 Charlie went on a seven and a half mile ride yesterday. He saw some deer while we were out and called to them, like he thought they would come down and save him. It's funny what will startle a colt. We were riding along and passed by a huge rock, taller then we were, and there was a smaller rock behind it, that we could not see. When he caught sight of the little rock he must have thought the little rock was going to try and eat him. So we circled both rocks until they became his friend. There are other things that you work on and work on and you think that they have it figured out, only to find out that when they get stired up they can, and will, forget everything.
I try and prepare a horse for things that will happen in his world with humans. Thing that humans will do when they are on his back. Like, getting in their pockets to get some candy out or whatever. One of the things I do when we are starting out riding is slap my leg while we are going along. My leg, my chest, I take my hat off and swing it from side to side, things like that. He has done pretty good up till yesterday. Not that he did anything really bad, we were going along and I started to pat my leg and he about jumped out of his skin. As soon as I got him shut down I flexed his head from side to side. Then on the side that I was patting my leg, the right side, I kept him flexed in that direction and started to pat my leg again. This time he went " Oh it's just you doing that" and off we went without any other issues with that.
 Don't forget to FLEX! I know that we hear from folks that they are working on an issue with their horses and their horses are doing fine and then they seem to go back to the begining. Well, I want you to all know that it happens to all of us. But if you stay patient with them,they will figure it out. Remember the magic pill? TIME? Well, no matter how hard you try, you can't train a horse without it. When Charlie goes home he will just be starting out on his great adventure. He will still need time to settle into his place in his family of humans. He will have a really good start on that adventure for sure, and I know that his mom and dad are going to do the best they can to help him down that trail.
Coffee Time!
 Yesterday was a pretty big day for little Charlie. We went for a six mile ride and there is more of the same today. He did a pretty good job. When I get a horse ready to go home there are a lot of things that go thru my mind. What will his world be like? How many scary things are there around his house, stuff like that. We don't have a lot of traffic out here on the ranch so sometimes that can be a bit of a challenge to get them around cars and such. So we started out our ride on the county road that goes from Ted's house to my house, hoping that we would come a cross some cars or trucks, and we did. He did great and stood while I visited with a couple of folks that we passed on the road. Then it was time to get off the road and go see some country, which we did. He is still a little shy about going down steep banks but he did it and will just get better.
Once I have a colt going really good in a snaffle bit, I move them to a different bit. It's not a secret but I don't just share this process with just anyone. So if you want to know your going to have to come see me or ask. Anyway, it really get the horse working with our much effort on my part or on his. He did great yesterday, it was the first time he has worn this bit and he did really, really good.
I rode him from Ted's house, as I mentioned, and today we will ride back to Ted's. It's six miles the way we went yesterday and will be longer today, as we go from our house back to Ted's. He stayed the night here at our house in a pen we have for him. I think it is great if we can get our horses out of their environment, where they feel safe, and introduce them to other things and environments. I keep new horses separate from the horses I have here so they don't beat the stuffing out of him, cause they will, it's what horses do to horses they don't know.
So better get to it. Coffee first.
 Kathy and I had a great time with our kids this passed week. We usually only get to see them once a year, but this year they came out to see us and what a treat. Is a fourteen hour drive for them, one way, so can't tell you all what that meant to have them here with us..
 Charlie and I will be doing a lot more riding outside this last month of his training. I'm guessing that we will spend three or four days a week seeing country and getting him use to things on the outside. He continues to make really good progress with the basics of his training and when he gets home, if his mom and dad keep it up, they are going to have one fine horse when he grows up. So I better get a cup of coffee and get after it..
 "WOW what a day" Yesterday was a big day for Charlie. I took him on about a three mile ride. Now that don't sound like much to most of you but that is the furthest he has carried anyone in his life, so, a pretty big deal to him. We forget sometimes that what seems like, no big deal, to us, can, and usually is, a pretty big deal to the horse. I think if we would think a little more from their side of the corral, we would know when to reward them for their tries. Charlie and me will be doing more and more riding outside as he continues to progress. there is a lot more for him to see and do before he goes home.
He is still doing well with the stock whip cracking over his head and we will continue to work on t
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 Not much new here that you can see from the road, but if you're standing here it's pretty cool.
