[jeda_horse]

Well she is actually a 13hh pony to be specific.

I just wanted to give weekly updates on her progress on here, for my own reference and to let you all know what Im up too

So a little background. Basically she is a 13hh Brumby mare. Until I started working with her she was a wild mare, completely unhandled. She had at one point been halter broken, but it has been at LEAST 2 years possibly longer since she had been caught and handled. She still had a halter on, which I had to cut off it was that seized up and wrecked (as you would imagine).

She is friendly and inquisitive, yet still very wary of humans. She has been wandering my friends property with a herd of other wild horses (of which I had my pick of when choosing a horse to work with). And the paddock they were in comes right up to the house so she has had SOME interaction with humans, when the herd has been near the house. She comes up to you from the paddock to investigate you but as soon as you show her any form of attention, moves towards her/ make eye contact or anything she turns and hightails it.

She holds her weight easily and is in good condition, and apart from a large scar with some proudflesh on her hind leg she is health. We had the farrier out to trim her feet up yesterday for the first time, though they really werent that bad. Natural wear is her friend Her mane was a knot. yes one giant knot lol when I got her. I managed to save most of her mane but it is a bit uneven now, and parts hang past her shoulders.

Dont know her age yet, guessing about 5 years old. She is a cute little bay tobiano (Love pintos!)

Anyway thats just a bit of her background.

So I've been working firstly on getting her humanised. Since I've had her here with me she is slowly getting better at being caught and seems to reckognise that I should be assosiated with good things, like feed, grooming and love

She is VERY nervous being touched, so everyday I go out and touch her all over and I seem to be desensitizing her. Her worst place to be touched is the bum/tail so I still havent brushed out her tail yet. She is Very very very skittish and takes off when you touch her bum. But has NOT kicked out once which is great! BUT Im happt to report she has gotten alot better, and while I still havent brushed it out I have been able to play with her tail and such with her being fairly relaxed and standing still.

I also have been desensitizing her to whips, plastic bags and saddle cloths of all colours and she is doing great with all of those things. Soon I'll move on to a tarp or something. She is such a fast learner and has a great head on her shoulders.

Ive had a saddle on her back with out her stressing, though when I tightened the girth a little she freaked out, so we are still working on that.

She also had a bridle on for the first time completely yesterday (ive been working on getting her used to just the bit.) and she was awesome! I let her just sit and feel it in the morning and then in the arvo, I put some long lines on her and just let her walk around feeling some pressure on the bit.

She has also been getting lunged and is getting used to voice commands.

So overall I just wanted to let you all know where I was up to with her training, I'll try to update regularly on her progress. This is my first break-in and I probably could of started with a horse with a little more handling and not so many issues but we must deal with the hand we are delt.

I think we have made fantastic progress already and Im excited to continue with her training myself, and see what I can produce out of a completely raw horse

Sorry that was sooo long! and I realise this thread is pointless without pics, but I'll get some asap! She is also nameless still! yikes poor girl!, Ive been calling her Fly lol

[Eeyore95_99]

I think that's great! sounds like things are going very well for you and the pony, my little quarter pony is almost the same way in her interaction with me, if she thinks I'm going to try to make physical contact with her other than a quick scratch on the nose, she walks away, which is better than the run she used to do! lol I have to put her in a "catch" area, to put a lead rope on her, but, it's kind of funny becuase she's walking to the catch area, kind of waiting for me to go in with her! Please keep us updated, I find I can use some of the ideas that your trying, sorry if that sounds selfish, but in some areas it sounds like our ponies have some similaraities. Best of luck to you, and thanks for sharing!

[AtomicTop]

I am in the same situation as you except my pony is 16. May I ask you how long you have been working on her and how often you have the chance to? I am a little frustrated with my pony because she goes ballistic when I try to ride her. Perhaps I need to be more patient. Would love to hear what your time frames and training frequencies are.

[jeda_horse]

Originally Posted by AtomicTop

I am in the same situation as you except my pony is 16. May I ask you how long you have been working on her and how often you have the chance to? I am a little frustrated with my pony because she goes ballistic when I try to ride her. Perhaps I need to be more patient. Would love to hear what your time frames and training frequencies are.

I worked with her a few times at the property she was at (just trying to catch her, grooming her etc) then brought her home and have been working her twice a day for almost 2 weeks But when I say work, I mean groom and fuss over her and do a variety of things.

Ive had the saddle on her twice (once doing the girth up a little) and she has had the bridle on once.

She has been a very quick little learner and is very tolerant despite being scared.

I chose her after working with a few of the other horses in the herd and found her the easiest to get into her head. She is smart and wants to do what you want... unlike some of the others that tried to kick my head off or literally attack me lol.