More building blocks

Another day above 10 degrees (but not much...).  Today we worked on two elements of trail courses: walk-over poles, and lope-over poles.  The walk-overs were spaced 24 inches apart.  The new twist:  there were six of them.  Typically we have been working with up to four.  The first time through, Sarah ticked the fifth and sixth pole.  The second and third times through though, no ticks, just a little hesitation.  Fourth time through, smooth, no change in speed, and no hits or ticks.  Done.  Then, the lope-over pole.  Just a single pole today, we need to get back into these again.  Usually this is more difficult to the right than to the left.  But today, traveling to the right was her strong suit.  No problems with this at all to the right.  To the left, the first couple of times she had to speed up to get the foot placing just right, but the last time, there was no change in the speed.  Again, today I just climbed on her and went to work, she had no interest in playing on the line.  So, it was rather short!  When the horse does exactly as you ask, or, learns quickly what you are asking and then does exactly as you ask, there is really no need to drill, is there?
A weekly beauty treatment and manicure for Sarah, followed by the ever-winning combination of cubes and a peppermint.  She very well may have the freshest smelling breath in the barn!

Happy Saturday!

Hello, happy Saturday!  I love Saturdays and Sundays in the winter for riding; the arena is always filled with light.  Today, I set up a back-through L (like two wide V's spaced 3-4 feet apart) for Sarah to work on.  It is a nice obstacle, spaced properly, it also can be used as a trot-over in two different ways.  No longeing needed again today.  One look at the poles, and it was, "let's get on with it!"  First time through the back-through, a bit sloppy; haven't done one in awhile.  Second time, not too bad.  Third time was a charm.  No hits or ticks.  Listening to cues.  Atta girl!  Then, trot-overs.  One pole was raised.  First time through, Sarah forgot about this and hit the pole with a front foot.  Second time, up went her feet.  Good girl.  Then, through the "V" section of the poles.  This time this obstacle was a little more difficult, as there were two in a row, spaced 6 feet apart, and one pole was raised.  This gave her something to think about, and it took a few times through, but she finally figured it out: like last time she did one of these, she tried to go left of the v, then right.  Finally, she took them through the center.   Lastly, side-passing to the left, then right, around the corner of the poles using a turn on the forehand.  Sarah did a nice job with these.
Enough for one session.  Time to get back to her hay!  Oh, and of course, cubes, and "safe choice", her pelleted grain product.
Until next time, enjoy this "heat wave"!
Kirsten

January 26...It's baaaaaaaaack...

Tonight was a quickie.  The temp, being in the teens, and the fact that there was no wind made for comfortable riding, although a bit brisk.  Just a quick "go through the motions" tonight for Sarah.  No longing needed; Sarah preferred to get right to it.  An added bonus was a visit from good friend Cindy, who was down to work both of her horses as well.
When Sarah began her routine, she took great notice in the fact the Cindy was on the rail giving her a look-see.  Sarah, being very aware of her "public" at all times, gave Cindy the 'big eye'.  She went through her work, albeit a bit begrudgingly (rail work during this time of year is not Sarah's favorite.  It's as if she thinks that spring will never return...), but always with one eye on Cindy.  When Cindy left for a moment to put some tack away, Sarah actually did a double-take!  "Where did my audience go?"  Well, then I invited Cindy to take a ride on Sarah.  Cindy hadn't ridden Sarah since fall; I do not think that Sarah remembered her entirely.  When Cindy asked her to move forward, it was if Sarah's feet were frozen to the ground!  "You want me to what?  I couldn't possibly...it's so cold out, my shoes must be frozen..."  Cindy, being an experienced horsewoman, immediately slapped her with both legs.  With a big sigh, Sarah realized that Cindy was also one of those human types that would not stand for any nonsense; she then stepped off into the cutest jog anyone could ever see.
A good time was had by all; a new bed and cubes and a peppermint for Sarah finished up the evening.  Tomorrow will be in the single digits with wind; we will let all of that calm down before our next ride.
Stay warm!
Kirsten

