Pandora has gained a phenomenal amount of weight which is extremely unhealthy for a pony. I can only contribute this to the manner in which the BO is feeding as she is a drylotted pony.

I have requested several times that her feed be cut back – and from the latest message on the wipe board apparently my message is NOT GETTING THROUGH… so I have posted that this is become a medical emergency and that founder is right around the corner if she is not decreased.

If the weight doesn’t go down in the next 30-60 days, this may be the final dealbreaker and reason to leave.

I CANNOT… WILL NOT … tolerate someone making my horses sick due to their stubborness and stupidity.

all horses trimmed today.

After riding the Big Guy today, I stripped him of tack and put him in the dirt arena. I usually let him roll – and BTW he can now roll to his spine, all four feet in the air, but still not roll over, but this is a huge improvement and shows more muscle is coming back.

Once he got up and shook, he came trotting up to me, ears forward and stated quite clearly I WANT TO PLAY! and so then I asked him to take off, and he cantered about (lovely, lovely left lead with beautiful natural collection!) and we played some come to me – go away – and he just had a blast.

Ah it was so good to see him want to play – something we can never achieve in mind or body if we are in chronic pain.

If you know BG then you know that he frets, he worries, he tucks his head and becomes overbent (like a piece of spaghetti) and toys with the bit, especially if he thinks he has done wrong or is nervous about what you are doing. This comes from his previous training and in the past I’ve had success in training out most of the behavior – however, he has regressed so I am looking for new ideas on how to deal with it.

Buying the sidepull I want is out of the question right now – money is so tight that even blood isn’t coming from the stone at this point. So I have been improvising and it has been interesting.

I leave the halter on and attach an extra pair of reins to the side rings (this pair is brown). I put on his dressage bridle, with the noseband removed, and with it’s reins (this pair is black). This allows me to pull on the halter rein as hard as I want and it has no effect on his mouth.

It can be hard to keep BG on track, and though I would LOVE for him to be sensitive to my every whim and desire, he is rather… well… not so much. With the halter set up I can ask with a larger gesture – and what has been interesting is that he is learning that since it doesn’t effect his mouth – he doesn’t have to get nervous about the bit.

The bit remains because, quite frankly, this is not a horse, even crippled, that I would ride without some real brakes. He IS a thoroughbred and bred to race after all.

A real interesting result was that today, after riding with only the halter reins, I picked up the bit reins, and using them artificially high and a small tug, he gave me the Ramener for the very first time! He shifted his weight back without taking a backward step, and raised his neck from the mane, bringing his head in perfectly!

I practically fell out of the saddle I was so surprised!

I have a routine when I arrive to the horses. First, I let pony out to the alley so she can get some limited grass grazing and fratinize with her Arabian buddy, R. Then ZZ spots me and her curiousity drives her down the fence to come check me out. I also let her out to the alley because she is big buds with R and they only get to gossip when I do this as they are pastured separately.

I take that time to clean pony paddock, and in that time, Big Guy wanders down and decides, “well if the girls are going to hang out with this human, I guess I will do so too though it usually means work *grumble* *grumble*” And I let him out to the alley. After a bit of play time, I choose one of them to work, usually whatever horse seems to be curious about what I’m doing but lately it’s been Big Guy as his rehab is top on my list.

Yesterday, I noticed that BG had decided that he was well enough to take back his throne. He spanked the Elephants Child quite firmly and it has been long overdue.

See, I know from keeping him in a larger herd (about 9 horses) that he is Top Dog. He stakes his claim on his females and then all males need to recognize that. This was very helpful because he looked after Dear One (who was a Loner) and made sure she got her fair share of the hay pile.

He likes geldings and will happily play with them as long as no one is making a move on his girl. So if I turn them out in the back pasture, I turn him out with the girls only, or I turn only the girls out with R, or I turn BG out with R. No mixed herd because I don’t own R and BG’s protectiveness was causing him to race around like a chicken missing it’s head and considering the state of his leg I didn’t want that to continue at this point. 

When ZZ arrived, he told her how the cow at the cabbage (as my mom would say), and she got discplined and shoved off feed, desirable areas, or for my attention. When he got injured though, he felt too horrible to even bother with it, and ZZ got a bit full of herself like a child that has been given leave to take any amount of cookies from the jar, bounces on the bed till the springs break, and basically leaves a path of destruction behind without a care in the world!

