Teaching People and Horses

Last Saturday, I was able to show off the fillies to my oldest sister, Emily. Well, I wasn't just gunna let her sit there and watch me work with the foals, and being that Aleythia had left that morning for a camp in Colorado, some help would be nice. So, I gave Emily a lead rope and we caught two of the foals, and I taught her how to teach a horse. It was quite fun. At one point I was commenting that Emily was being really careful around the filly she had. So, I explained to her that the more you act like your horse is going to explode the more he will explode. So, I demonstrated with the filly I had, I slapped my hand on her head and rubbed her head, repeating it till she didn't react to my hand being put abruptly on her head, and ranted and raved about how I was gunna set a firework off by her head and it would be soo much fun, and making a general fool out of myself! Emily was laughing at me.

Later she told me that that was fun. She explained to me that horses aren't quite her thing, but she enjoyed being able too see my knowledge about horses, and how I had grown. She said that I had become a leader... 

All I want to say is that when someone tells you that you have been doing a good job or something along that line, it means a lot. If you have someone who looks up to you and values your opinion, I would encourage you to tell them they are doing a good job, or something else you can compliment them on.

Over the last couple days I have been working with the fillies on moving their hindquarters, backing up,  leading, moving their shoulders, tying, lunging (walk or trot), and desensitizing. I have trouble leading a few of them, but I have discovered the more pressure you use when you want them to take a step, the harder they brace against it, it works much better to have light pressure, and let them find the answer. Today, we gave Frosty a bath. That's Frosty in the picture above. Taken maybe two weeks ago. Well, when we gave her a bath, we started with her feet, and she did.... nothing. We took the water away maybe every eight seconds as a reward, but she didn't react to it at all. When we got to her neck she was a little reactive, but all she did was lift her head a bit higher. For her head, we just put a thumb over the hose, and pointed it towards the sky, so that it would be like rain was falling on her head. She tried to avoid it, but was generally pretty good. (When I say we, I mean Carter and me)

I rode Santana yesterday too. It has been decided that I will ride Santana in the fair instead of Carter. Carter's excuse was that he had not been riding him enough. I told him that I haven't either, and he replied that I knew how to control him. I actually don't blame him for not wanting to ride Santana in the fair. Santana is generally calm, but you run him through those barrels or poles, and he becomes a horror to ride. To me it's kind fun, but to a kid who hasn't ridden anything but a calm pony, it's scary. And what I mean as fun, is it's fun getting him to calm down. Not fun, where I let him do it.

Santana

This is of me riding Santana last year at the fair in barrels. I think our time was about 16.9 seconds. The video below is of us coming in. He was so hyper Terry had to lead him in, and I had to get him into the corner. The first time I was in jumping figure eight, and Terry let him go, and he shot forward, and I was so not ready. When  I feel out of control in the saddle I turn my horse in a circle. Well, the only problem with that was that he crossed the timer line, so we were disqualified. He did that two more times in separate classes, but in the class he didn't cross the time line was barrels, and we won first place. And I just thought I would say that the first day showing him, he did everything perfect.

Look Who Escaped

I rode my bike up the driveway and saw Terry. He was getting ready to go to the vet. I asked if I could come and he said I could, so I went down to the barn to put my bike by the barn. When I got around the bend in the driveway and the pine trees weren't in my way I saw Blacky calmly eating grass on my side of the fence. So, I yelled up the drive, "Terry, is there a reason Blacky's out?" Carter was there too, and he yelled back, "Out, what do you mean 'out?" So he came down the drive and walked up to her took her head in his hands and led her to the gate. We shooed the horses away, and opened the gate and Blacky ran through. They then explained to me that Blacky had been with the fillies. Since there isn't an actually fence, just a long strip of plastic, that didn't have an electrical current running through it because it was turned off. They told me that she was probably able to get under the fence because she's so small. All she has to do is drop her head, and the plastic goes right over her head, up her neck, and across her back, and she's free!

