April 30, 2011 - Enough with the mud already!

It was a nice sunny, warm day today and I didn't have to go anywhere so I took the opportunity to wash Rory's legs and tail and get the mud off.  The mud was solidly crusted through the hair down to the skin on the points of his hocks and I had to scrub to get it off.  His lower legs came clean more easily, and his tail was easy to clean as well.

Muddy boy before his bath.

Another boarder brought her green horse out to sponge her off, and Rory stood very well despite the odd fuss the other horse kicked up.  I think Rory must have been a good influence as her owner had commented that the mare wasn't very good with the water before tying her beside Rory.  I kept a sharp eye on them to be prepared in case the mare panicked in our direction.

Clean, and groomed.

I toweled Rory's legs off and sprayed them with showsheen.  Then I groomed him with the help of one of the barn teens.  He was good about having two people working on him at once.  I took him out and got the teen to take a few photos as I stood him up.  We wandered around for a while as Rory nibbled on the grass poking up where it wasn't supposed to be growing.  We eventually made it down to the big haybale outside one of the single turnouts where Rory munched on the chaff that had fallen off the flakes.  When Rory's feathers were dry we headed back to the barn.

Clipping feathers.

I pulled out the little clippers and showed them to Rory.  He nosed them and I gave him a carrot.  When I turned them on he was unconcerned even when I put them on his nose.  After another carrot I put the running clippers on his shoulder and rubbed them over his shoulder and down his leg.  I gave him another carrot, then rubbed the clippers down his leg again and clipped a little hair.  Rory was quite happy to stand and have his legs clipped since he got bits of carrots frequently.  When I got to his hind legs he lifted each up as I was clipping.  I kept clipping and gave him a carrot when he put the foot down.  Considering he's not been clipped before I was very impressed with how Rory handled the process.

Clean and clipped.

I took a few photos before putting him back out in the paddock.  Hopefully the shorter hair won't collect as much mud.  The showsheen will help the dry mud brush off easily.

April 29, 2011 - Halfway up!

Rory was so good about longeing today that I changed directions and worked each rein again asking for more variations in trot speed.  He was very responsive.

Preparing to jump up, and stepping down as Rory looks for his carrot

 Today's pre-mounting exercise involved me jumping onto a mounting block beside Rory as I pulled on the saddle to simulate mounting.  This exercise gives the horse a chance to see the rider making a sudden move up beside them, and allows the rider to stay above the horse safely even if the horse moves away.  Many horses will start to walk, or swing away when the rider jumps up, but Rory stood still.  I jumped up and leaned over the saddle and patted his other side and rubbed over his hindquarters.  Another time I leaned most of my weight on the saddle and he started walking.  I corrected him, tried again, and he walked forward again.  The next time he stood still.  The last time I jumped on the block, put my foot in the stirrup and draped myself over the saddle for a second.  I shouldn't have done it alone, and with no helmet, but it worked out okay since Rory stood still.  Now I just need to find a quiet time when someone is around to keep an eye on us for the few minutes I need to get on properly for the first time.

Patting his other side, leaning on the saddle, and using the stirrup to step up onto the block

April 27, 2011 - More pre-mounting exercises

I gave Rory a good grooming this morning and pulled a bit more of his mane.  It's still too long for braiding.  I had planned to pull a bit once a month, but this month got away from me so it's been about six weeks.

I tacked him up and took him out to the arena.  We started with longeing.  Rory was really good for his longeing exercises today.  After longeing I started the stirrup weighting exercise on his right side.  Rory was completely unconcerned by me pulling on the saddle and jumping up and down.  Using my knee in the stirrup to jump up was met with the same indifference so I jumped up and hooked my left elbow over the saddle and hung there for a couple of seconds before dropping down again.  Rory wasn't bothered by those antics either so I went round and hung off his left side.  I went back and forth a couple of times before running out of carrots.

April 22, 2011 A taste of spring

Perching on Rory's back while he's lying down

 Rory was lying down when I went out to get him today.  It was warm and sunny, and I'd seen him standing just before I went into the barn to change into my rubber boots so I hoped he'd be willing to stay down.  When I got close Rory considered getting up, but I crouched low, gave him a bit of carrot and he relaxed.  He let me shift closer to him and lean over his back to give him another bit of carrot.  While he munched I perched on his back and rubbed his neck. 

Standing with one leg over Rory's back

 Rory was completely unconcerned, so I stood and rested one leg on his back then slid it over to rest on his side.  He turned his head and nosed my boot, and I gave him another bit of carrot.  I didn't put any weight on him - I wanted to be able to step clear if he decided he wanted to stand up, but he didn't mind me doing more silly things.

