Hanna left the barrels in the arena. We had bets going how far into Oklahoma we’d find the barrels. Surprisingly, they were all standing, still on the pattern when we went out to check everyone after the storm.

It was hot and soupy in the indoor! The humidity was through the roof. Goose and I worked on some things we work on in our home arena, but it was so fun having a fence! I could actually not steer her at all and let her be in total control of herself. We worked on managing destination addiction (the gate) for a bit, and she finally was using the full arena with no problem.

We also worked on riding with other horses (also a destination addiction issue… the other horse). It’s such a simple exercise. You give your horse complete freedom (loose rein, no steering) and let them go where they want to go. If they choose to go to another horse, that’s fine, just pick up a trot as you approach the other horse, don’t steer, let them control themselves. Goose trotted to the other end of the arena, away from Fiddler, I let her come back down to a walk. She walked for a while and headed back to Fiddler. Pick up a trot as we get to him. It didn’t take long for her to figure out Fiddler was not the resting spot.

At one point Hanna asked me to video a runthrough and headed toward us on Fiddler. Goose started to walk away.

Goose and I headed outside to give them the arena to work it, and although it was hot outside, it was much cooler than in the arena.

We worked on the “destination addiction while on the trail” exercise, which can be found in the Warwick Schiller subscription. She was able to go all over the place. She found some good resting spots and was rewarded for those. I was very surprised by how brave she was and how far away from the trailer and Fiddler she was wanting to go.

I’m pretty excited because I think she really does want to be a trail horse. She wants to be out and about seeing the world, and not stuck in the arena. This is perfect, because it’s what I want to do as well!

I’m really excited about the progress we are making. She experienced traffic and was unbothered. She was willing and brave about going so far away from Fiddler and the arena. She was forward and ready to go new places without me asking.

Things are looking up!

I don’t think we’d be anywhere close to where we are at without the amazing wisdom of Warwick Schiller and his principles of training. It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of situation we get in to, there is a principle that will help me handle it.

Instead of learning specific actions to take (which may or may not be what we need in any given situation) we’ve got principles and that makes all the difference.

You can see all the principles of training in Warwick’s new book. The Principles of Training.

The post A Trip to Town and the Indoor Arena appeared first on Little Gray Mare.

I’ve decided to go back to the basics with Warwick Schiller’s approach. I feel like anxiety may be at the root of her issues. I’m going to help her learn to relax, to come down from feeling anxious. And as I type this I realize I probably need it just as much as she does.

I’m currently reading the book Mind to Matter by Dawson Church. It has reminded me just how much intention and our thoughts create ripples and reality.

Yesterday I was out with Goose for morning feeding. Fiddler gets fed seperate in the morning so I hang with the mares while he eats. Goose came up and we ended up in this fantastic meditative space where I was so present and petting her, paying attention to her eyes and how she felt. It was wonderful. She stayed for quite a while. Later in the afternoon I thought, “That would make a great tik tok video” so I set out to the pasture to recreate the situation so I could video it. HA. What an eye roll she gave me. She wouldn’t stay with me for more than a second. I worked on connection by change of focus and she definitely is better at that, but come and spend time with you for a tik tok video. hells to the no she said.

This morning I went out for feeding time and after reading a chapter in Mind to Matter about energy fields, I decided to just play around with being near her. Not touching her. ugh. it’s so hard. I stood near her. She came up to me, and nosed me a little, gave me her nose to kiss, which I did, but I didn’t reach out to pet her. I noticed as we did this her lip began to twitch. I stayed really present and she walked away, not far, just a few steps, stood there and then had a big yawn and lick and chew. She came back over to me, and the same thing happened. She nosed me, stood near me, I didn’t touch her, she began to twitch around her face, walked away a few steps and had herself a yawn and lick and chew. It happened one more time, though this time she wandered off to her favorite sunny spot by the shelter. When she got to her spot she turned and looked at me and kept connected to me until she closed her eyes in the sun.

