Dutton’s Safe Horse Challenge Adventure

10/25/2023

Dutton is getting chunky 👀 He has a big November coming, but is happily chilling during October.

09/15/2023

09/15/2023

It’s been quite a while since I updated on Dutton. We have honestly been going at his own pace and with that freedom he’s thriving. Tonight we decided to push the trust and see how a ponying ride went. It took him a moment to figure out what was expected, but then he was fantastic!

05/31/2023

Dutton has gotten a bit of time just being a horse because my middle of June baby ended up having to come at the beginning of May, but we got back to real engagement today and he was so wonderful that we took a step toward the tack process!

Picture of Dutton and of my little early distraction ❤️

04/22/2023

From a horse that wouldn’t let me catch him in a stall without stress, to a horse that doesn’t let me clean stalls solo 😂

It’s the little things that show progress with this boy and I love it ❤️

04/11/2023

This is a very long video (and a bit of a long post) that shows more progress than I think anyone would believe me about. The thing about Dutton is that the big things he does easily (like going to the lake or playing with the pool), but the little things like brushing or touching his legs are HARD for him. So to have a 17 minute grooming session, with him knowing he was tied (though loosely) and being able to just touch all 4 legs with only 1 kick is huge. It’s also something we have consistently worked to over all the time he’s been here to get to. Dutton is going to be fantastic when he’s finished, but he is going to do it in his own time.

I know that several of my videos make this dude look like a chill and easy going guy who is being trained by a slow poke, but it’s because it only took the first week I had him for me to learn his warning signs leading up to a panic moment- pushing horses to their breaking point when they are clearly telling me they are at it isn’t how I train 🤷‍♀️ Dutton has come as far as he has with positive reinforcement training (he isn’t getting cookies, it’s alfalfa pellets that are otherwise part of his normal meals). R+ training is something I am still learning (many thanks to Greenwalt Equine for continuing to teach me and helping me and Dutton grow) and I am far from a master, but progress is certainly being made ❤️

The other rather significant growth is my baby bump, now at 7.5 months pregna

03/29/2023

Small background info- I work an hour and a half from my house. My wonderful and supportive husband works from our house—- which also means he gets to feed horses breakfast.

Dutton has been improving, but still would come in by way of following one of our other horses because catching in an open field is a stepping stone we are building up to.

To get this picture from my husband (who he has shown much more timidness with) was a MASSIVE win today! Dutton is truly starting to put the pieces together and I can’t wait to see everything fall into place ❤️

03/24/2023

Dutton had his first off property adventure!

He rocked:
-loading up/trailering to lake free
-unloading and hitting the muddy trails
-me getting us lost for a solid 2 miles
-having to navigate non-existant trails (he did inquire about the available green snack options for his effort 😂)
-walking across rather deep mud in the overflow area of the lake when I finally figured out how to get where we were going
-strangers yelling at him about how handsome he was
-a decent sized ribbon snake crossing in front of us
-my asking constantly for us to stop so I could stand beside and pet both sides of him all the way back to the doc of his tail
-Vehicles passing 2/3 times (the one was a justified concern, dude was too close)
-having a BLAST showing off his goofy side in the lake
-my requesting annoyingly that he walk beside, not behind me
-being hosed for the first time
-getting back on the trailer and letting me put him in the actual slant slot so I could close the trailer up (I was the only human on the adventure)
-unloading at home!

I am over the moon with how today’s trip went. The positive reinforcement training (side note- when you constantly see me giving him food in the videos it is just alfalfa pellets that would otherwise be with his grain- no cookie monsters in the making here) has really felt like it’s been going well and that we were on the cusp of him building to higher and higher levels of trust—- today showed that off!! ❤️

03/22/2023

So accurate!!