Foal!

I am really excited for this summer. The owner of the horses I ride, asked his farrier if he could find a quarter horse yearling for my sister and I to train. It will be a gelding, and if we do get a foal we will have him for the summer, and then he will return to his owners when school starts. This is because when school starts we will not have time to give the foal the attention he needs.

"Working With His Brakes On"

On the trainer's blog I follow, the trainer posted something that just might help me with my hyper horse Ana, to get her to calm down, and gain collection. Here's the site.  http://robertsontraining.blogspot.com/2012/05/teaching-cruise-control.html

I'll try it with both my horses and let you know the results

Running the Horses

A few days ago my sister and I trail rode Misstack and Ana out to a field that we had permission to use. When we got there we started running the horses. When the horses stepped in that black dirt the dirt came up to their ankles. That was actually pretty handy because Misstack couldn't buck because the dirt was so loose that she always had to keep her feet under her. My sister was saying how when Ana trotted it felt like she was gliding, and how her canter was really easy to ride (it normally isn't). The initial reason for doing this was to try to fix Misstack's problem of bucking when she cantered in a new place. I think it worked. Last Saturday my sister and I went trail riding again and we cantered beside the road outside of town. Misstack didn't even think about bucking. Not too long ago Misstack wouldn't even go up the driveway, now, with only three trail rides, she's a better trail horse than Ana, who is really hyper and has been doing it since last summer, but doesn't shy at a lot of stuff.

Bucked Off and Glad of it

I was riding Misstack on a trail ride with my sister on Ana, and it was my first trail ride with Misstack. She has gone on  a trail ride one other time and she came back with a big cut in her front leg and a circle shaped cut on her rump. Her rider got a broken wrist. Once we figured out that I should ride Misstack and not Ana the trail ride got underway. Misstack still wasn't all that keen on going anywhere. When we got to a fairly open spot my sister did ground work with Ana and I did circles with Misstack. If she wanted to go one way, I told her to go the other way. Eventually I got it so that the bushes she wouldn't go through not half an hour before became just bushes and not scary evil green creatures trying to kill her. And then on the way back she was trying to keep up with Ana who was cantering a weaving pattern between the trees and I didn't want her too. So she got really excited and started bucking while cantering. And ya know how it's almost impossible for them to buck if they're going fast enough, well she doesn't have a problem with that. She basically jumps into the air while cantering and then bucks while all four feet are in the air. You're on the ground before you know what's happening. I succeeded in staying on her first one, but her second I didn't have that good a seat so I was ended up on my back on the ground. But in some aspects I am glad she bucked. I figured out what circumstances make her buck. Because I know that, I can figure out a way to fix it. So this week we are going to take Misstack and Ana out to a couple fields and run em, to see if I can fix the problem.

New Training Plan with Ana: 2nd time

Today I worked on her turning away from me when I lead her and staying a certain distance away. I reviewed what we did yesterday, and added a few new things. I wanted her to go from a run, yield her hindquarters away from me so that she gives me two eyes and stop. She did quite well. I also incorporated yielding her hindquarters into doing a figure eight next to a fence. My goal for this is to get her to do that pattern by just following the pull of the lead rope. The pull should almost look nonexistent but your hand should move. when I was finished, well, I wasn't finished. You're not done training until you leave your horse's environment. When I opened the gate I stood there fore a little while. The purpose of this is to teach you horse that you always go first. Doesn't matter what you're doing. You go first through a gate, you always take the first step, you always tell them when to go. If she had moved I would have backed her up how many steps she took forward. If she would have ran through that gate I would have backed her up very energetically, making her back up until I think she's backed far enough. Do not let your horse stop backing up when they want to stop backing up. That will just get them to respect you even less. When I lead Ana through the gate, I took her halter off and had her stand there, while I told her that she did a good job. I don't want my horse thinking that the lesson is done when I take the halter off. That is unsafe, because usually a horse will run or buck, or both, away from you. I don't want her to go away until I go away. Teach your horse this after you're done working with him and you're going to put him in his stall. Your horse will feel less of a need to run away from you when he's only going to stand in his stall.

Starting Ana with a New Plan: First Time

Okay, I am starting to try doing a lot of ground work with Ana, so the first thing I wanted her to do was to always turn to the inside when I lunged her. This is not something I came up with on my own. It is training from Clinton Anderson.

Gotta Do Somethin Else

I have a horse who's name is Ana. She is 3 quarters saddlebred and a quarter arabian. She is extremely pretty, and learns very easily. She has the potential to do anything. The only thing that keeps her back is that on a scale of one to ten for temperament she is probably a 7. It's not that she's mean, or bucks or rears, she doesn't. In fact she is a really sweet horse. The reason I rate her temperament as a 7 is because she is extremely hyper. She's hard to handle because she always wants to gogogo. When she's calm and using the thinking side of her brain she is a really fun horse to ride. Lately I have come to the conclusion that if I keep training her the way I have been (mostly running her till she's tired) I will eventually ruin that horse. She will just keep getting more and more endurance up and stop listening to me more and more. I have been riding her in a hackmoore, because she hates the bit and everytime I use it she gets way too hyper and that usually ends up with me frustrated. When I'm frustrated it is just way too easy to yank on the reigns to get her too do what I want. I need to find a different way of training her, and I have to get her responsive to the bit. When I pull back on the reigns to get her to stop she has started just walking through the pressure. Not Good! I am realizing that I am running out of the knowledge to train her correctly and it frustrates me. What I need to do is get her to always use the thinking side of her brain. I need to be able to control her from the ground. If I could take her down to Texas to get training from Clinton Anderson I so would.
My advice to you is if your horse frustrates you, evaluate your riding and training and try to change yourself. If that still doesn't work go to a professional trainer.

 "When you run out of knowledge you get frustrated." - Clinton Anderson