Obstacle Course Training With My Two Playful Foals!

hey horse lovers welcome back to free spirit equestrian so today is going to be a super fun day I set up an obstacle course for Esmeralda and Ariel so right now I have Ariel here she's going to go first and we're going to test their skills and see how much fun we can have Ariel you ready for the obstacle course it's going to be so fun I figured this is something I can do with the fs to keep them mentally stimulated while also training and working with them and teaching them new skills are you excited you just got sand on your nose Ariel has been doing so well I don't know if you saw the video where she jumped the cross rail but it was the cutest thing I've ever seen and I can't believe I got it on camera she is definitely becoming a little bit more expressive and exuberant so yeah I know you're like what are we doing it's actually nice enough that we could set this up outside so first let me go around and show you the obstacles Kyle's going to brush her a little bit I actually groomed her a little bit beforehand it has been disgustingly muddy here once again so that has been really fun but I used some dry shampoo I'm going to do a little bit of grooming again just to kind of get that hard clay off her but yeah super fun and I don't know if they'll do every one of them but we'll see so we have the flower box just a little thing to step over and then we have the poles just to walk over the ground poles both of these exercises are good for the Phillies to understand where they're placing their feet and that they have to step over something we have the backup shoot so I'm going to walk them to the end of it and then back them through we have our Bridge so I have a real bridge but I wanted to start with just this piece of plywood and it's strong enough it like won't break or anything I don't know if they'll walk over it but we'll see and then we have our cones we're just going to weave in and out of those so as you might have noticed I took arel out separate away from Belle and Esmeralda because she is a weanling and it's important to build a little bit of Independence I'm going to try to take aie out by herself and see how that goes but yeah all right let's get started yeah can you believe I already spent like 30 minutes getting the dirt off her she's furry she's so furry that's the problem she has like the softest hair so it like clings to her oh yes you're so dirty you like being dirty all right Ariel let's do a bit more grooming on you and then we'll start this brush is a little harder because of all the dirt you have on you so fluffy get this hand off here sorry I'm sorry I know yeah you are yes you are you love that all right I think that's as good as we're going to get cuz we know she's just going to lay down and roll later but we got you okay let's start our full obstacle course with Miss Ariel okay so we're going to start with the cones Ariel is walking really slow but she's being a good girl and she's listening so that's great so this is good for just weaving in and out and making sure that they understand basic haltering and leading and you know following me where I'm going and then I'm going to ask her a halt right here and she stopped perfectly square that was really [Music] good now we're heading over to the touch station I added this in it's just basically stacks of cones and I'm going to walk Ariel over and ask her to touch it and she's going to put her muzzle where I asked her to touch so she did a really good job so I'm using a lot of positive reinforcement and praising her and just to give a little context Ariel is 7 month months old and I got her a couple months ago and she was completely unhandled which means she was never touched she's never had a halter on groomed legs picked up anything like that so honestly she's come so far in that short period of time now we're going to walk over the pole so she stepped right over them this is great for proprioception and getting the horse to think about how to move their legs independently it's pretty windy outside so that's why I have to do voiceover for a lot of the video but it's still fun for you to see so now we're going to go to the flower box so this could be a little intimidating because you know it has flowers on it it looks a little weird it's a bigger step but Ariel did a great job honestly she's such a willing fool it's unbelievable how much trust she's putting in me for being you know here just for such a short period of time in the long run and for being unhandled now we're going to go up into the shoot and then I'm going to back her up and explain how I'm backing her up so I'm not just going to pull on her halter so we're going to Halt right here okay so now I'm going to back her up now what I'm doing is putting very slight pressure on her shoulder and a very very very light pressure on her nose to get her to understand to back up when she feels a little bit of pressure on her face but I'm putting it on her shoulder right now because she's so little and their necks are fragile that's so smart good job good job a lot of people say oh Ariel looks so depressed in the video she looks sad but the thing is Ariel is an introvert she's opposite of Esmeralda and this is just her personality but her ears are up she's listening she's aware she's not shut down anymore he's so good she's just very chill and smart now I'm taking Ariel over to the quote unquote Bridge so like I said it's just some plywood and this can be different for some horses because it's a totally different texture but Ariel put her foot right on it immediately and then she put both feet on she was a little bit hesitant to walk completely over it right away but I just wanted to give her time walk over to her show her that it's okay and then she walked right over it again just such a bright little [Music] Philly also for those of you who aren't aware so Ariel is a bay rone in color and her breed is a bravent quarter horse cross so she's a draft crossmar I think she's going to be really special she already is all right did we torture you enough now I'm not going to overdo it with her because again she's 7 months old she's a baby so we're going to put her back in the paddock and go get as Moralo you want to keep