Playing Catchup

Okay, I haven't really been keeping everyone informed about what's been going on lately.
So, I will catchup.
I found out about two weeks ago that Santana is a very good trail horse. My hyper barrel horse is good at trails! I have wanted to get him on a trail ever since we were at the fair. I suspected he would be a good trail horse, because while I was walking him around, I found a little "obstacle course" He went up the side of the hill, across tin, across wood, and stepped up on a cement slab. It was fun! So to test my suspicion that he would be a good trail horse we rode from Terry's to the Rosen farm. We put him in a stall, and then worked with the fillies. Aleythia was with me on Ana, and she was trying to get Ana to calm down, and Santana was freaking out a bit because he couldn't see his buddy.
We also opened the door from the pasture to the barn, and saw if the fillies wanted to go in. Frosty was being her curious and fearless self and went right in. Then Coffie was convinced that it wasn't too bad, and she stepped in. Dash took a little more convincing, but she did eventually go in. Toffy didn't even try to go in. She just stood there looking into the barn.
We have also been working on putting up a fence in the grove at the rosen farm so that they can graze out there. We got it finished last week. The fillies go right in there not even worrying about the pine trees. When supper time comes, they put their heads down and run. They have also been joined by the three other mares at the Rosen farm. Flicka being one of them. Ooooh that fat, bossy, lazy thing. I think I have established that I am boss mare. She needs to learn that I have a bubble space.
When Flicka was about two, she almost stepped on my toes trotting past us.

Aleythia and I were sitting on a barrel in the paddock, when fat little two year old Flicka comes trotting in our direction. We thought she was gunna say hello, but when she got to us she kept going and her hooves were an inch away from stepping on my toes. Well, I was afraid for my toes livelihood so I jerked them back. And she just kept trotting along ears pricked, right into the barn.

I realize now that I should have seen that she had no intention of stopping, and that I should have kicked her in the rear for intruding in my bubble. But alas, it did not occur to me.
We need to start working with that pill of a horse.

We tried the loose rein thing with Ana. Aleythia took her out into the alfalfa field and let her go whatever speed she wanted. All Aleythia required was that Ana go the direction she wanted...
And she did awesome! She cantered for maybe ten minutes, went down to a walk (on her own!), cantered a little more, walked, and then trotted the rest of the time.
We think that the reason she doesn't want to walk is because she thinks that walking does not cover enough ground. Which is pretty much saying she has no patience for walking.

With Misstack I worked on her stops.
Misstack has terrible stops. They are rough, and she fights the bit. She can now do a really quick and easy stop (for me and her) at the walk, and she doesn't like it when I ask her to stop from the canter. She throws her head. Every time I asked her to stop, I also asked her to back up until she wasn't fighting the bit. She is much better.
I am also working on her neck reining... It's a work in progress.

I also took Santana out into the Alfalfa field and let him go as fast as he wanted.
Man can he boggie! It didn't take him long to figure out that I wasn't going to hold him back when he started running. After the third time of him running as fast as he could go and resting, he was able to reach his top speed in his second or third stride out.
It felt like I wasn't moving at all. And that makes sence, because the faster his stride is the smaller your rocking motion gets.
Have you ever seen the old Zorro shows? Where he races away from the town on Tornado (said with a spanish accent)? Aleythia said it looked like that.
I have pictures, but I am having trouble with my flash drive, and my computer. Grrrr.

Recently made Memories

I'm going to rewrite an event as a story.

