Hooves, Walking Outside, and Solo Trails

I was excited for the farrier to come again and try to do Calvin's feet. Slowly, we keep chipping away at his hooves until eventually he'll be okay with the farrier. He's okay with me handling his feet at this point, but the farrier is a different person. So this time, he was able to shape the front of his hooves, see how nicely his front hooves turned out: 

The farrier was unable to finish his back hooves. Calvin gets impatient, as mentioned previously, so it's better to leave on a good note. He wasn't able to trim the frog down (V shaped part of hoof) as he did with the front feet. You can see how with his back feet (below) it kind of looks like a wizard's hat all smooshed, where his front feet (above) it looks more like a V: 

Although his feet look bad, once trimmed off they are still very nice hooves. The overall structure is there, they just haven't been trimmed yet, but he's still very sound. 

 We worked on lunging (lightly due to his trimmed feet, sometimes that makes them sensitive) today, he's great tracking left (i.e. going counterclockwise) but on the right (clockwise), he tends to not follow the circle and want to veer off. Well turns out he was kind of fresh, so he let out a few bucks and squeals too. What I love about the rope halter is that it sends very direct signals to the horse and has better pressure points than a flat halter, so I'm able to stop him easily. I actually like the rope halters much better so that's all I use now. I used to have to lunge my previous horses with a chain around their nose, I just figured that's the only way I could control them and that's what others used. Now that I'm older & hopefully wiser, I realize it's because the horse didn't understand how to lunge properly and respect the halter. The chain was just a shortcut that bypassed training for convenience, glad I have changed my ways.

After lunging I walked him out of the property and down the road. That way he could encounter cars, other horses, dogs, people, etc. Basically so he could get used to seeing new things as this is the way to the nice public arena.

This gate makes so much noise when you open it. He kind of looked at it, then just didn't care and walked right through. 

However this scary pinwheel is a different story! 

I didn't realize this, but because I brought Heidi almost every house we ran across had a dog that tried to eat us. So you're walking along, all peaceful and quiet in the countryside, then "BARK BARK BARK SNARL"at the chainlink right by your ear, it scares the #%$^ out of me so I can't expect the horse to not be frightened. Anyway, he got used to barking dogs (as much as anyone could be) thankfully and I'll remember not to bring Heidi this way again. He spent a significant amount of time snorting but overall it was a good experience. 

On the way back, I decided I didn't feel like walking anymore so I jumped on once back in the property. 

Here's a trail located off the main dirt driveway, you can see a car coming down. This is what I first used to get him used to trails. He's much more confident on trails now, hence why I can take pictures/video.

Here's a short video of our trail. I'm afraid, though, that I created a monster! So I let him munch on grass while on trail as a "hey look trails are fun!" In psychology, this is called operant conditioning, the more you do a desired behavior the more rewarded you get (i.e. positive reinforcement). Well that backfired as now he takes every opportunity to eat! I didn't mind so much because we were casual today. I'll eventually teach him to focus while moving and only eat while stopped, but today is not that day.

 This trail is slightly more advanced, there are some slight hills and branches that touch him. We've been on this one with other horses, but never solo. He was being so good that I decided to just try it. It's really a gorgeous trail, not to mention a gorgeous horse too!

 Here's an obstacle, a tree branch! Calvin didn't seem to mind and stepped over nicely. The upturned tree (not pictured), however, was a different story.

Once back home, he found my water bottle and enjoyed flinging it around. And yes, the light tan specs on his nose are leftover beet pulp. I think he's starting to fatten up a little bit which is exciting! Another great day!