spring is here and riding too

I thought I would get on here and let those who are interested know that I am finally back at it. I attended Equine Affaire over the weekend and had a blast. Attended several clinics and picked up a few tips. I got home and couldn't wait to start riding again. I found that my riding boots will work for me after all. I thought that after my foot surgery I would have to get another pair, but these work just fine. I simply shouldn't walk miles in them. Since Monday I have been riding both my horses just getting the bugs out and reinforcing a few things. Raven is sure a lot farther along then Jake is. I have been refining their stop on whoa and also their response to my leg cues. Yesterday I worked Raven and then decided to pony Skye the yearling stud colt. I had to dr. him above the eye so I thought since he loves to be next to Raven ponying him would help to settle him. I worked on him leading around. He had some trouble with that but it all worked out. Then when I thought it was time I got around to dring his wound. He must have hit his head on something in the hollow spot above his left eye. I noticed when the farrier was here on Monday that something didn't look right and when I peeled away the crusties there was some puss oozing out. I got ahold of some furazone and yesterday dred him. He didn't like it one bit. I don't have a twitch so I just took it real slow and rinsed it off as best I could then applied the furazone. it doesn't seem to bother him much and doesn't appear to be swelled much. I will keep an eye on it. I hope I don't have to call the vet. Today I got out there before all the rain and rode Raven. She is so out of shape that after a few minutes of loping around she is heaving so I gotta take it easy on her. I want to get her stops real good. I hope to have her doing sliding stops before long. I also want to work on flying lead changes. I have never done them intentionally. I noticed to that like riding a bike riding a horse comes back real easy. I hadn't been on one since January and was somewhat concerned that I would not be able to pick up there footfalls very easy, but it was like it was second nature again. More and more an indoor riding arena looks real good. I had to stop because of the rain and thunder. I am getting ready to start with two Arabs next week too and then also I have Callie coming in May. So it will be real busy real soon.

liberty

I walked into he pen today, Raven came out of her stall with Skye on her tail and Jake stood off about 30 feet. I walked in and Raven didn't walk off but stood as did Skye with me within 5 feet of her. I just stood there. Jake looked to me and stood watching. Skye was all over me sniffing, nudging. I just stood with my hands in my pockets doing nothing. I was ready to wake Skye up should he decide to nibble but other than that I was just there to observe what they would do. I was glad Raven just stood there and didn't wander off. Skye became bored with me after 5 or 10 minutes and walked off. Raven stood with head down periodically throwing a glance my way. I decided to walk over to Jake not acting as a predator. He stood there for me. It was like he was asking me to come over. I stood there and let him sniff and nuzzle my coat and jeans. Skye started to come over so I stepped across Jakes front to his left side so that he could do as he pleased with Skye. It was interesting watching Skye ask to come over. Jake let him get a little closer and let him know by lungeing at him that he was too close. Jaked walked down to the other part of the paddock turned and started back. Raven moved him to his left with just her body movement and position to ensure that he would not come a way she didn't like. He was about 20' from her but she was real clear and he showed he got her message. He then walked right down to me and stopped about 6 feet away. I stepped away with my back to him and that drew him in closer. He nuzzled and smelled again. I rubbed him between the eyes and he lowered his head. I stopped and the did it again and he lowered his head. Then I just stood there with his head next to my right arm and did nothing. Skye started to come closer again and Jake again moved him off and then came right back to me. It was like Jake was telling him I was his. I stood with Jake for a time and then did some liberty work with him, asking for disengagement and moving his shoulders over from both sides. Not a lot, just once or twice from each side. Then walked off and he followed me so I stopped again and let him stand next to me. After several minutes I freed him and walked over to Raven. She moved off so I kept repositioning myself as Skye got in between us. I did this ever so softly making her change directions the same way she made Jake move. Then when she stood I walked up to her and stood with her head next to me on her left side. Skye came up and she didn't care so I let him. We stood several minutes then I rubbed her between the eyes. Skye moved around behind her to her right side and then came up. I guess he wanted some rubbing too. I just stood there and observed how she handled Skye. Jake in the mean time wanted to come up to me too, but Raven wouldn't let him. I don't know how she told him know but he turned and walked toward the barn and just watched. Soon I was too cold and gave her and Skye one last rub and walked over to Jake and rubbed on him a moment then walked out of the pen. It may not sound like alot was accomplished, but to me it was huge. I didn't have to chase them down, they stood for me and let me just observe. I sort of asked them if I could come over and pet on them and just be with them. Skye does the same thing, but Jake won't let him. It was fun. Oh, I should say that I did some liberty work with Raven also and it worked out fine.

