Faran Update

Faran's new owner gave me permission to post the pictures and stories she's sending to me so I figured you guys would enjoy an update!  I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that he rode well on the trailer to her house, but was definitely ready to get off after such a long ride.  He unloaded well.  We were a bit worried since there was no divider, but there was the support post in the back that he had to go around.  He had no problem figuring it out.  :)

He went into the round pen near her other horses so he wouldn't be worried or lonely.  He settled in really well!  She spent a ton of time with him the first few days to be sure he was doing okay.  One funny story she told me is that he tried to bluff her about wanting attention.  When he started to turn away she quickly walked away, leaving him before he could leave her.  She went to her other horse at the fence.  Faran stared at her, totally confused and then walked straight to her asking for attention again hehe.  Silly boy!

He has definitely already decided she is his new human.  When she leaves and comes back he's already greeting her with a nicker.  :D  That makes me so happy!  She works with him every day which is what he needs.  She uses the massage techniques that I'm using (and still learning) with Chrome.  She gives him a full body massage every day.  He loves it!

 I love his pretty face and his almost roman nose hehe.

So everything was going great until last weekend.  She introduced him to one of her geldings and a yearling.  She wanted him to be out in the pasture since it had a shelter for some bad weather that was on the way.  They all seemed to be doing just fine.  She had to walk down the road to her sister's house to help with something and started hearing her yearling squealing.  She ran back to her house to find Faran attacking the other two horses.  My jaw hit the floor when she told me this!!  I had never seen him be mean to another horse.  He was chasing them so she ran out into the pasture and scared him away from them, then she got the other two out and put them in a different pasture.  They are fine, just some bites and scrapes.

She left Faran in the pasture so he would have shelter from the weather.  When she went back out there he went right up to her, even neighing at her, because he was lonely.  The big dummy just chased his company off lol.  Everyone was fine and settled back in.

His adorable dirty face from eating his mash.

Then Faran started getting out!!  She found him in the yard grazing and he let her walk right to him and catch him.  She put him up and then he was out again at three am the next morning, so she stuck him back in the round pen so she could go to work.  Later she put him in the pasture and watched him to see what he would do.  He walked right to a low spot in the fence and stepped over again like he was so proud of his accomplishment and had no clue he was doing anything wrong!  :)

He's definitely keeping her on her toes, but she's enjoying him so much.  He's letting her pick his feet up in the pasture without being tied up already.  She's been leading him around outside of his comfort zone (his comfort zone has always been his pasture, everywhere else makes him nervous), tossing the lead rope around his body to desensitize him and she's been standing on buckets.  Basically just doing all different kinds of things with him to get him used to the unexpected just like I did with Chrome.  :)  He's flourishing with the daily handling.  I'm so happy I found someone who has the time and desire to work with him every day.

Isn't he looking awesome??  Even with the glowing demon eyes hehehe!  So that has us caught up.  I'll update again when I have more pictures and (hopefully fun and happy) stories to tell. :D

P.S.  For anyone just joining the blog Faran is a fourteen year old 16hh black Percheron gelding that my husband and I got in 2011 from a lady who was terrified of him.  She had sent him to a trainer to break him to ride and the trainer ruined him, making him absolutely terrified of humans.  We spent a lot of time with him at first working on getting him to trust humans and to calm down, but due to bad stuff happening (husband's injury, job loss, moving back home, etc.) we didn't have the time to work with him and he reverted back to his half wild state.  So that's where his new owner is having to pick up with him.  Reminding him all over again that humans are okay and teaching him that he can trust people to do things around and to him.  He needs daily interaction to stay calm and relaxed.  She's doing a really good job with that and he's very happy in his new home!!

P.P.S.  All of these pictures were taken by and belong to his new owner.  I do not own them, but I do have permission to post them.  :)

Ride 49 - Best Ride Ever!!!

Look at his cute gray face! 

I know I've said that about rides before, but to date this probably was the best one ever!  It was more my own accomplishment than it was Chrome's, but he was a huge part of it for being his calm, confident, sensible self!  This probably won't sound like much to a lot of you, but for me it was huge.  :)

My legs still look so long on him... does his chest look any wider at all??

I'm still doing Chrome's Prep work, but I've decided on his walk days that I'll ride instead of walk.  The thing is I was so proud of Chrome (and myself) and happy that I completely forgot to do his other exercises after we got back from the ride... oops!!!

