Oh wow, I'm way behind. Way, way behind.
I'm still riding Champ, every other day. Not much new there - he's gaining weight, slowly but steadily, and losing hair, slowly but steadily. Much to his chagrin I've switched him over to Dixie's bridle (with the d-ring snaffle, instead of his unbroken low port curb) and we are working on contact. It's good practice for me. My hands are steadily improving. So much, in fact, that I am getting baby callouses on the tops of my index fingers, where the reins sit. Not big "I have hard hands and need gloves" callouses, but very delicate callouses from holding the reins correctly for a couple weeks straight.
I've ridden Dixie three times this week. On Monday the BO saw me riding and offered some tips on getting her on the bit. She coached me through a couple circles til I felt the bend - yay! I think I must take at least a lesson a month, to keep in mind what I need to work on. Anyway then she got on Dixie and worked her in a couple more circles... and Dixie trotted for her. It was cool - a very flat extended trot - but WEIRD! I've never had her offer to trot under saddle with me. It's official; I've now seen every major gait possible from her except a running walk. Sigh - I know a good true RW is hard to get, and I know we'll get there one day, but it's kind of discouraging. Like if my racking horse wouldn't rack, or my MFT wouldn't foxtrot.
Tuesday I rode Champ, then the vet came and gave everybody spring shots. I figured they might feel stiff and/or icky Wednesday, so I stayed home.
Thursday was WARM! Finally hit the magic 70*F, so I wanted to ride Dixie then bathe her. Our ride was... very interesting. I was all prepared to not let her yank the reins, but she... didn't. At all. She was completely calm and laid back. She didn't object to contact at all. She didn't freak out, hollow her back, and try to bolt even ONCE. We did some very calm peaceful walk work, then some hand grazing, then a bath.
Her life with me is an exciting mix of fun and horrible. She's coming around to being groomed, all over, every day - that's moving from "horrible" to "almost pleasant," I believe. Then I ride her, which is usually exciting and also becoming less "horrible." Sometimes I hand graze her or clicker train her, which is full on "fun." But then! Then! I bathed her. Truly horrible.
I am pretty sure she's never had a real bath before. She's been hosed down, but I don't think she's ever had a warm water and shampoo bath in a shower stall before. She was not thrilled but put up with it pretty well. I broke my own rule about "no magical horse products" and used Expensive Magical White Horse Shampoo... which worked. She's noticeably more sparkly. Her mane and tail are less dirty but sadly nowhere near white. No pictures til she's cleaner!
Anyway, I wondered if the unusual calmness was a one-off so I rode her again today. She gave me a nice rack at the beginning, then some good walk work with almost no fighting the bit, then a little pacing, then some more nice calm walk work. I let her walk around on a loose rein for a bit, and she walked over to the corner where the jumps and cavalletti are stored. On her own! She very carefully investigated, giving the hairy eyeball to the wood and sniffing at it like a huge dog. When she was satisfied that the jumps were safe, we walked around a bit more and called it a day.
I coaxed her back into the wash stall. Much snorting and eye rolling but she came right in when she realized I was serious. It's entirely too early for me to actually SAY this... but I suspect maybe she's starting to trust me. MAYYYBE.
Showing posts with label dixie quinn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dixie quinn. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
We've got to pace ourselves...
My husband came out and took pictures yesterday! Yay!
I did some c/t to get Dixie to stand still so I could mount. It worked fantastically well. I feel pretty stupid for not having thought of this earlier. (Well, I couldn't have thought of it very much earlier; I just started clicker work with her in February. But I could've tried clickering her last February!) I suppose next I should introduce the mounting block. She is within 1/2" of being too tall for me to mount from the ground, and I know it's not good for her back for me to clamber up on her like I do.
She was less awful about the bit. Not great, not like she was in January and February at Hillside, but she wasn't trying 100% of the time to rip the reins out of my hands. I think, in the absence of any better idea, that I'll just keep ignoring her bad behavior. Don't reward it, don't punish it, and maybe it'll extinguish.
And look! I have video of the rare and wonderful* pace!
*Actually, it's common and uncomfortable.
Dixie, pace and rack (?) from Funder on Vimeo.
I think at the very end of the video she breaks into a rack for just a couple seconds. When she switched out of the pace into something more comfortable I quit urging her forward and let her come back down to a walk.
She doesn't usually pace, but that's all she did yesterday. I have five more little videos... all pacey. Weird. I'm off to read up on the pace and how to help her not do it.
I did some c/t to get Dixie to stand still so I could mount. It worked fantastically well. I feel pretty stupid for not having thought of this earlier. (Well, I couldn't have thought of it very much earlier; I just started clicker work with her in February. But I could've tried clickering her last February!) I suppose next I should introduce the mounting block. She is within 1/2" of being too tall for me to mount from the ground, and I know it's not good for her back for me to clamber up on her like I do.
She was less awful about the bit. Not great, not like she was in January and February at Hillside, but she wasn't trying 100% of the time to rip the reins out of my hands. I think, in the absence of any better idea, that I'll just keep ignoring her bad behavior. Don't reward it, don't punish it, and maybe it'll extinguish.
And look! I have video of the rare and wonderful* pace!
*Actually, it's common and uncomfortable.
Dixie, pace and rack (?) from Funder on Vimeo.
I think at the very end of the video she breaks into a rack for just a couple seconds. When she switched out of the pace into something more comfortable I quit urging her forward and let her come back down to a walk.
She doesn't usually pace, but that's all she did yesterday. I have five more little videos... all pacey. Weird. I'm off to read up on the pace and how to help her not do it.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
OW OW OW DAMMIT DIXIE
She stepped on MY FOOT! There is a huge bruise on it. All my toes work so no serious damage was done.
The foot squashing occurred during a huge grooming session. I finally turned the corner with her coat - she's still pretty shaggy but I can see the summer coat under the extra fuzz. Finally!
I thought perhaps I should try the lunging thing. I don't generally lunge before I ride; it's just not my thing. But she was so crazy the other day that I thought it was worth a shot today. Unfortunately it is not the answer with Dixie. It just got her MORE worked up. When I mounted she was even wilder than Tuesday.
I ended up working through it better this time. We hung out in the corner of the arena nearest her and Champ's stalls. When she calmed down a tiny bit, we started walking in very small circles, near her stall wall, gradually increasing in size. Eventually we were calmly walking the entire arena.
She was horrid about the bit again. Non stop head tossing and yanking. I decided this time to pretty much ignore her. I kept the exact same very light contact no matter what she did, which was a nice hand exercise for me and very annoying for her.
After like 40 minutes she finally gave in and wanted to stretch her neck out. I let her stretch out into very light contact for a couple laps, then slowly picked her head back up and urged her up into gait. We gaited two circles, then back to a walk, switched directions, and repeated. Then we were done!
She's back to switching gaits constantly. I am going to try to get the Reluctant Photographer Husband to come video us this weekend and figure out what she's doing. Feels like pace to rack, then either a couple strides of canter or a couple strides of running walk in the turns.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty, then rain again over the weekend. I might take Champ out to the park again while I've got the chance!
I do not, in general, believe in magical fixes. But I am mildly hopeful that getting Dixie's teeth floated will help with the bit. Maybe she has wolf teeth coming in? She's way worse about contact since we moved.
The foot squashing occurred during a huge grooming session. I finally turned the corner with her coat - she's still pretty shaggy but I can see the summer coat under the extra fuzz. Finally!
I thought perhaps I should try the lunging thing. I don't generally lunge before I ride; it's just not my thing. But she was so crazy the other day that I thought it was worth a shot today. Unfortunately it is not the answer with Dixie. It just got her MORE worked up. When I mounted she was even wilder than Tuesday.
I ended up working through it better this time. We hung out in the corner of the arena nearest her and Champ's stalls. When she calmed down a tiny bit, we started walking in very small circles, near her stall wall, gradually increasing in size. Eventually we were calmly walking the entire arena.
She was horrid about the bit again. Non stop head tossing and yanking. I decided this time to pretty much ignore her. I kept the exact same very light contact no matter what she did, which was a nice hand exercise for me and very annoying for her.
After like 40 minutes she finally gave in and wanted to stretch her neck out. I let her stretch out into very light contact for a couple laps, then slowly picked her head back up and urged her up into gait. We gaited two circles, then back to a walk, switched directions, and repeated. Then we were done!
She's back to switching gaits constantly. I am going to try to get the Reluctant Photographer Husband to come video us this weekend and figure out what she's doing. Feels like pace to rack, then either a couple strides of canter or a couple strides of running walk in the turns.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and pretty, then rain again over the weekend. I might take Champ out to the park again while I've got the chance!
I do not, in general, believe in magical fixes. But I am mildly hopeful that getting Dixie's teeth floated will help with the bit. Maybe she has wolf teeth coming in? She's way worse about contact since we moved.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Two rides, one injury
Yesterday I rode Dixie and then rasped half my knuckle off. The searing pain in my finger greatly decreased my desire to blog. Today I rode Champ and managed to not injure myself any further. My finger even feels better! Yippie!
So. Yesterday. I got great gobs of hair off of the white yak, but the end is nowhere in sight. Surely this too shall pass? Eventually I figured I'd gotten off enough hair so that the saddle wouldn't slip loose on a magic carpet of fur. Time to ride!
We usually start off our sessions at a brisk rack for a couple laps, til Dixie calms down and decides to try to listen and cooperate. Yesterday, we started off at a brisk canter. We got in a huge fight about whether or not she'd get to canter wildly, then I decided I didn't want to have that particular fight. I let her go.
We cantered around the indoor for about 15 minutes. The first three times she tried to slow down, I goosed her back up into a canter. You want to run? LET'S RUN. Eventually when I figured she'd gotten my point, I asked her to slow down and she very politely did.
We rode around for another 30 or 45 minutes. There's so many things I need to work on, but I don't feel like I know enough to do them properly, or I only know what I want and not how to get it. Pretty depressing. I kept riding anyway, trying to keep pushing her forward with my legs, keep her straight except for when I wanted her to bend, find some contact. At one point she finally wanted to stretch her neck out and down, so I let her stretch out as we walked. Then I very very carefully picked the contact back up and very carefully brought up the energy in my legs. We got a really nice active walk on the bit! We! Me and Dixie! Wheeeee!
I quit on that high note. I still don't feel like I have much of a clue about what I'm doing, but... that was nice.
I turned Dixie back out to roll and grabbed Champ. I was planning on taking pics of his hooves and trimming them a bit, but I haven't found my trimming gloves. I've been trimming for like two years now, surely I won't rasp my hands, right? Wrong. I got both front hooves rolled before I rasped my poor middle finger knuckle. Blood everywhere. I got blood all over my jeans trying to get it to stop, and I almost bled all over the camera before I gave up and wrapped it in a piece of napkin and some vet wrap.
Today I went back for vengeance. Champ did not make me rasp my knuckle - only my clumsiness did that - but he didn't exactly make it easy for me to succeed. He kept yanking his hooves away and whinnying for Dixie, so I was trying to hold his hoof on the stand and put my finger in the path of the rasp. Hmph. So I went in today to make him sweat for my poor finger.
We did w/t circles for a while, then I decided I wanted to try Champ in the snaffle again. I swapped out his bridle for Dixie's and maaaaan he was pissed. But he listened fine! More w/t circles, with me trying to get a canter out of him and no luck at all. He doesn't really canter, he just switches from a very fast trot to a full gallop. I'd really like to have a canter. Yet another thing I don't really know how to teach my horses. :(
So. Yesterday. I got great gobs of hair off of the white yak, but the end is nowhere in sight. Surely this too shall pass? Eventually I figured I'd gotten off enough hair so that the saddle wouldn't slip loose on a magic carpet of fur. Time to ride!
