 I like these kinds of horses to work with though. I like a lively one. A dull horse, too much work for me. I'd rather have a horse with too much forward than a horse that's too back, too far back and not moving off and, but that's just me. That's not for everybody. Don't get the wrong idea about the flag. That all it is is, as he looks at it, he says, I have an idea about the flag. I don't like it. All the flag is, is a long arm. Whatever I do with my arm, I might do with the flag. So my arm might come up, I might rub with my arm. I might drive with my arm. I might scratch or rub a bug off the horse with my arm. Does that make sense? I might, if a horse bites me or is about to come into my space, I might use my arm in a way that puts pressure on. This flag is just a long arm. Now, I'm not trying to get them used to it. I'm trying to get them to think about me and what is my intent? It's not about desensitizing. You hear this? That's for me, it's not about that. It's about him looking to me and the flag is interesting and it draws his attention. You know, I'll rub the rump and then walk back. Look at him sort of get his rump under himself. I guess that's good in a way because when we ride him, we're gonna want to rump under him anyway. So I just get that rump a little bit and then I walk away. This is gonna be interesting. I love it because now with the flag, the flag can get tall and get up in the air. The flag can draw his attention around. Lead the front end through the turn. He's stuck, isn't he? The flag, I can reach back there and say, there buddy, he can hardly move because he's so tense about this. Look at his inside ear and eye. Now he thinks he's in, you know, dire and trouble. So I want to walk away. That's just kind of funny. He gets so stiff and nervous that his feet have gotten stuck. So by default, meaning what does he fall on when he's under pressure? He gets stuck, stuck feet. That's gonna, things are gonna get real good because we're gonna get him to understand forward. He'll get it. I don't want to take it under his head by his chest. I always say that's sort of your strike zone. You do that later. I also don't want to cause tons of trouble but you know what? If his life comes up a little bit, I'll take that too. This is all getting him ready for when we sit on his back. Good boy. Let's walk off. There we go. Now you notice that I don't do many circles if I can help it. That looks all right. He sort of did that. He knew what I was gonna ask and he did it for me and this is him moving on his own. Notice the stiff tail. Look at his back. Stiff. The ears, skeptical, looking behind. I'm gonna let him move a little bit. I don't want him to learn to halt. So while he's moving, what if I leave the center while he's moving? Make a nice long straight line. I'm gonna cut an angle again. By now you probably understand that concept and halt. He wants to squeeze off to the right side but he did find it. But let's see if we can take, I'm gonna say not that side. Look over here. I'll readjust my rope. Let's try this again. There, you don't have to, and you don't have to run. You do have to get your rump away from me because look at the size of his butt and muscle. Look at the size of me. Let's get that, that's good he stepped over. He's tense but in an ideal world. Oh, and he says he wants to go through that door. Am I letting him get away with it? Yeah, maybe I'm letting him get away with movement. Too late to correct, too late to come back and redirect, just take it. Let him feel like he's got forward as an option. If he gets forward, we won't get kicked and we won't have the rearing. All plans are subject to change sometimes working with horses. Now he's, I'm just gonna let him have a little bit to think, oh it's good. Look at how nice his neck will be. He's a skeptical type. He's got that refined slightly dished nose. He's got that kind of those wrinkles above the eye where he probably holds tension in a lot of the time. Nice horse though. He's gonna be great. Gonna be a great horse. As long as we don't rush it. Now I'm gonna this time say don't run through that side. Don't go off that way. I want you to stay with me here. In fact, let's redirect him this way again. It's kind of an interesting horse to look at and to see the changes. So you know if you think about it right now, I want that flag more to draw his attention to me like this and draw that attention to me. I can, I could block him over here. This will work. This will work. So I'm using the flag more for forward and more for blocking. Sometimes drawing him to me like when he looks to the outside of the circle. Maybe he'll look to the outside of the circle again and you'll see me lift that flag, see and help there, help draw him around. So it's a good tool. You don't have to live with it though. His head's to the outside. This is his idea to trot by the way. He's tense though. I mean he's trying to relax. You can see the head come down and the shoulder. He leans in to the inside. Let's walk away. All right, that might work pretty well for me. I like it. I like it and I'm gonna say don't run out. He likes to go kind of run out through the side. He's looking away. I know. See if I can just help draw him a little. No, no, not run off though. Not run off. I'll bring that front in through. See that's that side he wants to go through. He wants to kind of get out of there and run through. Hang in there, buddy. Hang in there. Let's find a backup. Let's reestablish a backup and then halt. Remember that's where it should start. It's good. He's so tense. You see him lift his hind legs up and look at that. Look at that tail switch. That's like a little horse. He's a little horse in a big horse's body right now. But that's all gonna change. He's gonna become real smart and he should be the light. If he's done, if things are done well and he's not, we're not in a hurry, he will become light and sensitive and a good feel. Step off, notice my posture. I don't want to get greedy, make him stand too long. I might redirect him the other way. I let him work a little, some kinks out here. Move a little bit. I could have some ground poles. We could be doing that, but this is really, this is really my sort of the beginning. Just the beginning. What I do is I lift up and I try to get that head up so that they get tall and back up. And on video, it'll look, I'm not bumping that hard. I'm more lifting and then I just kind of lift up him. You can see two fingers when I do this and I think it looks like you're really bumping him, but you're really not. I'm aware of him here, I'll show you. I turned, lift, he found it. If I lift, now there, I'll bump. He