Although the ranch is literally in the middle of nowhere, the desert is incredibly peaceful and I really like it!
I worked with a horse called Walker in the morning. He's a branded Mustang which means he was born in the wild and brought down and caught as a youngster and that's where he would have got the brand under his mane. He was very edgy and would flinch when you touched him and jump in the air when something moved in the wind.
We spent a long time getting to know each other and I groomed him for ages, just encouraging him to relax and drop his head. We then went into the round pen and did some ground work. He has obviously done this before and understood all the basics but he felt he had to do everything at 100 miles an hour (I think some one must have named him walker as a joke!). We worked a lot on him just being comfortable to stand and relax on the end of the 12 ft line. With time and a lot of patience and reassurance, we managed to walk a circle both ways, which was a huge improvement to the circles of gallop we started with!
I then tacked him up very slowly whilst giving him lots of reassurance each step of the way. At first, Fernando walked with me holding me also, but with tiny tiny steps and lots of standing still, relax and praise time after each short walk stretch... we were walking round the round pen by ourselves both ways on our own, without rushing and without spooking or jumping in the air! I was very pleased with Walker and we had lots of cuddles and scratching time after. I think he will make a lovely horse for someone, but he may always be the type who's 10% ready for a monster to jump out of the bushes! I'm very keen to work with him again this week (I think I'm a little bit in love already!)
In the afternoon I worked with Valentine. Valentine is Palomino gelding about 9 years old I think.
He was rescued from a feed lot which is basically a huge auction where horses are sold before they are transported to either Mexico or Canada for slaughter!
He's been at the ranch for a while, and wasn't great at picking up his feet for the farrier but is much improved now. He had not been ridden since he arrived so this was the first time anyone had sat on him since he came from the feed lot.
He was an absolute Angel!!! I caught, groomed and tacked him up and he was totally chilled the whole time. We rode in the round pen for a while but I got the impression he would rather go somewhere rather than round and around, so we rode around the ranch for a while. Walk, trot, canter stop and turn all perfect! He stopped on my breathing and basically was happy to go if you asked him but would rather just walk if possible! He'd make an awesome family pony for some one and he's so handsome, I don't think it will take him long to find a home, now we know what an excellent riding horse he is!
I'm back again tomorrow so I wonder what fun that will bring!
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