Puffer #3

Well, Not so good today (Thursday, 10/27)
I worked with Puffer, a little rd penning, disengagement, moving the shoulders (real stiff here, but I think that is due to his lameness in the front feet), backing up. He was real calm. I saddled him and moved him around. I even got on and off several times. I tried to get him to move his feet with yielding the hindquarters and then the shoulders. But I think it is too painful for him to put weight on his front, especially when he takes away a leg to take a step.  She even stumbled a couple times and rolled over onto her fetlock. I told her owner that if I was to ride her forward and she did that she would likely go down on her knees. So between me and his owner we decided to discontinue working with until they can get this figured out. I guess it has been going on for two years.
Sometimes we just have to accept that things are not going to go our way. God is the one who is in control of all things. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without Him knowing it, then a 5 years old mare cannot stumble without His knowledge. While I am disappointed to not be able to work with her more, I am thankful for more learning on my part. All things do work for my good and God's glory. So in some way God is getting the glory through this situation, (Romans 8:28).

Puffer pictures

Here are a couple of pics of Puffer. They were taken after I had taken the saddle off of her.

  This was the second time I worked with her. She is lame on the front legs. It seems to change from day to day. Because of that I have had to take it easy with her. I have not been able to do much round penning because of that. This has been a chronic problem for this horse. They are not sure what has caused it. The vet has been out and they have tried shoes, exrays etc. Nothing comes up. It seems that she breaks over to her fetlock as though she walks on her fetlock. Her right tendon has been swollen some too. At any rate I am working with her very lightly. 

  So what have I done? Well, I have worked with her to move her hindquarters into a disengagement, which she is doing quite well. She doesn't give her shoulders as easily, but we are working on that. Yesterday, I also added flanking her out with a rope. She gave no resistance nor tried to buck even when I put it near her groin. I could put my weight against it and she just came off the pressure, not once offering to buck. You might say that she didn't because of her lameness, but I can guarantee that if she wanted to buck she would. I have seen it the day before when I let her get to bothered with a flag. So I am confident that she was okay with the flank strap. I mainly did it because when I saddled her I was going to use a flank cinch. Needless to say she handled the saddling with the collar and flank cinch without a glitch. 

I also got on her back several times from both sides. She stood calm even though I was acting like a drunk, bumping her on the butt and sides with my feet and legs. I was doing whatever I could to be as sloppy getting on and off as I could. I didn't have her step off at all. That will be for the next time. I really want her to get softer at lateral flexion and moving her shoulders and hindquarters before I ask her to move too much. I want to make sure I can control her feet. 

This reminds me that it works best not to give her more than what she can handle. That is the same way that God works with His children. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)

He doesn't ask us to bite off more than we can chew. We shouldn't ask our horses to do that either. 

Well, that is all for now. 

Remember, you can handle what God sends your way!

Puffer

Now that is not what I was doing. However, I have started working with another horse and decided to continue on my blog.
Puffer is a 5yr old Quarter Horse that has not been started under saddle yet. She has struggled with various issues since birth, beginning with a cleft palate. Then she got into some wire and injured her rear cannon bone and now she has a problem with her front tendons along the cannon bone. But I have started to work with her kind a slow. I evaluated her last week and started today to see what we could get done. I started to round pen her, but she began to favor her right front leg so I stopped that and went to see about saddling her. Her owner said she has been saddled many times. So I put the saddle on and off as I usually do a new horse, just to see where she was at mentally with it. It went alright. No bucking. I didn't want that anyhow. Then I brought my flag out and she went nuts so I really had to back that off alot. I got her much better with it. Chatted with her owner as to where she wanted to go with this as long as she favors that leg. So we decided I would work on getting her to accept various things and that I would just start from the beginning and see where we get to by the time I am done with her  at the end of the week.
I am certain that I will be learning alot from this horse.
On another note I have learned alot from Wildfire a 16 year old quarter Horse I have owned for a couple months. He is a sticky footed horse. However, He is getting much better now that I ask for speed much softer and that he immediately gets a reward for quick response. I plan on taking him to a clinic next month and see where we can make improvements.

Honey Bun -Day21-24

I have done something a little different since the last post about her training. Instead of focusing on her I have been teaching her owner, Diane, to work with her horse. So rather than me working Honey, it has been Diane with my help. So Thursday we started with going through the GW with her. I think we covered YH, backing, YF, lunging 1. Friday we reviewed the above and added flexion, sending, circling. I even had her riding in the rd pen working on one rein stops. Saturday, we did a similar thing. Her issue is really being more assertive with Honey. She is much to timid with her and that has created her problem. Monday, we went through all of the GW and Diane has much improved on being more of a wild woman with Honey, but still is not there. When she got in the saddle she flexed her and while sitting there, Honey squealed and humped her back, much as she would when two horses are nose to nose on opposite sides of the fence. Well, that scared her so she got down and I got on and made Honey work real hard. She tried to bite my boot while flexing and ran into it. She didn't try again. I have not accomplished all that I would have liked with Honey, but found it better to spend the time teaching Diane. Anyway, Honey is going home today and I don't know what Diane is going to do with her.

