Smart Little Fiend

She never ceases to amaze me. Oh what a smart little cookie. What a little fiend. She knew what would happen.
Aleythia went to Terry's and rode Ana. I wish I could get her to write this, but she just doesn't want to.  Aleythia said...
Ana was a pain. She was hyper had her head in the air and you could tell she wasn't listening. So Aleythia did one reign stops. Slowly Ana wiggled her way towards the barn. One reign stop, go, one reign stop, go, one reign stop, go....
Ana had finally reached her destination. Three feet from the barn she stopped trying to go, lowered her head, and cocked an ear...

Thinking Away

So Aleythia is off at Terry's and I stayed home because I'm not crazy and don't want to be outside in negative nine degree weather. Although staying home is not good for me. I get extremely bored and resort to killing brain cells by watching movies and eating. I detest staying home. I don't know if I've talked about this before, but if I have then you'll get another aspect on it. I think I'll write about how I got into horses too, but I think I'll just make a whole new page for it and also put down where I'm at now. If I keep this blog up then later on in my life I'll update it again. This'll be entertaining. Oh, by the way It's been a year and a month sense I started my blog. Wow, time flies.

So my story for the day is about Dash. I was at Terry's and Aleythia wasn't with me. I was working with Dash on desensitizing and Terry came over with a plastic bag. He stood maybe five feet away and shook it a little bit. Dash got into that position where she looked like she could explode any time. She relaxed after a little bit and Terry walked a few steps closer. She got into that position again. When she relaxed a little bit I told Terry to take a few steps back. (this is what I'm focusing on) He did and Dash looked at him like what the heck? What's he doing!? And then it was like she was overwhelmed with curiosity and just like that she took a couple of steps forward.
I told Terry to take a couple steps back because I had this sneaking suspicion that she would do exactly that. And the only reason it occurred to me to do that was because of what happened with Toffy when I walked away, when she walked away. She came back to me. I was actually a little worried about asking Terry to take a step back. I was afraid that it wouldn't work. It is also a foreign concept to me. I've been taught that when a horse is afraid of something you keep doing it until they aren't. The desensitizing process. This way you use the horse's natural curiosity to your advantage. It's a different way of doing things. Can I use this way to get your horse to keep listening to you when he gets scared? I don't know. Will it work just as effectively? I don't know. Can I use both? I believe so. In some situations it's necessary to get your horse used to things. But you can still combine the two ways. One way I have done is I'll have the horse follow me while I hold the scary object. So, this will be fun to explore.
More and more I'm finding that the things trainers want you to do I have been doing long before I heard it from them. Like spending time with your horse. Aleythia and I have sometimes spent the whole day just sitting in the pasture while the horses graze. When we first arrive at Terry's we'll go spend a little time with the horses before we do work. And like with Flicka. Unknowingly we made her into a childproof horse. You can do anything to her and she doesn't really care. Mount from a fence, bucket, indian style. Yep. Get on bareback and bridleless in the pasture. Ya. You couldn't get her to do a thing, but she'd let you do it. And she's only four. That's what I want the fillies to be like. Not quite as extensively though. Flicka was a pill. She didn't listen to anything you asked. I want the fillies willing to put up with all the crazy things you can think of but also willing partners that do as you ask.

Plans

So it was extremely cold yesterday... and I still went riding. I went over to HM's place and rode one of her three horses. It was windy and cold. But lucky for us she has an indoor arena. When I own my own place I'm going to have an indoor arena. It would be sooo nice.
So I rode HM's Thoroughbred Ollie and aleythia rode Tea. Not sure if it's tea or just plain T. I'll just do Tea. She had me put a bridle on Ollie so that I could practice using contact. We'd asked about it before. I wanted to get a feel for what it should feel like when I try it with Misstack or any of my other horses. The hardest thing to do was to keep contact on an upward transition to the canter. It was fun. And then I wanted to see what it felt like when I didn't collect him so I let go of all contact and that was fun! HM asked me if I was more comfortable that way. Definitely. I'm more relaxed and move easier with the horse. I suppose it's because I've never had to ride a horse with contact and not letting my arms relax throws me off a little bit.
Aleythia was having problems riding Tea's canter. Like she wasn't quite with the horse. I would describe it as being behind the horse's action. Like she was leaning back to far. HM suggested that she bring her shoulders forward so that they were centered over her hips. That definitely helped. She was more balanced and it looked a lot more smoother. I've told her that she needs to bring her upper body forward before, but that made it seem more simple. Sometimes it helps to have someone rephrase it. That's how I was with learning how to sit Ana's trot. I was reading in a magazine and it said just relax your lower back. All the sudden I had a light bulb moment. That totally made sense. I could do that. Aleythia always told me to relax, but that doesn't sound easy. Like relax what! When I had a small thing that I could focus on to relax it worked much better and I learned how to sit Ana's trot.

