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Introducing Loki - a training thread

6K views 53 replies 11 participants last post by  EdmontonHorseGal 
#1 ·
hey all,

so yesterday marks a very important day. Loki was delivered to my barn to begin her training with me. i'm looking forward to the adventure!

Loki is a coming 3 year old standarbred mare. she's never been trained for the track or raced. she's a trotter, not a pacer. not registered due to the timeline not being met, as per her previous owner. chatted with a friend that is well versed in standie lines and she says she's nicely bred.

she was for sale so dirt cheap that my business partner and i were very worried the meat man would show high interest. so we snapped her up.

she's had very minimal halter training so far, that's it. i don't believe she has even been trained to pick up her feet much. i was informed she was pretty much untouched until last october, when her halter training started, then not worked with much over this winter.



the round pen's top rail is about 6 feet tall. as you can see, she isn't standing on a lot of snow, maybe 2 to 3 inches at most under her back feet, front feet are on the dirt. and she's not done growing yet! her sire is over 17 hands. she's going to be a big girl :) i was going to get some nicer photos, but figured day one was better for getting to know her than becoming her paparazzi right away, lol.

yesterday we didn't do a whole lot. new place, new sights and sounds and new horses to distract her. brought her into the round pen just to assess her personality (it's verified, she is part moose, lol) and see what she knew as far as leading. she is happy to come up to me when at liberty and will follow me for a few steps, albeit a bit wary (new environment and people most likely was the factor there). she does need to learn about respecting her human's space, as she does like to crowd and push a bit when on the lead. when the seller unloaded her from the trailer and was holding her, she was being very pushy and obstinate. i took the lead and the first moment she tried pushing on me i pushed right back, fist in her chest and the lead taut. she backed pretty good and i think ground manners won't be too difficult for her to learn.

today we will start work on just standing nicely for some light grooming, and depending on her attention span we may work on getting those feet picked up. she let me lift her front right quite nicely yesterday but showed a good bit of resistance with the right hind.

stay tuned for more adventures with Loki!
 
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#5 ·
i was told her sire is Armbro Scholar.

my plans with her are to make her into a nice 'all around' type horse. some trail, some jumping, some training level dressage, etc. no specific discipline in mind, just going to turn her into a well behaved sane riding horse that you can do just about anything with. in my eyes, a good horse like that is worth more than one that can only do one thing.
 
#7 ·
hmmm… odd my standardbred is almost completely aloof, he has to really like you to let you really touch him (most people can only scratch his nose at liberty), I knew my fiancé had to be the one because buddy actually walked up to him the first time they met. but then again Buddy could just be an odd ball standardbred.
 
#8 ·
Ambro lines are good lines. I think its a combination of breeding and training. In training the groom is all over the horse putting on the harness, cleaning and the harness (and hobbles where appropriate) leave little room for cloister-phobia. We had two STB who were aloof and really not into interacting with people at all. One was polite but just not interested and we always figured it was his rather troubled past. The other held a grudge and just wanted nothing to do with you if you were "unfair" to her.

OP do you have a training plan? I ask because I want to shamelessly "borrow" ideas because I am looking at breaking a five year old STB to saddle this summer. I have a basic plan but I am always looking to tweak it.
 
#10 ·
OP do you have a training plan? I ask because I want to shamelessly "borrow" ideas because I am looking at breaking a five year old STB to saddle this summer. I have a basic plan but I am always looking to tweak it.
you know, i don't have a solid training plan set in stone yet. with my barn being all outdoor facilities, the snow and ice are really hampering what one can do with a horse out there. for now we are working on ground manners, getting used to humans doing silly things to her, lol, and just generally beginning a good relationship of trust. with her having such minimal handling before i took her on, there is a lot of 'preliminary' work to get through before actual training starts.

once the snow melts and spring is here, then we will be stepping things up. the round pen will be our best friend. i plan to begin in there by free lunging her and teaching her vocal commands for different gaits, teaching her to tie (it's too icy right now and i fear she might injure herself by slipping if she pulls back), and we will introduce things like saddle and bridle in the round pen too. i'm hoping to be able to back her by the end of April or so, we'll see how it goes.


