How Goes The Groundwork?

Whatever your preference of trainers and styles, no one with any horse experience can deny that groundwork is invaluable. Melissa and I have joined Giddyup.com and have been renting Clinton Anderson's groundwork DVD's. The exercises seem really simple, but it's amazing the reactions you get from your horses. They teach the horses really simple things; move away from my intense energy, move out of my space, move when I tell you, stand still when I tell you, and most of all: PAY attention to MEEE. All stuff you think you're teaching them all the way along. This stuff makes SO much sense to the horses. Some of them were NOT pleased about the new clear expectations, but they got over it pretty quick.

Some of it is desensitization, another thing that is great for horses. I tried his tying methods and it's been awesome. My horses weren't bad about pulling back to begin with, but it was awesome to try everything I could think of to try to make them pull back. The most surprising thing to me was that my riding horse Dazzle had more hot buttons than Spotless the baby! I never did find anything that phased him much. I ran at him screaming flinging a bag on a whip. He looked at me like I was retarded, licked his lips, and came towards me for a hug.

In 3 sessions he now has a respectable turn on the haunch, a near flawless back, both beside and in front of me, no longer tries to drag me on the lunge line (I had been having to lunge him on a stud chain or with a bit before).

One of the things Clinton advocates is rope halters. I hate messing with them, I love my pretty pink halter I can quickly slip over Dazzle's ears and off we go. But, I dug out a skinny rope halter for the exercises. He says it makes it easier and faster. It sure did! I no longer have to use a chain when working Spotless, he doesn't try to drag me off. It's not just that is hurts enough he doesn't pull that hard, he is actually starting to leave slack in the rope. He doesn't want to hit that halter at all. I'm very hopeful that by next spring Spotless and I will be able to show in Showmanship and look like we know what we're doing. I'm going to start hunting for a Showmanship teacher so I know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing.

Dazzle was easy to do the despooking with the string on the stick and rope. She only tried to move like, once. That was it. Didn't try to run around me or anything. She's pretty sensible about that. Plus, doesn't have much go. Spotless I had to start with low intensity, but after about 10 minutes he was good. Now he's great. He has more go though, being half TB. The worst one I've worked with is FAITH! Ashley's kid's horse. She was AWFUL. Reared several times, possibly tried to bite me once. She is VERY high reaction and still needs lots of work. But she is getting better.

Yesterday Spotless did so well with all the Clinton Anderson stuff I had him drag a tire. He did awesome. He started spooking when it followed him at the trot so I tugged the rope and got him to halt. Then he walked, stopped, walked stopped and realized it was stopping whenever he did and calmed right down. Even when he was scared he wasn't trying to take off, he just canter really slow around me on a loose rope! Then we switched directions and he was the same calm that way. Then the tire hit something and started to bounce in the air. It started spinning in the air and flew through his paddock fence and back out. It spun and wound the rope up against Spotless' butt. I told him to HO and he did. I unclipped the rope from him and realized that the rope had twisted up into his tail bag. He stood perfectly still and let me untangle it. I was really glad I had done work before attaching the tire with pulling the rope tight around his rear, letting it get up under his tail, etc. and making sure if he was scared he would let me stop him to "save" him. I would NOT do this with Faith at this point. Faith was watching the whole thing and FREAKING out in her paddock. She was snorting and prancing with her tail flagged. Spotless was really relaxed. After I took the tire off his surcingle I walked him around and he was quite relaxed, not upset from the experience at all. It is promising that he will be able to pull a cart later on.

If you have a horse that is pushy or disrespectful on the ground OR undersaddle, get your hands on the Gaining Respect and Control on the ground DVD's. They rock. You don't have to have anything fancy or a round-pen to do them. I have a flat spot in front of the tackroom where we do them and a cheap rope halter and a lead rope to do it with. I don't even have the tie-ring for the tying stuff, I have a horse trailer that is a rock hooked to a truck and I just put the end of the leadrope through the tied ring twice so it can be pulled out like the ring. I don't even use a 14 ft leadrope. I have one, but I am not coordinated enough not to get tangled up in it, lol.

A Hitch In The Plans

So, the plan was that when Melissa moved her horses here this weekend she would then trade training on Dazzle for her board. Then her BO at the fancy barn decided to let her stay in the pastures there all winter. Not a deal to pass up; indoor arena, hot water wash racks, etc. So, she is staying there. Which means no trade for training. We worked out an agreement for me to groom and coach for her and we'll trade those hours for training. Definitely not ideal, but hopefully it'll work out for enough hours to get Dazzle ready to show in the spring. We only need those 15.5 pts to get her Dressage COA and that's my goal for her this year.

