An actual plan in mind for each horse. I might jot down a goal but don't really write down a plan in detail because every day is different. This morning when I fed, both horses were in head-up, eyes-wide mode. Not sure what happened but I suspect that the noise from the neighbor's sprinkler bothered them both. It's one of those that makes the ch-ch-ch, then chchchchchchch sound.
The other day I actually had time to take Beege out and let him explore the barnyard and round pen area, plus the grooming tree (a piece of webbing around the trunk of a large fir). Jodee (elderly dog) demanded my attention before I could get Odin out and let him explore. Then yesterday was their first farrier appointment since the move. They were rockstars.
Here's an important piece of information to take into consideration when planning for training sessions:
I don't know to whom to give credit originally but my trainer posted it. Odin the Mustang is bottom left, a Left-Brain Introvert. Beege is top right, a Right-Brain extrovert. So even if I plan the same exercises for both horses my approach needs to be different.
My plan for Beege was to groom him, play in the round pen area around some cones with figure 8 and lateral exercises. I didn't expect Odin to run around like a maniac in the pasture when I took Beege out. Beege watched him and I let him face Odin so that there wasn't a galloping horse behind him and Beege was fine with that. Every time Beege lifted his head to look, I let him look for a second then we did an exercise. Beege has arthritis so I can't work him very long or very hard. Our exercises are slow and I need to find places to stop so that he doesn't hurt himself.
After Odin stopped running around, I took Beege up the drive past the barn toward the front. The distance is 100 yards or more, down into a dip and up so neither can see each other. I didn't hear Odin running around when we left; Beege was curious and alert, head a bit high so we stopped and backed up if he snorted. I let him take it all in before moving forward again. If he wanted to graze we went forward. If his head was high and eyes wild, we stopped and backed up, took a breath and waited. We made it all the way to the front yard after 3 or 4 stops, I let him graze a bit then we went back. We never went over his comfort threshold. And that is the primary goal for Beege.
Beege exploring:
My goals for Odin were to explore the barnyard, try out the round pen, apply fly spray, and fly mask. Maybe explore up the drive if we get that far and it's going well.
Immediately I recognized that I needed flexibility in my plan for Odin. He wasn't comfortable going by the yellow tarp shelter even though he sees it every day from the paddock. So we worked on that. Make the spot near the shelter a resting place, away from the shelter the working place. Trot then walk when approach the shelter, walk past without leaning in toward me, then trot in the shady grassy area. Repeat on both sides until he seems a little comfortable then rest facing the shelter and move on.
The snowmobile trailer is parked on the other side of the round pen. Odin snorted at that so we spent some time targeting it until he was voluntarily targeting it. By then I wanted to practice a couple lateral (mostly shoulder — see above chart) movements before we moved on to fly-spray training. Fly-spray training includes touching the bottle with his nose, allowing me to touch his shoulder with the bottle, then spray over his back. He does not like the spray over his back. Repeat until he stops moving at each step, then whew, graze a bit. And finally the fly mask. He's getting better at it because we've been working on it nearly every day. At least that exercise is getting easier.
Training is done, time for a little grazing reward.
By the way, here's the result from my scrubbing the chicken-poo stall wall yesterday: