Balance

I'm trying to have more balance in my life this semester.  Last semester I realized at the end of the year that I hadn't done hardly anything with my horses or my friends...it was all school and family.  Both of those things are definitely priorities, but life does need more balance, so I'm trying to find it this semester.  Plus, I have a goal this year.  I want Griffin to be ridden on the trail this summer.  I've been trying to do something with my horses every weekend, at least once.  Griffin is a priority right now, and if I have additional time, I'm riding the "old" ones.  Kachina is going to have to wait a bit (maybe she'll grow more if I give her more time off :)  Not likely...) 

Last weekend and the next couple of weeks, I'm trying to get the hooves of all 6 trimmed up.  I got Cody at the end of January, Chico and Catlow last weekend.  Next weekend is Pumpkin, then Griffin, then Kachina.  Then start all over again with Cody.  Trimming is frustratingly never ending, but I do like doing it.  I like that part of my relationship with my horses.  I like knowing them inside and out and since their feet are such a big part of them, I get great satisfaction in maintaining them.  I got even more excited about trimming after discussing it with the farrier that works on horses at the vet school.  I really like our farrier.  He is a really friendly guy, likes to explain what he's doing and how the feet and whole horse work together, and he is not "stuck in a rut" as far as farrier work goes.  He learns new techniques, and works closely with the veterinarians in the clinic, analyzing radiographs of hooves to best determine how to help lame horses.  I'm hoping to hang out and learn from him more often.

On Sunday I got Griffin out and saddled him up for the 3rd time.  I saddled him next to the horse trailer rather than in the round pen because to get to the roundpen means carrying my saddle all the way up there (it's a ways and uphill).  I figured that my horse should be carrying my saddle up there for me, so we worked at standing next to the trailer and accepting saddling calmly.  He stands really well for the saddle pad (I toss it on and off repeatedly from both sides), but he generally wants to back up when I approach his side with the saddle.  I just pull him back forward and swing the saddle up and down at his side several times and back away.  Then I do it again, and he stands very well once I start swinging it.  Then I swing it up on his back.  He stands, but I feel that he wants to step away when I swing it up there.  He'll get better.  It's only his 3rd time wearing it!  Once his saddle is on, he stands extremely patiently while I I fiddle with getting the breast collar on and all the buckled just right.  And cinching is smooth. 

After tacking up, I dug out my breeching for him to wear.  For those who don't know, a breeching is a harness that goes around the horse's rump and attaches to the back of the saddle and to the rings on the cinch.  It is worn in mountain riding to prevent the saddle from sliding forward.  I used it with Chico when we packed into the Cascades in Washington, and I like to use it as a training tool to get horses used to things touching them all over when they are moving.  In the round pen, I swung it around Griffin's rump to get him used to it, then tossed it up on top, attached it to the ring on the back of the saddle, and slid the strap around his rump.  He stood calmly, completely unconcerned.  It was cold out, and I had to fiddle with the buckles for quite a while to loosen them enough to enlarge the breeching.  I think the last horse that wore it was Catlow as a 4 year old, and I couldn't believe how much larger I had to make it.  When Chico wore it as a 3 year old, it was even smaller yet!  If Chico wore it now, I'd have to make it even larger than I did for Griffin...he has really matured into a big stout horse.  Anyway, Griffin was great, although on his right side, I had to follow him for a few steps while he circled away from me (that's his most uncomfortable side), but he stopped and then just stood for several minutes while I got the breeching adjusted just right.  When I asked him to move out around me, he did so calmly, paying the breeching no mind, so we did some basic exercises (flexing, yeilding fores and hinds, backing, responding to cues where my leg will be), and then we got out of the round pen (still deep and crusty with snow) and went for a walk.

Back at the trailer after our nice walk, I looped the leadrope through the tie ring and had him practice standing tied while I unsaddled him.  He did well.  I don't want to tie him fast to a trailer that is not attached to a vehicle, when he is not used to being restrained so near one just in case he were to freak out.