it short and sweet with fs and like I said I had done some grooming with her beforehand so I think she's good now are you good did you do good kiss nice baby I have you're so good what a good [Music] thing all right now we got eie out and as you can see she's away from Belle Belle doesn't care at all she's right over there and so far E's being good are you being good as long as she's getting attention I'm spraying this dry shampoo on her to try to get some of the dirt off the flipping mud you going to sponge clean you you going to Spong you Ariel's chilling right here too I want her to hang out with eie just for a little bit and then we're going to put her back while Ariel does while eie does the obstacle C good [Music] girl hi be nice to her you be a nice girl you be a nice girl oh goodness gracious for two seconds someone else did pets don't your Pur [Music] you are a mess absolute disaster both of you [Music] you're so cute you're both so sweet you're such a good girl you're such good girls oh you're such a good [Music] baby I just adore spending time with my horses and my FS just grooming them and hanging out and bonding with them and look at Ariel like look at how much more expressive she is and totally on her own terms too they both have pretty good beards yeah A's is way bigger but they pretty good where's your beard right what you doing this [Music] m all right horse lovers that's as good as we're going to get okay this is Mucky Michigan winter and yeah I mean I've like halfway given up so all right let's do the obstacle course you good girl you did good both of you [Music] baby okay so now we have Miss Esmeralda so eie is 5 months old she is a Belgian Clyde stale saddle bread cross so she is absolutely huge for her age now I honestly think AR iel is probably going to do better at the obstacle course than eie eie has a little bit more of a stubborn streak which I think is a good thing there's nothing wrong with it but I think she's going to have a little more of like reluctance to go over things all right okay I know let's do it let's do it let's do it okay let's start with the Combs come on good girl good girl good job good girl good [Music] girl good job good girl I know that Esmeralda is going to be more stubborn about going over the flower boxes that's just the way she is but this is really great for confidence building and just teaching the horses new skills and I'm just being very patient about it I mean this is going to come in handy when eventually we do go on trail rides and all different types of things so she went around to the other side of it I'm just petting her letting her know it's okay I walked over it a few times to show her and then she kind of jumped she is so cute good job good girl good [Music] girl girl eie did a great job going over the pole so now we're going to walk over to the the shoot and then we're going to Halt and back up so let's see how she does with [Music] this she did pretty well with that again she's a little bit younger than Ariel and just has a totally different personality and approach to things but she's a good girl good girl very smart very smart so for her this is her first time kind of coming away from Belle and she's not like calling out to Belle Belle isn't calling out to her so that's why it's a little bit more stressful but again this is better than just doing for me like the cold turkey wing and right after this we're going to put her right back out with Belle so I think this is a really good exercise plus you never know what could happen like I could have to separate her from Belle for like a medical reason or an emergency so you just don't know use good girl this is hard but hon L she's doing really well all things considered okay I doubt she'll do the plywood but we're going to try not going to push it let's see if Esmeralda will do the little Bridge here and walk over the plywood so first I'm just letting her smell it that's a really good sign she's thinking about it she can tell that it's different footing and she put a hoof on it so she heard the noise and she can feel that it's a different again type of footing and she's being really good so again I knew this would be more challenging for her and now she's pawing on it and PL but also a very good sign and I think as she continues to build confidence and understanding that she'll be even better okay that's all we're going to ask her to do she put her feet on it that was really good again this is like a big deal for her because of course I've been working with her but now she's totally separate from Belle and the other horses and just a very short session so we're going to put her right back out cuz that was a lot that was a lot of mental work for her good job eie I know you did good you did good let's go let's go back you did so [Music] good good girl girl nice job eie go get your mama she like Mom I just had to do so much I can't believe [Music] it all right guys fresh in barn chore balm check it out this is our latest product I am so excited right now I'm wearing this chapstick with my Galloping and glitter lip gloss on top I am so excited about this the lip balm is vanilla flavored and I love it because if I just want to put chapstick on which I need when I'm working out here especially during the cold winter it's just perfect I just grab it and go I honestly wear this every day and I put it on before bed too isn't this cute so you can check that out Link in the description at the spirited horse Boutique well horse lovers I really hope you enjoyed our full obstacle course video it was definitely really good for them very enriching and it's just a great part of their training so make sure you like comment share subscribe to the channel turn on your notification so you don't miss anything free spirit equestrian and I'll see you next time bye you look so shiny look how pretty you are got to hang out with my piggy he's hanging out with my Piggy you good girl little piggy butt you're such a good girl [Music] Penelope [Music]

Channel: Free Spirit Equestrian

Views: 70,089

Keywords: Foal training, Obstacle course, Horse training, Confidence booster, Baby horses, Equestrian

Id: 9ABWOrn4UZk

Length: 18min 2sec (1082 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 09 2023