Cross Country Jump Schooling at Archer

This weekend I took a group of clients to Archer to school cross country with the horses.  Silver hadn't ever jumped out in the open before (his first cantering jumps in the arena were just two weeks ago) so I rode him since he's in training.  I put his owner, Gillian, on Rain.  Joyce rode her gelding Khreed, and Alice rode her mare, Beauty.

We began as we always do, with walking around on the flat, then a little trotting and cantering in a big circle to settle the horses and riders.

Once everyone was warmed up we began walking around the first log jump, letting each horse see it out of both eyes.  I always start slowly like this to introduce cross country jumping as mellow trail riding with the occasional jump to go over.  With this being Silver's first time schooling cross country jumping I wanted to make sure he thought it was super fun and not at all stressful.

After they had all seen the small first jump and walked around it, we then walked over it.  It's about the size of a log on the trail you might have to walk over, so it was a great first obstacle.

After the horses had walked over it we approached it at the trot to help build everyone's confidence.

Silver was thoughtful about his first jumps, but seemed to enjoy them.

Rain really loves jumping, and she was so excited to have Gillian aboard who also love jumping.  Rain felt her out during the warmup, and when she realized Gillian wasn't a beginner rider you could see something shift in Rain's face and she morphed into this super happy jumping machine. I also want to call attention to the fact that Rain was started under saddle at ten years old, and she is now twenty.  She is sound, loves her job as a lesson horse, and takes amazing care of her riders when jumping.  Rain knows when to pour it on and really enjoy herself over fences, as well as when to tone it down and take care of her rider.  I'm so incredibly lucky to have her in my barn.

Beauty had a good time, too.  She's done quite a bit of cross country jumping in riding lessons I've taught, but this was Alice's first time doing it with her.  One of my favorite moments was when something clicked for Alice and she suddenly got the sensation of "landing in her feet" after a jump.

 

Silver caught on to the idea of what we were doing really quickly.  He was calm, confident, and really tried hard.  He doesn't have enough jumping experience to find his own distances to jumps yet, but as long as I told him where to take off he was easy to take over just about anything!  We even schooled some novice level questions including a corner and the training level ditch.

This is the intro level corner, you can see the novice level corner just to the right of his nose.

And this is Silver jumping the novice level corner with no problems.

I love how introducing jumping carefully and slowly like I've done with Silver creates this confident jumper with amazing bascule and natural form over fences.  Because I don't interfere, just stay out of this way and give him a verbal cue for when to take off he is careful and thinks it's super fun.

These are the two ditches Silver jumped.  I let him walk around each of them both directions, and then asked him to trot over.  He hopped right over with no hesitation, just listening for me to tell him how to do it.  He then cantered up the hill like an old pro.

Because Silver is somewhat green having had minimal training off the track since he stopped racing a year and a half ago I had to do some rebalancing for him when going up and down hills.  Racehorses have a tendency to get flat and fast, which works on a groomed racetrack.  On varying terrain with lumpy footing however this will end with you and the horse plowing headfirst into the ground.  I've taught Silver breathing halts, which means if I sit up and exhale audibly he will rock back on his haunches, slow down, and start to pick up his front feet better.  He was a little confused when I first started asking for this while schooling, but figured out quickly that if he did it galloping on the hills became much easier.  This is also how I teach my green horses to go cross country with just a simple snaffle bit, or no bit at all (Rain for example).

In between jumps and at the end of the ride Silver was just as relaxed as at home.  He walked around on a loose rein and enjoyed watching his friends take turns over the jumps too.

We had such a fun time.  We're looking forwards to another trip with the folks who weren't able to make it on this one!  As always, big thanks to Kimberly Hale Photography for the amazing pictures.

Ferriana In the Roundpen

Now that Ferriana has had a chance to settle in, she had her first training session today.  She spent the morning watching me ride other horses and looking absolutely astonished that they allowed that.  After lunch I took her out to the round pen, but knowing how pushy she can be I donned full regalia.

I took her to the round pen, where Ferriana spent the first five or ten minutes almost completely ignoring me.  She did charge me a couple times, mostly to see what I would do.  I raised my lunge whip to make myself look bigger, and she swerved to avoid me.  This only happened twice and then she went to running around on her own.  She was concerned because there were no other horses near her, and she's spent most of her life looking to other horses to keep her safe.  As a herd animal the power of the group is really important.

