BIG FOUR PROJECT

Daily Training Log

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August 10, 06 (day 42 of training)

Gus
Activities:
Spent a few minutes making sure Gus was going to play nice today when turned loose in the round pen. Reviewed side passing and picking up rider from fence. Harnessed Gus and bridled with blind bridle and Liverpool bit and drove him in long lines in the round pen. Later, we led him alongside the tire that Klaus was pulling on the gravel driveway.

Comments:
Gus was super calm and nice about being chased around in the round pen. He stayed soft and responsive for the side passing and coming alongside the fence. Today I started leaning on his back and taking off my hat and bumping him lightly with it in my hand. He was okay about the hat but didn't like it too well when I leaned over and put some weight on his back. So I repeatedly brought him back alongside with halter pressure until he showed some improvement. When driven in long lines, Gus started out wanting to look like a "turkey". High headed strut is not our thing, so I turned him toward the fence repeatedly until he lost that look. After about twenty minutes of long lining, he looked entirely different, so we called it good for one day. We got lots of really nice footage showing how the long lining is used to change the look of a horse.

Clyde
Activities:
Chased Clyde around in the round pen for a few minutes turned loose, then harnessed him. Hooked onto the tire in the round pen, then quickly drove him out of there and onto the driveway gravel. While driving Clyde around the driveway, I had Nate lead Klaus, Katie, and Gus alongside the moving tire.

Comments:
Nice horse all the way. The gravel noise made him clamp his tail at first, but he sorted his way through it and got calm about the strange noise after a few seconds. Finished up looking like a steady old horse.

Katie
Activities:
Harnessed Katie, and bridled with a blind bridle and Liverpool bit in the snaffle position. Long lined her out to the tire in the driveway and hitched on out there. Drove her around the driveway for ten minutes or so.

Comments:
Nice as can be. Didn't appear to be at all concerned about the sound of the tire bumping along over the gravel.

Klaus
Activities:
Same as Katie, above.

Comments:
Steady as a rock.

August 8, 06 (day 41 of training)

Gus
Activities:
Turned Gus loose in the round pen and chased him around for about 15 minutes, reviewing his response to the pressure of being turned around while trotting. After working a few other horses, I got Gus in the round pen again and reviewed his side passing for a few minutes before teaching him to come alongside the fence for mounting. I teach a horse to do this simply by pressuring and releasing pressure on the halter.
Finished up by reviewing his turning skills when turned loose.

Comments:
It took Gus a while to remember that it's not a good thing to turn the wrong way, presenting his hind end to the trainer. When he got it all figured out, it seemed to do really good things for his character: becoming much more calm and yielding. Gus learned the concept of side stepping over alongside the fence very quickly and with little effort on the trainer's part.

Clyde
Activities:
Round pen day for all of these horses today. Chased Clyde around same as I did with Gus, above. Then reviewed his side passing skills. Clyde got his front feet trimmed today. We introduced him to the button rope for the first time while we were trimming.

Comments:
Clyde only turned the wrong way once or twice before his manners returned to normal. He stood nicely for having his front feet trimmed, only needing to be reminded to stay there a time or two on each foot. Clyde quickly learned the concept that it feels a lot better to stay there and stand still! We filmed the whole process and are looking forward to showing how the button rope works.

Katie
Activities:
Katie decided to work off of the accepted script all the way and never once turned the wrong way. I only chased her around at trot and canter for a few minutes before reviewing her side passing and also her skills at picking up a rider at the fence.

Comments:
Katie was super nice and responsive about everything. She only turned the wrong way once, right at the start, then got really nice. She was very light and responsive about side stepping her left side over to the fence.

Klaus
Activities:
Chased Klaus around in the round pen for a few minutes, then reviewed his side passing and mounting at the fence skills.

Comments:
Klaus was very respectful and responsive. He never turned the wrong way even once. At the fence, Klaus wanted to get stuck about half way around at first. After a little waiting with the pressure maintained, he soon got it all figured out.

August 7, 06 (day 40 of training)

Klaus
Activities:
We had our Percheron team hitched to an old rubber tire manure spreader that we fondly call the „war wagon‰ because it's pretty rugged, low to the ground, and turns pretty sharp: an ideal horse training vehicle. We used the wagon to lead Klaus and Katie, then Gus and Clyde out onto the lake property that is right next to our farm. The lake is very low these days, exposing lots of sand covered flat vegetation-free areas that are pretty ideal for training horses. We harnessed up all of the horses, took Gus and Clyde out for the first trip of walking along behind the wagon, then came back and took a much longer walk with Klaus and Katie. We took the Percherons off the wagon and hitched onto the wagon with Klaus and Katie after that second trip. Drove them around the arena at a walk, doing lots of turning and stopping.

Comments:
Klaus acted very good out on the lake and in the arena for the first time on a wagon.

Katie
Activities:
Same as Katie, as explained above.

Comments:
Katie was great on the lake, not at all concerned about following the wagon, even staying calm when the neighbor's dogs took a pretty nasty run at her. On the wagon, she was also very good. She got her head up and looked a little concerned at first, but we switched her bit down to middle curb, and she calmed right down and lowered her head.

