Ben Horse

Ben is a horse. A Belgian gelding to be exact. He is tall, muscular, and three years old. He is blond sorrel in color with a cream or blonde mane that is curly and long. His only face markings are a star between his eyes and a snip near his lips. He is intelligent and inquisitive. Finally he is the horse that I have been assigned to train from scratch. I've very excited about this opportunity, frankly I didn't think that I would be training a green as green horse after only 6 or so weeks on the farm. But here I am. I've worked with Ben twice now in the round pen, both times on the same day. Here is how it went.

I came down to the round pen in the late morning. Lisa was just finishing up some work with her horse Wendy, a beautiful red roan bay Belgian of 4 years of age. She had been about to touch her which is a major break thru and I was wondering if Ben would be more like Wendy or more like Willa's horse Flag who presently was excelling in running in circles and sometimes stopping. As Lisa finished up Deborah went over what had happened in the round pen thus far today and the successes and challenges that had been faced. Then it was my turn. I pushed Ben into the round pen from the adjoining dry pen and push Wendy out. I had interacted with Ben a few times when I walk in the herd, as he acted as part of a welcoming committee of 4 or so horses that greeted and inspected newcomers to the herd. As I walked into the pen I brought with me that training whip and carefully wrapped it around itself. Then I sent Ben for a few laps of running around the pen in order to establish my dominance. This went very well and Ben chewed and looked at me after which were both good signs. I then "asked" something of him. I moved closer to him without the whip to gauge how close I could get without him become scared or bolting. I got to with in a few feet of him without incident with Ben looking me the whole way (a good sign). I decided to try to touch Ben and went back for the whip. Walking back towards Ben with the whip I talked to him in a low voice and offer the whip for him to smell. He took several long inhales and looked back at me. I stopped at about 2 or 3 feet from him and then used the wand of the whip to touch Ben on the shoulder. Nothing happened. I was shocked. Usually a horse the first time it is touch will run or at the very least quiver in the shoulder with slight discomfort. Ben was motionless. I moved the wand up towards the top of his shoulders, the withers, and Ben quivered. I was somehow relieved and decided to take the pressure off of Ben and walked back to the center of the pen. I was feeling bolder now that things had done so well so I decided to try and touch Ben with my hand. I walked towards him slowing talking to him as I came. When I was within a foot of him I stopped and allowed him to smell me. He was highly curious and smelled deeply. I moved my hand up to his shoulder and stopped about half an inch from his skin. He seemed nervous and was breathing very deeply. I wanted to keep the interact positive and back off. As I walk to the center of the pen. "Did you touch him?" Willa asked from outside then pen. "No" I replied "this close" showing how close I had come with my fingers. I turned back to Ben and found him looking at me. I walked towards him and came to the same place I had just been this time I moved slowly and touched him on the shoulder he quivered slightly but this settled quickly. I stood there was a moment and than began to scrub his withers and then between his front legs. This went well so Deborah suggested that I might try holtering him. It was such a rush to have accomplished so much so fast. Lisa pass a holter into the round pen and I took it back to the middle of the pen. Ben stood on the rail of the pen looking at me. I walked towards him and attempted to holter him. This didn't go so well. As I passed the holter over his neck things seemed fine but as I moved the holter up towards his ear he bolted. I made him run and we did few laps. At this point Deborah suggested that I try to work Ben's feet. No pun intended but Ben didn't stand for this. Feeling it was time to end I moved back to something that had worked and touched been between his legs and on this withers. I put Ben back out in the dry pen at this point and went bout doing some other work round the farm. Later we came back to the dry pen and decided to work the horses in the round pen again. Simply put the lesson I learned from this is that once a day seems to be a green horses learning limit.