Sometimes thing on the list are there for a good long while but you just keep pushing them down, its something you would like but not something that “NEEDS” to be done.. I have a tied Brandy to fence posts, gates, chicken chain link pens, tree’s, the van, the motorhome, and once I wrapped her lead around a big end of a rock..

As you can see from the above, she is not a hard to tie horse typically, she tends to stay where you put her, in fact she has to date never broken her tie down.

But despite being very well tie trained, she had two issues that really needed work, the first was no being able to see me while being tied.. the first time I learned about this was maybe a week or two after I got her, I had tied her to a post in the little red shed and I walked away to get something I had forgot at the house, well, she called, she pawed, she fussed the whole time I was gone till I was back and then she settled.

So then came the training of I can walk away, and you can chill, we got this going ok on the grooming routine, then for the first time I tied her in the barn and left her.. o my goodness, thankfully she was tied in the big stall and could not hurt herself or the barn, because she was a nuthead..

That was when I figured out that she was not loose or tied stall trained and so we added that to the menu, that came along really well and now, if I don’t want her to have access to the pastures, I can put her in the big box stall or I can tie her in the barn or the alley of the barn and do what I want to do, depending on length of time..

She will willing go in and understands that she is going to hang out, eat some hay and just chill in her stall.. this is wonderful, there are times she needs to do this, mainly because she is just such a nosey and bossy girl in the pasture that its very hard to work with the other critters without her trying to “help” me..

now she has a thing about tree’s or maybe it would be more fair to say she has a thing about branches snapping, I am cutting her NO Slack here! she is in charge of her own reactions, and the fact that being inclose on a bush trail can get her “up” and reactive, it totally her issue, not mine, I love trails and bush riding..

She is very road worthy, but she is still learning on bush riding.. its coming, and I want her to be able to be tied out in the bush, so I took to tie her out in the trees and just leaving her to chill, at first it was only a few min and I would come back and then we built on it.. it took two months but she can now safely be tied out for upwards of a couple hours, with a hay bag or not.

This is a important skill for a horse to have, sometimes she is in saddle and has both bridle or not, but always tied with her halter. Sometimes I tie her high, sometimes really short, other times a bit longer.. she needs to understand that its not always the same.

The cross ties are in a perfect spot in the sense that they are watchable from my living room window, which I love..

The cross ties are in large part to continue her training for the ferrier, I have spent more hours on foot work and training then I care to admit, I had a look in my book and its a little ah at how much time has been spent on this, considering that when she is in harness, she will let you pick up and move her legs as I please and she can and does trick training involving her feet but straight pick up and hold and foot work.. o man..even when I get her doing it darn near perfectly for me, she still is a brat for my ferrier.

So the last two times, I have had him come into the pasture where I have used two tree’s for cross ties and it has helped but this will be much better, I will be able to work her in the same spot every single time, creating a routine in her head and while I will continue to work her in other spots, this will be a huge bonus for when he comes. Plus is so nice and close to the house and the driveway.

This weekend was about getting things done that were on the list but not very high up, it had been a good week in terms of chores and so we were able to relax a bit on the weekend and get a list together of things that should be done but didn’t need to be and so as I walked around this morning it just made me smile! at least a dozen little things got done and its so nice to see them done..

Only took me almost a year to get them, but it was a good learning curve and now that I have them, they will ideally last for years to come..