Another carrot for my good boy

 I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and wash the mud off his legs.  Rory wasn't too keen on the water spraying his legs, but he was pretty good.  I held the rope at first and he shifted away from the water.  I looped the rope around a fence post so I could shampoo his legs and he stood quite well even when I hosed them off.  His tail was filthy and I washed it as well.  Unfortunately I had to be somewhere and Rory went back out before his legs were dry so it was a bit of a wasted effort as far as getting him clean went, but it was a good exercise in standing still for hosing off.

Clean legs and tail - for a few minutes.

April 18, 2011 - Bringing the stirrups into play

 It's time to move on to the next step and work specifically towards that first mounting.  There was a post on an internet bulletin board last week asking about training a young horse which got me thinking about how I prepare a horse to accept the rider mounting up.  I usually work alone with my young horses due to two experiences I had fairly early on.  In the first case I wasn't involved with the training, just watched a guy mount a green horse for the first time and he had his helper block the horse's eye from seeing him mount up.  That wasn't a problem until it came time for him to dismount and the horse was badly spooked by seeing him shift off to the side to dismount.  Even when the helper went back and blocked the horse's vision again, the horse knew what was happening by the weight shift and it was a very dangerous situation for everyone involved.  In the second case I was working with a horse who got easily distracted by someone on the ground.   Even without having his vision blocked he just wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing, and I was afraid he'd miss something important.

Longeing Rory with the stirrups down and loosely tied together with a spare stirrup strap to limit movement.

The post on the BB got me thinking.  I want mounting up to be anti-climactic for me and for the horse.  In order to increase the chances of that happening I break the process down into what things the horse needs to be okay about before the big moment.  He needs to be okay with me making a sudden sharp jump up beside him. And a sudden jump down beside him. Okay with weight in one stirrup pulling to one side. Okay with seeing me up behind his head. Okay with something moving against his sides as he moves. Okay with weight on his back. Okay with that weight shifting as he moves. He needs to know whoa. Steering would be a good idea, though perhaps is not necessary for just getting on and off.


The first time hopping up beside him, Rory walked off - I was moving ahead too fast.

For something moving on his sides I use a spare stirrup leather to tie the stirrups together under the horse's belly - just tight enough that they won't flail and bang when he trots or canters, but loose enough that they will move a bit.  I took my spare stirrup leather out with me today, and after the few minutes of longe command refreshing I pulled the stirrups down and buckled them under Rory's belly.  Rory was completely unconcerned by the irons at his sides, and I even loosened the belly strap to allow more movement after the first minute.  On to the next step.



Pulling on the saddle, pulling on the stirrup leather, bouncing up and down while pulling on the saddle, and reward.

  The next step covers weight pulling to one side and a little of the sudden up/down movements beside him. I stick a knee in one stirrup and hang onto the saddle while bouncing my other foot off the ground. If the horse moves I can just step down, halt the horse, reassure him and try again.  Rory was okay with me pulling on the saddle and putting my knee in the stirrup, but started walking away when I bounced up and down.  I was asking for too much at once.  What was most important for him to do was to stand still while I bounced up and down, so I took a step back and rewarded him for standing still while I wiggled his saddle, and then pulled it towards me.  Then I changed to pull on just the stirrup leather, again rewarding for standing still.  The next step was to bounce up and down beside him with a little pull on the saddle as I did so.  Rory very quickly figured out that he was to stand still in order to get his carrot chunk.


And finally back to the knee putting weight in the stirrup as I jump up beside him.

 After Rory was standing still while I bounced up and down I tried putting my knee in the stirrup again and leaning on it before trying to bounce up.  I use my knee in the stirrup because it would be very difficult to get stuck in the stirrup, and I can just step down if the horse starts to get concerned.  It also lets me work from the ground without having to worry about a mounting block.  This time Rory stood still.  He did consider moving when I put my knee in for a second try, but I just checked him with the lead rope and waited for him to settle in balance before bouncing up again.  Each time I did the exercise I jumped a bit higher. 

I just work one side at a time for anything new.  I feel it's important to introduce one concept at a time and allow the horse to gain some understanding of what is wanted.  To a horse turning left is different from turning right and they need to be learned separately.  When the horse is learning something new he's getting the right answer by chance, not by understanding.  Asking him to do several different things he doesn't know can frustrate the horse and make him sour or unwilling to try because he doesn't understand what is wanted.  We want to work both sides of our horse evenly, but a couple of days working on one side before introducing the lesson on the other side is not going to make the horse unbalanced or over developed on one side.  It will allow his brain to process the lesson and he will likely gain an understanding of the "right answer" a little faster.  Which is not to say that we can't introduce something on both sides of the horse on the same day, but it is a good idea to do another exercise that the horse does already understand in between.  Right now Rory's lessons are short and I'm happy to work one side until he's showing that he's understanding the general idea before going to the other side.  Today I put weight in the left stirrup, and will work on his left again next time.  When he's comfortable with what I want, I'll move over and repeat the process on his right side.

