KBR Horse Net
Training Case Study:

"Pancho"
Part Six

Day 6

Between bad weather and having to take an old horse to the vet, Pancho wasn't really handled for three days. I worried that he might have "back slid" during this time off. I had planned to try to "double up" our activities this next day, but I wasn't sure what he could handle.

The day started out pretty well. Pancho immediately came up for a face rub. He was still wary, however, about being approached from the side. We went through the usual drill of dropping the rope over his neck to guide him while approaching him. I started out with the brush and brushed his "on side" from his ears to his flank. Then I attempted to touch him with my bare hands.

At first he would respond to my hand motion as pressure to leave. With Pancho I mitigated this response by first tapping him a couple of times lightly on the spot I wanted to touch with the pole, then reaching over to rub that spot. Also if he got impatient and left, I would do the "swishing tail" maneuver with a small flag on a crop that I had propped behind me, giving just a couple of short swishes like an annoyed horse would in order to get his attention back.

Before too long he would allow me to come right up and touch him with my bare hands and I was able to patiently untie the knots and twists in his mane. Afterwards I took a progress string and rubbed his neck all over with the wadded up string. From there I rubbed him the same way with a rope halter, eventually dropping the rope halter over his neck (holding it by the pole strap) and carefully extending the body of the halter over his nose.

Pancho didn't much like having the halter put on his nose but he allowed me to do it. I let him rest a few minutes wearing the halter, then I came back in, repeated the approach and touch drill, and attached a lead to the halter.

After leading around the round pen for a couple of laps, I opened the gate and we walked quietly to a paddock where I let him relax for about an hour.

When I returned I groomed Pancho a little bit, then removed and replaced the halter a couple of times. Then it was time to go for a serious walk... and we walked... all over the stable. We visited the other horses, the yard dogs, the potbellied pigs and the goats. We hung out near the horse course and watched River and Patience going through the obstacles. Then I turned Pancho out in a fairly large grassy paddock to hang out next to Keno and graze grass.

Pancho relaxed, grazed and rolled in the sand until just before supper. Then we went for one more walk and he was put up for the night. The boy earned a special treat of Omolene and All-In-One, then dove into his dinner of grass hay with a little alfalfa (for flavor.)

In a "normal" paddock

Walking through the stable on-lead

Turned out to relax

Visiting with "River"

Day 7

The ground was pretty firm in the horse course so we went out and tried the obstacles. We walked over cavaletti, over culverts, over the mound and even up the stairs. Pancho occasionally had to study the situation but he attempted all the obstacles except the wooden bridge. Not bad, actually, for his second day out of the paddock. Then came the really cool stuff.

I turned Pancho out in one of the pastures. He sniffed around and nibbled grass for a few minutes, then he realized that he could run, and run he did! He would trot out to the road, tail straight up in the air and moving like he was floating on air, then he would spin around and gallop back like the wind.

I was somewhat afraid that after this liberty he would be hard to catch and he didn't want me to drop a rope around his neck, however he did follow me out of the pasture and into a nearby paddock when I called to him and in the smaller area I was able to halter him and lead him "home."

It's cool to be free!