My goals were pretty simple. I wanted to attempt to get the harness on her. When it comes to my training, I try to make a goal that I feel fairly comfortable with, but I always leave it up to the horse. I want my training session to challenge them and make them learn something.
First things first ... I groomed her all up and made her all pretty. While doing this, I enforced our ground rules, and made sure she knew not to move in on me, or move while I'm working on her. She did this very well. On her feet, I've been lifting and quickly putting them back down. I'm still working up some trust with her on that, and am taking baby steps towards her just letting me have her feet completely.
Once all clean and ready, I brought over a collar. I put it in front of her face and let her smell it. Nellie didn't act scared of it at all. She mildly sniffed it, just cuz it was in front of her nose, but really didn't seem to care one way or the other that it was there. I rubbed it against her shoulder a bit, and she just sat there, rear foot cocked, totally relaxed. I unbuckled the collar, and put it on her without any problems. She didn't care at all.
Next I grabbed my nylon harness. I did the same thing with it and let her smell it. Once again she didn't care, and to my surprise, she had no issues with me throwing it over her back. She just stood there and showed me what cold blood really means. :)
It took me about 15 minutes to adjust the harness to fit her. Once it was on, I let her stand for a few minutes and just watched her. She was calm, and very relaxed. I then untied her and led her around a bit. The noise of the harness, and the jingling and clanking of the metal parts did not even phase her. I was very happy about this. I still hadn't challenged Nellie yet, so I decided to keep going forward.
Up next, I put the bridle on. She didn't object to this, and even after it was attached, she just stood there, chewing on the bit. I talked calmly to her since this was probably her first time with blinders on. She was pretty relaxed still, so I led her around with everything hooked up. She was perfect, and did exactly what I wanted.
Well ... the next step it so actually ground drive her. So I grabbed my single lines, and started hooking them up. Got it all on, and unhooked the lead rope. She stood perfectly. Then came the fun.
Nellie has never been worked on the ground before. This means that she had no idea what the cues meant. When I told her to step up, her ears cocked back and she knew I wanted something. We then began a battle to keep her from turning around. She wanted to face me, and so I had to really work the lines to keep her head facing away from me. It was during this, that I realized how valuable a crupper is on a harness! :) After she realized that she could not turn around and face me, she started just backing up fast. I kept telling her woah, but she wouldn't stop. I had to start smacking her in the butt hard with my lines to start letting her know that was not what I wanted from her. Finally she stopped and I let her sit for a minute. I then started telling her to step up and clicking and kissing at her, and she started backing up again. We did this for another five minutes, till she finally took a few steps forward. As soon as she did this, I let go of all tension on the lines, and told her what a good girl she was. She felt the looseness of the lines and immediately stopped. We went through this a few more times, and she finally got it. She started walking forward and I praised her and praised her.
She is really good on bit pressure, and turns her head at the slightest pressure. She also stops very good. One woah and some tension on both lines and she stops perfectly. If I was facing away from the other horses, she would step off very good. But when the other horses were in her sight, she was a bit of a butt. I worked her for about 30-45 minutes just ground driving. Lots of it was nice and she did really good. Occasionally she would forget what step up meant, and we'd wrestle to keep her facing away from me and going forward. I finally ended on a really good note where she went for an entire figure 8 on my property with no problems. Always gotta stop on a good point. At this point, I took the following picture.
After that, I praised her a ton, and pet her really good. I then left her tied, and went in the house to get myself a drink. It was good for her to stand with all the equipment on after a break. She stood well, and didn't get too impatient.
After that I took off the harness without any problems, groomed her again, and turned her out.
She did very well. I'm really excited about working her. She's smart, and she figures out what I want pretty well. I'm also happy about her response to pressure. We'll need a few more lessons, but I'm very happy with her. She was very stressed during Saturdays lessons, and the amount of sweat she had worked up showed that to me. After a few more of these sessions, she should be ready to pull something. I'm real happy with her!
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