 

~         ~          ~

 

Aleythia and I woke up to a crispy morning. It was 7:30 and we had a job to do. We slipped on jeans a t-shirt and our cowboy boots, hopped on our bikes and rode the mile through town to the Rosen farm.
Upon our arrival we saw three horses grazing in the pasture, the fourth was laying down nibbling at grass.
We parked our bikes on the cement next to the trailer, grabbed the lead ropes from the barn and walked into the pasture.
Now Frosty had joined Coffie in laying down. We dropped everything. The lead ropes and our plans to tune up their loenging, and set out to see if they would let us approach them while they were laying down.
I tried walking up to Frosty. Knowing that horses are the most vulnerable when laying down, I tried to act as little like a predator as I was able too. I walked a few steps towards her then retreated, walked a little closer, then retreated. Finally, I was able to reach my hand out and let her smell my hand. She did, and I retreated. I walked up to her again, petted her head and retreated. I walked back and petted her head again and then sat by her, petting her all the while. The whole time her ears were pricked and she had a curious look in her eye.
I sat there just petting her and she let me scoot back towards her shoulder and I petted her some more.
I leaned my back against her shoulder, folded my arms, crossed my ankels, and pretended to take a nap.
By this time Toffy also decided that laying down was a good idea. So Aleythia started doing the same thing I did with Frosty to Toffy.
Frosty moved, so I got up, she got up, and put her head down to graze.
I could see that Toffy was a little more nervous then Frosty about Aleythia approaching. She would kinda tensed up and lift her head a little higher when she got uncomfortable with Aleythia approaching. I warned Aleythia of this and she retreated more often, but was eventually able to sit next to Toffy. We sat there, enjoying the moment and the cool morning.
We heard the train in the distance. Not knowing how Toffy would react, Aleythia got up when she saw the train.
The train became louder as it got closer, and Toffy stood up. When the train blew that horn, Toffy paused for a moment and then took off! All four fillies ran, bucking their way to the quiet mares on the other side of the pasture fence and the morning sun making everything seem like it had a yellow shine all its own.

We'll figure it out eventually

Have you ever noticed that there are pretty much no guy bloggers. Just thought I would mention it.
I have come across a blog that is really insightful and helpful. It's called Mugwump Chronicles.
I have started from the beginning of her blog, and two of the horses she had are like Ana in so many ways. Sonita has amazing endurance, like Ana. Her childhood horse didn't know how to stop, like Ana. But I will say something good about Ana. She is smart. Teach her anything that involves going forward and she'll pick it up like she just needs a reminder of what to do. She has also never reared or bucked because she was scared or really wanted us to get off. She rears when she's frustrated (which usually happens when we are trying to get her to stop) and bucks when she's in pain (english saddles with no pad make her buck).
When I look up "how to slow the hyper horse" the most common answer I get is to do lots of circles. And ya know what? Ana is the most flexible horse on the planet. She is also still hyper.
What I have found that helps her to calm down a bit is to teach her something new. But start cantering and she's back to prancing and refusing to halt.
The only way we will ever be able to fix that unrated canter of hers is to work on it. She needs to have a purpose to her run though. I think jumping would help her do that, but I have no expertice in jumping. I've never ridden a horse that could jump, and I do not want to teach Ana how to do it wrong. We think it might help to go on a trail ride and let her go as fast as she wants. Then when she's tired ask her for a little more, and then turn around and woah-n-go all the way home.
Our goal with Ana is to get her to woah, walk, trot, and canter all on a loose rein.
She sorta gets the walk. It used to be that when we first got on her and into that pen she would not walk. Now she always walks first.
Now a word of advice.
If you ever train a horse stop and stand just as much as you go.
This is from my own experience and from many other trainers I have come across. Never underestimate the power of standing still.

Ana Update

Well, I suppose you can say Ana is being her usual self. She was hyper and really wanted to run. So Aleythia started running her around the paddock, and I told her to give Ana something to do while she runs and to canter her through the poles. Aleythia cantered her through those poles for at least 20 minutes. Ana was running steadily and semi-slowly, so Aleythia had her rest for a bit and then when Ana moved Aleythia had her run the poles again, and she was just as fast as she was at the beginning.

This wasn't the end of it either. Aleythia cantered her through the poles again, and then had her stop, and then quit. She had foam all over her neck, but she wasn't breathing as hard as you might expect. We think that it would be better for her if she had a way to get rid of some excess energy by getting her on a trail ride at least once a week and letting her run as far as she is able and a little farther. I don't like the idea of Ana and her rider being alone for a trail ride and taking Misstack along would be a possibility, but she couldn't keep up with Ana for that long. We were thinking about using Misstack and going as far as she could go and letting Ana go ahead running and we would meet up on Ana's way back. But that still means Aleythia would be alone for a while and if something were to happen I wouldn't know. Instead she could go out alone and I could call her at specific times, and if she didn't answer we would go out looking for her. Seems like that would work out the best. 