stay tuned for more Loki updates! :)
 
#9 · (Edited)
day 2:

Loki was an absolute pain to be caught and haltered! but then again, she doesn't want anything to do with the other grumpy mares in her pen, so whenever one would come within 20 feet she started walking away. took some time and some crunchies and a whole lot of sweet talking but i finally got her haltered and brought her up to the yard. here's a tip for anyone trying to catch a horse that won't let you put a lead rope around its neck first - make a small loop and put it around their nose and hold it snug enough to keep it on there, then put the halter on over top and then just slide the rope out from underneath. worked great!

she absolutely loves being brushed. she stook like a horse that is ground tie trained (i did keep the lead draped over my arm) and let me brush her everywhere - head, body, butt, legs all the way down to her fetlocks, even on her back legs...... and didn't move around or get antsy at all. got a couple of the snarls out of her mane, but i think the scissors may have to take care of some of it. that's ok, she's got a lot of mane!

then we went for a walk in the arena. she led nicely with a loose lead, keeping right at my shoulder. walked over to the mounting block and i stepped up onto the lower of its two steps and waved my arms all above Loki's head. she didn't even bat an eyelash.

afterward, we went back to the yard and i started working on picking up both her front feet (no helper with me today so nobody to hold her for working with the back feet). she is pretty leery of having a foot off the ground still, but i was able to pick up both fronts and she calmed down after a bit and let me give her foot back when i was ready to.

also flipped the lead rope all over her today. other than being a little leery of the rope bonking her on the right side of her bum, she did great! i discovered what her 'ok human, that's enough pressure on me for now' face is, and learned to back off when needed.

patted her all over her body, pushed my hands into her side where the girth is going to go some day. pushed up on her belly all over too, and that didn't phase her one bit. she was fine with me lifting her tail and moving it side to side. a horse i work with has to be comfortable with my hands anywhere on them, so these little 'tests' are vital in my mind.

only sad part is she is still finding out her place in the herd, and when i left the barn she was out in the pasture by her lonesome, digging for grass instead of up at the hay stations. will have to keep an eye on her weight, make sure she's getting enough to eat or else i'll have to think about supplementing her somehow.

all in all, a great day for day 2! :)
 
#11 ·
oh, almost forgot to mention something that really made me smile today.

after i turned Loki out i went and brought Eddie horse up for some loving on and a quick bareback ride in the arena. when we were coming up the long side nearest the mare pen, Loki came over to the fence and nickered. not sure if it was at me or at Eddie, but either way it made me smile!
 
#12 ·
day 3:

decided today we would just take it easy and mostly continue on with the same things from yesterday. Loki was amazingly easy to catch and halter today, didn't even have to do the nose/rope trick from yesterday. just walked up to her, scritched her neck, and put the halter on. happy to see her at one of the hay stations when i went into the mare pen. she led nicely to the yard and i went about grooming her, including snipping a few of the worst snarls out of her mane. i think she may have been laying down at some point since i left her yesterday, as her left side was lightly sprinkled with bits of hay and dried muck. glad to see she's settled down enough in her new herd already to feel safe enough to lay down.

we went for another walk in the arena, did the 'wave the arms and look like a lunatic while standing on the mounting block' again today. only difference is i went to the top step instead of the lower one. Loki did give me a bit of the 'you are crazy human!' look and backed a step up once at first, but she was pretty good about the crazy human with flying noodle arms, lol.

her manners in leading are definitely improving. most times i can have a slack lead and she will keep her nose at my shoulder. backing up is improving, i can put my hand flat on her chest, say back, and just give light pressure on the lead/on her chest and she will step back. she does tend to crowd my space a little, but we will work on that.

