Introducing Free Jumping and the Surcingle

This week Curio and Faline were introduced to the saddle pad and surcingle, as well as starting to work on a lunge line in the round pen rather than just at liberty.  I keep the routine as similar as possible, so that they know exactly what's coming and it always happens in the same order.  That way, when I introduce something new they focus on only the new thing because everything else is old and familiar.

I took Faline out of her paddock and tied her by the barn.  I groomed her with the curry, hard brush, combed out her mane, picked up and cleaned her hooves.  Then I grabbed my extra equipment (saddle pad, surcingle, girth, pocket full of cookies) and we walked to the round pen.  I let her loose to play a little, and set up some poles for her to start experimenting with free jumping.

I love the engagement she has in her hind end as she begins to take off, she really sits and bends all the joints of her hind legs to create springs with which to take off.

I was also impressed with her use of her back and how she lifted her knees well.  Often when I first introduce jumping to horse they sort of climb over the poles, and there was some amount of that, but both Faline and Curio figured out how to actually jump the cross rail fairly quickly.

Here is a series of short videos showing the progression Faline made from slowly thinking about each foot over the poles, to just hopping right over.

 

Here is Curio's first introduction to free jumping video:

 

After each horse had played with the cross rail for a few minutes and expressed some of their "ye-haws" I started introducing the tack once they could focus.

Curio stood quietly while I put on the pad and surcingle, even taking a snooze at the beginning.  I then put him on the lunge line and gave him a chance to walk and trot while wearing it in a controlled manner.  He was great at the walk, when he picked up the trot the girth surprised him a little, and he did some crow-hopping at the funny feeling of having a belt on.  He only went around a circle or two with the hopping, then settled in and trotted nicely each direction.

Faline also was quiet and confident once she had on the tack.  She did a very nice walk and trot each direction on the lunge line.

Fleur's 2021 Foal

I was at CSU this week to drop off horses, pick up other mares from breeding, and to visit Fleur and her new filly!  The filly was only about four hours old, having been born just that morning.

The foal has a muzzle on because of a difference in the mare and foal's blood types.  Because of the different blood types, the foal can't have the colostrum from Fleur (antibody-rich milk from the mare).  If she were to nurse and get this from Fleur, it would transfer antibodies to the foal that would cause her immune system to attack her own red blood cells.  Fortunately this blood type issue was caught before Fleur foaled, so the filly has received colostrum from a different mare who has the same blood type as the filly.  Once the filly's gut has closed (no longer receptive to the antibodies in colostrum) and Fleur begins producing regular milk, not colostrum, the filly will be able to nurse freely without the muzzle. 

We're grateful that this was caught early, as it has ensured the foal will have the best possible start to her life, instead of the great difficulty and possible loss of a loved baby which would happen otherwise.

Baby Owls Growing Up

Each morning when I take the first horse of the day to the arena to ride, I see the owlets just out of the nest and starting to explore their world.  The oldest one sits on top of the plywood in the corner, the middle one sits on a cross beam just below the nest, and the youngest sits just to the right of the nest.  The parents are usually around somewhere close in the indoor arena.  Yesterday Rizzo found one of the owlets on the ground, but it was behind a pallet so she didn't get to it.  As she stared at it, the owls started making a chirping/yodeling noise to warn her away.  The noise didn't phase the dog, but notified me and I was able to then call her off and tell her to leave it alone.

I feel so lucky to have these incredible birds at our place!  They are mostly a silent audience when I'm riding in the arena, but it's nice to have the company all the same.

This is the oldest baby, it's farthest from the nest and spends most of its time hanging out on this board, or snoozing behind it.

This is the middle child, nestled up fairly high in the rafters (so the cell phone pic isn't the greatest).  The youngest was too far away up by the nest for me to get a shot at it with just a cell phone camera.

Casper's Riding Progress

Casper is coming along incredibly well.  He has definitely won the number one spot for Easiest Horse To Put Under Saddle!  Recently we rode out to the back 40 and played in the ponds (perks of having such an incredibly wet spring, those ponds are only full during and just after heavy rains).  He was a little hesitant to walk into the water, but with the dogs going ahead and demonstrating that the ponds were safe Casper decided he could follow suit.  

 

We also have been riding out in the back to give him a chance to acclimate to cattle.  The neighbor to the north has a couple cows, and the neighbor to the south has a herd of llamas.  Casper has gotten used to both, and it's fun to see how he thinks through things that are concerning.  

