New Horse on the farm

[Ed Thayer]

I have been working the horses consistently over the past couple of weeks and they have really settled down. I am convinced Tucker is more relaxed and found his place in the herd. Fortunately I am the leader.

When I first got him he was pushy and always trying to be in front, now when I walk them to the pasture or go fetch them for dinner, he follows right behind me and doesn’t put his nose past my shoulder. I don’t even put a halter on him when they come down from the field.

It is interesting to me to see the changing dynamics unfold the more time I spend walking and working with them.

Thanks for all the info and perspective,

Ed

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[JaredWoodcock]

I know this an old post but I would like to add something that I learned from Karl Pfister and this new team. Karl introduced me to working in the round pen so that I could get a relationship with them going on the ground before he dropped them off. I have done a lot of relationship building work in the past but never had someone show me actual round pen.

When I first drove these mares at Karl’s farm one was very responsive and the other forward as Karl said they would be. When I got them home they switched roles. They are both broke and great horses but there were subtle differences. I started by just hitching them as much as I had time for and they evened out nicely. Then I ran out of time one week for hitching and had them switch back to their original roles.

One day I only had a short period of time. I needed to move some wood and I didnt want to spend half of the time going for a ride and evening them out. I remembered a couple of things that Karl had showed me and I spent 5 minutes gently pressuring them around the pasture and doing some very simple commands. They settled in perfect, harnessed easy, stood patiently, and got the wood out even though it was dark and I could barely see where I was driving. That 5 minutes of ground work made it so that with only and hour to work with them we got the job done and had a great time.

I am sold and I will forever use some simple groundwork to help let the steam out vs. driving it out.

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