 See all that curiosity could be a tool if he got real excited, I could say, just look at that barrel. This is Flage, he's a Holstein Gelding that I have him for training and I'll be starting. And today I would like to take you through how I might work with a horse like Flage. Obviously the session starts when he sees me and I go out to catch him and he caught really nice for me. So that looked really good. I'll walk him in and out of this gate a few times and make sure he's all right with that and see if when I stop he stops and looks at me and he sure does. Right off the bat I like to be able to just slowly step around to their side, past their rear and make sure that they'll turn and come with me and just very slowly move that hind quarters. Now here I could even ask his front end to step over. That's looking really nice. Look out to the side. That looked really good. So maybe I'll come through this gate a time or two again with him and just to make sure he's good with that. See me step to the side to take his head a little bit to the side to get his feet going, he got a little bit stuck. And so we wanna get that going well. He's a really, seems to be a very quiet Gelding. He's been here just a couple of days and so far he's been very mellow but this was our first session, what I would consider our first session other than unloading him off the trailer and moving him around. I'll close this gate up here. And really a horse, a horse like Flage at this age. I'm really just trying to get him to mesh together and kind of sync up with me. And so as I walk, I'm getting taller, there's movement in my feet and I've got those active indicators working so there should be action with him and then notice if I turn towards him and I stop, he's stopping and that's what I would consider inactive indicators and that's so important. So our posture, how tall we're standing if we're lifting up, even if I lift the rope up, I did that because he was looking to the outside and so that's gonna convey more sense of energy movement life. And then if I settle, he does too. You notice I even fall back to my heels a little bit and I then look smaller to the horse. If I step in and now I stand tall, he backed up really nice right there but I'm looking a lot bigger to the horse. So sometimes we need to look three times our size. Sometimes we need to look smaller than we actually are to the horse to kind of convey a sense of energy which is so important. So what I'll do is continue to walk and just explore the arena here. So nothing really that fancy. I noticed the hesitation in his movement and sort of the look of skepticism. Before he hit that pole, his ears both went to the side with his head tilted and that is clearly what I call the look of skepticism. And so that being a little bit of a tight space was a little harder for him. And so let's see as we walk through again if he can get through that's a little bit smoother. Notice the ears though are still a little bit cocked midway to the side. I'm not gonna force him forward. I'm not gonna stand in front of him and try to pull him forward but what I'll do is I'll work to the side. If I can get him to take his head to the side it would be a lot easier for him to bend and relax and then come to the side. So he's checking out these barrels and a young horse like this give him plenty of time to think if he's thinking. So if he's curious and he's exploring take time to let him do that because if he's curious he's not spooking from it. And I always think about curiosity being one of the greatest tools that we have to work with horses. Horses are nervous. Seems like what we want them to do is relax but you really can't make a horse relax. There's certain things we could do to encourage it. But what I like to do when a horse is nervous or up or excited or energetic I like to think about getting him curious. So I like to take that nervousness and sort of sublimate it into curiosity. This is looking really nice. So he's starting to follow me a little bit nicer towards the barrels, coming into the barrels. If he's thinking I'll give him time. All right what about this other barrel? Could I have him look at this barrel on the right? So he likes that barrel on the left but what about that barrel on the right? Could I get him to just tip his head a little bit and maybe he just break free here a little bit. Step to the side. Just not gonna at this point drive him or force it in any way but I'm going to try to encourage some movement. Maybe I just come around from this side and I'll just stop near the barrel. That's not looking too bad at all. And sometimes when he's behind me you might think that I'm not aware of him but I'm still keeping him in my periphery. I'm still aware of where he's at. So I don't wanna be ever ever leading him blindly where I wouldn't be looking at him. So even if I'm not looking directly at him I still sense where he is. I have another barrel over here in the corner that I would like to take and this one will knock it down and maybe we'll move it a little bit and see if we could use a little curiosity to draw him to it. So pretty soon he's starting to go after the barrel that's moving so he's tracking something that he could potentially be shying from and just realizing that he really hasn't had a whole lot done with him so I'm mutilating there, pushing on it. I'm gonna, it's really nice. He's looking at it. Sometimes I like to take him off of it while they're still interested in it and I just keep stopping by the barrels just seeing if he's gonna be interested and that's looking better. He's looking at this horse out in the paddock but I could say if you're interested in that horse look over there. I'll go with that. Look over there and then you notice I'm lifting and I'm starting to use just a little bit of drive now. I'm gonna look over here. So look over here and see if you can follow a feel. There you go. Starting to find that a little bit. Looking pretty nice. Looking and chewing here more as we go. He does like to get close to me and for this horse I'm okay with it because he's not, doesn't seem to be pushy or nervous. And so I repeat the same thing with the mounting block as well. I really like that he likes to look at everything and check everything out, that's a good thing. It's tempting as people, we tend to be direct line thinkers and sometimes we think he's nervous about the barrel or the space and I need to go through the space or let's say he's, I've gotta get him to walk straight to the mounting block and the problem with that is what if he stops? What if because he's lined up straight, his eyes don't see it as well. He's now in a position where he could stop, brace, he could balance, get his weight back and all of a sudden I'm gonna lose that flow and that movement and I don't want him to learn. It's really easy to stop because pretty soon they're stopping and they're backing and they're getting