Trot to Success

I am super happy. All four of the fillies have gotten ridden in full tack. We've trotted every single one of them but Coffie.
Frosty had her first ride outside yesterday. I had her all tacked up and outside and Terry helped me on. She walked out just fine. She had a tiny freak out, but came right back to me. She went at the sound of a cluck (my second que, first being my legs) and she turned pretty easily. She didn't want to disengage her hindquarters real well though and so what I ended up doing was, when her was bent to the side like flexing and I'd given her a chance with my leg back and kicking a little bit, I took the end of one of the reins and hit her behind her hip once. She got it. I asked her to trot and she did it almost right away. I think she was nervous and just wanted to go anyway, but I was still surprised how easily it was to get her to trot.
I also worked on trotting with Toffy. Also turning and trotting. She can't walk a straight line to save her life, but she'll get better. But she was trotting really nicely.
Aleythia got on Coffie in full tack for the first time too. I add the full tack thing because we have gotten on them before without a saddle. But anywho. Aleythia did a little bit of desensitizing, got on, and Terry led Coffie around. A little while later Aleythia worked on direction with Coffie without a leader.
Aleythia rode Dash outside too and I have some pictures.

coffie being ridden

dash

dash trotting

Frosty

she wouldn't stand still so that I could take pictures

I put this one up only because you could really see that Dash was trotting.

I can call it art though.

I just gotta say though. The fillies' trots are the oddest trots I have ever sat on. On all my other horses I get bounced to high heaven and back on their trots. But with the fillies, instead of going up and down, you go side to side. Terry says it's part of the quarter horse breed. They have a low trot and a wider base making that side to side motion. It's really smooth. It's a lot of fun. 

So, I didn't do much besides ride Strudder and work on my position. I did take a lot of pictures and we got a little bit of a snow storm so the snow is deep and fluffy.

 

 

 

 

the horses were a little spooky

 

all of the fillies were following me around

 

 

 

 

Working for Their Supper

We did something different today. Instead of getting one of the fillies working with her, putting her away, then getting another, We caught all four fillies tied them to the barn's posts and left them there until we were ready to work with them. When we were done working with them they got put back on the posts. We got this idea from Larry Trocha. Check out his website and subscribe. He has some great stuff. I promise. You won't be disappointed.
I was reading one of Larry Trocha's articles and in one of his responses to a comment he mentioned making your horse work for his supper. He suggests saddling him up in the morning, leave him tied all day, untie at night. He also says to bring him to food and water. Now it's not very possible for me to do that. I have school to go to and I don't live on the same property as my horses do. So instead.... I'll tie them up when I get there at 2, leave them there before and after I work with them, unsaddle, put them away, and give them food. That means that they will stay tied at the least three hours. The most five. Every single time we are over there. They will learn patience. I think they learned to day that the post could hold them. Coffie set back once. Frosty was impatient and was kicking at the wall, got the rope over her head and freaked. She did get it undone. Toffy set back once. Dash? Eh. She was fine. Added bonus of doing this. If you have all your horses out and tied up you feel obligated to work with all of them.
I rode Toffy. We did it outside in the 15 degree weather with a really cold wind. First I desensitized and did loneging. I was outside when Frosty went into her kicking rage and lucky for me I am getting better at controlling Toffy's spooks. She didn't buck. I worked on turning and going where I wanted to not where she wanted to. I did a little bit of stopping and a little bit of backing up. I'll have to take a video just to show you how good she really is. I didn't trot because I figured that would just set her to bucking with how spooky she was today.
The bestest highlight? I rode Frosty. It was the first time with all the tack on. I got on from the flatbed trailer then I asked Terry to lead her around a little bit. She was totally find. When we were in the fillies' section of the barn Terry gave me the lead rope and I taught her directional control. I also worked on stopping. I don't think I have told you how I'm doing that. I'm not saying woah and I'm not pulling back on the reins. I'm just exhaling and relaxing.

