Week 3 Of 6 Week Training Program With My Horse
Yep, that’s right, it is that time again! Time for a weekly recap of how it’s going with Ethan and his 6 week training program. I’m not going to lie, after last week I was feeling a bit discouraged. I didn’t get done what I had planned. And by Saturday, I was not really thinking there was much of a difference. That is until I made the comparison picture of Ethan from the beginning of my challenge to the end of the second week. When I made that photo, and looked at what he looked like when we started, compared to two weeks later, and I was impressed.
In just two weeks there was a visible improvement in the way Ethan looks. I know that daily grooming has a lot to do with that, but you can see the changes in his muscle tone. I mean, you can actually see that he has muscles! This is so cool!
My horse has muscles! It may not look like much now, but if I can stay dedicated, I am so curious to see where he is at the end of this challenge I have created for myself.
And I am really glad that I have designated Monday’s as my day off, because late Sunday night, in typical Colorado fashion a snow storm decided to dump 8 inches of snow on the ground. So Monday was a scheduled day off for both me and Ethan. But this was good, because it gave me some time to come up with my game plan for this week. And unlike last week, where I decided to try and do too much and accomplished less, this week I am going to keep it simple. If I do more great. But as long as I do what I am intending to do, I will consider this a good week.
Week 3 Goals
My goals for week 3 will be more realistic, for myself. If you are following along with this challenge with your own horse, feel free to adjust your goals to what works best for you. But for me, my goals for the week are:
- 3 Days lunging – 15 minutes each session
- 3 Days riding – 10 minutes each session
- Walking under saddle
- Ethan standing still for mounting
- Ethan standing still while in the saddle
Nothing huge, nothing too overwhelming, but distinct goals which I should be able to achieve.
I am really impressed with how quickly Ethan is muscling up. This is motivating me to make sure to continue to utilize lunging in our work sessions. I don’t use lunging to get him tired before I ride him. I use lunging as a tool to get him to concentrate on me, and focus on his job. So I don’t just send him off running in circles around me. I use lots of changes of direction as well as lots of gait transitions. I have found this helps him to get more balanced on his own before adding me into the equation. So let’s go over how it went for the week.
This is Ethan’s photo for the beginning of the week:
Day One (Tuesday)
The snow from the snow storm melted quickly. So by Tuesday evening when I got home from work, the riding arena was clear. It was wet, but no snow. And Ethan was feeling full of himself. So I made the decision I would not be riding him tonight, but he would get his lunging work out. I also didn’t take my camera out with me, sadly. So I was not able to capture his spunkiness.
He settled down after about 20 minutes of lunging. The ground was pretty slippery for him, so I only had him walk and trot. His trot was a little more animated, and he almost looked like a cartoon character speed walking his way around me. It was pretty funny.
And after he did his work, I walked him around the arena both directions. Then we worked on stopping, walking, and backing up.
Bu the time we were done, he was quiet, and paying attention to me. And I decided that was a good time to end our session.
Day Two (Thursday)
I had planned on riding Ethan today because Thursday is normally my riding lesson day, but my riding lesson was cancelled because they were making improvements to the indoor arena footing. So this gave me the opportunity to ride Ethan instead of my lesson horse.
I tacked him up with every intention of riding him. And I wanted to make sure he was really quiet, so we lunged a lot. We worked on big circles, and we worked on smaller circles. We worked on extended trot, and loads of changes of direction. We worked on the lunge line as well as the shorter 15 foot lead rope that I have.
By the time I was done lunging, Ethan was calm and tired. This would have been the perfect opportunity for me to ride.
I wanted to make sure he was comfortable with standing for mounting. So I acted like I was going to climb aboard. I stood next to the saddle, and jumped up and down repeatedly. And when he just stood there I praised him for being patient. Then I placed the mounting block next to him, and climbed up on it, acting like I was going to get into the saddle. I leaned over the saddle and just stayed there. Again he was a perfect gentleman, and stood perfectly still.
I could have easily climbed into the saddle. And I wanted too. I mean I really wanted too. But then I decided that this would be a good place to stop. He had gone perfectly. He also stood when I acted like I was going to get in the saddle. He again did the same while I hung over the saddle without getting on.
This was too good of a session to push it, so I stopped and he was rewarded for doing such a great job.
Day Three (Saturday)
Saturday was unbelievably windy. It was pretty annoying. So I decided we would do some walking in the arena and also on the road. Again all of this was done with me leading Ethan.
We went for about a 20 minute walk, and he was good. He did look up several times when the wind would gust, but then he would just relax and walk along side of me. We didn’t do any trotting or lunging. Today was simply just going for a walk in the wind.
Day Four (Sunday)
Thankfully the wind stopped for most of the day. And I had already worked with Ethan 3 times this week, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to today or not. But I managed to find the time to get out and work with him for a bit. I didn’t put his tack on, but I did want him to work hard today. I wanted him to sweat a little.
So we worked on the lunge line with a major focus on extended trot. He worked very good. He was mostly calm, and would even walk when I asked him too.
He did work hard today. Over 25 minutes of different levels of walk and trot. He was sweaty and tired by the end, which was what I was going for!
He looks like a model horse in this photo! You can start to see the muscle definition now, hopefully he will continue to build muscle over the next 3 weeks.
End Of Week 3
By this time I had really planned on working Ethan by riding him. But I also want to do this right, so I have not been on him, yet. That is coming, eventually, I hope. But for now I am happy with his progress without a rider. He seems like he is more responsive, less spooky, and enjoying the work I am giving him.
I achieved most of my goals this week, with the exception of actually riding him. But he stood still while I was almost mounting. He was responsive to voice commands, walk, trot, canter and whoa. Overall I am happy with how he is progressing, his photos show his progress thus far:
He is looking fit, and shiny! He still has a bit of his winter coat, but the shedding is a lot less than it was when we started this process. And I haven’t done anything fancy to him, other than lots of elbow grease and brushing. His hooves look shiny because he has a coating of coconut oil on them, they won’t be that shiny for long though. But for the photo opportunity, he looks good.
So this is the end of week 3. We have 3 weeks to go, and I can’t wait to see where he is in just 3 more weeks! When I start to feel lazy, like I don’t want to go out and work with him, I take a look at his progress so far, and that motivates me to continue. Maybe in week 4 I will get up on him, time will tell. So be sure to come back next week, and find out if I rode….or not!