Happily Over

Well, the fair is over. It was fun though! Santana and I placed in everything we did. No firsts and no fourths, but second, third, and fifth... yes. I can't even remember what placing went with what show. I do have videos of every run and I'll put those up with different posts, but here's one.

While I was standing next to the fence in the arena after a run, a guy came up to me and said to me "The real question is why do you hang onto his mane instead of the saddle horn?" and I was like "I do?" And then I said I would have to look at the videos Aleythia took. I looked at it and sure enough right before I told Santana to run I switched my hand from the saddle horn to his mane. I hadn't even realized I did it.

Misstack and Blacky showed too. We decided that we would no longer do jumping figure eight with Blacky because her arthritis is so bad. Misstack was doing a little better Sunday, she did canter through some of the pattern.

Filly Update

They are all doing quite well. And, I layed over Frosty. She was pretty good. She did get scared a bit when I was moving around and tried running away, but she was really good! Yesterday, I took out a saddle blanket and got Coffie desensitized to it. She was scared of it for the first little bit, but I can now rub her with it anywhere and she will completely ignore it. Dash is getting a little bit lazy. She was good at leading, but yesterday she refused to lead. So, I remedied her leading problem by lungeing her a bit. I had her walk in a circle around me without stopping and then I did some trotting. Aleythia reviewed laying on Frosty's back.

Flicka

Okay, about Flicka. Flicka is a filly we got when she was six months old. At the time we were probably only nine. Well, we trained her with no idea what we were doing. She is pretty much child proof. We would climb all over her. As far as I remember we never had an trouble saddling her, and she never bucked until she was almost four.

Flicka was the kind of horse that you could sit on bareback and no bridle in the pasture. She was also bossy and lazy. We did a lot of desensitizing when she was little and not enough sensitizing. It was very hard to get her to do anything, and she likes to get her own way. She was sold to Terry's brother when she was about four, and she is now very fat. 

So Awesome!

Yesterday, we went to train the fillies in the morning, because we had to be at the fair at 10:00. When we got there Coffie was laying down. When we walked out to the pasture Frosty layed down. So, we decided that we would forgo our plans of teaching lunging and see if they would let us pet them while they were laying down. So, I walked a few steps toward her and then walked a way, walked a little closer and then walked away. I kept repeating this cycle until I was able to let her smell my hand, and then walked away, came back and petted her face more, walked away, came back and sat by her head and rubbed her. When I was walking towards her I made sure to watch for signs of her tensing up. If she had thrown her head up, I would have retreated immediately. The reason I was always retreating was because horses are most vulnerable when they are laying down. If I am always retreating I do not seem like a predator.

Aleythia tried to go up to Coffie, but she got up when she was 20 feet away. Toffy layed down and she was able to go up to her. Ya know those paintings of cowboys taking a nap against their horses. They've got the hat over their face and their ankles crossed... We were able to do that. When Aleythia was sitting next to Toffy we heard the train coming and I told Aleythia that she had better get up before the train got here, because we didn't know what the fillies would do. When we saw the train Aleythia got up and when they blew the horn Toffy got up stood there for a second and then all the fillies ran to the horses on the other side of the fence.

Today, we trimmed Toffy's and Frosty's feet. They did pretty good. We had the trial with Frosty, and we figured out that we had to take the hoof knife and tap it against the bottom of their feet. The sound the hoof knife made was like the sound of the clippers, so when we clipped their feet we had very little trouble. We didn't just clip it all off the first time we picked up the foot, we would clip a little off and then let them rest their foot. Clip a little more and let them rest. The filing was pretty easy to do too.