Raining, training

Holy buckets of water!  We are getting soaked in the Keweenaw.   No matter; Sarah has to have her daily challenge...
Today, I set up a large 12 foot box, which blended into a 12 foot "X" with a few more poles on the sides.  The object: to trot through the poles cleanly without breaking to the walk within the box.  This obstacle required Sarah to trot over the poles, make a tight left turn within the box at the jog, and then continue trotting out of the box, over poles again.  Doing this obstacle correctly involves the horse being able to negotiate differences in stride while maintaining gait.  Jack warned me that today, with the rain hitting the side of the arena, the horses were all silly and running around; I might indeed have to let Sarah run for awhile on the longe line.  Well.  When Sarah entered the arena and spied all of the poles, she looked as if she already had done the entire workout.  "I'm going to have to pick up my feet and move over all of these poles before the hour is done...can't we just skip it and go eat grain?!"  She was VERY lazy.  I tried to give her the usual longe-line warm-up.  It was too much work!  She did not want to go.  So, I climbed on her.  She then went right to work, taking all of her direction very calmly and routinely.  Things we need to work on:  making small circles at the jog within the 12-foot box.  I need to break this obstacle down into parts before setting it up in its entirety again.  She did very well trotting over poles, but the tight turn at the jog was difficult.  After that, the change in stride needs to be worked on.  Perhaps setting up a series of trot poles with a box at the end, and then stopping inside the box would be a good first step.  Another exercise that went quite well was trotting over the center of the X.  Sarah had never been required to do this before; so we started at the walk.  The horse is used to traveling over one pole.  Now, even though the placement of the feet is the same, the perception to the horse is that this is more difficult; "where exactly should I put my feet when all of these poles are under me in all directions?"  First time, she traveled too far to the right, placing her feet in between the arms of the X.  Then too far left.  Third time, she figured out that she could negotiate the X with the fewest footfalls by traveling exactly in the center.  She needed a few times when moving up to the trot, but it did not take her long to figure it out.  Good girl!  We ended up practicing side-passing in both directions around corners requiring turns on the hindquarters.  Sarah is better side-passing to the left.  Therefore, we practiced more times to the right.
Lots of ideas for next time!  As is usual for Sunday, beauty treatment, manicure, alfalfa cubes, peppermint.  Next time, it will be snowing....

January 20

Pressed for time tonight, I arrived at the farm to find that indeed as planned, Sarah had received her new shoes!  So, to give her time to adjust to them, we did a short showmanship practice.  This thrilled her to no end; it was as if she was thinking, "I finally got through to you humans!"  As mentioned before, showmanship involves showing the horse in-hand, and precision and accuracy is the goal.  We ran through squaring up, pivoting, walking, trotting, stopping and backing.  Sarah enjoys squaring up, I think she equates it with adoration!
A clean sheet and new bedding completed her evening.  Oh, and of course, cubes and a peppermint.  I could have sworn that I saw her smile...

A fraction of Kimura...

Is it Sunday already?!  Another warmer day!  It's nice to be so comfortable.
For Sarah's fun today I used one obstacle from a Tim Kimura trail pattern.  I think that the best way to describe today's trail obstacle is to draw a picture of it...thereby painting 1000 words!  Seven poles, four cones.  We took this at a jog-trot (follow the dotted line):

                              _______________
                             I   \                                                 .     .   .
                             I     .\   .                                     .                 .
                             I    .    \          .                        .        O           .
                             I      .     O         .     O  I      .                          .
                             I          .              .    .  I  .                                 .
                                             .        _____ I_______                   end
                                                 .     I
                                                 .     I
                                          O     .     I
                                                 .     I
                                                 .     I
                                                  .   /
                                                    / ...................start

First time through, Sarah rushed it.  She broke pattern; it was unpleasant; using a direct rein on her to force her to pay attention caused her to almost trip.  Second time through, she almost made it, but missed the last turn at the last cone.  At this point, I thought that the obstacle might be too difficult for her and considered widening the distances so that the turns would not be so tight.  But, just for grins, we tried a third time.  Third time was a charm.  She slowed her pace way down, realized that she had to pay attention to the aids, and made all of her turns.  Good girl!  We spent the rest of the time reviewing straight-line lope-overs and also did variations on trot-overs, and side-passing over poles.  Tomorrow will be her day off.

Enjoy this weather!


                                                                        
                                                                      

Good Saturday afternoon...