We usually start off our sessions at a brisk rack for a couple laps, til Dixie calms down and decides to try to listen and cooperate. Yesterday, we started off at a brisk canter. We got in a huge fight about whether or not she'd get to canter wildly, then I decided I didn't want to have that particular fight. I let her go.
We cantered around the indoor for about 15 minutes. The first three times she tried to slow down, I goosed her back up into a canter. You want to run? LET'S RUN. Eventually when I figured she'd gotten my point, I asked her to slow down and she very politely did.
We rode around for another 30 or 45 minutes. There's so many things I need to work on, but I don't feel like I know enough to do them properly, or I only know what I want and not how to get it. Pretty depressing. I kept riding anyway, trying to keep pushing her forward with my legs, keep her straight except for when I wanted her to bend, find some contact. At one point she finally wanted to stretch her neck out and down, so I let her stretch out as we walked. Then I very very carefully picked the contact back up and very carefully brought up the energy in my legs. We got a really nice active walk on the bit! We! Me and Dixie! Wheeeee!
I quit on that high note. I still don't feel like I have much of a clue about what I'm doing, but... that was nice.
I turned Dixie back out to roll and grabbed Champ. I was planning on taking pics of his hooves and trimming them a bit, but I haven't found my trimming gloves. I've been trimming for like two years now, surely I won't rasp my hands, right? Wrong. I got both front hooves rolled before I rasped my poor middle finger knuckle. Blood everywhere. I got blood all over my jeans trying to get it to stop, and I almost bled all over the camera before I gave up and wrapped it in a piece of napkin and some vet wrap.
Today I went back for vengeance. Champ did not make me rasp my knuckle - only my clumsiness did that - but he didn't exactly make it easy for me to succeed. He kept yanking his hooves away and whinnying for Dixie, so I was trying to hold his hoof on the stand and put my finger in the path of the rasp. Hmph. So I went in today to make him sweat for my poor finger.
We did w/t circles for a while, then I decided I wanted to try Champ in the snaffle again. I swapped out his bridle for Dixie's and maaaaan he was pissed. But he listened fine! More w/t circles, with me trying to get a canter out of him and no luck at all. He doesn't really canter, he just switches from a very fast trot to a full gallop. I'd really like to have a canter. Yet another thing I don't really know how to teach my horses. :(
Friday, March 20, 2009
Yaks and newscasters
Every spring, it seems like a neverending battle to get the yak hair off of my horses. It's fun, of course - it really appeals to my OCD side to get all the hair off. I got, mmmm, how does one measure the volume of shed hair off of an animal? I got a half a pillowcase full off of Champ, and maybe half that off of Dixie.
Then I had a challenging ride on Dixie in the indoor. She's still settling in, so she screamed for Champ quite a bit. And she wouldn't stand still for me to get a toe in the stirrup for like 10 minutes. And she was having no part of the bit - she tossed her head and yanked at the reins and tried to run through my rein aids, for the whole hour.
But! She listened perfectly to my legs and seat. I mean perfectly. Something clicked since that lesson last month where I tried so hard to show her to move away from my inside leg. And we are finally starting to get the hang of half-halts and halts, the dressagey way.
After I was done riding, I talked to one of the other boarders for a bit. She's got the Other Walking Horses, and she seems pretty nice. At one point, I was talking about Dixie, and I said "She's kinda crazy, but I love her to pieces."
"Excuse me? Did you said you love her... paces?" asked the Other Walking Horse Person.
"No, to PIECES! You know, little pieces?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, it's just, you know, your accent..." the OWHP trailed off, slightly embarrassed that she couldn't understand me.
"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "Yall all sound like newscasters or something."
We laughed and went our separate ways. But that's just one of the things that's so weird about this place. Everybody has the most neutral accent imaginable! And they're very polite, in a very reserved way. Strange place.
I took some pictures but I didn't bring the camera in, so yall will just have to wait.
Then I had a challenging ride on Dixie in the indoor. She's still settling in, so she screamed for Champ quite a bit. And she wouldn't stand still for me to get a toe in the stirrup for like 10 minutes. And she was having no part of the bit - she tossed her head and yanked at the reins and tried to run through my rein aids, for the whole hour.
But! She listened perfectly to my legs and seat. I mean perfectly. Something clicked since that lesson last month where I tried so hard to show her to move away from my inside leg. And we are finally starting to get the hang of half-halts and halts, the dressagey way.
After I was done riding, I talked to one of the other boarders for a bit. She's got the Other Walking Horses, and she seems pretty nice. At one point, I was talking about Dixie, and I said "She's kinda crazy, but I love her to pieces."
"Excuse me? Did you said you love her... paces?" asked the Other Walking Horse Person.
"No, to PIECES! You know, little pieces?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, it's just, you know, your accent..." the OWHP trailed off, slightly embarrassed that she couldn't understand me.
"Yeah, I know." I sighed. "Yall all sound like newscasters or something."
We laughed and went our separate ways. But that's just one of the things that's so weird about this place. Everybody has the most neutral accent imaginable! And they're very polite, in a very reserved way. Strange place.
I took some pictures but I didn't bring the camera in, so yall will just have to wait.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Happy horses!
Rode Dixie for about an hour in the indoor arena. (INDOOR ARENA. Can't stop saying that. Me, in an INDOOR ARENA. Woah!) I snuck the dressage whip with me - tucked it under my belt before I climbed on. There is no getting on her while holding a whip - if it's hidden away somewhere, or if someone hands it to me while I'm on, she's ok but wary. If I hold a whip and try to get on, I can forget about it.
We racked around at top speed for about 10 minutes, which is about what I expected. Scary new place! Arena! Must gait fast! Then she calmed down and started listening. We are both about 3 steps back from where we were 6 weeks ago - I had to think about my hands and my seat and all that stuff, and she doesn't want to bend at all. I got my contact right, she gave to the bit a little, we were both happy. And I got a bit of a faster but still relaxed walk out of her, several times. I'm happy.
Champ was Not Happy. He seems to have completely forgotten Silky, which is really good - it would've broken my heart if he was visibly moping around and mourning her. I don't think horses are wired to remember the past the same way we are. Anyway, Dixie is Champ's New Mare and he gets rather distraught when I take her away. Or maybe he gets rather distraught that I'm riding her instead of him? It's not a big deal if I take him, but he does a bit of pacing and screaming when I take her. But he's a big boy and he'll live.
He has some icky dandruffy crud on his neck, under the Place Where He's Going Bald. Not sure what to do there. Should I ignore it and see if it improves with the new hay/grain? Put something topical on it, like I dunno, Bag Balm or aloe? Yell at him for being scruffy?
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 60s. I think I will ride Champ on the back roads over to the nearest park. Not sure if the park's open or rideable right now, but it'll be fun riding on the roads either way.
We racked around at top speed for about 10 minutes, which is about what I expected. Scary new place! Arena! Must gait fast! Then she calmed down and started listening. We are both about 3 steps back from where we were 6 weeks ago - I had to think about my hands and my seat and all that stuff, and she doesn't want to bend at all. I got my contact right, she gave to the bit a little, we were both happy. And I got a bit of a faster but still relaxed walk out of her, several times. I'm happy.
Champ was Not Happy. He seems to have completely forgotten Silky, which is really good - it would've broken my heart if he was visibly moping around and mourning her. I don't think horses are wired to remember the past the same way we are. Anyway, Dixie is Champ's New Mare and he gets rather distraught when I take her away. Or maybe he gets rather distraught that I'm riding her instead of him? It's not a big deal if I take him, but he does a bit of pacing and screaming when I take her. But he's a big boy and he'll live.
He has some icky dandruffy crud on his neck, under the Place Where He's Going Bald. Not sure what to do there. Should I ignore it and see if it improves with the new hay/grain? Put something topical on it, like I dunno, Bag Balm or aloe? Yell at him for being scruffy?
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 60s. I think I will ride Champ on the back roads over to the nearest park. Not sure if the park's open or rideable right now, but it'll be fun riding on the roads either way.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
They're on the road!
The nice fellow from Triple H met us at the truck stop and my brave horses are headed to Ohio. They looked pretty weirded out about the whole thing, but I'm quite sure I'm projecting. I have been a nervous wreck all day and I am only slightly less nervous now.
Off to say goodbye to my parents, then finish cleaning. Tomorrow we pack and drive!
Off to say goodbye to my parents, then finish cleaning. Tomorrow we pack and drive!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
WOO HOO!
Had a really nice Last Sunday at the field. We all went fishing, but nobody caught much of anything. Well, I think each of us caught at least one fish, but they weren't very big and we were just fishing for the hell of it so we threw them all back.
Then we headed back up to the horse field and I decided to trim my horses. (My two horses. Feels so weird only having two - I'd just finally gotten used to "only" having three.) Champ was a breeze to work on, of course, and I just took a bit off of his inner rear heels and a bit off of the high front heel. Then I got Dixie.
Dixie is the devil's own child to trim. I've always gotten it done, but it always ends with both of us incredibly angry at each other. Well, this time I had a huge bag of her favoritest homemade horse treats, and I just stayed really patient and c/t'd really frequently. And I mean really frequently - I'd pick up a foot, nip one time, put it down, c/t. She was still not really keen on the idea but neither of us got mad and I got done what I wanted to get done. WOO HOO!
I really need to take good pics of her feet and ask Mrs. Mom what she thinks. They look pretty good, but they are still long. And not "long walls," just "long feet." It's kinda weird. Welp, she's not lame and we're making progress!
I have GOT to pack my kitchen tonight. I hate packing kitchen stuff. I love cooking and I love a well organized kitchen and I just really hate trying to find a box to hold the rolling pin and a box for the cutting board and where am I going to put the knives and what about the glasses, ARGH.
Then we headed back up to the horse field and I decided to trim my horses. (My two horses. Feels so weird only having two - I'd just finally gotten used to "only" having three.) Champ was a breeze to work on, of course, and I just took a bit off of his inner rear heels and a bit off of the high front heel. Then I got Dixie.
Dixie is the devil's own child to trim. I've always gotten it done, but it always ends with both of us incredibly angry at each other. Well, this time I had a huge bag of her favoritest homemade horse treats, and I just stayed really patient and c/t'd really frequently. And I mean really frequently - I'd pick up a foot, nip one time, put it down, c/t. She was still not really keen on the idea but neither of us got mad and I got done what I wanted to get done. WOO HOO!
I really need to take good pics of her feet and ask Mrs. Mom what she thinks. They look pretty good, but they are still long. And not "long walls," just "long feet." It's kinda weird. Welp, she's not lame and we're making progress!
I have GOT to pack my kitchen tonight. I hate packing kitchen stuff. I love cooking and I love a well organized kitchen and I just really hate trying to find a box to hold the rolling pin and a box for the cutting board and where am I going to put the knives and what about the glasses, ARGH.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Horse Treats
Tonight is the "oh holy shit I'm about to move to OHIO" night. Cause I'm about to move to OHIO. Holy shit. I shall be a redneck in King Arthur's court. Ack.
The other day I decided to use up some stuff from the kitchen and made a big batch of horse treats. Extensive testing has allowed me to say that I have made the world's best horse treats. I just made another batch tonight! Here's how you too can make them:
Preheat oven to 350.
Dump some uncooked oatmeal in a bowl. I used about 1 or 1.5 cups of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats but I don't think it matters too much if you use instant or steel cut or whatever. Add some salt - a teaspoon or two. Add some baking powder*, about a teaspoon or so. Beat in two eggs and about 4 ounces of molasses. You will have nasty looking gloop.
Now start adding flour, a heaping spoonful at a time. When it gets hard to stir, start using your hands to knead in more flour until you end up with a Play-dough consistency. I probably used 1.5 or 2 cups of flour - quite a bit. You will have really unattractive brown clay now.
