Evading Cues 2

Jayke - I've tried pressure / release, making her work harder (since she wanted to move). As soon as I release pressure, she's gone in 5th gear! I absolutely HATE pulling in a horse's mouth, but this is inevitable. She really was a brat that day. She is 12 years old and a bit of navicular in one foot so round pen work is not totally out of the question but canter is out for sure... For once, I don't know what to do with this one!!! She's been ridden all of her life.

I think that many things caused her to be a brat that day:
1. She was in heat and wanted to go meet the stallion (which was a NO NO!).
2. She saw one horse coming back to the barn right when we were leaving.
3. The mare and new foal were out in the pasture and she didn't get to go greet them (She's the alpha).
4. I probably got on her nerves but holding her back so much.

I did correct her with a sharp smack on the butt with my 6 foot reins, she just came unglued and threw one of the biggest fits I've ever seen her throw, made her circle around, made her work hills... Arrg! I'm out of ideas. I've been riding her for over 3 years now and she's always a bit fast paced, but never such a b*tch and never actually ran through the hands of anyone, she was actually a pretty good mount.

In terms of her endurance, she could go for 2 days, non stop and would still come out galloping at the end. Her owner went on a 38 km ride one day and she had to hold her back the whole time, she trotted probably 95% of the way and was still rearing to go when they got to the end! So I guess I can forget making her tired for a 1.5 hour ride... She responds to rein cues quickly, but she won't stop, ever, she jigs, prances sideways, turns quick circles, backs up in the direction she wants to go... you name it, she does it. You can pull, push, kick, haul, smack... nothing will get her to stop and stand still, while only a month ago I had her standing as still as a post for as long as I wanted. What happened? Could someone have ridden her and caused some problems, was she uncomfortable?

Personnally, I think she was affraid to miss something at the barn. We used the same saddle, bridle, bit, pads and she got brushed and groomed just as much as she usually does. She wanted to see the stallion and couldn't, she pulled while being tied at the post twice (or more??), couldn't stand still... this is not usually her. I don't know how to take her attitude... with a strong reaction or a smoother one!?!??? How do I correct her, I tried harder being that I was sick of her attitude and it didn't do anything (?????), was it harsh enough, not enough, too much??? I don't know. Usually a firm voice reprimand is enough for this mare, but this time, I had to check her in the mouth, because she was looking everywhere and crossing more dangerous areas (creeks, mud holes) quickly without looking. Next time, I might gallop her up the hill a few more times, although I don't see it changing her spirit.

Next ride, I might take another horse altogether... I could enjoy my ride more... This makes me miss all of my horses so much and appreciate how smooth gaited, peaceful and respectful they all are (even Pearl!). Just goes to prove that you don't need full blood registered horses to have a great time... also shows that having too many horses (she has 9) makes training them difficult and half-assed most of the time. There is not enough time to ride them all and work them like they should. She has 9 horses and out of the 9, 2 are adequately broke (including miss attitude), 1 is being worked occasionnally, 1 is green broke and lazy, the stallion is green broke. There is one mare that was backed by me, but turned blind afterwards, one unbacked mare. One lightly worked 2 year old and one brand new foal that has been haltered. All her horses are haltered and imprinted, but the work stops after leadline training since there is just not enough time. While I don't appreciate this way of ... lets say.. hoarding horses, she is knowledgeable and her horses are mostly well cared for. They are vaccinated every year and handled and petted daily. The area that would need more work is hoofcare. She never lets the hooves grow super long, but could trim every 8 weeks instead of every 3-4 months.

As a horse owner and having my own horses to care, look after and worry about, I vowed to never let any other person and their way of keeping their horses get to me... it still does, but much less than it used to. After all, you can tell them until your face is blue that their horses need a trim or their teeth floated, but if they still don't do it, it is out of your reach. They will also have to endure the consequences.

I am 25 years old and am often not taken seriously when I provide advice to other (older) horsepeople... but I have to say that if I give advice, it's because I know my stuff, otherwise I would be keeping my mouth shut. I always research anything before it comes out of my mouth. What comes out readily is stuff I know well and have tested myself on my horses. I have done a lot of reading on general horse care and am pretty well seasonned. I've learned to take care of horses at the age of 6 and have been riding and caring for them since then, learning more and more on the way.

