For this training session, I took him out and tied him for grooming. He was a little wiggly at the beginning, but when he realized that I ignore wiggles and praise standing still he suddenly became very quiet. So far his most favorite thing is to have his ears scratched. He will approach the fence if I'm hanging around the paddock, and just beg to have his ears rubbed. I'll rub around the base of his ears, then hold his ear in my hand and massage it with my thumb and forefingers, and he loves it all. He especially likes it when I stick my knuckle inside his ear and he can tilt his head for just the right scratch. Brushes are good too, he always aims for them with his ears. He tolerates grooming on the rest of his body pretty well, but ears are definitely his favorite.
I shortened his mane, and what a dramatic difference! He now looks like an english riding prospect.
Of course, he let his opinion be known as to his thoughts on the coiffed style, but it elongates his neck and give him an athletic appearance so I'm sticking with it.
I tacked him up in the surcingle with a breastplate, and he was a little grumpy when I tightened the girth. He may be a little uncomfortable with the equipment, but this type of reaction is common (along with the excessive wiggling for grooming) in horses who have ulcers. Most horses come from the track with ulcers, but since Touch A Prince has been retired from racing for so many years I think it's unlikely he has them leftover from his racing days. More suspect would be ulcers because of the stress of the long trailer ride he took to get here from Pagosa Springs. I'll definitely keep an eye on it and address it if he continues to act uncomfortable.
I also put the theraband on him, just as an aid to help him use his haunches and take longer strides. He is a decent mover, but all of us, including humans, could benefit from a little encouragement to use our core muscling more effectively. The theraband wraps around his haunches and gives just a little with the elastic, so he has a bit of stimulation to tuck his pelvis and lengthen his stride. I like to use this because it directly affects the horse's haunches, or the motor-end of the horse. When the hind end is working the way it is designed to, the hind legs reach further up underneath his body, which gets him to lift his back, and the last piece of the chain reaction is that his head comes down. I don't use side reins or any kind of tie-downs because I don't actually want his head in a certain position. I want him to use his head and neck to balance himself, and when he is using the rest of his body correctly the head takes care of itself.
Initially I lunged him without the theraband on his haunches, I just left it loosely draped around his back. This gave me a chance to see how reactive he was to a white flapping thing bouncing around on his back, and a little insight into how he treats new stimuli. He started by jumping around and trying to kick at it, but very quickly realized it's not anything to be concerned about and he went back to his sedate trotting and cantering. With a more reactive horse I wouldn't have started with something quite so dramatic to test this reaction, but Touch A Prince has been very quiet and well behaved so I didn't think it would over-stimulate him. Once he was ok with this I moved the theraband to his haunches, which gave him a little goose and he started to really round his back out nicely and lengthen his stride. I got a better quality trot and canter from him once he was using himself this way.
After we were done lunging in the round pen I led him down to the big arena to look around. I led him to each of the jumps and obstacles by his halter and lead rope, and he was docile and an absolute gentleman, following me over ground poles, around barrels, and even over the bridge. Then I took his tack off and worked with him a little at liberty. Initially he followed me, but when he realized I didn't actually have any control over him he wandered off and ignored me. That's fine, I just wanted to see what he would do. This reaction tells me that he's pretty confident in himself, because a more timid horse would have stayed right next to me looking for protection. It also tells me that he thought I was boring, and he didn't see a reason to stay with me. If the horse thinks I'm really fun and interesting they'll stick close to see what happens next. He left me and went to check out the mailbox with magazine inside, he went and had a good roll in the deep sand footing, and he took a good look at the neighbor's llamas over the fence and across the pasture.
I called him and he did look at me, but wasn't inclined to come over and play. I approached him, offered a cookie, and suddenly I had all his attention. He began following me around, still with no halter or lead, and while he never rudely asked for cookies, never frisking me or trying to get in my pockets, he made it clear that he was interested. It's always nice to have a food motivated horse, because it gives me a defined reward for good behavior. The trick is to be very careful to only reward the behaviors I want him to repeat. I never treat for poor manners, but I'm pretty liberal with cookies if they are willing to perform desired behaviors.
By the end of our session I had only given him three cookies for polite and friendly actions, but he had decided that I might be a fun human after all. It's exciting to see his personality coming out, and I'm eager to see what he chooses as an interesting job. Jumping? Cattle work? Barrel racing? Dressage? We'll just have to expose him to a variety of things, and I'm sure this horse with opinions will let me know what he prefers to do.
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