Good Saturday afternoon, all!  Today was another nice day with warmer temps.  I am enjoying this January thaw, especially since we did not have one last year.  Today, Sarah and I worked on a lope-over pole.  At first she wanted to break gate over the pole.  Again, adding a little more leg corrected this, but then, she almost jumped it a few times.  A few repetitions slowed her down, and then she started to think how best to place her feet.  We worked this in both directions.  In the end, she was quite good.
Then, I set up a gate obstacle with a pole placed lengthwise beneath the rope.  As before, Sarah was required to negotiate this gate while also placing her feet just so to avoid ticking the pole.  The first time that I asked her to do this, she ticked the pole with one hoof.  The second and third time through, no ticks.  We took the gate in both directions.  Sarah is still tempted to bite the rope.  At one point she actually did grab the rope in her teeth, and started to back away from the obstacle at a 45 degree angle.  She did this against my commands to move forward until the post holding the rope actually tipped over.  At this point most horses would spook and fly backwards.  Not Sarah.  She simply dropped the rope...who says that horses don't have a sense of humor?  Then it was discovered that the reason that she did this was because I had placed one pole in a bad position, one that was at 90 degrees from one gate post.  This allowed her no room to back up when negotiating the gate lest she be required to back over a pole.  Backing over a pole is usually a punishment for not paying attention.  She had done everything correctly before this, so of course, backing over this pole was offensive to her!  Realizing this required me to dismount, and move this pole so that there was a horse-width between it and the gate post.  This gave her room to negotiate the gate.  On the do-over, she performed flawlessly.  She is smart.  Fortunately, she is also quite affectionate and steady as well.  How lucky we are!
New bedding for Sarah today; also a new bag of cubes.  This mare is quite pampered.  And yes, we all love her so!

Spring in January?

"My, what nice weather you're having"...it sure is nice not to freeze your nose and toes while getting ready to ride!  This is never a problem once on the horse, but beforehand, I get downright chilled.  Not tonight, thought, with temps in the 30's.  Tonight, a quickie ride for Sarah.  Sarah has been particularly lazy of late, and she seems much more interested in just about anything besides her work (I know how she feels this time of year...symptoms of cabin fever?).  Anyway, I gave her one obstacle to work on: an elevated walk-over.  Originally spacing two poles with 24" in between them, I changed them so that Sarah would have enough room to put two steps in between rather than one.  This was at her request, by the way...she did her usual pre-ride inspection of the obstacle (yes, she does inspect her obstacles before every ride...); upon inspection, she pulled one of the poles backward ever so slightly with her nose, widening the space between them...
We did not need much in the way of a warm-up.  First time through the obstacle, she ticked one pole.  Next time through, clean.  Just for fun, we took the obstacle at 90 degrees (non-elevated).  Then again through the elevated poles.  No problems.  So, game plan for next time through the walk-over: 24" apart, but one elevated, one not, then finally, 24", both elevated.
Cubes and a peppermint, happy horse.  Until next time, stay warm!

Sunday trail pattern

While having some "down"time this week, aka being home with a cold for a few days, I had the chance to visit Tim Kimura's website.  Tim is known as the "guru" of trail class design, earning him the moniker, "Tim the trail man".  I printed two of his patterns and studied them for some interesting challenges for Sarah for the coming weeks.  Normally, I like to set up an entire trail pattern for her once a week, or for more difficult patterns, I will break it into two different parts.  With Tim's patterns, each obstacle can be broken down into several parts!  Today, I took one obstacle from one pattern, broke it into thirds and set up a third of it.  Along with that, I added half of a gate obstacle.  These two obstacles provided challenge and entertainment for one Sunday session.  The first obstacle, called a "house" (Susan thought that it looked more like a "church", how appropriate for Sunday!) consisted of a "box" made out of poles, with a peaked top.  Laid out, it looks something like a tic-tac-toe grid with a roof on top.  The object of this one was to trot into the grid from upper right (facing the bottom of the "house"), turn 90 degrees right, pass through the middle, travel around to the left to pass again through the center of the grid and then into the "roof" and stop, do a 360 degree turn to the left, and walk out through the top of the "roof".  Many variations on this can be made.  This works great to keep the horse always thinking and listening instead of anticipating.  This was a great exercise for Sarah.  She realized that it was best to slow down and be more careful when asked to turn at a moments notice, never the same way twice.
The second obstacle was a typical rope gate, but had added difficulty, because a pole was placed lengthwise directly under the rope, so that the horse has to step over the pole while passing through the gate.  It also has a pole placed lengthwise parallel to that pole directly behind the gate, forming a narrow boundary.  So, the horse must be careful with her feet so as not to knock them into either pole while maneuvering through the gate.  Sarah did quite well with this, but a distraction for her is always the rope, she wants to reach out and bite it!  I guess that she thinks she should be the one opening and closing the gate.  Heck, if you ask her, she would rather be the one deciding everything!  Oh well...such things are in the dreams of every horse...this is why, if you can get the horse to think that it is her idea when it is actually your idea, that you will be a great trainer indeed!
Of course, when finished, Sarah had her weekly beauty treatment and manicure, and alfalfa cubes of course AND the obligatory peppermint...again, a very happy girl was she.