one thing we did do new today was a very light bit of sacking out with a saddle pad. brought her in the round pen (some spots are ice free and safe to work on) and let her smell the saddle pad and rubbed it on her nose and neck. she didn't mind at all. i was able to rub right behind her ears and up her cheek near her eye without her giving me her 'ok, had enough, i'm too leery' face. she was ok with me laying the saddle pad across the top of her neck, and wiggle it around closer to her back when i was on her right, but when on her left, if the pad was near her shoulder or wither she would get wary and start moving about a bit.

let her chill out in the round pen for a little bit while i brought Eddie horse up for a grooming and a bareback walk - just a few laps around the arena today due to timeline. Loki showed quite an interest in us over the fence separating round pen and arena.

after Eddie was put away i brought Loki out of the round pen and we worked on her picking up those front feet again. what a monkey about the left foot today! she was quite stubborn about that one, wouldn't stand still with it held until we'd had a few 'dance steps' on her behalf. this horse would be super easy to teach to bow right about now, lol. finally stood still and let me hold it for a count of three. i called that a success and went to the right. much less stubbornness, and we had that foot up with very little disagreement for a count of six. good girl Loki.

tomorrow she gets a day off, as Tuesdays are a busy homework night for my kiddo and i can't be running away to my 4 legged kids when the two legger needs me, lol.
 
#16 ·
Day 4:

yesterday i was able to get out to the barn for just a little bit in the evening, so the waning daylight was my clock unfortunately.

Loki was really good about being haltered. there was a new mare put in the pen just moments before i went to catch her, so all the other grumpy mares were milling about more than usual. Loki was a little apprehensive to go past a couple of the mares on the way to the gate, but we did it with some sweet talking and a lot of shooing away of the other mares. grumpy old hags i tell ya, lol.

brought Loki up to the yard and just spent some time patting her all over. something had her on edge a bit, so i wasn't going to push her too much. i did attach a towel to the end of my dressage whip though, and we worked on batting it and flipping it all over her. other than her bum, she didn't care much about what i was doing, and every time the towel left her body she went looking for it with her nose nice and calm. next time i'll do some sacking out with the towel to start, then we'll move to a plastic bag and a saddle blanket. i want to get her to the point where i can flop a blanket on her anywhere and have it fall off her without any spooking or moving her feet before i introduce the saddle.

afterward, we worked on those front feet being picked up again. once again, she was great with the right, let me lift it and hold it just about as long as i wanted to. calm and not minding one bit. the left is still another story. she just doesn't seem to understand that the left is ok to be picked up, just like the right. we'll work on it, and i know she'll come around.

she's getting so much better with yielding to pressure in the halter. whichever way i tip her nose and have minimal pressure on her lead, she'll move that direction. she'll flex her neck and touch her muzzle to her side if i ask her, without moving her body or feet. she'll move her shoulder or her hip over nicely, depending on where i'm putting pressure on her body. she'll back with the lightest touch on the lead now.

my thought on her first bit, although that is a little ways in the future yet, is a mullen mouth 'happy mouth' eggbutt. for those that have started their horses in a mullen mouth, what pros and cons can you give me? i also have the option of starting her in a single jointed snaffle, but thought the happy mouth bit would be a little more gentle of an introduction to something shoved in her mouth.
 
#17 ·
well, i've been out to the barn a few times since i last updated this log and have some small progresses to share :)

Loki now will pick up all four feet! we are still a bit 'unsure' on that left front, but she isn't attempting to bow at all now when i hold it up. yesterday we got both front feet cleaned out without any trouble at all. Good girl Loki! she is grossly overdue for a trim, so the sooner i get her comfortable with all four feet the better. it is a bit difficult with a horse that is not yet tie trained, and me working by myself, but we are making better progress than i thought, what with limited barn time and most of our work being on weekends up til now (daylight savings time, yay! more evening barn time!).

we've been taking walks in the arena, i've been doing all sorts of strange things! (well, at least Loki thinks so, lol). i have a couple milk crates out there, so i set them up in random places in the arena, walk Loki up next to them and then i step up so i'm taller and more above her than beside her. we worked on standing calmly while i lean on her back a bit. this is training ahead of time for her to stand still at a mounting block in my mind. at the same time, we are getting well used to the arena so it isn't a new place once the snow and ice is all gone and we can get down to some real work in there.