wants to put that head up and look over me. So basically, I get tall to say, hey, I'm up here too, buddy. I could even lift that flag up and we'll back up. Good. Let him settle. Here's a horse at the door visiting, I guess. Step that forehand over, trying to not touch him. Come on, buddy. All those feet got stuck good. You could get that a little better. Step it over, move that hind quarters, back him up. Here's a horse outside the barn and he sees it and he thinks, oh, I want to be with that other horse. Let's move the feet. It's his idea to trot, not mine. It's funny because less than people sometimes will come up to the ring and they see the video camera and they'll leave. Usually, they don't want to, people don't always want to be on camera. They look at the look of skepticism there in his eyes. Good. Have him look to the side, very nice. He's going to be time consuming more in the beginning, I think, which is, yeah, sometimes that's pretty common, but more time consuming in the beginning because look how much time I took and I haven't even put that saddle on yet, which is kind of interesting. But it'll pay off. These are all little lessons that he can learn before the saddle. Now, he can kick up some sand and scare himself, go forward. So forward motion above all. This is his idea. He thinks he's, he's protecting himself. You can see that he's excited, but I'm not. I'm calm, I'm calm. Look and chew, step forward. Looks like we'll have an interesting video horse here. Yay. Not going to go under his belly yet. I am going to ask him to move forward with the flag. In fact, that's more important that your horse can move forward with the flag or a saddle pad. You saw me do that. You saw me do that with the curry comb. Here, I'm under the belly. Got him. Good. Nice and easy. That's not so bad. Walk away. Take that flag off, have him follow it. Chase the danger. Chase the danger. All right. I'll turn, come up over the top. The flag helps him stop. Yes, there's a mounting block. No problemo. Oh, he says he's going to back up. I say you step forward. The answer is forward halt. Nice. You might place, I'll place that flag. This is a scary side. I'm able to tip his nose to me. Always. Always. The only time I've not been kicked too many times. I shouldn't have said that. Jinks, but the times I did get kicked, I was not able to bend the horse to me. I was not able to get to their head and bend them to me. So, little lesson for you. Under the belly, yay, we got it. Move the hind quarter, step off, come over the top. Come right over. I'm pretty close to his front end. I feel like I'm a trained professional, but for some people, look at that change there. For some people, maybe you'd be further away. And maybe you wouldn't even use the flag at this point. The nose between the shoulder, please. It's funny. Wow. I like it. I like the energy. Now, if by default, if he's nervous and he walks off with the flag, I'll take it. I mean, right now, I'd like him to stand. My idea is to have him stand. But here in a second, he's probably going to walk off. And if he does, at least he's not backing up. And at least he's not kicking out. See, it's an option. Yeah, come forward, get tall. See, I bumped where my leg would be at the flank. He goes, I don't know what that means. Now, there he's kind of creeping in. I'll just slowly take the shoulder over. Oh, boy. We need some forward motion. There's a little try there, sort of little come on. There's a little try. I don't think he really, I think by being pushy, sometimes he's finding a little comfort. But that doesn't make it OK. But some horses will squeeze in to be comfortable. This is looking great. His tail's swishing. His ears are back. But this is better than before. This side done. Pretty excited about him. Just as far as a nice horse to work with, I like him with energetic. I have another one at a different farm that's kind of a similar horse, but is energetic. Sometimes I'll use that flag, like my leg, step him forward, a little close to me so I can even get tall and look at that little exaggeration just to help him. Move that hind quarters. How about a halt? How about a backup? Bring the front end through. Let's get our backup going. Back up. We'll bring that front end through. Send him off. Bump where my leg was. Step to the outside. So when I bump with the flag on his barrel, that helps him to understand what's going to happen when we're riding. And there's a leg closing that airspace or squeezing. Good. Let him have a moment to think. All right. Walk past the rear. Bring him to me. Halt. All right. Bring that front end through. I want him to move over. There it is. Got it. Now you notice he's got veins, nice veins, but it's not like we were running a race here. And I realize he's probably got thinner skin, but his veins are popped out. And it's surely not from just the work we did because they were like that when I brought him in. So it's interesting. I wonder if his heart's pumping a lot of the time. Beating. Halt. Back. It's looking OK. It's looking OK. There. I just want him to halt. Now, in theory, I could move him over if I need to. Look at how I can be up near. Notice how I can be up near his front, but get that long arm, that flag, back behind him under the flank, which is sort of the danger zone, isn't it? I realize he's not comfortable. He's getting more comfortable, but it's not a done deal. He's still that tail-swishing and the tension and the muscles and the expression, the ear, and the look of skepticism. So there's a lot going on there. But you know what? He needs to be able to just, there's a point in life where the horse has to get this done. And all of a sudden, he goes, I did it. And he licks his lips. He was kind of licking his lips while he was swishing his tail. That's funny. But there's a point where we say, you can do it. You can do it. Now I have to be careful, because there is such a thing as being a little too greedy to where you want too much too soon, and all of a sudden, you ruin the idea. That is much better, much, much better. The only reason I'm touching the halter is to help him look towards me. So I'm adjusting to fit this situation. Bring his nose to me. Because otherwise, he'd look to the outside. All right, I'm going to walk off. You see him kind of, the life's coming up. The life's coming up. Let's walk off. I would have walked off sooner had I not been explaining what I was about to do. Did you see the life come up? Let's halt again. Good. All right. It's fine. Heads to the outside. But now I could spend a lot of time on that. But let's not. We can do it little bits and pieces of flag work. Brushes and a flag. Brush.