Hi Janelle!
Yes, the link works (even for me here in Germany this time).
. ;-)
Really well done and Buster is so beautiful! Really a handsome guy. I am really looking forward to the next videos.
. ;-)
Just one thing: You should NEVER just let the leadline or longline hand down. Keep holding the line while picking up the hooves, even when you want to tap at them. It is just a thing of safety.
.
Best wishes
Jasmin

Hi Janelle,
Great job. I posted on your site.
Ronda

Janelle
Buster looks like he will tolerate anything you do to him. If this is the first time you have picked up his feet, his reaction was OK I will do that. He did not squirm around or become nervous. He was more interested in what your back felt like!.
Nice job.

Cheers

Hi Janelle,
Congratulations!
You do a great job with Buster, who feels so loved by you, he'll soon have his hindfeet picked out, no doubt. What a sweet, beautiful young horse you have!
It might help to click in the trainingring on the side you're working on, this way you can tuck lightly, should he fool around on your back. It's hard to judge, what it felt like to you, it might be a sign of acceptance, curiosity or resistance, this only you can feel, working with him. You had your right hand at your lower back at one point, to keep him from nibbling, here you could have tucked the line lightly.
This time I could see your video (no music!) and hear the sound of summer! A real treat, us being in mid winter....
Keep posting your videos, I'm looking forward to see the two of you progress!
Miriam

Hi, Thanks all for your comments!

Jasmine, you are right that it is for safety that you should always have hold of your line! I guess with this boy he is just so calm and honestly NEVER goes crazy that i felt it safe to leave the line. BUT....for future videos i will make sure i do hold my line in case there are less experienced people who watch and think it is ok to let your line go...thanks for reminding me :-)

Dennis, this horse just amazes me how he handles new things! He sometimes snorts when he is unsure but he will always give things a go. Such a pleasure to be training one like this!

Miriam, The nibbling on my back is just a playful thing! He is a very smoochy, curious, funny little guy! The time i had my hand at my back i was tickling his lip with my fingers! I need to work him using the other ring a bit more as he seems to favour the near side ring on the Dually but that is the plan...to have both sides workable :-) The insects in the background are loud hey! We don't notice it but i did when i watched the video!

Thanks again for your helpful feedback :-)

Janelle

Thanks a lot for the video. My critic: you should immediatly sign him when he has done the right thing ("positive instant consequence"). You do it much more often at the end of the film. At the beginning sometimes you back him up, the horse could understand that as "negative instant consequence". (Those videos are incredibly useful.)

pretty good video!

Rudi, Yep i see your point! Next time i will bring him forward first. I was trying to reposition his feet but i can see now how he may have seen that as a neg reinforcement. So much to learn! Thanks :-)

Thanks Horse addict :-) We have so much to learn still but at least we are getting there!