I've ridden Chrome on the road before obviously and my hubby was with us (of course he took the pictures), so you would think there would be no reason for me to be nervous, but there was!  For one thing the tree trimming crews had been through (in the above photo I'm leaning forward to look down the road to see if they were gone and they were) so there was a ton of leaves, sticks, etc. on the road and obviously the chopped off trees (under the power lines) looked different.  Some horses are freaked when things in their environment change, but I wasn't sure how Chrome would react.  This was also my first ride on the road since Faran left.  Last, but definitely not least, we were planning to have me ride him past the neighbor horses without my hubby grabbing the reins (previously I would get off when we went past horses)!!!!  So yeah I was super nervous.  If you haven't seen how he acts around unfamiliar horses check out the video in this post (LINK).   I was terrified he would act like that with me on his back...

So we set off down the road...

 I LOVE his mohawk!

Chrome was sniffing the road where the tree trimming trucks left marks on the pavement.  That's the only thing he noticed.  He wasn't worried about the stuff on the road or about the chopped off trees.  He was cool as a cucumber.

Anyway I don't have pictures of us passing the neighbor horses because hubby wanted to have his hands free in case Chrome got too excited.  As soon as we got close to the neighbor's pasture Chrome's head popped back up.  I was sooooo nervous my stomach was burning.  I'm so glad he doesn't feed off of my nerves.  He was alert, but calm.

As we got to the pasture I was looking around for the two horses.  They were in the barn hiding from the flies, but they had spotted us and were headed our way.  Thankfully it was very hot and they were feeling lazy, so they just walked.  Chrome's walk got floaty, but he didn't break into a trot or flip his tail or anything.  He was trying to stop and was swinging his head around to look at them, but he kept walking when I asked.  I had my reins short, but we did it completely by ourselves.  The two horses walked behind us until we passed the end of the pasture, then they trotted (well one cantered) up to the fence.  Chrome didn't even react to having them approach him at speed from behind.

As soon as we got past there a couple of high school students (they go to the school where my hubby works) came flying up their driveway.  Luckily the one in front spotted us and slowed down.  Once he'd pulled past us he stopped, opened his door and said he was trying not to spook my horse.  I thanked him.  He got out and was asking what breed Chrome is and said he was very beautiful.  He pet him all over the face and neck and even hugged him.  It was soooo sweet!!!!  Chrome LOVED it!

The other kid that was following him was a little antisocial and stayed in his car.  They were on their way to go fishing.  When two more cars started approaching they said bye and left.  So four cars drove by and Chrome was totally fine.  He was even trying to eat the antisocial kid's Jeep hehehe!!!!

We continued on toward the hill.  As we were approaching it, the kid in the Jeep came back because they forgot something and he was flying!!!  Chrome didn't even bat an eye.  We went to the top of the hill and he did really well going up.  He was pushing from his rear and was fairly straight.  We turned around at the top (there is an intersection at the bottom on the other side and I didn't want to be out there since it has a blind turn in one direction) and walked back down, headed home.  Going down he wanted to trot sooo bad!  It's difficult walking downhill apparently hehe.  He listened though and stayed at a walk.

Luckily we got past the kid's driveway before he came back in the Jeep.  On the way home the horses stayed in the barn (the only time I've ever thanked flies lol), so Chrome was very forward, but relaxed.  As soon as we passed their pasture I was ecstatic!!!!  I was finally relaxed, completely comfortable and my stomach wasn't queasy anymore hehe.  We did it!!  My hubby never even had to grab the reins.  :D

I took the camera on the way home because it's heavy and the strap around my hubby's neck makes his back hurt.

There's more!  When we got close to home I asked Chrome to trot!  He trotted and then slowed to a walk perfectly!!!!!  He didn't get excited or out of control.  This was our first time trotting on the road, so I wasn't sure how he would react.  We did it again and he was perfect.  I LOVE this horse!!

I was so proud of Chrome and so happy with him that as soon as we got home I took his bridle off and let him graze as his reward, even before taking the saddle off hehe.  I used the thicker fleece pad this time and I think Chrome liked it.  The saddle seems to be sitting level and I was totally comfortable in it (didn't tip with me in it or anything like that).  :D  Oh and I rode in my breeches and it was sooooooooooo much more comfortable than jeans!!!

