Rose Training Session #2

So its been about a month and a half or so since I last updated you all on Rose's training. My farrier is due back tomorrow and unfortunately I haven't been working with Rose like I should have. I had made such progress the last time I worked with her that my farrier was extremely impressed with her behaviour. I could give you a ton of excuses why I haven't worked with her in the past month, excuses that are actually legit, but in the end, "excuses, excuses."

Last week I decided I needed to work with her no matter my schedule or that I would love to just laze around. It was in the evening and still in the 90's out, but I was going to do this either way. So I grabbed Rose's halter and headed out to the pasture to catch her. I had been out to the pasture lots of times in the past month that she would coming running if I whistled. Not that day, nope, she was so against me catching her that it ended up taking me 45 minutes to finally get a hold of her.
She ran and ran and then ran some more, bucking and kicking. Acting like a completely wild horse who had never been touched before. I decided, "Fine, if you're going to play this game, that's fine. It takes two to tango." I play the domineering lead mare with her. For those of you who might be going, "whaaaat?"  In a herd, there is one alpha female called the, "Lead Mare". She will sometimes kick another horse out of the herd if she doesn't like the other horse. She'll run the other horse out and then stand guard over the herd making sure the other horse doesn't sneak back in. When the outcast shows signs of submission and remorse, the "Lead Mare" will show its vulnerable side to the outcast. The outcast will see this signal and know its okay to rejoin the herd.
Okay, now that that's explained. This demonstration can be used between human and horse as well. I let Rose know that I was "Lead Mare" and I am kicking her out of the herd. I kept pushing her away and chasing her so she wouldn't come near the neighbours horses. I would love to tell you it worked this time, but unfortunately it didn't. Thankfully I knew this technique worked before or I would have been discouraged. I just didn't want to spend 3 hours trying to catch her. I eventually put down the halter and she let me come to her.

 So now that she was caught and we were both tired and sweating. I knew I had to work her just so she knew she couldn't keep getting away from me. So I lunged her in circles and she was very unhappy. I went ahead and put the saddle on her and she seemed completely fine. That was, until I started lunging her with the saddle on. She Bucked, Kicked, hopped and threw her head over and over again. All the while about ripping my arm off my body. After about 10 minutes she finally calmed down and stopped bucking. She was still being a pain so I decided to call it quits since she was sweating so bad. I un-tacked her and took her to the the hose and gave her a bath. She wasn't too fond of the water shooting at her, but she realized it felt nice and didn't squirm around to much.
So that was my day working with her last week. Needless to say it was a frustrating and disheartening day for me. I was disappointed at her regressing so badly that it got to me for awhile.

Since my farrier is coming tomorrow. I knew I needed to get her out and work her again. So after we got back from doing our third play this year for our county libraries. I decided I was going to work with Rose again.
Yet again I grabbed her halter and headed out to the pasture. All the while praying that this session went a whole lot better then the last. Praise be to Yah, I caught her within 5 minutes this time. Although I will admit to bribing with treats this time. *chuckles* Hey, whatever works, eh?
 Happy that I had caught her a lot quicker. We headed to the front yard to do some lunging to warm up. She was doing good if not a little distracted with my dads horse not being there. Since she was being good and calm I chose to start picking up her hooves. She gave me a little bit of trouble, but nothing too serious and she quickly shaped up. Then came the dreaded saddle, she was not happy about this. Since the last time I tied her up and she tore down my riding ring I haven't tied her to anything. Something else I have to work on. Anyway, so without her tied up we ended up walking in circles while I put the saddle on her. She was very antsy (jumpy) with the saddle being cinched and I was a little worried she was going to start bucking with me next to her, but she didn't Praise Yah. Back to lunging she did really well, a huge improvement to the last session. She crow-hopped once but I snapped the whip behind her loud and she quit. Since she was doing so well I didn't want to just end the session. I then decided to teach her leading manners since she is awful about crowding your space when your walking. For about 20 minutes (with the saddle still on) we walk around and around in the yard until she stopped crowding me. I gave her another bath to finish the session and put her back out to the pasture.
 That was the end of the training session today.

Rose still has a very long way to go, but Yah willing I will have more time to work with her. I just pray he gives me patience as I move on with her training and that I don't get injured, LoL! She really is a good horse and picks up on things very quickly and even though she my regress she still remembers everything once she force her to do them. All in all she will make a cowboy proud someday.
 I will be working with her tomorrow before the farrier gets here. Yah willing it all goes well and she does better then she did the last time he was her.

Hope I didn't put ya'll to sleep. Have a wonderful week. Until next time!