Dewey's Round Pen Beginnings

Dewey is coming along and starting to figure out things like ground manners and the routine here.  Even though he's living in a paddock with shelter, I still turn him out in the round pen to play so he can kick up his heels and run in a little more space.  Because he is sensitive to correction, it doesn't take much at all to get him to behave, even when he's eager to romp around.  Horses from the race track mostly are led with a halter and a chain on the lead rope, since there are different expectations for them when on the track with regard to their in-hand behavior.  Dewey is learning how to behave himself with just a regular leather halter and no chain, since in regular riding horse life it's much more desirable to have a horse who behaves and walks calmly without extra hardware.

First I tied him to the trailer, which is my temporary hitch rail until I get a metal one set up at our new facility.  I groomed him, cleaned his hooves, and put his boots on.  He's figured out how to stand tied quietly, because I use a device that allows him to pull back and the rope slides through slowly.  When he stops pulling there is immediately slack in the rope.  He has only pulled a couple of times, and now he realizes that standing tied is not the same as being trapped, and there's no reason to panic or break equipment.  I use a long lead rope so that even if he pulls for quite a while he still doesn't technically get loose.  Since I'm always there supervising I can re-tie him shorter once he's calmed down.  Overall, though, he's very mellow and sensible, especially considering he's only 3!

On our way to the round pen Dewey felt a little frisky when he realized he was going to go play, and about 50 feet before the gate he gave a little squeal and a small hop into the air with all four feet.  All it took was a firm verbal reprimand from me, and he settled right down, looking at me a little apologetically as if to say, "sorry, Kim, but it's just so FUN to be going out!"  The rest of the walk to the round pen was uneventful.

Once in the pen, I turned him loose to play.  He ran around and tried to explain he is fast, he just didn't want to be a race horse.

When he was done playing he came right over to me and followed me around like a puppy.  Since he is so eager to please, I did some liberty work with him, just having him walk next to me as I wandered around the pen with no halter or lead rope.  I carried the muck bucket around picking up manure out of the sand footing, and he stayed right with me, investigating this odd human behavior.  He figured out really quickly that a deep breath meant I was going to stop, and that the voice command "stand" meant hold still right there.  I took him to the mounting block (still at liberty), and he lined up for me in position to mount on his left side as soon as he realized I wanted him to stand a certain way.  I climbed onto the mounting block, patted both sides of his back, then began to scratch his withers.  I'm not exaggerating when I say he stretched his lips four inches longer and began to wiggle them in earnest as I got all his itchy spots on his withers and haunches.  He even got a little too vigorous, and turned his head towards me, mouth wide open, in an attempt to scratch me in return!  This is a totally normal horse behavior, though one that I generally discourage because I don't want horse teeth on me, even in affection.  I gently pushed his head away from me and stopped scratching him.  He then understood that I didn't need to be scratched back in "pasture courtesy", and resumed just wiggling his stretchy lips.

I got off of the mounting block, went back to Dewey's head, and he followed me in a small circle so I could line him up to practice the mounting block from his other side.  Most of the time at the track a horse has the jockey tossed aboard from the left side while the horse is walking.  Learning to stand quietly at the mounting block for the rider to get on is a new, though important skill for his new life as a riding horse.  Dewey was unphased by my patting and leaning on him from his right side, though I did have to remind him about the "no teeth" rule when I scratched his withers again.

Since Dewey is so young and somewhat of a blank slate with regards to regular riding training, I think this all indicates he's going to enjoy his work.  He nickers at me when I walk into the barn, and he is trying his best to be mannerly when leading around.  Walking back to the barn from the round pen he got a little excited, too, since I wasn't using a chain on him then, either.  I stopped him, turned to face him, and ask him to back up so I have more room to walk without a horse climbing on top of me.  He is quite communicative, and would back up as soon as he knew that was what I wanted.  He did look at me as if to say, "Really?  I have to give you more space than THAT?  And walk quietly?"  Then he paused and looked over his shoulder at two of my clients who were walking with us, and they both instantly knew what he was asking, so they nodded their heads and replied, "Yes, that is the rule here, you have to walk quietly and give Kim enough room so she doesn't get stepped on."  Dewey and I stopped three times on our way back to the barn.  Each time he would look at me incredulously like he could hardly believe I was going to be such a stickler about this, and then he would look at my clients for confirmation, and they would nod.  He finally heaved a big sigh and just walked with his head down, giving me plenty of space, with a "well, when in Rome..." attitude.