Zoe's first day of training.

Zoe is a 5 year old registered quarter horse. I am training her for my best friend.

Another beautiful day. I got to the barn a little before 2pm. Zoe was in her stall and fairly talkative. I put on her rope halter. She didn't lower her head but she didn't raise it or pull it away either. (She will eventually put her head down for haltering and for the bridle.) I borrowed a hoof pick and started picking her hooves. I started with the front feet. She was untied and just standing in her stall. She smelled me while I picked her front feet. She was pretty good for those. I went to the back and she looked like she was trying to pedal a bicycle. She didn't try to kick but she was definitely trying to get me to put her feet down. I stayed with her until she relaxed and let me pick her feet.

Off to the indoor arena.

She walked nicely beside me up the ramp to the upper barn and with me to the arena. This is the first time she has even seen the arena. She quickened her breathing a bit, taking in all the smells but she didn't act the slightest bit spooky. Her biggest concern was getting a taste of the sand at her feet. lol. We walked the entire arena so she could see everything. I then put her in the round pen so I could move her feet and watch her move and etc. She has nice hocks. She moves nicely and looks like she'll feel good under saddle. I did several transitions between walk and trot with her and also worked on stopping and turning. I do notice she pays a lot of attention to me even if she doesn't look like she is paying attention. I also noticed that she isn't quick to canter and quickly transitions back to an extended trot from the canter.
I worked her until she started to really look to me when I asked her to stop and she finally licked her lips.

We were walking back to the lower barn and Ed was down there putting hay in the stalls. Ed said “Done already?” and I happily replied “she was great!” as we approached the ramp, I no sooner got the words out of my mouth when she slammed on the breaks. I put pressure on...nothing. I swung the rope behind me to tap her on the side/hip....nothing. She just looked over at Red in her stall next to the ramp and tuned me right out. Ed opened up the arena door and I went all the way out and around front and came back into the barn. We went back up the ramp and then backed back down. She was cool with that but would not walk down the ramp. Long story short we couldn't walk straight down the ramp. Ed says he has had horses do that before. I did get to a decent place to end. We stood in the aisle for a little while to get her to stand still, and square and calm before going into her stall. Standing and waiting will help her develop patience. Once in her stall she went right to munching her hay.