Put some foil or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Do you want lots of little treats or fewer large treats? Roll your dough into skinny or fat snakes, and pinch off little balls or slice off fat cookies. Stick them on the foil as close together as you want, and bake for 10-12 minutes. They're done when they're puffed up a bit and the edges are browner and they don't feel squishy. While the first sheet is baking, spread out another piece of foil and get the second sheet ready. I end up with three trays of treats, and I make tiny little treats for clicker training.
Anyway, everybody loves these little things, and they're waaaaay cheaper than Real Horse Treats or name brand cereal. I've been working with Dixie for about a week now, doing c/t for her to stand nicely while I brush her. (Yes, I am such a fantastic horsewoman that after a year, I couldn't even brush my horse without a temper tantrum. Sigh.) I haven't even refined her behavior enough to ask for "pretty ears" while I brush her, but she's already figured out that just standing still while I groom her gets treats. Today I was out of the homemade treats, so I gave her some hay in the bed of my truck and she still stood remarkably still while I curried a bunch of loose hair off of her. YAY!
The other day I decided to use up some stuff from the kitchen and made a big batch of horse treats. Extensive testing has allowed me to say that I have made the world's best horse treats. I just made another batch tonight! Here's how you too can make them:
Preheat oven to 350.
Dump some uncooked oatmeal in a bowl. I used about 1 or 1.5 cups of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats but I don't think it matters too much if you use instant or steel cut or whatever. Add some salt - a teaspoon or two. Add some baking powder*, about a teaspoon or so. Beat in two eggs and about 4 ounces of molasses. You will have nasty looking gloop.
Now start adding flour, a heaping spoonful at a time. When it gets hard to stir, start using your hands to knead in more flour until you end up with a Play-dough consistency. I probably used 1.5 or 2 cups of flour - quite a bit. You will have really unattractive brown clay now.
Put some foil or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Do you want lots of little treats or fewer large treats? Roll your dough into skinny or fat snakes, and pinch off little balls or slice off fat cookies. Stick them on the foil as close together as you want, and bake for 10-12 minutes. They're done when they're puffed up a bit and the edges are browner and they don't feel squishy. While the first sheet is baking, spread out another piece of foil and get the second sheet ready. I end up with three trays of treats, and I make tiny little treats for clicker training.
- *Use baking powder. Baking soda requires an acid to activate it, and this recipe doesn't have anything acidic. You could use baking soda and cream of tartar, but if you don't have any baking powder on hand you're not likely to have cream of tartar in your cupboard either. In that case you could omit the leavening; horses probably don't mind dense treats.
Anyway, everybody loves these little things, and they're waaaaay cheaper than Real Horse Treats or name brand cereal. I've been working with Dixie for about a week now, doing c/t for her to stand nicely while I brush her. (Yes, I am such a fantastic horsewoman that after a year, I couldn't even brush my horse without a temper tantrum. Sigh.) I haven't even refined her behavior enough to ask for "pretty ears" while I brush her, but she's already figured out that just standing still while I groom her gets treats. Today I was out of the homemade treats, so I gave her some hay in the bed of my truck and she still stood remarkably still while I curried a bunch of loose hair off of her. YAY!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
The mating call of the Terror Bird
Yeah, I did it again. Earlier this week I mentioned to someone how Champ is completely bombproof, so today he proved me wrong.
I've been (of course) super busy with all the little stuff to arrange to move. Today was the first day I actually got to spend time with my horses. At least it was a lovely day, about 60 and overcast when I went out.
I saddled my reluctant gelding and we moseyed away down the trail. All was going pretty well until the mating cry of the terror bird, when he spun 180 degrees and tried to bolt. I spun him back around and he JIGGED down the trail. He actually jigged! He never jigs; it's entirely too much work, but damn if he didn't do it today.
In case you were wondering, Terror Birds sound a lot like ducks or something. I don't know much about birdcalls, but no NORMAL bird could've freaked out my dearest Champ like that.
Anyway, we rode everywhere I wanted to go and made it back safe. Then I worked with Dixie a bit - picking up feet and letting me groom her without dancing around like I am stabbing her. She did very well!
Moving:
Found a new barn, very near where we're going to get an apartment, reasonable rates. Found (thanks Paige!) a shipper, waiting to hear back when they can fit me in. Got a crapload of boxes and all of our nonessential stuff is already boxed. (Not that most of it ever got UNBOXED, but whatever.) U-haul is reserved, for what that's worth.
Tomorrow or Monday I'll get health certs and rabies shots for the horses. The vet recommended Benadryl instead of Valium for the cats, and god knows I always have benadryl on hand. I need to meet up with Stephen and dispose of the rest of the stuff in our shared ministorage. He said he'll build me a box for the tv, too - we don't have the original box for the TV, and it's a big ole widescreen LCD HD TV. Hard to pack it without scratching it or breaking the whateveritis that makes the pixels light up. And tomorrow my new spare tire winch thing should come in, so I can install that and get the damn spare tire out of the bed of my truck. FINALLY.
I think I am going to cancel my lesson on Sunday. I haven't done jack with Dixie and I don't know if I even have time to ride her tomorrow or Saturday. My mind isn't really on dressage right now.
I've been (of course) super busy with all the little stuff to arrange to move. Today was the first day I actually got to spend time with my horses. At least it was a lovely day, about 60 and overcast when I went out.
I saddled my reluctant gelding and we moseyed away down the trail. All was going pretty well until the mating cry of the terror bird, when he spun 180 degrees and tried to bolt. I spun him back around and he JIGGED down the trail. He actually jigged! He never jigs; it's entirely too much work, but damn if he didn't do it today.
In case you were wondering, Terror Birds sound a lot like ducks or something. I don't know much about birdcalls, but no NORMAL bird could've freaked out my dearest Champ like that.
Anyway, we rode everywhere I wanted to go and made it back safe. Then I worked with Dixie a bit - picking up feet and letting me groom her without dancing around like I am stabbing her. She did very well!
Moving:
Found a new barn, very near where we're going to get an apartment, reasonable rates. Found (thanks Paige!) a shipper, waiting to hear back when they can fit me in. Got a crapload of boxes and all of our nonessential stuff is already boxed. (Not that most of it ever got UNBOXED, but whatever.) U-haul is reserved, for what that's worth.
Tomorrow or Monday I'll get health certs and rabies shots for the horses. The vet recommended Benadryl instead of Valium for the cats, and god knows I always have benadryl on hand. I need to meet up with Stephen and dispose of the rest of the stuff in our shared ministorage. He said he'll build me a box for the tv, too - we don't have the original box for the TV, and it's a big ole widescreen LCD HD TV. Hard to pack it without scratching it or breaking the whateveritis that makes the pixels light up. And tomorrow my new spare tire winch thing should come in, so I can install that and get the damn spare tire out of the bed of my truck. FINALLY.
I think I am going to cancel my lesson on Sunday. I haven't done jack with Dixie and I don't know if I even have time to ride her tomorrow or Saturday. My mind isn't really on dressage right now.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Worms, videos, clicks
I was a week behind my normal schedule, but I got everybody dewormed with pyrantel pamoate. I used the traditional method of luring the horses to me with their usual handful of grain, sticking a halter on each horse, and hanging off the noseband while I convinced each appalled horse that YES, I really WAS going to violate the victim's personal integrity in such a horrid fashion. Then everybody got grain and completely forgave me.
It sounds like I'm making light of alternative horse handling methods, but I'm not, really. I'm lucky that none of my horses actually act violent about dewormer or are terrified of it. It's more like I'm extremely amused by my horses' individual drama queen reactions to the hated wormer.
Champ, who is normally the calmest horse in the universe and puts up with any weird thing I want to do to him, flips his nose up and down as fast possible til I get mad and cuss him. Once I get the dewormer tube in his mouth, he starts actively trying to spit the paste out as fast as I deposit it on his tongue. As soon as the grain appears, he completely forgives me.
Silky is appalled that I am invading her old-lady dignity in such a horrid fashion. She stands perfectly still, but clamps her lips shut as tightly as possible. It's like trying to feed a three year old kid her least favorite food - except I have a syringe, instead of a spoon, so I win. Again, once the halter comes off and the cookies appear, she's back to being a quiet and respectful pocket pony.
Dixie seethes with barely controlled rage. Her ears alternate between pinned-back and focused on me, like she flipflops between "I will kill you for this!" and "Oh wait it's the boss human!" She actually never left all afternoon - she was caught, dewormed, and fed some grain. Then she hung around hopefully until I broke out the clicker, and after I was done clickering her she hung around a little longer to watch me and Poppy.
Since Dixie had gotten over her snit so quickly, I decided to clicker clean her feet again today. IceRyder had asked for video of it, and I tried to oblige. However, my skills at wiring a camera to a round pen panel are somewhat lacking and it's really not all that great. I uploaded it anyway, as proof of how good Dixie was about the whole thing, and how amazingly effective clicker training is.
Dixie clicker training feet from Funder on Vimeo.
The people talking are me and K, Poppy's new owner. The periodic "earthquakes" happen when the dogs, Cersei and Lucky, run under that round pen panel to get in or out of the pen. And apparently my camera only takes 3 minute videos, so yall missed the last hoof cleaning.
I know, I need to wear a belt.
Clicker stuff: I think it's fascinating how Dixie has her ears pinned almost constantly. She really doesn't like for any creature to touch her anywhere under any circumstances, except for humans offering her treats directly under her nose. Well, and she does seem to like me - whenever I offer her the halter, she sticks her nose in it, and she leads great, and whenever I look at her she's got pretty ears. Apparently not when I'm picking her feet! But look at those ears pop forward whenever she hears a click.
For a cue, I'm tap-tap-tapping with a finger on the lower part of the leg I want. It's clear and not painful. When I started her near side, I started adding the "up" verbal cue. I really prefer a verbal cue for foot lifting - it's kind of sweet yet annoying when the horse keeps picking its hoof up for you when you only want to brush off its muddy legs or trim its feathers. I'll keep doing both the tap and the verbal cue for a while, then try to fade the tap.
I'm planning on adding trimming next. I'll bring my makeshift hoof stand out and see if I can't get a second of duration when I put a front foot on the stand. I think trimming should progress almost as fast as cleaning has... I hope!
Clicker people, any critiques or suggestions?
And here's a video from earlier this week, when I was trail riding on Champ. This is the fishing lake, and it's my second favorite of the seven lakes. I think it's just gorgeous out there.
Trail ride, fishing lake from Funder on Vimeo.
It sounds like I'm making light of alternative horse handling methods, but I'm not, really. I'm lucky that none of my horses actually act violent about dewormer or are terrified of it. It's more like I'm extremely amused by my horses' individual drama queen reactions to the hated wormer.
Champ, who is normally the calmest horse in the universe and puts up with any weird thing I want to do to him, flips his nose up and down as fast possible til I get mad and cuss him. Once I get the dewormer tube in his mouth, he starts actively trying to spit the paste out as fast as I deposit it on his tongue. As soon as the grain appears, he completely forgives me.
Silky is appalled that I am invading her old-lady dignity in such a horrid fashion. She stands perfectly still, but clamps her lips shut as tightly as possible. It's like trying to feed a three year old kid her least favorite food - except I have a syringe, instead of a spoon, so I win. Again, once the halter comes off and the cookies appear, she's back to being a quiet and respectful pocket pony.
Dixie seethes with barely controlled rage. Her ears alternate between pinned-back and focused on me, like she flipflops between "I will kill you for this!" and "Oh wait it's the boss human!" She actually never left all afternoon - she was caught, dewormed, and fed some grain. Then she hung around hopefully until I broke out the clicker, and after I was done clickering her she hung around a little longer to watch me and Poppy.
Since Dixie had gotten over her snit so quickly, I decided to clicker clean her feet again today. IceRyder had asked for video of it, and I tried to oblige. However, my skills at wiring a camera to a round pen panel are somewhat lacking and it's really not all that great. I uploaded it anyway, as proof of how good Dixie was about the whole thing, and how amazingly effective clicker training is.