April 14, 2011 Outside again!

It was a beautiful day today and I decided to try working with Rory outside again.  The ice that was inside the paddock gate has melted so Totyo was unlikely to be sliding into it again.  And I decided to put full gear on Rory and see if the side reins helped him to stay focused.

Normally I longe Rory for a few minutes and run through the walk, trot, out and whoa commands before hooking up the side reins, but today I snapped them onto his bit right away.  The side reins are still long enough that they don't put pressure on the bit while Rory is carrying his head normally - I wasn't asking him to do anything strenuous by snapping them on right away.  My strategy worked very well.  Rory had one big jump and head toss when he first trotted, and when he felt the side reins he subsided in surprise and I quickly asked him to continue trotting before he fell back to walk.  There was one other little jump, but it was hardly worth noting.  As usual whoa was a bit iffy at the beginning when he was busy looking around at all the distractions.  I had to enforce the command a couple of times and then he was listening quite well.

Rory looking at the other horses after the work.

In the trot Rory looked like he was going to bolt off several times but I kept the trot slower than usual and Rory behaved himself.  Having him listening to the "easy" command, and my body language half halts while he kept trotting was great.  Those are more subtle commands and could have been missed with all the distractions around.  Totyo did some whinnying and some running back and forth.  For the most part Rory ignored his antics.  I was really pleased with how well he was paying attention, and I kept the longe session very short (under ten minutes).  Rory was also very consistent about lifting his back and having a nice relaxed neck today.  We did a bit of steering practice on each rein to finish up.  Lots of praise for the little man today!

April 12, 2011 - A different kind of lesson

The farrier came today to do a few horses.  Both of Rory's paddock buddies were on the list and Rory ended up all by himself in the paddock.  He whinnied, and ran back and forth, but didn't get hysterical.  He stopped running often, and wasn't whinnying constantly.   I happened to be riding in the ring beside Rory's turnout when Totyo got taken into the barn, giving me a perfect vantage point to keep an eye on him.

Rory wasn't happy about being alone, but he was much calmer than Totyo usually is and I thought it was a good experience for him to be alone for a bit and then have the other horses return.  I had considered bringing him in and doing a training session, but since he was being relatively sensible about being by himself I decided to leave him out and let that be his lesson for the day.

Rory looking for his buddies.

April 10, 2011 - Open doors and company

Today started off with some sun, but by the time I got to Rory it had clouded over and was threatening rain.  Two other boarders were out at the same time and I hoped the rain would hold off long enough for me to get something done with Rory.  I won't longe if there's someone riding in the arena already, but if someone chooses to start riding while I'm longeing then I feel that's a clear indication that they don't mind me longeing while they ride.  The first one of us ready elected to ride outside.  I was ready second and took Rory over to the arena.  A couple of raindrops hit me on the way.

The big doors at either end of the arena were partially open today.  Not far enough for a horse to get out, but enough to see things outside - like the blue tarp flapping in the wind.  Rory was very good.  He looked, but didn't spook at anything and he did listen to me for the most part.  The whoa was the weak spot as usual.  We managed a quick longe session, with the person riding outside coming in to join us when the rain started coming down enough to get things wet.  I was quite pleased with how well Rory handled the distractions, but when the second rider came out to the arena I stopped longeing.  We wouldn't have done too much more in any case, and I don't like mixing longeing with riding just because there's so much potential for things to go wrong.  After a few minutes of steering practice I called it quits for the day.  So nothing really new today, just a review of what he knows with some extra distractions.

I did set up my camera to video the session, but Rory was standing right in front of it when I started recording and everything was out of focus.

April 8, 2011 - Lazy man's steering session

I didn't want to longe Rory again today, but I did want to play with him a little bit.  I decided to take his bridle out to the paddock and do some steering practice out there.  He was a little muddy, but I brushed off his head before putting the bridle on.  He took the bit very politely.  We wandered about with Totyo watching closely, and Rory did quite well going to the right.  I was going to quit there took his bridle off before going to get the shedding blade.  On the way back I set the camera on a fence post and turned the video on.  Rory hesitated before taking the bit again, but did accept it.  We practiced steering to the left and I realized that I was starting to introduce the idea of leg means forward as I bumped his side to get him to walk forward.  I deliberately moved my bumping forward on his side to get closer to my future leg position.  The actual leg position was too far forward for right now and confused Rory.