I asked S more about her horse Patches that I'm going to help her train. I wanted to know exactly how much he really knows. She said he can be caught and he leads, but not real well. He has been longed before. She said that when her dad put her on him he followed him just fine. Patches is going to be S's dad's new Possy horse and that just means that they help out with local events on horses. The horses need to know how to complete a trail class. So, like side passing, getting on and off pulling stuff, opening and closing gates, going over logs, used to strange noises, backing up, and all that other stuff. S said that she almost didn't want to train Patches cause then her dad told her that he would just get another horse and she kinda wants another horse, but then he said that he would sell all the other horses to do it. So, we're training Patches. I'm thinking that if we get out there often enough we'll be riding him within a month.

Funny Stuff...

I don't like the weather where I live. It can get below -10 degrees in the winter and about 98 in the summer. In six hours it went from beautiful weather to a 60 mph windshield and below zero. But I still had a good day.
A while ago I got invited to a horse show by a friend, R. After talking it over with Terry we decided to not do it because it's January and we weren't sure if we would be outside while we wait or inside.
I decided that if I couldn't show I would go watch. So I got a hold of H, and we planned on her picking Aleythia and me up at noon.
We met R there and just hung out and had a good time. Later on R asked me if I wanted to do the pickup race with her. Another thing it's know as is the rescue race. Basically you race down to the other end of the arena, pick up another rider and race back. Fastest team to complete this wins. So for this I was able to stand up on a barrel. So R rode her horse down to me and on the way over her horse bucked. Then she wouldn't get at the right angle for me to hop on. I ended up jumping onto her back and that didn't work out too well. I was half off of the horse and couldn't get into position. I fell off and R waited for me and I attempted to get back on. I seriously have problems. I could not get myself onto the horse. It was sad. It was fun, but sad.
I think I'll convice Terry to go to it next year. It's actually a fund raiser and for 10 bucks you can compete a whole day. Any extra horses are five dollars more. The horses were all in the arena and I think it would be good practice. It wasn't like the fair. There were green broke horses there and more relaxed than the fair. Everyone was there to have fun. It would be a good place to bring the fillies to for their first show. Not so much stress but still get the experience.

And then we went ice skating afterwards. And I got to laugh at my brother-in law, N, and his skating skills.

It's Good to Laugh at Yorself

I want to learn how to rope. I don't need to be a champion at it or anything but I want to learn how. I love youtube and the web. So we do have a lariat so because we didn't do anything today and it was beautiful we spent some time making fools out of ourselves. We got tangled up in the rope and just generally didn't know how to handle it. It was pathetic. We aimed for the handle of a shovel sticking out of a bucket. I did make it on my second try. And Aleythia was having an awful time. It took her a good ten minutes to make even one. Oh poor Aleythia. She knows I'm just teasing. What was really funny was when she was sorta getting frustrated and I was being a pill so she glared at me and told me that she would rope me and that she would aim slightly to the right so that she wouldnt' miss. Then she said that wasn't that bad of an idea and would try it. She went back to the handle and... she made it... It made me laugh.
Ya know how I mentioned it was pathetic. That reminded me of something I said on the way home from the horses's. Ok so sometimes I think the wierdest things. Most of the times it's not very nice but I only tell them to my siblings because I know they I'm only teasing. So, Aleythia and I were just walking along enjoying a beautiful day when I turned to her and said, "You bring a whole new level to pathetic." Yaaa...  It was funny but mean. I've also called her a dweeb on wheels and I'll start singing a random tune with the words "you need help". You should know that I have a very good relationship with my siblings. We don't fight a lot. We used to all the time. Now we just don't. I can get seriously annoyed with my older brother but that's about as far as it goes.

But anywho.... here's some pictures from this beautiful day.

I'm not so sure I like water

stranger danger

water is my friend and I must stand right in the middle

hello

I am cute and you know it

see?

supper time!

what water?

I can't wait till it starts warming up. First because it's a lot more enjoyable to ride when it's warm and school will be almost over. Yes. I'm dreaming of summer already. Second because I am going to help a friend train a horse! We'll call my friend S. S has a four year old gelding that has had very little training. From what I gathered she has sat on him once. He's an Appaloosa and his name is Patches. He's taller than you would expect an appaloosa to be and S says that he's stubborn. He doesn't want to do anything you ask. I am siked! I know a four year old that's not had much training. S was complaining about not training him because she doesn't have enough time. I told her not to wait too long to start because the longer you wait the harder he'll be to train because he'll get stronger and more stuck in his ways. A four year old isn't too bad though. I'll be teaching S how to train a horse too. And with four fillies under training and learning what needes to be done I will be well prepared. It will probably go more quickly than the fillies though because I won't have to worry about how young he is. If we can get out there often enough it should get along really well.

