Day 20 – Phil’s Courage’s Journal

Morning feeding: Phil did what he was supposed to do this morning only he told me “hurry it up”. He lowered his head for the head rubbing ritual and before I took my hand off his head he took his head away from me and took a step towards the dish. Immediately my posture straightened and let out a firm “NO”.  I didn’t even have to wave Phil off; he did it on his own and circled back in with a completely different body posture. I invited him in to my space, rubbed his head for a lengthy time and let him go to the food dish.

Side note: I use certain words like “NO” or “BACK” to help me raise my energy and change my facial expression, not necessarily to teach Phil to respond to the words. Read more

Day 19 – Phil’s Courage’s Journal

Retraining Thoroughbreds – OTTBs

These pages are dedicated to retraining off-track-Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) for dressage, eventing, hunter/jumper and pleasure. OTTBs are kind, sensitive animals who want to bond and please their humans.

Day 18 – Phil’s Courage’s Journal

Morning feeding: Dan reported feeding went well.

Ground Tying: I think this is really a neat concept. Ground tying gives your horse a say so in the situation. Think about it, if your horse is truly your partner then he will accept bridling, saddling, mounting, etc. by standing still. If your horse moves away from you during any of these activities he is telling you “hey, I’m not ready yet” or “I don’t respect you .” Ground tying is an easy lesson to teach, but it takes time and lots and lots of patience.

Before asking Phil to ground tie I set him up for success. I asked him for a little ground work to warm up his muscles and to get his brain focused on me. It took less than 5 minutes to warm Phil up physically and mentally.

I have been working on ground tying from day one with Phil. Today, I haltered standing on his right side today to mix things up with rope halter/lead and led him (right side) to the round pen. Read more

Day 17 – Phil’s Courage’s Journal

Morning feeding: Phil backed away and let me pour his feed.

As I approached to rub his head he swung his head in circles and danced in place. His body posture told me he was not being aggressive or pushy; he wanted to play. Phil is still very much a colt. This is behavior that needs to be addressed. I am a human; I am not his play buddy. The biggest mistake handlers make, in my opinion, is they think their horse is their buddy and encourage this playful behavior because it “is cute.” It is not cute when a 1200 lb. horse escalates the play behavior by rearing, charging, biting, or kicking. This should not be tolerated! In the herd the Alpha mare does not have a buddy. Sure, she will graze and engage with the other horses, but she does not have a “best friend” or ‘buddy.”  This statement is reflecting a true wild herd. The lower members of the herd buddy up. My goal with Phil is to establish in his mind that there is no doubt I’m the Alpha mare. I didn’t even have to send Phil around the pen, a stern “NO” and raising my hand to block him (kind of like “talk to the hand”) switched his behavior mode immediately.

A little insight: I love my horses. I do not love on them. My horses are not my best friends. Read more