Topic: Training
Iliad is our belgian draft horse. He came from CBER and was owned by one of my students for about two years. There was an issue with children and biting, so now he resides here on Allen Acres.
I've been able to start moving forward again with his training. He does really well in his groundwork; leading, backing up, crossing the forehand, crossing the hindend, lateral flexion, and doing really well with the join up in the round pen. He also does well with ground driving.
There is one area that I've found that he has an issue, and that is switching from one eye to the other. He does well clockwise in the round pen but he does not like it when I work on his right side when he is close to me. This could be dangerous when up in the saddle as he might become startled or frightened if I were to do something on his right side.
To get him comfortable I have been doing a series of simple ground exercises on his right side. Lead, stop, and back up. I pause between each of these things to let him soak it in and learn. He is doing really well and he is starting to show he is a bit more comfortable by slowing down his breathing, showing a relaxed eye, licking and chewing and lowering his head.