Dazzle had her first ride in a month. Melissa just got on and didn't lunge. She was awesome. Not even hyper, much to Melissa's disappointment. They cantered and everything and was great. Not a good ride for her, but she behaved. So, after a month of sitting in her paddock she was ridden walk/trot/canter and didn't do anything naughty. That is very encouraging to me that she will be a great family horse eventually. I was afraid she would be awful. Maybe spooky, bolt, buck at every cue she didn't like. But, she did none of that. She gave one half-hearted kick out at a smack from the crop when she ignored leg and that was it.

Dazzle is done venturing into Western Pleasure for now. They are going to do just Dressage and focus on Training Level with eyes towards First. Should be fun. I just hope enough time can be devoted to her to get her where she should be for the show season.

Big News For Melissa

Melissa got her invitation to the Octoberfest Dressage Championships this week. We are so excited for her! The weekend of the 17th will be stressful and amazing. Her first championship, first big Dressage show, but she will have me there to groom and possibly Trudy also.

The weekend of the 3rd we plan to head west to visit Gatsby, the father of our future children as Melissa calls him. Check out his website and join in the drooling;
www.foxdalefarm.us

Wish Melissa luck and pray for her and whatever else might send good vibes!

PSA: Keeping Weight, Gaining Weight

First, a great post on getting weight on older horses, or ANY horses for that matter;
http://www.fuglyblog.com/2009/best-of-fhotd-old-does-not-equal-skinny-2

A lot of people don't seem to know the basics.

1. Blanket. If it's cold and your horse is shivering, it's losing all those valuable calories to keep warm. I let my horses grow a winter coat, THEN blanket them so they have all the protection they can get. I don't blanket till I catch them shivering. If your horse is skinny, blanket and keep blanketing. It helps a LOT. It can be the difference between losing and gaining.

2. De-worm. Consult a vet for the right rotation for your area if you want to be perfect, but a simple rotation of ivermectin every 2 months and pyrantel in the spring after the thaw and in the fall after the freeze has been working great for me. If you aren't de-worming you are feeding worms instead of your horse.

3. Teeth. Often bad teeth will be the biggest culprit in an old horse. However, it's no excuse for a skinny horse. Thunder had NO chewing teeth and was jiggly. However, it can be very painful to have sharp teeth cutting off your tongue, and the pain can make weight gain harder. Get teeth done first thing if your horse sticks his tongue out a lot, drops food, won't take a bit in conjunction to weight loss, or is old and you doubt it's been done. I have my accupressurist check all my horses whenever she is here to see who needs work. But if you aren't sure, it can't hurt to get it done.

4. Pain. If your horse is hurting somewhere, they will often lose weight just dealing with the pain. Get the vet out and figure out the problem. If it's not something fixable, this could mean it's time to say goodbye.

5. Stress. I had a mare in quarantine who lost a TON of weight in one WEEK because she didn't like being alone. She literally spent ALL day running back and forth in the pasture screaming her head off. As soon as I was able to put her in a paddock near other horses she gained her weight right back.

6. Bullying. If you have more than one horse in a pen, it's quite possible that the skinny horse is being shunned from the food pile. Find a way to keep the skinny horse separate. A little paddock, feeding in a stall, whatever you need to do.

7. Food. What are you feeding? Make sure it's high quality and enough for your horse's work load. If you are riding hard every day your horse is going to eat a lot more than your kid-broke horse that only gets ridden when your relatives come over a couple times a year. When I am riding my Appaloosa every day she eats about 6 flakes of nice alfalfa a day. And she's only 15.2H.

8. No teeth? No problem. Thunder lived on Senior Equine and grass hay pellets. Soaked it in warm water and he slurped it right up. If your horse is having trouble chewing hay or you just don't want them burning calories chewing, soak them some orchard grass pellets. Feed AS MUCH AS THEY'LL EAT! People have a hard time doing that, but DO it and the horse will gain weight.

9. Do it BEFORE it's cold. Get them up to weight BEFORE fall. It's WAY harder to put weight on in the snow. It's a lot easier to KEEP it on.

10. Call the Vet. When all else fails to put weight on OR you have reason to suspect something internal (like a history of being hard to keep), call the vet and have blood work done and whatever else the vet things might give a clue as to the weight loss. Equine Metabolic Syndrome and Cushings both mess with the way a horse gains weight, and both can be managed with a diet and sometimes specially designed supplements.

There is NO reason your horse should be skinny. Whether they are 13 or 33, you can get weight on them and keep it there! Your horse will thank you.

