Training Koda for Throw Away Ponies - Session 1

Back on February 23rd, I participated in Equifest.  I mentioned it in passing, and apparently was a slacker and never typed up a blog on it.  Whoops!  Equifest was an all day event for all styles of horses.  It was a place where you could go and see all types of horses, and they had demonstrations in an indoor arena on what the horses can do.  I went with my friends Mark and Bev of the Double M Warhorse Ranch.  They brought their Belgian Stallion, and a big dapple gray shire they have.  I brought my team, and I did a demo in the arena.  (also, while I'm on the subject ... I got to see a Sugarbush stallion!  I'd read and heard about them, and over in the drafty side of the compound, was a big ol' boy with those unmistakeable sugarbush markings.  Turns out, there is a sugarbush stallion in Dallas.  It was awesome to see one in person.  very pretty and impressive.  Nearly as impressive as the Friesians that were there)

One of the things that happened at Equifest, was for me to be introduced to Kelly from Throw Away Ponies (www.throwawayponies.org).  Throw Away Ponies is a rescue group out of Rockwall, TX who does awesome work in helping to save and rehab good horses.  Kelly and her daughter were very interested in the driving stuff, and asked lots of great questions.  After talking a bit, she told me about Koda, and asked if I would be willing to help them out with her.

This is Koda.

Koda is a 14.2 hand paint/arabian mare, around 6 years old.  When she was younger, she kicked at something and ended up kicking a barbed wire fence.  Her left rear foot was cut to the bone.  The Vet told the rescue that due to this injury, Koda should not be ridden, but that she could be used to pull a cart.  Throw Away Ponies has trainers for saddle, but they lacked experience in driving.  That's where I come in (with a big thanks to Kelly for keeping in touch to keep me on point).  The idea is that since Koda cannot be ridden, she is unlikely to be adopted out.  However, because of how sweet and smart she is, we can train her to drive, thus giving her functionality, and that may help entice someone to provide her a good home.

Wednesday night I went out for my first session with Koda.  This was my first time ever going to the Throw Away Ponies place, and I have to say that it was the nicest rescue I've ever seen.  it was clean, stalls mucked, horses were all in pretty good shape.  Very impressive!

They had a small covered arena, and inside it stood Koda.  She's a pretty little thing.  She was pretty sweet and didn't mind a tough ol' teamster walking up and petting her.  No time for pleasantries though ... daylight was burning ... so we proceeded with some training.  I'm going to write up the things I did in list form to kind of help define all the different stages we worked through.

1. Basic ground work.  We started off with just a halter, lead rope, and a carrot stick.  I basically just got her feet moving.  The goal here is to make sure she leads well.  I also use this time to start enforcing the verbal queu's.  Anytime I step off, I say "Koda, Step up" and off we go.  Anytime we stop, I say "Koda, whoa", and stop.  While leading, I would do sharp 90 degree turns, and use "Gee" and "Haw" appropriately to dictate a turn.

Koda is a smart little thing.  When lunging, she just takes off.  Now, I'll be honest.  I don't lunge my horses.  For my belgians, I've just never had them bad enough that I needed to really reinforce that I'm the boss.  When my belgians act up, a few circles disengaging their rear ends and their ready to submit.

I figured Koda new to lunge, and boy did she, but I found that lunging has a bad effect for driving.  The end of each running session in a lunge, is follwed up with squaring them up with you.  This trend continued in everything we did, all night.  Koda was constantly trying to square up with me, which is not what I wanted.  This kind of reinforced to me that when hitch training, I'll only lunge if I need to run a horse to really make a point.  when driving a horse from behind, the last thing you want is an unsure horse trying to spin and square up with you.

2. Sacking out.  This is where I really make use of the carrot stick.  This is kind of part of step 1, but I figured I'd give it extra emphasis.  This is where I give her a good "whoa", and then some "easy"s as I begin tossing rope all over her.  I use the rope attached to the carrot stick to basically wrap all over her and get her used to the feel and touch of ropes being all over her.  I toss it over her back, and slowly pull it off.  Then over her butt, around her legs, under her belly, over and under her neck, up next to her tail, between her legs, basically ... everywhere.