While Ferriana was running around Miles decided he would make the most of this opportunity to play with the lunge whip.  This is a leftover from when he was a puppy and my friend was house-sitting for us.  Her daughter was four or five at the time and would tie a piece of hay twine to the end of a stick and spin in circles shouting, "Hup, dog!  Hup!" while Miles the puppy would leap into the air to try and catch the string.  Miles is now ten years old but still loves the game of Hup Dog, and lunge whips look remarkably like the original toy.

When it became obvious that Ferriana thought it wasn't worth her effort to interact with me, I started to give Miles the horse cookies I'd stowed in my pocket for her.

Not long after that Ferriana decided to come investigate what exactly I was offering the dog, and then shot Jasi a skeptical look (Jasi was taking pictures from outside the round pen) as if to ask, "What kind of nonsense is this?  The DOG gets cookies??  What about me?"

Stopping and joining us in the center of the round pen earned Ferriana a treat for herself.  Miles is great for this type of work because he demonstrates what I want the horse to do.

Once Ferriana was paying attention to me we started a little free lunging.  Miles REALLY enjoyed that part.

After I free lunged Ferriana for a minute or two I began asking her to come to me.  She's a very smart mare and figured this out quickly.  However, now she was stopping politely and not trying to run me over.

Not long after that Ferriana decided I was trustworthy.  She also realized that if she came with me she would get more goodies.  If she followed me around politely I'd keep her safe.  She decided to stay right by my side, even matching my footfalls step for step.  We practiced leading from her left side and from her right.  I do this without a halter or leadrope with horses like Ferriana so that the horse very clearly makes her own choice to do what I'm asking.  I have no way to force her, and because no force is applied the horse really owns the decision to work with me and then is eager to participate. 

I'm super pleased with this first training session.  Thank you to Jasi for the photos, to Miles for being the comic relief, and to Ferriana for being so willing to try something new.

Silver's Owner Rides!

Silver came to me a month ago with some behavioral issues which fortunately were easily resolved with management and tack fitting.  I've enjoyed riding him and getting him ready for his new life off the track as an eventing horse, but what makes me happiest is seeing his owner ride him successfully!  I got some videos of their ride today.

This is Silver's nice free walk:

Here is some trotting:

Here is a lovely right lead canter (previously very difficult for Silver, but now quite nice!)

Silver's left lead canter is pretty good now, too!

I often video my riders while they are on their own horses for a couple reasons.  The main reason is that we as perfectionists are much harder on ourselves than we need to be.  I can't tell you how many times someone finishes a jump course or a lap of the arena at the canter and says, "Well THAT was a hot mess."  Most of the time it's not nearly as bad as the person thinks.  I take video so they can see I'm telling the truth when I say it actually looked pretty good! 

The other reason I take video is because riders tend to think they are going faster than they actually are.  When they can see themselves on the video riding a horse who is barely jogging or barely loping (despite the rider's brain telling them, "Slow down!  We're galloping madly around!") it makes a difference for self confidence. 

I'm super proud of this pair, and really eager to watch their progress together!

Blind Horse, Baby Horse, Bossy Horse

This week I had our vet, Dr. Landes with Equine Medical Services, take a look at Huck's eyes.  He had completed all the pre-ride training I would normally do with a horse but still had a strong startle reaction with a large spook of the "duck and spin" persuasion.  He had unloaded Dolly Bottoms a few times, and I noticed he was spookier in bright light than on cloudy days.  I had not gotten on him to ride because of this big spook, and I felt it was worth checking his vision.

When Dr. Landes did the exam with the opthalmascope we discovered that Huck is almost totally blind.  We found severe cataracts nearly completely obscuring the lens of Huck's eyes, and they were affecting the nerve in his eye so his pupils don't constrict in bright light.  This means that Huck couldn't see much of anything, and in bright sunlight he was probably entirely blinded by the brightness.

