Bugs: 2025 Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge

03/02/2026

05/07/2025

Instead of working Bugs under saddle, I decided to give him a break and go to our obstacle course with him. He was a little unsure but went over or through all of them. Here is a picture and some videos of a few of them.

04/29/2025

It has been a minute since my last post. Since, I have put several good rides on Bugs and during two rides, we have had a sketchy moment or two. However, for a horse that is contaminated like Bugs, he has made great strides as is evident in the below pictures. Today, Bugs was great for our farrier, Michael Jordan. A lot of work has gone into helping Bugs get comfortable being vulnerable and trusting other people.

04/03/2025

Bugs is defensive about his hind end. Although he was bothered by the rope, he stayed with me and allowed me to control his head and hindquarters. If I had done this exercise a few weeks ago, Bugs would have bolted and left the scene. Although Bugs wasn’t perfect, you have to recognize improvement.

03/28/2025

Put the first ride on Bugs today. Pretty happy with how it went. He carries some baggage around but we are trying our best to unpack his suitcase.

03/26/2025

Teaching a horse to come pick you up from a fence is a valuable exercise. It keeps the trainer safe and it gives the horse the chance to gain confidence with you being above them prior to you first ride.

03/20/2025

Saddled Bugs today, moved him around with the saddle on and he did great. The next goal is to get him more comfortable with me above him. Very happy with how far this boy has come.

03/19/2025

03/11/2025

I believe when you are working with a fearful horse like Bugs, you still want to establish the pecking order first by getting them to be sensitive to a light push. Then you work on teaching them to handle fear. After the horse realizes you can move them with a minimal effort and no matter how scared they get, they always survive, then you will see signs of trust start to emerge, like this picture shows.

03/01/2025

Regardless of what happened in Bugs’ past, my challenge is to change the way he interprets pressure. I want him to respond and move away from slow oncoming pressure from me and to ignore pressure that comes on fast and out-of-the-blue. Bugs gets an A+ for moving away from slow oncoming pressure. At the start of this video, Bugs was not getting high marks on ignoring sudden unexpected pressure. The end game was his standing still for 4 seconds in the presence of fast, out-of-the-blue pressure from my hand. I ended the session on this positive note. He will sleep on this lesson and then be better tomorrow which will allow us to progress to other lessons. Stay tuned.

02/28/2025

Bugs and I had our first round pen session this afternoon. Getting a horse sensitive to a light push is my first priority. Bugs, after a few pushes, became super sensitive. Bugs honored my shoulder line and stopped when I stopped.

I don’t desensitize horses. I teach them to handle fear. Bugs handled fear like a champ.

The next step was to approach Bugs. It took about 15 to 20 approaches but Bugs finally mustered up enough courage to let me rub on him and ultimately let me halter him. I will deal with the head bobbing at a later date if it continues.

Overall I was pretty happy with our session. It will be better tomorrow.