Koda did pretty good with this.  Kelly has been working her like this, and it really showed.  A few minor flinches at first, but nothing that I would consider abnormal or spooky.

3. Putting on the harness.  Once I feel she's moving good, and she's OK with ropes being tossed all over her, it's time to harness her up.  I start by taking the collar to her, and letting her smell it all over.  If she's acting a little put off by it, I'll rub her neck with it, and use the collar to pet her.  Just basically, introduce this part as a friend.  Then I put the collar on  (first time, I'll unlatch it and put it around her neck if possible.  Later we'll work on sliding the entire collar over her head).  I do the same thing with the harness.  Once the harness is on ... make adjustments!  This is a great time to sack out a horse and adjust.  While adjusting, I really move the harness on her.  I'll slap the chains, and make sure she's relaxed with this new foreign thing resting on her.

Once again,  Koda did great with this.  Kelly's work desensitizing her to chains and ropes payed off big time for me.  Harness was on with no problems and soon it was all adjusted.

For her harness, I borrowed the same old logging harness from my friend Chuck Whitlock that I borrowed to work my first mare Lily.  It's an old harness that has seen better days, but it works great at introducing a harness to a horse.  It has a 20 inch collar.  Lily barely squeezed into it.  I used a collar pad and it fit Koda just fine.  I adjusted all the straps to their smallest settings, and it worked great.

Koda with a collar.

Koda sporting an old logging harness.  This thing has seen better days, but I'm glad to have it.

4. Moving with the harness on.  Once the harness is on (without the bridle), I lead the horse around to make sure she's OK with all the new feels and sounds that this harness is going to create.  I do this without the bridle so she can kind of see that nothing scary is happening.

This is where Koda showed she is not a draft horse.  My big girls have never even batted an eye at this type of stuff.  Koda cared!  She took a first step, felt the change, and tried to bolt.  I just stepped to the side, out of her way, and let her run a few circles around me till she calmed down, telling her "whoa" and "easy" in a calm voice the whole time.  Once she stopped, I rubbed her forehead, assuring her that she was OK, and then re-positioned the harness back on her  (a few wild running circles had nearly pulled it off to the outside.  Made me wish I had a crupper for this harness).  After she had calmed down, I faced her, told her to "step up", and had her take a single step.  I then praised and re-assured.  We did this over and over, getting more and more steps, till she was confident and leading with no problems while wearing the harness.

Trying to keep her calm with all this new stuff on her.

Rewarding her for a great job walking with the harness on.

Once she got over her spookiness with the harness, she led like a pro.  I even got to the point where I was giving her 10 foot of lead line and giving commands as I walked with her, and she was sticking right with me.  This was a great thing to see, and helped build her confidence.

5. Ground Driving.  At this point, I put the bridle on, adjust it and the bit, and attach the driving lines.  I then start with a helper walking next to the horse, responding to my commands.  This is the first time the horse hears my commands from behind her, so it's going to be a new thing.  Having a person up at her head, responding to my commands does wonders in helping remind her that she knows what to do.  (when I do this at home with drafts, this is where I hitch them up as a team and let the other horse help them with the queues.)

Ground driving with a helper on the lead rope.

 At this point in the training,  it had been a few hours.  We did a few laps and she was unsure.  Then I watched her kind of hit a mental wall.  She started shaking her head a lot, and being a little un-ruly towards my helper who was walking with the lead line.  After a little of this, I decided to end the session.  To make sure we ended on a good note, I grabbed the lead rope (with bridle still on), and we went back to the leading we did in step 4.  She did great with it.  After 5-10 minutes of this, we called it a day.  She got brushed good, praised, and got hay.

A great way to finish off the day ... on something she did great with.

So that was it for session #1.  Next time I go out, I'll start over at the beginning again, but this time it should go faster.  Little by little!