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That was yesterday. Today I didn't get over to the horses'. I was busy. I slept over at my oldest sister's and my brother-in law's (E & N) place. N is a welder and I signed up for an Agg Mechanics competition in FFA. Which requires you to weld. So N taught me a little bit about welding, left me to it, and I learned how to make a straight weld. I also learned a lot more not just about welding. One example. I can't start N's old girl (truck). It's a stick shift.

Even though I didn't go to Terry's today Aleythia did. She says she tied all the fillies up and they were a lot better. Frosty wasn't pawing or kicking and everyone was fine. Terry gave the fillies' hair a trim. Terry trimmed their ears and cut a bridal path.  Aleythia said they were find with it. I was like "really? Even Coffie?" The last time Terry tried to clip Coffie's ears she would have nothing to do with it. Aleythia thinks it's because of the desensitizing with the plastic bag we did. When I did it with Coffie she didn't like it by her ears so I got her used to it touching and making noise between her ears. 

Listening and Learning

I listened to my horse today. I saddled and bridled Coffie. First observation - she was a little wary. Second observation - when I banged on he saddle and flapped the stirrups she nearly jumped to high heaven. I didn't ride today. I worked on bridling and I desensitized her to a plastic bag. I am also starting to just throw the tack on. She spooked a little at that. I took it a little slower, gradually increasing the impact and then letting the stirrup down. Her session took me an hour and 45 minutes. She was shaking her head trying to avoid the bit when I put it in so I worked on that. When I moved onto the plastic bag she wouldn't let me put it between her ears. I wanted her to step on the bag too. She bucked a couple of times. She'll step on the bag and she'll let the bag go between her ears.
I think that we need to keep up a regular desensitizing regimen. I think that the more I desensitize right now the better. It will make her a little bit safer when I get on and ride. I also think that I need to lounge her in tack so that she can get used to the feel of it. I think I should do it with all the fillies too.
I basically did the same thing with Frosty that I did with Coffie except that there wasn't a plastic bag. I was thinking about riding her too, but she just felt too nervous. She didn't want to stand still. I tacked her all up and then desensitized to the saddle stirrups and then I just let her trot around me until she got a little calmer.
Aleythia worked with Dash on bridling and desensitizing to a plastic bag.            
I did ride Toffy. I worked on going, turning, trotting, and backing up. She got a little scared when a chicken got scared right in front of her and that caused her to buck a little bit but I was able to turn her and she calmed down. Trotting was fun. She has a really funny feeling trot. Almost all the trots I have ever ridden have made me go up and down. Here's is more of a side to side motion and the only thing I can think of to compare it to is a fox trotter's trot. It's weird. She trotted really nicely though. She also got backing up down quite well. Dang she can back up better than my older horses. I did a brief thing on getting her to flex at the poll and when she had done that a couple times I kept the pressure until she backed up a step. She was resistant at first. She would shake her head and try to get rid of it somehow. But she did figure it out. By the time I finished riding her I would pull bag really lightly on the reins and she would back up a couple steps. Beautiful horse.
Here's a short video on teaching turning with Toffy.                                               

 

 

I have the first post of my other blog up! Go check it out! It took a while to get everything the way I wanted it and there will probably be more changes to come, but in the meantime enjoy!



Follow It!

So I am really happy about today. I rode Toffy and I taught her how to turn.
Aleythia showed me an article on teaching a horse to follow their nose. I really liked it. You can find it here.
Like I said it tells you how to teach a horse to follow his nose. My summary of how they do this is your riding in a snaffle and you want your horse to turn left. Now your horse is a greenie and doesn't quite understand direction. You pull to the left and he doesn't go or is maybe really slow about it. So you either pull harder, wait, or... you can bring your foot back and get him to disengage his hindquarters so that he is facing the direction you chose. Now to get the best results don't expect to really go somewhere just ask for a turn disengage the hindquarters two steps and walk on.
It might also help if your horse flexes well in the bridle (he can touch the fender of your saddle with his nose). It will also help if your horse already knows how to disengage his hindquarters on the ground.
If you read the article it says that it will help your horse to never fade out of a turn. I can attest that it does work. I was really surprised how quickly Toffy caught onto the fact that she was to go left when I asked her to go left and right when I asked her to go right. And she was making the turns really well.
The last thing I did was trot. Nothing big mind you, but I got maybe ten feet of trotting out of her and then I called it good.
Misstack has a problem with fading out of a turn. She doesn't turn when I want her to. Trail rides are especially bad. I have to constantly pull on one rein to keep her going the direction I want. She doesn't turn barrels real well. Her circles are really wide. I'll see if it works.

