Hamilton Day 14 and 15

Hamilton and I have been doing basic work the past two days. There is no video this update because we haven’t done anything out of the ordinary within the past few days. We took trail rides each day, and I asked for a little more from him. He does phenomenal while walking but he gets a little bottled up when he is asked to trot. This will be something we work on. When he is asked to trot on the trails, he has less time to pay attention to his surroundings which makes him a little more scatter brained. In addition to being a little more skater brained, he becomes uncollected.

Both days I would ride him in the morning or afternoon and then do some ground work in the evening. He gets a little stressed out when he thinks he’s doing it right but it isn’t, which is when he becomes stubborn. Although, right after he understands, he is quick to know the right way. Which is something I really like about this boy. One thing we did different yesterday was pulling a log. He did really good with this and since the second day of riding he hasn’t thrown a buck. I thought for sure he’d do it pulling a log if anything, but he didn’t. He did get a little frustrated because it is very difficult for him to think about more than one thing. His mind would be on what is behind him and when I would apply foot pressure to turn he would get a little explosive. It would completely catch him off guard.

As you can see in the picture, I rode Hamilton to my sisters house and tied him. Before, I mentioned that he is not calm when he is tied. So I chose to hobble him, he didn’t move at all with this. He did really good. When I brought him him and tied him at the hitching post, it was a different story. He started pawing and moving around everywhere. So being hobbled until he understands that he needs to be quiet while tied will be something I do with him.

Hamilton has also been going out with the rest of the horses and it is very weird in the way they interact. I have never seen the other horses act so much like a herd then they have with him there. They don’t accept him in, but he also doesn’t really care. It is very strange, there hasn’t been any actual kicking or any fighting of any sort. It is very strange to me as how they interact. When he is “shooed” away, he trots away proudly. He arches his neck, and prances away. Frankly, he could care less if he has other horse friends or not. This tells me quite a bit about his personality. I could sit and watch them interact all day. The horse fascinated girl in me likes to figure out why they interact the way they do. You’ll probably hear more about it later!

Thank you for all of the love and support of #HOPTeamHamilton!

P.S. Look how cute he is when he crosses his back legs when he relaxes ;)

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