Ponying Griffin...and our first ride!

The Midwest Horse Fair is going on in Madison this weekend.  I had planned to go, but then decided that I'd rather spend the time with my own horses than watching other peoples horses.

Today Cody and I ponied Griffin on a long trail ride.  I hadn't gotten him out and saddled him up in almost a month and a half.  That month and a half ago, I had put the bridle on him, but not for that long.  He never quit mouthing the bit the whole time.

Today I saddled him up and put the bridle on again.  Once again, he mouthed the bit the whole time we were out on our ride. He would quit at times, especially when he was listening to the dogs crashing in the woods, or when I was giving him a treat for being such a good boy.  But then he'd start back up mouthing it again.  I think it will take him a while to get over that, as he is such a mouthy horse.  He likes to mouth things.

I tied the reins up with the leather strings from my saddle so that he would get used to the feel of them as we walked along.  We also trotted a few times.  He was keeping up pretty well toward the end, having sorted out where it was comfortable to walk without being pulled on constantly.   I think at first he was so distracted with the bit that he wasn't paying attention to Cody when she would pick up the pace. 

He was sweaty when we got back, and Cody wasn't.  He must be more out of shape than she is!  After I got Cody untacked, I worked a lot more on the ground with Griffin, showing him that he can flex to the bit, and reminding him how to step over with his hinds when I push his side with the stirrup.  Then I flapped the stirrups and started putting weight on the saddle.  He was pretty much planted to the ground by that time, so I stood up in the stirrups and leaned over the saddle from both sides.  I rubbed him a lot, and he was completely unconcerned.  Remember that he was mouthing the bit this whole time too.  He got pretty good as responding to the rein pull asking him to flex even while mouthing.

I was pretty happy with how he was responding, so I took him to the round pen, did the whole routine again, then just mounted up.  I continued to rub him on his neck, his sides, his rump, and asked him to flex back and forth.  When he got really good with that, I started asking him to step his hindquarters over with a leg cue and clucking.  He stepped right over!  So we did that several times, both directions, until I felt like it was pretty automatic for him and he was comfortable with it.  All this was over course intersperse with lots of scratches and a even his first treat from him back!  He was great!  Then I dismounted.  I still have some more groundwork that I'd like him to be solid with before I really ride him around the round pen, but this was a great start.  I definitely feel less confident about starting Griffin, even though I know he has a good mind and is doing well.  It's just that I haven't been able to work with him as consistently as I'd like, and because of that, there are definitely some things I haven't gotten to, like I did with the other two mustangs.  Basically, I like to do all kinds of things that desensitize them to everything they might encounter with me, but more importantly I like to show myself that they really will react well with any thing I do with them.  Some things I do are ground driving, tying full 2-liter soda bottles to the saddle to simulate flopping legs, moving with the breeching (or even a loaded pack saddle).  I like them to know their gaits with word cues, but we haven't quite got there yet with Griffin.  I know not all this is absolutely necessary for a successful start, but it is necessary to give me the confidence that everything will go smoothly, even if something goes wrong...if they know all the basics really well, even in a big spook or something else, they will fall back on the training they've had rather than panic and buck me off!  That's my hope anyway, and it's worked really well for the previous two mustangs.

And the picture below is Griffin's "after" the ride picture.  I had my husband watching while I did all this in the round pen just in case something went bad, but he didn't want to get off his lawn mower to take any pictures for me.  Maybe tomorrow!

Griffin was so happy to get the bit off.

Spring, back to normal

I've been pretty successful at not getting too far behind on trimming my horses now.  It feels good.  Right now, Kachina is due, but if I get even a week behind, she's not really going too long since I'm keeping on a 6 week schedule right now.  I haven't taken any recent pictures of the horses.  Our spring has been interesting.  After coming so early and really getting jumpstarted with our high 70 degree weather in mid March, it has totally slowed down.  The weather went back to a much more seasonal temperature, with some cool days and even frosts at night thrown in.  All completely normal.  The trees that were on the verge of leafing out just hung there for the last several weeks.  For 3 weeks now, I keep coming home expecting to see the new daffodils I planted under our business's sign to be flowering, but they haven't yet!  For that whole 3 weeks, they've been up with buds on, but they are taking their time.  I think they might have at least one flower tomorrow finally.

