Ferriana In the Roundpen

Now that Ferriana has had a chance to settle in, she had her first training session today.  She spent the morning watching me ride other horses and looking absolutely astonished that they allowed that.  After lunch I took her out to the round pen, but knowing how pushy she can be I donned full regalia.

I took her to the round pen, where Ferriana spent the first five or ten minutes almost completely ignoring me.  She did charge me a couple times, mostly to see what I would do.  I raised my lunge whip to make myself look bigger, and she swerved to avoid me.  This only happened twice and then she went to running around on her own.  She was concerned because there were no other horses near her, and she's spent most of her life looking to other horses to keep her safe.  As a herd animal the power of the group is really important.

While Ferriana was running around Miles decided he would make the most of this opportunity to play with the lunge whip.  This is a leftover from when he was a puppy and my friend was house-sitting for us.  Her daughter was four or five at the time and would tie a piece of hay twine to the end of a stick and spin in circles shouting, "Hup, dog!  Hup!" while Miles the puppy would leap into the air to try and catch the string.  Miles is now ten years old but still loves the game of Hup Dog, and lunge whips look remarkably like the original toy.

When it became obvious that Ferriana thought it wasn't worth her effort to interact with me, I started to give Miles the horse cookies I'd stowed in my pocket for her.

Not long after that Ferriana decided to come investigate what exactly I was offering the dog, and then shot Jasi a skeptical look (Jasi was taking pictures from outside the round pen) as if to ask, "What kind of nonsense is this?  The DOG gets cookies??  What about me?"

Stopping and joining us in the center of the round pen earned Ferriana a treat for herself.  Miles is great for this type of work because he demonstrates what I want the horse to do.

Once Ferriana was paying attention to me we started a little free lunging.  Miles REALLY enjoyed that part.

After I free lunged Ferriana for a minute or two I began asking her to come to me.  She's a very smart mare and figured this out quickly.  However, now she was stopping politely and not trying to run me over.

Not long after that Ferriana decided I was trustworthy.  She also realized that if she came with me she would get more goodies.  If she followed me around politely I'd keep her safe.  She decided to stay right by my side, even matching my footfalls step for step.  We practiced leading from her left side and from her right.  I do this without a halter or leadrope with horses like Ferriana so that the horse very clearly makes her own choice to do what I'm asking.  I have no way to force her, and because no force is applied the horse really owns the decision to work with me and then is eager to participate. 

I'm super pleased with this first training session.  Thank you to Jasi for the photos, to Miles for being the comic relief, and to Ferriana for being so willing to try something new.