Day Twenty Nine: Kristen brings Happy in the barn and ties him in a stall and comes up to the house to get me, by the time we get back to the barn Happy has untied himself and has bags of shavings thrown around the stall. With Stallions on both sides of Happy in the stall he manages to scalp himself and has blood running down his face. The cut wasn’t bad but did bother him so I decide to just round pen him today and let head heal.

Day Twenty Eight: Today we are going to make the change from me controlling him on the lunge line too Kristen controlling him on his back. I round penned Happy until he got his play out. Kristen mount and I send him out on the lunge line like the day before. When Kristen starts to ask Happy to move out buy clucking Happy starts to get nervous and starts to look back at her and tuck his ass a little I pull his attention to me and ask him to face up and come to me. He has already started to relax by the time he gets to me in the middle of the pen. I pet him and step back and let Kristen ask Happy to move out again. He stays relax this time moving from a trot to a lope while Kristen is asking him. He gets a little scared when Kristen first ask him to move out, not sure if he should listen to me or Kristen but I prefer to do it this way with hot horse at first. I push him on the ground and then let everything be nice when riding him until he will except each step. I have found that time spent here is time gained later so even though I have fallen behind in his training, I feel he will jump ahead when he relaxes and is ready to learn. If a horse is worried or scared he doesn’t learn well so my goal is push Happy to a nervous state and then bring him back enough times he looks to me for guidance. Happy is ready to ride without the lunge line.

Day Twenty Seven: I took Happy to the round pen and bit him up, running the reins underneath his front legs and over his back. I push him up to the lop and try to keep him lopping for a good five minutes one way before changing direction and then let him trot a few minutes and then back to the lope. We are going to push in up to the lope today with a rider so I want him to get used to me pushing him up to a lope and stay relaxed.
I have a meeting at Chico State about developing a Chico State Reining Drill Team Club so I tie Happy in a stall and go to my meeting. When I return I take Happy back out to the round pen and lunge him until he changes direction relaxed. Kristen mounts Happy while I still have him on the lunge line. I send him out and he is relaxed, carrying her at a trot. I ask Kristen if she is ready for me to push him up to the lope and she got nervous and started to tense her body and as she did this Happy started to go faster and look back at her getting nervous. She relaxed her body and Happy came back to trotting relaxed again. Kristen started to laugh when Happy came back to relaxed and asked me to step in front of him and change direction, She wanted to feel him sweep a crossed himself. I turn him a few times as she laugh and we both know he is ready to push to the lope. I push him up to a lope and Kristen stays a passenger, letting Happy get used to carrying her weight without the added pressure of trying to guide. Happy pushes up to a lope and stays relaxed both directions. He was really good today, only getting nervous when Kristen got nervous and came back when she did. He is really sensitive and smart:0)

Day Twenty Six: I saddle and drive him today. He was really good remembering the long line lessons from before. Kristen is my passenger today and I lunge him with her just sitting there. He does the same things when mounting, rising his head high and dancing around some. We have to mount and dismount a few times before he settles. I send him off at a walk and then up to a trot, he is focused on me and carries her around at a trot nicely. He is relaxed with a good look in his eye. Kristen then started to cluck to him when moving him off and he got a little scared with the transfer from listening to me to listening to her on him back so we went back to me sending him around until he relaxed again and tried it again. We stay at the trot today and end on a good note. When Kristen steps down he pinned his ears and backed up so we step up and down again until he was better.

Day Twenty Five: Today Happy was focused on the mares and wouldn’t pay attention. I put him in the round pen and ran him. He was screaming to the mares the hole time. I bit him around today and he through a little tantrum about it so I left him there to work it out on his own. He was still screaming and fighting the bit after 20 minutes so I left him for awhile longer. It’s important not to make there neck sore so I stay and watch him to find a good place too quit. He was better the other direction and was not trying to run around the pen still and started looking to me now. I decide to step up on him again. This time he was really funny. He raised his head as high as it would go when I stepped up. He didn’t want me over his head and was irritated and started backing with me standing in the stirrup. When I stepped down he pinned his ears and I had to push him back a bit until the look in his eye was more respectful and I tried it again. I stepped up and down on both sides like before and he finally was cool with it again.