I've been trying to have "balance" which means riding horse once in a while, but once again, that has been extremely difficult.  This has been an extremely busy semester at school with exam after exam and many on Mondays and Tuesdays (which means I'm studying on weekends).  All this means that I haven't done anything with Griffin in over a month (aside from trims).  I rode Cody 2 weeks ago on a wonderful ride and I rode Chico today.  My ride with Chico was really nice, but I did get bucked off!  It was pretty warm today (65) and he's fat and out of shape.  He got sick of cantering (really we hadn't been cantering that much, since I didn't want to work him too hard), and the rascal decided he'd had enough and bucked me off.  It wasn't terribly hard bucking, but I cannot ride a bucking horse, so I came right off, landing on my feet then falling onto my butt.  I had a tight hold on the reins, determined not to let him get loose from me and run home.  I was successful, but I got rope burn for it.  I was so glad I'd ridden with my halter and lead rope, because I was able to immediately get to working him HARD on the ground.  He was huffing and puffing.  I got back on and we went right back over the spot where he'd bucked cantering again.  He didn't try anything this time.  I continued on asking him to trot and or canter, then stop immediately to a whoa and one-rein stop, just to remind him that I can stop him whenever I want.  Then we cantered circles in the field before I dropped the reins on his neck and relaxed and we walked home.  He was pooped after that.  Really, aside from the buck, he was a good boy.  His canter circles were really quite nice.  That was only the third time he's bucked me off, EVER and he's never once gotten away from me and been able to run home.  I don't think he has an issue with bucking, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't see it as a solution to solving what he doesn't like about what we are doing.  So I'm not worried about it.  But I was sure MAD when he tried it today!

So, no recent horse pictures, but here are a bunch from around our farm and house.  Enjoy!

One of our newest calves was born to this brand-new momma.  She's a pretty good momma.

I think this calf is so cute...but I think all the newborn calves are cute.  I think I like her white blaze.

My tulips are up and the phlox is flowering.  I love spring.

Kitty sees something in the grass.  What could it be?

Our first toad of the year!  My little helper wanted to pick it up, but it kept jumping away.  At first she got frustrated, but then she started laughing and squealing when his jumping startled her.

Pony time

I had a very good friend whom I haven't seen in 2 years visit this past week.  I've been off classes on spring break, and my friend came to do horse things with me!  We had the best weather...60's and 70's (insane for March in WI!!!!).  We trail rode every day (except the 1 day out of 5 that it rained), drank wine and ate goat cheese every night.  It was great and exactly the kind of break I needed!  My friend rode Cody pretty much the whole time, except for when we brought horses into the round pen to mess around with (trying to mount from the ground bareback and cantering bareback).  I rode Catlow the first trail ride, but it quickly became apparent that she needed to rest...she has a cough that I've noticed before.  She had it last winter too, but generally not in the summer time.  I'm unsure what it is...it's some sort of chronic thing.  I will be investigating though it seems like a fairly mild sporadic, cough, unless she is worked really hard. 

We trailered my horses a few miles down the rode to a sandy county road that connects with many trails through a remote oak/pine forested area.  We rode for many hours each day, making sure that we were sore by the time we got back.  We trotted and cantered a ton!  It felt great!  Cody was extremely well behaved for my friend.  Chico was good, but we did discover some holes to work through.  He needs some more work riding at greater speeds keeping his attention on me and not the other horse.  He wanted to be in the lead, so when we were behind, he wanted to catch up and pass.  When we were in front, he was better, but the first day he was very fast and very difficult to get to respond to cues well.  By the last day of our trail riding saga, he was actually doing much much better.  I could let Cody pass us at the trot or canter without Chico even thinking about breaking from the walk.  And we could canter or trot to catch up with control.  I think he needed some reminding about how to listen to me and not his boss mare, Cody.  It was great to ride with a friend and get some training in on my horses at the same time!  And now, my horses get to recover from their week at work too.