more and more nervous and so on a younger horse like this, if he's nervous about something, I'm not going to force him in a direct line to it, but I'll find a way to sort of work around it or keeping the feet sort of moving. If I can maintain motion, eventually I can get the feet to go where I need the feet to go. So rather than showing a horse how much they can stop with us, show a horse how much they can flow with us and follow my life, my energy posture and movement, that type of thing. So that was looking pretty nice. Now he is a little bit claustrophobic. I mean, not that bad, but definitely he looks at things and I don't have him leading totally smooth yet at this point, but that's okay. I'm still in the stage of just trying to sort of mesh together with them, but what I'm gonna do at this point is see if I can get him to look to the side, look to the right, but I'm not really looking for his legs to go to the right. And something to think about is bending and turning are two different things. Now turning a horse bends, and that is true, but just because a horse bends doesn't mean they're gonna take their feet and turn. So the lesson there is that their feet need to be, the lesson is that the feet would be in place and he learns that bending is its own thing, that he may need to bend with his feet in place. That's an important lesson because maybe at the mounting block, I would need him to bend to me and look at me with maybe his left eye, but not circle, let's say, if my life is down, if I'm in a relaxed state and even riding, you might leg yield a horse, slightly bent left, but their feet maybe go right. So this is an important lesson and it is a prerequisite to circling anyway, and since he's sort of curious and so calm, I will work on directing his attention. I've got some horses in the pasture, my neighbor had there, my neighbor has some black cows off in the distance and I'm looking way off into the distance seeing if I can get him to look off in the distance and now if I look over here and I think about something outside my arena over here, I'm taking and I'm looking that way and I'd like to see could he sort of follow that and look that way there. Of course, he's more interested in the poles now because he found the pole with his foot, but that's okay too. A little licking and chewing there. You can see and I can feel he is slow, but he's got a tight tone in his neck and I wish you could feel his neck, but it's actually tighter than it looks. So it's interesting because he's mellow, but the way he's carrying his muscles is definitely a little bit more of a tighter tone or a tenseness and that's another reason why I like to work on bending because he's got to soften certain muscles so that he can use other muscles to do his job and bend. So it's looking nice. Thinking about looking off, I've got some donkeys in the field to my right and they're kind of blending in with the grass and I could say, could I get you to look over towards the donkeys. He found the mounting block, so that's okay too, but let's go back to, there we go. Now his left ear is on me, so there I'm going to be patient and it's sort of working its way loose, but there we go, there's a little try, there's a little change, see that? So that open face of the ear starts to point where that eye is looking and if we can direct their attention, we can sort of direct their curiosity and their point of interest. So what I'm going to do now is step around a little bit and see if we could get that hind quarters to just offset step over a little bit. And when I do that, I don't want to go fast. It's not something that should be done quickly because then it could be hard on a horse, but what I want to do, start at a standstill with a rub and maybe I work my way rubbing to the rear. Then when I step to the rear, I like that right hind leg to step under. So there's two good steps and then I'll get out of there and that could be a good way to get a horse breaking free, leading forward. It's interesting because I can use that as a tool to get my horses to step up. Now while he's in motion, asking him here to step up, so just getting him to come forward a little bit, could use this as a tool crossing the hind legs again, left hind leg stepping under, but using that as a tool again, but then settling to a halt. We'll work on this side a little bit. It's the first time he's ever done these types of things with a person. He's licking and chewing. I'm gonna rub my way past the rear this time, nice and easy, getting tall, moving my feet. He needs to step that left hind leg. He's gotta get his weight forward to do this. So instead of stepping that left, there it is underneath. If he could get his weight to the forehand a little bit more, we could get that leg there to step under. That was really nice. So we'll play with that, but because I'm using it to start him up and I'm using it to stop him, they'll get really soft with crossing the hind legs. I'll work my way down that leg a little bit. I'm not really asking him to pick that up. I'm just showing him that I can work my way around on there. When he moves away, I'm just trying to calmly move with him so that he doesn't step away from me, but I don't wanna go with him so fast that I scare him away. But I do want him to understand that I'm gonna stay in that area good, not see if I can draw him back around. He likes to bring his forehand around and through, but that's because he's tense. But over time, it'll get better and better. That's looking a little bit nicer there with moving the hind. Now sometimes they have a hard time knowing when their energy should be up or when it should be down, or maybe it takes them a little bit, they get a little bit sticky with when we want their life to come down. And so sometimes it's just a question of waiting there a little bit with him there. I'm just waiting at the side and see if he just settled into this a little bit, a little bit more. He is blinking, but there's not a lot of licking and chewing. And then like I said, there is some tension in there. But he needs to be okay with me being in these different places at his side. There you go. And turning towards me is great because his attention's on me, but what I want him to do is just think about looking at me, not be so braced that he's gotta move all four legs. Maybe he could just turn and look just maybe with his there, with his feet in place. Good. Now if I get active and I step to the side, well then that's different. Then he should come with me. If I'm moving my legs, well then it would make sense that they would move their legs. Good. Gonna work this side. Work my way back, see if he's comfortable. I wouldn't mind seeing his head come down a little bit and maybe some licking or chewing. Definitely blinking. So he is thinking about it, but I wouldn't mind if he could let that head down a little bit more. If I could just rub that leg, that's