Driving Mr. Faran

 Some of you might have noticed something in the above picture from my post on the nineteenth (see here: http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/2012/06/chromes-monthly-progress-report-ninth.html).  Faran is wearing a bit!!  Want to know why he's wearing a bit?

First off, check out this really cool, really old draft headstall we found last year . . . 

 

 Doesn't he look so handsome in it???  It just needs to be conditioned and oiled, but I sort of like the old weathered look against his black coat.  :)  We just need to find him a bigger bit.  It's too narrow by half an inch.  Anyone have a 6.5 inch bit they don't need anymore?  ;)

So anyway, here's what we were doing . .  .
 

 Ground driving!!!

 My husband borrowed Chrome's surcingle and used his homemade driving reins with his antique headstall and did some ground driving with Faran.  They look so cute together.  :D  

Faran definitely remembered how to drive, but he's still a little nervous about someone walking behind him.  It will just take some time and practice to get him used to it again.  I wish he'd never been mistreated.  Things would be so much easier.  However it is gratifying to be the one to teach him to trust again.  :) 

 

He looks so GOOD!!!!

 Look at how far under himself he steps.  :D

He did relax after a while.  

 

 So handsome!

 A little nervous again (but also listening really well).

 So powerful!

We kept the session short and positive.  In the above photo he is waiting for us to take his gear off.  Notice his relaxed leg?  Oh and he did a perfect ground tie while waiting for us to get his picture and "undress" him.  :D

I love this last picture.  It shows how big he actually is!!  I love that face!

We had so much fun and I can't wait to work on it again.  :D

P.S.  All of these photos were taken on the nineteenth of this month.

Our play time on Saturday . . . cute video!

We found some old stuff so we brought the horses up on Saturday to try some of it out. They were so muddy!! First they had to check out the stuff (see the old pulling collar?). Captions are all above the pictures (I think).

Notice Faran's gorgeous, thick tail . . . and the MUD!

Now I understand why some people don't like black horses . . .

Chrome got to try the collar on first, while Faran waited (and dumped my husband's groom box).

Here's Chrome's video.



Did you like my mocking reference to War Horse? LOL Then it was Faran's turn to try the collar and Chrome had to wait (not too happily lol). Check out his muscles. Is it the way he's standing or is he a lot more muscled on his left then right?

Here's Faran's video. Notice how he leans away from it at first? He's so leery and skeptical of everything, but he's getting soooo much better!



And a picture. It was so cute how he just relaxed into it when he realized what it was.


I also found my old breastcollar I used to use on my Appaloosa mare. The little white spots are where I had sewn bells onto it. They were crushed so I cut them off and I have new bells to put on it later (need to get a strong needle).

I put on his cavesson and driving reins, but left the halter and lead on too for my husband to hold, so we could try ground driving down the road. He was doing really well (sorry no video) and we were practicing having him move to the opposite side of the road from my husband and Faran, without trying to turn around (the reason my husband had the lead rope and also for safety on a public road). Then we saw our lease land owners and stopped to chat. Dark caught up to us so we walked home. We will make it further next time. :)

I have another fun post tomorrow about what we did on Sunday. :D

New Year Goals for 2012

If you haven't seen it yet, check back two posts for a video of the things we worked on in 2011. I'm so proud of Chrome and all that we've done together. He's such a good boy.

So 2012 is the exciting year for us because he turns three years old! That means I finally get to start riding him after two and a half years of waiting. :D

So here are my goals for 2012 . . .

1. Ride Chrome! I bet you couldn't guess that would be my first one lol. My plan is to sit on him for the first time on his third birthday 5-19-2012. Depending on how he acts I may have my husband lead him around for a little bit, but I do want to make sure he's completely comfortable with me getting on and off before we do much moving around. To prepare for riding I'm going to build a mounting block and do a lot of practice standing next to it while I lean over him from both sides, wave my arms around and touch him all over. We're also going to work on ground driving to prepare him for being ridden. If he already knows voice cues and how to walk, halt and steer then the only new element will be having weight on his back. That should make it a lot easier for him.

2. Get Chrome in shape. I want to get Chrome in shape before I start riding him, so that he has the muscles to support me. The easiest way to do that would be longeing, but I don't want to stress his joints so we will go on lots and lots of hand walks around the property and on the roads. The roads will also have the benefit of continued trail desensitization. I'll also keep playing Chase the Tiger with him to get him moving around in the trot with his head low for building muscles over his back. Also what is everyone's opinion of cavaletti? Is two too young to trot cavaletti? If it is I can just walk him over them to make him pick up his feet. That will teach him to watch where he's going and also build muscle. I want to make this a slow, gentle process. I'm not going to overwork or over-condition him like a halter horse (not bashing, just using stereotypes for reference). I also want to walk him up and down hills because that's great for the back and learning to use his haunches. Anyone else have any suggestions for ways to get him ready for riding physically?

3. Get Chrome more comfortable with hauling in the trailer. I want to be able to start taking him places so I need to get him more comfortable in the trailer. If he's nervous and sweating I won't be able to go anywhere in the summer because he'll sweat to death. So I want to use the cool weather for practicing. I also need to teach him to stand tied in the trailer.

4. Introduce Chrome to obstacles used in Competitive Trail Rides. I want to build my own obstacle course and work with him on them, so that we can do CTRs someday. It will help build an even better bond between us and teach him to trust me as well, which will be great for trail riding in general.

5. Have fun with Chrome and be safe!! I think this is probably the most important one. So everyone when I start stressing because I don't think I'm doing enough or not doing it right please remind me of this one lol.

