Zac

Another newbie has come to my home. Zac is a 7 yr old gelding who has been sitting in a paddock untouched for 14 months. The owners of the property say he came with the property and they want to breed QH's so have no interest in keeping him. I had him float up from Boyup Brook after it took over 2 hours to catch him. When he first arrived I was like "uh oh, what have i got myself into". Pushy, frightened and NO idea what was going on, he was all over the place. I started work with him straight away. First thing I taught him was to yield his HQ's AWAY from me. Last thing I want to see is a horses butt in my face! I then taught him to get put of my space. I cannot lead a horse that is walking on top of me. I did 3 10 minute session a day for 3 days and on the last day did it with the saddle on. He is a good horse, but just has no idea what is required of him. The day after he got here I spent an hour, a bottle of oil, alot of shampoo and half a bottle of conditioner getting his tail not to resemble a piece of wood. He can now swat flies without getting bruised. Today (Thursday) I worked again on the ground with the saddle on and he is coming down quickly. I stood up and down in the stirrup and laid across him but no one was home and I'm not quite prepared to get on this horse without someone being home as I'm not sure how he will go. He took very well to me standing in the stirrups so will give him a few more days and see how he goes.

Well yet again I have been extremely lazy updating this blog, so this is another catch up entry. Mickey has come along great! My last entry told how he dropped his shoulder on the right rein quite badly, so I started doing lots of walking corners with him. By that I mean, I concentrated on walking a straight line and focusing into my corner. When I got into the corner I applied a little inside leg just behind the girth, and little inside bend and then turned the corner doing a hindquarter yeild. At the next corner, I did the same but shifted my leg forward slightly and did a forequarter yeild by moving his shoulders. Eventually I was able to walk the arena in a square and thus was able to get him yielding his right side to the left and was showing him he could bend through his body. I have just picked up another horse, Zac, and he is showing me the same online. He does not want to bend into his right circle, but more on Zac later. So now I had Mickey bending better through his body, I thought it was time to try a canter. I always try the left first as this is usually the better lead and I can get an idea on what the right will be like. Put him into a nice steady, balanced working trot and asked. He surprised me by not speeding up to much to make the transition, but oh my god, did he make up for it in the actual canter! He hooned around pretty damn fast but I just sat and told him he was a good boy and let him go. He fell out of it after about 20 meters but thats ok. Did that a couple more times then tried the right. Holy crap! The right was pretty bad! He dropped his right shoulder and led with the middle of his neck and shoulder with his head on the outside. Is that possible? Well, he did it. I had to pull him up as he felt like he was really going to fall over. It is possibly the worst canter I have sat on, but thats ok. He got the right leads straight away so thats good? Anyway, for the next week I got off his back and practised transitions online. This is a brief outline on how I do it online.
All I do with horses who don't understand canter is I put them online (lunge, with NO gear) have them trotting nice and balanced and relaxed, warm them up a little, then I raise my leading hand and say "canter" in a sharp voice. Now of course most horses at this stage will just keep trotting and not even acknowledge I have done anything, so I then put the stick (whip, whatever) behind me, not at his hock, but behind me and keep repeating "canter" while I start flicking the whip and bringing it closer and closer to the horse until he breaks over. Basically I up the annoyance until he finds what I want. The second he breaks, and I mean the very second, I stop all sharp voice, whip, everything and bring my voice right down saying "good boy". Now what usually happens with green SB's that don't know how to canter is that when they break, they bugger off and drag you half way across the arena. Thats ok, I don't care what they do, how they do it, I still tell them they are good. After doing this a few times each way over the course of a few days, you will find you don't need you stick/whip. All you need to do is have a nice balanced trot and say "canter" and they break over. They will fall out of it, but again, thats ok. At this stage all you are doing is teaching the cue. When the transition was looking easier online, I jumped back on. Left rein first. Nice balanced trot, ask for canter and used my voice as well, and he pops straight in and what a different canter! It is still a little rushed and he does shoot his head up, but I sit off his back a little and ask his head to come low and it is actually not a bad canter, AND he is holding it fine now. Now for the right. I try to stay relaxed as possible and DON"T put the image of the last canter in my head. Same deal as left and BINGO! Much better! Still bloody awful, but not nearly as bad and he doesn't feel dangerous this time. Over the next week we do alot of canter and he improves heaps! After being with me for 4 weeks, I advertise him and have a handful of calls. A young girl has taken him for a week or so to try. I have explained to her how green he is and the work he needs and she is confident she can do it so I will call her at the end of the week and see how he is going. It is really hard to let them go sometimes and to cover my costs of feeding etc they can't be here for too long, otherwise I end out of pocket. One day it would be nice not to worry about the money side of things and just give them all much more time, but at this stage I have to rely on whoever takes them to carry on with the training. I won't be too sad if Mickey comes back as I would rather he go to the home that suits him most and not just anyone.

