• 04 September 2024
• education
• No Comments

Marcelo is my rising four year old home bred Paso Fino colt, by Rev out of Chica. I generally wait until after four to do work, but he is really well grown and I have just had to separate him from his gelding paddockmate, as play was getting a little too heated at times. So I have decided to start with starting him under saddle. However, not only will I be taking my time, but when I get to the part where I’ll actually get on his back, it will be for very short periods. And once we’ve had a few short session with the basics, I’ll give him a break for another year. Working with him now will help with everything later as I intend to run him on as a stallion.

19 August 24

Marcelo’s first session today started with a good brush and picking out feet, and walking him around the arena where we will be working. We spent a bit of time on standing quietly next to me, backing when requested and learning to ignore outside distractions. As he adores neck scratches, I have a handy way to make him feel happy.

I introduced him to a lunge line. Just clipped to a rope halter. The first session was all about moving off on my hand signal. He got a bit excited a few times, which allowed me to admire his gait, but we had a few short walk bits, and he got the general idea, which is all I wanted for the first session.

25 August 24

I put out some pool noodles in a random heap and asked Marcelo to have a look. Then I asked him to follow me over the noodles. He had another good look and then walked over. I’m not fussed whether horses step over them or step on them. Some are very surprised when the noodles move or flip up as they are stepped on, but he didn’t seem to think they are exceptional in any way. We walked over them a couple more times while some of them moved.

I took one and touched him with it all over, and then laid it across his back. He had a good look and wasn’t bothered, so I asked him to walk on, which made the noodle fall off, slide down his side and fall to the ground next to him. He was surprised but not worried and had a good look. Next thing I leant a couple against him and asked him to walk off so the would fall over next to him, which he was also interested in, but not bothered by.

I put orange man on the ground and asked him to first look and then walk over. That was ok, and he tentatively pawed at it. I then dragged it around for a bit, first away and then towards Marcelo. As that was of no concern, it put it across his back. That got a bit more interest, but even a walk forward with orange man falling to the ground next to him wasn’t an issue.

We finished the session off with a very brief lunging play, which was mostly about getting him to walk rather than run. He certainly is following my hand signals for direction very well, and is fairly reliably stopping on voice and hand signal as well.

26 August 24

Today I decided to introduce a pad and roller. Of course I first showed him the pad and roller, and then put it on his back. I did the roller up slowly to let him have a feel, and he didn’t really have any reactio to it when he moved off. I left it on for the session.

Using just a rope headstall and a long rope, did a little bit more lunging left and right side. As he still gets a little excited and struggles keeping an even arc, I sometimes only asked for a few steps and then a stop. Other times I asked him to do half a round or a whole one, adding a little pressure when he cut in and giving half halts on the rope on the other side where he wanted to drift out. When he started rushing off, I asked him to slow down. At first he would only come back to a stop but after a few minutes he started listening to my body language a bit better and I could get a slow down to the walk. The entire lunging session took less than ten minutes, and included a number of stops to let him think about what happened. I like to mark any good try with a stop and rest and think.

On a shorter rope, I introduced a whip by showing it to him and touching him all over. I basically explained that it is an extension of my hand. Setting him up with his feet in the right place, I asked him to bend his neck a little and then step across in front, making sure that the outside front crossed over in front of the inside fore. He picked up on that pretty fast. Two tries to the right and four on the left and he had this worked out. Then I asked him to step across with his hindlegs. It took him a little longer to figure this out, and on the off side I had to do a bit of tapping with the whip to get a reaction. But it only took three repeats both sides and he understood. I asked once more each side front and back and it was there. So I told him he’s a clever guy and we ended the session, and I took the roller and pad off.

I kept him around however, left him tied up next to where I was riding Phoebus. That way he is getting used to seeing people on horses as well as getting socialised to other horses, which I find invaluable with young stallions.

4 September 24

We started with a very brief lunging session, the main focus being on Marcelo walking quietly and not being so busy. That way he had more time to listen to my small signals. We did maybe three rounds total in each direction, with many stops and direction changes.

I took another long cotton rope and as he isn’t very reactive, I started by tossing it over his back and allowing it to land on the ground on the far side. But I also let it land on his neck, his bum, down his legs and dragged it over him. I made it snake around his legs and dragged it across his legs. He was cool with all that.

I’m a big fan on Pat Puckett’s work, and recommend checking out his YouTube channel The Disciplined Ride. He is not only a superb horseman, but he can do amazing things with his lariat. While I have almost zero skills in throwing a loop, I can throw short ropes without loops without getting anyone into trouble. One of Pat’s horse starting things is to rope all feet and essentially have the horse “lead by” each foot. While I can’t sit on another horse and elegantly throw a loop that catches another horse’s foot like Pat, I can put a rope around a leg from the ground and then achieve the same goal.

So I put the rope around Marcel’s near pastern and let him have a look and think. Then I pulled on it and as he picked it up, I encouraged him to follow me forward. First there was some consternation and he considered pushing it off with his nose. But I gave him time and within less than a minute, he walked forward to little tugs on it. I have to point out that I also held him by a lead rope.

I repeated the same with the off fore, which also took very little time for him to understand and follow. Then we progressed to the off hind. This, again, caused a little confusion. However, no fight, no flight, no annoyance even, just a lot of thinking and problem solving and help from me and he worked it out. Same on the near hind, and we were done.

I’m pretty happy with how Marcelo is working his way through the various little challenges I’m giving him. He is a horse with a lot of brio, and I will have to make sure that he doesn’t get bored. But also not over-faced. He seems really keen to see me and do stuff, and I hope I can keep on encouraging that enthusiasm.