One of the biggest problems that folks have, that they tell us about at clinics is, they don't know when to stop with their horses. They want to spend time with them and work with them, but they don't know when a good time to stop is. I know how they feel. If I have the day to work with my horses I want to spend the day working with them, but that's probably not the best thing to do. See a horse does not have a very long attention span, and if they are young horses their attention span is even less then that. I'm not saying that you can't ride your horse all day, say if you were going to go on a long trail ride with friends. But there's a big difference in a trail ride and schooling your horse. You could compare it to you and I going for a walk around our place and having to go to the office or job site, big difference. The horse knows the difference too. But back to when to quit. When my horses understands the concept that I'm trying to teach him, when he gets it, I quit. That could be an hour, thirty minutes, or five minutes, and it don't matter to me which one it is. They key is quitting, that's what the horse will remember when you come out to get him the next day. He will remember that when he did the skill, and did it to the best of his ability that day, you quit, and he will work hard to find that place again, the place where you quit. Remember, horses don't wear watches, time does not mean that much to them, cause they have no concept of time in the same way that you and I, humans, do. He is looking for the place where he is comfortable, and once you show him where that is, he will come back to it time after time.. Coffee
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 "It's to cool boss" Man, it's cold here this morning. It's morning like this that make me wish I would have spent my money on a heated indoor arena, instead of a house. But Kathy, she don't see it that way. I know, I know, it's not nearly as cold here at it is other places. A buddy of mine that works in Alaska is home for a few weeks and just before he left he had three feet of snow, on top of the two feet they got the day before. And I get that, it's colder other places, but I moved here to get away from the cold. I keep telling Kathy, we need to keep heading further south. She always just smiles at me and put another log on the fire.
This time of year, when I find myself spending more and more time by the fire, I think more and more about my training program, and ask myself how can I improve it. Am always looking for new or different information and comparing it with what I'm already doing. I have picked up a few things this year that I have been using and look forward to sharing some of it with folks that attend my clinics. I share a ton of what I'm doing and trying here with you folks. Kathy says that I'm giving to much away, and she is probably right, she has always been the one in the family with business sense, but she knows that's just who I am and I can't help myself. If it wasn't for her I would probably be living in my horse trailer. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is I think that we all need to keep looking, searching, trying new things to improve our horsemanship. Like a good friend of mine says, "You don't just want to drink the cool-aid do you"? And she's right. There are lots of good trainers and clinicians out their, but when they start saying that they have THE way to train horses, and folks buy into the idea that there is no other way to train horses, then they a starting to drink the cool-aid. Now having said that, I do have a way of training horses, that works really good for me, and has worked really good for lots of other folks. I don't think it's the only way, but it's a pretty good way. I have spent a lot of time and practice, figuring out how the average person can train their own horse, without getting hurt or hurting the horse. The older I get, and yes, I'm getting older, the more and more I realize that I can't, and don't want to, take chances like I use to. So the method that I have developed, altho not new, focuses on the fact that I want to do this a long time, and if I'm not safe and careful, I won't be.
I hope you too will always look at what you're doing, with your horses, and look for ways to improve and be safer.
Coffee
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 A day at the office! Got a little sad news over the weekend. Our vet. back in Kansas, his father passed away Saturday. I have started a few horses for Dr. Bill and one for his father. His mother and father were in the rodeo business as trick riders, back in the day. I know that Bud will be missed by many, but not near as much as he will by his grandkids.
Charlie is doing great. We are working on opening gates, so he will have that skill down well before he heads for home. Now that he has shoes on we will be spending about half our time, in training, riding outside. There comes a point in a horses training when he needs to get out in the world and see how it all works. So we will start to do that more and more as he gets closer to going home. He has made some major strides in the past few days. I think I told everyone that his owners are hunters, and they would like him to be use to the sound of a gun going off. Well, we have been working on that as well. He does a little better each time. My goal is to get him to just stand when he hears the sound of the stock whip cracking around him. He still moves a bit, but not much, and I'm hoping that will get better and better as we go along.