I was glad to see that the Big Guy had decided that ENOUGH WAS ENOUGH! Yesterday, he firmly put her back in her place and told her to move off – and she did… so that is probably the best sign yet that he is almost fully recovered!

Awesome ride with Big Guy today. Not much, just some walking, but he felt solid on all four feet and moved out a bit. Best ride on him since the accident. Very happy!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Before the rain hit (yes, it is indeed raining again!), I got some time to play with horses yesterday.

After months of working with ZZ with leading exercises, clicker training and lots of getting-to-know-each-other and what-I-allow-and-what-I-don’t, I thought we would start playing in the roundpen. Anyone who has followed my roundpen series knows that I think it’s about as dangerous as a loaded gun, so I wondered how this would work out…

As Pooh would say, yesterday was a kinda blustery day. so ZZ had a bit of the wind up her tail. There was a lot of running around, bucking and farting, and dashing off to tell me that she was a wild-and-free-horse (that was until the clicker clicked and then she needed a snack).

With a horse with a history of having kicked someone in the face while she ran off, you do need to keep yourself fully present during this work, know the distance between yourself and the horse at all times, and be aware of keeping out of harm’s way. Playing racquetball with the kids has helped in my response time of dodging bullets.

It only took one session before she got that head down cue. The danger with that is a smart cookie will then just run around the RP with the head down thinking that is what you want, when in reality this is just the first step in what you want.

At this point, ZZ is running around, with her head down, rushing, and heavy on the forehand, starting to zone out – so that needs to have a stop put to it. Another thing that is developing is this running about, heavy on the inside foreleg, and pushing the nose to the outside of the circle. This promotes crookedness and definitely needs to be nipped in the bud.

What I played around with (keeping the session short) was that she needed to give me more then nose down, before the click. For example, head down with rushing didn’t get a click, neither did a hollow back. This is part of the process of shaping movement – you continue to refine the rough shape she gives (i.e. hollow back, trailing hindlegs, stiff neck, nose pointed out of the circle) you into the proper, more athletic method of moving (i.e. rounded back, weight on hindquarters, lifted back, proper curve and bend to the body).

Shaping movement is one of the most important ways that I use my clicker training – and because the clicker leaves no doubt as to what is being reinforced you can refine it down to a hair.

Part of shaping movement is teaching her a game that I had played with Big Guy the months before he got injured. I call it Slow-Whoa-Go.  This is how it works:

1.) Get the horse trotting in the roundpen in response to your body language and supported by your voice. I lift my knees higher and do a little high step in place for the trot body language command.

At this Go stage you are most likely behind the horses’ hip and in this photo (below) I’m using the whip aid.

Behind the hip, gets forward movement

2.) Move backward and distance yourself from the horse, this may cause the horse to slow (which is what you want) and wait for the horse to stop. It works best if you hold your body very still and relieve all pressure from the horse (i.e. whip is down, your eyes are perhaps looking down, your shoulder may be turned to the horse – whatever cues you use just make sure you use the SAME cues for the SAME request).

Another cue for whoa is to step up to the front of the horses’ shoulder and use your voice saying WHOOOAAAA. I generally use my whip and put it out in front of the horse as a barrier. I also drag one leg behind and slowly stop. Or with Hempfling he jumps into the stop, with butt low and hips open and belly button thrusted upwards in a pelvic tilt.

She stopped and then turned in, while I held position

3.) Then get the horse to GO again from the WHOA. Repeat steps 1-2 until your horse is responding to the slightest request to WHOA. Be sure to add in the body language as this makes it even easier for you to get what you want from your horse as you fade out the voice commands.

4.) Add in the SLOW.  In order to slow the horse starts to put more weight in the hindquarters; then when asked to GO, has to push off from those some hindquarters.

With SLOW, you are looking for the pace to start slowing down, but BEFORE the horse has come to a stop. It’s important that once the horse does a stride or two slower, that you immediately ask for GO again before the horse can come to a full stop.

BG got so good at this, that all I had to do was step up to the shoulder and he would start to slow – then I quickly moved back to the hip – and asked for go again.