January 7, 2009

After being laid low for three days with a head cold, I finally found my way back down to the farm to take a ride on Sarah.  Tonight was just a quick, run through the paces kind of ride.  We used the "Darnell" bit (long-shank snaffle); it's been awhile, and both of us were a little rusty with it.  Things we worked on:  Consistency at the walk, jog, and lope with frame and speed, and transitions up and down; extended jog, with transitions up and down.  Hardest thing tonight was transitions from extended jog back down to normal jog without breaking gait.  We needed to do this a few times to get it right.  Afterward, a clean blanket, alfalfa cubes, new bedding and a peppermint!  She very directly inspected this bedding and gave me the nod.  She's got it pretty good, I'd say.

Ring in the New Year...

Finally a day above five degrees...the start of the year was brisk!  Today I set up some obstacles for Sarah to negotiate.  They included a bridge, an 8 foot box, a lope pole and a walk-over.  The bridge presented no problems.  Sarah has enjoyed the bridge since the day she was introduced to it.  When she first encountered the bridge a few months ago, all she wanted to do was paw at it.  I had lead her onto it, and she continued to paw at it.  Then, I came up with an idea that would make the bridge seem worthwhile to Sarah.  Suppose that we "displayed" Sarah by asking her to square up in halter pose on top of the bridge?  It would be as if she was on a "pedestal", or on a "catwalk", upon which to be loved and admired by all.  Well, you guessed it, this worked.  I squared her up, she was "slightly above" all around her; she perked her ears, and gave the available audience "the look".  Everyone clapped and cheered.  All hail to the beautiful Sarah!  Ever since, she has simply loved the bridge.  Next, the walk-over.  Today this was set up with 24" between each pole. No problems.  Most of the time she was placing her feet squarely between each pole.  The lope-over was next.  We had to work some on this.  Today she was on the lazy side, so today, she tended to want to break into a trot before the pole and take it at a trot.  No.  Do over.  Adding a little leg as a cue upon the approach worked to avoid this problem, but then, she was lazy about using her feet correctly.  A few repetitions of the obstacle cleaned this up nicely.  Last of all, the box.  First, practice trotting over.  No problems.  Then, trotting into the box and stopping.  We practiced this move a few times for accuracy.  A sloppy execution results in hitting a pole, usually with a front hoof.  Finally, side-passing both ways with turns on the haunches around the corners of the box.  Again, practicing this a few times cleaned it up.  After everything was covered, Sarah received her usual weekly "manicure" (hoof dressing) and "beauty treatment" (oil for her tail).  This plus another helping of alfalfa cubes and the last of the giant carrots made for a very happy girl!

We are closing out the year...12/31/09

Just thought you might like to see a photo from last September.  Today, it was cold.  Sarah had played hard this morning.  So, what would we have to work with tonight?  Turns out, she was lazier than lazy!  Who would have guessed.  I just put Sarah through her paces, a "quick-change" workout for her, which involves many maneuvers done at random in quick order.  This gets her to think instead of anticipate.  It was the perfect workout for her for tonight.  Then, she was given her New Year's present, a new bunch of shavings for her bed!  And, of course, the obligatory giant carrot.  Happy New Year to all!

December 27, 2009

Today, Sarah was in a mellow mood..."In A Mellow Tone"...she had played hard during turnout this morning, and was in quite a happy state.  For today's plan, I set out four cones to work on a horsemanship pattern.  I also set up a walk-over with three poles.  The last time I had her do walk-overs, they were elevated. She had a little bit of a problem with the elevated walk-over, which seems funny, because elevated trot-overs have been no problem.  But, the walk-over poles, being 12 inches closer together, were daunting.  So, today, I set them up flat on the ground.  Not only this, but instead of putting them 24 inches on center, I placed them with a full 24 inches in between each pole.  This simplified the obstacle for her.  She did well with this.  The last two times over the poles in either direction, she placed her feet perfectly, not hitting or clipping any of the poles.   Next time with this obstacle, I will go back to 24 inches apart on center.
The horsemanship pattern consisted of four cones, one cone placed on each end of a large rectangle.   The pattern was:  Starting on the inside of cone 1, lope on the left lead up the long side of the rectangle to cone 2, perform a turn on the hindquarters 220 degrees to the right, strike off immediately into a right lead lope across the center to the inside of cone 3, then perform a turn on the hindquarters 220 degrees to the left, jog to the midway point between cones 3 and 4, then break into a working trot, travel around cone 4 to the left at the trot, continue back toward cone 3, stop halfway between cone 4 and 3 and back 5 steps. End of pattern.  After warming up a bit, I put Sarah through this pattern.  She did well with it.  Today, her down-transitions were especially clean.  When I rode her last Wednesday, her  down-transitions were a bit sloppy, so we did some work to clean those up.  Today, she remembered the work, plus, her mellow mood was working in my favor (any excuse to stop, please!).
One funny thing happened during the warmup which showed just how quiet of a mare she is.  When I was taking her around a corner on a right lead lope, I gave her a bump with my right rein to frame her better as she was traveling a little "nose to the outside".  The rein happened to drop right out of my hand, and I caught it with my foot.  When she noticed the change in my body position, she stopped and waited.  I consider this a very desirable quality in a horse!  I just picked up the rein and continued on.  What a good girl!

