Greg Sokoloski, our instructor, is a member of the Houston Mounted Police. He coached us through learning to be leaders for our horses. In the picture above, you can see him with my mare Zippy.
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Day One - We started first with a session without horses so Greg could describe what we would be doing over the next two days. Then we had a session with our horses in string halters.
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We led our horses up to a series of obstacles and let them smell them and learn to investigate new objects. Here is Lakota calmly walking over a tarp on the ground covered with cans, plastic bottles, and other normally scary things.
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Greg had set up different toys for the horses to puzzle out. The horses seemed to be throughly enjoying the stimulation and attention.
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During the Clinic we exposed our horses to a variety of interesting objects to encourage left brain thinking. You could almost see the horses "processing" information.
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The "big ball. was my favorite obstacle. I wouldn't expect to encounter a big ball on a trail ride, but getting the horse to be willing to accept new things is a big part of the training process.
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We had a number of beautiful paint horses in our clinic. Here is one playing with the ball.
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Some of the horses became so comfortable with the ball they would rest their heads on it.
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The horses seemed to really enjoy the mental stimulation. Ears were perked forward and they were very interested in all the activity.
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Above is the brave walking horse Chance looking very relaxed.
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Some of the participants on a break. One thing that was interesting at the clinic was the number of different breeds represented. We had Walking horses, quarter horses, warmbloods, peruvian pasos, pintos, and several other horse breeds.
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Here's Pam backing her horse teaching it to maintain a respectful distance. Many at the clinic practice Parelli and other natural horse training methods. The approach that Greg was teaching was in align with these training techniques.
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Since many of us ride in public parks it is important that our horses don't freak out at bikes. Pam helped out by riding around on a bike.
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Some of the new toys made a lot of noise. Here Diane's Peruvian is displaying confidence despite the jug of rocks Diane is shaking.
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Here's a warmblood cross confidently dragging a crackly plastic tarp. We dragged around a variety of toys including old feed sacks and noisy bags.
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The warmblood looks at the plastic sheet blowing in the wind, but doesn't over react.
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Many of the horses met a new friend - Mr Deer.
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Groundwork is essential to a successful horse-human relationship.
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A real confidence builder was the bridge. On day one it was a flat platform. On Day Two Greg and Pam and inserted a rail under the platform so it turned into a teeter-totter.
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The rocking bridge turned it into a whole new obstacle to explore and conquer.
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Our Field-of-toys. In the back ground you can see the tunnel. That was especially fun when the wind blew and the plastic rattled.
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Horses are naturally claustrophobic so we practiced going through tight places.
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When the wind blew, the hanging tarp could be very intimidating at first.
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After introducing new obstacles to horses from the ground we explored them on their backs.
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The ditch was one of the most difficult obstacles. This paint got a bit too close for comfort.
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Here the same paint after it has learned respect and is comfortably crossing the water ditch.
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At the end of each day we all were treated to a relaxing trail ride in the Grasslands preserve.
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Pam on her gaited horse with her dog pose on Sunset Hill.
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