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.