Honey Bun day 20- Wednesday 9/9/15

 Today I started out with her on the groundwork. I did flexion on both sides and she did well. I also Did yield the hindquarters. She is really good at this exercise. I also did some yield the forequarters. She is getting better, but still needs work. We went through all of the backing exercises. I think she needs to add some energy. She also has a problem staying straight. It could be that I am asking her to back too fast. I did the circling and sending all around the barn yard. I sacked her out again to the flag and bags. Then I saddled her. No bucking today. After flexing and some touch and rub I got on her. Flexed some more. She is real heavy going from one side to the other. I also did some YH and one rein stops. Then we trotted doing diagonals from point to point. She made some improvement from yesterday. Then I trotted her around the track for about a mile, stopping at the corners to do some bending transitions. Then we cantered about two miles or more. Just trying to get her relaxed. She was getting into a nice rhythm. Then some more bending transitions and one rein stops. Then it was gime to quit.

Honey Bun day 19-Tuesday 9/8/15

Today we worked in the rain. I started out with yielding hindquarters, she did really well. She is at level two in yielding hindquarters. Then I did lunging for respect one and two and she did real good with those. Then I did some backing with the tapping the air and wiggle and whack. Her backing with marching was good and with hand in the lead rope was good. I did some sanding and circling exercises around the boat and the trailer she did fine with those. Then I got the flag out and the black plastic bag and the noise bag. Those went well.

Then I settled her up and when I started to move her out in lunging she really started the buck. I don't know what it was that caused her to buck. It might've been the back cinch bothering her. But I kept changing her direction and she quit bucking. I tightened the cinch and then walked her into the arena and got on. We trotted around did some disengaging and then a little cantering with disengaging. Then we rode into the pasture and I started driving around and doing some yielding of the hindquarters. We also did the cruising lesson and the diagonal lesson just trying to get her to follow your nose and stay between my legs or rather my Reins. Then I did this at the canter in both directions she did really good considering it was raining pretty good. I open the gate and we rode around the barn doing a lot of yelling the hindquarters direction changes just keeping your mind on me we went around the track at a walk-in and then at each corner did bending exercise. then we did it at a trot. We cantered around the barn a couple times I did some bending exercises with her. We also did bending at the walking and bending transitions I worked on flexion at a standstill. And draw to a stop she did really well. there were a few hiccups, but that is to be expected. I did some flexing with her and then we quit.

Honey Bun Day 18-Monday 9/7/15

I did GW with her around the barn to see how she would be. We had to start out with Lungeing and after a few direction changes and some sending exercises she began to pay better attention to me. I did backing and circling. She did fine at all of the exercises. At first she wanted to eat grass, but that changed straight away. I also did some serious desensitizing. She needs it. She can be sort of jumpy. So I got the flag out and the plastic bag and my noise bag and did as much as I could to make her move. She moved a little but was pretty quiet. Something moved in the woods and she spooked forward a step then stopped. That's a good sign.
Then I saddled her and we went to the arena. After bridle bending her I went to get on and she wouldn't stand still so I just made her do bridle bending with more energy and disengaged the HQ and back up a few times from each side. Then she stood nice while I got on. I wanted to work on one rein stops a bunch as well as diagonals at the walk and trot. Since she had a hard time standing still while I flexed her I decided to go on and walk forward. She offered a trot and 10 minutes later we stopped. She started to get the hang of the diagonal exercise. The purpose there is to help her follow her nose wherever the rein directs her. She is supposed to stay on whatever track and gait I put her. She was beginning to get it at the trot. I let her rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, I flexed her and worked on YH from a standstill. Then we did the diagonals in a canter. It was hot and the footing is kinda deep, as well as the arena not being real big. It was kinda hard to do it. But We made some good progress. She cantered more than she has with me. The corners on the diagonal come up fast at a canter so it seems like 8-10 strides and she has to turn. It might be less than that. But we stuck with it. I gave her a good rest with her nose in a corner. Then I got off and did some touch and rub exercises. Which is flexing the her with the rein and using my thumb on her flank where the spur/heel would touch and ask her to move her hip over. She was real good at this since I have been doing it somewhat already. Then I got in the saddle and did YH from a standstill and then worked on YH and stop from a walk, trot. What this is asking her to move forward several steps then picking up a rein, bending her head and using your heel to push her Hq over and stopping. She did this pretty good. When I tried it from a stop she took a lot of persuasion to get her to go into a trot. It was hot and she was sweaty as was I. But I pushed her through it so we could practice this a few times. I wanted her to get real soft. She is getting better. I need to take her out of the arena next time and that might get her moving a little better.