Goose – day 19

 I think you take your small victories where they happen. It wasn’t a hard day for him. I went in the pasture again, with a halter. Put some little goodies in my pocket so that I could feed him and get him to me, he moved away from me initially. But he didn’t run away, there was nothing panicked about how he moved. He came right back, because he is motivated by food. I hope this is what he is like going forward, it would mean that he has turned the corner a little bit.

Goose – day 18

Nov 17

 This was a fantastic day for goose. I took a little bit of feed in with me when I went to catch him. And he wanted to be in my pocket. I rubbed all over Him, and fed him some little snacks. I slipped the halter on him. No fuss, no must. The hope is that this is a lightbulb moment for him. But he had enough trust in me that he was able to let go of his fear and anxiety. Wasn’t a hard workout day, as I said, I wanted to make bad behavior, your hard, and good behavior easy. This was an easy day for him. He was fantastic.

Goose – day 17

Nov 16

 My bride and I have a theory that goose does not trust men. She can walk in that pen and rub all over him and he is in her pocket the whole time. So today, I didn’t try to put my hands on him, in the big pen. I went ahead and just put him in the round pen. And then I let Felicia go in. She walked right up to him and rubbed all over him. Didn’t have any issues. I went in afterwards and he immediately moved away from me. So I walked him down. And when he would stop and face me, I would stop and face him. Eventually, we got to the place where I could put a rope around his neck. I did a couple of little short videos to show you what I’m doing,

I know none of this feels like progress. It feels like we’re at the same place we were when we started back on day one. But I have seen improvements in Goose, I have seen him move from running away from me to just moving away.And having enough trust that eventually, I can catch him and be around him.  I think a small pen to catch him is going to be in his future no matter what. I think you’re gonna have to spend 3 to 4 days a week just putting your hands on him brushing him And getting him to trust you.

Goose – day 16

 November 15. 

I wrote yesterday about seeing the little progresses. If I looked at the way today went in the grand scheme of things, I would think this was many ,many steps backwards. He was hard to catch, didn’t want me to touch him. And I didn’t want to make it about him getting away. So today it about approaching and retreat, and finally, I was able to put my hands on him. One of the things that I try to do is make bad behavior hard and good behavior easy. So today it was about me putting my hands no and putting a halter on him. And once he calmed enough to do that, I just kicked him back out.

Goose – day 15

 Training horses see in progress every day. Even when the progress doesn’t look like progress. Goose has been a little hard to catch, not trusting, and some days it’s like a brand new day. Today was progress. Still hard to catch, still a little boogery about his head and a rope. But I Suspect that Tracey will not be Roping. Once I got him caught, brought him over saddle him up and took him back to the mounting block. Couple reasons for that, one I’m not as limber as I used to be or as quick on my feet. And I know that Tracy uses a Mounting block. As with last time, he didn’t want to stand beside the mounting block, so it took a little effort and pushing in pulling to get him to where I could get on him.

The ride went great as I said before I think that this horse is broke to death. Worked on softening his mouth up a little bit, been riding him in a little Tom Thumb. He handles it well. All in all I would count this as a good day

Goose – day 14

 I think maybe goose has learned that when he boogers and spooks, he gets left alone. I believe he learned this at some point in his past. So today when I could put my hands on him in the round pen, I just loop my long lunge line around his neck. I didn’t try to put a halter on him, I let him think that he was loose. And then I started approaching, retreat, put my hands on him, and walk away. His right side seems a little more touchy than the left, so we spent more time there today. And what I learned is a lesson for both of us, maybe. I learned to be more patient today. Seems like that is an ongoing thing with me. , so we spent more time there today. And what I learned is a lesson for both of us, maybe. I learned to be more patient today. Seems like that is a ongoing thing with me. What he learned was that just because he boogers and jerks away he’s not getting away. I still had a rope around his neck, and I was still coming back to touch him in that place that he didn’t want me to touch him. Right now, I’m just walking around him. He’s loose, he can leave if he wants to. But while he is not exactly the friendliest horse in the world, when you’re working him, he is also not leaving right now. I think that maybe there’s some trust building up here finally where he realizes that I’m not gonna kill him and eating him. He’s still a bit of a touch me not, but today was much better

Goose – day 13

 11/10

I forgot to post what I did with him on Monday. I knew that he was going to be a little iffy for me because I hadn’t messed with him in three or four days because of Man Camp. So Monday was more about him just letting me touch him, and I bribed him with a little food to be honest. Spent 3040 minutes just walking around in the pasture walk up to him touch him walk away. A lot of approach and retreat. When I could finally touch him while he ate, and I rubbed him all over, I let him be for the rest of the day probably all told 30-45 minutes.