As I walked home through the pasture, Kachina asked to be haltered so she could have a treat, so I did halter her.  I lead her through the pasture and on top of the hill.  She was so calm until I tapped her on the withers with the gloves in my hand.  If the gloves has been on my hand, I dont' think she would have reacted, but as it was, the gloves were now foreign and she jumped back and got all huffy and upset.  So I of course had to work with rubbing her and tapping her with my gloves to desensitize her.  She relaxed a tad after a bit, so then I led her down and out the gate into my yard and lunged her in a circle for a bit just to practice changing directions and listening to my body language outside the pasture.  We still have about 4-5 inches of crusty snow, so she had to pick her feet up high as she trotted around me with energy.  Lunging Kachina is an exercise in directing her high energy - she moves easily, I don't have to nag at her, and she doesn't pull on the halter.  She is fun to lunge because of that.  I couldnt' have picked two more opposite horses to work with out of the Sulphur Springs HMA.  She is sensitive, energetic, thin skinned, a flighty.  Griffin is more secure, much less reactive, not flighty at all, and he tends to be a little dull at times with cues.  Lunging him is a nagging feat if I want him to go faster than a trot.  That is something that I have not been working on yet since my round pen footing is not good enough for it yet (with the snow and all, and then the deep sand underneath).  I plan to work on that more before I ever get on his back.  I want him to move more freely.  That stickiness scares me a bit...I find it easier to control a horse that will respond to my cues even if they are fast and flying around, than one that might freeze up and stop responding.  I'd rather they go forward than freeze up!  But I am not that worried about Griffin.  I think things will go quite smoothly when we get there.  I think I could ride him at a walk/trot in the round pen tomorrow without it being a wreck, but I want to be a little more convinced that Griffin knows how to respond to me under any circumstances...I'm not in a hurry.  I have a baby to think about.  :)

More Griffin time

I worked with Griffin again this weekend. He was awesome once again. This time we added the blanket under the surcingle. He is completely non-reactive to it, even when I push him really hard. We began learning voice cues today for "trot" and "canter". I don't like to drill it into him...I just use the works as I ask him to canter with the stick and string. I don't expect it will take him long to connect it, since today I noticed that he knows the word "back". Imagine my surprise when he took a step back when I was just talking to him and my sentence happened to include the work "back". I have never tried to enforce just the word cue since I usually give a leadrope cue as well, but it seems he has figured it out!

We took a walk to the pond and he drank from the pond, and then followed me in.

But the duck that my dogs scared out of the cattails gave him a bit of a start.

The apple tree we came across was heavenly!

February 26th 2008

"Post from the Past"

February 26th 2008

I worked with Catlow and Chico in the round pen this evening. I think I ended up working Catlow for 1.5 hours, and Chico for half an hour.

I worked with Catlow first. I caught her, took her blanket off and put the circingle on her. She wasn’t concerned at all about me putting it on her. I led her to the round pen and then unclipped her lead. Then I got the plastic bag and proceeded to walk around ignoring her and shaking it. She stood by the gate watching me, but didn’t run until I got close to her, then she did run around the round pen, so I nonchalantly cut her off whenever she tried to go past me. Eventually, she stopped and faced me, then I was able to walk right up to her and scratch her with the bag. She seemed to want to keep me on her left side, so I had to make an effort to work both sides and get her to face up to me straight. She did so well…when I clucked at her hiny, she calmly swung it out and faced me, from both directions she would do that. She wasn’t leary about me touching her with the bag at all. She did get nervous if I shook it, then quickly went to lay it on her withers, but she didn’t run away, she’d just turn away a few steps to be ready to run away if she had to. And a couple of times, as soon as I touched her with the bag, she uttered a huge sigh, indicating that she was uptight, but not shutting down…she was actually relaxing with this whole process. She never actually yawned at all today, so I think that she managed to keep breathing through most of the exercises.

