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.