Over the past week with Flame, I’ve just been starting over from scratch. We’ve spent at least 20 minutes a day working on ground manners such as standing quietly, picking up feet with no objections, and overall just being manhandled. For working, I’ve been taking him into the indoor arena and making him go through some “inhand/halter” movements. Lots of turning on the haunches, walk/trot/halt transitions, we’ve been practicing his bowing and kneeling. Doing this type of work gets his brain working and focused. You can run this horse into the ground and accomplish nothing, but get his brain going and the poor thing is exhausted in 20 minutes. After the inhand work, I turn him out on the lunge line and work him in both directions walk/trot/canter for 15 minutes each way.
He is settling in nicely at the new Farm. He’s made a new friend in the field named Tim, and has sucked up to the mare next door named Twist. Tim seems like a friendly enough horse, but Twist is a bit of a cranky old thing. Flame doesn’t seem to mind though, I think he is a sucker for punishment with his “girlfriends”.
Starting next week, I will be working him harder and beginning to practice tacking up. I’ve decided that he is going back to square one, and will have to learn just like a baby horse. It will do him good, and hopefully I can unwire some bad habits in the process.