After we got Blacky into the paddock, we herded the fillies into the barn because we didn't want them to escape when we weren't there. I went to close the gate behind them, and Terry was walking into the barn, and he asks me, "Are those big horses in there?" Sure enough all of our other horses had gotten in with the fillies in the barn. Terry and I were like that is not good. We were both thinking that there would soon come an explosion of flying hooves and teeth... Nothing... They all stood in the barn and then calmly walked into the back pen. So then came the task of separating them. We found the little red gate that leads from the paddock into that pen open. We summarized that when it was latched it must not have been in tight enough, so the horses just pushed on it a little and it opened. So, we were able to chase Misstack, Ana, Strudder, and Blacky out, but Coffie had gotten past too. Well, we left her and tried to get Santana separated from the fillies. Well we got him a little bit separate, and we shooed him out the gate, and he charged out. Carter went out to try and catch Coffie, but she escaped into the pasture with Blacky. Then all the other horses charged out of the paddock, and were galloping around the pasture with Coffie. The other three fillies called to Coffie, and all the horses ran to the large gate connecting the pasture and the back pen. Well, all the other horses ran off again except Strudder with Coffie. We were able to get strudder away and Coffie was thinking about going after him, but decided to stay with her buddies. So, I was trying to get the gate open, but I couldn't untie the twine string, so I just took my pocket knife out and cut it. We herded Coffie in and all the horses were were they were supposed to be, and we got in Terry's truck to go to the vet. Then I asked Terry if Stretch was supposed to be in the barn, so we had to go back and let Stretch out. Terry had just fed him. Now we were truly on our way to the vet.

And just so you know, none of the horses needed medical attention. Terry just wanted to get some vaccination stuff from the vet.

Gotta Love Them Horses

Well, Toffy is doing quite well. She is showing no sign of pain, and her wounds are healing nicely. She is also leading quite well. I am able to lead her around our back pen without any trouble at all. Today I will work on getting all the fillies to move their hindquarters, back up, and move their shoulders. And It will take me a while because Aleythia is currently on her way to Colorado for a camp that Youth For Christ goes to every year. She wanted to go when she heard that there would be horseback riding in the mountains.

Santana bucked me off yesterday. I did not get any serious injury, but I did get a bruise on the inside of my leg that hurts whenever I bend my knee. We think he bucked because he had a fly on his stomach. He was bucking even after he got me off. Usually when he bucks he stops after the rider is off.

Carter rode Ana yesterday too. A ten year old boy rode a horse that is really hard to slow down. She was very good. She still wanted to go fast, but she was stopping and standing there whenever he wanted her too. So, maybe the training pulled off. The reason Carter rode Ana, was because he was going to ride Santana, and he didn't like how Santana was acting. Spooking, and arching his neck defensively for no apparent reason. So, I got bucked off and he had a nice ride.

Improvements

This morning, when we started working with the fillies, they were pretty good. We discovered that they can pick up their feet very well, they do know the idea of moving their hindquarters, and backing up is a concept they have not been taught, but still know the idea of it. For an hour, I worked with Toffy, and Aleythia worked with the other three. I worked on being able to walk up to her, because every time I walked right up to her, she would tense up and arch her back. She is a lot better now. I brushed her, picked up feet, moved her hindquarters a bit, and desensitized to the rope a little more. Toffy is the most fearful, but it is getting better. Dash is shy, but that's getting better too. Aleythia can now walk up to her and rub her head without Dash trying to get away. Frosty and Coffie are pretty much at the same level. You can walk up to them and pet them anywhere, and they have been desensitized to the rope, brushed, feet picked up, backing up a little, moving hindquarters, leading quite well, and fiddling with their ears. They have become quite friendly.

Did I mention that they'll eat anything. They'll eat the tall grass by the trees, corn stalks, grain, alfalfa... They are not picky eaters. They like to play ring around the rosie too. One horse stands in the middle, and the other three walk circles around her. Then they switch who's in the middle.

Set Backs... Wow... It's Alright

Yesterday Terry got a halter on Toffy... We walked up to him, and he said that we had missed the rodeo the other day. I asked him how that went and he said, "Awful." The reason for that is that when they tried to get her to eat and slip the halter on, she wouldn't put her nose in it for them to slip it over her nose. I don't know how, but in the process of trying to get the halter on she freaked out, and rammed her butt against the latch that holds the barn door closed. Well, she wrecked that, and also got an inch gash on her butt. They put her in Ana's stall, and she threw herself against the door and bent it so that they couldn't get it open. They got the door unbent, and somehow in this whole process got the halter on. Today, that gash looks okay.