 Rory knows what's coming and he's starting to turn towards me as soon as he starts walking.  Looking for the carrot.  We did several turns on the forehand as I moved towards his bum to send him forward and he kept turning to me for his carrot.  When I started using the longeing "go that way" point he gave up on the turn on the forehand and walked.  Totyo got in the way a couple of times, and I sent him away.  Rory experimented with bending his neck in response to bit pressure and continuing to walk in a straight line instead of turning.  It was a short lived experiment.

After I ran out of carrots I scraped the mud and loose hair off him with my shedding blade.  Totyo got some attention as well, until he got mouthy.

April 6, 2011 - Rogue mounting block!

Rory is finally shedding enough to make the shedding blade useful!  He's still very fuzzy, but I managed to get a good bit of hair off today.  After tacking up we went out to the arena and did a quick run through of the longe commands.  The first halt was slow and I needed the wall to help.  I decided to set up some trot poles for Rory, and he followed me back and forth trying to nose the poles as I carried them.  Rory looked really good going over the poles and I realized he was going directly towards the camera so it wasn't getting a good angle on the pole work.

Rory walked with me to get the camera, and followed as I moved the mounting block into the corner by the door and set the camera up on it.  We went back out and started with a couple of circles again.  Rory started eyeing the door end of the arena suspiciously, and was cutting in on that part of his circle.  It took me a few minutes to realize that he was concerned about the mounting block and not the noises from outside. 

Getting closer to the rogue mounting block

I moved the circle down towards that end of the arena and managed to get Rory to walk right up to the block without having to lead him there.  At one point he did try to rear three times instead of going forward, but he didn't get very high off the ground with the side reins restricting his head.  One of the neat things about spooky horses is their self carriage as they approach the scary object and I got a glimpse of what Rory will look like when he develops his strength and balance.



Cautiously approaching for a closer look.

Rory nosed the camera and mounting block and decided it was okay.  We got back to work and did get some nice work over the trot poles, and good transitions.  I discovered that if I step out "in front" of him when he comes to a halt he is less likely to swing his hindquarters out, and if he does he doesn't swing as far.



To finish up the session I snapped his lead rope to the right side of his bit and did some steering practice.  Rory is getting the idea on the right rein and dropped his nose a little with a nice relaxed bend when I put a little pressure on the bit.  He is coming along really well, and the little bumps and surprises produce some useful training opportunities.  I'm hoping to get him out three times a week in the next month, leading up to the day I mount up for the first time.

April 2-3, 2011 - Back inside for now

I took Rory out for a bit of work today.  I tacked him up and we went into the arena.  Totyo was calling for his buddy, but he was standing still while he did so.  Totyo seems to be fine after his misadventure on Thursday.  One leg swelled up a bit, but he seems sound and the swelling was smaller by the end of the weekend.

I ran through a quick check of the longeing commands on a fairly short line first, then hooked up the side reins.  I had set my camera up to record the session, but the batteries died just as I was snapping the side reins onto Rory's bit.  I was disappointed about that because Rory really lifted his back and arched his neck and carried the saddle for a few steps several times.  I worked specifically on his halts today as he kept swinging his bum out and facing me as soon as his front feet stopped moving.  The left rein is still worse than the right, but both improved with a little reminding.  I shortened the line and went out to him quickly as soon as he halted.  If he swung his bum I put it back, patted him and then asked him to walk on again.  When he stayed straight I gave him a bit of carrot and a pat.

After the longeing I snapped the leadrope to the left bit ring and reminded him about steering.  He was really good.  I changed the lead to the right bit ring and we started on that side.  There was a bit of resistance at first, but then he'd resisted when I first started on the left side too.  I got a couple of good responses from him at the end and stopped there.  I'd say he was just as good turning to the right off the bit pressure as he'd been the first time I worked on the left.

The weather was beautiful this weekend.  We had lots of sun, and warmer temperatures (compared to the last couple of weeks) with no precipitation in the forecast until late Sunday night.  It was windy, but not too cold and I decided to let Rory go without his blanket for the weekend.  On Sunday afternoon I brought him in and gave him a good grooming before putting his blanket back on.

Spring sun at last!

I forgot one little event that happened on Thursday before all the excitement.  Rory was lying down when I went out to get him.  He looked at me but didn't get up.  I perched on his back, sort of sitting on him but bearing most of my weight on my legs, and leaned over his neck so he could see me above and behind him.  It didn't bother him a bit and I rubbed his neck and talked to him.  He was lying down again on Friday and I hoped to repeat the exercise, but got up when he saw me come into the paddock.  It was a non-event, but kind of exciting for me anyway.