Dixie clicker training feet from Funder on Vimeo.
The people talking are me and K, Poppy's new owner. The periodic "earthquakes" happen when the dogs, Cersei and Lucky, run under that round pen panel to get in or out of the pen. And apparently my camera only takes 3 minute videos, so yall missed the last hoof cleaning.
I know, I need to wear a belt.
Clicker stuff: I think it's fascinating how Dixie has her ears pinned almost constantly. She really doesn't like for any creature to touch her anywhere under any circumstances, except for humans offering her treats directly under her nose. Well, and she does seem to like me - whenever I offer her the halter, she sticks her nose in it, and she leads great, and whenever I look at her she's got pretty ears. Apparently not when I'm picking her feet! But look at those ears pop forward whenever she hears a click.
For a cue, I'm tap-tap-tapping with a finger on the lower part of the leg I want. It's clear and not painful. When I started her near side, I started adding the "up" verbal cue. I really prefer a verbal cue for foot lifting - it's kind of sweet yet annoying when the horse keeps picking its hoof up for you when you only want to brush off its muddy legs or trim its feathers. I'll keep doing both the tap and the verbal cue for a while, then try to fade the tap.
I'm planning on adding trimming next. I'll bring my makeshift hoof stand out and see if I can't get a second of duration when I put a front foot on the stand. I think trimming should progress almost as fast as cleaning has... I hope!
Clicker people, any critiques or suggestions?
And here's a video from earlier this week, when I was trail riding on Champ. This is the fishing lake, and it's my second favorite of the seven lakes. I think it's just gorgeous out there.
Trail ride, fishing lake from Funder on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Clicky Dixie
I was inspired by Michelle's recent posts. Her horses are so well behaved, and I know it's cause she clicker trains them, and dammit I can do that too! So off we went to Walgreens for some Frosted Mini Wheats and then out to work with Dixie.
I started off with head-down to get her thinking about working with me, then I tied her up and did some foot picking up stuff. Ideally I'd be able to pick up and work on her feet at liberty, but I wanted some successes to reinforce. I have a short attention span. Here's how it went:
First, I'd c/t (click/treat) for her picking up a hoof, no matter how briefly. It's absolutely crucial to get the click in that split second where the hoof is in the air - otherwise, you're rewarding the horse for slamming her feet back down and then you'll have successfully clicker trained pawing. I have already successfully clicker trained pawing with one horse so I'd like to skip it with this one. I did all four feet this way, maybe 5 times on each foot.
Then I moved to "let me hold your foot." If she yanked her foot away, no c/t. If she let me hold it, just for a couple seconds, she got a treat. I did that on each hoof several more times, then I went and got a hoofpick.
I am not coordinated enough to hold clicker, hoof, and hoofpick, so I decided she'd just have to be patient - and anyway, I want to reward the entire action. I cleaned all four feet - twice actually! - and she behaved quite well for it. She is usually a horribly impatient bitchy mare - yanks her feet away, every now and then she'll cow-kick at me, paws nonstop, threatens to lay down if you won't let go of her foot. It's not that she doesn't understand picking up her feet, it's that she doesn't want to cooperate about it.
In a sense, clicker training really is just bribery. But it's exceptionally clear bribery! And the alternative to bribery is pressure/release, which boils down to "do what I want or I will annoy you nonstop til you give in." Sometimes, I can see a better way to do something with pressure/release, and sometimes I can see an easier way with clicker training. It depends on the difference in the horse's personality, too.
I think the more traditional way to get her to pick up her feet and hold them up would be to just refuse to let the hoof go until she quit fighting, repeated over and over til she decides on her own it's quicker to just cooperate. The NH way would probably be to send her out in circles, or make her back up, or something similar, whenever she yanked her feet away - making the wrong thing hard. Both of those methods don't work well with Dixie. She has a tendency to get angry or panicky or something and try to lay down if you refuse to let go of her hoof, and she gets kind of spazzy and her brain shuts down if you keep punishing her with round pen work. But clicker training leaves her intrigued and relaxed and really thinking about what on earth I want from her.
I don't think I'll train everything with the clicker. Our under saddle work is coming along really well with the sort of classical pressure/release work we've been doing. But ground manners with the clicker is a lot of fun and works pretty well too!
Anyway. You never see pictures of her feet, because she's so horrid about picking them up and I have no doubt she'd step on the camera if I dared to set it down. But hopefully I will have pictures of her (still kind of strange looking) hooves to show off soon!
I started off with head-down to get her thinking about working with me, then I tied her up and did some foot picking up stuff. Ideally I'd be able to pick up and work on her feet at liberty, but I wanted some successes to reinforce. I have a short attention span. Here's how it went:
First, I'd c/t (click/treat) for her picking up a hoof, no matter how briefly. It's absolutely crucial to get the click in that split second where the hoof is in the air - otherwise, you're rewarding the horse for slamming her feet back down and then you'll have successfully clicker trained pawing. I have already successfully clicker trained pawing with one horse so I'd like to skip it with this one. I did all four feet this way, maybe 5 times on each foot.
Then I moved to "let me hold your foot." If she yanked her foot away, no c/t. If she let me hold it, just for a couple seconds, she got a treat. I did that on each hoof several more times, then I went and got a hoofpick.
I am not coordinated enough to hold clicker, hoof, and hoofpick, so I decided she'd just have to be patient - and anyway, I want to reward the entire action. I cleaned all four feet - twice actually! - and she behaved quite well for it. She is usually a horribly impatient bitchy mare - yanks her feet away, every now and then she'll cow-kick at me, paws nonstop, threatens to lay down if you won't let go of her foot. It's not that she doesn't understand picking up her feet, it's that she doesn't want to cooperate about it.
In a sense, clicker training really is just bribery. But it's exceptionally clear bribery! And the alternative to bribery is pressure/release, which boils down to "do what I want or I will annoy you nonstop til you give in." Sometimes, I can see a better way to do something with pressure/release, and sometimes I can see an easier way with clicker training. It depends on the difference in the horse's personality, too.
I think the more traditional way to get her to pick up her feet and hold them up would be to just refuse to let the hoof go until she quit fighting, repeated over and over til she decides on her own it's quicker to just cooperate. The NH way would probably be to send her out in circles, or make her back up, or something similar, whenever she yanked her feet away - making the wrong thing hard. Both of those methods don't work well with Dixie. She has a tendency to get angry or panicky or something and try to lay down if you refuse to let go of her hoof, and she gets kind of spazzy and her brain shuts down if you keep punishing her with round pen work. But clicker training leaves her intrigued and relaxed and really thinking about what on earth I want from her.
I don't think I'll train everything with the clicker. Our under saddle work is coming along really well with the sort of classical pressure/release work we've been doing. But ground manners with the clicker is a lot of fun and works pretty well too!
Anyway. You never see pictures of her feet, because she's so horrid about picking them up and I have no doubt she'd step on the camera if I dared to set it down. But hopefully I will have pictures of her (still kind of strange looking) hooves to show off soon!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
"Dressage" photoshoot!
But first yall need to see my adorable dog.
Tres cute, yes? (And don't laugh but I made that dog bed myself, out of an old flannel sheet and the stuffing from a crappy pillow. She loves it.)
Ok, on to the "dressage." It's in quotes because it doesn't actually look much like dressage - a gaited horse, a western-ish saddle, jeans. She's in a single jointed D ring snaffle though! That's gotta make it more dressagey. (Also please note I am wearing a helmet and not smoking. It's one for the record.) My husband came and took some surprisingly good pictures and video of us!
Yesterday, I experimented with different bits for Dixie. She wasn't doing fantastically with the wide Pelham, so I went to my parents and dug out what I vaguely remembered as my Tom Thumb. It's not actually a TT - it's got a copper roller thing covering the joint in the middle, so each side moves very little. It's also a good bit narrower in diameter than the pelham. She was pretty "meh" about it - didn't hate it, didn't turn or stop any better in it than in the pelham. Then I thought back to one of my Life Lessons About Horses, one that's stood me in good stead for a long time so far:
There are no magic bits. (In fact, there are no magic items of tack. Obviously there are exceptions, like if the horse bucks because the saddle fits so poorly, but in general there's no magic.)
I dug out the single jointed D ring snaffle. The worst she could do is run away, right? And if she runs away, I'll just circle her til she gets tired. This isn't much different from our "bad" days. There is no magic bit. There is no magical brake pedal. As long as I don't haul back on both reins and poke her palate with the bit, it'll all be ok.
She liked the snaffle, quite a bit. We had no brakes, but she was in a bit of a mood and she never woahs when she's in that kind of mood no matter WHAT bit she's in, so I decided we'd stick with the D ring.
So today we had a long lesson in the honest-to-god snaffle bit. Worked on several horse lessons: basic bending at a halt, giving to inside leg pressure, and speeding up without panicking. I had several human lessons going, too: quit flapping your legs off and on the horse, do NOT thump her with your heels and expect her to stay calm, SIT DOWN when she gaits, and teach her to give to inside leg. All in all we did quite well together - not perfect, but we both tried really hard. And my knee hurts - if I hurt my knee, I must be using my legs in a different and hopefully better way, right?
I got a bit of carrot stretching / bending at the halt. We got Dixie to give to inside leg - to spiral outwards on a circle, basically - to the left. The right, not so much - she's very one sided right now. And I bollocksed the first time I asked her to speed up. We got a really hollow choppy racky thing. But the second time I got a smooth upward transition... to a trot! D'oh. Oh well, both she and I know that she can gait just fine and we'll get a really smooth gait one day :)
Here we are at a halt while I talked with Hardy. I love her alert but calm expression. (By the way, that's a halter on under the bridle, not a weird noseband.)
Pretty picture, stretchy walk. She's not even going fast; this is just how she walks if she's not collected at all.
Here's a video of her "totally normal walk." I think we were working on the elusive inner leg cue, but I'm not 100% sure.
Dixie, walking around from Funder on Vimeo.
Here's our bad upward transition. I thumped her with my heels to speed her up, and she went way faster but very hollow and freaked-out.
Dixie, fast gait from Funder on Vimeo.
And here's our good upward transition. This time, I kept increasing leg pressure without resorting to heels or tensing up, and I got her to speed up! Yay! To a trot. Rrrgh. Still, it's progress.
Dixie, trot from Funder on Vimeo.
Tres cute, yes? (And don't laugh but I made that dog bed myself, out of an old flannel sheet and the stuffing from a crappy pillow. She loves it.)
Ok, on to the "dressage." It's in quotes because it doesn't actually look much like dressage - a gaited horse, a western-ish saddle, jeans. She's in a single jointed D ring snaffle though! That's gotta make it more dressagey. (Also please note I am wearing a helmet and not smoking. It's one for the record.) My husband came and took some surprisingly good pictures and video of us!
Yesterday, I experimented with different bits for Dixie. She wasn't doing fantastically with the wide Pelham, so I went to my parents and dug out what I vaguely remembered as my Tom Thumb. It's not actually a TT - it's got a copper roller thing covering the joint in the middle, so each side moves very little. It's also a good bit narrower in diameter than the pelham. She was pretty "meh" about it - didn't hate it, didn't turn or stop any better in it than in the pelham. Then I thought back to one of my Life Lessons About Horses, one that's stood me in good stead for a long time so far:
There are no magic bits. (In fact, there are no magic items of tack. Obviously there are exceptions, like if the horse bucks because the saddle fits so poorly, but in general there's no magic.)
I dug out the single jointed D ring snaffle. The worst she could do is run away, right? And if she runs away, I'll just circle her til she gets tired. This isn't much different from our "bad" days. There is no magic bit. There is no magical brake pedal. As long as I don't haul back on both reins and poke her palate with the bit, it'll all be ok.
She liked the snaffle, quite a bit. We had no brakes, but she was in a bit of a mood and she never woahs when she's in that kind of mood no matter WHAT bit she's in, so I decided we'd stick with the D ring.