Today, when we eventually caught her, she almost freaked out, but I got her to calm down... then she exploded! She almost ran over Aleythia and Carter (Terry's grandson) and Terry too. While she ran around the inside of the barn, me trying to get her to stop, I came to the realization that I was not going to be able to stop her because I'm not strong enough. So while she was dragging me around I asked Terry if he could grab the rope while she went by. I let go, and he grabbed the rope. He did get her to stop, but got a rope burn in the process. I did not want to let go, because now she knows that she can escape.

Well, I got her into the back pen we have, and she escaped from me again. She also wouldn't let me come up and grab her rope, so I chased her around. What was weird was that every time she reached the fence, perpendicular to her, she would almost do a sliding stop. Terry was watching, and he told me she's thinking about jumping it. Eventually, she did. I was trying to make sure that she didn't stop in one corner, which happened to be were the gate was, the lowest part of the fence, and she jumped it. She made it over, but not cleanly. She hit the gate with her back legs, and cracked the gate off it's top hinge. I asked Thad (Terry's son) if he could catch Toffy for me. He didn't get a hold of her, but he herded her into the barn, and got her into Ana's pen. In there, he led her around a little bit, and she settled down. Then I went in and led her around and rubbed her all over. Terry got me a sponge and we gave her a sponge bath because she was way too hot. The injures she got from jumping the gate was a line of rubbed of hair, with some rubbed off skin at the top on her right back leg. The other injury she got was higher up on her leg, above the knee. It basically just cuts in, and isn't deep. She was favoring her right leg a little, but was fine after standing there a little bit. She wasn't limping as far as we could tell. We squirted some red stuff on the wounds, and I worked on rubbing her all over, and patting her on the back. Then I desensitized her to the rope, and even flipped it around her eyes. I think it took me over an hour to give her a sponge bath, desensitize, and play with her ears. She was a pretty happy horse when I was done. We are keeping her in Ana's pen for right now and I will work with her in that pen tomorrow morning, and Terry will work with her in the afternoon, because I am going to a sleepover tomorrow evening.

The other horses did fine. Coffie and Frosty were fairly easy to catch, and during Toffy's explosion, they were pretty calm. Aleythia and Carter worked a little on desensitizing, they brushed them, picked up feet, and fiddled with their ears. Aleythia said they did pretty good. Dash kept avoiding Aleythia so that she wouldn't get caught, so Aleythia stopped with her when Dash let Aleythia come up and smelled her hand.

I guess the day was bad, but not all bad. I was able to end on a very good note with Toffy, and she isn't seriously injured. Yes, the gate is broken and will cost $250 to replace, but we now know that an actual round pen might be a good idea. Aleythia said it wasn't the first time one of the horses have tried to jump the fence. Coffie, Frosty, and Dash were pretty good, and none of us got injured. Ya gotta look on the bright side somehow.

Haltering the Foals

Last Saturday we also got the halters on the fillies. Aleythia and I tried to get a rope around one of the fillies necks (Coffie's), but she wasn't desensitized enough to let us get close enough to put one around her neck. We tried getting her into a corner, but that didn't work either because she could escape way too easily. Roping her wasn't an option because Aleythia and I probably couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a lariat. We brainstormed about it with Terry, and we came up with getting a fence next to a wall and herding them into it to put the halter on. We also came up with putting them in a stall, or putting them in the trailer where there was dividers so they couldn't move.

Terry remembered how much they liked grain, so he thought that maybe we could get a halter on them by putting the nose of the halter in to a bowl of grain with the buckle and strap hanging out the side, and while they were eating you would slip the halter over their nose and buckle it real quick.

We thought it was worth a shot, so we had one person holding the bucket and the other ready to put the halter on. We tried it on Coffie first. Worked like a charm. Did it with Frosty, then Dash. It took a little bit with Dash, but we got it on. We didn't get a halter on Toffy because we ran out of halters that would fit them.

Thinking about this, the fillies have had halter training before, and I think this would not have worked if they had never felt the halter on their heads before. We probably would have had to do the gate next to the wall thing.

