Mr P: Day 1

So today was my first day working with Mr P.
What are my goals?
1) Get him trained to ground tie
2) Have him being comfortable in his stall while the other horses are outside
3) Being able to turn on the forehand and haunches on the ground with minimal aids (maybe just by having my hand close to the designated area and clucking)

It is nice when I have goals I like to think it keeps me on track.

So day 1, how did it go?

It went decent actually I don't expect miracles and I have to say Mr P made me proud.

My plan was to go to the barn and bring hay outside, then put a flake of hay in two stalls, bring Mr P in, and then go fetch Legend who I feed inside. So after all of that I went outside to go fetch Mr P, but my plan got skewed by Legend. He walked right up to the gate this morning for me to bring him inside. I was so in awe this is the first time he actually came to the gate and stayed there. I was ecstatic (see doesn't take much to make me happy!) So I brought him in and then got Mr P.

I groomed Legend while he ate and just left Mr P in his stall to munch on his hay. I noticed that he is always fine as long as one of his buds are in the barn with him, but as soon as we walk out he starts his pacing and hollering.

I groomed Legend and Desi (OH random side note, I can't believe how shiny Desi is! My grooming is finally paying off she is GORGEOUS!)

After grooming those two I had half an hour left before I had to leave to go to class, so I decided that when Mr P stopped pacing and hollering I would bring him outside and groom him next to the paddock. By this time I think he had have enough of my sillyness, because even though he had a very nice flake of hay outside while he was tied up, he wanted to play with my grooming bag and be Mr Nosy.

After grooming him I really wanted to work on his flexing and see if I can get him to turn on the forehand and haunches. Flexing went pretty good I didn't make him do to much, just a few times on each side. Turning on the haunches went pretty good, even though he moved forward when he crossed in the back, he still crossed in the back and that is what I was looking for. Turning on the haunches was very difficult for him to accomplish (he can do it he was just more worried about the horse in the next pen). I could also tell that he really didn't have his brain on because he was just too nosy in everything else. I ended up asking D (a guy that is training another horse in the herd) to see if he could get Mr P to cross over in the front, he was able to do it by having him cross over by changing directions, and then Mr P seemed to turn on the haunches better. Again, I only asked him to do it 2 or 3 times to each side.

Overall it was a productive day. Tomorrow I have off which bums me out a little, but I'll be able to work with P on Friday.

Thanks for reading.