What is wrong with Mother Nature!?!?

Since I bought Misty a few weeks ago, I had plans to have her leading and picking up her feet by now... Was I ever wrong! Mother Nature always has that habit of breaking every one of my plans!

Since I've had Misty, I spent a lot of time with her in the pasture, she is now a friendly little puppy that follows me everywhere... and I must admit that it's annoying somethimes!

I've worked once with her, changed her halter from a rope to a nylon until she can be caught and haltered easily. Put a rope once on her and all hell broke loose until she finaly understood some basic prehistoric stuff and I let her go, since she responded good.

Since then it's been raining constantly during my weekends, we've had snow and torturing winds last weekend that froze you in your tracks! No intention of going outside, although I had to go for the routine stuff, but I had no interest in playing with horses... my only interest was in a warm bath (Hot!) and a big fluffy blanket. It was SO cold! I wonder how we keep spending winter without freezing to death!?!

Since we've had temps over the 20s Celsius lately, I had put all of my big bulky clothes away, so guess what, I was absolutely frozen after spending 10 minutes out in that wind!

So we are starting all over in our training plan. This weekend is supposed to be nice, so I plan on spending at least half a day training and I absolutely want to go for a ride, I haven't ridden until the beginning of the month and I am undergoing a sort of riding withdrawal... therefore, if I don't ride this weekend, I will throw a fit and probably cry a little.

I have finally found it in me to ride Pearl again. I was her first ride ever and she had to cope with me and I had to cope with her. It was one of the worst rides on a horse I have ever had. She was nervous, mini-rearing everytime we stopped and was hard to steer. At least I found out what she was all about. I sat on Pearl once after that (about 6 months after our first ride) and she was good. Why did I dismount??? Because my mom, who had been taking lessons with Dandy was supposed to come for a little trail ride with me. So I gave her Dandy because she is very calm and takes care of my mom and I was going to take Pearl. So I helped my mom up on Dandy and climbed aboard Pearl, which stood stock still for once! My mom was getting nervous, despite Dandy being as cool as can be. She decided that she wanted off, so I dismounted Pearl and attended her and Dandy.

Now that I know how Pearl is (a big faker!) I can totally handle her mood swings. Pearl likes to intimidate her rider and she is very good at it. Now, she has learned not to rear, but she fakes it by sitting her butt down and extending her front legs as much as possible. For the rider, this feels exactly like a rear, but she has all four legs (sometimes 3) on the ground! I know... she's good! This is probably a thought behaviour. This is pretty much all she does, except she is hard to steer a bit and can't stand still when she doesn't feel like it. I got all of it mapped out, I know she'll want to act out, but she certainly isn't out of control. I plan on riding her briefly this weekend, if the stars align! I'll let you know how that goes.

Peg is doing terrific, she still has her shoes and they are working GREAT! Her gait has improved dramatically, which as permitted the shoes to stay on, no adjustments needed in over 3 weeks! Her hooves grow very slowly so the shoes don't need to be reset yet, but I always keep a close eye on them and check them every time I go out to see the horses. her foot is starting to reshape nicely and she is not lame at all! I am tickled! Try Easywalker horseshoes if you want a good performance shoe that is not made of steel, absorbs most of the shock and is safe on pavement, ciment, grass, etc. It is simply great!

Great weekend!

I had the best weekend ever! First of all, I rode on BOTH days!!! Second, I had a blast! I had so much fun, I can't even describe it!

You know, I wanted to work with Dandy, get her to canter (or lope) circles... well, I worked on that, plus loping in general and transitions. Turns out my girl can do much more than I thought she could.

I am trying to teach her to lope from a stop and from a walk... she is accurate about 60% of the time... which is not bad, since we just started! Horses are so smart, we sometimes underestimate them, we shouldn't. Dandy has consistently loped a slow collected lope on a loose rein (very loose!) and held it for about two minutes. Her lope is slower than most trots and is SO comfortable, it's almost a sin. I plan to videotape it and put a piece on here soon! She is able to lope a half circle on a loose rein, but cannot hold herself to complete the circle. We have succesfully loped one circle, with reminders to keep loping and trotted quite a few of them. Her muscles aren't quite strong enough yet to constantly hold herself, but she is pretty good on a straight line! Also, I don't have to hold her back, she is totally on a loose rein. I can also change from a slow lope to a faster lope or a gallop by just touching her or making kissing noises. She will not runaway on me, unless I really push her. I did this both days with an hour trail ride on Sunday to warm her up... I know, they don't need an hour to warm up, I just got carried away! lol.