So that's the plan for 2012! I'll wrangle my husband down and get him to tell me what his goals for Faran are and get those posted as soon as possible, as well as some goals for Zep. I hope everyone has a happy, healthy, safe and productive year!!

Beginning Stages of Driving Training with Chrome

Yesterday Chrome got his hooves done, so as always I got him out about an hour ahead of time to spend time grooming him. Doesn't he look fantastic?? He doesn't even look like he has a winter coat in pictures. Of course it hasn't gotten really cold yet. Is the flax making him shinier?

Silly boy was playing with the fence in this picture. I brushed him and combed out his mane and tail.

I know it's just the farrier, but I like for him to look nice instead of being a fuzzy mudball when she comes over. I always spend a lot of time cleaning out his hooves and cleaning off his legs so she doesn't have to deal with muddy feet. Just something I like to do to be helpful. :D

Trying to check out the battery charger my husband sat nearby, but his lead was too short lol.

Pretty tail! You can see the white in his tail. Is the blonde the color it comes in or is it because it's dirty? Would washing it make it whiter (I don't care for the blonde)? It happened so gradually I didn't even notice if it came in that color or came in white and changed to blonde.

See how it goes black, white, blonde? It is sort of cute actually lol.

There is white in his mane, but none (well not much) of the blonde thank goodness lol. I know he only has one copy of the gray gene which means he'll gray out slowly, but what goes first? It looks like his face, mane and tail are graying the fastest. Anybody have any guesses about when he will go dappled gray? Since his mom is flea-bitten do you think he will turn flea-bitten too? I can't find much info online about the genetics of flea-bitten gray. It will definitely be interesting to watch as he changes over the years and I'll be thrilled if he stays dark a while longer. :) Also will his legs go gray too or stay black? My trainer's horse had black knees for years but I think they eventually faded. I never met him as a baby though so I don't know what grayed first, how quickly he grayed, how many gray genes he has, what his base coat was, etc. He's ten or eleven now and just now losing his dapples and getting flea-bitten. I hope it takes that long or longer for Chrome lol.

I had a brilliant idea the other day. Using my surcingle and breastcollar I can make sort of a harness. I couldn't find my nice breastcollar so I used one of my husband's old, old breastcollars. Cute, huh?

The red and white actually looks adorable on him. :)

His forelock almost reaches his noseband (his halter stretched from that episode in the trailer).

I wish this one wasn't blurry! I love his smile!!

Trying to reach the grooming box that was sitting on the log just out of the picture.

My husband scratched Chrome's itchy spot. Chrome was all stretched out, wiggling his lip, being absolutely adorable! He couldn't reach it to scratch for himself because of the breastcollar so he appreciated the help.

And he proceeded to dunk his lips in my husband's hot chocolate LOL! He didn't know it was hot so it startled him. I hate that it burned him, but it didn't seem to bother him. Maybe he'll think twice before sticking his nose where it doesn't belong lol. See the chocolate on his lip? And the green/yellow around the corner of his lips is from the apple treats I was feeding (that he isn't sure he likes, but they were on sale lol).

Now I will show you the video of what we did with my rigged harness. Faran lovers here is a picture (above) and check out the video because there are some adorable shots of him. I tried to edit the video down because it was pretty long. It's still long, but I hope some of you can see it. :)


He did so great! I'm glad I kept those old tires. :) I can't wait to eventually hook him up to my gorilla cart (wagon/wheelbarrow combo), but I want to go slow. Just because he wasn't scared of the tire doesn't mean we can move on after only one session. I'm excited how well he did with it. I hope this is a sign that he will someday make a good driving horse. :D Now I just have to save the money to buy a wagon/buggy and harness . . . but wait first I need a saddle lol. Sorry I talked so much in the video. Wasn't Faran cute?? I didn't mean to scare him, but he is getting a whole lot less explosive. Now for some pictures for those of you who can't see videos.

He did so well. I don't know why he chose to carry his head low (maybe because we work on it so much?), but that's actually a good thing because it builds the muscles over his topline (correct me if I'm wrong) instead of the muscles at the base of his neck. I was not cueing him to lower his head, he was offering it on his own. I think part of it was also because of the new treats. I don't think he's that crazy about them. They are longer than the ones I've been feeding him so he was sucking on them until he could chew them up. That's why we took such long breaks between pulls. I didn't want to stuff his mouth so full that he would drop them.

He makes it look so heavy lol, but it's not. I can easily pick up the tire. How often should I work on this? Pulling doesn't stress their backs like riding so it won't hurt him on mostly straight lines (to protect his joints) right? It's been so long since I researched all of this lol. I guess I need to go do some reading.

Such a sweet, sane boy. It never scared him, even when we trotted (see video). :D

Stopping to let Faran approach the tire . . .

Faran did well too. It scared him a couple of time when it would move near him, but he never lost his curiosity so that's awesome.

Faran is so gorgeous!

I really wasn't expecting him to carry his head low. I thought he would stick his nose in the air and hollow his back. He surprised me and I'm thrilled with how he did.

Walking back to the gate.

Leaning on his back makes him look tall lol. It took about six shots to get this picture because he kept trying to play with the breast collar. I finally gave him one of the big pieces of treat that he's not crazy about so he would stand still. He has that expression on his face because he was sucking on it lol. He's such a dork. His mane is getting so long. I wish he wouldn't rub it out near his withers. Brat. :D

The boys say goodbye until next time!