A web log of Horses and Horse Activities
Carole and Mara were here this weekend. Mara had a good time at the barn. I have taken her to the barn and set her on horses for the past year. She liked everything but had some reservations, they are large animals and she has good sense. But today the reservations were gone. If Carole took her off the pony, she wanted back on. And she walked up to the big horses in the pasture and held out her hand. My plan is working.
I did almost exactly the same thing with Magic today as we did yesterday. He was good, just like yesterday. It was foggy which seems to make horses less comfortable than when they can see everything. Magic had a little spook just as we were leaving the barn. There were dogs around and I stopped to get a glove from the little hay trailer that I pull with the four wheeler. Magic took the opportunity to get a bite of hay. When he got the bite, a little odd looking root / stick that I had picked up fell. I don’t think it was visible until it fell and it was odd looking, snake like. Anyway he spooked a little and stepped on my foot. When a horse steps on the handler’s foot it is often interpreted as a sign of disrespect. I expect that I would be described as lenient with animals I train. I have friends that demand the best behavior and they are good trainers. My experience is that when I am very strict, it often has an adverse rather than a positive effect on the animal. So I interpreted the transgression as an accident and took the opportunity to show Magic how cool and level headed I am. I just petted him and told him everything would be OK. And we went on our way with me limping a little bit. (He never has stepped on me before and he has had lots of opportunities.)
I groomed Magic and then we did something different. I walked him out to the arena in the Oak Pasture. We lunged in the arena and he did good. There were lots of distractions. You can see a long way from the arena but there are no houses and stuff like I expect Magic has seen thus far in his life. And Magic was interested in it all. We did not see any elk, deer, bear, armadillos or coyotes but I always expect the horse smells a lot of this stuff that we humans are not aware of. We walked back to the barn and I rode in the Bull Pen. We covered all of the Bull Pen for the first time. We were walking through some tall yellow-brown sage grass. All of a sudden a large yellow-brown cat jumped up about 6 feet in front of us and ran away. This was a perfect opportunity for a big spook. Where I ride I often jump the unexpected animal underfoot. Riding a new horse always creates some level of concern as to what the new horses reaction will be in these inevitable situations. Magic gave the cat no notice whatsoever! I thought Magic has a lot of confidence, but there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. This was the test and he passed with flying colors.
There is one spook situation that seems to effect most horses and I have hit the ground several times in the past few years because of it. It is my own dogs. The horses see the dogs all the time and are used to them but there is a situation that can cause problems. If the grass is taller than the dogs and they are running towards us, when they break out of the grass, the horse often spooks bad. The horse knows something is coming, they can see the grass moving, and when the dogs (labs) break out of the grass, they keep on coming. They are “coming at ya”. Deer jump up in the grass as near or nearer and the horse may spook but not as bad. That is because the deer, rabbit or whatever is running away which is much better from the horses point of view.
Groomed, worked and rode Magic in the round pen and the Bull Pen. The round pen work was very good and he showed improvement in the Bull Pen. There was no spook or bolt at all. I am still only riding 10 minutes or less in the Bull Pen. I need to time how long I am spending at each step in his training. So far we are walk only in the Bull Pen. And I may keep it that way and only increase the gaits when we get to the arena. My arena is a 100 x 200 foot almost flat and level mowed area with no fence or rail. It is about 600 feet from the horse barn and requires going in and out of a lot of different environments and gates with lots of opportunities for spook with a green horse. I may walk Magic out there tomorrow.
Groomed, worked and rode Magic in the round pen. He did good in the round pen. I work him at a walk and trot in both directions on a lunge line with a cavason. That is what seems to work best with him. I ride him in the round pen at at walk and trot in both directions. We do a few stops from the walk. I ride him some on the rail and some on a circle about 5 feet from the rail. To ride the smaller circle it is necessary to communicate with the reins and leg exactly where I want him to be. It causes both of us to pay attention. Magic, for a green horse, shows good sensitivity to the leg. We rode in the Bull Pen. He showed improvement today. Less inclination to return to the gate. He did shy a little jumping forward just after we turned back toward the gate.
I have ridden 3 OTTB’s in this same pasture at this same stage in their training to become riding horses. All three of them, to different degrees, shy, spook or jump forward just after we turn back towards the gate. Little More got past it. I have not progressed Newt forward in his training from this stage specifically because one shy was particularly violent. I did not know if it was malicious or just lack of confidence for a long time. It was not a jump forward but a spin and then bolt. I have recently seen Newt spook by himself in exactly the same way. It is a relief to me because I now think the original incident was a spook and not malicious behavior. And I would for sure rather get my neck broke by accident than on purpose! He was moving out to the pasture when he spooked by himself. The thing I noticed was that his first move was to lower his center of gravity about a foot by spreading his legs out. He really got low and then spun. It is almost impossible to keep your seat with this type of spook. But it is better than thinking that the specific purpose was to get me off of his back. (All this is speculation on my part. I do not claim that it is knowledge.)
Magic and I did not get to go to the trailer today. Dale Moody, my farrier, drove up just after I got off. We put shoes on Magic and trimmed 6 others. Magic wanted to take his foot back sometimes but seemed to improve as we got to the last shoe. Dale noticed that Magic has three white spots on the inside of his knee on the off front and three more on the inside of his cannon bone on the same leg. He commented that was an indication of a surgical procedure. New Vocations did not provide an information about this and I did not ask. Lisa said he was examined by the vet and diagnosed as sound. She said I could talk to the vet if I wanted to but I did not. I have never seen him take a lame step.
