There is something to knowing that I am back home in Arkansas for a while. It’s great to be back at home, visiting family, eating the great food, but especially getting to work with my stock again. Pistol is cowarding at all of the new sights and sounds. Sometimes I think that dog is too timid for her own good. Then I have to remind myself she is still just a pup. After jumping from the bed of the pick-up twice last week, we are working on riding down the road. She got a lil work out today as we drove around and checked cows.
The mare I have is a 7 year-old, but she is far from finished. I worked pretty solid with her for two years when I first trained her, but the past two years have been slack. She is a bright horse, and still remembers plenty of the training, but she is a little rusty. So this week I am getting her up, doing some refresher ground work and basics. Come to find out I might be a little rusty on the basics after working with well-finished horses in the feedyard all year.
This mare does great on her bending, loping and changing leads, but has always been contrary with her side passes — probably something I should have worked harder on in training. But a great horse always remembers their training, and sometimes just needs to be reminded. So we took the opportunity of being at the auction barn to work on openning, going through, and closing sorting gates in the alleys.
Truth be told, the trainer always has to stay sharp as well, so I jumped on the computer for a refresher. I have a few favorite blogs and sites from trainers explaining their methods, but YouTube is a great source for those of us who are visual learners. Here is a video I found for a lil explanation about what is involved in training around gates. Enjoy!