all I need. He might be thinking I want him to pick it up. You can see some flinching going on there, but if I could just get to where he'd let me touch that leg down there, that would be just fine. Like that's fine. I know he's backing, but not a problem. Same thing with the rear. I could just come down that rear. I'll step away, leave that alone. That was really nice. He came with me pretty freely there. And it's just slow work at this point. Really, the concept is simple. If I'm active, he's gonna be fairly active. And if I start to bring my posture down, stop my feet, we'd like him to do the same. So the Curry Comb is a good place to start and I'm gonna start with his feet sort of in place. Maybe I work my way to the rear. And then I'm gonna step to the side just to get him to consider me just a little bit more. He's looking away, but it's all right because he's allowed to be curious. And he is considered of me. He's not looking away and forgetting that I'm there. But every once in a while, I like to change it up. I like to brush and then I like to move their legs, move their hooves. And that's easy then for me to get to the other side. So he then gets to halt again and he learns, brushing's okay, he gets to halt. I could brush my way down the legs and let's see if that's a little bit different when I brushed down his leg than when I was taking my hand down his leg. And that's an interesting thing because really they can kind of pick up on our intention a little bit better when you're brushing them and see although a little skeptical, he's allowed me to do that pretty well. All right, I'm gonna stand tall. I'm gonna step into the rear slightly. Now I notice he's bringing that front end through, but over time we'll get it better to where he's really stepping his hind end away. But it's okay, he's trying pretty well. I'm gonna lift up here though just to get that right ear and eye back a little bit. Keep me in mind. Not that he has to look at me with both eyes but just that I need him to consider me. Now this is looking nice. Staying put, a little more solid on this. So what about stepping him, I get up on the block. Now a lot of horses, that's kind of scary. Just you being up tall. Now eventually they learn this gets to be a pretty good, a pretty good thing, but what if I bring them up on that block and maybe I brush them a little bit from up here. Notice I'm working that head a little bit and I'll brush, trying to just think about being mellow and relaxed and him doing the same. There we go. And sometimes when you get up on something then yeah, you look a lot taller to them and he's probably not had somebody brush them. That's this tall, there we go. And for now if it's his neck, we'll take that. Over time he'll like when I stand up on that block because that'll be a good place for him to settle and let down. See if we can get him to try just a little bit more here with the poles. That's getting there. And when I get him, when he gives me a better try we'll go back to brushing on him. That's a good one right there. Go back to brushing. There a little change there, little licking and chewing. He's having to think about me and the feel of the brush, think about the horses around him and think about the poles, which is just fine. Gonna work my way down that leg, work my way back up. Looks like we're gonna go around the poles first. That might be okay though, that might work. And so again, I didn't force him straight to it and it's not that I completely ignored the poles but what I did is I just sort of realized that movement, any movement, well particularly forward movement and even sideways movement, I'd rather have that slow movement than have a horse get stuck and stop. Now we don't want him backing so that's why you'd see me work left and right. Good, that's looking real nice there. He's feeling for me pretty well on that. And you notice the flinching, there's less flinching in general. Now going down the leg, it's a little harder for him, that's better. No flinches that time. Step to the rear. See if I can kind of lift up on that rope and boy, he sure brings that shoulder through well but doing great. That's what I'm looking for, that inside hind leg just stepping under. There you go, good. This idea of brushing, when I reach up, my intention is, he brings his life down and he stops and when I get tall and I move my feet, well he does the same with his and so it's a good way to get a horse to understand when to bring their life down. There, now that's the first time he walked over the pole, I think from that direction. That's looking pretty good. Don't need to force it, like a little more attention directed at me. There we go. But I've really got to get him sort of following a feel and stepping forward when I ask him to do that. So now sometimes I'll brush a horse in a little bit more of a tight spot, being that the fence is right here. He's in a little bit more of a compressed zone and that's what's gonna happen when we ride him. He's gonna have our legs on his left and his right side. Our legs will be wrapped around him and so we'll see if he can work in that and then we'll get out of that zone. Now to get out of there, we've got to go over that pole. Good. Then we remember that mounting block here. There we go. I'll see if I can just kind of get him to come a little closer now. There, he's smelling me a little bit. That's looking pretty good. Brush over his top so I'm on his left side but he feels me brushing on his right side. That can be a big deal to a horse. In fact, he got a little bit tense there. So he's having to perceive me and sort of see me with both sides, both eyes. That can be hard. He's gotta get really good at something going from the left side to the right side or vice versa even underneath. That's something across from the left eye to the right eye underneath. A lot of people, they sort of don't think about that and then they get up and they mount their horse and their horse scoots forward. So it's really important that we can go from one side to the other. That's looking pretty nice. Step down. And so much of what we did was brushing and halting and then moving and lifting. And we even went around, we arched around him. So we got good at that. And so it's sort of the same concept, just different ways. So the barrel, we could roll that barrel and obviously he's looking at it really well. He's got his ears forward on it and now there's that little bit of a skeptical look. But what if I arc that barrel and so now he's gotta track it but arc it and then that right hind leg has to cross under like there, like there. See that? One of my main points to working with people starting young horses is when they're nervous about something, they first need to look at it. Then they can bend and then that bend can go through their body and then it would be really nice if he'd cross his hind legs and face up to something. And so we're