Hi Nelliebell - I think it is great that you are posting your videos and Buster certainly looks comfortable with you and very relaxed. It is quite amazing to see him so calm and good given his background so well done. Given he comes from the Victorian National Parks I guess he has been more exposed to people than the brumbies and whalers that come down from the Northern Territory which I have had a litttle of experience with. It is lucky you have such a quiet calm horse as it means that you can get away with things that just shouldn't be done re safety when training a horse. I hate to be the picky one but there are numerous things done in your video that set off alarm bells to me so I do hope no one else out there tries to follow your methods and appreciate that you are a novice. This would be very apparent to most experienced horse people but there could be some inexperienced ones that may try to follow what you are doing with a far less relaxed horse than Buster. The long lunge lead on the ground worries me as you seem to be forever almost entangled in it - can you use a somewhat shorter lead rope that is not as prone to tangle as the lunge rope? Your foot wear and head wear need to be addressed - see Ronda's comments on Dashboard - helmet, solid riding boots or work boots are essential for your safety. Your "round yard" a single electric strand on iron posts without even protective caps is just NOT adequate for Buster's safety. I know you are just starting out and as many of us horse owners have limited finances but please consider erecting an apporpriate round yard if you own the land or if this is not possible see if you can hire a round yard or safe menage close by for your training sessions. Buster looks so very relaxed and patient that you may get away with what you are doing but it certainly wouldn't work for most young horses. When I first purchased my quarter horse, Uggs, he seemed pretty quiet and although only three years old he had been recommended to me as bomb proof and quiet enough for an older person. A few months after I had him I hoped to take some chains out to some back gates on the property. I tied the chains in a chaff bag so that they would not rattle too much then secured them to the pommel of my stock saddle. Fortunately I decided that I should lunge Uggs before I got on him with the chains. We were already in the small paddock with a relatively high stock fence where I usually worked with him and lunged him. As soon as I sent him out he heard the chains rattle a bit and totally spooked. He through his body away from me and took off - he jumped out of the small paddock and bolted away. I wathed in shock and horror as he jumped over the neighbours fence and then two more fences in the neighbours property before he disappeared from sight. I was so scared that he would kill himself in his panic but fortunately he just jumped (5 fences in all)and ran himself out. I found him about 5 kilometres away standing perfectly still under a tree. It was such a shock and such a lesson. I had no idea he would react like this as he was very bonded to me and pretty relaxed and didnt seem to be a spooky horse. Sadly I was so flat out on the property I couldn't spend time with him and so hadn't tested him for spookiness. He was only just broken prior to coming to me and was only with the breaker a couple of weeks so I really had no right buying him given I couldn't spend the time with him that he needed. Years later here in Melbourne he spooked in a neighbours paddock and must have jumped out of the paddock then back in ripping his gut open on an iron post at some point. It took me twelve months to nurse him better. He is now kept here in a post and rail fenced area but he is no longer the horse he was because of his injury. I am only relaying this story due to my immense concern for you and Buster when I watched your latest video. I could have just watched it and told you "great work" as much of it was but this time I chose to watch it critically. Please at least put plastic tops on your iron posts and add at least two more tapes to your round yard even if they are not electric. Buster seems so relaxed and good and hopefully will always be so but we need to be mindful in our training so as not to endanger our horses or ourselves. This is a lesson from experience. I am the first to admit that I have done many stupid inexperienced things with horses in the past and paid the price for doing so. Unfortunately my beautiful animals have also sometimes suffered from my ignorance and inexperience too.

Janelle
I have a question about repositioning his feet. Are you doing this so know where his feet are or is it to square him up so he is standing evenly on all four feet?
When you would with the boy again on picking up his feet, hold his foot a little longer and see if you can move away from him with his foot in your hand as if you where going to show him or pick his feet. One excise you might also do with Buster is to stand in front and reach down and pickup his foot and holding it back up so you are stretching his leg. He may try to pull back and start to sit down but that is alright he is just helping you stretch. This is a great excise to do after you puttee saddle on a horse in that it make sure the cinch is not pinching the horse.

Cheers

Hi Janelle again! Just re-watched your video and realised that you do have two electric tapes and maybe the posts are not iron picked posts - hard to tell. Nevertheless I do not believe it is adequate if Buster tended to spook and take off as Uggs did. Doing well with his hooves but like Dennis above do make sure it is you that puts them down and not Buster. Very short lifts are fine at this stage but put them down yourself and slowly lengthen the time you hold them. Then you can introduce the sideways movements etc which Dennis suggests. I used a lunge lead around the back of Tricka's hooves and gently pulled this forewards to help Tricka lift her hooves. It also gets them used to ropes around their legs. Gently lift the backones forward this way too but only try this once Buster is used to the rope around his legs.

Hi MaggieF,
Thanks for your comments. So lets just clarrify a few things here. I am not a novice, i have 20 years experience, not as much as some but definately not a novice!. This IS however my first time starting a horse. My footwear IS adaquate. They are endurance boots made by Ariat. I choose to wear a hat to protect against uv rays :-) Plenty of people post video's without wearing a helmet. When backing him etc i will be wearing a safety vest and an approved safety standard helmet :-) My lunge line could have been thrown out to the side but i did not feel like i was becoming tangled in it. This horse is so relaxed that it was not an issue. I have enough brains to assess that situation. Lets not forget that i am NOT trying to instruct anyone here! I am not an instructor with certain standards to uphold, i just posted this to show my PROGRESS! I feel my roundpen is quite adequate and safe also. I need to be able to move it around as i don't have a huge amount of land so a permenant timber one is not an option for me. As for caps for the posts they are on the way :-) at the moment i don't think he would try to impale himself on one as there is plenty of space in between for him to barge on thru if he wished - don't think he would! I have enough sense not to try to train crazy remedial horse who was likely to rear up over it in this sort of pen :-) I have no problem with people giving me advice on how i can improve my horsemanship but please if you choose to comment on my videos in the future do it with a little more diplomacy and ask for the facts before you attack someone's work. I hope i have not offended you as this is most certainly not my intention but i really did feel under attack from your post and felt the need to set things straight.
Regards
Janelle