More

I am adding to my previous blog because I failed to mention that we also worked on Mickey coming off my leg. He really drops and leads with his right shoulder when on the right rein. Left isn't good, but not as bad. It is very typical of this breed as they have been taught not to bend. He started to yield nicely so will follow up with that with every ride.

More training for Mickey

Well, Mickey has had 4 more rides and a couple of ground work sessions since the last blog. The day after his first ride I did a little bit on the ground with him teaching him to yield from pressure and laterally flex. He picks things up well but needs a very calm steady consistent hand. I am feeding him a fair bit so this could be a factor. After the little bit of ground work I got on, repeating all of the previous days lesson on getting on and lowering his head. He came down much quicker but I find if i talk while I'M up there, he startles, so my neighbor comes over and we talk the whole session lol. Walk him around talking and relaxing him for a good half hour. Next ride was pretty much the same, still only walking and relaxing(and talking to myself lol). This is all so new to him I want every ride for him to relax into. Next day only did ground work. Yielding of pressure again, some circles and playing with the carrot stick with he is terrified of! Will keep playing with that. Next ride was same as the first and second but I felt he was relaxed enough to try a trot. I asked very gently by clicking as he is so sensitive and he shot forward like I had kicked him and then slammed to a stop. Ok, no probs, go again. This time, I got a shuffle pace but I just let him go, then he stopped again. All this time I am keeping him slightly flexed to the inside. If all goes to hell I can put in a one rein stop. I ask a couple more times and finally I got a trot. Not much of one but it was ok. More asking and pretty soon we are trotting around the arena no problem. I don't put any pressure on him at this stage and although I have a feel on his mouth, there is no pressure. I just let him travel forward. He is going around like a Llama, so I get a bit of forward happening in the trot and then bring him back to walk and lower his head, relax him and finish.
Next ride all the same is repeated. Groundwork, yielding flexing, circles, hop on, walk and relax, trot forward this time asking him to slow up and start to lower his head in his trot. He is learning quick. Next day, all the same but this time I find when I go to scratch my face or play with my sunglasses his head shots up and he gets very tense. Almost like he has been ignoring the fact that I am up there but when I raise a hand he jumps. I then spend half the session waving my arms around and getting him used to it. He is lowering his head really nice in the trot now. I must clarify that when I talk about "lowering his head" it is NOT asking him to work in a frame or "on the bit" It is simply asking him to relax and have his poll lower than his wither. This little horse is such a darling, he really really tries hard even tho he is a nervous type. Will ride again tomorrow and then he can have some ground work for a couple of days and will have Friday off as I work.

Mickeys first ride

Mickey has only been here 3 days, but has settled in really well. He is a bit of an introvert, so doesn't seem to fuss about much, although he will show his feelings at some stage, as I will ask to see them. Yesterday in the humidity, he had a very high respiratory rate, although his temperature and colour were fine. I had given him a bowen the day before, so I think this contributed, although today he was fine. I put him online yesterday to get a feel for him and get to know him a bit. He was very worried about the circles I was asking and the stick in my hand, but soon settled enough to show me he could hold a circle better than most SB's OTT. He didn't take much to move off the pressure of my hand on his girth and flank, so it shows me he should be quite easy to move of my leg. He is quite sensitive, yet sensible.

