Training Day

I was visiting my other ranch, Prairie Training Stables, this month and decided to do some training myself to see how the horses were doing. I chose to train Edi, Lotti, and Blue. Edi was just recently purchased and I was not sure how much training she had when I got her as a rising 3 year old,
so I went through her ground training exercises. Well, she needed some work still! But she is now proficient in everything but ground driving. Apparently, no one had ever tried that with her before. She doesn't love it, but she is slowly getting used to the reins, and I bet it will only take a few more weeks and she will be a pro. She already has a really good start in saddle breaking, and when we get that to our liking, I will decide what her next phase will be, showing or breeding.
Next up, was Lotti. She is a beautiful homebred filly that has been doing wonderfully well. I ran her through her paces and she needed a bit of polishing on trailering and the long reins, but then we dived into walking out and whoa. She is my little star! She did a fabulous job, although it was scary. She is now consistently walking out, although she could do better at following a straight line and needs to relax a little more. She also needs to learn to stop right away, not when she decides it is good, but at only 15 days, 40 minutes a day, she did fabulous!
Finally, little Blue. He is just a yearling, but he is so wonderful. He is already absolutely great with all his ground manners, so, after getting him polished off in everything, I just did a lot of grooming and lunges. We were building a bond and he now comes trotting up to the fence when he sees me coming because he knows it is fun time. I firmly believe horses want to please you and all it takes is good communication of what you want and they will do their best to give it to you. Blue is proving me very true on this. I can wash him and pick out his hooves and clean his sheath and he just stands so still and is such a good boy. That will pay off when the farrier visits or he needs his vet visits for blood tests and such.
So, it was a lovely month with the Fjords and I am very happy with Cate's progress over there. Don't know what I would do without her and Jack at the home farm to be my right hands! I've included a pic of my sweet Blue. You might see where he got his name. ;-)