This really got me to wondering how comfortable she really is to be around people without an expectation. When we are riding she always seems to need to “do the next thing” she’s very uncomfortable just being. Today’s experience made me wonder if she’s struggling with “just being” with people all together and I just hadn’t noticed before because I’m always “doing” something, petting, training, connecting, stressing… whatever. I think I will continue to see how she does “just being” for a while and see what happens.

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I was trying to figure out a way to work on our skills in an interesting way and Pinterest, which never lets me down, led me to trail courses.

There are some pretty complex trail courses that are well above our level at this point, but I found a simple one, and we already had everything we needed to set it up. So we gave it a go. Here’s the simple trail course we found on Pinterest.

We put this trail course together using items we already have. We have barrels (of course lol), small cones, and we used our DIY poles for the cones in the first obstacle. We also had landscape timbers we use for ground poles. We just used something big enough to pick up for obstacle #5. We did not put it in a bucket, but that will be the next step. We started super simple to increase our confidence.

So, to run through this course you start at the bottom left of the image, in front of the cones. Enter from the left hand side and weave the wide cones, then weave the close cones. Come up around the left side of the barrels and do a complete figure 8 around the barrels. As you come out of the figure 8 head toward the square. Stop in the center of the square for 3 seconds. Turn on the forehand left one quarter turn and stand for 6 seconds. Proceed out of the square and make a left turn through the cones. Trot to the next set of cones. Turn left out of the cones at a walk. Come up the left side of the barrels and stop at the first barrel. Pick up the item on the barrel (or in the bucket) and then proceed to the next barrel and drop the item off on the barrel (or in the bucket). Last thing is to go straight through the box to the other side and stop.

This seems like a pretty simple course, but there are so many skills you can work on while you’re doing it. It can be challenging if you’re new to this type of thing. Here are Goose and I working on the figure 8 and stopping in the box. We definitely have work to do on picking up the items.

As you get better on the course you can change it up, do a backwards figure 8 through the barrels, run the whole course backwards. There are so many things you can do. Or you could just go to Pinterest and find a harder course to start working on! I’m hoping to pick a new course weekly to keep us moving forward and challenging ourselves, so stay tuned for more trail courses!

I’d love to hear your trail course experience… tell me all about it in the comments!

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I don’t really consider myself a horse trainer, but I’ve spent the last 3 1/2 years studying horse training. I’ve joined multiple membership sites for different trainers, I’ve read articles, the biggest piece though is implementation. I usually share the knowledge I’ve acquired with Hanna and she does the training. But Goose is my horse now, and I feel strongly that she and I work together to become a better team.

Every time I see something about catching a hard to catch horse I watch or read it. Seriously. I am on the HUNT for a way to catch my hard to catch mare. Here’s the big things I’ve always heard and have tried and what I’ve moved to recently.

Make them move their feet.

Basically, if your horse doesn’t come to you, or at least allow you to come to it, make them move their feet, and not slowly. The idea is that horses don’t like to work, so if you make them work, they will quickly become tired of working and stop and let you catch them.

This has worked and not worked for us. Yes, she will eventually get tired of running around and stop and let me catch her, but by then I am usually sweaty, tired and annoyed, as is she, and then the rest of the time we spend together doesn’t go well.

Match Steps and Create a Connection

In the last year or so I heard something new. Go out into the field and match steps with your horse. It takes a lot of concentration to match your horse’s steps. The idea is that your horse can see how much you are paying attention, and that you are very in the moment, that they connect with you and trust you.

This has not worked as well. I have walked and walked, matched steps for a long time, over and over, and yes, she will turn into me, but when I get up to her she will walk away.

I’m sure the people that are followers of this method would tell me she is just not ready to be with me, or doesn’t trust me enough, and I can see that. But I have done this with her for almost a year now, and honestly, I’m over it. I want to do some work with my horse.

FEED THEM

This one comes up, but seems to be frowned upon in most of the horse community. So when I recently saw a new “how to catch a hard to catch horse” video in Michael Gascon’s membership site I watched it immediately. One of the first things he said, was rattle a bucket of food.

I haven’t really done this much, but I have had treats in my pocket and once I get the halter on I have given her a treat. It works as long as I have treats. But when I stop bringing treats, the smart girl… stops coming.

