First Training Session

Ok so today I took her into the barn, away from her mom for the first time this long. I worked with her for about 30 minutes. Its important not to work them to long, because you can fry their branes!
When I first got her out, she was very pushy and wanted to go back to her mom. So when I got into the arena I worked on getting her attention on me. Here's my first session with a "already halter broke horse."


1. Since she wanted to LEAD ME, I worked on showing her I was the leader. You want to stand in front of the pony, keeping at least 3 feet in front of you and the pony. Hold you rope up high in front of the ponies head and start walking backward. Anytime the pony starts to get close or run forward, throw the rope up high, and make a big motion with your hands, while making a big (almost forward) stop with your body. The pony should stop suddenly. Then keep doing this randomly until the pony has its attention on you. When you get a licking and chewing action from the pony, that means the pony is relaxed and understands what your asking.

 Lead pony from the front, walking backwards. Hold your hands in front of pony. If pony gets to close, Suddenly stop yourself with a big motion, so that the pony stops in its tracks. Repeat randomly. This helps the pony see you as the leader and pay attention to you.

2. The second tool is used for unruly ponies, pushy or pulling ponies, or ones that just aren't listening. You must be careful in doing this not to hurt the pony and not all ponies need this, but this tool is here if you do. If a pony is pulling (leading me) I take the rope and walk behind the pony to the other side. If the pony does not follow me and its full attention is not on me, I tug on the rope, swinging the ponies hind quarters around until the pony is facing me. I only use this as a reprimanding for doing something in a pushy manner, not as a regular game.

3. The third "game" as I call it is to teach the pony to move different parts of its body. I start with the haunches. Stand at the ponies side, between the shoulder and hind quarters. Look at the haunches, wait to see if they move, if not swing your rope, if not still, move your feet as like your walking toward her and if the pony still does not cross its back foot over the other, you can cluck or tap the pony with the swinging rope. When the pony crosses its nearest hind foot over the other, stop with all your aids and rub the haunches until she stops. Do this util you can accomplish with the first try.

4. Next I stand beside her and wave my hands in a most ion torwards her eyes and walk towards her, as to move her front feet, as her back end stays in place. This is the begginning of changing direction. Repeat until the pony turns readily. 

5. When the pony accomplishes all this, I will start leading her from the left side. I walk between the head and the shoulder. If the pony tries to walk behind me (which young horses usually do, since their used to walking behind their mom) we do exactly what the momma horse does. The momma horse will swish her tail at the foals rear to get it to move up. So I swing the end of my rope, toward the back of the pony, to encourage the pony to move up and walk beside me. I also work on stoping saying "Whoa" or any other word you want to use. 

Then when that is accomplished I go ahead and do some changes of direction, by walking towards the horse. 

6. Now I will dessensitize the horse to the rope. This comes into play when you use harnesses, saddles and other tack. So a rope is a good place to start. I start by repeatedly throwing the rope over the neck until the pony stands still and is calm, then move to the back, then rump, then legs. You goal is to get the horse to be calm and lick and chew. 

7. Now I wrap the rope around the ponies front fetlock and rub gently back and forth. I will do this around each foot and also try to lift the feet gently with the rope. This is a must for the pony to get used to, incase it would ever get caught on anything, like a fence or harness. 

 I will also wrap the rope around the ponies girth area and gently rub and pull on it, to give the pony the feel of a harness or cinch.

8. Now you should be able to pet, rub and touch the pony anywhere on its body. If you find the ponies favorite scratching spot, you can scratch him there. This is how horses and ponies make friends in the wild. But you will also have to be able to touch your pony anywhere, incase the pony ever got injured or cut.

So that is the end of session one. I ended the session today by grooming her. She also started to flip her lip up, so I started encouraging it with treats in order to teach her to smile. I ended by walking back to the field using the 1st game. That way if she were to try to run back to her mom, I could stop her. We did a few stops and she was never pushy. I always make her wait quietly for me to take the halter off. Depending on your pony you might do less. It depends on how much you pony can soak in in one session. 

Butter Cups Training Progression From Start to Finish

Hello Bloggers,
I am going to give a brief intro to the pony I am training now and then get started on how I started her and how she is proggressing.

Butter Cup is a 2 year old miniature horse. Her mom Gigit had a rough time foaling, due to being older and we didn't know she was in foal when we got her. The vet save their lives and they were doing good, until we tried to wean the baby at 1 year old. The momma stopped eating and almost died, so we chose to keep them together for another year, until they were both stronger. Since Butter Cup is old enough to start ground work, I have decided to slowly start weaning her from her mom.
       The first time I took her away from her mom, she rolled and reared and squealed. I just kept working and didn't pay attention to the unwanted behavior and soon she settled down. From the time she was born, we had our hands all over her and so halter breaking her a year ago was a breeze.
 I put the halter on and taught her that when I pulled and she gave to the pressure I gave back. Now I will be posting the training sessions that I have with her and what I accomplish. This is the 2 year old filly. The only bad quirk she has right now is biting and that is because when she was little we let her groom our arms, because it was cute, but now she has teeth! So we are breaking her slowly from that habbit.