Day 18 Kipling's progress

Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been having problems with my computer.
Kipling Flynn is coming along very well. He is now halter free except when Jess asks him to wear it, he can go out into the pasture with the smaller horses and comes back when called. Jess groomed him all over a couple of days ago, and today she really brushed out his mane and forelock. He is still a bit jumpy so she used a sweat shirt to flag him, and literally five minutes later he was wearing it on his head! He is amazingly calm, and I think will make a perfect child's pony! Jess is working on picking up his feet, which he thinks is silly. She is taking this one in very short sessions.
Jessica uses clicker training with her horses, this is where she has conditioned the horse to expect a reward when she clicks her tongue once. Every time he accepts her intentions, or performs correctly he gets a "click" and a treat. The treats she uses are alfalfa cookies, our little horse then decided that he could nibble and bite for the treats, so she turns away and clicks when he leaves her alone. Now he waits politely for them to be offered. Kipling still gets scared, and runs to Jess for protection he wants his shoulder connecting with her hip or to jump right into her pocket. the next few lessons are going to be on "personal space" of the person.

Day 3 Happy Birthday Flynn!

According to his paperwork today is Flynn's first birthday, we are glad that you are official now, little pony! Today Jessica's friend Wyatt went with her to see Flynn. Wyatt had no trouble petting him after approaching slowly. He was still a little jumpy, especially at first with two people in his stall, but he didn't take long to relax, sniff them all over and accept treats. They both pet him all the way to his flank, rump, and Jess took hold of his left foot and he lifted it. He was standing on the lead rope and lifted his head while she was holding his foot and stumbled, but was not too scared. He has figured out that they are not going to eat him, rather they have food for him. He became very pushy trying to get treats, so Jess withheld treats unless he works for them. She smacked his muzzle when he bit her sleeve, he reacted just like her other horse, tossing his head but immediately returning. Overall he seems to be enjoying the attention he is getting.
He did have some unknown visitors today, one who tripped and scared Flynn, and one that marched right up to him which sent him flying. He recovered himself and then resumed enjoying his attention.
Jess continued to walk with him with pressure on the lead rope, he is mostly following her while getting used to the pressure.
I will try to get pictures tomorrow. :)

Day 2 Making friends

Jess and Mr. Flynn surprised each other today. Mr. Flynn tried really hard to ignore her, pretending to sleep, but he found acting to be boring. She says it was very sudden that he decided she was interesting. He approached her! It didn't take him long to discover the thing in her hand was good to eat.
Since Jess works where the horses are stabled she spent several short sessions with him in between her chores. When she came back the second time she used the approach and retreat technique and in about 10 minutes she was able to pet him, in fact he really became curious and since her face is just about level with his, they looked into each others eyes and she kissed him on the nose!
The third time she went in with him, she picked up the lead rope and began putting pressure on his head, each time he turned to the pressure she gave him a click and a treat. She began taking a step with the pressure and clicking and treating as he followed. Before she left for the night she was leading him in circles around his stall.

His name is Kipling Flynn! Day 1

It's a big name for such a little horse! We expect that he will do some big things, though.
he arrived home this afternoon at about 2:30 PM. He was very tired, Jess made a very brief contact with him before he zoned out. He actually fell asleep while she was waiting for him to "try".
We went back to check on him around five PM and he was still sleeping, legs splayed out at the four corners. It didn't look like he had ventured into the barn, so we got water out in the run, he woke up just enough to notice. He did not try to run and she did not push. At 8PM Jess reported that he had been in the barn, eaten and pooped three times he must be drinking too. Thank goodness, he had seemed really depressed and I wondered if all this had been too much for his system to handle.
Tomorrow will be exciting, I wonder what he will remember of today!

From the old blog...

Jessica has entered a horse training contest similar to the Extreme Mustang Makeover, but not part of it. It is a program brought to life by Tracey Westbury and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) The ultimate goal with this program is to find adoptive homes for horses that might be more difficult to home because of their plain color. Horse enthusiasts are a vain people and tend to want unusual colors, markings and patterns. Shame, because the plain brown horse is just as nice a companion as the one with all the chrome. Additionally, the organizers want to give youths a chance to be recognized for their talents and hard work. In YAY a child under age 18 is paired with a yearling mustang, the youth has 100 days or three months to gentle, halter train, and expost the young horse to trail obstacles. At the end of the 100 days (July 25, for us!) the team will return to Black Raven Stables in Arlington, WA to compete in an all breed youth Fitting and Showing, and In-hand Trail class. The winner get a prize unknown to me at this point, they also get to choose to keep the horse for the base adoption price of $125.00 or they can surrender the horse back to the BLM who will auction the yearling and after taking their cut (the base price) give the remaining proceeds to the trainer. Pretty Cool, huh?!?
So, today was the Arlington Mustang Adoption, and the pick up day for the YAY babies. Jessica was assigned tag #8568, yearling bay gelding. Lacking a truck and trailer of my own, the BLM graciously agreed to deliver him to our boarding facility. We expect him to arrive early afternoon tomorrow.
In case you were wondering, any $ she recieves from this project will be deposited into her Australia Bound Savings Account.
Jessica is very excited to use the knowedge she gained from training her own mustang to help other horses and promote the Mustang to the public. We invite you to share this journey with us, I think it will be a lot of fun!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

17 months later....

