
I want to get them lunging really well too, they've both only been trotted in circles before.
I like to get the youngsters all responding to vocal cues on the lunge line. I want to be able to tell them what gait and have them understand. Yesterday I just worked on walk. It's not as simple as it sounds! :) We did walking, and trusting-the-handler exercises, since trust is what we lost with the "trainer" experience.
It was still too COLD, my fingers were freezing even though I was trying to keep gloves on most of the time!
I'm kind of convinced my ponies are some of the brightest little creatures God ever created. It is just so much fun to watch them thinking things over.
So easy for me to feel inadequate, but I got some great advice from an older and wiser horse woman recently that I've been thinking over quite a bit.
She said I am the best one to train my own horses, because I care about them a lot more than anyone else does. So if I can find a way to do the training myself, that would be best all around.
You know, as much as I would like to find someone to help us train colts, I think she's right. On top of that, I think I am becoming more of an "expert" than a lot of folks who claim to know what they are doing around horses.
So far, I think I have either trained myself or else supervised the training of 10 horses, which have all been started and finished right here on our place. That doesn't count the one I've had a trainer help me with. Most all of our horses and ponies are super gentle and safe for any rider, by the time we are finished training them. All of the ponies we have trained up are nice lesson ponies for inexperienced beginners, and are really great around kids. How many trainers can say the same?
No big deal to saddle Symphony, tack doesn't worry her. Will do weight on the back exercises today with her.
I want to get them lunging really well too, they've both only been trotted in circles before.
I like to get the youngsters all responding to vocal cues on the lunge line. I want to be able to tell them what gait and have them understand. Yesterday I just worked on walk. It's not as simple as it sounds! :) We did walking, and trusting-the-handler exercises, since trust is what we lost with the "trainer" experience.
It was still too COLD, my fingers were freezing even though I was trying to keep gloves on most of the time!
I'm kind of convinced my ponies are some of the brightest little creatures God ever created. It is just so much fun to watch them thinking things over.
So easy for me to feel inadequate, but I got some great advice from an older and wiser horse woman recently that I've been thinking over quite a bit.
She said I am the best one to train my own horses, because I care about them a lot more than anyone else does. So if I can find a way to do the training myself, that would be best all around.
You know, as much as I would like to find someone to help us train colts, I think she's right. On top of that, I think I am becoming more of an "expert" than a lot of folks who claim to know what they are doing around horses.
So far, I think I have either trained myself or else supervised the training of 10 horses, which have all been started and finished right here on our place. That doesn't count the one I've had a trainer help me with. Most all of our horses and ponies are super gentle and safe for any rider, by the time we are finished training them. All of the ponies we have trained up are nice lesson ponies for inexperienced beginners, and are really great around kids. How many trainers can say the same?