On May 15th Hope was 5 weeks old. I did not take any good photos of her from the 14-19th. This stretch of days was all about getting her to give to pressure/lead. The goal was to be able to walk her out/inside safely, in hand. We did not want to do the "baby will just follow momma thing" for various reasons.
It was also about getting both horses to do something besides stand at the indoor gate. Especially Cierra. Brad started light lunging, just to get her moving a little. It also provided a visual for Hope on how Mama behaves, as well as a distraction from attempts at eating sand.
What I did take was video snippets of Hope's progression. She is a very smart cookie! I helped with leading Cierra.
Day one:
morning stretch
5/14/23 (20 sec)
first lesson was early evening
5/14/23 (37 sec)
5/14/23 (28 sec)
5/14/23 (11 sec)
a lot of progress for one day
5/14/23 (27 sec)
our son helping lead
5/15/23 (26 sec)
more stretching
5/16/23 (34 sec)
more leading
5/16/23 (45 sec)
We did more stretching and leading inside on the two days that followed. Hope's first time outside was short and sweet:
what is this green stuff?
5/19/23
Hope could not have behaved any better
5/19/23
Disclaimer: The way Brad works with Hope may not be the way everyone would teach/train. I encouraged him to forget the (edit) endless video training chatter (edit, edit) and do what you know from past experience having/working with foals.
This has been an unforgettable experience! My heart is full of hope.
7 comments:
Awww that's awesome! It's so fun to see how fast they progress. Good girl Hope- and good job Brad!
Nice and consistent work does it all the time.
Nice job! That is so exciting!
Hope certainly is coming along.
You two need to keep breeding and raising babies. You’re excellent horse parents. I’m very impressed with your work with Hope. It could not be done better.
Thanks so much! Sharing our horse experiences makes it more fun :)
Brad is really good with young horses. If we were younger, perhaps we would raise another horse (for us). At this stage of our lives, we do not have plans for another foal.
Hope puts us at 6 horses and she will most likely outlive us. It wouldn't be fair to the horses we already have to add more. Neither one of us is capable of selling animals. If they come into our lives, they stay family.
Good job to all! She’s a smart little cookie and catches on fast.
Hope is doing great! She really made progress, she is a smart girl! Fun to see the videos!
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