On a second note for the weekend. I have received my Easywalker horse shoes. I tried my hand at shoeing Peg in the front on Saturday, she was very patient. The shoes were fairly easy for me to put on. I think I did a pretty good job! I will post pictures and a video of her after the shoes are on soon.

Peg turned out to be very sound... and almost uncontrolable once the shoes were on. We took small video of her walking and trotting and she was being a handful, which is not her nature at all! So I decided to turn her out... well... I entered the pasture and I nearly got run over by Peg, she was in a hurry to try her shoes. So I undid her halter and as soon as it was off, ZOOM! she went flying, runing, cantering, trotting a beautiful extended trot... and pacing... yeah...she paces at liberty... Then she came back our way after cantering a tight circle and trotted by, then turning around and picking a race (a true Standardbred race!) with Pearl, who was unshod, but very sound in the pasture. They bucked and kicked at each other and pretty much goofed off for about 10 minutes... I have to say, I have NEVER seen Peg move the way she did... and a flat run... NEVER EVER would I imagine she would do that on her own! I was completely stunned. It seriously blew my mind. I watched them the whole time.

Sunday, we decided to put the shoes to the test! We went riding... my sister took Peg and I took Dandy (who is still unshod and doing fabulous!). We went on gravel roads, pavement, deep mud, creeks, branches and they held up to the challenge. After our ride, while I was playing with Dandy in the field, my sister was running poles with Peg and cantering around just as much as I was!!!! Peg could've never done that before! When we were done riding, after two hours, I checked the shoes and they held up great, nothing loose... so my "farrier" job held up! I'm no farrier, but I know the hoof pretty well after trimming for barefoot performance for 3 years, plus I read up a bunch on what to do and how and where to put what.

These shoes allow for the hoof to flex and they also have a mini heartbar that stimulates the frog when the hoof is weight baring. So I should see an improvement in hoof growth, quality and in the frog in a few weeks. I will keep updates if you are interested.

If you are interested in the Easywalker horseshoes, you can order some by contacting Mike Barriault at Easywalker Horseshoes Canada, tell him Emilie Valliere sent you! Here is his e-mail address: info@easywalkerhorseshoescanada.com You can read up about EasyWalkers on this website: http://www.easywalkerhorseshoes.com/

These shoes are extremely solid and the wear is equivalent to steel shoes, but they allow the hoof to flex like a natural barefoot hoof would. If your horse is not yet ready to go barefoot and that you don't want to put steel shoes on him, consider these, they are a great alternative and are a good compromise between barefoot and steel shoes. If the instructions are followed, the shoes will not come off no matter the level of work and will work to improve the hoof.

Friday hooray!!

Well, another weekend is uppon us. This time, I will do my best to take new pictures of the horses and I have some trimming to do on all horses... I might start tonight, if I don't get home from work too late! I need to trim the Standards so I will get to that, I might take pictures, if I feel like it, I usually rish to finish because they get impatient when tied too long I will quickly nip their feet but I don't know if I will rasp anything, I might keep that for the next day. They do not work right now and are on soft-ish ground most of the time. Their hooves are really long, I haven't trimmed in about 3-4 months. Their hooves grow so SLOW, they are not even to the point of looking awful, they mostly wear on their own. But, Pearl's heels are getting too long for my comfort and Peg's uneven wearing hooves are seriously getting on my nerves! I will try to correct as best I can without causing her too much discomfort.

I also have to re-balance Dandy's hooves, since the last trim, her hooves seem to have improved significantly, I am happy about that! I will check back this weekend and remove all material that is hindering her progress. I might just go for a ride too! I miss riding her, I can't wait for Spring to come, then we can galop accross the fields, wind in our hair! Ok, I might be dreaming here!

I will also try and take pictures of the colt, he will be 9 months old in a few days, he is a sweet heart but does look a bit gangly at this age. I can't wait to see him all grown up! He will be one in May (mid) so there is still a ways to go before he is big and under saddle.

Have a great weekend everyone!