Dennis, yes i am repositioning his feet so he is standing square. I tried a few different foot positions to see which he felt most comfortable with. This is why it seems as though sometimes i am struggling....i am just seeing what works for HIM :-) He was having trouble with balance so we went right back to basics for this video. We will try for a bit longer next time and hopefully will pick them out. I will also do your exercise next time as i said this time was starting at the beginning.
Janelle

Janelle,
I just watched again and I wish I could do half as well as you are doing, well done!!!!
Keep up the good work, my dear!!!
Ronda
Thank you for sharing, I know that takes courage.

Janelle
I second what Ronda said. Thanks for sharing your adventures in training! Sometime we want to share what we know or observe and it may come out like we don't think the person knows very much and needs to be corrected. I know that sometimes all you want is acknowledgment that what you are doing is great and that you are proud of the progress you and your horse are making.

I hope you continue to show us your progress with Buster. I have enjoyed viewing everyones video and am amazed at some of the horses that people are blessed with.

Cheers

Thanks Ronda, you are a real encouragement :-)

Dennis, You are right in what you say that sometimes things come out the wrong way, maybe this was the case above, i don't know but i'll keep moving forward in spite of it and take the advice i feel is constructive to my journey.
Janelle

My apologies for offending you, Janelle. I certainly didn't mean too I was just concerned as I was thinking of safety after just reading Ronda's post. My apologies re your foot wear - it did appear as if you were wearing runners. I appreciate that you have 20 years of experience it just wasn't very obvious. I do aplaud you for your progress with Buster and Buster appears so relaxed and content with you amd that is great. I will refrain from commenting at all negatively in future as I too enjoy everyones videos. I guess we all like to be told what a great job we are doing and don't appreciate any criticism even if it is meant to be helpful.

Hi Janelle I am sad about your reaction to my comments. No doubt I need some lessons on diplomacy as I certainly didn't mean to attack you. Uggs seemed pretty relaxed too and I certainly didn't expect him to spook with the chains - point of story. I tend to use the term novice broadly as I still regard myself as a novice after 50+ years of experience with horses.

Thank you maggie for seeing how your comments came across and for clearing that up. I guess you just have to give me the benefit of the doubt to know my horse! I know that quiet, calm horses can spook and injure themselves. I have seen and been in dangerous situation with horses and i think it is like Dennis said in a different stream that it is usually due to human inattention that we get hurt. There are always warning signs before an explosion and in my video it may look like i am blazae' about it all but i was carefully attentive to his body language the whole time...even if it didn't look like it. My adrenaline was zero...so was his :-) I do value advice and am very open to it. So please don't think that all i want is a pat on the back...not at all. As i have said before i am still learning and will be till the day i die i am sure!
Thanks again and i do hope we have cleared the air so to speak!
Janelle

Thanks Janelle - I will try to be more careful and thoughtful in future.

Dear Janelle
You have heard a lot of critics about a little sequence of a video. But I am absolutely convinced that we all take profit of the discussion. Probably more critics, more we learn. There is a certain level to pass to put a video on Utube concerning the quality. Now I decided to post one with some problems of quality, anyway (I had no cameraman).
There is a typical training session. The orientation part is a bit longer, not only in the middle of the roundpen, because the horse has come out of the box and I don't want to counter him immediatly. In the center of the pen are two soft bars helping the horse to pass at the right place and as stimulation.
Rudi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBkkt46CCto&feature=youtu.be

Hi Rudi,

Your video quality is fine :-) Could be a little closer as the comments on youtube say but only because we want to SEE what a fine job you did! I hope i can long line my boy that well and the poles in the middle have given me some inspiration :-) Well done. Looks line a nice horse too :-)

Janelle

Neat work, Rudi. You and your beautiful horse look so very relaxed. Thanks for posting this. Little bit closer to the camera would be good. Well done!