Excerpts of email reports from Dodger’s new trainer.
March 31: Dodger did great yesterday. His first session was definitely sort of a wake up call for him, but I think the program will make some positive changes for him (and you), very quickly. We worked briefly on introducing him to the Round Pen skills and helping him to pay more attention, using his eyes and learning to follow me. He had distractions of other horses in the arena, so that was a challenge for us, but he really finished well. I did get it on video, so you can get a good feel for what we started with. He portrays many defensive qualities in addition to the biting habit. This is typical for horses like this and it takes some experimenting to try and figure out what works best to keep him busy and focused the right way. We’ll take a look at the video when you come on Saturday and discuss each step, then we can do a live session to follow.
Dodger went outside after his session, which I think he was very thankful for. I put a cooler and a blanket on him after he had a rinse down in the wash rack. He is eating well now and seems to be content, especially now that he realizes he has friends. He was not liking the stall yesterday, especially as we were moving so many horses back and forth in front of him. He screamed or whinnied every 5 minutes for quite a while. This is probably why he did so well in his first session.
He is a good boy and I look forward to making new steps with the both of you!
April 2: Dodger is doing fine. This first week is his hardest as far as transitioning. He’s had 2 round pen sessions now with fair improvement, and today we started a very critical lesson with Footwork (Work In Hand). This is definitely something very new to him and should make for a lot of improvements in many different areas:
• Softness off the bit
• An understanding of how to better move off the bit/rein cues
• Better balance and coordination
• Engagement of the hind end
An introduction to learning to pay more attention to his feet and the rest of his body, rather than worry about the human and the tools.
This will also help him to develop a less defensive character. Because [he anticipates being reprimanded for his biting], he has developed a defensive sort of routine. The body language, also known as No Contact lessons, will help this part begin to dissipate. But then the most important part, as you know, will be for you to learn how to redevelop his emotional behaviors and keep them up to par. Eventually he will quit altogether and you two will begin to bond on a much deeper level.
I see a lot of development areas that we need to work on, both physically and mentally. I am excited to get you going and to have you observe some of the changes that he has already been making.
We got 4 inches of snow, but Dodger has his blankie on and I think is truly enjoying visiting with his outdoor classmates.
Dodger’s getting 12 hours of turnout (Vitamin D, as she calls it) every day. They rotate the horses in the stalls with those in the outside turnout areas every 12 hours so they can double the number of horses boarded to the number of stalls available. That explains why they were moving so many horses past him. Not sure why that got him going. Maybe it was because they were the first Paints he’d seen since he was little and he wanted them to know he’d finally come back to his tribe…maybe it was because he didn’t recognize any of them and was missing his buddies from the old barn. I wish I knew.
I love that there’s a plan she’s working with him and wants to bring me in on it. There might be hope for me yet. I go over to see him tomorrow. Seems like it’s been a month!