So today we had a long lesson in the honest-to-god snaffle bit. Worked on several horse lessons: basic bending at a halt, giving to inside leg pressure, and speeding up without panicking. I had several human lessons going, too: quit flapping your legs off and on the horse, do NOT thump her with your heels and expect her to stay calm, SIT DOWN when she gaits, and teach her to give to inside leg. All in all we did quite well together - not perfect, but we both tried really hard. And my knee hurts - if I hurt my knee, I must be using my legs in a different and hopefully better way, right?
I got a bit of carrot stretching / bending at the halt. We got Dixie to give to inside leg - to spiral outwards on a circle, basically - to the left. The right, not so much - she's very one sided right now. And I bollocksed the first time I asked her to speed up. We got a really hollow choppy racky thing. But the second time I got a smooth upward transition... to a trot! D'oh. Oh well, both she and I know that she can gait just fine and we'll get a really smooth gait one day :)
Here we are at a halt while I talked with Hardy. I love her alert but calm expression. (By the way, that's a halter on under the bridle, not a weird noseband.)
Pretty picture, stretchy walk. She's not even going fast; this is just how she walks if she's not collected at all.
Here's a video of her "totally normal walk." I think we were working on the elusive inner leg cue, but I'm not 100% sure.
Dixie, walking around from Funder on Vimeo.
Here's our bad upward transition. I thumped her with my heels to speed her up, and she went way faster but very hollow and freaked-out.
Dixie, fast gait from Funder on Vimeo.
And here's our good upward transition. This time, I kept increasing leg pressure without resorting to heels or tensing up, and I got her to speed up! Yay! To a trot. Rrrgh. Still, it's progress.
Dixie, trot from Funder on Vimeo.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Looks like the hiatus is almost over
We're one step closer to being officially Ohio bound. Right now we're waiting on a date he needs to be up there and a relo amount - once we know how much money they will give him to relo, we can start really arguing over me packing and driving a borrowed utility trailer versus hiring movers, and me borrowing a trailer and driving the horses up versus hiring shippers. No point in getting our hearts set on doing this one way or the other til we know how much we've got to spend, though.
We are definitely getting some Valium for the cats. I already called the vet about that and she said she just needs to know their weights. I am so not looking forward to 10 hours in a truck with three squalling miserable cats.
Mmmm, horse stuff.
I've been in a bit of a slump. Waiting to find out if/when/how we're moving has taken a lot of fun out of life (for both of us, truth be told!) Cersei, as always, keeps me honest. Yesterday I took Champ and went trail riding. Today I just didn't even feel like riding, so I took Cersei out and threw The Ball for an hour.
Poppy found us and was the most adorable pest until I gave in and played with him. He hovered near me, running through all of his tricks (head down, head up, paw, stretch left, stretch right, back up) like some equine Tourette's sufferer. Eventually I couldn't help but give in. Went to Walgreens for a box of Frosted Mini Wheats and back out to pay him some attention.
After we clickered our way through half the box, I kicked him out of the round pen and let Dixie come in. I'd never done clicker work with her before (and I'm not entirely sure why not?) but she did well. I started off charging the clicker - just click stuff a treat in her mouth repeat. Then I waited til she got frustrated and nosed the ground, then started clicking for head down.
She's funny. When things don't go quite like she thinks they should, she gets very frustrated and obviously furious. She didn't paw or pin her ears at me, but you could just see her temper rising as she tried to figure out how to make me give her a mini-wheat again. She eventually stumbled on the right answer, and repeated it, and we had a pretty solid head-down (no cue yet) by the end of our session.
I don't know if this is "correct" or not but I don't like doing the same one command over and over for an entire session, so we broke it up with backing up and the beginnings of carrot stretches. I'd just put my hand on her heart girth and wait til she swiveled her head back to see why I was touching her, then click and treat.
It was good fun for everybody! Oh, and I trimmed Silky and checked Champ's feet. No pictures cause I was feeling like an uninspired slacker. Then I came home and found out we're' like 95% go on Ohio.
We are definitely getting some Valium for the cats. I already called the vet about that and she said she just needs to know their weights. I am so not looking forward to 10 hours in a truck with three squalling miserable cats.
Mmmm, horse stuff.
I've been in a bit of a slump. Waiting to find out if/when/how we're moving has taken a lot of fun out of life (for both of us, truth be told!) Cersei, as always, keeps me honest. Yesterday I took Champ and went trail riding. Today I just didn't even feel like riding, so I took Cersei out and threw The Ball for an hour.
Poppy found us and was the most adorable pest until I gave in and played with him. He hovered near me, running through all of his tricks (head down, head up, paw, stretch left, stretch right, back up) like some equine Tourette's sufferer. Eventually I couldn't help but give in. Went to Walgreens for a box of Frosted Mini Wheats and back out to pay him some attention.
After we clickered our way through half the box, I kicked him out of the round pen and let Dixie come in. I'd never done clicker work with her before (and I'm not entirely sure why not?) but she did well. I started off charging the clicker - just click stuff a treat in her mouth repeat. Then I waited til she got frustrated and nosed the ground, then started clicking for head down.
She's funny. When things don't go quite like she thinks they should, she gets very frustrated and obviously furious. She didn't paw or pin her ears at me, but you could just see her temper rising as she tried to figure out how to make me give her a mini-wheat again. She eventually stumbled on the right answer, and repeated it, and we had a pretty solid head-down (no cue yet) by the end of our session.
I don't know if this is "correct" or not but I don't like doing the same one command over and over for an entire session, so we broke it up with backing up and the beginnings of carrot stretches. I'd just put my hand on her heart girth and wait til she swiveled her head back to see why I was touching her, then click and treat.
It was good fun for everybody! Oh, and I trimmed Silky and checked Champ's feet. No pictures cause I was feeling like an uninspired slacker. Then I came home and found out we're' like 95% go on Ohio.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Dressage, guns, trails, fishing, and MORE!
Yep, I had a super busy day. It's very springlike here right now - we'll probably get one more nasty cold snap before "winter" (as we know it) is over, but I'm perfectly happy wearing a tank top again!
Dressage
Had a cool lesson today. Let's see - Michelle asked if I'd changed saddles, and no, I haven't. I've always ridden Dixie in this saddle. The change I recently made was to tie the fenders back a couple inches, so that my legs naturally hang in a more balanced position. Instead of fighting constantly to keep them back, they "want" to hang with my heels under my hips. And after watching her yesterday, I'm pretty sure she was just in heat. Why do the highstrung mares always have the worst heats? I may try Andrea's raspberry leaf stuff and see if it helps Dixie too.
Anyway, we trailered over and had a productive lesson. Dixie did ok at a slow walk and a flatwalk, but we kept really falling apart at a rack. She'd go hollow, with her nose up and out, whenever I asked her for more speed. I know that if I grab the curb reins and pull her nose in, she'll gait more smoothly, but that seems an awful lot like riding "front to back" and it's not what I want to explore with her.
She doesn't understand inside leg yet. Obviously this is my problem, and in my defense, I've spent almost a year desensitizing her to leg pressure. She used to think any leg at all in any position meant "go as fast as possible." I've finally convinced her that I don't wear spurs (right now) and I'm not going to beat her with a whip if she doesn't explode into motion when I move my leg. Now it's time to teach her what I want when I move a leg. Anyway, when I bend her into a circle, she sets the diameter of the circle because she doesn't move out away from my inside leg - I can't do spirals with her. We worked on that a bit, got a couple of slightly larger circles, and called it good progress.
And Dixie doesn't bend! Well, she bends ok sometimes on circles or spirals, and she's flexible as all get out at liberty, but she hasn't ever been asked to stretch her neck at a standstill. We did a bit of that too; it's something I should continue working on.
Finally, somewhat against my better judgment, we switched bits. Hardy wanted me to try her in a Tom Thumb. I generally hate tom thumbs, because of the whole broken mouth double twisted wire curb balance on the reins to get them to gait thing. And there's a whole lot of dressage-y sites that hate on the Tom Thumb - apparently it gives conflicting information to the horse cause of the combination of shanks and a broken mouthpiece.
But... if I was doing a perfect job training Dixie, I wouldn't be taking lessons. I didn't think a smooth mouth Tom Thumb was going to actually hurt my horse. Maybe confuse her? Maybe jab the roof of her mouth if I was too heavy handed? But not hurt her or make her scared, any worse than we've done to each other in the past. So I tried it.
She loved it. We'd gone up to the barn to look for one, then over to the round pen to try it out. She didn't fuss with it at all, not one bit, and she seemed to bend very well to it. I'm pretty sure I have a copper roller TT in my giant collection of bits at my parents' and tomorrow I'm gonna go pick it up and try again with her.
I was hoping to get some pictures of Dixie stretching out and down for DiJ's Long and Low post but my husband (aka the Official Funder Photographer) wasn't able to come out. He feels appropriately guilty though so hopefully I can get some pictures this week.
Guns!
After Dixie and I got back to the field, K came running up. "Did you bring your gun? B's got his rifle and I've got my pistol and let's go shoot!" So I headed back home and picked up my gun and then we went and killed the hell out of some inanimate objects.
I love rifle shooting it's the best and yall need to try it!
B has a .22 target rifle with a scope and a bipod. (Little legs that fold out from the front of the rifle, so you can lay down and get it perfectly steady.) He's spent the last week getting it perfectly sighted in. We shot our "targets" from about 10 yards, which is not very far at all for a rifle but fun for us newbies. I laid down and shot the UPC code on a Mt. Dew bottle with no problem, then spent my next two turns with it trying to nail the cap to the bottle. Never quite managed it. It's some combination of my breathing and me jerking (instead of slowly squeezing) the trigger. I did a round shooting from the shoulder, which is surprisingly hard. And I tried propping the rifle in a convenient tree branch and shooting at a snag in the lake, about 50 yards out - never quite hit the snag, but I was maybe 6" off from it. Pretty cool.
Everybody liked my .40 again, and we all plinked away with the terrible .22 revolver. I don't mean to hate on the revolver, but... I don't particularly like the grip, the sights are a bit off, it's louder and harder to hit with than the rifle, and it makes teeny weeny holes in cans. My .40 is incredibly loud and not nearly as accurate as a long gun, but at least it makes satisfying holes!
Trails
After we'd shot up all the ammo, we headed back to the horse field. K immediately jumped me again and insisted that we needed to go trail riding! She and T had gone yesterday, on Poppy and Goblin, and had a great time. They wanted to go again! So we all caught our reluctant horses and headed out. I took them on the "easy" trail, the one that has a bunch of short steep ravines. (The hard trail, by comparison, has one VERY STEEP ravine that's twice as long.) They are kinda wussy and I took pity on them and we walked the horses up and down the ravines, but I did assure them that I do regularly ride Champ up and down those slopes. You've gotta believe that your horse can do it, and trust your horse, but you can in fact ride any hill back there.
Poppy did so well. K is not ready to take Poppy trail riding alone, but she knows it. If you and your horse are going out alone, at least one of you needs to be totally confident for it to work out. When I first got Champ, he had the confidence for both of us. Later on, I got more ballsy and now I can ride a green horse alone... but I don't think K can yet, and she doesn't think she can yet either. But she's got her daughter T and Goblin, so the four of them will be fine together. And in a couple months, when Poppy knows every inch of the trails, K and Poppy can go alone if they want.
She's really doing well with him. I'm so very happy. I do think they'll be perfect together - neither of them wants to go anywhere fast, and he's naturally unflappable, and she's neither googly-eyed or scared of him right now. I am pulling for them. :)
Fishing!
We got back to the field AGAIN about 4:30. But it's February and it was warm and I'd been itching to fish all day. I put a silly artificial minnow thing on my line and fished for about an hour. I hooked one decent-sized fish but it slipped off my hook a foot from the bank. Sigh. Then I hooked a willow tree and had to cut my line, double sigh. By that time it was getting dark and chilly, so I packed it up for the night.