The reason we needed halters on them so bad was because we really couldn't do a lot with them because when we tried to touch them (other then their face) they always tried to avoid it. They would learn that moving away when we touched them was the right answer because we couldn't keep our hand there with no way of stopping them from running away from us.

Yesterday we caught the fillies and worked on being able to rub them all over. The hardest part was their stomach. I have heard it said that you aren't supposed to rub their flank, but they need brushing there too, and it won't hamper their ability to learn how to move off your leg. With Coffie and Frosty we desensitized them to the lead rope. We tossed it over their withers, back, hindquarters, neck, front legs, then back legs. I left the head for another day because I had worked with her long enough. I didn't desensitize to the rope with Dash, because I felt like she had had enough for one day. When I rubbed Frosty and Dash's ears they were a little touchy but they got used to it and stopped trying to move their head away. I don't really know how Coffie did because Aleythia was working with Coffie and I was busy with Frosty and Dash. I did see Coffie freak out when the rope went across her back though. It took her less 20 seconds to realize that it wasn't going to hurt her. Frosty did the same thing. The only thing we did with Toffy was walking up to her and to pet her face. We need to get a halter that fits her right away.

We now have nine horses that Aleythia and I need to work with. We have Misstack, and Ana who we switch who rides them every week, then there is Santana who I ride, and Aleythia who rides Strudder, then Stretch, who gets really light exercise and we both plan to switch off and on riding him. Then we have the four fillies. I work with two, and aleythia works with the other two. We actually have one more horse, but she's in her 20s, has arthritis, and is a pony. We kinda just let the little kids ride her. Her name's Blacky.

Computer Problems

Earlier I promised to put up videos of teaching one of my horses to move their shoulders, hindquarters, and backing up, but my computer is being a pain and won't let me.

OH MY GOSH!!!

Remember how I told you guys about how we were thinking about getting a foal, and we had asked the farrier to look into it for us? Well, we haven't heard anything from him.

The Friday before I left for camp Terry showed us this email from a woman we had emailed about a couple foals she had. Judy (Terry's wife) told him that she shouldn't even show him the email, but she did. The woman, Eva, said she had four fillies that were yearlings, and two three year old geldings. Terry was thinking about getting a gelding and a filly. The woman emailed us photos, but not of the geldings because I think she plans to keep them. I didn't even get to see the pictures because I was at camp by the time we got the email back. So, two weeks later I come home from camp, and Aleythia showed me the pictures of these four fillies. All completely gorgeous. Oh, they're all registered quarter horses too. With bloodlines from Doc O,Lena. I think that's the horse's name, not quite sure on that. 

I got home from camp Friday, and Aleythia and I went to Terry's Saturday. I walked in the barn said hello to   Terry, and he told us that he had a job for us. So we walked over to the other side of the barn, and I thought he was going to have us put dirt under some bricks he wanted higher, but no, there on the other side of the fence was four fillies looking at us with perked ears. 

Here's some pics.

We got halters on them Saturday too. Except Toffy.

Frosty

Coffie and Toffy

 

Toffy                       ~             Coffie                       

Coffie

Dash

Coffie and Dash

Toffy

Toffy, Dash, and Frosty

Toffy

Dash

Dash, Toffy, and Coffie

Frosty and Toffy

Coffie

Frosty

Frosty

Frosty

Camp!!!

For the last two weeks I have been at a camp down in Dayton, IA called Hidden Acres. I signed up to be an Assistant Wrangler. AW help out with the horses, and the Wranglers. We went on trail rides, cantering up hills, walking down, we went in the Des Moines River, and we had a breakfast ride.

It was a lot of fun! We went on the zipline, had chapel and seminars, had a fourth of July party, and did devos.

As far as the horses go, all I can say is that my horses are so not like that. Camp horses are quiet and a few of them are lazy, but most of them will do what they're supposed to do. My horses are spooky, hyper, and definitely not lazy.

Before I left for camp Terry decided that he would try putting Stretch in games again. Stretch is about 25 and a gelding. He doesn't have good teeth, and he's a little bony. Terry decided to do this because he saw Misstack and Stretch racing out in the pasture, and decided that if he can keep up with Misstack, then he can do barrels. So, we are currently trying to get him in shape.

Here's a few pictures of him from a couple years ago.