I do not suggest or encourage anyone to take their horse out with a gun and start shooting it, or a stock whip for that matter, and start cracking it. I have spent the first month of his training, getting him ready for this event. I have done that by using a stick and string, striking it on the ground. Easy at first, and making it harder and louder, as we go along. If you were to just take a gun a fire it over your horse's head, it might work, but my bet is, it won't. Like everything in a horse's life my goal it to try to prepare him for what will come next. You can't mimic every situation, but you can do your best to get him ready for some, and, you can sure help him understand what to do if something goes wrong, or if it's something he does not understand. And that is to do nothing, just stand there and wait for me, the human, to tell you what to do. So you may want to think about preparing your horses for things that may come up, like. Someone on a bicycle, or someone wearing a back pack, or little kids. You may be surprised at what seems like a little thing to you, can be a very big thing to your horse.
Coffee
 "My new shoes!" Yesterday Charlie and I tried out his new shoes. We continue to work on some basic skills like, turning, stopping, walking, trotting and loping a straight line and he makes improvement everyday.
Yesterday, while he was standing and resting, I took my rope down and threw it out three or four times. I have been preparing him for this for sometime now. I'm not sure if his parents will ever rope off of him but they may need to drag fire wood to camp or they may need to rope one of their other horses or mules, to lead them home, so this is a good skill to have. He did pretty good. He did not move his feet, which is the goal. Today we will do more of the same, but this time we may drag a tarp or barrel around the arena so he will understand why I'm throwing the rope.
We have also been working with the stock whip. If you have never heard a stock whip cracked, it makes a sound much like a rifle or gun. Charlie will someday be used to take folks on hunting trips and he needs to understand, that when he hears that noise, his job is to just stand still. He was a little frighten at first, when we started a couple of days ago, but it did not take him very long to figure out that his job was to just stand still. Like I said, we will continue to work at this till he goes home.
Today more of the same. I have a friend coming out, Don, who use to be around horses a lot, but in is later years he has not had the chance. So he is going to come out, from town, and watch me work with the colt, so that should be fun.
Coffee time.
 Yesterday was the day! Charlie got his first pair of new shoes. This, for me anyway, is always a big deal in a horse's life, when he, or she, get their first pair of shoes. As a trainer, it is something that I try hard to prepare them for. Not just for them, but for the farrier that is going to have to get underneath him to put the shoes on. Charlie spent a couple of hours on Wed. getting ready for this day. We have been working on picking up his feet, which is owners had done a good job with, but on Wed. we really worked on him standing and not trying to take his foot away. Carl, my farrier, has tons of experience with young horses. I think that Carl started out shoeing when he was somewhere around twelve years old. He is in his sixties now, but what I love about him is he understands how the young horse feels about this whole ordeal, and he was patient and gentle with him.
 A good fit. You may notice in the picture at the top of the page, Charlie does not have anyone holding him and, he's not tied up. Teaching your horse to stand still is a skill that most people, and trainer, never give much consideration to. I don't like to tie a horse to be saddled or shod. If something happens and the horse feels the need to get away, I don't want him landing in my lap, and if you have him tied he won't have any choice but to end up there. I have a couple of ways that I teach this skill that I will share another time.
 Pretty! We will continue to work on his feet and him giving them without issue before he goes home. He will probably get another set before then and I want him to be better then he was this time. Toward the end, he was kind of jerking Carl around, especially on the back end, but Carl kept telling me that he was doing great for his first set of shoes and, that we had done a good job getting him ready. That made me feel good, but I would have had a time if I had to do him myself. So, he did good but we have a long ways to go.
My New Shoes!
So there ya go. Charlie's mom and dad should be, and I'm sure they are, very proud of their young man. He did great. There is a lot more to starting a colt then just getting them ridden. Honestly, I don't think that many folk understand this. There are lots of opportunities to get hurt and is the reason I don't think it is a good idea for just anyone to try it. I'm not saying that I'm anything special or that I'm any better at starting a colt then the next guy, I'm just saying that, with a colt, things can go bad, no matter how hard to try to protect them and yourself, stuff happens, and if it's going to happen, it WILL happen with a colt. Getting a young horse rode is the easy part, believe it or not. It's the other things, that will really matter in a horses life, that take time and attention. I sure wish more folks understood that..Coffee time.
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