I'm thinking about making a blog on horse philosophy. It will be about how to teach your horse different things, using different methods, and different trainers. What's best in different situations, good things to read, good places to get information, and I think I'll even put up places to find good cheap tack.

I'm also thinking about making a page and once a week I'll pick one of my blog posts and translate it into Spanish. Just so that I can learn more about that language, and use it.

Summer Plan

There is one thing I'm really looking forward to this summer. Well, more than one thing, but anywho. Aleythia and I are going to trail ride out to my oldest sister's place. It's around 15 miles away. She lives on a six acre farm just outside of a town that has nothing in it. Literally. There is nothing there but houses.  What we'll do is ride out in the morning and we'll go half a mile in the opposite direction so that we don't have to go through town. That also means that we'll add a mile onto our trip. We have our route all planned out. It'll be fun! I haven't decided how many horses we'll bring. The fillies will have quite a bit of riding by the time we do this and will be 2 years old. So we could bring them.  If we brang four horses that meant that we could switch horses on the way over. And we would be able to have my sister (E) and my brother-in law (N) ride. Trail ride maybe? I told N about riding one of the horses and he said they wouldn't be able to hold his weight. Ha!
We'll stay at their house for three or four days and then head home. Then there's everything else to plan. The horses will need water. They'll need a place to sleep. Food. E and N do have a barn. The place they live on did have horses, but the barn was made more for small livestock like sheep or maybe minis. But they do have a sort of shed that we could put them in at night. There is also an area in front of their house that would serve as a little pasture. The fence is wire. Not mesh, but in squares. There's also two apple trees in there. We're thinking with the water either ask Nate if he has something for it that they could easily hold sixty pounds of water. Or we could take a few buckets and hook them to that fence so that they couldn't tip them over and fill them up every couple of hours. The first thing would be way easier though. I don't think we'll have to worry about them having hay. If we do we'll just bring it over on a Sunday and store it in the barn. We'll also have to bring over the stuff we'll need to stay that long. Anything else I'm forgetting? I have a few friends in that area so we'll go visit them too. One of my friends has access to the lake. ?Nadaba con cabillos? (swimming with horses?) I'm practicing spanish. So if I make a random post in spanish.... almost sounds like fun.

We took care of the horses today for Terry because he had to go somewhere today. We do that sort of thing even if he's around. We didn't do much though. After we let the horses in Aleythia and I got out a couple of lawnchairs and sat in the pen with the fillies. They were a little wary of the folding chairs though. They freaked out when it hit the gate. When we got cold we went inside and watched TV. When we came back out to give the horses their feed the fillies had knocked over the folding chairs.

Stretch isn't doing to well. The last time we went to the horses' Terry had left him in the barn because he could barely walk. Today he was out but he's still in pain. This might be the year we lose the old boy.
I have pictures! I love photography.

ain't they adorable

santana and strudder

supper time!