catching and haltering haven't been an issue at all - yesterday Loki was laying down when i went to catch her and she let me stand beside her for a moment before deciding to get up. i'm happy she is comfortable in with the other mares to nap near them now, even within half a dozen feet of one mare that was quite nasty towards her in the beginning. from what i've seen horses always seem to sort themselves out pretty good and quick as far as pecking order. Loki has one small old bite on her hip. just by watching her with the others, she seems to be about middle of the herd now, which is good.

we are now 'sending' through gates without issue, and i always ask for the horse to turn their hip away from me as soon as they are through the gate. Loki is catching on to this quite well, i will say 'turn' coupled with just a bit of lead pressure and she'll start moving her bum away. Good girl Loki!

my kiddo has come out to the barn with me a time or two lately, just for a quick hello in the evenings to check on Loki and Eddie when the weather was quite cold last week. Loki absolutely adores my daughter - hanging her head over the fence for cheek rubs and affection from her :)

yesterday was supposed to be a sacking out day and potentially an introduction to saddle day, but shortly after i got Loki out of pasture, the wind picked up and it got downright gross out, so i thought it would be better to have flapping blanket monsters happen on a bit more calm day for safety and a better training session. i know it sounds like i'm letting the weather give me excuses to not do certain training aspects, but with the ground still pretty icy all over, i don't want to risk injury to either myself or Loki. once all this darn snow is gone i will use the wind to my advantage to desensitize her to all sorts of stuff!

another thing we started on yesterday was her tie training. stood her in front of a stout fence post in one of the few small ice free areas in the yard and wrapped the lead around once and just stood there and let her figure out that tension in the lead means move forward a bit and that tension disappears. she caught on pretty quick. even with pine tree branches waving frantically in the wind right in front of her on the other side of the fence.

today is supposed to be nice out, with not much wind from what i can see. glad i booked the day off work! and i realized i haven't been enough of a photo-bug, lol, so i will get some more Loki shots for y'all today. been so busy getting to know this sweet lil mare that i haven't thought to whip my phone out. the round pen may be melted enough by the time i go barning later that we might be able to go work in there too. ah, the joys of an all outdoor facility in the wee days of springtime! lol.
 
#18 ·
today was just so awesome i could smile all week even if i didn't get out to the barn again til friday :)

Loki wore a yellow milk crate on her bum! yeah, i'm silly like that, lol. but i figure if we are bumming around in the arena and all i have at hand at the moment for some impromptu sacking out is a milk crate, then by golly, we are using it.

rubbed it all over her neck, her back, her chest, her sides, her hip, her bum. placed it over her back and held it there and she just looked at me like 'yeah, you're silly, but you give me carrots, so i'll put up with you'. after setting it on her back i figured her bum was a bit more level, lol, so there it went. mind you, i was always holding the crate steady and didn't let it fall, so Loki had nothing to worry about there.

after 'wearing' the milk crate a few times, we played kick the crate. i led Loki all over the arena (including through the 'lake' at the far end courtesy of oodles of melting snow the past few days) and booted that crate as hard as i could ahead of us. She didn't even look at it funny, just kept ambling beside me.

this coming weekend is Loki's first saddling. her owner will be able to come watch, so i've held it off til then. i figure if we can do all what we did today with the crate, she'll be just fine with a saddle on. i've been running a lead rope around her belly to prepare her for girthing too.

so proud of my 'little' girl today!
 