The SLOW and GO combination is the beginning of the half-halt. This slowing-going improves the horses’ balance, body outline, and helps them to correct crookedness and improper use of the body (i.e. hollow back, trailing hindlegs, stiff shoulders, ewe neck etc…)

Match your pace to the horse, then ask the horse to match yours

There’s a new video of Hempfling working an 11 year old stallion:

The cutest thing on this video is at 2:04 with the sheep. SOOOO CUTE! following with their tails waving like the horse. The sheep are SCENE STEALERS!

Some of my thoughts….

Since I’m stuck in the boondocks of the U.S., the likelihood that I will meet Klaus is very low. Also, even if I met him, my track record on being disillusioned by trainers seems to be high so I’m not sure if I would WANT to meet him, if that makes sense, and would rather believe in my own interpetations of what he is doing.

Anything I write about what I see is just that my interpetation as I don’t have the money or proximity to state conclusively that this is what Klaus thinks or how he does things.

I know that geldings and mares are not as expressive as stallions, and for video or slideshows it wouldn’t show off as well, however, I would really like to see Klaus work with some “average” horses – trained, not a problem, but who we want to bring out more from. It would be very helpful to me to see this even if it wasn’t as showy.

One thing of note in this video is how loose and slack (Dorrance calls this “float” in the rope) that Klaus keeps the line between him and the stallion. Even when the stallion plays and expresses himself, Klaus doesn’t tighten and pull him back down but allows it, though there is a safe distance kept between them.

IMO this is where Klaus – who acknowledges herd dominance and how it plays into the character of the horse and our relationship with the horse – differs greatly from the natural horsemanship trainers in this country. He doesn’t seem interested in controlling the horse and assuming leadership through a dominance principle; rather he allows the horse to keep what independence he can, while being a presence in the horses’ life, first as a parallel leader that through the horses’ respect, gains ascendancy over the horses’ desires.

This is a rather subtle difference so I do not know if I explained it well enough. If not, ask me on this entry and I will discuss further.

From reading his books or seeing the videos, a horse person may get a warm fuzzy, romantic feeling and think his work stems from those spiritual emotions - when in reality, from watching his dvds, listening to his talks, and reading about him, he seems far more practical and realistic about the horses’ role in our life. While admiring the horse, he doesn’t sugar coat it.

I wonder if some visitors to his workshops might not be a bit surprised, especially when I look back on the clinics that I’ve attended and how participants were too often self-delusioned about what their problems where and how they needed to fix themselves before they worked on their horse (who wasn’t “broke” at all to begin with).

It also makes me think back to a message board on horses that I once managed, where another person was very negative about the dvd’s and his books. They didn’t “get it.” This person, while educated and doing great things with her horse, also did not get or like Bill Dorrance’s True Horsemanship through Feel – with the first, she felt the dvd’s were too artsy and Klaus’ book too negative to the dressage world; and with Dorrance she didn’t like his slow, autobiographical “talky” writing style.

Which goes to show that one man’s treasure is another man’s trash. It’s important for us each to find a mentor that speaks to us personally – for me Klaus is that mentor even if it is through media materials such as books, dvd’s and videos.

Hm I’ve come to a conclusion about riding Big Guy in October - it’s going to be about Relaxation and Belief - for both of us to learn again that we can do this together (and HAVE done it!)

He’s riding like he did when I bought him five years ago – when I had given him the moniker The Brick – and I don’t think it’s due to the injury, just a security reversal back to his old ways of doing things. By The Brick, he has as much flex and bending as a brick, is as non-responsive to my leg aids as a brick, and moves out about as well as a brick.

Sunday ride: hubby helped with the clicker training to encourage BG to stop going behind the bit and walk out a bit while I rode. Light lunging with some trot (very good!).

Monday ride: Lots of clicker training to remind him to stand still while being mounted - my mounting block is way too short and my left ankle has been owie – need to look into new monting block. Very short ride but he didn’t seem as nervous even though extremely windy day. Stretches afterward. Ended up with an earache due to the wind.

I am thinking it’s time to ride with the whip again and remind him that I mean it (will clarify what I mean by that in the next ride).

Tuesday workout: did not ride – it was terribly windy (worse then yesterday!) Did work BG in the roundpen with a bit of trot on free lunging. Really went well and he is showing that he is getting back to a working mind. Seemed very calm despite the weather. Mostly concentrated on ZZ.