Liberty

He also said in that video, the BEST thing you can do to catch a hard to catch horse is to teach it liberty.

Interesting.

His thought behind it is this: liberty is all about the draw. Drawing your horse in to you, getting them to come to you, follow you, listen to you without being on a lead. If you can teach them that you can pretty much draw them into you anywhere… and what exactly is catching your horse? Yep. Drawing them into you.

So… Goose and I have started doing a little liberty work.

Michael also has a fantastic series on starting liberty in his membership site. I love how he has learned from a bunch of people, and has pulled things together in the most simple of terms and broken it down into simple steps that anyone can follow.

I’ve literally had the book The Art of Liberty Training for Horses sitting next to my bed for months now. It is a beautiful book. I’ve read part of it, but have not been able to figure out how to put one thing into practice yet. But after watching the first video in Team MG I went out and we worked on it.

Today was Goose’s second liberty session. We have moved up to having the rope around her neck, but me not holding the other end. I think we are doing pretty darn good!

I used some of what we had worked on in our first lesson while trying to catch her to get her to the round pen. It worked pretty well. It only took me a few minutes to catch her today. I also used some positive reinforcement for her as well, which seemed to help with her motivation.

What I’ve found in horse training is there are many ways to do anything, and everything. The big thing is finding something that works for you. Whether it’s a method to catch a hard to catch horse, or just the mindset you have around training your horse, find what works for you, and don’t give up. There are so many trainers out there… one will be a perfect match for you and your horse!

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So how did we get here?

Hanna.

In one short word… Hanna.

My daughter IS a horse person. I don’t know how, but she came into the world obsessed with horses. Her first toys were horses, her first cartoons were about horses. Her first books were horses. Her whole world has been horses.

For 12 years my husband and I told her no. No, we are NOT getting a horse. And then there was Runaway.

In an effort to get more horse time, Hanna had started working at a training barn. She was cleaning stalls, feeding, taking lessons, and learning some training while she was there. The trainer at the barn was participating in a “trainer’s challenge” put on by Blaze’s Tribute Equine Rescue in Oklahoma. He was given an untrained horse to work with for 140(ish) days. At the end of the time there was a show, and an auction to get the horses adopted. His horse was Mackenzie. She was a really tough horse to work with because she had experienced a lot of trauma in her life. She did end up getting an amazing home from the auction, where she is well loved to this day.

The whole time he was working with Mackenzie, unbeknownst to me, Hanna was scoping out the rescue’s website. AND, had fallen in love with one horse. For months she had been silently pining for this horse, knowing her parents were NEVER going to let her have a horse.

We went with the trainer to the challenge to help out, and watch. While we were unloading and getting her stall set up Hanna came running over to me breathless.

“Mom! MOM! MOM! Runaway is here! I didn’t know he would be here, but he’s here!”

Now, this is the first time I’ve heard the name Runaway, and I have no idea what she’s talking about. Turns out, a couple stalls down, the horse she’s been dreaming about on the internet is actually part of the trainer’s challenge. He wasn’t there yet, but his stall had his name and picture and a description. Sure enough, not long after, here comes Runaway. A tiny bay gelding, with a mane and tail to die for.

Please understand, I still know NOTHING about horses. I still only feel comfortable around a horse if they are one side of a fence and I’m on another. I have NO intentions AT ALL of owning a horse.

Hanna begged and begged through the weekend. Her trainer talked to me about it. I talked to Ryan, who happened to be in the middle of a fishing tournament and wasn’t thrilled to be interupted by talk of buying a horse.

What happened next is how we started down this path.

Runaway did not sell in the auction. He didn’t get one bid. Hanna couldn’t have been more happy.

Her trainer is friends with the owners of the rescue, and without telling us he went and asked if he could bring Runaway back to his barn to give us a little more time to make a decision. I was a little pissed, but… with a little added time and pressure from Hanna, and a deal worked out with the trainer to work off his board… we finally said yes.

Hanna became Runaway’s person on her 12th birthday.

Things didn’t work out at that barn for long. Runaway was moved to a much better situation, and then to a barn closer to home over the next year or so. Hanna connected with new people and pulled resources into her life to help her train and make Runaway a good partner.

