Hacking Around

Today I introduced AhD to a hackamore. I've had this particular hackamore for too many years to mention. The chain that provided the under the chin pressure is long gone, so I jury rigged it with a nylon puppy collar I had laying around. Worked fine! I introduced it to AhD in the aisle of the barn, first from the ground, and then bareback so that he would get the full feel of all my other cues. He caught on quickly, and we were turning here and there like pros in a short time. Then I put the "funny saddle" on him (according to Harold), and we tooled around the yard and took a short trip down the road.

We didn't go up the trail very far, let me tell you, because the horse flies and deer flies were out for blood in this muggy August weather. We did take the time to go next door to check out the excavator, however, and AhD was ok with it once I dismounted and sniffed it and he followed suit. Then we did some figure 8's in and around it from both directions for good measure. After returning to the yard, we used our pretty stand of birch trees for more practice turning.
These trees worked slick as turning points for us to weave in and out. More great practice for the new hackamore! I forgot to mention before why we are switching to the non-bitted option. A super duper equine dentist floated AhD's back molars, clipped off and filed his canines, filed off his lower front tooth since he is missing the corresponding upper front tooth, and let me know AhD had an impacted wolf tooth. As I am sure most of you know, an impacted wolf tooth can cause the gum to be pinched between the bit and that sharp nasty little tooth up in there. Owey! So until I have the dentist back to extract the troublemaker, I'm going to see if we can go it with a hackamore. By the way, AhD was unbelievably well-behaved for the dentist. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Putting myself in AhD's place, I would have behaved quite badly...but the dentist said that these oral types who like to nuzzle and bite your boot when you ride tend to tolerate him quite well.
I was quite pleased with our first training session. Tomorrow we have plans to hit the trail with a friend. Deer flies, horse flies go away, come again some other day!