I also rode Santana and Misstack, and Aleythia rode Ana. With Santana I worked on being able to sit his trot, which is akin to using a jackhammer. I figured out that one of the reasons I lose my balance so  often is because I anticipate the turn, so I lean into it and Santana doesn't turn right away so he isn't there to support my turn so I lose my balance. Otherwise I just need to practice siting his trot more often.

Never underestimate the power of standing still 

With Misstack I taught her how to flex at the poll, and did some walk, trot transitions. I also did some backing up and she is getting better. I had her flex while she was moving too, and after every transition. So if I asked her to halt I wouldn't let go of the reign pressure until she flexed her poll. When I asked her to back up I would keep asking her to back up until she dropped her head and I got a couple nice backwards steps with a lowered head.

And Aleythia rode Ana. She was trying to get Ana to do a working walk, and I think she was doing it.

This used to be the only way she would stand still. If you were moving on her back she stood still.. If not she would be off in less than three seconds.

Ups, Downs, and All Around

Sunday was pretty sweet. I lost my stirrups and thus losing my balance, knocked a pole down, won fifth place, lost control, and fell off. It was a pretty good day.

This is of me doing jumping figure eight with Santana. I kept losing my stirrups and we were gunna use  rubber bands to help me keep the stirrups but we forgot. Another problem was that I haven't cantered him in this pattern before, just trotted (I couldn't get him to canter). The reason I fell of was because I didn't decide right away which direction we were gunna go so Santana decided for me and then I decided... so, he went one way and I went the other. After I fell off I got up and Santana spooks a little and you've got to turn the volume up because a lady next to Aleythia talks to Santana all the way across the arena. You'll have to listen really carefully, it's kinda quiet. She says, "It's okay horsy, it's okay, she's not mad." The one thing I liked though was that he turned towards me after I fell off. I've seen a lot of horses run after unseating a rider.

I knocked in poles because I also lost my stirrup when he turned the last pole, and was hanging on for dear life so I wasn't guiding him through the poles, so he finished the pattern up by himself and we knocked over a pole, but I did manage to stay on. If I hadn't lost my stirrup I would have won first place by a hundredth of a second. I got fifth place in barrels, and my dad said that it looked really good.

pictures!

I'm so fast I'm bluring

I hate my position

He's standing still!

The Beginning

Here we Go!

This video is with Misstack. She was just really spooky. We think that the reason she didn't want to go over the jump was because of the poles. Goal this coming winter and summer for Misstack... get her majorly desensitized, transitions, and bending at the poll.

There's Always Room for Improvement

Well, I have a show tomorrow. Even though it's on Sunday.
 I rode Santana and gave him a bath.
That sounds like he did perfect... no, he was a pain. So instead of picturing him standing still and enjoying a bath, picture him trying to avoid the water by going in circles around me.

Before that I rode Ana. Well, Aleythia rode Ana, but she thought something was wrong with Ana, because when we cinched her up she layed her ears back and threw her head up, and when Aleythia was moving around in the saddle she also layed her ears back and threw her head up. She was also being a general pain. So, I got on her and got her to walk, and then checked out her trot. I didn't find any problems there except she pinned her ears back when I asked for the trot

We decided that Ana just doesn't have respect for Aleythia so she tries to get away with all these little things.

Guess what I did yesterday?

I rode Ana bareback!
This actually isn't anything new, but it was a lot of fun. This last winter I figured out how to sit her trot, so it is actually fun riding bareback. I figured out that if I leaned forward in the slightest I couldn't stay on, but if I sat on my jean pockets and made sure to not lean forward, just go with the motion and not tense up, I could ride the fastest trot she had. Oh, and we are in the process of teaching her how to  side pass. Surprisingly she can do it quite well. She can't side pass the length of the paddock but she can do it for a couple steps. She gets the concept. I also taught her how to flex at the poll. Now when we are walking or trotting whenever her head is too high and she's going too fast I can get her to flex at the poll, and it calms her down a little bit. Ana has gotten a lot better with how responsive she is and how hyper. I have a photo of her from maybe three or four years ago and Aleythia is riding her. So, you have this little kid trying to get this really hyper horse to slow down and the kid isn't relaxed at all. I'll have to put it up here one of these days. I have a few progress photos of Ana. The one just described, one taken maybe last year, and one of the pictures above. There is a distinct improvement. The reason it has taken us so long to get her to calm down is in part because that's just her character (she's one quarter arabian and three quarters saddlebred for goodness sake!) and also because we really didn't know what to do about it before this year. 