I wish I had more photos from the past week, but we were busy riding, plus my camera batteries were low.  But enjoy the few that I have!

We encountered a boggy area and lead the horses through it.  Chico fell in a bit of a hole and splattered me with mud on his way out.

Oh, and here is a photo of goofy Kachina.  I'm not sure how she managed to get herself a hay wig, but it stayed on for quite a while.  She acted as though she was purposefully wearing it.  It didn't bother her at all.  She never shook her head to get rid of it.  It eventually blew off when they came out into a more open area with wind.

Griffin is handsome and the rest of my horses look on.

Kachina comes to the fence to visit.

The rest of the horses came too.  I think that Chico is saying Kachina looks ridiculous in her hay wig.

First Saddling

I saddled Griffin for the first time today!  He has worn a surcingle maybe 4 or 5 times before over the course of the last 7 months, and the last 2 times were with a blanket under the surcingle.  He has always accepted the surcingle without any concern and the saddle was the same way.  He acted like he wasn't even wearing it, that's how unconcerned he was.  I know he knew it was up there though because he did bite the right stirrup once.  And the first time I swung it up on his back, he moved a step away as I swung it at him, but it landed on his back and he did not react further.  The next couple of times I swung it up on his back, he was unconcerned.  And he stood nicely while I fiddled with all the straps, got the cinch attached (I always store my saddles with the cinch removed), tightened the cinch, then attached the breast collar.  I lunged him at a walk and briefly at a trot with it on (my roundpen is drifted deep with snow in spots, so I could only use 1/4 of it while I saddled him), then we left the pen for a walk down the road.  The snow is too deep right now to walk through the woods.  The road is a little snowy too, but he walks carefully and isn't spooky, so I figured we'd be okay.  And there are bare spots in places, where I led him at a trot.  He really paid the saddle no mind!  He is so laid back.  I am pretty sure that my difficulty with him will be getting good forward movement from him when ridden.  He's not balky, but I think he'll see no need to go fast.  Let's hope anyway!  I like a nice laid back horse on the trail, but I also don't want to fight with him over increasing speed.  I don't think that will be the case though...all the other horses I've trained are pretty good at responding to cues, so I think I might do an okay job at teaching it.

Doesn't he look handsome in a saddle?

My difficulty today was trying to get a nice picture of him from the side to show off his saddle.  He really just wants to follow me when I back away from him.  I tried lunging him at a walk but my rope was too short to get his whole body in the shot.

This was his prefered position...nose to me.

I finally did get a whole body shot once we got back to the shed.  I had to tie him to do it!

Griffin needs to have his teeth checked.  He has some lumps on the inside of his cheeks that I can feel and I think they are causing him to get food caught up alongside his teeth when he chews...at least that's what happens when I feed him treats.  I think he has ulcers probably from sharp points on his molars.  He may also still have some caps on his molars to shed.  I couldn't feel any wolf teeth, but I was also trying to keep my fingers from accidently getting crunched in his molars, so I might have missed some.  I am planning to try to get him in at the vet school in March so that I can have a teaching session on him.  Floating teeth is definitely something I want to incorporate into my future work.  Griffin will be fine until then.  His teeth aren't causing him enough trouble to prevent him from getting "fluffy" this winter.  :)

Kachina

The following pictures were taken after a light dusting of snow a few days ago, which is totally gone now, with our thawing temps (crazy WI winter!).  I turned my horses out into the big pasture for a couple days because they've been in their little pasture since October.  I like to get them off the pastures before they go dormant then turn them back out only after the snow is deep enough to keep the horses from damaging the dormant plants.  But we haven't had enough snow this year!  So I decided the dusting was enough to protect the really short grass and get them out of their small pasture.  They were in heaven, and I was happy to be able to see them from the sunroom.  Alas, it warmed back up and the snow is gone again, and they are locked back in their small muddy pasture.