I am bound and determined to catch at least one fish with a completely artificial lure. I've only ever caught fish with live bait. I will figure out this lure nonsense. Also I will figure out a really kickass fish recipe, other than "bread in cornmeal and fry."
Cersei accompanied me everywhere today. After dinner (neckbones, if you're curious) she collapsed on her bed by my chair and has not moved since. If she had a blog, she'd tell an entirely different story... but I bet she's just as content as I am.
Dressage
Had a cool lesson today. Let's see - Michelle asked if I'd changed saddles, and no, I haven't. I've always ridden Dixie in this saddle. The change I recently made was to tie the fenders back a couple inches, so that my legs naturally hang in a more balanced position. Instead of fighting constantly to keep them back, they "want" to hang with my heels under my hips. And after watching her yesterday, I'm pretty sure she was just in heat. Why do the highstrung mares always have the worst heats? I may try Andrea's raspberry leaf stuff and see if it helps Dixie too.
Anyway, we trailered over and had a productive lesson. Dixie did ok at a slow walk and a flatwalk, but we kept really falling apart at a rack. She'd go hollow, with her nose up and out, whenever I asked her for more speed. I know that if I grab the curb reins and pull her nose in, she'll gait more smoothly, but that seems an awful lot like riding "front to back" and it's not what I want to explore with her.
She doesn't understand inside leg yet. Obviously this is my problem, and in my defense, I've spent almost a year desensitizing her to leg pressure. She used to think any leg at all in any position meant "go as fast as possible." I've finally convinced her that I don't wear spurs (right now) and I'm not going to beat her with a whip if she doesn't explode into motion when I move my leg. Now it's time to teach her what I want when I move a leg. Anyway, when I bend her into a circle, she sets the diameter of the circle because she doesn't move out away from my inside leg - I can't do spirals with her. We worked on that a bit, got a couple of slightly larger circles, and called it good progress.
And Dixie doesn't bend! Well, she bends ok sometimes on circles or spirals, and she's flexible as all get out at liberty, but she hasn't ever been asked to stretch her neck at a standstill. We did a bit of that too; it's something I should continue working on.
Finally, somewhat against my better judgment, we switched bits. Hardy wanted me to try her in a Tom Thumb. I generally hate tom thumbs, because of the whole broken mouth double twisted wire curb balance on the reins to get them to gait thing. And there's a whole lot of dressage-y sites that hate on the Tom Thumb - apparently it gives conflicting information to the horse cause of the combination of shanks and a broken mouthpiece.
But... if I was doing a perfect job training Dixie, I wouldn't be taking lessons. I didn't think a smooth mouth Tom Thumb was going to actually hurt my horse. Maybe confuse her? Maybe jab the roof of her mouth if I was too heavy handed? But not hurt her or make her scared, any worse than we've done to each other in the past. So I tried it.
She loved it. We'd gone up to the barn to look for one, then over to the round pen to try it out. She didn't fuss with it at all, not one bit, and she seemed to bend very well to it. I'm pretty sure I have a copper roller TT in my giant collection of bits at my parents' and tomorrow I'm gonna go pick it up and try again with her.
I was hoping to get some pictures of Dixie stretching out and down for DiJ's Long and Low post but my husband (aka the Official Funder Photographer) wasn't able to come out. He feels appropriately guilty though so hopefully I can get some pictures this week.
Guns!
After Dixie and I got back to the field, K came running up. "Did you bring your gun? B's got his rifle and I've got my pistol and let's go shoot!" So I headed back home and picked up my gun and then we went and killed the hell out of some inanimate objects.
I love rifle shooting it's the best and yall need to try it!
B has a .22 target rifle with a scope and a bipod. (Little legs that fold out from the front of the rifle, so you can lay down and get it perfectly steady.) He's spent the last week getting it perfectly sighted in. We shot our "targets" from about 10 yards, which is not very far at all for a rifle but fun for us newbies. I laid down and shot the UPC code on a Mt. Dew bottle with no problem, then spent my next two turns with it trying to nail the cap to the bottle. Never quite managed it. It's some combination of my breathing and me jerking (instead of slowly squeezing) the trigger. I did a round shooting from the shoulder, which is surprisingly hard. And I tried propping the rifle in a convenient tree branch and shooting at a snag in the lake, about 50 yards out - never quite hit the snag, but I was maybe 6" off from it. Pretty cool.
Everybody liked my .40 again, and we all plinked away with the terrible .22 revolver. I don't mean to hate on the revolver, but... I don't particularly like the grip, the sights are a bit off, it's louder and harder to hit with than the rifle, and it makes teeny weeny holes in cans. My .40 is incredibly loud and not nearly as accurate as a long gun, but at least it makes satisfying holes!
Trails
After we'd shot up all the ammo, we headed back to the horse field. K immediately jumped me again and insisted that we needed to go trail riding! She and T had gone yesterday, on Poppy and Goblin, and had a great time. They wanted to go again! So we all caught our reluctant horses and headed out. I took them on the "easy" trail, the one that has a bunch of short steep ravines. (The hard trail, by comparison, has one VERY STEEP ravine that's twice as long.) They are kinda wussy and I took pity on them and we walked the horses up and down the ravines, but I did assure them that I do regularly ride Champ up and down those slopes. You've gotta believe that your horse can do it, and trust your horse, but you can in fact ride any hill back there.
Poppy did so well. K is not ready to take Poppy trail riding alone, but she knows it. If you and your horse are going out alone, at least one of you needs to be totally confident for it to work out. When I first got Champ, he had the confidence for both of us. Later on, I got more ballsy and now I can ride a green horse alone... but I don't think K can yet, and she doesn't think she can yet either. But she's got her daughter T and Goblin, so the four of them will be fine together. And in a couple months, when Poppy knows every inch of the trails, K and Poppy can go alone if they want.
She's really doing well with him. I'm so very happy. I do think they'll be perfect together - neither of them wants to go anywhere fast, and he's naturally unflappable, and she's neither googly-eyed or scared of him right now. I am pulling for them. :)
Fishing!
We got back to the field AGAIN about 4:30. But it's February and it was warm and I'd been itching to fish all day. I put a silly artificial minnow thing on my line and fished for about an hour. I hooked one decent-sized fish but it slipped off my hook a foot from the bank. Sigh. Then I hooked a willow tree and had to cut my line, double sigh. By that time it was getting dark and chilly, so I packed it up for the night.
I am bound and determined to catch at least one fish with a completely artificial lure. I've only ever caught fish with live bait. I will figure out this lure nonsense. Also I will figure out a really kickass fish recipe, other than "bread in cornmeal and fry."
Cersei accompanied me everywhere today. After dinner (neckbones, if you're curious) she collapsed on her bed by my chair and has not moved since. If she had a blog, she'd tell an entirely different story... but I bet she's just as content as I am.
Friday, February 6, 2009
...two steps back.
Rode Dixie. She was completely psycho! I don't know, sigh.
It was sunny and windy and mid-60s. Maybe she's coming into heat pretty hard? Maybe it was too windy and she could smell the monsters trying to eat her soul? Maybe she was just in a mood? Anyway, we got in a protracted battle in the big field - every time I would think "quit pulling sit back relax" and try to implement my correct riding skills, she'd ABSOLUTELY BOLT. And to keep her from diving headlong into the treeline I'd pull her into a turn.
The one bright side, I suppose, was that I felt completely secure with the stirrups adjusted back. Rack canter gallop whatever, I never felt like I was one bounce from eating dirt.
When we got back in the field, I tried to ride her at a walk to cool her down. No ma'am, not happening. We did some more horrible horrible riding - me hanging off the reins while she racked, me trying to relax and get out of her face and her cantering. She wanted to veer right at one point and I was pulling her left and swear to god she got to within 5 inches of a post before she turned. I hate playing chicken.
I was completely determined to salvage something, so I rode a few circles near my truck til I thought I'd gotten a couple of almost-respectable bends, then I got off. As soon as I had Dixie untacked and brushed down, she was my best friend again. She let me scratch her sweaty face, she hung out near me for a while, and she rolled about 5 feet from me.
I don't get it. I feel kinda discouraged, but I'm just telling myself that this will pass, and this is how she and I have always been - one step forward, two steps back, then four or five steps forward. It's just time for us to step back right now. Surely this will pass and we'll be back to lovely cooperation soon?
It was sunny and windy and mid-60s. Maybe she's coming into heat pretty hard? Maybe it was too windy and she could smell the monsters trying to eat her soul? Maybe she was just in a mood? Anyway, we got in a protracted battle in the big field - every time I would think "quit pulling sit back relax" and try to implement my correct riding skills, she'd ABSOLUTELY BOLT. And to keep her from diving headlong into the treeline I'd pull her into a turn.
The one bright side, I suppose, was that I felt completely secure with the stirrups adjusted back. Rack canter gallop whatever, I never felt like I was one bounce from eating dirt.
When we got back in the field, I tried to ride her at a walk to cool her down. No ma'am, not happening. We did some more horrible horrible riding - me hanging off the reins while she racked, me trying to relax and get out of her face and her cantering. She wanted to veer right at one point and I was pulling her left and swear to god she got to within 5 inches of a post before she turned. I hate playing chicken.
I was completely determined to salvage something, so I rode a few circles near my truck til I thought I'd gotten a couple of almost-respectable bends, then I got off. As soon as I had Dixie untacked and brushed down, she was my best friend again. She let me scratch her sweaty face, she hung out near me for a while, and she rolled about 5 feet from me.
I don't get it. I feel kinda discouraged, but I'm just telling myself that this will pass, and this is how she and I have always been - one step forward, two steps back, then four or five steps forward. It's just time for us to step back right now. Surely this will pass and we'll be back to lovely cooperation soon?
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sunday I'm in love
Robert Smith was wrong. Friday was terrible, but Sunday I'm in love with my mare.
We had a lovely wonderful interesting lesson. Highlights:
First, relax. My upper body started off locked up. Then I got into the groove at the walk and started tensing up when I'd ask her to gait, which lead to a choppy bouncy racky thing. I finally started relaxing when I'd ask for more speed and the racky thing smoothed out a bit.
Next, look, she's lowering her own head. I've been noticing that as I've gotten better hands and more consistent contact, she's been actually reaching for the contact instead of ignoring it or slamming her chin to her neck to evade me. Today I noticed that after I ask for speed, when I slow back down, she really stretches her neck long and low.
She's also almost entirely quit trying to canter into turns. She still "changes gears" in turns, but it's something different from the choppy racky thing, something much more comfortable that feels more correct. I think it's a few strides of a real running walk.
I talked about that with Hardy for a bit. He and I don't think horses can really gait long and low. I'm not 100% sure though. Sara, you know anything about that? Assuming that it's not possible, that she needs a higher head to counterbalance a faster gait, we talked about how to work her head back up and encourage her to collect up a bit before I ask for more speed.
So I tried that. We did a big stretchy circle with her head down, then I picked her head up - super gently, super slowly - then I asked for speed. She was very confused about me asking her to pick her head up, but really willing to try, and we got a nice lap around the arena at the "good" gait.
Then I slowed her back down and offered her some room to stretch back out, but I slipped the reins too fast and you could tell she was a little confused. Where'd the contact go? I picked my light contact back up and she started stretching back down. It was so very sweet, such a nice affirmation that the dressage people are right and horses do learn to like (love? anticipate?) the connection with the rider's hands.
We ended there. It had been an hour and she'd really listened so well and worked so hard for me. And it was a beautiful day, too! It's sunny and 61.
I'm going to try a pad under my saddle next week. My saddle is a smidge too wide for her and I don't have enough clearance under her withers. Alas, this is an imperfect world and I can't spring for a new saddle for her right now. But I think a pad with some shims under the front will help a lot, and the kind of work we're doing right now will help her back fill in and fit my existing saddle better.
