After having free access to a horse of my own and practicing all sorts of groundwork tricks on her, I was pretty confident I knew what I was doing regarding groundwork and horses.
Apparently other people thought I knew what I was doing and so I got a phone call to ask if I could teach a pony to go on a float when asked. He had been fine before the people bought him (apparently) but if there was no friend already in the float he would fight energetically to not go on the float. He was pulling the owner all over the place and after 2 hours of effort they decided not to go to pony club.
I agreed and was a bit nervous about trying it on a pony I didn't know WITH PEOPLE WATCHING. Everything went fine and within 1 hour I had had him on and off the float half a dozen times. The first half hour was spent chasing him in the round yard so the actual floating effort only took about 15 minutes. I told the man to try again the next day without me so that if there was going to be a problem it wasn't going to be when they were trying to get somewhere. It went badly so I went and worked with the pony again and showed the man an easier technique to apply discomfort and release accurately regarding obedience and they didn't have a problem again.
I then got invited to pony club to teach some classes to the kids and their ponies about horsemanship and teaching horses new tricks.
Showing posts with label horses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horses. Show all posts
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
New tricks.
I had run out of interesting things to do with Xena, to teach her and to keep us both interested and thinking. Also she was getting energetic and silly and flighty and generally scary to ride. I realized that while her ground manners are now really good (she even comes when she is called) When I am riding her she is confused about who is in charge. She thinks she can make decisions not me. I decided to go back to the cattle yards and try to teach her to obey me without needing reins. I put on her saddle and then just used the halter and lead rope as reins and bridle and rode her at a walk in the cattle yard.
This is teaching her something altogether new and on horseback which I am unfamiliar with. Luckily a lady who has taught people to ride naturally was visiting and decided to help me and gave me a lesson. She encouraged me and told me what to do and we began to teach her to turn left and right and stop and go all from my legs and feet instruction. The lead rope was just to give her a hint and as back up if I needed it.
We also taught her to rein back (walk backwards) and worked on going sideways. The lady was very encouraging and said I was doing the right things to teach her and that she is obviously relaxed and comfortable with me. It is funny that though she comes when I call, apparently she won't come for anyone else. I can't help but feel a little smug about that.
Today I am going to ride her in the cattle yard again, probably bare backed, and we will remember what we learned yesterday and consolidate.
This is teaching her something altogether new and on horseback which I am unfamiliar with. Luckily a lady who has taught people to ride naturally was visiting and decided to help me and gave me a lesson. She encouraged me and told me what to do and we began to teach her to turn left and right and stop and go all from my legs and feet instruction. The lead rope was just to give her a hint and as back up if I needed it.
We also taught her to rein back (walk backwards) and worked on going sideways. The lady was very encouraging and said I was doing the right things to teach her and that she is obviously relaxed and comfortable with me. It is funny that though she comes when I call, apparently she won't come for anyone else. I can't help but feel a little smug about that.
Today I am going to ride her in the cattle yard again, probably bare backed, and we will remember what we learned yesterday and consolidate.
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
There are two ponies belonging to the family I work for, Simba and Fairy. They stay in the same paddock and I have given them the nicnames from Alice in Wonderland. These names suit them perfectly because they are always together and miss each other when one is away. They also fight each other constantly and Fairy
(tweedledum) delights in stealing Simba's food and making him grumpy.
Following the Alice theme of names, The big warmblood is the Queen of Hearts because it is easy to see her yelling "OFF WITH HIS HEAD" about the ponies, dogs, chickens, trees and anything else nearby, particularly at dinner time. Then my horse, Xena, ended up as the Duchess, because both Xena and the Duchess were mental when we first meet them and then completely different the next time we meet in a different location.
(tweedledum) delights in stealing Simba's food and making him grumpy.
Following the Alice theme of names, The big warmblood is the Queen of Hearts because it is easy to see her yelling "OFF WITH HIS HEAD" about the ponies, dogs, chickens, trees and anything else nearby, particularly at dinner time. Then my horse, Xena, ended up as the Duchess, because both Xena and the Duchess were mental when we first meet them and then completely different the next time we meet in a different location.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Sad News
On Friday last week, I had the farrier out o Nick and in the process of trimming his hooves he unearthed an underlying problem we hadn't known about. This was stifle lock, if you want to see youtube clips of what a horse looks like with stifle lock type in "Cowboy Stifle Lock" into youtube and watch the one with the yellow (palomino) horse.
Nick wasn't as severe as Cowboy but he was pretty close. Cowboy was lucky and his owner could afford an operation so he improved and could be used again. I couldn't afford the operation and it was too severe a problem to exercise out and so he couldn't be ridden or sold. Unfortunately this only left one option for me. On Tuesday he was put down, while I wasn't there. On Monday the kids and I said goodbye. I had had him for two weeks and he was a beautiful, gentle, pleasant, dopey horse. I would not have hesitated to put a child on his back.