teaching that with the barrel. We're teaching that even in our presentation when we're brushing. We're brushing, I step to the rear. This is gonna start to get familiar to him. We step to the rear, he bends, he bends and then it starts to get through more to the body. There you go. There's that left hind leg. There's that left hind leg, good. So it's something that is familiar that we can use it over and over and I might use it riding down the trail one day if something scares him from the rear. Certainly use it mounting. Now I'll brush down these legs. This is getting much nicer. So we're sort of brushing down these legs here. Not hanging out too long in one place. Before I move on, he's really being good now with not flinching. I like that he's looking at me. He's being mindful. I don't think they hand fed this horse. In fact, I can tell you by the way he smells me. He's not been hand fed. That's a great thing, working my way down that leg. And then rather than just walking him in a straight line, sometimes it would pay to just maybe arc around him and then walk off in a straight line and then go where I need to go. So we've gone from curry comb to brush. And then if I had a whip, it's not a weapon, it's a whip. So just like the barrel as well. So I lift it up, I draw him to it. I start to arc. Even right here, he's slightly crossing the hind legs. So I start to arc around. Good, I turn, lower my posture and we settle. And then I'm going to pick it up again. Pick up, I'm lifting my posture, lifting the whip. I might even lift my lead rope there. And then I settle, but this time I rub it on him. So lifting, movement, action. Settling, softening, and then in action. So we're getting him used to that whip. This right there, he's just a little bit, little bit goosey, nervous with it, sensitive with it, good. Lifting, moving, settling, stopping. Lifting, moving, but this time I took him in a slight arc around me, settle, halt. Always wanting to be able to come back to bringing that life down at any time and come back to a halt. So asking him to step forward and around and you notice I'm leading his head. There's a nice connection on that rope. My rope isn't too loose. I'm still active here. He should be active, but then when I settle, when I relax, maybe he can find it. Now he's finding it, swinging the rump out, but at least he is stopping. And what I'll do is I'll just step him forward again, not make a big deal there. See, forward motion always sort of writes things and corrects things and even circling. If a horse swings their rump, rub that flag down. There's a big difference in my posture when I'm here with it versus here. I'm lifting, I'm leading, I'm moving my feet. And then maybe I teach him when I get to the mounting block that's where we could settle. My legs stop moving, I try to sit kind of relaxed. It's not real, what you're really looking to do is just build off of each exercise in a way that he just, he can get this done. He can follow my feel, follow my energy, my posture. And I'm not really doing anything different other than changing objects. There we go, see that's looking pretty nice. And so what'll happen is he'll learn if he presents me with his back, he gets to settle and he'll say, Jack, I like you up on that mounting block better than I like you on the ground because on the ground, you're always working with me. But when you climb up on something, you let me stand. So I think that's a good thing for a horse I need to start. So now bringing that whip over the top, he had a different look than me that way. So in other words, going from the left eye again to the right eye. Now what about in motion? So now it needs to get to where I could expose him to these objects, but in motion. Because most of the time riding, we're gonna be moving. And so if we're flagging or using a whip or we wanna make sure to be doing it in motion. Good, this is looking pretty nice. Then I'm not, I'm keeping it simple. Just left circle, start up, start up good and then bring it back. So just circling life up. If I stay tall, I want him to stay on. If I bring my life down, we find the halt. It's looking really nice. I'm gonna step off that block. Gonna walk away, bring them to me, and just sort of halt there. Looking all right. We'll work this right side here a little bit. Same concept now. Now I tip his attention and I have a little bit of a pressure on the halter at first because I've gotta tell his mind where to go. So it's like I'm directing the mind and then we're bringing the life up and then the feet come. So I tip his focus, I bring the life up, I move the feet over and over and then I bring my life down, ultimately stopping the feet. It'd be the same thing if I step to the side. I prepare to position, I visualize what I wanna have happen. I tip his attention a little bit. I'm doing it right now and I start to put a little feel on there. I tip his focus. I bring my life up, I bring his life up. We move the feet and we go. And it's easy to move the feet because I brought the life up. That's the important part. The feet will kind of come. The legs and the movement come. If I can tip the focus and get the life arranged right, the feet take care of themselves. That's looking all right. So I wanted to make sure I could just circle with the whip on that side. And I like to get a horse, a younger horse like this seeing a whip or something longer because I'm gonna, there's gonna be all types of things, flags and who knows what we're riding with. I mean, so I like working with a stick to begin with. It's just a long arm. It's just an extension of my arm. I could rub this on his legs while in motion. I could rub that on his legs while in motion and see if he could handle that whip while he's moving in motion. And then I could stop my posture, stop my body, relax and then rub those legs out of halt. So I'd get him going, I'm rubbing him on the move. I'm using that whip with him on the move. And I'm getting him going, rubbing him. I'm indicating to him motion movement and then I settle. And to me, that's really important because it's almost like horses want to move a little bit when they're nervous. And so if a horse is a little bit skeptical about something, sometimes touching them while they're moving is a lot easier. It's like you're letting out a little pressure by letting them move. Good. And you know that if my arms come down to my side and my legs stop moving, chances are I want my horse to stop moving. And pretty soon you know what I'm gonna do before I do it. So if I start to shorten up my rope, if you see me start to lead ahead and get tall and I lift, you know I'm looking for motion. Here I'm on one side and now I'm switching. I'm coming over here to the other side. That's looking pretty nice. And then notice when I climb up on that block he starts to stop, which is really good. Now here I'm gonna ask him to move, step ahead, good. And then we'll