Day 6 Round penning Day 1

Ok so today was an interesting day. First off I have been letting Gully be a horse as this exam is consuming a lot of my time and its not fair to him to be all by himself and me not even coming out to see him. He has been in the field with the other horses. He was easy to catch once I got to him. WAY across the feild and through 2 swamps KNEE DEEP in gross swamp water ( thank god I brought extra shoes)

Plan A is to try and incoperate as much natural horsemanship into Gully's training as possible. of course if i can not achieve the results I am looking for I will move to other methods I have learnt. I also think I need to work on a standard format for these blog entries to allow me to access information quickly and easily.

Today was a simple exercice - essentially the goal was to be able to touch his entire body and lift all four feet with out him being afraid or moving away from me.


I put him out on the fence which he quickly figured out I was in control of his direction and his speed ( he was to stay at a canter ) Every 4 rounds I would ask for him to stop. The stop at first was sloppy and half the time it became a turn the other half he completely faced me. Eventually I got a very good stop stand at the fence and turn his head towards me. This is where I wanted him.

at this point he stood for only a few minutes before he lost intersted and moved away from me. I put him on the fence again.

A few things I noted in this session - he will turn inside,m this is something I have NEVER been able to get a horse to do. I just wish I knew what was prompting it so I knew how to ask for it.


We played the stop game a bit more and eventually he got the point if he stopped on the fence and didnt move he DIDNT have to work. At this point he stayed completely still while I rubbed him all over down his legs played with his tail. I then picked up both his front feet only for a few seconds ensuring I put them down before he asked me to. I moved onto his back legs picking each one of the ground and back down right away.

Now here is where I found myself wishing I had a nice strong steel fence like at college and I could tie Gully up and do things waynes way. ITS SO MUCH FASTER.

But lacking any where to tie him that he wont possibly pull back and break means I will simply have to do as much as I can using Parali Chris Irwin and John Lyons as my guide.

By the end I was rubbing fly spray on him he didnt like it but was quick to remeber standing still meant no fence work which meant he could breathe easy.


Fully brushed and fly sprayed I turned him back out to the field

The trimming

So I decided to sedate Gully to trim his feet.

I gave him the sedation and we waited - the farier and I were cold it was windy so we were anxiouse to get started and didnt wait the full 15 minutes. For the first half of the trim he was good but clearly uneasy by the end we could tell we should have waited longer as the sedation had set in and he was calm as can be.

In order to allow myself time to study for my exam he has been turned out to the field with his newly trimmed hooves and I will catch him Saturday.


His feet are really dry so I will need to treat that.

Day 3 and 4.

Both very uneventuall days he is starting to gain weight I mostly just went out to say hi still giving him time to settle in. I thought I would be round penning him but am finding it to be a bit of a challenge finding some one who can come out with me.

Today being day 5 of his training.

Grandma Mary at the last minute called and wanted to come out with me. I didnt want to do to much while she was there as I didnt wnat to frighten her. I brushed him a bit got him used to fly spray and FINALLY found a treat he likes. We let him eat some grass and cleaned tack.

Really uneventful.

I reread my old notes and a few chapters from lyons on horses to get myself ready for creating a training plan.

I am torn at this point his feet are in rough shape I almost want to tranquilize him for the farrier as I really want to round pen him to get him used to people handling his feet and not use ropes however I am afraid he will hurt something if I round pen him with his feet in this condition.


I will keep thinking on this one

DAY TWO

Today was a quiet day, Gully had some how gotten in with the other horses he was easy to catch and still very uninterested in the apple. I wormed him which was really uneventful and cuddled him that is about it. his calm nature made worming him easy. The Farier is not going to come out until next week which is nice that gives me the weekend to play with his feet.

DAY ONE

This is Gulley's Training Blog - Welcome.

I plan to use this blog to log my new horses training day by day and also to keep notes of any challenges I face. Please feel free to comment and add any hints or tips you may have.

Day 1.

Today was Day 2 of owning Gulley but Day one of his training.

Today I went out to see him and found him in the field with the other horses. He was suppose to be in a separate pen as I was unsure if I could catch him in a field at this point.

I had brought carrots and apples as really today was get to know you day. I simply want him to know I am a nice person and see me more as something good than as something that means work.

Turns out Gulley has either never had an apple or simply doesn't like them. The same goes for Carrots. Tomorrow I will bring molasses and crunchies.

never the less after a little bit of moving around I was able to get him focused on me and up to his shoulder to catch him.

Some things I have noticed right away about him are that he seems to test slightly before giving. Never to drastic but enough to let me know he is a "tester"

Once I caught him and got him into the other pen I offered him his treats and he really wasn't to interested in them. Instead I just scratched him. I played a little bit of follow the leader with him and just let him stand next to me while I chatted with John.

I noticed a couples of things - he drops food when he does eat it. I will have to find out if his wolf teeth have been pulled.

He is good around the ears and all over his face and his neck. He relaxes easily and is content to just follow me around which is nice.

Its hard some times to remember that he is NOT broke and needs to be given the proper respect for his size.

He is really skinny and has a dully coat. He is coming off a winter in a large herd and I dont get the impression he was high man. He needs to be wormed.

The farrier is going to need to work on his feet. this is something I like to do myself however his feet are a bit rough so I will let a professional get them looking like a foot then I can take it from there.

The pen he is in is really wet I am a bit concerned and might move him.

I think most of all it was nice to have a horse again - Tomnmrow I will need to do a bit of feet work with him.