Occasionally when I am leading Magic, he will balk. Not permanently but for a minute he will not move forward. I expect as he learns to trust me he will be more inclined to step forward. If I tap him on the butt it does not induce him to step forward as most horses will, it only seems to increase his resolve not to step forward. I saw that resolve grow in his eyes as the haulers were whipping his heels to induce him to get into my trailer that night in the Saline County Fairgrounds. This is the biggest problem I have seen in Magic. Our situation that night at the fairground may have created the problem. We will get past it in the future, somehow. We have time on our side now and time was against us that night.
Groomed, worked and rode Magic in the round pen and I rode him in the Bull Pen which is a pasture of about 3 or 4 acres. Things went good in the round pen. Magic showed some uncertainty in the Bull Pen and wanted to go back to the gate. He would “veer” towards the gate but never balked or refused to turn away from the gate. Since he was uncertain I kept him busy following imaginary paths around clumps of grass. I expect he has seen arenas and roads but never a place where it was not obvious where we were going. No problems but this was a time where he did not know exactly what was going on. We only did it about 5 or 8 minutes. We did remember to go by the trailer. When I opened the back trailer gate, he remembered some of our past problems there. But the only thing that was required of him at the trailer today was that he accept a treat.
I groomed, worked and rode Magic today in the round pen. Everything was about the same as yesterday which is excellent. It crossed my mind that Magic is doing very good. He is getting accustomed to the surroundings. He does not spook and he is not timid. I think I will advance faster than I do with a horse that is in the stage I think Magic is in. Maybe Magic is more advanced than I think. His last race was in August 2010, he had some time off, and I think Lisa started riding him in December. I need to ask Lisa if his transition included gelding. The time frame might indicate that. Perhaps Lisa is a good teacher and Magic is a good learner and he is just further along than I thought. He seems to bend on the circle, he takes up a gait and keeps it. I do not have to plow line him when I want to turn. He is, in fact, very enjoyable ride. The only shortcoming I have noticed is that his stop is not what I want. He takes a couple mores steps than I want and he might look around once he is stopped. I would like for him to stop from the walk in one stride, stand square and straight looking straight ahead waiting for the next que. (and hell is full of people wanting ice water.)
When I was young the advice was practice, practice, practice. “Practice makes perfect.” It did not work for me. My experience is that if I cannot get a horse or dog to do what I want, if I keep on trying the same way, things get worse not better. It is not that the animal cannot do it, it is that I am not communicating what I want. Magic knows how to stop in one stride, stand still and square and be alert. I just don’t know how to get him to do it. Yet.
Magic might think “we did this same thing yesterday and now he is asking me to do it again. I must not be doing it right. I’ll try something different.”
So next time we might ride out of the round pen. Probably move to the 3 acre bull pen and ride around.
I have been so happy with our sessions the past two days that I have forgotten to visit the trailer with Magic.
Today I groomed and tacked-up Magic in his stall. Glory, the TB / Purcheron mare often interrupts our sessions in the aisle by lunging out with her teeth. She is huge and I am afraid it will turn the barn over. Magic was more accepting of the body brush today. On the lunge with the caveson in the round pen, Magic did very good. We only walk trot and today he seemed very attentive. When I put him him in a trot, he stayed there w/o any coaxing. When he was supposed to walk, that is what he did. He is learning to stay on the rail and not take any shortcuts by cutting corners.
Then I got on him. Only in the round pen and just a few minutes. He is a real horse. I’m on cloud nine in seventh heaven. This is the horse I’ve been looking for!
I worked Magic in a caveson and a lunge line. My feeling was that he was attentive and did not look out across the pasture so much. Until now I have had no preferences about round pen or lunge line. With Magic the lunge line keeps just a little more contact where being loose in the round pen allowed him so much freedom that he began to evade control. At least that is the way it seems to me today.
We went by the trailer and stopped next to it. I reached over and rattled the trailer. He paid no attention to it at all.
I have never seen Magic spook. Not even in the dead of night at the Saline County Fairgrounds and I was thinking there might be some spooks there for sure. He gives me confidence!
Magic and Little More were in the Bull Pen today. Magic is feeling more comfortable in his surroundings today. This afternoon he was chasing Little More away from the gate. It is sad to see Little More’s soundness issues as they play. Magic looks good with no signs of any problem.
Lisa sent this respons to my inquiry about Magic and the brush: “When they are at the track, instead of being groomed as we would normally think, they strap them really hard with stiff brushes to encourage muscle tone and it’s very common for them to not enjoy being groomed. When Magic first arrived, he got very aggressive about it and was very uncomfortable about the whole thing and has gradually improved. Just do as you have, go slowly and be gentle and use softer brushes, give him a treat while you are doing it and he will soon begin to associate it as a pleasurable experience. It’s completely normal for them to behave like that and I’ve had some that will even flinch at the mere thought of being groomed.He was just muddy in the video because I had a lot of horses to ride and needed to get on and get done plus the mud was still kind of wet, not the kind you can just brush off and the water had frozen. He would stand untied in the aisle while he was groomed and as long as he knows that you are not going to be rough, he’ll be just fine.That sounds great about his new friend, nothing improves their minds better then getting out on some pasture with a buddy.”