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Sharron's update from the weekend of Jan. 12-13:
We had two glorious days of sunny warm weather to work and play with
our Olympians in, and they performed like Olympians! Saturday Janet,
Cliff, Leilani, Nancy, Russ, Sharron and Alissa were there. Alissa and I
started right off with the burros, still no baby from Miss Belle! But she
seemed to appreciate the extra grooming and mommy massaging, she has one of
the prettiest faces I've ever seen! Later Janet and Nancy joined us and we
haltered up the girls and worked on leading, it seems like all of us
"jennies" were in a party mood, we had a lot of fun.
Leilani haltered up Moose and then passed him on to Nancy, then she fetched Magic who really
enjoys her quiet, low-key attention. She gave him a good grooming and then
worked with him loading and unloading in the trailer several times, he was
a pro.
Russ spent a couple of hours with Yogi, partly just quiet time,
working on building his confidence around new people, then haltering and
leading which he did well, benefitting from Janet's coaching and watchful
eye. He was doing well so Russ decided to work with him and the trailer.
It took awhile because as we know Yogi has issues, but eventually he did
get in in a relaxed way and Russ and Yogi spent time inside the trailer
working on not being afraid of it and being positively reinforced.
Nancy worked with Moose, who will pretty much try to do whatever she asks him to
try, they are a good team.
Alissa haltered Gator, who is a big puppy dog
personality. Her biggest complaint is that he kept wanting to lay his head
on her shoulder and it is heavy...she groomed and blanketed him and cleaned
his hooves, etc.
I went in to see who to catch, Spirit came right up and
stuck his nose in the halter, so he was it. Having discovered horse
treats, he's now often close to the gate with Dusty and Gator waiting to be
worked, partly because he knows the session will end with grain and
horn-honking and horse cookies. He makes sure to check our pockets. This
session was his turn to put on the saddle for the first time, and he was a
champ.
We realized that in preparing all the horses for the Olympics, in
teaching them to accept wearing blankets (big, stiff heavy blankets), by
the end of that process a saddle doesn't seem like very much to them! So
I'm filing that step in my brain as a useful tool in the process of
teaching a horse to wear a cinched-up saddle with all the flapping stuff,
etc., since truly none of these guys have broken a sweat in their first
times saddled.
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Russ working with Yogi
"The Gang"
Alissa and Gator
Leilani with Dusty
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KBR Horse Net