Mr. Kai

I am slowly making progress with Kai. Slow being my fault, not his, he picks up on things quickly. My problem is that I prefer to start colts in a round pen, and right now my round pen is being used for horse stalls. However, I have a plan for that that includes buying some 2x6 lumber and hard labour.

Showing his summer colour- lots of tan like his mama

Every morning, I work with Kai on the lead rope when I take the 3 kidz out to their pasture. Circles, yielding the hip, changes of direction, and yielding the shoulder as well as lateral flexion. This will be a big help when I get really serious about his training- meaning when I set up my round pen. We usually have a pretty good session, but this morning in the circle, every time he got to the part of the circle closest to his buddies, he tried to quit- the magnet effect. So I tried to anticipate him stopping and drive him a bit just before he got to his magnetic spot. At first, it made him blow sideways towards his buddies, but a couple of spanks with the lead rope, and he started paying more attention to me than the other horses. Of course, Josie had to come and investigate..... might have to put her to work too!

Who, me?

I keep the sessions short, and quit when he does everything well. This morning I got really nice sidepasses both directions, but I noticed when I asked for lateral flexion to the right, that he considered it a bit before he gave; not so much a physical thing but a mental one, like : "I don't wanna!" But I waited and once he figured it out that I wasn't going to give up, he gave me really nice bend, equally as far as he does on his left side. 

Kai loves praise, really reminds me of Beamer that way! Rio is different, more aloof, but Kai- and Josie, really love to be loved on.

The other thing I like- when I'm done working with him, he prefers to hang with me a bit, just in case, you know, that I might scratch his favourite spots or tell him again what a good boy he is. 

I think I have found the horse that will replace Stella in my affection and as my personal horse. (insert big smile!)