settle, real nice. Step off there. Do something different here. See if we remember the poles, we do remember the poles. So that's looking pretty good. Let's see if we remember the barrels. He's still a little skeptical, but he did it. In fact, that's even better because he is skeptical. He still followed me over there. See if he remembers rolling barrel and then rolling barrel on an arc that might chase one day it might be coming more at him. There he goes. Look at him turn and come to it. Very nice. Good. I'll let him smell it. Pretty interested in that. All right. Mounting block I know he remembers that. And so the same idea just with different objects. And I think that not going at a horse, but first having him track it, come forward, chase the danger, look at that point, come to the thing that is interesting. Now see when I bring it under that can be really hard, but I was far enough away. But see how when I bring that under or over switching eyes. And so we're getting to where he's just tracking that. And then I start to cut more of a sort of a more of an angle. I tend to go more maybe past his side more and more until I go past his rump. And so in a sense it's sort of coming at him just a little bit more, but I don't wanna present it in a way where he thinks that I'm directing it at him in a negative way. See I'm coming past his rump at more of an angle, but then I follow up with bringing him to it. So I lift it, I'd come past that rump a little bit more, bring him to it. Now I come over the top, now maybe I touch him. And notice we'll wait here till maybe he blinks a little bit, maybe I could even step him forward with it, that'd be better. If just because we can have him touch the, we can touch him with a flag standing still, doesn't mean he would touch it in motion. But if he could carry the flag in motion and walking, chances are he could handle the flag standing still. So if this were a raincoat or there's a little change, a little lick and chew. And I realize he's still skeptical, but he's learning, he's not getting into trouble with these things. Now here I was more direct, put it on there, but watch I'll step to the rear slowly and then we'll just go off and I'll walk away. And then he has a chance to sort of relax a little bit and walk. When I stop, he stops, good, coming over the top. Good, good, that's fine. Now if he sort of decided to move his feet, which I think is actually a good choice because he didn't know where to go. So he said I'll circle around you and I think, you know, that would be all right with me. What I don't wanna have a horse do is get there stuck, all four legs stop, be straight and get stuck. Look at that curiosity. I had a horse one time coming for training. That was the owners were proud because they just bought it. And the horse, they said the horse was bullwhip trained. And a bullwhip sounds like a gunshot, it's loud. So this horse, every time it would get nervous about anything, it would stop. So you could be on the ground and it would hear something outside and flinch and it would stop. Or you could be riding it and it would get nervous and it would stop. And I asked, well, I asked him, I said, do you think they only worked the bullwhip with the horse standing still? You know, they worked that bullwhip on the horse defaults to a halt. And they weren't sure, but I pretty much can tell you that they only used that bullwhip when that horse was standing still. So what they did in essence is they trained that horse to stop every time it's scared. But the problem with stopping is then they're balanced to go anywhere. They go flying backwards, they could go shooting to the side or they could rear. So if I can get my horses in motion, handling some things that could be scary, here I'm switching sides. This is so much better from a training standpoint to be able to do this in motion under the belly, over the back, left side to the right, coming around. Bring that front end through now. Look at that, getting a little further along. I'm active, you be active. If I relax my arms, now find a halt. Now look in all right, work those legs a little bit. I can see some tension in the flank, but he's letting me do it, he's letting me do it. Going under, I'm off to the side, so I'm in a safe place, but be able to go under from the right side to left side, over left side to right side, over the top, get my horses used to all these things, but it's not the flag or the stick that it's not the object that he should respond to, it's us and our intention and our purpose. So now mounting block, looking good. Stand tall, step ahead, looking good. Little looking and chewing, all right. Step down, that's looking all right. So now, I'm sure you have the idea by now, this is how I set things up, and this is how I set things up if it's an arena ball or a bike, I've done bicycle, getting horses used to bike riders, I would do the same thing that I'm doing now. And you might say that's the same presentation he used with the flag and the curry comb and the brush, and it's the, and it is, it very much is. So the idea being that first we draw him too, then we arc and why? Well, he looks, he draws, he can see it out of one eye, he can cross, he can bend and he can cross behind legs, he can face it, he can turn and look at it. And then it gets to a point where he goes, well, just, I'd like to stand and I say, okay, let me just put that pad on you, and you could, you could stand. And now I'm gonna get lively, ready? Lifting and I'm gonna work the pad where my leg will be when I ride and I bumped, put some motion and life in the pad and then I might stop and we start. And this is what I do when I ride them. So I get this real, really good, really, really, really good. And the more we can get his life up, the more he's gonna wanna bring his life down. And so we get to practice that and then it wouldn't be such a big deal if I put my weight on his back, see? Because I'm just like that saddle pad. So if he's walking in motion, oh, a little more forward motion, good. And I can rub that pad and he can halt. Well, it wouldn't be too far of a stretch for me to put my body on him. So I get this really good. I get that really good. And I'm always following up with drawing him to it and settling back down. So I could present something quite scary to a horse and because I'm not coming at them, direct at them, I'm always following up with them coming to it. Therefore, they're confident in the end and then they settle so they don't get excited. All right, other side. Something interesting. They don't mind a saddle pad so much when you ask them to walk forward, they're in motion and then you stick it to them to stop. It's kind of like if I can stick you with this Velcro pad, you could stand there and let down. Maybe I hang out here a little bit more on this side, just a little bit there. He's got a little more sure there, stopping forward. And I don't