#19 ·
What a great evening!

tonight i am just beaming i'm so proud of Loki! she had her first saddling this evening. and you'd think she'd done it a hundred times before, lol. even with limited barn time lately, and not a whole lot of sacking out opportunities, she did so amazingly well that you wouldn't think she was pretty much untouched prior to october last year. last weekend's milk crate 'experiment' told me Loki was pretty much ready to learn all about being tacked up. if you can sack out a horse with a bright yellow plastic milk crate and they don't care, then a saddle is nothing, eh? lol.

i did some flapping of the saddle pad, up on her neck, over her back, covered her head and eyes, etc. then i pretty much just put the saddle on her back. that was it. she wasn't fazed in the slightest. let her walk a few steps and you could tell she knew it was on her back but she didn't mind. attached the girth and did it up a bit at a time on both sides until it was just snug enough to keep the saddle from slipping and then Loki's owner walked her around the yard a bit. this mare was more concerned with whether the human at the other end of the lead rope had treats or not, lol. no humping of the back even the slightest, no real concern that something was now attached to/around her.



please don't mind the state of Loki's feet. i am still working on her picking them up nicely in a consistent way so she will be well behaved for the farrier when he comes next, which should be soon.

i am so happy with my 'little' Loki tonight! very glad i booked monday off work for a three day weekend. if you need me, i'll be at the barn............... hahaha!
 
#20 ·
today was a sacking out day. Loki doesn't care if the big western blanket is completely covering her head. she doesn't care if it is over her bum and i'm flapping it all over. she doesn't care if it is being whipped (gently!) off and on her body. lol. she was really good today!

was going to start her round penning, but the round pen is pretty soupy today. barn manager cut a culvert in the last bit of remaining snow/ice on the edge so all the pooled water could drain out better. hopefully by tomorrow it will be a little bit less liquid and more dirt!

after our sacking out session, we played with having something in Loki's mouth to start her on the process of wearing a bit and bridle. i don't think she cared for the taste of the end of the lead rope much.......... lol. but she was pretty good about it. i figure if she puts up with my shenanigans then she'll be a great horse for anybody :)
 
#22 ·
You are doing amazing with her! I do have one question though. I thought you said you bought her, and than you refer to her owner. So is she your new horse or are you training her for someone else. Either way great job!!!!
 
#24 ·
second saddling today! Loki is a pro at it now, lol. it seriously feels like she's been saddled time and time again with how laid back and easy she is about it. i did find out this weekend that her previous owner had set a saddle on her back once, but never did girth it up. yet i don't think that one time wouldn't account for how good Loki has been about her tack so far.

after i got her saddled up i spent lots of time whacking my hands all over the saddle, flapping the flaps on her sides (sometimes rather violently!) and grabbing the saddle and tugged on it, shifted it, and generally just made as much fuss as i could with it. i think Loki moved one foot, once. lol.

we worked more on picking up feet today. she was great with the fronts and we got those cleaned out easily. the back feet are proving to be one of those things where she's great one day and not so great the next about them. what i did today was stand her in one of the tie/tacking stalls that line one fence in the yard at my barn, so she couldn't move forward when i went to go lift back feet. that's been a bit of a habit of hers, move forward and sideways some when i go to work with those back feet. today we started with a rope looped around her pastern and when she was being consistent with picking her foot off the ground with the rope we moved to picking it up normally. she caught on pretty quick that the human wasn't going to give up just because she kept being obstinate, hahaha.

after working with feet some more i took off her saddle and we went for a walk in the runway between the pastures. this was a new place for her, even though it is just on the other side of the fence from her pen. we worked on 'ground control' - backing, sidepassing, yielding haunches and shoulders, etc. and Loki was very good about her feet being picked up in a new area too.

when we got back i brought Loki into the round pen (finally the small lake is gone from in there!) and we started our round penning. she caught on super quick. mind you, i've done a good amount of round penning and i'm very confident in my body language to get them moving out, stopping, etc, so i knew i wouldn't have any issue there. she trotted when told, reversed direction when told, and slowed from a trot to a walk when told. Good girl Loki!

tomorrow is 'figure out the big bad winter blanket won't hurt me' day - i've found out from her prior owner that Loki was very apprehensive about another horse she was pastured with before, that was wearing a blanket. i have a hunch i'll be able to fully blanket her with no trouble at all.
 
