This Is How We Do It! (gangsta voice)

Fair is over!!! So glad. I love fair. I love getting to talk to people I haven't seen in a while, walking around, not going on the rides, and the horses. The reason I'm so glad it's over is because Aleythia and I have been at the fair sense Sunday of last week. And the fair doesn't even start 'till Tuesday. Sunday we had a horse show, Monday we worked at St. Pauls Lutheran food stand. Tuesday we worked at a booth selling pro-life t-shirts. Wednesday we worked at the booth again. Thursday we brought horses in, Friday was 4-H day, Saturday we showed, and Sunday I showed. I've pretty much lived at the fair all week. The only thing we did with the fillies was a halter class on Sunday. Toffy got first, Dash got second, Coffie got third, and Frosty got fourth. Terry's grandsons showed Dash and Frosty. Frosty was the youngest's 4-H horse so he did lead line with her. Aleythia, was leading and he was riding. They were lined up, and Aleythia was circling Frosty, and she decided to roll! Right in the middle of the class! The judge went over and said that Frosty must be really calm that she would roll in a place she's never been. She asked if she was a two year old, and then she asked if she could see her papers. We have yet to see what will come of that.
Today we went on a trail ride with one of my older sisters. We took, Frosty, Dash, and Toffie. We headed out towards the fair grounds, by way of the train tracks. We skirted the back side of the fair grounds, and followed a tractor trail. Well, we ended up running into a place where it was possible to get the horses to go into the stream. They went in eventually after we convinced them to stop eating the grass. They got in the creek, and immediately started pawing. We got them moving and five minutes later Frosty decides that laying down would be a good idea. My sister managed to get her up without getting too wet. Then Toffie decides that she needed to roll, and Aleythia can't get her up. She ended up actually getting off and stepping in the water, and she still couldn't get Toffie to get up. She went behind her and started clapping, and yelling. Toffie got up this time. But now Aleythia's boots were full of water. It was fun. I reaffirmed the fact that Dash is way too stiff. She does not give to the bit's pressure very well... And if she decides to gallop, it takes a while to slow her down. Aleythia discovered that Toffy can really speed up fast. She'll make a good barrel horse because of it.
When we got back it was maybe a half hour later, and we were sitting underneath one of the apple trees eating apples, when a lady and her granddaughter pulled up. They knew Terry and said that he had invited them over to ride. I called Terry to make sure he knew about it and that it would be okay, and I gave the granddaughter a little lesson. We got out Blacky and I gave her a crash course on the basics. Haltering, saddling, bridling, riding, ect. It was a lot of fun. She was a confident rider too. She loved trotting. She even cantered albeit accidentally. Blacky thought it was a good idea. I love Blacky. She knows exactly how much she should or shouldn't do depending on the rider. Yesterday she was being ridden by a little boy, and she just walked around real lazy like. Today she was like, let's mu fasa! She was trottin all over the place. The girl enjoyed herself immensely.

These last two days have been a lot of fun. Thursday we went to Terry's late. It was cooler at 6:30 than it was at two. Rode every one but Toffy and Santana. Two of Terry's grandsons rode a few of the fillies too. It was really funny. The fillies did great. They didn't understand what the boys were asking, but they tried there best. The boys couldn't figure out how to direct rein. We really need to teach those fillies how to neck rein. They were also having a little trouble getting them moving, but a little spank on the butt fixed that. They just walked. With one of the boys it was his first time getting on a horse in about four years. Terry got on too! He hasn't been on a horse in about four or five years either. Then I hopped on Ana bareback and bridle-less, and she hated it. She would grudgingly do what I ask, but she was not happy. She does leg pressure, just sometimes you have to kick a little harder to get her to do it. Ana is limping though. It is not good. We don't know why. We were thinking about giving Toffy a bath too, but it was getting late.
Yesterday HM came over and we took the herd out on a trail ride. Seriously. We took three of the fillies. She rode Coffie, I rode Dash, and Aleythia rode Frosty. And then another two boys, brothers, and grandchildren of Terry rode Santana and Blacky. It was fun. I kinda felt that if anything set Dash off I would be on the ground and she would be running toward home. We let some people pet the horses too. They new something about horses. They were surprised at how well behaved the fillies were for only being two. We got back and then got Santana, Misstack, and Strudder all tacked up and in the paddock. HM got to try some barrel racing and pole racing and also saddle seat with Strudder. She was loving Santana's turns around the barrels. And she loved Misstack's canter. Misstack loves to canter. She was trying to get Misstack to go through poles, but kept knocking poles down because she couldn't get her to move out far enough. We tried figuring that out. She went through fine with me. Aleythia rode Santana a little bit too. Both Aleythia and HM were having a hard time getting Santana to canter. Don't know why. I thought he was just fine. They were also really surprised when they turned that last barrel, and he just took off. It takes a little getting used too.
HM has a new appreciation for how different our horses are from hers. She rode Strudder and he was great for her. He kept wanting to quit though. He looked gorgeous. If only he got ridden a little more consistently.
But that was the last two days. I really want my camera. My sis said I couldn't have it.

