Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone! I've had a great day and I hope yours has been just as special. Last night I decided to brave the cold and go out to take a picture of Chrome at midnight so I would know what he was doing when we welcomed in 2010. And as usual my sweet little colt was being totally adorable.

Chrome has decided he likes lipping at my hands. I know this is a precursor to getting nippy like colts have a tendency to do so I'm not going to let him do it anymore, but I just couldn't resist getting pictures of it last night. You can click to enlarge.

Look at those cute whiskers! Now I'm going to share my 2010 goals for Chrome. Here goes . . .

1. Spend a lot of time desensitizing Chrome. I don't want to do this in the old fashioned way of flooding the horse until he no longer responds. I'm going to attempt to use the clicker training method of desensitization. Clicking and rewarding him for exploring new objects and accepting new experiences, stimulus and sounds.

2. Take Chrome on more walks out on the roads so he can get used to traffic and other things he might see out on the trail. I'd also like to take him out without another horse to see how he does but I'll wait to do that until we've started clicker training so I can communicate with him what I want and what he's doing right. Otherwise I'd be forcing him to leave his companion, hauling him around when he's upset and frightened, thus building up a negative association to the roads. That would lead to a buddy sour horse in a heartbeat. It could possibly lead to being barn sour too.

3. Teach Chrome some tricks with clicker training, specifically to smile. :)

4. Write on Chrome's blog more. I know I've slacked off with the colder weather so I'm going to try to do better.

5. Continue to work on trailering him to new places. I don't want the only time he ever gets on a trailer to be for a vet visit. We have a local riding club with a covered arena, so I'll probably start trying to haul him there. This will of course depend on our schedules since I haven't learned to pull a trailer yet. :)

Well that's all for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful first day of the new year. Mine was great and I'm going to strive to continue that theme for the rest of the year. :)