For all my horsey friends...

I wanted to give you a little update on Fayal's progress since I bought him. It's been five weeks already and he nicely settled in.
I had to get his feet done soon after we brought him home which was a small challenge. He really hadn't been handled much and holding his feet up was not well known to him and it got worse when I accidentally hurt him, just to find out that he has some thrush. I had four days to train him and he actually was great! By now, he is a real champ and holds his feet up way better than the two older horses we've got.

Surprisingly, he just loves people! I can say that he for sure was not handled much before and I also can say that I can't take any credit for it either (even though I would like to ;-)), it's just the way he is. He is waiting at the gate when you come to bring him home from the pasture. He even trots towards you, happy to see you. And he did it from the very start. He will be a real Black Beauty one day, except he is not black.

Oh well, as you can see, I'm already in love with him...

But now, more interesting maybe, his training:

I'm not rushing him because he is still very young. However, I don't want to bore him with the same exercises all the time either. So we're moving along as fast as he wants/is able to.

First I worked him on a little piece of land behind our garden. Mostly short sessions with more physical parts and brain work alternating within the sessions.

As brain work part, I taught him to step on a cut off tree stump.

Letting him figure it out (Photo credit my mum)

I let him pony mostly by my dad, or whoever rides my dad's horse (mostly my dad or myself). He's great to pony and again you would think someone taught him, but I'm certain he had never done it before.

Fayal on the tree stump (Photo credit my mum)

He's is very relaxed when it comes to big trucks or scary things in general, more relaxed than our older horses. But at the same time, he is very sensitive to what I'm telling him and I'm lucky and thankful, because nothing worse than riding a tank.
He is allowed to enter my space when we're in the barn unasked, because he is very respectful and will leave my space right away if I ask him to. He enjoys being in contact with people so much that he often tries to sneak into a stall with you while cleaning it, so he can be with you. I've never met a horse like that! My little princess Pacific in Canada enjoyed a good brush, but given the choice being in the field or being with people, I know what she will choose :-).

Basic lunging exercises, asking for a change in direction (Photo credit my mum)

Bending exercise, he is learning to give to applied pressure on the rein and it is our built in break. Bend all the way means 'STAND' and this hopefully keeps me in control and safe later when I'm on his back. (Photo credit my mum)

Slightly bend and what you can't see is I'm using a dressage whip to tap him where later my leg will apply pressure to teach him to go forward. (Photo credit my mum)

Leaning on his back and applying our 'break'. (Photo credit my mum)

See above (Photo credit my mum)

The first time on his back! He kept his cool. (Photo credit my mum)

In this picture you can see that Fayal is our tallest horse. He stands at 16hh right now and will continue to grow for a little while. (Photo credit Caro) 

Ponying Fayal on Aragon (Photo credit Caro)

Nuka loves going for rides, especially because we don't have to use a leash around here (Photo credit Caro)

That's us! :-)