I like these kind of photos

Random I know, but I  like the random side of photography

Ya Won't Know if it'll Work Unless You Try It

So I did something really fun the other day. Stupid? Depends on how you look at it. You could say that I made an educated guess on the subject. Or you could say that it was idiotic and I had no idea what would happen. Let's just say this, both are true.
I got on the fillies bareback and lacking anything to stop them from bucking to high heaven... or to protect me from the impact... But man it was fun! I did make an educated guess on how they would react. I didn't expect a reaction actually. And it was slightly stupid because we've gotten on them probably about five times. Oh and we haven't worked with them in about three weeks...
We'd gotten a little bit of snow and it was slightly warmer so the paddock had a little traction. Otherwise I wouldn't have done anything with the horses. The first horse I got on was Toffy. Aleythia helped me up and as I expected she did nothing. She might have raised her head a little bit but that's about it. There's something about getting on your horse with nothing to control him, trusting him to take care of you.
We did this all the time with Flicka. The one difference. She ignored us and did what she wanted. When I got on the fillies I asked them to go, turn, and stop. Toffy did it quite well. Not perfect, but pretty good. I got on Frosty after that. Well I didn't touch the ground when I switched horses. I told Aleythia that I wanted to see if I could get on Frosty off of Toffy's back. Frosty was standing right next to me. I nudged Toffy ahead a little bit. Then Frosty moved. After a little while Frosty was standing next to Toffy and me again and so I brought my leg over Toffy's neck and then placed my other foot on Frosty's back. She stood there so I shifted myself over to her back. She stood there and took it. I think she was a little surprised when she felt my weight on her back, but all she did was raise her head slightly, and when I was settled she relaxed. Those fillies are awesome. I am amazed at what we can accomplish with them. Thankyou God for smart horses.
I tried to get Frosty to move her hindquarters over, but she ended up just walking forward and it didn't work too well. I eventually had Aleythia put a hand over her nose and then ask her to move her hidnquarters over. It worked that time.
Aleythia got on Coffie and she did very well and Aleythia said it was really easy to get her to turn. I was laughing at Strudder when Aleythia and Coffie were next to him. Coffie layed her ears back slightly and he backed up. I was like you big baby. Aleythia also rode Dash. That didn't go as well as I would have hoped. Aleythia tried getting on Dash from the fence and Dash got scared and started bucking. Dash ran off and instead of chasing after her I told Aleythia to just stand there for a little bit. Then we walked to a place a little ways away from Dash and ignored her. After a couple seconds we heard the crunch of hooves on the ice and snow covered ground. When the sound stopped we turned around and there was Dash. I don't know how I knew that would work, I think it had something to do with the fact that the more you ignore a horse the more they want to be with you.
I gave Aleythia a leg up onto Dash so that she was lying across Dash's back on her stomach. She bucked again. The next time I told Aleythia to just jump beside her. This got her to walk quickly trying to get away but eventually she stopped. Then I came over and told Aleythia was that for the first little bit I was gunna act like I was going to give her a leg up but then we would stop, to give Dash a little bit of confidence. This time when Aleythia eventually was laying across her back Dash didn't buck. She stood still. Then we did it again. Aleythia wanted to quit after that but I said that I wanted her to ride Dash. I gave her a leg up and very slowly with lots of pauses and rubbing she was sitting on Dash. She rode around a little bit and Dash was relaxed and happy. She wasn't as responsive as the other horses, but she did well.
So there's my story of something I should or shouldn't have done. One thing I did notice was that afterwards the fillies seemed to want to be with us more. Coffie followed Aleythia after she got off.

It's Been too Long

Three weeks. That's how long it's been sense I saw horses. That's depressing. It's been around negative seven lately. With at least 40 mph winds. This is the time of year when I don't work with horses too much. It's too cold. Then winter's end is even worse. Everything starts thawing out and it's just slush everywhere. Right now it's all ice. We got rain in January! And then it hit the negatives...
Last week I was coming home from a sleepover and I was passing the horses's and they had just been let out and were cantering out of the barn. Dash got to the end of the paddock and when she tried to turn she totally wiped out! It was kinda funny. (I'm such an evil person.) Today was bad too. The paddock was really icy. the horses were pretty much baby stepping everywhere they went. When Terry took me home I told him I was surprised I didn't fall on my way over.... Then five feet later I slipped. BUT I didn't fall! I was close. But I didn't fall!
I was happy that I was able to go to Terry's today even if I didn't do anything. What I did do was spend some time with my horses.
You have no idea how important that is. Learning your horse's habits and their behavior and the hierarchy in the herd is valuable information. I like to figure out what I have to do to get my horses to move out of my space or never come in. Feeding time is great for this. I think it's fun to try and communicate with my horses as close to their language as I can get. To see if they respect me as the boss.