Some horses were bred to run (my thoroughbreds, most arabians), and some horses are bred to think (Casper the morgan, some of the QH, draft horses).  When something is scary, the running-bred horses tend to do better with me distracting them and refocusing them back onto a task like trotting or bending away from the scary thing.  The thinking-bred horses usually need a few moments to look at whatever it is, sometimes go up to it and touch it, and once they've determined it's safe they can go back to work.  It's always fun to learn which kind of horse I have in training and adapt the techniques to something that works best for that particular horse.

With all the mud, I had to take a photo of Casper's legs post-ride to show how impressive the splash back can be!

Summer Coats

I love this time of year when the horses are nearly all shed out and are fat and shiny in their summer coats.  Here are a few of them looking good this spring!

Val looking shiny and happy

 

Casper, munching away on his pre-ride snack

Curio is all slicked out and getting taller by the moment...

Curio is Two Years Old!

Curio is back at Bit of Honey as a two year old who is now just a half inch shy of 16h.  He is here for some more work on ground manners, as well as to continue his preparations for becoming a riding horse.  After I got him cleaned up and mane shortened, I put him in the round pen to play for a while.  He seemed happy to have a spot to run around with good footing!

Here is some video of his movement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFNYe96GNhQ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mS2XneYA5w

Here are some stills of his shenanigans that I took from the video.  I like to see this kind of form when they're playing at jumping around, it bodes well for athleticism once they are started over fences.  With bucking photos like this, I'm super eager to see how he looks free jumping!

Curio is available, for more information about him see this link https://bitofhoneytraining.blogspot.com/2020/07/curio-conformation-photos.html

Val's Kinesiotaping

Recently we did some kinesiotaping on Val to address her right stifle.  Her patella will pop out of it's groove and get stuck above the joint, called upward fixation of the patella.  We've worked on this issue with many horses over the years, and Val has been in a rehab/training program to address it.  She also lives in a large paddock with a hill, which helps to strengthen the quadriceps muscle.  Her rehab has included extensive pole work, lots of walking out in the back forty up and down hills, and most recently the kinesiotaping.  

The idea with the tape is to support the stifle joint to help prevent the patella from moving where it shouldn't go.  The yellow tape was stabilizing both above and below the actual stifle joint.

The black tape is activating the hamstrings, which work opposite the quadriceps muscle.  Strengthening these muscle groups by activating them with tape strengthens the support structures around the joint. and ideally will help prevent the patella from fixating upwards.

To help support the other side of Val's body we applied the blue tape to the back muscles.  Because the tape has such an effect on the right side of her body, we wanted to support the left as well.

It did have an effect on how Val moves.  She tends to hollow her back when riding, and doesn't step well underneath herself with her hind end.  After this taping, and once the blue tape was removed, I rode her with the stifle and hamstrings still taped.  Her movement was definitely more forward, with slightly longer strides and even some sporadic lifting of her back.  I'll be retaping her this weekend and we'll see if we can get those results again.

Because she did feel better with the kinesiotaping, I've begun jumping her a little.  Here are some shots of her early attempts at large crossrails and a small oxer.

 

Faline Returns

 

This week I picked up Faline and Curio from their breeder's place and brought them back to Bit of Honey for some more Good Manners training.  Faline very quickly remembered about leading politely and having her feet handled, and I was able to get some video of her playing in the round pen.  It's been so wet lately (like, Colorado has gotten 1/3 of the annual rain in a few weeks) that Faline looked pretty pleased to have decent footing to run around in!

Faline is nearly 2 years old now, and has grown significantly since last summer when she was here.  I measured her with a stick with a level, and she's currently just a half inch shy of 16.3! 

Body Clip

I did a body clip on this snuffelupagus this week, I'm sure he felt much better after I got rid of all that hair!

Kestrel

During the last snowstorm Kimberly Hale Photography got some great shots of a kestrel that hangs out around the house and back porch.

Owlets

For several years we've had ravens in the indoor arena, and they have had chicks.  This year, however, some great horned owls moved in, taking over the ravens' nest to use as their own.  Last week the owlets hatched, and we got some photos of them this morning.

We think this lighter colored one is the female, based on a google search for great horned owls and their colors.

We think this darker one is the male.

When we first walked into the arena the baby was hanging out at the edge of the nest, but as we got closer it tucked itself down into the net with its sibling.

As far as we could photograph, it looks like there are two owlets.