From trainer Jay Westerbur:
Week 10 with #dakotashowdownteamonyx
A lot more new stuff for this boy this weekend! Along with some setbacks.
Onyx got moved to a bigger pen with more horses while I was gone. And he decided that he was uncatchable. Now, was he impossible? Absolutely not. It just took longer than I would like. So he got moved to a smaller big pen (like half the size of the pasture he was in, but still large) that is connected to the roundpen. I had someone else try and catch him in this new pen, and he decided he was going to play hard to catch (I will give him some grace: it’s a new pen and he was exploring). But once he got into the roundpen, he was easy to catch. Like a switch flipped. So we’ll be working on that some more.
I introduced him to the tarp this weekend! And let’s just say I was surprised by him, again. He was scared of me moving it into the roundpen (not surprisingly, he’s anever seen it before). But once I layed it out flat he came over to check out what I was doing (and check out the tarp). The first time I asked him to walk over the tarp? Acted like he had done it a million times! Getting him used to it touching him was a little harder, since he likes to face whatever is touching him. But we got it done eventually, and he was such a good boy, even though he’s super uncomfortable with it still. When I ask him to move with the tarp on his back, he’s very stiff and slow. So he’s definitely not 100% sure of it yet and that’s ok! He tries hard and that’s all I care about.
Along with introducing the tarp, I decided to make a tunnel! It’s not very pretty though lmao. He was so good about it! Like “blew me out of the water” good! I even decided to try it without a lead rope, just to see if he would willingly follow me, and he did!
We practiced trailer loading for the first time as well! He was a little more “difficult”, but again, it was his first time with me loading him. The first two times I walked straight up to the trailer, he would pause at the entrance and just check everything out.
And by the third time, he walked straight on! I was honestly expecting more resistance from him. But I’m slowly starting to believe that once you have his confidence, he’ll be willing to do a lot of stuff for you! And the second day of practicing loading? It was his picture day, so more people that aren’t “usually” there. And it was windy on top of that, so someone had to hold one of the doors open, so another obstacle to getting in the trailer (even though they weren’t in the way). He did get scared when he reached out and touched the person holding the door, but he recovered nicely and didn’t run anyone over, so that’s a win in my book lol.
This boy has continued to impress me with how willing and trusting he is! And I’m super excited to see what we can accomplish in these last couple weeks!