On Monday afternoon the children said goodbye to him, I tied him to the gate and the little four yr old girl went up and hugged his front leg like it was a tree and he just stood there. He would have been worth the expense if I had had sufficient money to afford the operation and he would have made a perfect riding school horse.
I miss Nick a lot, every time I go out with the kids to ride and feed I am reminded that Nick is no longer there. I have waited for a while so I can write what happened without getting too upset. I cried all day on Monday when I found out, and then I have not cried since.
Nick wasn't as severe as Cowboy but he was pretty close. Cowboy was lucky and his owner could afford an operation so he improved and could be used again. I couldn't afford the operation and it was too severe a problem to exercise out and so he couldn't be ridden or sold. Unfortunately this only left one option for me. On Tuesday he was put down, while I wasn't there. On Monday the kids and I said goodbye. I had had him for two weeks and he was a beautiful, gentle, pleasant, dopey horse. I would not have hesitated to put a child on his back.
On Monday afternoon the children said goodbye to him, I tied him to the gate and the little four yr old girl went up and hugged his front leg like it was a tree and he just stood there. He would have been worth the expense if I had had sufficient money to afford the operation and he would have made a perfect riding school horse.
I miss Nick a lot, every time I go out with the kids to ride and feed I am reminded that Nick is no longer there. I have waited for a while so I can write what happened without getting too upset. I cried all day on Monday when I found out, and then I have not cried since.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Horse lunging
Yesterday I went to work with Nick again after having the weekend off for church camp and a break. The food thing worked pretty well and we worked out who was the dominant party between us. I was able to chase him away from the food with little or no fuss.
The lunging lesson went pretty well. It needed one person in the middle and one person leading the horse around the outside to give him a hint about what to do. He tried walking and trotting in a circle and then figured he would try pulling back and thrashing about. That didn't work and the most comfortable thing in the end for him to do was to walk in a circle.
Today I will go out and reinforce this lesson and hopefully get him trotting on command.
The lunging lesson went pretty well. It needed one person in the middle and one person leading the horse around the outside to give him a hint about what to do. He tried walking and trotting in a circle and then figured he would try pulling back and thrashing about. That didn't work and the most comfortable thing in the end for him to do was to walk in a circle.
Today I will go out and reinforce this lesson and hopefully get him trotting on command.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Horse project
So I have now had my horse for 5 days. It feels like longer and shorter at the same time. I have come to the conclusion that he is very patient and stoic and incredibly STUBBORN. He allows me to muck around with him but if we try something he doesn't think we should do, he has a hissy fit. I discovered this when he got annoyed at me and we played tug of war.
I have done the same things I did with Arakei and he kind of understood but he is so stubborn he would rather run the submit. I am going to try a different method because I need a round yard to chase him in if that strategy is going to work. If I do it in the bigger paddock, he can stop and rest nearly doing the right thing, but not really. We worked on Friday for so long my arm got stiff and he was tripping over he was so tired. I need a smaller space so that we are acting and reacting to each other at closer quarters and he can't prretend he is ignoring me.
A strategy I am going to try is based on the observation that the dominant horse takes food from the lesser horse. This is why feeding treats to horses is not a good training strategy. It works with dogs because they equate getting a treat with pleasing you. Horses see it as a victory. My plan is to give him hay, let him eat some and then chase him away from it and take it back. This is also important to do with dogs, the dominant dog can claim food from lesser dogs, if you can't take a bone off your dog without getting threatened or bitten, you need to work on his obedience. If you watch horses in a paddock, the one who is asserting their dominance will turf the others off their feed buckets and rotate round. Once they sought out their pecking order I don't think they need to do this as much, but initially there is a lot of swapping around.
I will let you know how is goes.
I have done the same things I did with Arakei and he kind of understood but he is so stubborn he would rather run the submit. I am going to try a different method because I need a round yard to chase him in if that strategy is going to work. If I do it in the bigger paddock, he can stop and rest nearly doing the right thing, but not really. We worked on Friday for so long my arm got stiff and he was tripping over he was so tired. I need a smaller space so that we are acting and reacting to each other at closer quarters and he can't prretend he is ignoring me.
A strategy I am going to try is based on the observation that the dominant horse takes food from the lesser horse. This is why feeding treats to horses is not a good training strategy. It works with dogs because they equate getting a treat with pleasing you. Horses see it as a victory. My plan is to give him hay, let him eat some and then chase him away from it and take it back. This is also important to do with dogs, the dominant dog can claim food from lesser dogs, if you can't take a bone off your dog without getting threatened or bitten, you need to work on his obedience. If you watch horses in a paddock, the one who is asserting their dominance will turf the others off their feed buckets and rotate round. Once they sought out their pecking order I don't think they need to do this as much, but initially there is a lot of swapping around.