Today, I put him back online with saddle on, and again, he was sensitive but sensible so I thought I would see how he would take to his first ride. I ALWAYS take my time on mounting to gauge they response and feelings to the process and Mickey was no different. Ok, so, foot in stirrup, face horses head, stand up in stirrup, horse FREAKS OUT!! Half way across arena. Cool, thats ok. I bring him back and do it again. Quietly, calmly, more freak out but he's still listening. I keep my energy low, sing to myself, get him back, foot in stirrup, stand up, head shoots up, but he stands. Rub opposite shoulder, good boy. Stand down, he freaks. Thats ok. Do it all again. Same process, keep singing, stand up, good boy, rub shoulder, step down, head is up, still tense but stands. He's coming down quick. Repeat process few more times till he is sighing, licking and chewing. Cool. I hand walk him around for a bit. Bring him back, do it all again and this time I lay across him and ask him to move. Head shoots up. I keep him going until he relaxes and then stop and get off. Repeat a few more times.Next I swing my leg over, I sit lightly, rubbing his wither., get off when he relaxes. Repeat this a few more times until I feel he is ready to move off. He has a real pace action and wants to stick his head in the air and hollow his back. He is tense, but I find if I open and close my hands on the reins (NOT seesaw!!) in time with his front legs, his head lowers and he relaxes. Strange! I don't really know what made me think of this, but it works! As soon as he drops his head low, I stop "playing". I am not asking him to come "on the bit" (I hate that expression) but just to lower and not be a giraffe. Of course once he lowers his head, he relaxes and I can feel his back lift. I walked him for a good 20 minutes, until he was really relaxed with head low and then finished.This horse is going to be my biggest challenge so far as he really feels like a pacer compared to most that I have done. A couple of times he wanted to speed up and although I never let him, I could feel if I did, it definetly would be a pace at this stage and not a trot. Will be interesting to see what tomorrow holds!

More on Ash and new horse arrives :)

Well yet again I have been a little lazy and not blogged for a while, so this is a bit of a catch up again and an introduction to the new retraining prospect.

Ash has been coming along really well. Although never raced, he has the typical gaits of a SB. Don't be fooled into thinking just because they never raced that they will move like a normal horse. Some do and some don't. Ash moves like a SB. He was extremely unflexable and we did have some issues with resistance about 3 weeks ago. My fault though as I had excepted mediocre from him and not really getting things right before I moved on. He had been coming of my leg so so and going forward so so and flexing so so, which unfortunetly set us up for a fight when I asked for more. Oopps! Lesson learnt! Get it right first time. So what ended up happening was that when I went to ask him for lateral flex and a one rein stop (at a walk) all I got met with was a huge resistance! He set his neck when I put feel on the rein (mainly to the right) and when I applied my leg to roll his ribs and hips away, he just said "wha???" After about 10 minutes of this reisitance, I got off, and asked for him to yeild away from my hand where my leg was. Once he softened on that, I got back on and started again. Asked for soft flex, only a little, little bit of leg and it was much better. Now three weeks down the track and his one rein stop and lateral flexing is excellent. His forward is much better and his stop and back up is brillant! We had our first canter the other day. Not the most comfortable but we will work on it. I'm not in a hurry until he is a little more mature in mind and body as he is still very immature.

Next project is a little gelding called Mickey aka, Miami Key. He is approx 14.3hh, bay, very plain but very cute. First things first, I did his feet today as they were terrible and gave him a small Bowen. I never give them a big Bowen first up as I like to see how they react to it. He is extremely sore, reminds me alot of Striker. Very weak through the back. I will give him a couple of days and start on the ground, teaching him to yeild of pressure and getting to know him, probably until the end of the week and then put the saddle on and go from there. I will be sure to keep the blog updated on this one as he is a very special little horse.

Catch up blog

Well, yet again I have been extremely lazy and not blogged for a while. Time for a catch up.
Mango came along really well but had a little problem with his suspensory again. He was re homed with a lovely lady and her daughter, who gave him some time off and then restarted his training. He came out to our Standardbred winter show and did really well and looked a million dollars, but was just pipped at the post for Reserve by my little baby Ash. He is entered for the Royal Show so I am looking forward to seeing him there.

My next project is my 2 rising 3 yr old Ash. Although he hasn't raced he certainly has the Standardbred gait and was born pacing so will still be a challenge. He has had about 5 rides so far, 2 bareback, just sitting and bending and flexing, and 3 with saddle just concentrating on getting a nice forward swinging walk. i will take it very slowly with Ash as he is mentally very immature and can't handle too much work at once. I will concentrate on lots of ground work still, with bending and flexing, yielding from pressure etc.