Gus
Activities:
Pretty much the same activities as Klaus and Katie, above. Gus and Clyde were led out onto the lake property first, then stood around for an hour or so while we led and then hitched Klaus and Katie. We practiced starting, stopping, and turning on the wagon in the arena with Gus hitched to the right side of Clyde.

Comments:
Gus and Clyde were perfect on the wagon in the arena for about the first 10 minutes. We got lots of pictures of the two of them carrying their heads low like a much older pair of work horses. When coming into the center to rest for the first time, something about the feel of coming to a stop really alarmed Gus. Nothing too serious, he just went from looking like an ideal horse to looking like a hitch horse! No jigging or trying to run off, but you could just see that he became suddenly bothered about it all because his head went up in that alarmed look. We continued to drive, changing directions and starting and stopping for another 15 minutes or so, until Gus calmed down, then we unhitched.

Clyde
Activities:
Same as Gus, above.

Comments:
Clyde was looking great about everything until Gus got worried, then Clyde also got concerned. Mostly, the look changed from low headed and sensible to high headed and upset, but he didn't do anything all that bad. After a few minutes of looking like a hitch horse, Clyde got himself back to normal.

August 1, 06 (day 39 of training)

Klaus
Activities:
We turned Klaus loose in the arena along with the rest of his siblings, and chased them around for about five minutes to get a little exercise after all that time off. We had Rocky and Stoney out to work up the arena and spread manure, so we put the two of them on the training sled and used it to make lots of noise out in the driveway while we led all four of these horses along behind. We hitched Klaus at the fence, on the left side of Gus, and drove the pair of them around on the steel sled for about 15 minutes, practicing starting, stopping, and turning. When it was Katie's turn to get hitched on the sled, we again used Klaus to go around with her. We drove him in a regular jointed snaffle.

Comments:
Absolutely nice behavior all the way! It has been a long time since we worked these horses, mainly due to being busy doing other projects, including a workshop, having a couple weeks of guests here for private clinics, and teaching at Horse Progress Days in Michigan. We feel this is one of the stronger selling points for training horses this way: they don't need to be worked to exhaustion on a regular basis (or even once) in order to make progress. Today when we worked them, these horses all acted as if they had been worked steadily for the past month, not as if they had all that time off.

Gus
Activities:
Same as Klaus, above. After hitching with Klaus, we hitched again and drove Gus with Clyde. Drove him in a Liverpool bit, snaffle position.

Comments:
Remember how Gus used to be our "problem child", because of some unfortunate experiences with the vet in the past. During his month of "vacation" from training, Gus seems to have had some kind of mental and emotional turnaround. Absolutely perfect behavior.

Katie
Activities:
Same as above, except she only got hitched once on the sled, with Klaus.

Comments:
Nice and steady about everything. She stayed nice and light on a Liverpool bit, snaffle position.

Clyde
Activities:
Same as above, except he was hitched alongside Gus on the sled. He was driven in a Liverpool bit, snaffle position.

Comments:
Clyde did everything perfect after his month off! Reading the training record, I see that he was adding a little flip of the head when stopping on June 23. We didn't see any of that kind of behavior today.

June 23 (day 38 of training)

Clyde
Activities:
Nate and I sent our little herd around in the arena for exactly eight minutes at trot and canter before harnessing. Harnessed up with blind bridle and Liverpool bit, snaffle position, on Clyde. Hitched him beside Katie and drove the pair of them on the sled in the arena, after driving them back and forth over the tongue for a couple of minutes. I had Nate bring out a scoop shovel and use it to pound on the steel training sled with it while we were stopped. Drove them on the sled for about 15 or 20 minutes, varying the weight by stepping on and off the sled as they walked forward with it.

Comments:

Clyde did most everything very nicely today. The only area that he could use some improvement is when stopping. He stops light and easy enough, but he's throwing in a little extra flip of his head each time as he comes to halt. We expect this sort of behavior to get resolved the more he gets used to being a draft horse.

Katie
Activities:
We hitched Katie next to Clyde today for more driving on the training sled in the arena. Same activities as Clyde, above.

Comments:
Katie is doing super well these days. She wanted to be slightly ahead of Clyde at first, so we put her lines into the middle curb position and she came right back where she belongs, making a nice "teaching moment" for herself and for those who will be watching the video.

Gus
Activities:
Same as the two above: Gus was hitched next to Klaus, in the same kind of bridle, snaffle position. Used the aluminum scoop shovel on the steel training sled with great noise producing impact while standing and while they were pulling the sled around the arena.

Comments:
Of the four horses, our "problem child", Gus, was possibly the most settled-in looking of them all today. I had to get after him some to make him walk fast enough to keep up with Klaus, and he did it all with his head down and relaxed. At this point, Gus seems pretty "bullet proof" with loud steel-on-steel noises.

Klaus
Activities:
Same as Gus, above. We trimmed the fronts on Klaus after unharnessing.

Comments:
Very nice and easy going about harnessing, hitching, driving, pulling weight, turning, stopping, tolerating noise.