Goose – day 12

 It was a frustrating day with goose today. Practicing patients is not one of my virtues, and he made me practice it today. My goal was to catch him in that big pasture, put a hand on him, rub him a little bit and then just let him Go. For better than an hour, I could get no closer than about 8 feet to him. He has major trust issues specifically with men. He wouldn’t even come up for feed today for me. The Cowboy in me, wanted to rope him and be done with it, but I think that’s what is putting him in the shape that he’s in.

After Man Camp, I am going to put him directly back into the Round pen And we’re gonna work on the Catching portion of this Challenge.

Goose - day 11

 Notes from Friday, The 31st.

I didn’t even try to catch him in the big pen today. I went ahead and just ran him in the round pen. We did a lot of what is called the catching game. When he ran away from me, I put pressure on his hip and I pushed him until he wanted to flick an ear at me and then I asked him to stop. When he stopped, I would walk away from him. And if he followed me, I would reward him with a little bite of food. He’s highly motivated by food, so it’s easy to manipulate that we spent a good hour doing this, and I really felt like we made some good progress. He was calm. He wasn’t nervous about his head, I could put a rope around his head And I made the decision that at an hour we were gonna stop. When I reached to take the halter off, thankfully, I had done that in the Round pen, he freaked out. So it was back to work, push him on his Hip until he looked at me, and then I would repeat what I had been doing for an hour. After catching him again, I took my Long 20 foot line and just rubbed it all over his head and his neck , And both sides of him. This added another 30 to 45 minutes and at that point when we reached a good stopping point, I took him out To the big pen and Gave him some food and let him eat it with the halter on while I stood beside him and rubbed on him. And then took the halter off, rubbed on some more with the halter, and then just turned and walked away. It was a good time to stop. 

His attitude seemed a little different, maybe this is a break Through day for him. We’ll see next time I ride.

Goose – day 10

 Spent a lot of time working on catching him. He would let me touch him in the big pen but not let me catch him. So I ran him into the round pen and we worked on catching him. He was very hard to catch it first, I have a thought that maybe he doesn’t like men. We spent an hour touching him, give him a little snack and walk away. A lot of rinse and repeat on this. He is still pretty twitchy about being caught, but getting better. At the end of about an hour on the ground, he was standing, let me walk up to him, put the halter on him, touch him all over and I could do this repeatedly.

But, I wondered if I could catch him back in the big pen. And he taught me a lesson about finishing on a good note. Because once we got back in the big pen, he would have nothing to do with me even for food. I think sometimes the horse gets a win too. And tonight was goose‘s win. I do believe that he will be better in the catchability department tomorrow, but I think maybe it’s gonna take a lot of time to get him used to being caught. And a small pen might be in his future for the ability to catch Him.

Goose – day 9

 Two posts in one day because I forgot to post yesterday. Today was a lot of the rinse repeat rinse. Repeat with the catching game. Tested my patience pretty good because he has had nothing to do with the feed or me touching him. So I arranged the gates and ran him in the round pen. If he turned his hind end  toward me in the round pen, he got a spanking. That only took a couple times before he realized it was a whole lot easier to do this with his head facing me. And because he’s food motivated, I started rewarding his good behavior. We finally got to the point where I could walk up to him, catching and bend his head around, and put a halter on. I repeated this for about an hour.

Goose – day 8

 I work today on a little bit of a catching game. He’s hard to catch and I wonder if he hasn’t been roped to get caught. So I went out there with the feed and I didn’t let him have any until he came to me. I rubbed around on him and then took it away and rinse and repeat for 45 minutes to an hour. I did all this in the big pasture that we have him in right now, so of course he had plenty of room to get away from me.