#25 ·
Loki gave me yet another 'will this horse let me do anything?' sort of day :) that is, after she came right up to the gate when i called her name. yep, this horse catches me, not vice versa!

as i mentioned, her prior owner said that Loki was 'freaked out' about another horse wearing a blanket around her. i think after today she won't give a rat's patootie about any horse wearing a blanket, including her!

inspecting the wheelbarrow for food, lol. i had just run in to the tack shed to grab my phone and this is what i came back out to:



and this is silly mare checking out her 'new' threads




after our blanket fun, i took her into the arena to work more on standing by the mounting block, putting weight on her back, and giving her some more exposure to silly humans being above her. there was a moment where it would have been so easy to just slip onto her back, but i made myself not do it! wasn't wearing a helmet, and i know that Loki isn't quite ready yet for somebody to be on her.
 
#26 ·
got to enjoy a short barn hour this evening.

when i went to get Loki she was further out in the pasture area and not close up in the paddock. last year's dead brown grass is no longer buried by snow and it must be tasty? lol. i went about halfway across the paddock and called her. she came ambling right up from hundreds of feet away. yep, Loki sure likes to 'catch' her human :)

we didn't do much this evening. had my dad and my kiddo out with me to 'officially' meet Loki. previously it's been an 'over the fence, glance from the car window' sort of thing. also didn't want to have to make my dad sit and wait for me too long (he was my ride), he's done enough of that back when i was a teen at the barn, lol.

brought Loki into the yard and we practiced a little bit of our ground control. we are almost at the point where i can just walk backwards when standing at her shoulder and she'll follow me, backing up. then i asked my dad to hold her (we really need to work on tie training!) while i cleaned feet. we got all four feet cleaned out tonight after some coaxing over lifting those hind feet. the amount of stubbornness and moving about on her part is decreasing significantly. she's getting better, and has her first farrier appointment next saturday (was supposed to be tomorrow but farrier is ill).

this weekend Loki gets to find out all about bits and bridles. i've been haltering her over her ears for a while now, and she is just fine with her head and ears being manhandled, lol. doesn't give me too much mare glare when i stick my fingers on the bars in her mouth either. got a spare headstall all fitted up with a mullen happy mouth, i do hope she likes it. if not, there's a few snaffles to choose from. if i'm not too busy being amazed at this 'little' mare adapting so well to everything i'm doing with her, i'll get some pictures of her all tacked up!
 
#27 ·
yesterday Loki wore her bit and bridle for the first time, and her saddle for the third time. she was really good about it. been haltering her over her ears for the past week or so to prepare her for the bridle crown going on the same way. had the bit in her mouth and the bridle over her ears in less than a minute :) she was really 'chewy', but i expected that as she hasn't worn a bit at all before. we went for a walk around the arena and when she was concentrating on me the chewing stopped. today will be a repeat, just wearing the bit and getting used to it some more.

we also worked on tie training a bit. Loki so far has not given any inclination that she would 'set back' on that rope at all, but i would not call her tie trained yet.

went to get some photos of Loki mare all tacked up yesterday but my phone memory was full! :( dumped it last night and now i'm good to go, paparazzi style, lol.
 
#28 ·
Loki was once again just wonderful today :) second bridling, third (i think?) saddling, and i've tied her to the fence a time or two before today for a few minutes, but today she stood tied for longer, probably fifteen minutes or so. she did do a small pull back at one point but didn't go ballistic like you see some horses do, and calmly moved forward when i told her to 'step up' (a command i teach all horses, to walk towards me. translates really well to entering buildings and trailers too). i was able to walk away from her and go into the tack shed and she stood calmly. at one point she somehow got the lead rope over her ears and all she did was stand there and wait for me to 'rescue' her, lol.



after that we walked in the arena and worked on 'steering'. Loki is starting to learn about how reins make her head move, and in turn make her body move. we were able to turn to the left and right and back up a few steps too. Good girl Loki!
 
#29 ·
i just noticed her tacked up photo looks like she's about ready to fall asleep. that's how stressed out this horse is in her training with me, she snoozes. lol.

today was another 'Loki catches her human' day too. walked right up to me, leaving a fresh round bale she was munching on. so proud of this mare :)
 
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