Bridle

Sparrow got sprayed with fly spray and bridled for the first time today. He is an amazing horse, just seems to take everything in stride without much hesitation. The fly spray didnt bother him at all and the bit just gave him something to play with.

The Saddle

While working with Sparrow on standing tied I decided to throw my saddle on him. Not wanting the situation to go bad I untied him so if he shied he wouldnt hit any resistance. With his lead rope on the ground I threw on the saddle pad with no reaction from Sparrow other than the attempt to graze. I took the saddle and let Sparrow smell it, when he didnt seem bothered I lifted it over his back and set it down as gentle as I could manage. then untied the girth and cinched it up. No reaction came from the front cinch and no reaction for the back cinch. So far he doesnt mind the saddle at all so I decided to finish his ground manners lesson with the saddle on and took a walk over to the neighbors house. The saddle didnt even bother him at the trot. I shook the stirrups and moved the saddle around by the horn while Sparrow stood on a loose lead.

Tarps

Today Sparrow was introduced to the tarp. He didnt want to have anything to do with them at first but after a little bribery he walked over it. As soon as he figured out it wasnt going to hurt him the tarp was no longer scary and he walked over every one I had, all different colors and sounds.
After he was ok walking over the tarp I picked it up and draped it over his neck. When he didnt mind that, I covered him completely. The tarp is no longer anything to Sparrow, grazed and walked around with the tarp as if it wasnt even there :)

The Cavern

My mother and I found a new idea for a trail obsticle. We built a "cavern" which is a tent-like structure to lead and ride horses through.

Sparrow was the first to test out our new toy and he didnt mind at all. Walked right in as if he had done it all of his life. He is going to make one kick-ass trail horse one day, nothing really seems to faze him.

horse sense

Yesterday morningn I put Sparrow out into the large pasture with the mares. After a few hours I went outside to check on him only to find him loose and grazing in the alfalfa field. Again i checked him over for any injuries and found none. Next move was checking all of the 5ft high fencing to find it perfectly in tact with only one difference; take off and landing marks next to the driveway with tracks leading to the alfalfa. It appears my mustang has some talent in jumping ;) He stayed in the pen for the rest of the evening however.
Just before dark I caught Sparrow and was in the process of leading him back to his pen. He was walking quietly with his head down on a loose lead like normal when he froze in his tracks and stared off toward another field with his head up. Thinking he simply saw one of the neighbors horses I tried to encourage him through the gate. He didnt move. All he would do was stare past the fence into the field and on occasion glance back at me. It was almost completely dark and I could see nothing so was getting rather annoyed. After close to 10 minutes of not being able to get him to move I finally walked over to the fence seperating the pasture from the field to show him there was nothing worth paying attention to when a coyote took off in the opposite direction not even 100yrds away. As soon as the coyote was over the hill Sparrow resumed to leading with his head down calmly to his pen without any more problems.

Fences

Sparrow has been doing so well that we decided he could be put out with the two ponies during the day. That way he could move around and have some company during the day. With it currently being hay season I dont have as much time to work with him and didnt want him to be lonely.
Yesterday we came home from the fields to find Sparrow in the large pasture that we turn out all of our mares onto. He was perfectly happy munching away and allowed me to walk right up to him without running away to keep his new freedom. After catching his we discovered no injuries the would be sign of him running through a fence, after inspecting the pen he WAS in we determined there was no possible escape. All of the fencing was undamaged and the gate was still tightly closed. The only possible way of escape we can think of was him jumping over the fence. What a wonderful talent lol. My horse, Oliver, has a lovely habit of doing the same thing when he gets bored. (Hey mom, I guess i just have a knack for finding natural jumpers haha). Because Sparrow allowed me to walk right up to him in the large pasture we decided he can stay there during the day and go back to his own pen at night. So far he is loving the new arrangment and having a great time investigating his new ssurroundings :)

end the day on a good note

Made our first attempt at ponying today. Sparrow was perfectly content to follow along, but he would only follow nose to tail. Oliver, my main riding horse, is a bit of a brat himself and in fairness has ponied some nasty horses before. He is fine as long as the horse has his nose at my knee where it should be. Needless to say the lesson ended early when neither horse was willing to cooperate very well. However none was lost as Oliver got to go for a gallop since he was all tacked up and when I got back Sparrow got a ground lesson. We worked on yielding his front end away from me, since he tends to think he can just put his head up and stand his ground. With great happiness from me he learned to move away from me when asked. He also was walking along side me and stopping with no pressure just watching and verbal ques. He trot when asked and came to a halt when I did with no pressure from the lead rope and walked across our ply wood sheet  without any concerns :)

Sparrow

Sparrow is doing so well. Before feeding him this evening I picked up all of his feet and cleaned them out without one problem. in a few days the shoer is coming down and I plan on having him pick up all four feet as well to see if Sparrow will do it for someone else. Sparrow has also started coming to the gate of his pen when I whistle for him or call his name. Yesterday I lunged Sparrow again and he did great, I left him there to graze for an hour. When I went down to get him he was waiting for me at the gate and allowed me to put on his halter and lead him back to his pen quietly. I am so proud of his progress. Hopefully soon I will be able to pony him on the trails to give him some real experience, I am excited to see how he will react to it. Also got permission from a friend up the road to take Sparrow up to his indoor arena :) that should also be a good experience.

Playtime

Sparrow got to go out into the large paddock today. He was more interested in following me around than grazing so I decided to teach him how to play tag and see if he would still follow. Sparrow liked the game and got very good about watching me and getting low to keep me from going around him.
Here is a little video:

The Trailer

Yesterday I took Sparrow out of his pen and decided to see if he would load into a trailer. Sparrow walked up to the trailer with flared nostrils and wide eyes but on a loose lead. I stepped into the trailer and waited for him to decide whether it was scary or ok, after just a few minutes he slowly climbed in with his front feet, paused, then brought up his back feet.