Then I practiced free-lunging her, then asking her to stop and turn in. Then I’d walk up to her with the bag, and lay it on her shoulder or shake it and lay it on her shoulder and rub her face with my hand. She was keeping her head really low when I rubbed her showing me that she was relaxed in my presence. She is actually finally getting over the throwing her head up every time I move. She did still raise her head when I shook the bag, but she is doing awesome for as fearful as she was. I really am getting the feeling that she isn’t as stressed about working with me anymore. She’s starting to understand what I expect and it is getting easier to listen to me. Things have gone slowly with her, but she really is improving! I worked a lot in this session on getting her to read me better…understanding when to go (when I point and cluck, then shake the bag when she doesn’t listen), and when I don’t want her to go (when I don’t point, but approach her, even if the bag is jiggling a bit). She was really understanding not to leave, but a little less certain about me actually asking her to leave. I think that shows that she is feeling comfortable enough with me, that she’s only going to leave if that’s really what I intend. We haven’t worked with this much since we started our intense lessons, so I’d expect her to not get it quite yet. Before, she didn’t want to come off the rail and be with me, so this is great. I did ask her to canter a few times, and she did, and of course, she kind of did a little cow hopping because the circingle was grabbing her belly, but it was really weak, and she quit as soon as she got accustomed to the feeling when cantering.

I finished up the session by asking her to yield the fores, hinds, and sidepass (all without a leadrope!), and then I did clip the lead rope on so that I could ask her to flex. I think that she is ready for me to ride. I need to get the saddle on her, and practice lunging, and then the bit (same session) and get her flexing really good to the bit before I climb in the saddle, but I don’t expect that to take too many sessions. I’ll probably need to get some 2 liter soda bottles and lunge her with those before the saddle, then with the saddle on. Maybe I can ride her in the round pen this weekend (maybe I should get health insurance first!). I’m really excited to get her to do all the yielding hinds, fores and sidepassing from the saddle. I hope she can make the connection, since she’s making the connection from my hand position on the ground. My favorite part about this session was the fact that she was so relaxed with me rubbing her face. Almost every time I rubbed her face, she dropped her head and got really soft eyes. The thing that I need to work on is getting her better with reading me when I ask her to leave to lunge around the round pen. Maybe it’s my body language that isn’t conveying what I want. I might need to show more intensity in my look when I ask her to leave.

Next I worked with Chico, but only briefly. The majority of the time was spent with the plastic bag. He’s much more confident than Catlow, but he is also more energetic, which translates to him liking to run around the pen, so sometimes if he’s only a little uncertain about the bag, he’ll leave anyway. I did the plastic bag work with no leadrope. He was actually great with the bag, and he’s always intensely curious (he actually walked right up to the bag to smell it first thing in the pen). But he was uncertain when I moved the bag around at ground level. There must be some instinctual fear when an object comes at them low and then gets high to touch them on the withers. He had a really hard time with that (probably also because it must be hard to see the bag when it is low and fast). He did get over it, especially when I associated it with a treat. And even more especially when I shook the bag low while offering him a treat, so he had to overcome that fear (control it) if he wanted to take that treat from me (and he did!).

I tried doing some free-lunging, but he was really full of it (over reacting when I asked him to change directions, and running straight at Sage waiting at the gate whenever he came around the circle), so I put him on the lunge line. He’s better behaved then and I keep him closer so he pays more attention to me. He trotted and cantered on command and generally was really good. Oh, and I also put the circingle on him…he really didn’t even notice it. I’d like to ride him this weekend, but I think I’d like to lunge him thoroughly first (he just has so much energy that I don’t completely trust him to listen fully to me without losing some excess energy first).

I also asked him to yield his fores and hinds. I think he needs more work on yielding his fores to the right…he tends to walk a tight circle and I really need to get him to pivot on his hinds.

I really need to get health insurance before I ride my crazy horses.