Shorter Days Ahead

Our show weekend before last went alright; Dazzle behaved for the most part and was MUCH better than the last time we showed there in '07. We got EVERY right lead canter! I was amazed. We looked nice in our show clothes. It was the first time I used my show saddle for Western. We placed a few times in Halter and our Showmanship wasn't bad for just starting to learn it and Dazzle thinking it is way too much work. No hi-points for us, but we had made much improvement from last time, so I was happy. I brought home a pile of ribbons, a few default, but not all be any means.

Last weekend, Melissa did a Dressage show to see if she could get another score over 60% to qualify for the Championship show in October. She wasn't planning on it, but I got an email about it and told her to go for it. So, with 5 rides in she went in front of Diane Royce in Intro B. They got a 70.5% and took Intro B hi-point AND show hi-point. She was thrilled with the awards, but knew it wasn't their best ride. Everyone kept reminding her that she couldn't have expected more from her mare after a week of riding. She hadn't been worked since June. So, considering that they did amazing. We had to leave here at 5 AM to get there with time for her to warm up as they got the FIRST ride of the day. We (Ashley, me and Melissa) got there first and so she had time to walk Bayberry around and see everything and warm up leisurely before going in. I took pictures of the ride and then we watched a few more rides, got her score, and went to late breakfast. Then we came back and dozed for a couple hours waiting for the Intro A and B to be done so she could see if she got a ribbon. She got a beautiful blue ribbon and then since she was high score for the class, she got a bag of horse cookies and a hoof pick. We packed up and headed home. She only found out yesterday that she won overall hi-point too.

I found out a few weeks ago that I'm pregnant, so I will not be showing anymore until next summer. I'm going to keep doing the Western pleasure lessons with Ashley for 4H and do some adult lessons with the same instructor. Melissa will be back for the school year in October and will be trading training on Dazzle for board for her two mares. She will then show Dazzle for me when the show season starts again next spring and try to finish her Dressage COA and possibly get some points towards some other COA's as well. She may just end up concentrating on Dressage and get a Superior in that. We'll see. She has quite a line-up planned for the year. She'll have her own two, my one, two of Trudy's for training, AND possibly one or two more for training. Only one of the bunch isn't started. So, most of it will be under-saddle training. I'm excited to have her work all winter with Dazzle. Should be awesome results.

My baby is due May 6 or 7 going by the LMP. We'll know by ultrasound probably on the 12th of Oct. Hopefully this kid likes horses. I'm already working on getting him/her a pony. = )

Short but Sweet Ride

I put my show saddle on Dazzle to make sure it would fit nicely. Looks like it will. I think I'm going to go wool pad, gel pad, pink wool show pad and it should look nice and be comfortable. I'm hoping the pink covers the wool entirely.

We practiced showmanship with a chain for the first time. She did a lot better today, but still far from flawless. We practiced again after riding. She is paying attention better, but she still is very easily distracted which of course makes it hard to cue her without talking which is kind of how showmanship works. Hopefully she will be focused at the show. HA HA.

I rode her once around the arena canter; half left lead and then switched and did half right lead. We jogged. We opened and closed the gate twice, we weaved the standards and walked over the poles. We jogged a little in the field and walked through the neighbor's yard and she didn't spook at a fluttering plastic bag. We got the mail and walked up the lane. She started at her reflection in the window of my car and I tossed the mail on it and she didn't spook. Then we went back to the trailer and untacked. She seemed a little disappointed at the short ride. It was only 18 minutes. She didn't even sweat. That was the plan after our work out yesterday though. Tomorrow I will ride her in the morning, then bath time and banding! AND the obligatory trip to Boarder Town for show stuff. This time I need a stud chain, fly spray, and perhaps gold glitter for halter class. Ooh, and detangler.

Dressage Horse In Disguise

Since Ashley joined 4H and I get to take the lessons with her, we have been focusing on that. Yes, Dazzle and I have been learning *GASP*...Western Pleasure.

First, I was shocked to learn how similar to Dressage it is. Dazzle doesn't seem confused in the least and since it's what she's bred for I figured it won't hurt to let her do what she's made for and shine.

Ashley is making progress with connecting with Faith, her new TB, but she has a lot of tension to overcome. She is used to slow, old horses, not forward TB's. They'll get there. They will make their show debut next Spring.

Sunday, Dazzle and I will debut our new Western Pleasure skills at the Umatilla Sage Riders Arena Late Summer Schooling Show in Hermiston, OR. Should be fun! If I can keep my nerves controlled and Dazzle can keep on task, we should do okay!

Ted should be there to take pictures, so I should have photos to share! Ashley is going to be grooming for us, which is awesome; she is a great groom!

Training-wise, our walk/job is fairly acceptable, our lope is non-existent and our canter is getting there. She likes to veer off the rail, jumping into the gait, and get too fast. I have three more days. We'll be great. lol!