I led Newt to the arena. I have set up the ground poles at then end of the arena. Julian Westall suggests using a ground pole / small jump combo that will cause the horse to canter on the correct lead. We are working toward that. I have it set up with 3 poles 4’3″ apart with another pole 9′ from the last of the three poles. The first 3 are one stride (trot) apart with 2 strides before the last pole. Newt trotted it just fine. I only have poles set up for the clockwise circle. It takes two sets, one for clockwise and one for counter clockwise. I rode the exercises. Newt was better behaved that the last time. He still has some head shaking. I rode the Crosby saddle and Newt seemed to do better. We rode above the pond and then made the loop on the west end of the pasture. Newt did seem to be loosing patience but he kept it to a low boil, not an explosion. I dismounted and walked him back to the barn. Today was an improvement over the Newt’s last ride.
Sunday, June 19 2011
Lunged Magic in front of the barn. He handled the ground poles just fine. He has learned what they are and what to do. Rode him to the arena and rode the exercises. Madelyn photographed the ride with our new camera. The pictures pointed out where I can make the most improvement. Loose some weight! Magic looked good but I had several problems. I was out of balance several times. There is lots of room for improvement. We rode around the Oak pasture and crossed the spillway and the dam into the Ash pasture. The cows were resting again. I’m going to check them first from now on. We had a good ride. Magic is dependable.
Saturday, June 18 2011
Lunged Newt in front of the barn. He does good with the ground poles. I rode him to the arena but he had some concerns at the gate. I did not see anything, maybe he just convinced himself there was a spook. He did a spin and perhaps another one but I was able to stop him with a one rein stop. My usual procedure in situations like this is to face the horse toward the area of fear and wait for them to accept it. I got Newt facing the perceived problem but I got the feeling that he was going to escalate rather than calm down. I hopped off and walked him through the gate. This situation was not what I want but it is so much better than last time he spun with me. He did not throw me, we got past the problem and went on and did our work. So it was a success, much better than a failure. We rode the needlework and oval exercises. Lots of head shaking and pulling. He was in a cantankerous mood, very different from Thursday. I do not know the reason. It was windy earlier this morning. I rode the Stubben saddle which I think fits him best but I’m going to make notes about how he acts with which saddle. He did one round on the circle that seemed cooperative. I stopped on that good note thinking I might not get another. I walked him back to the barn.
Friday, June 16 2011
Lunged Magic in front of the barn. He was able to trot the three poles and adjust his stride as necessary. I rode him to the arena where we rode the exercises. Magic is doing good. Sometimes I feel he is bending right and we have good cooperation and harmony and sometimes he sticks his head to the outside and falls out at the shoulder. I am not looking at this as a problem rather that we just need to keep on working and it will get better. We started the canter down the center line. He took the left lead again. We cantered a round in the arena and a couple of rounds on the circle. On the circle the first round he needed to go wide but the second round he was able to get it together and canter an accurate circle. It felt good. We rode the trail around the Oak pasture. I asked him to cross the spillway with running water. He was hesitant at first and stopped. He recognized that I wanted him to cross although it he did not want to. Then he walked across the spillway just like the good horse he is. As we crossed the dam, I decided to dismount to avoid a potential problem. We were walking immediately next to the water lillies and willows and there are a lot of bullfrogs this year. There was the distinct possibility of a bullfrog sitting on the bank and croaking and splash, splash, splash just like the Jesus lizard except louder. We avoided that problem. We went to look at the cows but they were all laying down resting so we missed working the cows this morning. It was a good ride.
Wednesday, June 15 2011
Lunged Newt in front of the barn. He can trot three poles almost without looking. I got on and rode him to the arena, something I have not done in a while. He did good. We worked in the arena. Newt was very manageable today. We did not canter. I rode him around the top of the pond and made the loop on the west end and back to the gate. Topsie and York had run something to ground under a old lumber pile beside the gate so I got off and walked him by the commotion. If I had ridden past that gate, they would have jumped an armadillo that ran under Newt and then performed the famous armadillo straight up jump and hit Newt in the belly. And that would have been dangerous for me! So I just walked him back to the barn. It was a good ride.
