November 27 – December 23, 2022: Slow and Steady Progress

Winter has arrived here in the Hudson Valley of New York! Snow, freezing temperatures, mud and the joyful chaos of the Holiday Season (and given the fact that the facility we have Kenna at does not have an indoor arena) have put a crimp in our training schedule. Still, we have done lots of work on connection and communication, establishing the bonds of respect and moving forward at a steady pace.

Two of the more difficult Collaborative Groundwork exercises in our program (foundation level) is Yielding the Forequarters and Leading Beside. These two exercises require trust and connection. With the understanding that horses assert themselves with their head, neck and shoulders, getting a smooth yield at the forequarters is not always easy. Kenna struggled, like most horses, with these exercises. It took a couple of sessions to help her understand what the request entailed but once she got the hang of them we were able to make really nice progress!

Under saddle we focused on getting her comfortable with the snaffle (remember she was abused and poorly trained prior to coming to us and had real fear of the bit) and work with her on “steering” by listening to our seat, core, and legs. We use “Look, Leg & Lift” to help Kenna understand the requests. We use our “outside leg” to help with wider turns and our “inside leg” to help with tighter turns. We are also working with her on carriage and balance. Like most horses who are not handled properly, she drops her shoulder into turns. We are helping her be in balance when performing maneuvers currently and she is doing a good job. We keep things simple and straightforward during this period of her training and her advancement.

Kenna as progressed nicely and we have high hopes for her future. We see more of her personality each day as she puts on weight and feels better overall. We have some sassy moments but overall she has been a pleasure to work with. We look back on the “history” we were given about her and compare that to the horse we have now and often wonder how “uneducated” and “unaware” her previous humans were because – to be brutally honest – we have not experienced anything behavior wise to the level of what we were told. So often it is the human who creates the issues. It is the horse who suffers from the creation. What is in Kenna’s future? At this point we simply do not know. She is going to continue through our program, get exposed to new activities and we will see what she enjoys! That is the plan.

Here are some new videos we have crafted with Kenna. These are unedited and unscripted so you see what we get during the session.

Different Sides/Different Eyes: https://fb.watch/hBp4s3Ay83/

Look, Leg & Lift – Steering with Kenna: https://fb.watch/hBp9dMMrHB/