Month: May 2011

I walked Newt to the arena. He was completely cooperative on the lunge with no bucking or kicking and only one head shake. We walked and trotted. His past few outings to the arena lead me to be cautious. It was a calm morning with little wind and Newt was not excited. I rode him in the arena. We did “needlepoint” and “Oval” exercises. Newt did very good for the first time at these exercises. My mounting process seems to be much better this spring on both Newt and Magic. They stand still, pretty much, to accommodate me getting in the saddle and set to go. In the past horses moving off when I was mounting happened all the time. I expect that I have improved my process and it is easier for them to stand than it might have been when I just hauled myself into the saddle. Let’s hope this is true. We rode in the Oak pasture up to the pond. Just about the time we arrived at the bottom of the dam, York showed up. I knew to watch out because a lab will often run up and dive into the pond with a big splash. Just such a situation spooked Tut so much one time that I “stepped off” as he bolted for the barn. Anyway I was able to control the situation enough that there was no problem and we rode back to the gate. After getting through the gate, I rode Newt to the barn. He was looking for a spook and several times I could feel an alert in his body. I talked to him and petted him and reassured him. He did not do a full spook and we made it successfully to the barn. (I have experienced a full spook with Newt. It is very violent and I hit the good soft grass hard.) I think Newt was trusting me and thinking control rather than calamity. That is good progress. It was a good ride.

I walked Newt out to the arena. It was not windy but he was full of himself. It has been windy the past several times Newt has been to the arena. The wind excites him. Possibly he has begun to think that he should be excited when he goes to the arena rather than just when it is blowing. Also he is looking good and I expect it is from the regular workouts. It does not seem like we are doing a lot but it is regular. He and I have come a long way since January or whenever it was that I said “You are not paying attention to me. I am going to pay more attention to you and see if that makes you pay more attention to me.” I changed my attitude / demeanor and, bam!, he changed his attitude. That’s all there was to it. Our relationship is much better now. We will make a good team. I don’t know if he will ever make a good trail horse to ride on the Buffalo but I am pretty sure it won’t be this year. He will make a very good horse to ride in the arena. He has plenty of energy and seems to like to show off. Anyway, there was plenty of bucking and kicking on the lunge. I was able to control him and calm him down. He did walk a couple of rounds in each direction before we stopped lunging. One time when he was carrying on, I noticed that I had forgotten my helmet. I used good judgement and did not ride in the arena without my helmet. It may have been a good idea even it I had my helmet. We went back to the barn. I got my helmet. We rode a little in the round pen. He did good.

I learned the importance of paying attention to animals from Joe Hefley. Joe and I bird hunted together. Joe was always having trouble loosing his dog. Joe did have some skills with bird dogs. He could make one hunt dead (look for a dead bird) better than anybody. He would really get into it and all the dogs would be looking hard, pulling sticks out of the brushpile, digging. They all wanted to find the dead bird. Then we would find it and walk on. This was where I learned from Joe. Most of the time he would be looking at the cover, trying to remember where he found the birds last time, anything but look at his dog. And I noticed his dog would stop and look at Joe but Joe was trying to find birds and paid no attention to his dog. Pretty soon, the dog paid very little attention to Joe. The dog, Spot was his name, would get to hunting, wander over the hill or on the other side of the thicket, and then he was lost. Joe had long legs and a voice like thunder. When his dog was lost, he would take three strides and yell “Spot, Here Spot!” and then do it again. It drove everybody crazy and we would wander off. One time in Texas Joe got to yelling for Spot and pretty soon everybody, dogs and people, were a long way from Joe. In new country Joe was always worried about getting lost so he was glad to see us when Spot came in and he stopped yelling. Joe said “John, Spot finally heard me and came back.” I said “Hell Joe everybody in west Texas heard you every time you yelled.” Anyway, I learned from Joe. I would watch my dogs. When they looked my way, I always did something to acknowledge the contact. I’d whistle or move off in a new direction, anything to communicate that we’d made contact. And it works. My dogs would always hunt with me. That is why I told Newt that I would start paying more attention to him. And that’s why he started paying more attention to me.

Today I walked Newt out to the arena and lunged and rode him. It has been a while since we were both fit to ride so it was all new again. Well almost, except that I do have confidence in Newt and he has confidence in me. There was a lot of head shaking and inclination to speed up but I was not worried that he was thinking of dumping me and head back to the barn. He was able to canter on the lunge a little longer and not progress into a bucking runaway. We have made progress. It may be small progress but we are going in the right direction. Now we just need to keep up the work and make progress.

Worked Newt on the lunge in front of the barn. He did good. He cantered a little. I am cautious about cantering on the lunge because of the footing. It is grass or dirt which can be wet and was today. Newt did slip. Rather than push the situation I will put it off until I get good footing. I will read Julian Westall and see what he says. He is very cautious and often mentions even the slight possibility of a future problem.