Good morning everyone!  It's a beautiful morning here in the deep south, but I'm starting to get the itch to be in the high country.  Only a few weeks away from our yearly trek, though.  Here's the list of this week's new members.   Welcome!!  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them here.  Richard

Kathy Berntson, Angela Lambright, Terri Postma, Logan Kirn, Damon Farrar, Amber, Clint Battles, Tyler Baker, @Thomas Jones, Butch kuhn, Elijah Hundley, Josh, Jill

The in the loop message 

What a great email this morning. Right now I have an extremely tough horse in training. The hardest scariest horse I’ve ever started. He’s down right beautiful but he’s near impossible to catch. I’m a fairly decent hand but today’s in the loop was spot on. I had to give him yesterday off because in reality I needed a break lol. He could do it all day long but boy did he frustrate the heck outta me. I think about quitting and for a brief moment I got kinda upset about not being able to catch the sucker. I’ve spent over a week trying to touch and catch him in a small pen. Now I can rope him but I want him to want to be caught so I haven’t. It’s been slow and staying in bed sounds better than work for sure. I have caught him a couple good times only to have to restart from the beginning the very next day. Could use some pointers maybe but I know in my heart I ain’t no quitter. If I quit it’s this horses last chance and he’ll be put down. I just know there’s a good horse in there. Thanks for the message Richard 

Round pen diameter? What is your recommended size?

 We have a great new series coming out Friday.  It's all about ground driving.  I've had a lot of request for this one.  Ya'll check it out.🙂

Good Saturday morning all.  I just wanted to take a second and welcome all the new B1 members that have signed up in April.   If yall need anything, just reach out here and we'll see if we can't help🙂

Welcome!

Jacinta Franks, Deborah, Kaleigh , Melanie Ethridge, kim, Saralyn Wallace, Joseph “Linc” Davis, Trudy McDonald , Derek Guffey, Julie Sweeten, Nichole Toney

Richard🤠

Hi Richard, 

I have been following your ES20 series with Luna, and it has helped my 4 year old mare so much. She is quite sensitive and opinionated, and your approach works so well with her! Question though, when I take her on the trail she is a pig. I have tried feeding her before hand, and she still wants to eat everything. Suggestions? On a wider path, I can do like your recent trail videos and do trot circles until she relaxes, but what about a narrow path? Thank you!

Little update on Ward! Wish I it would let me attach a video but it won’t let me. Ward’s owner extended him through this month. Ward has really done well in his time with me. Rides off pretty well now with little to no ground work. He’s still pretty stiff to one direction, but loosening up. I’ve had the barn intern up on him now and he’s just really calming down. Pretty pleased with this big 3 year old. Going to be a sad day when he goes home!

I have a question about the communication.

I have a horse here, which has a lot of go and is very attached to everything outside the roundpen. And shes pretty tall 🙄

I made a test today with this horse and put her into the roundpen. I was just standing in he middle and Couraged her to move forward when she wanted to stop for lokking outside or searching something on the ground. One Single cluck is enough for her to get her forward. I ignored her the rest of the time and was only standing there.  45 minutes the horse run around the roundpen. Without any signs of stopping- she would have run way longer if i wouldnt have stopped her.

There is no chance to apply any preasure, even with the lightest cue she will start like a rocket. So i have no Chance to get her to communicate with me. 

I mean: i can force her to do so, with changing directions every half of a round and with a lot of pressure - thats no problem and i know how to do it. 

But honestly, i dont want to do this anymore in this extreme way. 

So what can i do? And where can i send you a Video, @Richard?

Any of yall ever been to Road to the Horse?  What was your experience?  What are your thoughts?

This is another 3year old from me. I started with the ES20 with him and he is doing pretty well. 

I found out that i really enjoy working the horses with the long reins from the ground. Im driving them everywhere and it is a lot of fun 🥰