always get a horse, when I bring the life down, if they stop and they're blinking and they consider it, I'm ready to sometimes move on. Sometimes I'll wait a little longer. If I think that horse is pretty tense inside, maybe I'll wait there longer and wait for a bigger change. But sometimes if they're just looking at me and they stop if they're blinking, maybe I'm ready to move forward and ask again. So I put that pad on them. Well, I think by now, so you take that girth, let them smell that, step to the side, track it, step to the side, bring them to it. It's smaller than a saddle, so sometimes I start with that. And then maybe I ask him to step forward. Maybe I bump them in the flank where my leg would be. And then I'd stick that on him, like a mini saddle. And maybe he could wear it on his rump. And I could take it off and I could send him forward and he thinks to himself, well, geez, I was content on standing. I'd like to stand. So I say, well, okay, you can stand, but I'll put that girth up there. Put that up here. Can you wear it? Good. Real quick, other side, forward, and then I'll put it up there. See if he can wear it. Good. You could probably wear it and step forward too at this point, see? And instead of him reacting to the objects, he's more following my life, my body, my energy, movements, posture. That's what you really have to talk to your horse with when you present an idea to your horse. And an aid, to me, an aid is anything I have to teach, to teach my horse or to work with my horse with. And I didn't sneak. I didn't sneak that saddle up there. Like I had him ready. I didn't just saddle him. I had him ready to be saddled. And then I could put the saddle on. And I didn't have to just sneak it up there, which makes him nervous anyway when you try to do that. See, all these objects, he's carried standing still and he's carried them in motion. And so even if he were to walk forward right now, I'd be okay with that. Some horses, he's saddle them and they're a little stuck. And then they'd walk forward at this point. Their life would come up and they hadn't been in that place before. So all of a sudden it's beyond their capacity to understand and they're nervous. See, it's a good thing I can touch his leg because I've got to get under there to get that girth. And what I'll do with the girth is I'll just bring it up to the belly and just put some snug kinda, just snug it up a little bit and then soften it up when he walks a little. Now I could snug that girth up. If I stopped my movement, he'd stop his. I could walk him forward. We could maybe snug that girth up. Snug that girth up, but keep him moving. Well, keep him moving. And then I'm gonna keep that girth snug, stop my feet. Good. Now I'll run my billet through and I can do the same. I could wiggle his feet, get his feet to kinda break loose and come free. Now I'm putting some more tension on there. Now he's stopping but I still had my arm lifted and I was still looking for motion. So I'm moving him, now he could stop when I stop. So I'm gonna put, I'm on hole number one here, nice and loose. What I don't wanna do is encourage him to go backwards. The other thing is, is when I move, he should move and he should come around. So now maybe I work that hind end a second. I'm gonna bring his life up a little bit more I'm gonna be careful because maybe he can handle that saddle with his life low but can he handle it with his life up a little higher? Because all of a sudden something that wasn't so scary, scary when they're moving out. So now he felt the girth. He goes, I feel that. He felt it. Good. Now his eyes kinda opened up a little bit. Now I'm gonna be mindful that I don't bring him up too much that I get the life up too much but I also can't have him dead. See, there's a, that's a problem for people. They will work always in such a soft, slow place that the problem is their horse can get a little bit disassociated with the world. They can get a little tuned out. They might, the horse gets bored. They internalize a little bit. And then when something gets that horse going, the horse can't handle it. This is looking much better, much better. I actually like to see when I get a saddle on that my horse is alert and curious. Not that they're necessarily just asleep, especially for the first time with the saddle. What if I step around and he's not had me do this? What if I bump him here in the flank just to put a little more pressure on there, bring him ahead, good. That's looking all right. You can't see it there but a little lick and chew, making this nice and easy, good. Now we're going over the poles with a saddle on your back and a strap hanging, a saddle flap strap hanging. And now we're doing a little bit more Can he handle that? Movement, good. And could he remember the concept of if you bring me your back, you'll get to stand at the mounting block if my arms are relaxed and my posture is low. That's a good change there, little lick and chew. Work that saddle. Could I bring them forward and get lively? I'm gonna bump him with the rope a little bit kind of where my leg would be on the flank, step him up. I'm not afraid to bump him a little bit there if I need to. He needs to be able to handle something swinging down there, see that was real nice. Stepping up, all right. So now maybe I'll get that flap strap get that secured. It's kind of my working saddle for this purpose and it's light, it's not too big. Trying to make a point to not sneak around on him and buy him. No, I'm gonna tip the focus. Tip the focus, get the life up. Get the life up a little more. Good, bring the life back. And he's gonna be frisky and it's kind of a cool, fairly cool, windy day. First time he had a saddle on and kind of my first session there with him. Little more movement, little more movement. If you give me movement, if you give me movement, you'll get to stand, little more movement. Little more movement. Now come on over. And I'm not gonna quite, we're not gonna quite stand for that. We're gonna get a little smoother and he feels that girth more when he's moving. But when he moves, I bring him back to me. Now let's go back to the barrels. Maybe that looks pretty easy now. All right, he came to me pretty free and he sort of licked and chewed there. So I know he feels that girth, he's going to. And the answer lies in forward motion. And let's just see if I can keep him on the side of getting forward but not putting so much pressure on that he can't think. And so let's see if instead of stopping and bracing, can he get his feet forward? I catch him in the act of forward and then we'll get out of there. Now his life is up a little bit more. But see, he could handle it, he could have handled it standing still but asking for him to trot, well that's bringing the life up more. So what I'm looking for is that he can get forward and free-ish, he's working, he's feeling it. I don't, it's got to be scary. Little