I might tempt fate and take the curb reins off next week too. :O She is listening and working so well on just the snaffle reins. I haven't had to use the curb reins in four rides. Sure would be easier without that tangle of leather in front of the pommel.
I'm off to fix my husband's car. We were going to go to dinner in the Beemer last night, but the battery was dead. I need to find or buy jumper cables and see if I can jump it and get it to hold a charge. I hope I don't electrocute myself :(
We had a lovely wonderful interesting lesson. Highlights:
First, relax. My upper body started off locked up. Then I got into the groove at the walk and started tensing up when I'd ask her to gait, which lead to a choppy bouncy racky thing. I finally started relaxing when I'd ask for more speed and the racky thing smoothed out a bit.
Next, look, she's lowering her own head. I've been noticing that as I've gotten better hands and more consistent contact, she's been actually reaching for the contact instead of ignoring it or slamming her chin to her neck to evade me. Today I noticed that after I ask for speed, when I slow back down, she really stretches her neck long and low.
She's also almost entirely quit trying to canter into turns. She still "changes gears" in turns, but it's something different from the choppy racky thing, something much more comfortable that feels more correct. I think it's a few strides of a real running walk.
I talked about that with Hardy for a bit. He and I don't think horses can really gait long and low. I'm not 100% sure though. Sara, you know anything about that? Assuming that it's not possible, that she needs a higher head to counterbalance a faster gait, we talked about how to work her head back up and encourage her to collect up a bit before I ask for more speed.
So I tried that. We did a big stretchy circle with her head down, then I picked her head up - super gently, super slowly - then I asked for speed. She was very confused about me asking her to pick her head up, but really willing to try, and we got a nice lap around the arena at the "good" gait.
Then I slowed her back down and offered her some room to stretch back out, but I slipped the reins too fast and you could tell she was a little confused. Where'd the contact go? I picked my light contact back up and she started stretching back down. It was so very sweet, such a nice affirmation that the dressage people are right and horses do learn to like (love? anticipate?) the connection with the rider's hands.
We ended there. It had been an hour and she'd really listened so well and worked so hard for me. And it was a beautiful day, too! It's sunny and 61.
I'm going to try a pad under my saddle next week. My saddle is a smidge too wide for her and I don't have enough clearance under her withers. Alas, this is an imperfect world and I can't spring for a new saddle for her right now. But I think a pad with some shims under the front will help a lot, and the kind of work we're doing right now will help her back fill in and fit my existing saddle better.
I might tempt fate and take the curb reins off next week too. :O She is listening and working so well on just the snaffle reins. I haven't had to use the curb reins in four rides. Sure would be easier without that tangle of leather in front of the pommel.
I'm off to fix my husband's car. We were going to go to dinner in the Beemer last night, but the battery was dead. I need to find or buy jumper cables and see if I can jump it and get it to hold a charge. I hope I don't electrocute myself :(
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Not loading, and loading
So yesterday I had a cruddy non-horse day, then I went to the field. I was going to take Dixie over to the main barn and ride in the arena and try to get that elusive floaty connection one more time.
BZZZZT.
She wouldn't load. I tried a few aimless things. I almost burst into tears, and I was momentarily overwhelmed by the urge to beat the snot out of my horse. (Note: I didn't, and I wouldn't have, but I did have that horrible shake-the-baby-til-it- stops-crying feeling.) I realized that I wasn't mentally ready to deal with thatstupid willful wanton lovely highspirited intelligent mare.
I stayed cool. I put her in crossties, brushed her down well, picked out all four feet. Well, I picked out three feet but she would not stop trying to kick me with her back left foot long enough for me to clean it out, so I settled on just holding the leg up til she quit flailing for half a second, then releasing it. It was important to me that she did not completely win the day.
Then I went home, drank a lot of beer, and played Guitar Hero III with my husband til I felt better.
After a good night's sleep, I felt much more centered and quietly determined to load. that. horse. I followed mugwump's method and it worked absolutely perfectly. Long rope run through the front of the trailer. Very calm body language, lunge whip tap-tap-tap-tapping her hocks whenever she quit trying to load. Took all of 90 seconds. I highly recommend it, if you're in the correct frame of mind.
Anyway, I loaded her head-on into the trailer. I've been loading her, letting her turn around (it's 2-horse with no center divider), and tying her facing backwards. I wanted to see how she'd do facing forward. Dixie, uh, she can't ride in that trailer facing forward.
She immediately started pawing, which is her default behavior for when she's annoyed. But she's a Walking Horse and she paws a good two feet off the ground when she gets going. I stood on the side of the trailer, watching her paw, wondering if this was really safe or would she actually no surely she wouldn't surely she has the good sense not to OH FUCK NO! (Anybody know where this is going?)
She put her left foot in the feed manger. The feed manger is more than waist high, with a 3" lip. This was completely horrible and almost panic-inducing because it was actually a real crisis. I stayed cool, and my friend Mark helped me un-fuck her. I reached in through one window and lifted her leg UP as high as I could to clear the lip and he reached in beside me and pulled BACK as hard as he could. Then I unclipped her head, let her turn her happy ass around, and tied her facing backwards.
Then we trailered down the road to my parents. I unloaded her and let her snort and stare and walk in circles around me and eat grass, while I talked to my parents for a while. Then I loaded her again - same system, but it took maybe 30 seconds this time - and we calmly trailered back to the field.
Other notes: K TOOK POPPY ON A TRAIL RIDE! I rode Champ, her daughter T rode Goblin, and Poppy was perfectly content to walk in the middle. More importantly, K was perfectly comfortable on him. She's getting there!
And Cersei got a deer leg to play with - at the field only thank you! My dad's friend got another deer for him, and Dad (upon request) had the processors save the lower legs for dog toys. It's soooo gross and she loves it.
BZZZZT.
She wouldn't load. I tried a few aimless things. I almost burst into tears, and I was momentarily overwhelmed by the urge to beat the snot out of my horse. (Note: I didn't, and I wouldn't have, but I did have that horrible shake-the-baby-til-it- stops-crying feeling.) I realized that I wasn't mentally ready to deal with that
I stayed cool. I put her in crossties, brushed her down well, picked out all four feet. Well, I picked out three feet but she would not stop trying to kick me with her back left foot long enough for me to clean it out, so I settled on just holding the leg up til she quit flailing for half a second, then releasing it. It was important to me that she did not completely win the day.
Then I went home, drank a lot of beer, and played Guitar Hero III with my husband til I felt better.
After a good night's sleep, I felt much more centered and quietly determined to load. that. horse. I followed mugwump's method and it worked absolutely perfectly. Long rope run through the front of the trailer. Very calm body language, lunge whip tap-tap-tap-tapping her hocks whenever she quit trying to load. Took all of 90 seconds. I highly recommend it, if you're in the correct frame of mind.
Anyway, I loaded her head-on into the trailer. I've been loading her, letting her turn around (it's 2-horse with no center divider), and tying her facing backwards. I wanted to see how she'd do facing forward. Dixie, uh, she can't ride in that trailer facing forward.
She immediately started pawing, which is her default behavior for when she's annoyed. But she's a Walking Horse and she paws a good two feet off the ground when she gets going. I stood on the side of the trailer, watching her paw, wondering if this was really safe or would she actually no surely she wouldn't surely she has the good sense not to OH FUCK NO! (Anybody know where this is going?)
She put her left foot in the feed manger. The feed manger is more than waist high, with a 3" lip. This was completely horrible and almost panic-inducing because it was actually a real crisis. I stayed cool, and my friend Mark helped me un-fuck her. I reached in through one window and lifted her leg UP as high as I could to clear the lip and he reached in beside me and pulled BACK as hard as he could. Then I unclipped her head, let her turn her happy ass around, and tied her facing backwards.
Then we trailered down the road to my parents. I unloaded her and let her snort and stare and walk in circles around me and eat grass, while I talked to my parents for a while. Then I loaded her again - same system, but it took maybe 30 seconds this time - and we calmly trailered back to the field.
Other notes: K TOOK POPPY ON A TRAIL RIDE! I rode Champ, her daughter T rode Goblin, and Poppy was perfectly content to walk in the middle. More importantly, K was perfectly comfortable on him. She's getting there!
And Cersei got a deer leg to play with - at the field only thank you! My dad's friend got another deer for him, and Dad (upon request) had the processors save the lower legs for dog toys. It's soooo gross and she loves it.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A study in contrasts
Today was Dixie Dressage #2 and Poppy Solo Trail #1. I want to get these rides written down then I swear I'm gonna go catch up on yall's blogs and my comments!
Dixie
I trailered her over to the main barn and rode for about an hour in the covered arena. The first part of the ride went quite well - she relaxed into it and worked well for me, mostly at a walk working on bending. About every ten minutes I'd squeeze with both legs and kiss for a rack and we'd do a lap or two around the arena, just so I could work on staying loose and keeping her attention on me. She'd always break up into a couple of strides of odd canter around the turns, but she also came back to me and settled back into a rack very quickly.
Then a Horse Eating Lion (or possibly a chipmunk) rustled in the woods on the north side. We were just walking very calmly along, in a gentle bend, with me thinking about giving the right kind of leg pressure and keeping light contact and feeling her bend when KABLAM the leaves rustled and Dixie exploded into a full spook. Jumped straight up, came back down with her legs splayed, spun 90 degrees and bolted three or four steps away. I stayed completely centered in the saddle, which was kinda cool, and she stopped on her own, which was very cool! Somehow I completely lost the reins on the left side, but I had the other set still held perfectly still. Yay us.
After that I decided to see if I could get her attention back on working with me. She was, I think, a lot more distracted. I'm not positive because I did not look at her ears once. How am I supposed to know what she's thinking if I can't focus on her ears? Yes, I could see them in my peripheral vision, but it's harder for me to tell!
Anyway, she was distracted but she still tried hard for me. She was pretty spooky about that corner of the arena, so I worked on driving her into that corner with more leg and really directing her turns out of it. Her new boyfriend came up to the other corner of the arena, and I worked on keeping her moving at the same pace past him every time.
Her new boyfriend is (IIRC?) a spotted ASB named Perry Como. He fell in love with her the first day I brought her out to the place and he's made googly eyes at her from over the fence every time since. It's kinda cute :3
Anyway, it was a good ride. I finished out with a few minutes of loose rein walk with just the snaffle rein, then fed her a couple scoops of grain, then managed to get her loaded and take her home. She's loaded like a dream every time til the last time, when she decided she'd rather stay and live with Perry than get on the damn trailer and go back to her field. Of course I completely blanked out on any horse loading theories, so I thought about it for a minute and decided to make the right thing waaay easier than the wrong thing. I'd walk her up to the trailer (me standing to one side inside) and she'd balk. I'd back her up for about 20 feet, praise, and walk her back to the trailer. If she balked again, we'd back some more. Took about 4 tries before she decided she'd rather make that big step up into the trailer than back up again.
I am so wordy.
Poppy
So I got Dixie back home and decided that Poppy was ready to go trail riding solo and I should put up or shut up. I tacked him up with his bridle, my saddle, and a dinky little whip, dragged a broken chair out past the gate, and we were off! My dressage whip, which actually reaches his butt easier, doesn't have a handle so I have to hold it at all times. The dinky little whip has a wrist loop, so I clipped it to the front D rings on my saddle to have it handy.
We immediately had a disagreement about whether he was out there to eat grass or listen to me. This annoyed him. Then we disagreed about whether he could take the first turn to head back home, and he got more annoyed. We went through a gate, down a narrow bit of trail, up a hill, and he decided he was going to trot. I said fine, trot then, and he trotted a bit then stopped and did something odd. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing - it felt a little like a canter. But we weren't actually moving and his head was down and OH HELL HE'S BUCKING! I was completely shocked and amused that he was bucking, so it took me another buck or two to figure out what to do. In an attempt to do something I growled "Knock that off!" and booted him in the ribs and he headed out again in a Real Big Working Draft Trot.
