So with Heidi's blessing I decided to take Bucky to a Jon Ensign "colt starting" clinic in Guilford, VT. Laurie Bayer (of Starfish Farm) and I made plans to load Bucky onto her trailer early in the morning to make sure we would get to the clinic in time. Although Laurie had graciously trailered Bucky home for us the previous summer, neither of us knew how he would trailer. I practiced walking Bucky through all the scary places I could think of in our yard, over and under tarps and sheets, building his confidence. The big morning arrived, and after having my share of trailer-shy showhorses growing up I think I was more nervous than Bucky. But he loaded like a pro - stopped, looked inside and then walked right on.
At the clinic Bucky was a star, we had worked on most of the groundwork already and he was great. Being a very sensitive horse though and a little "forgetful" at times, it helped to desensitize him again all over to the flag and ropes. Sometimes I start to think, "Bucky we've done this 10 zillion times, aren't you over it?" I asked Jon about this and he said, "You just have to keep doing it." I once told Sonny I thought it took about 27 times to get Bucky used to something and he laughed. Sometimes when he sees me headed to the barn with one of our training aids (flag, hula hoop, tarp, etc) he'll ask me what # time it is.
Wow, a real cowboy! Jon and Bucky, look how attentive he is!
Bucky really struggled with the plastic bag near his legs, but we continue to work at that. He was great for saddling and even basic riding in the roundpen. He learned to "bump the fence" easily and will siddle right up to it for desensization exercises and mounting. Its a great exercise because you can get the horse used to scary stuff (tossing a rope for example) at riding height without getting thrown off.
Bucky stayed at Heidi's overnight and was very well behaved, but we missed him at home! (Well Sonny and I did, maybe not Lady Byrd). Bucky had a great first-time-away-from-home experience thanks to a great group of horse people. And for me it was a great experience and showed me that Bucky actually has lots of potential as a riding horse.
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