Training Horses... Classify it anyway you want

Today we took three of the horses to the chiropractor. Santana, Strudder, and Blacky. We were gunna take them to the chiropractor yesterday, but we got on the highway and barley a mile out the back left tire on the trailer lost some of its rubber. So, we limped back home, dropped the horses off and went to an auto repair shop. Terry bought four new tires for the trailer and rescheduled the appointment with the chiropractor. Santana and Strudder both had ulcers and out of place ribs. Did you know ulcers are caused by stress. A lot of the times it comes from the pecking order of horses. The Dr. said that when there is more than two horses in a heard there starts to be some competition for leader or being the lowest. Both can cause stress. Santana's neck was out of place. The Dr. also poked their hind feet with a needle. I don't remember what that was for except for a release of pain. He also told us to spend 30 seconds backing them up at the beginning of each ride. The reason for this was to strengthen their hindquarters and they will learn that they have a back end and start using it. When they use their front end it will eventually cause pain. The Dr. explained it like their front legs were like the suspensions on car wheels. They are connected to the rest of the skeleton by muscle and they are supposed to go up and down but when they use their front legs to go forward it causes their front legs to go horizontally witch in turn causes some of their ribs to  shift down and pushes on the nerves and causes pain. They also tend to cheat with their back feet by almost dragging them along. This causes their muscle by the socket to shift over which also causes them pain. He told us also that we will not be able to get them to back up for 30 seconds right away, and that we need to make sure it's thirty seconds, so we have to watch the clock because they will be fighting us the whole while. So, this is the medical reason to teach your horse collection.



loading up







Another thing the Dr. talked about was cushing's disease. I don't really know what it is, but you can tell if your horse has it by a bump on the crest of your horse's neck that looks like the mane is pulling it over. He said Santana might have it. He said to watch for a drastic increase in weight. I'll try to remember to get a picture of the bump.



We also took the fillies over to Terry's brother's place. Which we call the Rosen Farm. We took them over there because Coffie had figured out that she can get under the fence, and keeping them in the back pen and barn wasn't very good because they had a limited space to move about in, and without any grazing to fill them up they were eating a bale and a half a day. This works much better. They have more room to run and they can graze all day and night without us worrying that they will escape. It's only a mile from Terry's as the crow flies and a little over a mile from my place. Also, Flicka is at the Rosen Farm too. I'll explain who she is later. Sadly I forgot to take pictures of her.

feeding time!

do you have more grain?

look at this adorable kitten

desensitizing the horses to the kitten

it was very entertaining 

ain't it adorable!

The fillies will be at the Rosen Farm until winter hits which is about two months from now. When that happens we will take them back to Terry's because they can't graze anyway. And it will be more convenient for Aleythia and me because then we'd have to walk a mile to the Rosen Farm to work with the fillies and then another mile to Terry's to work with the other horses. All this in temperatures in the 10 degree range. How fun! (insert sarcasm)

Review Progress

Okay I want to look over what the fillies know so far. They will let us walk up to them and pet them and they are relatively easy to catch. They have become extremely friendly too. They all know how to move their hindquarters, move their shoulders, back up, the idea of flexing, picking up feet, tying, and the beginnings of ground tying. They have been desensitized to the lead rope, a plastic bag, a whip slapping against the ground, and a frisbee. The frisbee can fly past their heads, over their backs, between their ears, maybe clip the tips of their ears or slide off their back, and even hit them and fall next to their head, and they won't do a thing. We can jump down off the fence next to them and put our feet on them while sitting on the fence.

And on another horse, Santana is doing quite well. He is being more sane about running poles, and also about starting the run. But I can't get him to canter in jumping figure eight.

 Look at how long his tail is!