I learned something today. I was sitting at a table at pancake breakfast that an organization called Youth For Christ(YFC) puts on at my high school and a girl I know that owns horses and has like seventeen horses where she lives (not S) comes to my table. We get to talking about horses... of course... Turns out her mom is a horse trainer. Hence why she has seventeen horses. She is training four perchons in driving and the rest are mostly quarter horses that she trains in barrel racing. I think I should get a hold of her and see if we can work something out.
That would be great for me. I learned barrel racing from riding. I've never had a teacher and I really wish I did. Unless you count my horse as a teacher. And learning how to train a barrel horse from an actual teacher would also be a bonus.

Bad Lydia!

I know it's awful. I haven't worked with the horses for a week and three days. I'm so ashamed. The last time I went was Thursday? Maybe? And I didn't work with horses. I probably spent 15 min in the barn while Terry shot some mice in his food bin, and then went inside. But I'll explain the mice.
When I got to the barn Terry was cleaning up the paddock so I helped him with that. After I dumped the manure I went back into the barn and Terry had his bee bee gun out and told me that there were mice in his big feed bin. So in the next 15 min he tried to shoot two mice. I'll give him the excuse that it was hard to see into the dark bin. When he caught the first one he tossed it down next to me. I think he wanted to see if he could get a reaction out of me. Eventually one of our two barn cats, Sugar, ate it. I could describe it... but I won't. When he got the second mouse he said, "Sugar!" She looked at him and he tossed it onto the ground. She flew after that thing like her life depended on it. It was kinda funny.

We worked with the fillies today though. So I went and got Coffie and hair is starting to grow on her ringworm. But, she got two new scraps. One is below her eye and it looks like it didn't puncture her skin just took a layer off. The other is on her nose. It's a vertical cut down her nose maybe two inches long. Not very deep but it's definetely swelling. Aleythia got on her and moved around and then after watching her we decided that she needed some desensitizing. She was looking all around and looked like the slightest thing could get her spooked. Aleythia did the rope first, but she was fine with that so I asked her if she wanted a plastic bag and she did. And then Coffie freaked. I think it took 20 min just to get her okay with it. In that time I worked with Toffy and Frosty.
I actually didn't do mutch with Toffy. I caught her and then just rubbed her. She doesn't really enjoy being around people. She doesn't come up to the fence when all the other fillies do when there's a person there and she has an extremely bored expression on her face when I do stuff with her. So I tried to find her favorite rubbing spot. Right when I was gunna give up I found it. She likes being rubbed right below her ear. And that's all I did.
Frosty was kinda fun too. I got on her by getting on the fence and after sending her back and forth she was close enough and comfortable enough with me being up there to let me get on. She stood really nice. I think we should move her up to walking and trotting. She doesn't care if we move around on her. She even let me kneel on her back. I don't quite feel ready enough to stand up.
When I was done Aleythia was done with Coffie and she decided that Dash probably needed desensitizing too so she did that and I think we need to desensitize more often. It's hard to find a balance between sensitizing and desensitizing. I suppose we should start and finish with desensitizing.

We got the cinch for the harness back! We sent it off so that it could get shortened. It was too loose so we couldn't pull anything behind the fillies because the cinch wasn't tight. That was part of the reason we started riding. So I think once we get all the fillies rideable we'll go back to the driving. Or do both.

Whatever Writing

so, I think I'm just gunna post a bunch of pictures and that will pretty much explain what I did yesterday.

 

 

 

a nap sounded nice

 

I would have gotten the pictures up yesterday but it wouldn't let me upload them. I had to go a round about way of getting them up.

