So often it can be hard to tell what aspects of a horse they are born with an which ones they have developed from the handling they have received over time.

Righteous is one of those horses.

He came with a whole list of behavioral issues and phobias. Luckily for him he landed with one of the few people willing to put the time in to help him. Explosive and overly sensitive, getting him closer to being a ride-able horse who could be handled on the ground has been a long journey.…

This is the only high whorl that shows an introverted temperament.

This is also the hardest whorl for me to recognize. In fact it’s lack of definition and ease of recognition is one of the hallmarks of the whorl. It is usually a bit muddied with faint ghost whorls and feathering weaving between the two whorls.

It is the hardest whorl for me personally to work with. There are no bad whorls, just different ways horses need handled. This one needs handled with extreme care and…

I’ve been taking the youngest out for rides on Coyote in the mornings while the oldest is at school. I’m glad he’s liking horses, I thought he’d be tractors and nothing else. One morning I went ahead and turned Rusty out in the yard to graze while we rode. We left him behind for the first part of our ride, fortunately he can’t really come with out through the corn field. But when we got back into the yard he started following us. I decided to have some fun with it and see what he would…

Or playing with balls. But that seemed a little wrong.

The wind was howling and the temp had gone from very comfortable all morning to nearly one hundred. It is still bone dry so the dust was kicking up everywhere.

We brought him in and saddled him, worked on a couple of little things that he has well down to get him paying attention and led him out to the pen we were using. No round penning or working him until he was paying attention (read dripping sweat and too tired to do anything) just a few cookies and simple cues and he was ready…

I was going to ride him, the weather was good, someone was home, the wind wasn’t howling and I had been working him regularly. The time was perfect.

I pulled him from their pen and he spooked his way through the gate. I saddled him and lead him to where I planned to ride him to start with some ground work. He took off running and bucking. Where was my horse? The one who responds willingly and happily, who doesn’t care about tarps and balls or anything else I could throw at…

My daughter chose a ball for us, pink and purple of course. We had been targeting a ball getting ready, now we had a ball specially for this, it had stopped snowing and I had a moment. He walked up to the ball and touched as soon as he got in the round pen. I clicked him but he didn’t want a treat, there was some grass. I guess that works. I left him to eat some grass so he wouldn’t be so desperate for it when we started working and got the rest of my stuff. When I came back we got down to…

Last time I thought about clicker training, it was all theoretical. I had done a little with a previous horse but that was short lived and I haven’t had an opportunity since then.

Now I am absorbed in the practice, the study and the art. Maybe not, but I am really fascinated. Every chance I have I watch videos and read up on it. Horse Tricks 101 and Hippologic…

When I go to buy a horse the first things I look at are head shape and placement of whorls.  In my experience with my own horses and way back when I was starting colts I have found that whorls and head shape are great indicators of personality. This isn’t completely hair brained. Various grates including Temple Grandon have studied it and apparently it holds true with dogs, cattle and even children. I’m going to have to look into that a little more.

Lets take a look at Rusty. The most…

I was whining to my mother about not having a horse to train. She had been looking at a nice little reining type quarter horse with a friend, why didn’t I get him she asked. I don’t want a quarter horse I whined.  You have Princess Onna, my daughters mare, why don’t you train on her? My mom is so patient and apparently I whine a lot because she just wasn’t what I wanted either she’s old and broke good enough. I wanted a nice young, unstarted, western bred Morgan. Not that I’m picky or…