Jessica and Jasmin have made themselves into a team! Jessica has been riding english and now is able to jump Jasmin over 2 1/2 foot jumps. Yesterday I was watching them play in the pasture, Jess was riding bare back and just vaulted onto Jas's back. Jas stood calmly. Then in a fit of showing off Jess stood on her back, nothing worth moving an ear for. Jess is beginning to ride western and teach Jas to neck rein. Jasmin also plays soccer, kisses, and bows. She has come so far from the horse who got nervous when your hand moved farther than her neck!
Our horse has super horse feet! She is coming 7 now and has not ever had her feet trimmed, just a little file here and there for beauty sake. She did colick about three weeks after she came home with us, but that was short lives and not serious. It was very comforting to have her stabled with a vet, she got very good and immediate round the clock care. This last March she came down with another belly ache at the same time that her neighbor's tail completely dissapeared! So we now keep all horse tails out of her reach and are trying to keep her more occupied.
This spring Jess decided to enter 4-H and take a steer to the fair for market. Her steer is also black (with white on his face) and is stabled next to the horse. She named him Fillet Mignon, andcalls him Philly (cheese steak). the frist week the steer lived at the barn he and his steer-mate got out into the pasture. Jess threw on a bridle and Jas rounded them up like she knew what she was doing, so we may have a career path opening up for our bored horse.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Jessica brings her horse home

Hi all, I have so little time right now to stay in touch, but so many exciting things to share! I hope that I will find the time to keep this blog up to date. Later, either Richie or I will make a Scotland entry. (I even have not heard all about his trip, things have been so hectic!) So, many of you have heard that Jessica has been working to have a horse of her own. That day has finally come! She has quite the reputation for being the girl to call for babysitting and has earned the money for her horse.
Now, in this family, we never do anything the short way. Jessica's new horse is a five year old Mustang mare named Jasmin. She ran wild her first year and a half before being captured and adopted. She is a very sweet natured horse and really does not have any negative intentions in her, but she is not quite tame. We have a Trainer/Vet/Board owner who is helping us with this horses training. This is such a perfect situation since we have a real expert to help get over all the humps in the road! Jessica works at the barn 20 hours/month in exchange for riding lessons and most of the horses care. The barn is less than a mile from our home, so we will never have trouble getting out to see the horse. Over the next few weeks Marla ( the trainer) will assess Jasmin and plan a training program that Jessica will implement under supervision. Do I need to say that this is exciting for our family?? I didn't think so!
Jessica and I have spent a little time with Jas, trying to desensitize her to the idea of getting into the trailer, but alas we just do not have the experience to really make it work. Over the 8 or so hours we had to work with her the last two weeks the closest we were able to get her into the trailer was to fall into it when a sparrow flew between her legs (she did not stay in the trailer, btw) Today when Marla came to pick her up, she worked for about 35 minutes "asking" Jas to get in and with a little encouragement from Jessica who was pokin her head into the window of the trailer, Jas calmly stepped in! She then realized what she had done and was quite scared, trembling, but accepted that she was in and that was what we wanted. It was amazing to see a professional do what she does! The ride to the barn was uneventful, getting out of the trailer... Well the horse stepped on the lead rope and though she wanted to get out, her head wad not able to move while her foot was on the rope. She got scared, jumped, slipped, stood up outside the trailer and all the people were standing a safe distance from the feet. It was a little tense as she settled herself down (all the people blocking her way to the road) and Jessica calmly walked up to he and caught her. She walked into the barn (her first time ever in a barn) very interested in all the new things around her and into her stall. Of course there was the whinnying, and biting of and from her new barn mates and even a couple of kicks to the rails. After they all had a little time to settle down, Jess took her out and brushed her down and then took her to the arena for a tour of her now home. She found a couple of horses to get sassy with and then Jess took her to the round pen and lunged her for a while before letting her run at liberty. Jas whinnied, and bucked and ran off allot of her nervous energy, then we put her back into the stall and left. Jessica had to go to a babysitting job (She's taking this seriously). I went back after dark and found that Jas was her normal calm self, eating and getting along just fine with her neighbors. She is not afraid of the barn and is settling in very nicely! Jessica is so excited, and I am so glad to see her so happy! This is a big project, but thanks to the excellent example her brother set last year, I think that she knows how much work it will be.

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