In 2020 Hanna applied and was accepted as a youth trainer in the same trainer’s challenge where she had met Runaway.

She chose a little gray mare from the horses available, and began her own journey through 140 days of training her. The little gray mare was named Grey Goose. She spent the entire pandemic working with and training Goose. We were very lucky that we were boarding at a small family farm (we were the only boarders), so it was a very safe situation. I worked so hard to not like that little gray mare, but it was hopeless. As much as Hanna knew Runaway was her horse, I knew Goose was mine.

Only trouble was… the auction.

After the showcase came the auction. The auction started, people started bidding, and bidding and bidding, and I was NOT going to let someone else take my horse from me. It was an insanely emotional day. I really thought I might lose her. Our last bid was the predetermined amount we said we were willing to spend. I held my breath, waiting for them to out bid me and for me to lose my horse. But it didn’t happen. I won!! Goosie Face was MINE!! I got to take her home.

During the show another horse caught my husband’s eye. Of course, it was the winning horse, who ended up selling for over TEN THOUSAND dollars. Needless to say, we did not buy that horse lol. But he had the bug then. He wanted a horse of his own. We talked to the owners of the rescue and they showed us another horse. A gaited horse, who had been a trail horse for an elderly lady. She could no longer care for him, and had relenquished him to the rescue. Ryan kind of fell in love with him… Hanna and I were a little iffy. He seemed a little spooky, and we’d only just met him. But Hanna has skills and Ryan was determined so we brought Goose and Hamilton home that day.

Now we are boarding 3 horses. How did that happen?!

The summer of 2020 Hanna was on Facebook, looking at the kill pen site when she saw a horse. A giant OTTB who was “heavily bred” and “fast on barrels”. I wish I still had that picture, because with one picture that horse captured our hearts. It was ridiculous though. I did not want a baby horse. I didn’t even really want ANOTHER horse. We were already paying board for 3!!

I messaged our friend where we boarded, asked her if she’d seen that horse. She already had her eye on her. We talked and came to a bit of a deal, that if we (collectively) got her, we’d let our friend have the baby and then when it was old enough to wean we’d take the mare and she could keep the foal. And just like that… there was another horse in our lives.

Our friends went down to Texas, picked her up from the kill pen and brought her home.

They took her to the vet after she came out of quarantine, and guess what?! She was not heavily bred, in fact, she wasn’t bred at all. Turns out she needed a good dose of wormer, and some exercise.

So… we worked out a new deal with our boarding facility friends, and the mare became ours. We named her Summer. Summer is a unicorn. She’s a thoroughbred, which I thought I would NEVER have. She’s the sweetest, most gentle horse. She fast on the barrels just like they said. She’s now Hanna’s barrel horse, but she’s such a good girl, Ryan rides her in fun shows when he decides to go, and she took me, a novice rider, for my first lope off lead. It’s infuriating what ends up at the kill pen… but that’s a whole other post.

Last fall we managed to get fencing put up at our place, aquired shelters, put in automatic waterers and brought our horses home. <3 By this point, Runaway was doing drill team and was already staying at our place in a small corral we made for him.

Since everyone has been home Hanna has done another trainer’s challenge. That horse sold in auction to an amazing woman who loves him more than most things in life. From the trainer’s challenge Hanna picked up her first client horse, and trained him for 30 days. She came to some conclusions during that time, but more on that later, and then there was Delilah.

One day I thought it would be fun to go check out the local horse auction. Just to see how it worked. HA. I don’t know why, but we brought a trailer with us. I mean, how else could this have ended?

We ended up bidding on Miss Delilah. An unbroke, unhandled red dunn. She’s a bit of a wild child, but we are taking it slow with her, and she’s coming around. She’s already made a ton of progress. Hanna’s doing most of the work. Ryan is handing out most of the cookies, and she’s starting to be a pretty friendly little mare.

And that’s how we got where we are now. It’s been a crazy year. I see these “Pandemic before and after” memes on the internet. People have completely transformed their homes, their yards, their lives… us? We got 4 new horses and completely changed our herd.

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