Tuesday, June 14 2011
Lunged Magic in front of the barn. He did good on the ground poles. He crossed two poles at the trot. He is not as aggressive with the ground poles as Newt but he does not have any problem with them. We rode to the arena and did the normal exercises. Magic may slowly be improving those exercises. Sometimes he seems to bend and respond like magic; Sometimes he does not seem to respond as well. I started the canter up the centerline. We started it on the right rein but he took the left lead. We cantered a full arena round and maybe two rounds of the circle. He is calm at the canter. We started to ride around the Oak pasture and I saw the gate up to Shirey Mountain was open. We rode up the road and just a little on top. Magic whinnied once showing that he was aware that we were alone. He seems very confident and passes up good chances to spook. His behavior was very good. I rode back to the barn. Magic enjoys doing new things like cow work and trail riding and I think it will give him enthusiasm. It was a good ride.
Monday, June 13 2011
Lunged Newt in front of the barn. He seems to be able to handle the ground poles naturally. I added the third ground pole and he just trotted all three. I did not adjust the distance. They were about 4’3″ center to center. I walked him to the arena and mounted there. He is getting a little fidgety when I mount. I attribute that to my awkwardness. I may put a mounting block out there and see if that helps me and thus the horses. He was pretty eager this morning. We rode the needlepoint and oval exercises. He was somewhat evasive, not a big problem but neither was he cooperative. He settled down when we rode the 20 meter circle. I think the fact that I know pretty much exactly where we need to be in 8 places around the circle helps us concentrate. We rode west down the middle of the pasture all the way to the west end and then walked back. He did good. I walked him back to the barn from the Oak pasture gate.
Sunday, June 12 2011
Worked Newt and Magic on the lunge with a little ground poles to negotiate. Newt was very concerned that the cows were in the back pasture. It made him very alert. He can cross two ground poles in a big trot. He paid no attention to the poles. He decided the cows were a serious threat. I did not get on his back. Magic was not concerned about the cows in the same situation and did a normal workout on the lunge with the addition of the ground poles. I rode him to the arena. We rode the needlepoint and oval exercises. He did good. He paid attention. We rode the circle at the walk and trot just so we would be in position to start the canter on the correct lead. We rode on the right rein and he took the left lead at the canter. It was a little awkward evolving our path to a left rein round in the arena but we did it. I just rode down the long side and then back to a trot. Magic has a good canter and does not get real excited because we are cantering. Initially my objective is to get him to start the canter and keep it up for a little longer each time. I want to be in a situation where it does not matter which lead he takes, just that he does transition to a canter. I am trying to teach him a cue to start the canter. Once I get that accomplished, Julian Westall suggests that I can use ground poles and a little jump will put him in the correct lead. Right now just starting the canter is not clear. To Magic, it is the same cue to trot bigger and faster and he goes into a canter because he cannot trot any faster. We rode the trail around the Oak pasture. Magic did very good. He would walk so fast that he would start to trot. He does not have a habit of going faster than I want, he just wants to go. I will be able to develop the habit of walking fast without breaking into a trot. When we got to the pond dam, I dismounted and led him across the dam. He had to cross the running spillway that was carrying enough water to make considerable noise. He had some reservation but did what I asked. Once we got past the gate and the end of the dam, I mounted. We went looking for the cows and found them. They were beside a fence. I took advantage of the fence and had Magic follow the cows along the fence line. (A fence is an advantage for starting cow work because the fence takes care of 180 degrees and the horse or dog only has to control the other 180.) Then I walked him ahead of them and turned and headed them back in the other direction. Magic pays attention to cows. We had to get pretty close to pressure them to move back in the direction they just came from. One of them made an evasive move and Magic made a very fast counter move. It looks like Magic has lots of interest in cows. That will be interesting. He seems to naturally move off of his hindquarters when he is working cows. I have trained one cow horse. We had a need for a cow horse and Lady developed into a very good cow horse. I don’t know how to train one unless it’s OJT (on job training, i.e., a job to do.) But there are some cows in the pasture and we can move them around and see what happens. It was an enjoyable ride.
Saturday, June 11 2011
I introduced Magic and Newt to ground poles today. We lunged in front of the barn. Surprisingly Newt was OK with them right away. They had the effect on Newt that they are supposed to have. I was able to get him to trot two poles with only one stride between. He did it with increased energy, lowered his head and raised his back. Magic took a little longer to walk up to the poles, smell them and step over them. Magic trotted over two poles but he was more reserved than Newt. It was interesting.
Friday, June 10 2011
Worked Magic in the round pen. His limp is improving. He just bobs his head a little at a trot. He lost a shoe last Saturday, was shod Tuesday and, if he keeps on improving, should be OK to ride sometime next week. He lost the off front and that is the foot / leg that he seems to favor. Dale said the foot was not as sensitive to hammering as it was last time and that he thought it might be sensitive to lifting that leg too high during shoeing. My view is that he lost the shoe and each day w / o the shoe he got more lame on that foot.