After her workout was finished, I gave her her weekly hoof treatment, and then she had another "giant carrot" that she had received for Christmas.  This mare was one happy girl!


Have a great day,
Kirsten

December 26, 2009; Introduction

Sarah has been learning a new event this winter, and it is called "Trail class".  We have been working on it twice a week, adding it in to our pleasure and halter/showmanship routine.  Trail class entails the rider maneuvering the horse through various obstacles.  The horse is judged on accuracy and efficiency.   In a show, each horse and rider gets a chance to perform the pattern individually, as opposed to pleasure, where several horses/riders compete simultaneously.  The obstacles include a rope gate, a bridge, and many variations of poles on the ground.  These poles can be elevated or not, and can be set up in an infinite variety of ways to challenge the horse and rider.  Some common ones are walkovers (three or more in a row, 2 feet apart), trot-overs (three feet apart), lope-overs (6 feet apart); also, back-through obstacles, side-pass obstacles, boxes, etc.  Given all three gaits of the horse plus stopping and backing makes for an interesting and varied class for both horse and rider, never are two courses the same!   (Sort of like crossfit for horses...).  Earlier this fall, I purchased approximately two dozen 4X4X8 poles for practice obstacles.  We painted them white, kept some of them the 8 foot length, turned some of them into 6-footers and some into 4-footers.  So, we have an assortment of lengths to choose from.  I have been using the trail class patterns that I had picked up at shows throughout the years for ideas to build the practice courses.  Like any athletic endeavor, it helps to break each obstacle down into its simplest parts first, teach it one step at a time, then combine the skills in the end to master each obstacle, then put several obstacles together to construct a course.  This is keeping Sarah mentally fresh through the winter.  She is a smart mare, and too much of the same routine over and over causes boredom for her, so she finds other ways to make it interesting, sometimes not to the desire of her rider!   She finds these trail class obstacles intriguing, sometimes she starts trying to figure them out while I have her on the lunge line for her pre-ride workout!  She is lots of fun.  The nice part about this trail class work is that it incorporates the pleasure work on the sly, so that the horse does not get "sour" practicing gaits over and over.
Yesterday I did a quick showmanship practice with her.  It is all about how well the handler can present the horse in a halter class, in hand.  This class has become so competitive that it has evolved into handler and horse being able to execute different maneuvers precisely and efficiently, almost like a horsemanship class only from the ground instead of riding.  The pattern is posted at the show, the handler memorizes the pattern, then handler and horse perform the pattern individually in the class.  The horse must be able to "set up", or "pose" in a position with all four feet evenly spaced and square beneath them, and must also be able to trot, stop, back up, and perform turns in a precise way.  Now, the legs of the horse and handler are even expected to be in sync for the most competitive teams.
Horsemanship is another class that we have been working toward.  Like showmanship, there is a pattern, but this time, the handler is riding the horse.  The rider is being judged in this class, again, for precision and efficiency.  There are often "cones" or markers designating where maneuvers are to be performed. The horse must be able to execute on command walk, "jog" (slow trot), trot, lope (slow canter) on either lead, stop, back, turns in either direction on both the forehand and hindquarters, and lead changes.  Patterns can be put together incorporating all of these skills in an infinite number of ways.
All of these classes are providing us with a great variety of skills to work on over the winter months!
I can now keep you posted on Sarah's progress as we work on these skills.
Thanks for being interested!  If you come to visit her, she would have me remind you that she likes apples, carrots and peppermints...


Kirsten