Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Piper Goes to School

I never thought I would send Piper to someone for training.  Actually, I never thought I would find someone that I would TRUST enough to send her to.  But yesterday, that is exactly what I did.  I felt like I was leaving my first born at the bus stop on the first day of kindergarten. 
The perfect situation presented itself last week.  We found a trainer through someone we have known for several years and it turns out he lives only 4 miles from us.  We went and met him, talked about his training philosophy and style and checked out his facilities.  Before we went to talk to him, the thought of leaving Piper somewhere for training made me very anxious.  But after meeting him, I felt much better.  I gave him her background and explained the training we had already done with her.  Oh, and his name is Colt --- perfect name for a horse trainer, right? 

Yesterday morning when I brought her to him, he immediately set out to evaluate where she is at.  I sat outside the round pen and watched.  By the end of the session, he had me in there with him trying out some of the things he was working on with her.  AND THEN -- he saddled her up and was loping her around in a halter.  He told me that normally he does not ride a horse her age the first day because there are things he needs to work on with the horse before he can get to that point.  But he said that we had done a really good job getting her this far and she is super gentle and not afraid of anything and she was ready for it.  Yay Piper!
That is the big news around here.  We are going to have him put 30 days on her to fill in some of the holes in my training (Piper is the first horse I've ever tried to train, so I'm not ashamed to say I didn't do everything perfectly) and then we should be able to safely hit the trail.  I'm SOOOOO excited. 

I'll take some pics at tomorrow's training session and get them posted (wouldn't you know, my camera battery was dead when I got there on Monday morning). 

My little Piper is growing up...

16 comments:

Judy said...

It is like Pipers is away at boarding school. How nice she is not far away so you can follow the training.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

How perfect, I'm tearing up reading this! Guess I'm still a cowgirl at heart.

the7msn said...

Sometimes the planets just align. How stinkin' lucky to find a good trainer so close to home, and what an excellent job you did teaching her the basics. You'll be the one loping her around in a halter next time.

Unknown said...

Thats so great you found a good trainer.

Sandra said...

You obviously did a good job at training her. I hope she is back home soon so you won't miss her!

Christina said...

I bet you did a better job than you think you did. Piper responded to your kindness and love, sometimes that's the most important thing of all. GO PIPER!

Annette Tait said...

Good luck to Piper! School sounds like fun! and it's good that it's so close too.
Love the pic of Cactus Rose sharing 'her' kitty litter :)

Gail said...

It is so great to find someone you trust and so close too.

Sounds like you've done a pretty good job.

Kathy said...

That is so awesome and so exciting!

Rural Rambler said...

Very cool Bridget, very cool. Piper is going to be, already is, a very good girl :) You done good!

Julie Harward said...

It is hard to find someone you can really trust with a loved animal...that is just great. Have fun with all of it! Come say hi sometime :D

Paint Girl said...

That is so great!! Soon you will be hitting the trails on your girl!! Can't wait to see the pictures!

jane augenstein said...

So lucky to find a good trainer so close to you. I would only send Gilly to one person to be trained and she is only 8 miles from me. I have heard so many horror stories of bad trainers, makes me shutter to think of it.
Piper will be home sooner than you think, I would be missing her terribly too. At least you can go over and see her whenever you want.
Can't wait to hear her story when she comes home from school!!!

Anonymous said...

This is SO exciting!

Weekend Cowgirl said...

Piper is beautiful! I am sure she will learn wonderful things and you will have a fun riding horse soon...
PS: The name Colt is perfect!

Shelly's Stuff said...

Sounds like you did a great job with laying the groundwork. I'm looking forward to future posts about Piper's progress. I found all of this horsey stuff so interesting, especially now that my neighbor has a new colt on the ground!!!