Today we are exactly a week away from Horsexpo! This has been an amazing experience! Where is Hubble in his training? For two weeks now I have been working with training him. If you recall for the first 60 days he was too ill to train. He was weak. For example,when I tried to lunge him, after only a minute, he had broken into a sweat and his respiratory was fast and wouldn't come down for 15 minutes. I don't know about you but to me that is a good indicator this boy had something seriously wrong going on. We worked on it slowly, taking everything at a walk to begin with. With his ground manners coming along really, really well we progrssed to bridle work. Once his physical condition improved we were able to progress to round penning. Then on to sacking out. Which was absolutely no big deal. That is how it should be. By the time you get to that point the trust should be established and it was. And one day I put a saddle on him and the rest is history... Well, almost- I still haven't mounted him- but he wears a saddle now! Anything I want- he does it. Such a smart boy! This week alone I taught him to clip- he could have cared less- boring, he walks over bridges, through gates, over poles and big logs, over tarps, you name it he does it. I even had a 3 foot high stack of rubber mats and I thought "Hmmm. I wonder..." Sure enough, he climbed that little "mat mountain" for me and stood there like he was king of the hill! I'll have to get a picture of him on top. My goal is to expose him to as many things as I can. Today I took him around the ranch, we zigged and zagged up a hill and then walked alongside a couple of my students as they rode along. We went by some excavation equipment- big earth movers and such and he just plodded along. He visited a boat that I have parked on the property that has a tarp on it that flaps in the wind and some tractor equipment... not a big deal. Later we loaded up in the trailer and drove 15 miles down the road to Pena Adobe Park. There I worked him among the bicyclists, joggers, dog people, geese, lake, wierd playground equipment. All with the noise of highway 80 closeby. He has never been off my ranch mind you. Once he realized this was a safe place,he actually seemed to enjoy himself! I took him over to a building with a trash can in front of it- so what. I took him over to the playground- the slide was wierd and someone sliding down it was even more wierd but then he got bored with it. There were aluminum tables closeby and I had my mom getting up and down and stomping around- they sound like bleachers- at first he jumped when she jumped off but when he realized everything was fine after repetition he didn't care anymore. I took him around and through things and by intimidating wierd power boxes that hummed- he got right up next to one and just stood there- and he had to step up on the concrete about 8 inches. I desensitized him to a flag. If someone ever wanted to ride with a flag I think he proved to me he could handle it today. There was a good wind and that flag was flapping all over the place- he could have cared less. Hubble has a wonderful mind and is such a gentle horse. He is such a delight to work with... and as his reward... he gets cookies and carrots which he loves! I think he's pretty happy- and isn't that the goal? We're working on our routine and learning some special techniques that are a little more advanced. Hubble will be what he is come Horsexpo and after horsexpo we will continue to work and I will continue to train him into the amazing horse that he has the potential and that I see in him to be. It is so nice to be able to take my time with him and to not feel pressure to get him to any particular point. Each day as he can take it... Tomorrow plans are to go visit another ranch and then Sunday we are actually going to be in a schooling show at Ranchotel! Check back for the results and photos!