more forward, little more forward. So I'm discouraging when he gets short, I'm wanting him to seek forward, reach forward, lengthen up a little bit, little more, little more. All right, I'll take that. I'll take that one and we'll stop there. He goes, that's pretty scary. But at least he's kind of looking to me, not totally holding it against me. And I know that's scary for a horse. Now that stirrup's gonna fall down anyway and he's gonna have to learn how to deal with that at some point anyway. So then I remind him of this deal. He goes, sure enough, I do like you better up there sometimes. Good, flagging, switching sides, good. I know it's bumping his legs and purposely not overdoing it, but I like how if he's in doubt though he just softly walks forward. Like that's okay by me to circle. So instead of defaulting to a halt that he would just default to smooth forward. That would be good, good. Snap that saddle. All right, here we go. Get a little motion going. Gonna get that life up a little bit. That's really nice. That's really nice. So way more free that time. Look at that. Now that's a change. That's a change. And that looks more like a horse I wanna see. New direction, getting that life up a little bit more. Not a bad little can or little guy. Let's get out of there real nice. That's not too bad at all. That's not too bad at all. So I'm constantly getting him just sort of feeling for me, thinking about me, being mindful. I know there's a flag there and a barrel there. That a way. And then hopefully I can get that life. I can arrange that life well. Send them a little more energy. Purposely bumping them in the flank. Your leg's gonna bump them there someday. Gonna get that life up a little bit more. Get that life up a little bit more. Now forward trot would be just fine. A little more, a little more. That'd be good. Get the life up again. Now it looks, I know sometimes you think, well, why are you driving him so much? Well, I'm trying to get him okay with that. If I bring my life up, he goes forward and free. And now he looks a lot, he looks more curious. He's sorta coming alive now. So he's not just stuck in his mind. He was so calm in the beginning, but remember how tense he was. And so now there, that's looking nice. A little more life. Now there's, he gets a stride of united cancer and then he kinda loses it, see? But maybe we can get, there, I'll take that. We'll take that. He's a little stuck there. It's okay. See if we can find the other direction. Get a little bit unstuck and then I'll bring him back to me. Okay, look at that. And I actually like to see, I like to see his life coming up. There, I like to see that. I like to see him operate with his life, with his life up a little bit more. Because that's, and his job, when he gets older, his job is gonna be working with his life up. Now that his life came up, all these things are harder, which that's the way it works and that's okay. But I just don't wanna get his life up so bad, that he, or so high, that he can't think. I'm up a little bit. All right, three, and the flag's behind him even and then walk, walk forward. You see if he can kinda, see him looking true. See that little bit of looking in forward. It kinda helps him to mellow out because he's got me jumping on him and making a commotion. Good, step him up. It's looking pretty nice, looking pretty nice. Good, I understand. Two, and maybe three, I go stir up or something and then let him go. Walking off's okay. He's a good boy. He probably thought I wanted to walk him off anyway because I kinda kicked him a little bit, real nice, and then he settled there to a halt. So that's looking pretty good. Brought up his life quite a bit more now, but that's all. Not trying to work him super hard, it's more about working his energy level up. There we go, there we go. And when in doubt, if he gets forward, willing forward, not nervous forward, but if in doubt, if he trots, he gives me a really nice trot and he gets forward, well I can handle that. Look at that, he starts to hunt for me a little bit. All right, you could get to where you could sit on him from the back there. Let me change. All right, so what I did is I put my helmet on and I put a shorter lead rope on because that was a long rope to have with this fellow anyway this whole time, but that worked all right. Good, I'm trying not to kill that curiosity and keep that in there. What about tipping his focus, bringing his life up? Can I get that life up all the way around? Good, climb up on that block, tip his focus, bring his life up. I don't want him to find comfort back there, I want him to find comfort here. A little bit closer. There you go, find some comfort here. Good, I'll walk him forward and I do that because I want to know that I can get him forward and I can get him to stop good. Now lean on him one, good. He's got a good turn on the forehand. He's just trying to feel me up here and he goes, well that's kind of weird. So I'm even reaching over and I'm even rubbing his flank a little bit. But now that life came up a little bit but we'll just wait here and see if we can get that life to kind of settle back down. Now I'm just gonna step off on the ground but that'll be okay. That'll be all right and then I'll move him. All right, I'm gonna move and really he's done very little direct, you know, very little circling and lunging other than today. So this is looking pretty nice, good. All right, giving me that saddle. It's looking all right. Get him sure there. And it's nice that I've already worked both, both eyes, both sides of his body. That's kind of nice bringing the life up, stopping the life, stepping forward, left eye to right eye, right eye to left eye. So this should start to get, to just sort of become normal, normal stuff to work on. So there's the weight in the stirrup and I'm really not gonna put too much pressure on the halter but maybe I could get him to look just a little bit. That'd be all right by me and the fact that I can kind of rub, I can kind of get my leg up there. That's kind of nice. I'm able to move around here a little bit. I'm trying to keep as much weight over that saddle as I can but they've got to get used to some, some discomfort in life anyway. There you go. And I'll step down right there and just get him okay with that little bit. It's following to feel nicer, stepping up better. Lost my stirrup pad there but we'll live. Can I jump, jump up there. That time I just jumped up, rub the rear. Can I get my leg up there? Good. We'll sit down and before you go crazy, reaching for your stirrups, just get your horse settled in there okay. And I haven't really, on the mounting block, I was tipping them to the left. So I'm just gonna tip them to the left here and I wouldn't mind just a little more, just a little more, there it is, little more consideration to the left. All right and it's almost like I've got, he's got the hindquarters working