Thursday, March 14, 2013
New Project
I have a project to fill in hours of my day not currently filled by work.
Because my employer is getting back into horses, I have found myself once more surrounded by equines. Since I came back to WA I have been feeding, changing rugs and teaching 3 children to ride a horse.
On Monday I went riding with T and she told me that she was thinking of buying an unwanted, cheap horse as a project for me to work with. On Tuesday she rang to tell me the lady didn't want to sell the first one we wanted, but this other one was offered for free.
He is a black thoroughbred, nearly 16 hands (about as tall as me) and I have had him for 3 days now. He is about 5 and he has been broken in and then ignored. He knows nothing, not picking up feet, not trotting on the lead, not wearing a rug. I am going to teach him manners, obedience, how to lead nicely (not trampling all over you) and then hopefully the finer points of riding (walk trot canter, listen, stop, start, left, right, pretty, head in, feet up and maybe even jumping.)
So far I have been working on picking up his feet, leading nicely, looking at scary things like stationary tractors, cars, birds, jumps and trees. Then I made him run round a paddock to teach him some manners. This is the same as I did with Arakei in my horse training posts in 2011, the result should be the same, but Arakei was HEAPS quicker at picking it up. The aim is to get the horse to submit and follow you without a lead. It took me 40 minutes of him running today to eventually convince him to follow me.
He is a mainly docile horse, doesn't panic much about anything, tolerates quite a lot of things, but he is stubborn as a teenager when he doesn't want to do something. He doesn't flap around in energetic rebellion, he just pretends not to know what you want. Odds are on he doesn't know, but he won't try to figure it out.
The first thing I want to teach him is to follow me in a paddock. Then I will set up an obstacle course like I did with Arakei and walk him through it.
I will put up photo's what I get some good ones.
Because my employer is getting back into horses, I have found myself once more surrounded by equines. Since I came back to WA I have been feeding, changing rugs and teaching 3 children to ride a horse.
On Monday I went riding with T and she told me that she was thinking of buying an unwanted, cheap horse as a project for me to work with. On Tuesday she rang to tell me the lady didn't want to sell the first one we wanted, but this other one was offered for free.
He is a black thoroughbred, nearly 16 hands (about as tall as me) and I have had him for 3 days now. He is about 5 and he has been broken in and then ignored. He knows nothing, not picking up feet, not trotting on the lead, not wearing a rug. I am going to teach him manners, obedience, how to lead nicely (not trampling all over you) and then hopefully the finer points of riding (walk trot canter, listen, stop, start, left, right, pretty, head in, feet up and maybe even jumping.)
So far I have been working on picking up his feet, leading nicely, looking at scary things like stationary tractors, cars, birds, jumps and trees. Then I made him run round a paddock to teach him some manners. This is the same as I did with Arakei in my horse training posts in 2011, the result should be the same, but Arakei was HEAPS quicker at picking it up. The aim is to get the horse to submit and follow you without a lead. It took me 40 minutes of him running today to eventually convince him to follow me.
He is a mainly docile horse, doesn't panic much about anything, tolerates quite a lot of things, but he is stubborn as a teenager when he doesn't want to do something. He doesn't flap around in energetic rebellion, he just pretends not to know what you want. Odds are on he doesn't know, but he won't try to figure it out.
The first thing I want to teach him is to follow me in a paddock. Then I will set up an obstacle course like I did with Arakei and walk him through it.
I will put up photo's what I get some good ones.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Sticky Beak Horses
I went outside to photograph the home made water slide for the blog and the sticky beak boofhead horse in the paddock had to come and see if he could eat my camera. Here is the photo progression of his investigation.
Him trotting up in the hope a carrot might be forthcoming,
Him sniffing the camera and deciding it is not that interesting,
and then looking away to indicate disinterest in anything not edible
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Rodeo
This weekend I went to the Warwick Rodeo which is apparently the biggest one in Australia. I have now seen calf roping, where a man on a horse chases a calf and tries to lasso it. Of the 10 I saw, one bloke managed it. I have also seen competition barrel racing, the fastest time was 17 and a bit seconds. It is so close and so contested that they have a sensor to measure the time and it goes to 3 points of a second, so for example 17.429 seconds. I also saw camp drafting which is when a man on a horse chases a cow through around post and through a gate. I also saw Steer wrestling where a man jumps off his horse onto a running steer with long pointy horns and pulls it to the ground. I also saw bronc riding and bull riding where the aim of the exercise is to not fall off if you are the rider, and toss your rider if you are the mount.
I have thus decided I will NEVER let my children (if I ever have any) do Rodeo things, except perhaps barrel racing and even then.
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