Lessons

The horses were saddled and we were ready to go on our ride. H and I walked up and out of the driveway, took a left into town, and then another left at the first road. We were maybe halfway down the road when a black man pulls up and asks when he can ride

~ ~~

Ya know what. Even if I don't become a trainer and just own horses (if I don't, be surprised) I will open my barn to anyone who is willing to learn how to ride and I will have the horses to do it. My siblings can't ride because we don't have a suitable horse and neither can anyone else. We have an awesome black horse who is great with kids, unfortunately she's a pony and has really bad arthritis. We don't use Strudder because he also has arthritis and is almost always lame, and he's an English horse. Stretch is too old and can't get running out of his head anyway. Ana doesn't have breaks, and Terry doesn't trust Misstack with beginners and she can be such a nut job. Santana is the most likely to buck someone off and can be a handful. The fillies aren't an option.

My personal opinion is that Misstack and Santana would be our best choices. Misstack is a really nice horse when she knows where she is. Santana won't (probably anyway) buck or become hyper if he walks and trots and check him at the canter before he gets too fast. And besides a couple rounds of letting him run gets him calmed down pretty well. And he's probably the best trail horse we have.

Terry also is wary of letting people ride his horses because if they get hurt and sue him he could lose everything. What he should do is actually put that sign up in his barn warning people that horses are unpredictable and that they could get hurt. It might be a good idea and he couldn't get sued if he had that up.

 

But I had a really nice trail ride with H today. It was beautiful weather. I'm talking 60 to 70 degrees here. And despite Santana getting hyper when we ran across a field it wasn't too bad. We ended nicely. Before we left we went into the paddock to get any kinks out and it was kinda cool, because Ana followed Misstack and me around for quite a while. She pivoted when I turned Misstack into her neck, stopped when we stopped, followed when we turned away. It was funny.

I showed H what Coffie does when you breathe into her nose. It gave us a good laugh. And because I can't remember if I told you what she does I will tell you  know. Whenever you breathe into her nose she immediately puts her nose up in the air, rolls back her lips, and puts a disgusted look on her face. Silly horsey. It's probably a trick now because we pet her every time she does it.

And I worked with one filly after our ride and H got to see the problems that are presented the first time a horse learns to drive. Does anyone else think that sentence is funny? Go back and read it... You'll understand.

Frosty did extremely well. Well, not in the beginning. A little bit of advice if you are teaching a horse anything for the first time don't have pressure that's constantly there. It makes them frustrated. I'll give you an example. The halter was snug against her nose, she bent her head, but didn't find release. She lowered her head and braced against pressure. No release. Well, maybe a little one, because that was her solution to unending pressure. So now she braces against the halter and when I ask her to turn she puts her head down low and leans against the halter. I wait. She puts her head in the right direction. She is rewarded with a little bit of a release, but she still has that pressure. I wait. She steps, I release. Some of you might understand this example better. Try taking an uneducated horse and holding his head like you would a more advanced horse just as long as you would a more advanced horse too. Please take a video. I would love to see the results.