So shiny!  Even on the dry parts hehe.

After taking the saddle off I was happy to see sweat!  I never really ride him enough to make him sweat, but it was warm (very warm) during our ride and he sweated under the pad and girth.  Still no sweat on his chest or anything.  Since we only walk that's not really a surprise though.

I love how his mohawk is back lit by the sunshine hehe.

I rinsed him off and used my sweat scraper (LOVE my sweat scraper, so happy to finally have one).  He'd never had a sweat scraper used on him, but he just kept grazing and wasn't bothered at all.  No surprise there hehe.

So the next step is to try riding out alone....  I have a lot more confidence after this ride, so hopefully I can do it!  I'll wait for a time when my hubby is home though just in case something happens so I can call him.  Anyway I know it doesn't sound like much, but to me it was huge!  I saw this on Facebook and it sums up how I feel now perfectly...

It's me holding us back, not Chrome.  He was perfect.  :D

P.S.  I almost forgot.  The ride was thirty six minutes and 1.66 miles.  Also the ride was on 5/4/14, I'm writing this post on 5/5/14 because my computer froze up yesterday, but I'm scheduling it to post on 5/4/14... sorry for any confusion lol.

Ride 48

 I've had a headache all day and I've been under a lot of stress lately, so I decided to hop on for a short ride just to forget about everything for a while.  The ride sort of replaced his workout for today.  I didn't even change out of my ugly sweat pants and sneakers... I just grabbed my bridle and helmet and hopped on (after brushing him while he grazed).

Chrome was............ rusty..... lol.  I haven't ridden him in over a month and it's obvious!!  I think having to use the rope halter lately is making him dull to the halter and bridle again.  I finally fixed my blue nylon halter (wow that was tougher than I thought it would be), so I'll switch back to that and do some in hand work to get him more responsive to the halter.  The fact that I keep a loop in the lead rope when leading him probably doesn't help us practice either!  Maybe I need to do some ground driving... or just a lot more riding...

Anyway since he was being hard to turn and stop I did some practice on both.  He was turning easily to the right, but being very braced going left so I stopped him and flexed him left a few times.  At first he walked circles and braced but as soon as he remembered what I was asking he easily and quickly flexed left every time I asked.  The funny part is that he kept trying to play with the leg of my sweat pants hehe.

We also worked on whoa.  He was being awful!  The fewest steps I could get after asking was three.  Then I remembered to use the vocal cue and he was doing better, but we need to work on that to remind him to stop even without the vocal cue.

Other than that he was fine.  We did some trotting and he even maintained the trot through some ninety degree turns, but we don't have a place to practice circles so not sure if he can do those yet.

I'm trying to remember what else we did... this headache is making it hard to think... oh yeah we walked over the hay bale about three times and walked over some trees that are about knee height on him.  That was his stifle workout for today hehe.

Here is a picture my hubby got for me... I look awful with my sweat pants riding up and my dirty sneakers (I really need to clean them!!! Never buying white shoes again even if they are only ten dollars).

Did you notice something new?  My awesome new helmet cover in my favorite color blue!!!  That is a gift from my awesome friend appydoesdressage over at LogDog Acres.  Isn't she the best??  I absolutely love it!  My old helmet was starting to look beat up so I'm happy to have a cover for it.  Now I need to get me and Chrome decked out in all our blue stuff for pictures hehe.

Isn't he looking awesome?

After riding I did the pelvis tucks (three of them) and his hip stretch on both sides.  Oh I almost forgot!  During the ride we practiced backing up (he sucks at it, but he tried) and did some backing uphill.  Like I said before we sort of replaced his workout with the ride, backing uphill, sit ups and hip stretches.  I didn't follow the routine exactly since I didn't write it down and just did whatever I remembered, but it works.  The routines are becoming too easy for him so I'm probably going to move on to the cardio phase soon.  :)  

Anyway I think I remembered everything... if not... oh well hehe.  I'll try to get back to posting more regularly again, but I'll probably continue to be busy for a while so we'll see.  Looking forward to getting caught up on your blogs!

P.S.  I almost forgot!!  Chrome is already getting sweet itch on his legs again... sigh!  I might need to try fly boots since fly spray isn't helping at all.  I don't want to buy any until I know if he's going to tear them up though...  so any ideas for homemade fly boots?