These guys are so ready to be adopted. I gave them a bath the other day. The only thing I haven’t totally done is trim their hooves with the angle grinder. So today I started out with the prerequisites: keep a leg on the hoof jack and not mind the sound of the grinder. Hoof stands are strange concepts for the boys.

I used positive reinforcement. We started rewarding for just lifting hoof and standing relaxed while I held it. Then we rewarded for touching it to the hoof stand. Then we just started building duration on the hoof stand. When I could just stand next to the mustang and bridge him every couple of minutes while he rested with his hoof on the stand I counted the session as a success.

I only had time to work Telikos and Ocho today. Telikos was hard because he was so overly enthusiastic. He wanted to paw. It took a lot of time in the hot sun to get him to calm down and relax.

Both of these horses want to get up into my lap. I don’t know why but they want to be right on top of me. If I wasn’t training something that puts me so close to them I would train them to step away from me. I think it might be because I interact with all three of them at a time and they have to compete with each other to get close to me. We interact when I feed them or when I stop by to visit them during the day. I usually ask them to back up or something so I can give them a reward. Telikos and Ocho always are pushing to the front. Trinity is much more reserved. When it comes to being his turn to learn to stay of the hoofjack, I doubt that he will be in my lap.