The high today was close to 50 and the ground was wet and muddy in places where it had thawed overnight because the low never got below freezing.  My horses were spunky and all spooked and took off as I walked through the pasture carrying a plastic bag that had treats in it.  Griffin and Kachina especially took off and wouldn't come near me.  Having never been formally introduced to plastic bags, they didn't know that they often have treats in them.  The rest of my horses spooked and snorted, but came right back to investigate and get their treat reward for overcoming their fear of the bag.  So I was quite surprised after I'd passed all the way through the pasture to the tack shed, picked up my halter and came back into the pasture that it was Kachina that first met me.  This time I didn't have a bag, just a halter and leadrope, so I guess I wasn't as scary.  She let me halter her with no tossing her head.  I had actually caught her easily with a treat the previous evening to check her front feet as it looked like she was a little off on one side, so she expected to be caught with a treat today.  I had made plans to catch and saddle either Catlow or Chico, but both were standing far away, back through the treacherous slippery mud.  I opted to take Kachina out since she was right there, not yet sure what I'd do with her. 

I filled my pockets with treats and took her to the round pen.  She was snorty and high-headed at first as I led her toward the trailer, then past the scary garden shed up to the round pen, but once in the round pen, she settled pretty quickly as her buddies all lined up to watch just on the other side of the fence.  I did my usual with her; started lunging calmly, but quickly remembered that she was just a tad off on the right front.  She wasn't super lame, just a tad off at the trot only circling to the right.  I didn't want to stress her leg, not being able to determine what was wrong with it.  There was no swelling or heat, and her hoof looked clean.  I imagine maybe she just sprained it a little in the mud.  So instead of lunging, we just did some walking work.  I led her over the drain tile scraps that I had saved to serve as obstacles in the round pen.  She dropped her head to snort at it, then stepped over it with her front feet fairly calmly, and then almost came unglued when her hind foot clipped it and made a noise.  She just about jumped on top of me, but I was expecting her to be a little spooky over it, so I was safe.  We did it again, and she accidentally clipped it again with her hind feet with the same over reaction to it.  Then, the third time, she was more careful with her feet, and the fourth time too.  The fifth time, she got lazy and clipped it again, but it no longer freaked her out.  I did some more desensitizing with the rope and also my stick and string, and then made sure she was soft and would bend her neck laterally with a soft pull on the rope. 