Still wide eyed but respectful of the halter  we walked to the front of the trailer and paused, then turned around and walked out. Instead of lunging out Sparrow walked to the edge and paused then slowly stepped out. We repeated the process three times before Sparrow finally got bored with it and became more interested in grass. I am so happy with his progress, he is smart and very willing. Even when he is freaked out or scared he respects the halter and tries.

Whatta good boy

Today I decided Sparrow was leading so well I took him out of his pen :) he walked right out and even though he was wide-eyed he stayed right next to me. We walked around the chicken coop and up onto the lawn next to the giant tractor mom was using to reconstruct her garden. After that we went down to the round pen (which was surrounded by all of our other horses) and worked on a little lunging. He did great! He moved off of me really well and respected my space, then let me catch him and take him back to his pen.

Gotta have a Brain

Sparrow keeps on amazing me with how intellegent he is. He picks up his training really quickly and once he learns it he never forgets. After only two 10 minute training sessions on the lead line he has already picked it up and is moving off of pressure. He also stands while tied up and never pulled back even the first time he realized he was restrained. When I picked up his back feet for the first time he didnt kick and even though he didnt like it he made sure not to hurt me.
Oliver, my main riding horse, made friends with Sparrow over the fence. It was very entertaining to watch them play :) Sparrow has shown more personality every day he has been here. Today two horses were tied up to one of the panels that makes the pen. When my mom and I came out of the barn we found our horses loose. After retying them with some confusion as to how they managed to get free we finally caught Captain Sparrow untying them. He also stole a flip flop, folding chair, bell boots and a saddle pad. Finally we gave him a jolly ball which he loves and will hopefully keep him from getting into too much trouble :)

at ease

Sparrow layed down for the first time since he arrived. He allowed me to walk up to him and sit on his back.
After a few minutes i grabbed his halter and pulled him over so he was lying flat, then held him down until he relaxed. (He wasnt ever tense so I didnt need to hold him down at all really)

 He allowed me to rub on his and lay down on top of him without fuss, in fact he went to sleep so there was no issues at all :) even after i got up and left he stayed down, perfectly at ease with my presence :)

48 hours

"The Captain" "Jack" "Captain Jack" and "Sparrow" are all the various names my family uses for this little guy. Today I went out and brushed him without needing to put a halter and leadrope on he stood perfectly still and allowed to to rub him all over. He even let me rub his face between his eyes which he wouldnt let me do just last night, he is improving much quicker than I ever hoped :)

He is very curious and his personality shows more and more as I spend time with him. I was able to pick up both of his front feet, although he pulled them out of my hand almost immediately he still let me pick them up! Sparrow has also discovered that if he tries to listen to me I become his personal scratching post and he gets alfalfa cookies (which he LOVES). This afternoon he got a small lesson on how to lead, although in this department he has decided to be a little stubborn he has still never been mean, he just simply wants to stay standing. A butt rope has helped slightly but he still isnt sure about the idea.
Ending on an entertaining note he has become very playfull. After attacking his water bucket, trying to steal my folding chair and successfully stealing my flip flop we finally gave him a jolly ball which he has been enjoying very much :)

!Progress!

So after having Sparrow for only 24 hours he actually let me catch him! I managed to get a lead rope on him earlier in the day, after dinner I went into his pen and grabbed the end of the lead rope and just followed him around for a few minutes. He finally stopped with his side to the rail and allowed me to slowly walk to his shoulder without trying to touch him. I stood next to him without moving for 10 minutes before finally trying to put my hand on his shoulder, he kept an eye on me but did not move. After he relaxed I slowly stepped away and left his pen. An hour later I went back and did the same thing, he was completely relaxed and allowed me to put my hand on his back. I slowly moved my hand up his neck while scratching him and after a few minutes he started chewing and licking and leaning into me. The little boy is so sweet and I am finding the thought of selling him a little difficult. We will have to wait and see how the next month or two goes :)

(he was rubbing his rump on the wooden rails. He really isnt that downhill lol)

Interaction

Today I took a folding chair and my laptop into Captain Sparrow's pen so he could get used to my presence. I played music and sang along to the songs (very poorly) to get him used to people and noise. I expected some curiousity but since it was the first day of actually being in his pen I expected him to still be too stand-off-ish to investigate.

After 10 minutes he was willing to come near enough to eat the rest of his hay...

A little longer wait and he came a little closer....

And then after only 20-30 minutes he finally came up and began nuzzling my boots :) I was so estatic. I didnt manage to get a picture of him actually biting my toes but I was trying to remove my boot from his teeth without scaring him lol. Sparrow is so curious and quite friendly. My dad already has him eating fresh green grass from his hands through the fence :) He is going to make an awesome horse as soon as he is tamed down.

Meet Captain Sparrow

Captain Sparrow is a yearling Mustang gelding from the Palomino Buttes Herd in Oregon. Through a 90 day process he will go through taming and training before being auctioned off in October to his new home.

After driving for 4 hours to Ellensburg, WA and waiting all night we finally got to meet our mustang at 9:30am June 25th. We drew the number 9990, which was a little red horse at the back of the herd. Loading him up took fairly little effort and he remained relatively calm throughout the 4 hour drive home. On the way home my 8yo sister decided to name him Captain Sparrow, in honor of the character on Pirates of the Caribbean.

After only 10 minutes of being in his new corral he has settled down to re-hydrate and munch on his hay. I cant wait to get started on his training and discovering his personality.