Moving Forward

We have moved on. We are now very pleased with the fillie's abilities to lead, and are now moving on to loneging. We will keep on refining their leading as much as the opportunity arises, but it won't be the main thing we focus on. We have taught them a little bit on loneging, but it needs some work. They know walking and a little bit of trotting. They know that when you yield their hindquarters they face you and stop, and they know that when we tap on their neck they step away. Our goal is to get them to stop with different commands. The first is to stop with "woah". We want them to stop on the outside of the circle without turning in. The yeilding of their hindquarters, and resting the whip on my shoulder. Another goal is to get them to trot really well, and canter. All with voice commands. I want them to be able to transiton between the gaits too. With cantering we'll only get them to go into the canter first. Then they can drop back down into a trot. When they are consistently cantering on command we will have them canter without breaking gait. We'll spend a really short time on cantering, because they are young and still growing and I don't want to put too much stress on their legs. Better safe than sorry.
I started loneging on Tuesday. While I was there MD, the person who lives were the fillies are, went and rode Josie. I loneged Coffie and Toffy, and I also desensitized them both to the saddle blanket. I had already did it with Coffie, but I reviewed it anyway. Then MD came back from her ride and I asked her if she wanted to help me with the other two fillies. She's like "sure!" Before she had told me that she thought it was really cool too watch us train the fillies and was willing to learn how. So, the whole point was to teach her a little something. I handed her the halter and lead rope and told her she could catch one of the fillies. She went up to Frosty and petted her nose. I told her she could just throw the rope over Frosty's neck to catch her. She threw it over and the end of the rope hit Coffie on the other side of Frosty. So they kinda go spooked and ran off. That's all right we just got ta go after them. We followed Frosty around and she eventually stopped and let MD come up to her. I told her that this time try just placing it around her neck instead of throwing it. It worked and she got the halter on Frosty. When MD was going after Frosty she told me that I would have probably got the halter on already. That might be true, but I think the reason they spooked when she threw the rope over Frosty's neck is because they didn't know if she was going to hurt them or not. They didn't know her. They didn't know what to expect from her so, they acted accordingly.
Then came the loneging. First I showed and talked to MD about how to longe. Then I had her do it. It was apparent to me that she had never loneged a horse before, but that's okay. It's never too late to learn. At first she couldn't get Frosty to step out real well. And I can totally see how that can be a problem. Her first set of cues is to point and kiss. next is to pull on the lead rope, then a tap on the but. Well in order for you to do all these you have to be far enough to the front of the horse and have a short enough length of rope to be able to put pressure on the halter without being in front of them. And you have to be back far enough that you can reach their back end with the whip. It would probably help if I had a longer whip, but I don't so ya work with what ya got. MD eventually got that figured out but whenever she tapped Frosty on the but she would fling her hindquarters out. I suggested that instead of tapping her on the side of Frosty's butt, try tapping on the top. That worked much better. The next problem was that Frosty kept running into MD's space. After figuring out that it is way to complicated to keep the horse moving forward and stay out of your space, I told MD that we would just work on Frosty turning her shoulder away from her. So I showed her the sequence of pressure -  tap the air four times, lightly tap her neck 4x, tap harder4x, tap with increasing pressure every four beats until she does it - And nobody likes to hit their horse so MD had trouble with the pressure thing. She would stop too soon or lighten the pressure instead of increasing it. Well, eventually she got it. Then we went back to loneging. After a couple circles MD got Frosty to go around really nice and we let Frosty go. MD understood were she needed to stand and when pressure was needed. Then we went and got Dash. I did the loneging once adn then had MD do it. She did extremely well. Dash was going around in nice circles so we quit with loneging.
We led Dash over to where the saddle blanket was and while we were leading MD kept looking back at Dash and Dash was not leading very well. I told her that she should expect Dash to follow her. If she displayed an air of confidence in leading, Dash would pick up on her confidence and follow nicely. She stopped looking back and Dash followed nicely. We got the saddle pad and I started out first. I let Dash follow me while holding the saddle pad, then let her sniff it. All the while explaining to MD why I do something. The reason I have Dash follow the blanket is because if something moves away from them it doesn't pose a threat. Letting her sniff the blanket gave her confidence that it wasn't goign to hurt her. Then I commensed with rubbing her shoulder, back, hindquarters, neck and face. I knew before hand that rubbing Dash with the blanket and then petting her would give Dash a shock (courtesy of Toffy), so when I was gunna pet Dash for the first time I told MD that rubbing her will give her a shock (that time of year). I petted Dash and sure enough it gave her a shock. I said to prevent this (I don't want Dash to become afraid of my hand) I will start touching the ground before I pet Dash. Rubbed Dash with the saddle blanket again, touched the ground then pet Dash. No shock. From there I pulled the saddle blanket across dash from head to tail. Threw it on her back,  under her belly, and on her hindquarters. Then I took the blanket and heaved it up and over her head and back again. My arm got tired but Dash was totally fine with it when I was done. Next MD did the same thing on the other side. I explained to her that the reason I do all this crazy stuff with this saddle blanket is because I don't want a horse that moves off when I put the saddle blanket on. Doing all this will creat a horse that doesn't move when being saddled. I find it really annoying when horses move during saddling. Then we were done! It took us about two hours to finish with the fillies. But it was all worth it because I got to teach someone something about horses.

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.