This explains everything I've dealt with during his training.  Huck is a saint for accepting the training I've done with him so far!  He would let me tack him up, lunge both directions at the walk, trot, and canter (with voice commands), let me tie pool noodles and other nonsensical paraphernalia to his saddle, and would lunge with Dolly Bottoms aboard.  He acts so herd-bound because he uses the other horses for safety and a buddy horse/seeing eye horse to help himself get around.  He has been very touchy-feely with me, and when nervous he puts his nose on my arm or on the scary thing.  If it moves, he presses his nose onto it more firmly.  I now think he was doing this because he couldn't see anything, so he used his nose and pressure to determine if the novel stimulus was safe and to make sure I was still there to protect him.

Knowing this, the vet and I definitely don't recommend using him as a riding horse.  It's pretty darn amazing that Huck let me do as much training as I've done with him, and shows a super personality for him and a LOT of trust in me.  What's next for Huck?  He's going back to his owner, who will keep him as an "uncle" for young horses and weanlings to teach them equine social skills.  Huck did a wonderful job managing my herd while he was here in the big paddock with everyone, and he'll do well teaching the youngsters at his owner's barn.  He'll always be kept in an area where he can't accidentally hurt himself on fencing since he can't see it, and enjoy his life there raising baby horses in the big pastures.

I took Huck back home this weekend, and he was happy to be reunited with his herd.

While I was there I got to visit Lacey who had been here in training a couple months ago.  It was a happy reunion!  I called out hello to her, and she immediately came to the gate to visit. 

I also met a couple new horses, one who's name is Elle.  She'll be coming for jumping training eventually and has a super cute face and gorgeous movement.

Elle reminds me of Fason, my big red gelding I had a couple years ago.  Same super friendly personality and similar faces.

Another horse we met was a newborn foal who had arrived the night before!  The dam is a warmblood cremello named Marzipan, and the foal is a HUGE buckskin filly.  Take a look at those legs!

After we had admired the new baby, Huck's owner sent a new mare back with me for training.  Her name is Ferriana and she's a dark bay eight year old Hanoverian/Dutch warmblood cross.  She had a couple rough goes with trainers in the past, including falling in a horse trailer and being trapped upside down under a divider, as well as flipping over backwards on the cross-ties.  At the farm they were able to lead her to and from the barn and turnout as long as she was following a friend, but that's all they were able to do with her due to how reactive she is.  Ferriana was never successfully put under saddle.  Other than the difficulties at trainers', she has been living at my client's place since she was a foal.  My client has invested a lot of time and money into her and wants to make sure she does right by this mare, and so she's sent Ferriana to me to do some problem solving.

Ferriana was understandably anxious about getting into a horse trailer.  Knowing this, I donned my helmet, backed up my trailer to the paddock gate, and opened up the entire back end so that it looked bright and inviting.  My rig is built so that you can walk a horse in the back and out the front stall, a nice feature with this type of situation.  We had Ferriana's roommate, an elderly mare, climb in the back and walk out the front several times so Ferriana could see it was safe.  Then we just loaded and kept her friend in the front.  Ferriana tried the usual tactics to avoid getting in.  These included trying to pull away from me, backing up, trying to turn away from me while throwing her weight into the halter, as well as crashing into me to run me over.  She wasn't actively malicious, she just was adamant that it was too scary to step up into that big box.

I did put a chain on her halter over her nose so that I could hold onto her when she turned and threw her weight into the halter, and that stopped her from turning right.  I held a buggy whip, and when she would back up I would lift the whip.  If she stepped forwards I lowered it.  She is very intelligent and quickly realized that walking forwards would earn her praise, a cookie, and I would release the pressure applied by the height of the buggy whip.  I did drape the whip across her haunches a couple times - not hitting her, just increasing the pressure to encourage her to go forwards instead of backing away from me.

Once she realized forwards was the answer, she began trying to launch forwards towards the trailer, but instead of getting in she would turn into me and nearly run me over.  When she tried this the first time, I whacked the side of the trailer twice, making a loud noise with the handle of my whip to give her notice that sort of thing wasn't allowed.  The second time she tried it I clocked her on the head with the handle of my whip so she would get off me and not run me over.  It only took once, and she realized that wasn't an option either.

At that point Ferriana realized her only choice was to get in.  She wanted to do it, but was scared.  She began to paw ferociously at the ground, which indicated to me that she was almost ready to load in the trailer.  Horses paw when they want to go forwards, but can't.  That's why you see horses pawing at gates and stall doors, because they want to go through but can't.  She was pawing because she wanted to go forwards and get into the trailer but didn't think she could.  After a few minutes of this she got close enough to the trailer that she could put one hoof in, and paw at the trailer to inspect its integrity.  Not long after that she launched in.