Wow. I was seriously impressed. I've seen him do the Big Trot from the ground, of course, but I've never ridden it. I loved it! It was awesome!
I am also very very annoyed with myself and with Poppy. He might not be ripped like Brego or Klein, but he's got plenty of muscle under that fluff. How could I have been fooled by his stumbling WP jog-trots previously? He has outsmarted himself and raised the bar for future work.
We trotted a little further on, past the Skeet Lake, and I came to my senses. He might in fact run us into a tree or off a cliff just to prove that he doesn't have to listen. I decided I could pick my battles and we headed for home - with a twist.
We'd walk, CALMLY YOU BASTARD!, towards home. Then we'd turn and I'd have him trot away again. Then we'd walk, turn, repeat. It was pretty nerve-racking. Apparently I'm not over my irrational fear of Poppy. I have to respond to the very early stages of his unwanted behavior as quickly as possible or he just goes ahead and does what he wants.
We had one more big blow up in the paddock nearest his field. I asked for a nice trot away from the gate, and he trotted then wanted to veer left onto a different trail pointing back to the gate. I pulled his head back around right, booted him in the right places, and he wrenched his head left, did a promising cowhorse spin, and cantered for home. I got really fucking pissed and wrapped the reins around my hands - TWICE, I was not going to lose him if I fell off - and did a YANK-release til he slowed down again. Not pretty. As soon as I got him back to a walk, I spun him around and asked for a trot away from home again and pretended like nothing had happened. We walked one more lap of the paddock, with exceptionally nice behavior, and we were done!
Quite a day. I'm glad I worked both of them today; tomorrow it's going to rain all day and we might have an ICE STORM tomorrow night and we could all die.
Dixie
I trailered her over to the main barn and rode for about an hour in the covered arena. The first part of the ride went quite well - she relaxed into it and worked well for me, mostly at a walk working on bending. About every ten minutes I'd squeeze with both legs and kiss for a rack and we'd do a lap or two around the arena, just so I could work on staying loose and keeping her attention on me. She'd always break up into a couple of strides of odd canter around the turns, but she also came back to me and settled back into a rack very quickly.
Then a Horse Eating Lion (or possibly a chipmunk) rustled in the woods on the north side. We were just walking very calmly along, in a gentle bend, with me thinking about giving the right kind of leg pressure and keeping light contact and feeling her bend when KABLAM the leaves rustled and Dixie exploded into a full spook. Jumped straight up, came back down with her legs splayed, spun 90 degrees and bolted three or four steps away. I stayed completely centered in the saddle, which was kinda cool, and she stopped on her own, which was very cool! Somehow I completely lost the reins on the left side, but I had the other set still held perfectly still. Yay us.
After that I decided to see if I could get her attention back on working with me. She was, I think, a lot more distracted. I'm not positive because I did not look at her ears once. How am I supposed to know what she's thinking if I can't focus on her ears? Yes, I could see them in my peripheral vision, but it's harder for me to tell!
Anyway, she was distracted but she still tried hard for me. She was pretty spooky about that corner of the arena, so I worked on driving her into that corner with more leg and really directing her turns out of it. Her new boyfriend came up to the other corner of the arena, and I worked on keeping her moving at the same pace past him every time.
Her new boyfriend is (IIRC?) a spotted ASB named Perry Como. He fell in love with her the first day I brought her out to the place and he's made googly eyes at her from over the fence every time since. It's kinda cute :3
Anyway, it was a good ride. I finished out with a few minutes of loose rein walk with just the snaffle rein, then fed her a couple scoops of grain, then managed to get her loaded and take her home. She's loaded like a dream every time til the last time, when she decided she'd rather stay and live with Perry than get on the damn trailer and go back to her field. Of course I completely blanked out on any horse loading theories, so I thought about it for a minute and decided to make the right thing waaay easier than the wrong thing. I'd walk her up to the trailer (me standing to one side inside) and she'd balk. I'd back her up for about 20 feet, praise, and walk her back to the trailer. If she balked again, we'd back some more. Took about 4 tries before she decided she'd rather make that big step up into the trailer than back up again.
I am so wordy.
Poppy
So I got Dixie back home and decided that Poppy was ready to go trail riding solo and I should put up or shut up. I tacked him up with his bridle, my saddle, and a dinky little whip, dragged a broken chair out past the gate, and we were off! My dressage whip, which actually reaches his butt easier, doesn't have a handle so I have to hold it at all times. The dinky little whip has a wrist loop, so I clipped it to the front D rings on my saddle to have it handy.
We immediately had a disagreement about whether he was out there to eat grass or listen to me. This annoyed him. Then we disagreed about whether he could take the first turn to head back home, and he got more annoyed. We went through a gate, down a narrow bit of trail, up a hill, and he decided he was going to trot. I said fine, trot then, and he trotted a bit then stopped and did something odd. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing - it felt a little like a canter. But we weren't actually moving and his head was down and OH HELL HE'S BUCKING! I was completely shocked and amused that he was bucking, so it took me another buck or two to figure out what to do. In an attempt to do something I growled "Knock that off!" and booted him in the ribs and he headed out again in a Real Big Working Draft Trot.
Wow. I was seriously impressed. I've seen him do the Big Trot from the ground, of course, but I've never ridden it. I loved it! It was awesome!
I am also very very annoyed with myself and with Poppy. He might not be ripped like Brego or Klein, but he's got plenty of muscle under that fluff. How could I have been fooled by his stumbling WP jog-trots previously? He has outsmarted himself and raised the bar for future work.
We trotted a little further on, past the Skeet Lake, and I came to my senses. He might in fact run us into a tree or off a cliff just to prove that he doesn't have to listen. I decided I could pick my battles and we headed for home - with a twist.
We'd walk, CALMLY YOU BASTARD!, towards home. Then we'd turn and I'd have him trot away again. Then we'd walk, turn, repeat. It was pretty nerve-racking. Apparently I'm not over my irrational fear of Poppy. I have to respond to the very early stages of his unwanted behavior as quickly as possible or he just goes ahead and does what he wants.
We had one more big blow up in the paddock nearest his field. I asked for a nice trot away from the gate, and he trotted then wanted to veer left onto a different trail pointing back to the gate. I pulled his head back around right, booted him in the right places, and he wrenched his head left, did a promising cowhorse spin, and cantered for home. I got really fucking pissed and wrapped the reins around my hands - TWICE, I was not going to lose him if I fell off - and did a YANK-release til he slowed down again. Not pretty. As soon as I got him back to a walk, I spun him around and asked for a trot away from home again and pretended like nothing had happened. We walked one more lap of the paddock, with exceptionally nice behavior, and we were done!
Quite a day. I'm glad I worked both of them today; tomorrow it's going to rain all day and we might have an ICE STORM tomorrow night and we could all die.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Lesson one on Dixie!
Trailered Dixie to the main barn for a lesson on her today! It sleeted on me for a while and I felt particularly hardcore. (Stop laughing, yall, canceling my lesson would've been a perfectly normal response.) Hardy is German so of course he can't understand why we shiver and whine like we do.
Anyway. He just watched us work together for most of the time, which seemed like the perfectly correct thing to do. He did pinpoint a few things for me to work on right away.
First, he had me move my double reins to different fingers - I swear, I've read or heard every possible way to hold four reins in two hands! I'd been holding the snaffle rein the normal way, with the curb rein coming from below my little finger up through my hand on top of the snaffle. I was also riding with the curb fairly loose and floppy, which made sense to me (I want her to get used to responding to the snaffle action) but was actually counterproductive. Hardy pointed out that with the curb reins so loose, I had to fumble around and tighten them in order to activate them if I needed to. So he had me hold the reins with snaffle between my middle and ring fingers and curb between my ring and pinkie fingers - same as I was doing before, just moved up one finger. And I tightened up the curb rein a bit, til I had light contact on the snaffle and very light contact on the curb. That way when I needed the curb action I could just rotate my thumbs forward toward Dixie's head.
Next, he said I was tensing up whenever she sped up. It's sadly true. I've been working on not leaning forward and becoming a little monkey clinging to her back, but I'm still not truly relaxed at a rack. There's a little fear there, but not much. Mainly it's kind of HARD to truly sit a rack relaxed. It's completely different from sitting the trot, but it's hard in the same way - fast and jouncy is just hard to follow with your seat.
He also pointed out that I was staring at her ears. In my defense, they're gorgeous ears, but that's a big "duh."
She was amazingly well behaved yet again. We got one truly lovely circle - a whole circle, nicely bent! A couple of times she relaxed and stretched down into the bit contact, which was really exciting. And I got a couple strides of RW out of her, when she was racking and I managed to relax into the motion. Yay.
Things I want to work on:
How should I warm her up? She's not really stiff when I get on her, not like a horse that's been stalled overnight, but I'm not sure if I should let her walk around on a loose rein for a couple minutes or start right into asking for some contact and some bending.
Eek, I need to put some "speed up" leg cues on her. She only goes faster for a kiss or a cluck or a thump in the ribs (intentional or accidental!) She does bend correctly to leg aids while turning, which is a vast improvement - when I first got her, any leg at all meant "GO FASTER OR DIE" so I did a lot of desensitizing.
Once I get a clear leg cue for "gait fast please" I can teach a different clear leg cue for "canter please." I think she'll be ready to learn to canter under saddle pretty soon, but I need clear cues.
Anyway. He just watched us work together for most of the time, which seemed like the perfectly correct thing to do. He did pinpoint a few things for me to work on right away.
First, he had me move my double reins to different fingers - I swear, I've read or heard every possible way to hold four reins in two hands! I'd been holding the snaffle rein the normal way, with the curb rein coming from below my little finger up through my hand on top of the snaffle. I was also riding with the curb fairly loose and floppy, which made sense to me (I want her to get used to responding to the snaffle action) but was actually counterproductive. Hardy pointed out that with the curb reins so loose, I had to fumble around and tighten them in order to activate them if I needed to. So he had me hold the reins with snaffle between my middle and ring fingers and curb between my ring and pinkie fingers - same as I was doing before, just moved up one finger. And I tightened up the curb rein a bit, til I had light contact on the snaffle and very light contact on the curb. That way when I needed the curb action I could just rotate my thumbs forward toward Dixie's head.
Next, he said I was tensing up whenever she sped up. It's sadly true. I've been working on not leaning forward and becoming a little monkey clinging to her back, but I'm still not truly relaxed at a rack. There's a little fear there, but not much. Mainly it's kind of HARD to truly sit a rack relaxed. It's completely different from sitting the trot, but it's hard in the same way - fast and jouncy is just hard to follow with your seat.
He also pointed out that I was staring at her ears. In my defense, they're gorgeous ears, but that's a big "duh."
She was amazingly well behaved yet again. We got one truly lovely circle - a whole circle, nicely bent! A couple of times she relaxed and stretched down into the bit contact, which was really exciting. And I got a couple strides of RW out of her, when she was racking and I managed to relax into the motion. Yay.
Things I want to work on:
How should I warm her up? She's not really stiff when I get on her, not like a horse that's been stalled overnight, but I'm not sure if I should let her walk around on a loose rein for a couple minutes or start right into asking for some contact and some bending.
Eek, I need to put some "speed up" leg cues on her. She only goes faster for a kiss or a cluck or a thump in the ribs (intentional or accidental!) She does bend correctly to leg aids while turning, which is a vast improvement - when I first got her, any leg at all meant "GO FASTER OR DIE" so I did a lot of desensitizing.
Once I get a clear leg cue for "gait fast please" I can teach a different clear leg cue for "canter please." I think she'll be ready to learn to canter under saddle pretty soon, but I need clear cues.
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