Today I was late getting home from work and since we had extra volunteers show up to work horses at the IWHBA Learning Center my wife decided to introduce Hercules to a new person that he hadn't met before. Pat's task with Hercules was just to groom him as that is something that I haven't really worked on yet. As you can see once Hercules was able to check out the grooming tools he was more than happy to show Pat where he would like to be brushed.

We also gave Hercules a toy to play with to encourage his playfulness. He was quick to check it out and has been seen picking it up and throwing it around as well as "kicking it."

I have spent the last week just reinforcing all of the lessons that Hercules has learned since his arrival. He has become a very affectionate horse who thrives on attention and also has a mischevious/prankster side.

Today I decided it was time for something new and brought out the bareback pad. At first I was concerned whether it would fit around him but it did. When he first moved off after being girthed he let out a couple of hops but realized it was to much effort and came back to see what else I had.

Today was a great day. This horse never ceases to amaze me. I was able to walk in and immediately start touching him all over without taking my pole in.

I decided to skip the "rope" today and just work on Hercules with the halter. Within about a half hour I was actually able to put the halter on him and he was learning to give to pressure.

I also figured it was a good time to start working on picking up his feet. I have noticed that his angles seem a little too steep and that he seems uncomfortable on his front hooves so I want to be able to have my farrier be able to correct the angles as he needs to.

Herc is gaining confidence in letting me touch him so I decided to see how he would react to a halter. We made it just a game at first. Just trying to see how many places he could "wear" the halter before we put it on.

Then I used a rope to put a "quick halter" on the big guy. He was not to thrilled with his options being taken away and struggled with the rope so we never did get the halter all the way on. However I wanted to end the evening on a good note so took the rope off and went back to just petting on him and he settled down very quickly.

It is getting unseasonably hot here so have to keep our sessions short, for both of our sakes.

Thought you would like to see some "beauty shots" of this gorgeous boy.

Today it was time to go to work. I typically start with the bamboo pole touching the horse everywhere to initiate first contact between us. Hercules seemed very interested in this and was checking everything out along the way. I was very pleased with our progress today and even got our first touches in.

I was full of anticipation as I traveled to Reno, NV with my wife, the other Tooele county trainer, and her significant other on June 9th. I didn't sleep at all on Friday evening and so I was up early on Saturday morning to travel to the Palomino Valley Holding Facility to meet my new project horse. As I saw the horses coming down the alley way all I could say was "Holy cow, he is BIG!" Hercules is a 4 year old bay gelding from the Warm Springs, NV HMA. My wife thinks he looks like he has the state of Texas on his forehead but I am not sure I see that. What do you think?

Hercules was very well behaved in the chute and loaded into the trailer with his traveling companion very easily.

The ride home was uneventful and both boys unloaded very nicely. We had to reload Jana's horse and deliver him over to her barn.

Since it was about an 8 hour journey home I decided to let Hercules settle in for the evening before doing any work with him. but wanted to get in with him for a few pictures for some perspective. He stayed very quiet and seemed to be interested in me.