I knew from what her owner had told me and how she was behaving that the mare was going to turn around once she was inside.  Fortunately my trailer is oversized and there is room for her to safely do that.  I was ready, and when she hopped in the people helping me closed the back doors so that it didn't appear to be an exit anymore.  They weren't latched of course in case I needed to get out quickly, but the visual of a wall goes a long way to prevent a horse from trying to plow her way out. Ferriana turned around and was facing the back, so I closed the last partition to establish a physical barrier between me and her to keep me safe.  I stood there and talked to her for a few minutes until she settled down.

In the horse trailer I had before this one, the dividers were made so that a horse could ride in the trailer backwards safely.  However, this trailer didn't allow for that because there was nowhere to tie her head to travel backwards, and she might have tried to jump the divider due to its shape.  I needed to turn the mare around so she was facing forwards for the actual trip back to Bit of Honey.

I did this by putting a lungeline on Ferriana, feeding the rope through the front window, and having Sara hold it.  I then opened the dividers again to give Ferriana enough room to turn around (always keeping a divider between me and her so I wouldn't get squished).  Once there was enough space, Sara pulled on the rope and Ferriana turned around to face the front.  As soon as the horse was in position I closed the back divider again with her facing the right way.  I nudged her forwards a little, and when she took a step I closed the second divider closest to her so she was situated in one compartment.

I exited the trailer and through through the front window I removed the lungeline.  Then I tied her with her leadrope facing forwards, and we were ready to hit the road.  She was anxious in the trailer, and did some thrashing around while sweating quite a bit on the ride home, but she made it in one piece.  I'm sure grateful for a sturdy trailer that can accommodate that kind of horse, as she is definitely neither the first nor the last to have this kind of episode.

We arrived at Bit of Honey in once piece.  Ferriana unloaded nicely, and despite being concerned she walked politely to her paddock.  Highboy hustled down to the fence line to greet her and officially welcome her to Bit of Honey.  They touched noses for a moment and then Ferriana visibly relaxed.  All the horses at my place are pretty laid back, so new horses feed off of that and settle in well.

I can see why Ferriana has been difficult, as she is very intelligent and athletic.  She also has enough of a dominant personality to try to be in charge of things, but she doesn't really want to be in charge.  If she thinks she's responsible for the herd or what's going on it stresses her out and she gets strong trying to avoid a stressful situation.  I think once she settles in here and realizes I'm a trustworthy human who will keep her safe she will chill out quite a bit.  Even Highboy coming over and welcoming her to the barn seemed to go a long way.  I'm eager to get going with her!

Highboy, Raven, and Note

I've had a chance to ride my own horses a bit the past week, and we've all enjoyed it.  Jasi has a new camera and tested it out on my jumping horses one morning.

Raven loves her job - you can see her ears are up as she looks forward to her next fence.

Highboy is doing really well.  He's just about totally recovered from the rattlesnake bite he had 3 weeks ago.  His recovery has been fast and thorough, likely because he was vaccinated for rattlesnake bites.  I've known other horses who were bit who took months to recover this much.  Some didn't survive the bite, and others still had effects years afterwards.  I'm so grateful Highboy is doing so well.

Note recently went on a field trip to a friend's place so that I could have his saddle re-fitted.  He has changed dramatically this spring by gaining weight and topline muscle and needed the flocking and headplate readjusted in his jumping saddle.  He behaved pretty well initially, and even was ok for my friend to hold him while I rode her horse for that saddle fitting.  I brought Note to her place for the fitting partially so that I could give him the experience off my property.  He needs many field trips to become reasonable in new places.

 Once I bridled Note and we started his fitting, though, Note became excited, which made for an interesting ride.  He didn't want the fitter getting close to him and was a jerk about it, striking and kicking at her while aiming.  The trick with this saddle was that I needed to be riding him to get the air panels inflated correctly, which left the fitter on her own on the ground while I was mounted.  I did eventually work him and get him settled enough to do some jumping in the now properly adjusted saddle. While this all was going on my friend and her mom were sitting on a bench by the arena watching, and I'm pretty sure they were whispering to each other that they should have sold tickets!