waitin'

It has been since January 12 that I have rode my horses. I had the foot surgery on the 14th. Today was the first day that I got out there in the muck and the mud and the rain to just stand and observe them in the paddock. I have done some reading from Mark Rashid's books and wanted to just try out a theory that I caught to mean "think it visual it and given patience the horse will do it.' My goal was to have my horses just gather around me after I stood in the paddock. So that is what I did. I walked into the muck and then they sort of scattered and then stood. I began to think, 'Raven come to me, Jake come to me' Skye got the message and within 5 minutes he was standing next to me nibbling, smelling, anything but just stand next to me. So I rubbed on him abit. Obviously, my communication with Raven and Jake was broken so I went back to thinking them over to me. 'How did that work,' you ask? Well, I think there was too much confusion going in my mind. Although, when I focused on Jake and not Raven too, He immediately perked up and looked at me, stepped his shoulder over to face me better, cocked his rt. hind leg and watched me. I kept thinking and trying to visualize, 'come to me Jake.' Nothing happened. Ten minutes went by then 20 and 30 minutes. Nothing. He was going to sleep. I must not have been thinking loud enough. Skye came back about that time and we scratched each other for a few minutes. Then I decided to make the first move and step toward Jake. I ambled over to him and rubbed on him. He didn't show any sign of moving away so I asked him if I could come in to say hi and he stood. I watched him with Skye. Skye a little too close for Jake and he shoved him away with a stretching out of neck and shake of his head. Skye got the message loud and clear and scrambled off a few steps. Jake did this a time or two. Then I moved over to Raven and she moved off. So I went back to jake until she settled back down and then I walked over to her and rubbed on her. Skye was right in on this too. Raven didn't seem to mind. In evaluting this session I learned I need to concentrate on one horse at a time and make sure my energy is off and my mind is focused and that I have alot of time and patience. I will revisit this again.

observations from the horse

I haven't been able to work with my horses lately, but I thought I would record some observations I have made in the past week. Probably, things that you may already know, but they still are interesting. 1. Horses live in the moment. They don't hold grudges. If another horse is in their space they either move away themselves or make the other horse move. They don't nag them or keep after them. Once the other moves away they leave it alone. Each time becomes a new time for them. If they were just standing there relaxing, they immediately go back to standing and relaxing. They are not thinking about what happened 10 minutes ago or yesterday or last week. They are not thinking, 'man, I can't believe that idiot did that.' Nor are they thinking about what is going to happen later today, tomorrow or next week. They are not fretting about the future. They are only interested in what is happening right now and in the next moment they react to whatever stimulation is going on due to their survival instinct. When they are fretting about something it has to do with what is going on in the moment. Maybe you walked in to their space with a halter or you have a noisey bag in hand that is scarring them. That is why they fret. But as soon as you take that away, they go back to relaxing. I think that is a good healthy way to live for us to. We cannot do anything about what happened in the past. We can only get it right with others and with the Lord if we have been wrong. Holding grudges will only cheat ourselves out of living to the fullest now. In addition, we don't know what is going to happen in the next 5 minutes. We are not in control of that. We don't know what a day holds. We can only plan our day and live it out letting the day unfold as it will. Jesus said things like "forgive and it shall be forgiven you" and "take no thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall take thought for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Matthew 6:14,34 So take a lesson from the horse today: don't hold grudges and live in the moment making the most of the moment you have.

