Working With Tango and Learning New Things

:cherry_blossom: 𝕋𝕒𝕟𝕘𝕠 :cherry_blossom: 03/27/21

Today I went to the stable where Tango is staying with the trainer. I got there at 2 pm and left at 5:30 pm. The facility was really clean, bright, and organized and it had the nicest indoor arena I have ever seen (in person anyway). The stalls were 14 x 14 which I think is helping Tango calm down when being in a stall because it’s probably the largest stall he has been in and he feels more comfortable.

Anyway, the trainer showed me what she has been doing and helped me a lot. She said he is a thinker but is also reactive and when he he gets frustrated/confused he gets angry. She is working on getting him to calm down in situations that are scary and doing desensitizing. She said she doubts he had much of any groundwork experience with his previous owner or trainer which I completely agree with as his ground manners have been bad since the first day I met him and when I asked his old trainer about lunging or groundwork it sounded like they had not done much of any. Ground manners are extremely important and as my farrier said “A horse is only as safe in the saddle as he is on the ground. Anytime you ride a horse with bad ground manners and don’t get hurt is called luck.” At first we worked on letting me touch his ears and poll because he has always been really sensitive about that area. Then we had him put his head down.

After we had done that for awhile, I took Tango on a walk around the farm. We worked on teaching him that I have an invisible space bubble that he cannot pop and that he is not allowed to walk ahead of me. If he walked ahead of me or was crowding me and being rude I would back him up or turn him in a circle and move his hip. He saw a lot of new things and I was happy because he was thinking instead of reacting badly.

Then we walked into the arena and did a little desensitizing. The trainer asked me if Tango knew how to lunge and I said that he does but he is still learning about changing directions and not pulling or tossing his head. I lunged him for about ten minutes and then the trainer asked me to walk Tango across the bridge. Tango learned quickly that it wasn’t scary and walked across it nicely after he was used to it. The trainer then asked me to lunge him over the bridge. That took a long time and a ton of patience lol. The trainer said she was just going to wait and see how many different ways Tango could find to get out of having to go over the bridge. :satisfied: He went on one side of the bridge, the other side, or he would take two steps and then try to walk sideways. She said Tango is extremely smart, honestly probably too smart. I kept him on the circle until he actually tried to go over the bridge. Then I praised him and he was like “Wait, that is all you wanted me to do?” And then the next time I asked him to go over it he did it perfectly! We ended on that good note and he got a lot of scratches! Tango’s trainer said that Tango has a ton of potential but he needs manners. She also is pretty sure that he is mixed with Thoroughbred. I know that Tango is mixed with something other than Arabian and I was pretty sure it was either TB or QH but I wasn’t sure. Now I’m starting to really think he is an Arabian x Thoroughbred (also called an Anglo-Arabian) because of his build, personality, and how intelligent he is.

I took him back to his stall and tied him up and groomed him. He was all dusty from rolling in the arena (one of his favorite things to do) and is shedding quite a bit. I brushed his mane and he loved that because at the same time I was scratching his neck under his mane and he just put his head down and was totally relaxed. When I was done grooming him, I took off his halter and untied him. It was about 3:30 pm by this time so I decided to clean stalls. I cleaned quite a few stalls and met a lot of cute horses, dogs, cats, and a potbellied pig named Luna! My favorite horse there was an almost two year old colt that was pretty new, named Skittles. While I was cleaning stalls I saw a man and his wife hanging out by Tango’s stall (they were waiting for their daughter to finish her lesson) and I heard the guy say “That’s a good looking horse. He is so tall.” And I was just so proud of Tango for some reason 🥲 :joy: After cleaning stalls my mom picked me up and I went home. I am so excited to work with Tango on Sunday and I think this trainer is going to do him a lot of good!