better with me on him than I did on the ground but I think all that work we did on the ground had something to do with it. So right now I'm just gonna take my leg and that's such a good boy right there. I just wanted to move my leg a little bit and make sure he was okay with me moving my leg before I pick up the stirrup but he's moved his hindquarters for me. That wasn't a fluke. I know by now he's starting to understand that I want some of these things. So that's really nice. Well now let's see the right. Can we get him to look to the right? Good, look to the right. Good, just moving my leg a little bit so I don't wanna surprise him when I go for my stirrup and I'll have him look to the right. Good, all right look to the right more. There, there, remember the barrel? Well I'm gonna look towards the barrel. Good, remember the mounting block? We can look towards the mounting block. Good, good and he's getting ready to walk away so that's nice. Now I like to work that hindquarters over and I know he's stepping behind himself right now but I'm gonna take that, that'll work and see that's an extension of what we did on the ground. But again it's not fast because some people they don't understand that. If I could move that hindquarters a little bit that way pretty soon that shoulder might step through. And then I'm coming back to a halt so that same concept of when I get tall you move and then I stand and I get tall and you move and then we stand. I don't have to go for miles and miles I just have to get a few movements and then bring them back so that I know I can get that life up or get that life down. Get that life up a little more. There, a little more, there. Now to the right, a little more, there. That might work. Oh, barrels, barrels. Look at that, good job. In his job he's gonna probably jump over things in his life and so he's gotta go between things. He's gotta go over things. Let's try to go over something here. Can find it. See how I'm working it? As long as he's moving we're okay. As long as he's moving he's all right. I don't need to line him up straight. Little more to the right now. Now let's forget about, there you go. Think about these things over here. Now that's looking all right. That's looking all right. See all that curiosity could be a tool if he got real excited I could say just look at that barrel. But he's a very mild mannered horse. He, the important part's gonna be when the life comes up. How can he handle that? His life can come down and he's okay. But when I bring that life up I want him to be okay with that because sometimes you hit a point where it's a little bit beyond what maybe he could understand. And so it's important that in his job later on in life he's gonna have some energy. He's gonna be jumping. He's gonna be doing, who knows if he's doing hunt seat or if he's jumping or whatnot. But the life's gonna come up a lot more. Look at that. Looking all right. See if I just stand tall and I lift and he walks and I just kind of passenger ride somewhere. And then I'm gonna settle down here. I'm sorta, I'm sorta sitting down and I'm just sorta being a passenger. I'm not trying to be super lively or super active. See, and now I'm gonna look over towards you all and sit up and we'll ride over here a little more life. Good. Now maybe I didn't quite make it. I'll just support my idea direct and then let him go a little bit. A little bit more over there. A little bit more. There you go. There you go. Now he's exploring. The thing is, I got his life up more when I was a foot. Than I did now. And so if he were to get excited now, so long as it's not beyond what we did a foot on the ground, I've already been in that place with him. I've already been in a state of higher energy. See? So if he gets excited, if it's as long as I don't take him over that point of where he was on the ground, we've already been there together. Now if I had set everything up perfect, which I don't think there's any such thing, but if I had set it up perfect and he was just mellow the whole way through, well now if something gets his life up, we haven't been there before. All right. Even getting to where I could work that leg a little bit. Yeah, look at that. A little change in his walk. Now I'm gonna bring my life kinda down and come back to a halt cause that was the longest we'd traveled around there for a while. Well, ever. Good. That's looking nice. Remember on the ground, remember on the ground with the feet in place, getting him to look, look one way and then look the other way and just try that without his feet moving. But remember that exercise? There. With the feet in place. There. That's what I'm looking for a while. Look to the right. Good. All right. Yeah, there it is. Look to the left. There. Look to the left but now I sit tall and I lift and I move my feet. So think about that. Just like on the ground. Then I bring my life down. Bring my posture down. Ready? Prepare to position. Tip the focus. Bring the life up. Take the feet. Little more. Little more. Little more. There it is. Little more. Little more. See? And then we're gonna halt. So I bring him back and I could get into some other positions on him but I don't think that's gonna bother this horse too much. Your direct is focused to the right. Bring up his life. Take those feet over. All right. I'm working that leg a little bit. He doesn't really know what that means anyway so maybe I bumped my leg but the idea is, is I bring that life up a little bit but that's looking real nice now. And I worked him on the ground quite a bit at the canter and although I could probably be doing a whole lot more with him, that doesn't mean I should. And I don't care if I just, if I ride him and he pushes a barrel around, he's a winner. If I'm trying to get him to trot and canter already and then something happens, well then I'm gonna regret that. And so for the first session, this is my first session other than leading him off the trailer and around the farm just to get him in the right place. It's my first session on the ground. It's my first session on his back. If I could layer up a few of these rides, we'd be real successful. And I'm sure maybe I could get Paul at a ride a horse and then he could track a horse and we could kind of get him to find maybe the canter, let's say, maybe under that circumstance of another horse or maybe it's not in this little arena. But what I wanna do is I wanna set up a nice pattern of I work him, I get on him, and then I put him away. And I wanna do it just like this where I've kept him super mellow. And before you know it after a while, he's gonna want me to get on his back. It's more comfortable this way. Well, I hope you found that interesting and if you like what you see, leave us a comment below. Tell us what you think. Tell us if you have any tips or experiences starting horses this way. Give us a thumbs up and please share. And we'll see you in the next session.