Day Twenty Four: I’m running behind today so I let Kristen work Happy. She saddle him and lunged him in the indoor for about 20minutes, he was really good and so she decided to put a back chinch on him for the first time. He grabbed his ass and crow hoped a few times when she changed directions, and he then settled down to work. I left her alone to work with him on her own today and the look on her face was priceless when she led him back to the barn. She was just as excited about this horses future as I am.

He is much more pre-occupied by the mare now and has started to pace the fence if I put him out for any length of time. Stallions are such a pain in the ass. I Question why I want two of them in the first place. Surely I could find some outside Stallion to breed these two mare. I could trade for breeding to Cody. Hey I kinda like this idea. Get my troublesome mares bred and get some outside mares bred to Cody seems like a good idea. And just when I have myself convinced I will stay with the plan and sell Happy, he make a move to the side like a cat and I’m back to wanted to feel this horse underneath me on a cow. Yeeha

He is everything I’ve been wanting except not much of a looker but he is only two, he could grow into himself still. A late bloomer as they say. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed he will blossom. I have always believed that feminine looking stallions are the prettiest when they mature. I like a horse with a nice neck and with a lot of stallions they get too thick with age. The feminine stallions just get that masculine look they needed so I’m over looking his looks for now and I’m back to wanting to keep him;0) Pretty is as pretty does!

Day Twenty Three: I notice right away when taking him out of his stall to clean it, Happy is more comfortable around me. He does not flinch every time I move. I even brush him and he seemed to kinda enjoy it. After brushing him for a bit, he starts to get pushy, stepping into my space and bumping me with him nose, as to bit, like before but this time with a playful look in his eye. I kinda felt bad about backing him down but he can’t get his rolls cross and the line of respect confused. He is funny and definitely full of himself now. When I take him out of the barn he talks to the mares and I have to reprimand him by backing him a few times before he figures out why I am getting after him and he stops talking to the mare in the pasture. I round penned him and it took about 30 minute before he would follow me around the pen. He did lose his concentration leaving me to talk to the mares and I had to run him around the pen some more until he would stay with me.

Day Twenty Two: I try to breed Happy to Cody’s half sister Chicken Express and same thing, and she’s not having any part of it. Cody yes, she will show heat to him but Happy not so much. I decide to move the mares around so they can smell the noses of the stallions I intend to breed them too. The two mares are in love with Cody and will find ways out of their pen to see him, witch is starting to really irritate me. I figured they are so attached to Cody because they talk to him. Happy is starting to learn how to sweet talk. He tries to strut but he still looks really feminine. He will still clack his teeth when meeting new horses like a baby. He has a lot to learn and he is losing weight witch is not helping with the fem look. Both mares are out of heat and so I put him back in the barn to continue his training.

Day Twenty One: I have gotten kinda sweet on Happy lately. I think he has amazing potential and so I have decided to keep Happy to show and breed my mares. Two of my mares are related to my stud Expressive N Smart (Cody). One his mother and the other an half sister to Cody. The two mares have been teasing Cody and so I decided to go ahead and bred Happy this year. I have found that when stallion learn, there is a time and a place for everything, just no frisky business when I’m working with him. I have found they make their way through the process easier. When they are timid and will teas the mares all the way in without a kick fight. She will teach him proper boundaries. Pasture bred stallions have been the best to work with and so I thought I would try it myself. Trying to bred by myself has been a challenge to say the least so I was opened to new ideas. When I was a kid, our horses ran free in a herd with a stallion, as an adult I have done mostly AI.
I put Happy in with Cody’s mother I’m Expressing Myself, she is really easy to breed but Happy is too timid to get the job done and she will not show heat to him, Cody yes, Happy no, it’s not happening.
I let them stay together for a few days to let them work it out. She finally goes out of heat but I never saw them get frisky and she is still pinning her ears and running poor Happy off.