Then, I decided to see how she'd be going for a short walk.  She didn't appear to be off at all at the walk, so I figured it wouldn't hurt her anymore than hanging out the the pasture would.  I wasn't sure how far we'd be able to go, simply due to the muddy conditions and Kachina's reaction.  This would be the first time ever that I'd lead her anywhere except the immediate vicinity of the farmyard and roundpen.  I didn't want to take her far if she wasn't ready for it, which I thought she might not be since she's always been the spookiest, flightiest, most reactive horse.  But, as we started walking, she dropped her head, and walked beside me rather calmly.  She would stop and raise her head to get a better look at something every once in a while, but overall, she was actually very calm.  I was so surprised.  I expected her to get the most uptight when leaving the herd behind.  So we kept walking.  Even when we disappeared behind the hill and could no longer see anything familiar (we were no longer alongside the pasture that she has been in), she didn't change her calm demeanor one bit.  And we walked past all kinds of things that I would have thought would scare her, as spooky as she is about things when I've introduced her to them in the past.  Piles of logs, an electrical box out in the middle of the grass, the cabin, a tarp covering a wood pile, the pond ice, the dogs jumping out of the brush all around us.  Nothing caused her undue alarm.  She noticed them, but we just kept walking past everything and she gave all these things a glance but then just kept up with me.  We also did a lot of "whoa" and back a step as I led her because she's not very good at it yet.  By the end of our walk she was slowing down when I said whoa but still required my stopping and the pull on the halter to stop completely, and she was backing with a much lighter pull on the halter.  She did not spook at a single object, just eye-balled a few things.  And she only had one flighty moment.  I stopped her a few times in an open area and asked her to lunge at a walk around me.  The second time I asked this of her was down by the pond, and I think she was a little nervous inside, even though she wasn't being overly reactive to anything because when I asked her to lunge, she jumped away from me started blindly trotting around me.  When I asked her to stop, she did a screaming turn and took off the other direction.  She wouldnt' stop, but amazingly wasn't trying to pull away from me either.  At one time I got her to face up, but she came into me too fast and was walking her face into me, so I pushed her away, which send her into another frenzied blind trot around me.  I finally got her to stop and she was huffing and puffing and quite worried then, but as we took off walking again with me leading her, she calmed right back down and there were no more instances like that the next time I stopped to ask her to lunge around me.  The next time was not at the pond.  So, aside from that one little frenzied lunging event, she was actually amazing on our walk.  I expected her to be spooky and dangerous and she wasn't at all.  Just goes to show what I know!  I guess I should not jump to any conclusions with her.  And I need to suck it up and just tie her solid to something.  I actually don't think she'll be as bad as I was thinking she would be.  She respects the rope quite well.  So, I need to find the right thing to tie her to...it's too muddy in the pasture and I'm not sure I have anything else stout enough outside the pasture right now.  This summer we will bury a stout post up alongside the roundpen to practice tying too, but we don't have it available yet. 

Kachina is a pretty little mare, but when she drops her head and leads beside me calmly and respectfully, yet still interested in her surroundings, she is even more beautiful.  I shouldn't work with her if I plan to sell her because it reminds me why I got into the mustangs in the first place and then I get attached all over again and want to keep her for myself!  But, I do need to work with her because it will ensure that she gets a chance at having a useful life and being taken on by someone who is worthy of her.

A side note:  Sassy, the pintaloosa mare that we sold last spring, seems to doing well.  I hadn't seen her at all last summer ( I think her new owners had her in training), but now that it is winter, I can see her in the pasture alongside the highway when we go to town.  She is turned out with their beef cattle, a couple donkeys, and another appaloosa horse.  She looks good from the road.  I'd be interested to hear how her new owners like her, but they must since they didn't contact us about giving her back last fall, which had been part of the original deal.

Fall

I have been pretty busy with school.  I've been able to do a few things with my horses (primarily maintenance stuff and riding the old steady-eddies), but Griffin has really been put on the backburner.  Today, the weather was so nice.  I had to get out and do something with him.  We went for a walk in the late fall woods.  He is such a good boy.

Stopped to try to get a nice shot of him with the yellow leaves in the background, but he wouldn't stay back and kept following me when I tried to back away to get a pic.

The bright maples have pretty much lost all their leaves, but the brownish red oaks and yellow aspens are still holding on.

Griffin has very soft eyes.  They were not always like this.

You can see the faint whitish scar on his cornea that is currently remodelling - it used to be much more opaque.  I think it will eventually go away completely.

My mom watched my daughter while I played with Griffin and she took this picture of me working with him in my neighbor's arena.  It was the first time I'd taken him over there, but he was pretty relaxed about it.  In fact, as I was talking with my neighbor about the fact that Griffin can still occasionally be reactive when I move too fast toward him, and I tried to demonstrate by jumping at him and startling him, he didn't hardly react at all!   He just backed away from me, but there was no overreaction.  I think his overreacting primarily happens when he's loose in the pasture and hasn't been around me for a while.