Goose – day 7

 Today with goose, I worked on just getting him caught without him being all snaky on the ground. Spent a very long time, catching him, turning him loose, catching him, turning him loose, catching him, turning him loose. And then I caught him and went ahead and put saddle on him, and a little Tom Thumb bit. And went and led him up to the mounting block and got on. I really thought he was gonna break in to, at one point, because he looked at a shadow and saw those long reins trailing down by his shoulder and just started trying to run backwards to get away from him. Once he got used to seeing that though he was just fine. I believe that goose is fairly well broke. I think his biggest problem is that he is scared to death of ropes. Going to spend more time on foot around him going forward than riding.

Goose - day 6

 With two days off, Goose was pretty jumpy and buggery. He acted like we hadn’t been doing anything at all. Caught him up, rode him a bit. But I wanted to try something new today. I know he’s afraid of the ropes and anything moving up around his head. So I went and got my lariat, and as soon as I walked into the round pen and he could hear that rope slide, he turned into a quivering mess. I spent the rest of the time standing on the far side of the Round pen away from him just swinging that rope around my head. We eventually got to the place where he allowed me to touch him with it, and I rubbed him all over. But we’re gonna spend a lot of time going forward getting him used to ropes so he doesn’t have this great fear. 

Goose – day 5

When I went out to catch goose, he seemed like he wanted to be around me. I went to put the halter on him and he lost his mind for a few minutes. I think this all stems back to that fear of ropes. So we started with groundwork. When he wanted to to booger and leave, I put pressure on him and made it uncomfortable for him to be away from me. And when he wanted to be still, I  rubbed around on him and let him know this is where I wanted him to be. After a bit he calmed down, and I caught him. Thre the saddle on him, no issues. Since I didn’t know how he would react to a bit his mouth I rode him with a bosal today. Going to Ride with a bit going forward. He’s fairly broke as much as I could tell on this first ride anyway. All in all, ended on a good note. 

Goose – day 4

 Ended up on a good note today with goose. But he started out pretty buggery about Lead ropes and halters and me touching him. So we worked on a little bit of a catch me game. I put pressure on his hip and pushed him and pushed him and pushed him until he looked at me, and then I would turn around and walk away and try to get him to follow me. Took a little while, he got pretty hot and sweaty. But he got there. I spent a lot of time flicking my long line all around him on the ground and up over his back, and around his legs. It’s gonna take a lot of of this to get him over being afraid of ropes being around him. but we ended on a good note, he was calm and semi OK with the ropes being flicked around him at the end.

Goose – day 3

 It was a good day for goose. Not a lot of pressure on him this morning, he was snorting and blowing at everything. Combination of his natural snortiness and it being a little cooler this morning. We worked on getting him used to external pressure. Yesterday I mentioned that I thought he belonged to a roper, and today I took a long line and basically Walked away from him, flinging it all over until he got used to it. And then I would get closer to him and do it, move further away and do it. Basically I was just desensitized him to that rope. It was a good workout for him because he did not like it. But by the end here, he was doing all right.

Goose - Day 2

 After yesterday, this day wasn’t so hard on goose. He was still pretty snorting and blowy, and didn’t like the rope touching him. But from the time that I started putting pressure on him until the time he started looking at me was much shorter. This was sort of a repeat of what yesterday was. It was pressure pressure pressure on the ground, until he tipped near at me. And then we release the pressure. I rubbed all over him, tossed my rope over his back around his legs up around his head. He didn’t like that too much, back to my thought about him belonging to a roper. It was another good day. 

Goose - Day 1

 Day, one was pretty intense for goose. He immediately didn’t want to be caught, which I’m OK with. But it was a workout for him. I immediately put pressure on his hip and drove him away from me and pushed and kept pressure up until he wanted to tip that ear to me and start looking at me. It took probably a good 35-40 minutes for him to give in and start looking at me. Once that started, I took some of the pressure off of him. But we spent the next 20 minutes or so in an approach and release type game. I would approach him, and if he stayed still, I would walk away from him. If he moved, it was back to pressure on the hip in circles in the Round pen. 

I wonder, if he belonged to a roper. He was really snorting and blowing about the rope, touching him anywhere. And he does have scars all around his legs like he was tangled in a rope or a wire.  

All in all a good day.