May Recap, June Goals

Oak

May Recap:

I worked with Oak for over 11 hours this month. The work included traveling off the farm for the first time, desensitization to a variety of objects (barrels, tarps, milk jugs, massager, flapping stirrups, western saddle) free lunging in the round pen and arena, teaching him to "catch me", wearing a bridle, giving to pressure in the rope halter, trot off on the lead, and ground driving.

June Goals:

• Have a productive off the farm lesson.
• Gain confidence with wearing the western saddle and movement on the saddle (stirrups and jugs here we come!)
• Build Confidence with me over him, and messing with the saddle.
• Learn a verbal whoa cue
• Start working on rate changes in the trot on the lunge
• Stretching and relaxation on the lunge
• Start shaping standing on a mat (beginning of ground tying)
• Introduce ground poles

Grayson

Grayson is now officially two so he is going to start having goals. I work with him a few times a week but I would really like to start stepping it up and keeping track of our progress.

May Recap:

We started working on giving to pressure. He is pretty reactive to halter pressure so we don't have a natural soft response yet. We worked gaining confidence with a few scary objects but he was pretty tense about the milk jugs in particular. He loves to target and has generalized that well. He has started to learn to trot on the lunge. Just a few strides.

 

June Goals:

• Settling down off the farm (hopefully having a few productive moments)
• Trotting calmly for two rotations on the lunge in the round pen.
• Giving to halter pressure in all directions 
• Confidence hanging around in the yard and other places around the property on a lead.
• Confidence with novel objects touching him (massager, jugs, and saddle blanket)
• Start shaping standing on a mat (beginning of ground tying)

Training Log 6/2/2016

Oak

Duration: 20 mins
Location: Paddock
Activity: Standing on a a mark. Ground tying.
Observations: First session for standing on a marked and he picked up on putting his front feet on the mat right away.

 Grayson

Duration: 10 mins
Location: Arena
Activity: trotting on lead. yielding to pressure, backing up
Observations: He can be so soft sometimes and so belligerent and stubborn other times. Today he was soft.