The horses got a new round bale today and they are quite happy.  They are not so happy that I haven't let them out in the pasture for a month and a half now, and the grass is still green.  I wanted the pastures to get a bit of a break before winter.  They've been heavily grazed for several years now, and are showing signs of damage in the favorite grazing spots (the lawns).  There is still a lot of taller grass (the roughs), but they prefer to go over and over the same short spots and the poor grass there is starting to thin out and it doesn't recover even after it's had a break.  It needs a whole year off, but I'm not sure how to give it that.  That would require fencing in the field around the pond, and I don't really want to do that.  It's too nice to have to ride in.

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!

Family walks

We had a family walk the other night.  My honey and my sweet baby accompanied me as I led Griffin on a walk through the woods.  Once again, Griffin was fabulous!  He's so calm and level-headed.  He is now getting so comfortable with me that he's starting to be bit pushy about treats and apples, so we'll start working on that now.  How I deal with that mainly is offer less treats and make him have to earn them more.  I'll back him up and when I get a nice respectful backup, he'll get a treat, but not if he's lipping at my hands when I don't even have a treat for him.  I'd rather him be this comfortable in the beginning.  I can fix the lippiness pretty quick now.  We walked through the woods and ended up at my parent's house to chat.

I like to wear my helmet when I'm taking young horses for their first walks...you never know when/how they might spook and sometimes when they whirl, your head can be in the path of their head (and they have such hard heads!).  I like to have a little protection...plus if they get too close to my head, I can just bonk them with my helmet and it makes them back off and give me a little space...they think my head is really hard then!

I love this picture of me leading him, but the color was pretty dull because it was so cloudy so I edited it.  I kinda like the "sepia" look.

He had a lot of fun standing under my parent's apple trees and eating apples.

My mom's chickens look so happy and busy foraging under the apples trees.  Right after I took this picture, we were all just standing around chatting when my parent's dog and my dog got in a fight...right next to Griffin.  Griffin was startled, but not bothered.  After his initial startle (threw his head up - he'd been grazing), he just stood and watched them as they worked it out.  It was a brief fight.  He really does have a nice temperament.  I think he'll be bold and secure like Chico, but not quite as forward...Griffin seems a little stickier with moving than Chico.

And Griffin also has that typical gelding behavior...you know, where there is so much going on in their heads and the only outlet is to get into everything and be a pest?  He is the horse that sticks his front leg in the water trough and gets it all muddy.  He also tries to graze under the panels, even though he could walk out to the pasture and find nice grass there

And of course, he has to stomp and squash the rubber tubs that I occasionally feed them grain in (they get grain very rarely). 

I guess maybe he's trying to tell me something?

Today I rode Cody out on the trails....

with Griffin in tow!!!!  He was really good!  He was actually less worried by some things on the trail than Cody, my seasoned trail horse, was!  Cody just gets a little bug-eyed about things sometimes, but usually they are warranted (for example, today, the trampled ground under some wild apple trees kind of got her acting balky, but she probably also smelled deer there recently).

We stopped here to take a picture of the nice view.  It is hard to get a feel for how high of a hill we are on from a picture, but you can see we are above the level of the huge steel power line poles along the interstate on the left side of the picture.  The trail going down this hill is a lot steeper than it looks in the picture too.  We did not go down because there is a fence down laying along the left side of the trail and I didn't want to risk it with leading another horse.

Griffin enjoys the view too.  He really was so relaxed on our ride.

Back at home, he made a pest out of himself by picking up Cody's bridle off the hitching post.  I took it out of his mouth before he scared himself with it and got into trouble with being tied up.

I think I've made a loyal friend.  After I turned him loose, I crossed the pasture to get back to my house and Griffin followed me the whole way.  Maybe he just wants a treat, but it is amazing what a little positive association can do and how it can quickly change a horse from being evasive to interested and willing.

He even stood at the gate after I closed it in his face, wishing he could come through too.