Well today was... pretty sweet!!
It's Wednesday and I don't normally ride on Wednesdays, but I'm trying to make it a point to do so. It took about an hour and it was fun!
Aleythia and I took the green halter with the black lead rope and went out into the paddock with all the other horses. We worked with the fillies and pretty much did the same thing. With Coffie and Frosty we moved around on their back. I can so see Coffie becoming our next wreck. She moves around so much when I'm moving around on her back. Frosty was really good about it. She didn't move and was pretty good about it.
We did the same thing with Toffy and Dash, but took it a little bit farther. I taught them the cues of moving their hindquarters and shoulders. And seriously they move just that. Pivot on the back feet, pivot on the front feet. Yep. I only ask for a few steps to the side, but it'll get better. They do understand it. They learn it extremely easily. Pretty soon I'll be able to sratch off one of my goals.
Aleythia had a thought about how Dash and Toffy weren't listening when they bucked. When we took them away from the other horses on walks they listened, so what's different now?
We think it might be because we've never taken them on walks. They haven't realized that they can be comfortable with us without the other horses. Do you know how nice it is to have a horse that doesn't worry where his friends are? It's a lot less stressful. Flicka was awful. We couldn't get her to go away from the other horses if she didn't want too. Those little things are really nice for a horse to know. Like being able to mount them from a fence, standing still for bridling and saddling, groundtying, leaving the other horses without a fit, leg pressure. Ok leg pressure isn't little, but my horses don't do it.
I had a good laugh today. I was working with Dash getting her to move move her hindquarters and shoulders when Stretch comes over, puts his nose of to Dash's neck and laughed at her.It really sounded like a mocking laugh. He did this nicker thing and it sounded like laughter like he was saying "haha, sucker." Oh he makes me laugh.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was Parelli.
I haven't been that into Parelli. I guess I think it's kinda touchy feely whatever. Whenever I here someone talking about "be one with your horse" (insert hippi voice) I tune out. It's not like I don't want to become one with my horse, but when it's said like that I get like "ya... right..."(insert sarcasm). Now if it's said like how your riding instructor would tell you how to keep your horse's shoulder up, I would take it more seriously. So plain and simple I guess I'm saying that prefrence in horse trainers is a lot about the trainer's character. Parelli's training works, no doubt about it. So does Clinton Anderson's, Craig Cameron's, and all the other big trainers out there. But anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk about.
The real thing I wanted to talk about is something I took away from a DVD on Parelli that HM let me borrow. I was watching Linda Parelli do some roundpen work with a horse. It was pretty much all about teaching your horse to have a good attitude and keeping his attention. See, that's a lot better than how the video came across to me. So she did something different than what I normally see. Or maybe I have seen it, but not really explained and done for a purpose. She first did what she called the feel good game. Or something like that. So I (take note of the singular noun) just think that's sappy. I would just call it making the horse comfortable. But what she did was rub the horse all over to get him to like being around her. After that she sent him off and then waited until he either ignored her or come into the middle. When the horse ignored her she would look at him and crouch down, or make movement to catch his eye. When he looked at her she turned her back on him. She said she was using the horse's natural curiosity to her advantage. When he came into her with his ears forward she turned her back on him, and let him come in. Then she would pet him. Gradually you could see a slight change in the horse's attitude and that he wanted to be with the person in the middle. Eventually he even licked his lips.
But the thing I took away from that is using your horse's natural curiosity to make them interested in you. And here's how it works. I walked up to Toffy, flung the rope over her neck and she started moving away with her ears back a little ways. I moved in the opposite direction and she came back to me with her ears pricked. She expected me to come after her so when I didn't she was surprised and wanted to know what was up.
So I'm not all that into Parelli, maybe because I haven't seen a lot on it, but I do like Clinton Anderson. I see stuff I like in Parelli and stuff I like in Clinton, so maybe I could combine the two in a way that I like more. I think it would be great to go to both trainers and learn from both. That would be ideal. We'll see.

Happy New Year!!!

So Aleythia rode Dash today... and she got bucked off.
It happened while I was riding Santana.
Dash was trotting around, on her own accord (really nicely too), and then she cantered, on her own accord. Then she exploded. I don't know if it was just the fact that when she exploded I had asked Santana to canter or if she was frightened by Aleythia's movements on her back.
Aleythia did do ground work before she got on too.
Aleythia and I got to thinking... Flicka never bucked us off... why?
We came to the conclusion it was because she didn't care what we did on her back. In some ways that was a bad thing, but in others it was good. We climbed all over her. We moved all around her just for the heck of it. Stand up, take a nap on her back, sit backwards on her... yep we did it all. She never bucked us off. She was so used to our shinanigans that she never bucked. Ok, maybe not never but never because of any movement we did on her.
So we are going to start doing that with the fillies. We did it today and we'll do it again the next time.
I'm kinda glad we're doing this. I got on Coffie bareback and started moving around and she was not okay with it. She wasn't gunna go bucking on me, but she wasn't relaxed. We'll do that before or after every session.
Toffy did really well today. I did a little bit of ground work reminding her what a tap on the neck meant or a tap on the hindquarters meant. I didn't feel like dealing with a sliding saddle so I got on the water pump and got on her from there. She took it pretty well. A few circles around me and she was fine. All I did was stand there and teach her what each signal meant. I would put my foot against her side, then tap her  neck with my crop. When she moved her shoulders over I stopped. When I wanted her to move her hindquarters I put my foot back and pressed with my heel, then tapped with my crop until she moved her hindquarters over. It did not take long for her to catch on.
I rode Santana and worked on getting him to flex at the walk and trot. I did canter once, but it wasn't real pretty.

I rode Misstack bareback too! Out in the paddock even. Nothing to eventful, just flexing.

 

Did anyone else stay up all night? Happy New Year!!!