From Wild to Willing...In Record Time!

Conformation Picture 6/25/06





Ok so this is a training blog but honestly the horse's personality has so much to do with how fast they tame down. All I can say is that Phantom was born confident, fearless, and fairly easy to tame. The first time I touched his tail he didn't even notice that I did anything different. He roundpens easily. He learned to give to pressure in one session. The gentling part of this has been so easy I feel like I got cheated out of adopting a wild horse!

and

He is a gregarious boy and makes some great funny faces.

I'm finding that there is a down side to all this.... He is a dominant baby who wants to call the shots and can be very pushy like many fearless babies can be. He doesn't challenge me so much because I'm the lead mare although he does try to get his nibbles in if he can sneak them in. I have not started clicker training with him or feeding him by hand so that cannot be the "blame" for him biting. Just the fact that he is a young colt is the reason he bites, or more often he tries to bite. Initially I tried to simply avoid the bite without correcting him, using the theory that if you ignore a behavior and it doesn't work for the animal that the animal will quit trying to use that behavior and it will dissappear, well that didn't work. What is working is a conditioned negative reinforcer. What that means for people not up on the animal behavior-speak is that I popped him on the nose when he tried to bite me while saying AAAAKK!! Now I don't have to pop him, just say AAAAKK!! and his head pops up and he looks at me like "I wasn't doin' nothin' mom, honest!" He is trying to bite less and less so perhaps the problem behavior will fade out.

With the fires we've been having I HAVE to teach this horse to lead and load into a trailer soon! Not to mention, his feet are getting long so he has to be taught to be trimmed. I wonder if this sweet baby will be overly resistant. He is a stinker and he knows it and I'm delighted with him.