Baby Steps

WOOSAH... baby steps...  just remember, baby steps... WOOSAH...  the key mindset to training a baby horse!  :-)  Even for our little prodigy Durango, patience is a virtue.  The little guy is so smart and easy, it is easy for one to forget that he is, in fact, still a baby horse.  Still, I must give credit where credit is due.  Today was Durango's first lesson on the longe line, in our arena that is a decent hike from the barn and surrounded by scary horse-eating machinery, ghosties, plant monsters, ferocious chihuahuas, enough to give even adult horses pause.  Durango handled it like a champ, not a spook to be found, not a single peep at his buddies left behind in the distance.  He is a rare baby, indeed.  He was a VERY good boy.  That said, just because our freckled friend is in possession of an above average equine IQ, doesn't mean he came out of the womb knowing this stuff.  I was grateful to have an assistant today, Mark, as no matter how quiet the baby, it's always unnerving and not even necessarily wise to be handling an extremely green (and big) youngster with no one around.

Personal space is an issue.  Our spoiled little guy is very attached to his people, and likes to use them as a safe house from anything that could possibly be scary.  Even though it is very rare to get a spook out of him, it's still not a safe thing for a baby, especially a baby of his size, to always want to walk on top of you and jump in your pocket and hide.  Personal space, a.k.a., "Get OFF me!" was a key element in the lesson today.  A lot of shooing him away and letting him know with our body language that he is not welcome to take a piggy-back ride on his human companion.  We use a soft wrapped longe line chain for extra leverage but thickly padded to avoid any discomfort on his nose, even if we get into tug-of-wars, as it is my personal opinion that it is unfair to use a bare chain on a baby who doesn't know any better than to pull.  Once we were able to get a little more respect for our personal bubble, we took him on laps of handwalks, letting him get used to the concept of walking with a couple feet between horse and human, giving him the confidence that he CAN walk by himself.  This was an important lesson for him, as before we could get him to walk independantly on the longe line in a circle around us, he had to learn that we aren't his safety crutch.  Lots of walk, whoa, walk, whoa, teaching verbal commands that will be useful on the line as well as the rest of his life... especially the ever important "whoa".

End of the session had Durango finally walking around in a circle around Mark, albeit small, it was still very much progress from the beginning of the session when detaching himself from a human long enough to brave the vast wasteland of scary arena alone, was not an option that had entered Durango's brain.  Lots and lots of praise for the little man (since he really seems to thrive and respond to praise from his favorite species... people), after he took his first steps out into the unknown of five feet away from Mark, all by himself.  He's a big kid now!

Such will be our daily routine for awhile... eventually we may double the circumference of the circle, and perhaps even change direction.  Maybe one day, not too far far away, we'll accomplish a trot.  We have a long way to go before the fuzzy, confused, but quick-minded baby colt shapes into a hopeful champion contender, but patience is a virtue and it will all be worth it in the end.

Baby steps.

Surveying the surroundings.

Working on "WHOA!"

This is a frown if I've ever seen one!  I believe this was a moment of "Get off of me!" "No, I don't wanna!". 

It didn't take long for him to grasp the concept and settle into a relaxed walk leading next to his human, not on top of!

Mark and Durango enjoying the aftermath of a successful training session.  Walking circles on the line might not sound too exciting, but any positive progress is great progress with a baby Durango's age!