Yesterday had a good time with Moonie and So Grand. I am almost done with my work with them so I wanted to go through everything they know to this point. I have worked through all the fundamentals level of ground work with them. That is 13 exercises that they know. So I got So Grand out first. He met me at the door like usual. He likes to come out and play. I left their web halter on because that is what they are wearing. Because I used the rope halter to teach, the web halter was just fine with both of them. I took him through the round pen (the only thing he won't do to my satisfaction is follow me off lead around the pen)Then to desensitizing to lead and stick and string. He Yields hindquarters and forequarters real good. His backup is pretty good, although he will think I want him to go around me if I back him too fast. His lunge for respect is at the stage 2 level where I only have to look at his butt and he disengages and faces me and backus up. His flexing is real soft. He sends nice and smooth and even does an Intermediate level move of c-pattern nicely. His circle driving is pretty good. He leads fine, in fact I took him out of the round pen and around the indoor arena with no problems. He is not bad on fundamental desensitizing while moving forward. I also picked up his feet and cleaned them out on 3 different occasions. Moonie, gave me no trouble coming out of the stall. I brushed him and then took him through the same thing that So Grand did. He is much better at following me and picking up his feet to clean out than So Grand. I think overall he is about the same maybe a little above So Grand in the exercises. Both are real friendly, although Moonie takes a little longer to warm up to you. I took him out of the pen too and he actually did better than So Grand handling the new environment. They should both be ready for the farrier.

Hoof cleaning

Yesterday and today went pretty good with both horses. I am moving along in teaching them the exercises and they are getting it. The sending exercise where I point in a direction and they move their shoulders and go then YH and YF and turn and go in the other direction they seem to have caught that pretty good. So Grand is getting much better at picking up his feet and letting me clean them out. I even got the rasp out and did that. The one problem with him is he leans when I pick up his hind foot. So I have taken to moving his butt over until his near foot is just right then I pick it up and stretch it out like a farrier would. That is working much better. Moonie is much better about coming out with me to the pen. I found that he just needs to relax with me in the stall and I rub on him then ask him to follow me. He comes right along. Today I worked with both of them on leading and finding those spots or movements that make them uncomfortable and working them through those until they are relaxed. They are two interesting horses. So Grand is very friendly and likes to be near me. Moonie is a bit standoffish, but once I get through to him he likes to be with me too. Neither one follows me off line very far, but at least they are not running away from either.Progress is Progress.

Good lesson

Alright, I had a good time with the horses today. It's amazing how going into a lesson with a hard and fast agenda of what I want to accomplish seems to put a damper on accomplishing a 'no dust' kinda session. I have had those kind of rigid agenda's before where I think 'I gotta get this done.' and they usually go sour. However, today I went at it with these guys at a slow and easy pace. I got So Grand out first and he was eager to get started. I did all the exercises with him and even got to the point of the sending exercise. I gave him lots of rests, some longer than others, in between. My goal was to be able to pick up his feet and clean them out a couple times during the session. Mission accomplished. He didn't even resist me, though he did lean. I solved that problem by stretching his hind leg out farther behind him. I did that once and then worked him through some exercises and then did it again. Then right at the end I did it again. Moonie, was real pacey in the stall. I waited til he relaxed and then walked up and rubbed him and backed off a couple times before putting the halter on him. Then I rubbed and brushed him in the stall. When I did ask him to follow me out of the stall I went real slow and easy and when he felt pressure he came off it. We got to the pen and I rubbed and brushed him again. Then did a few exercises with lots of rest in between. I did teh Lunge for respect 1 & 2 with him. He is pretty good at all the exercises. I even had him sending and did fine. I then worked on leading him around and coming off the pressure to follow me. He was actually pretty good through it all. I had a little trouble desensitizing with lead, which was strange, since he has been real good with this. However, it didn't take long for him to stand relaxed. I cleaned out his feet a couple times.