I groomed and tacked up Magic this morning. We did ground work first and I thought I saw his head bob. When we started lunging I could see his head bob for sure. It is his off front. I did not ride. I can not see or feel any problems. Hood testers would be nice right now. My guess is that he bruised his sole. I did not notice anything while we were riding yesterday. It could have happened in the pasture. Tonight it was more noticeable when he first moved in the pasture but he might have been standing there for a while. Walking to and around the barn it did not seem worse. I will look more carefully in the morning.
Sunday, February 18 2012
Magic and I rode this morning. We lunged and used the ground poles. I propped the far end of the last pole up about 20 inches and made the distance from the set-up pole about 10 feet. Magic has the right attitude about “go forward”. He trotted over the set-up pole and was set to jump the little jump which he did and landed in a canter on the correct lead. Julian Westall suggests such a set-up in his book “Educating the Young Horse”. It seems to work. I have not cantered Magic much. He seems to have a nice canter but it has been difficult to get the correct lead on a counter clockwise circle. (the right lead) I expect that I am the problem in this situation. We will keep on working with lunging and ground poles. He seems to have learned to watch his feet and adjust his stride to match the ground poles. In the arena today he seemed more willing to pay attention and take the correct bend. We rode up to the spring on Pinnacle Mountain and a little past. It was a very enjoyable ride.
There are a lot of resources available today about how to train a horse. Right now I am utilizing methods from two sources and they seem very, very different. Julian Westall in his book “Educating the Young Horse” studies each minute step in great detail. His approach is to take your time and get it right. I am also watching Clinton Anderson’s videos about training his OTTB “Tricky”. Clinton progresses the training at a fast pace. One episode he has Tricky working in some elaborate obstacles. He is lunging and sending Tricky over half-round 2’6″ jumps, 4 of them in the circle. It looks awkward to me like the distance is exactly right to get Tricky in the wrong position, stride wise, to make the jump. Nevertheless, Tricky makes it around, several times. Clinton’s philosophy, I think, pushes the horse to go where he is pointed; make the effort; do it. I cannot follow either example exactly. If I did it Julian’s way, my horse would sour with the slow pace of progress and if I did it Clinton’s way, my horse would be overwhelmed and loose confidence. I am trying to learn which parts of each approach I can use with my horse at my speed. It is a great advantage to have so many resources to learn from.
Saturday, February 18 2012
Magic and I rode this morning. I put out some more ground poles. There are two in one group and 3 in the other. I positioned them so Magic can cross them working on the lunge line. They “radiate” out so they are close enough at the nearest point for walking and further out they are at the right distance for trotting. Magic does good with them. I have been working with the exercise Clinton Anderson calls the sending exercise. It seems to teach that when you point with the hand holding the lead, the horse is supposed to move forward. You send them back and fourth between you and something, maybe a fence or something they are wary of. We rode in the arena and the Oak pasture and up on Shirey. I am really enjoying riding Magic. He “acts up” and expresses a differing opinion now and then but I have no fear that he will explode or forcefully rebel. He is trustworthy. He has the right amount of go. It was a nice ride.
Friday, February 17 2012
I rode Magic this morning. I brought some ground poles to the barnyard. We lunged over them. He had no problems with the poles. We rode some in the arena. Today it felt like we are making progress. A good feeling. We rode around the Oak pasture. A good ride.
Do they ring a bell at the race track? Like at the starting gate?
I was in the garage this morning and heard a horse running. Little More came flying through the yard, across the driveway, running hard all the way to the barn. Little More is a “warhorse”, a retired Thoroughbred that ran 54 races winning $120,000. I’ve had him 5 years. He is a wonderful horse. He is not sound, dropping his off hip at the trot. But he is always laid back, relaxed, taking care of himself. Some days, like today, he does not want to go to the pasture with the other horses and I just let him have the run of the place. He likes to graze in the Oak pasture through two open gates and the yard away from the barn. I could not figure out why he was running. He is healthy and often feels his oats but it looked like he ran too hard and too far just to be expressing exuberance. It looked like he was spooked but that is very unusual for him. And I saw nothing. Then I remembered that I had just rung a bell, an old school bell that I am fixing up as a door bell. It is a big bell. Maybe I should not install this “door bell” if it will upset my horses, I have several OTTB’s, every time somebody comes to the house and rings the bell. BTY, all is well, Little More did not injure himself.
Wednesday, February 8 2012
Today I did some measurements. I laid a board flat on the trailer floor and measured the distance to the ground where it extends out past the rear of the trailer. This measurement would be called the height of the trailer floor. I stopped by my distant cousin’s trailer sales lot yesterday. He volunteered that most trailers floor are 13 inches high. Parked in the same location where Magic has been loading so good, the height was 11 inches. The height was caused by the low spot for the trailer wheels. I moved it where it was parked last week when Magic did not like to load. The height was 19 inches. I found a more favorable position to park the trailer yet very near this bad position / location which resulted in a floor height of 14 inches. I got Magic out of his stall. He showed some reluctance to approach the trailer. He remembered what happened when we were there last week. This was what I was wanting, the old memory but now with a lower trailer height. Everything the same except the key factor I wanted to test. He walked up to the trailer, looked it over and said “John, this is cool. No problem.” then stepped up in the trailer. We did it again but I was convinced. The solution to this problem is to park the trailer in a favorable position (not always possible) or a ramp might work. In the future, after I build some obstacles like Clinton Anderson’s, Magic might load in a bob truck. But I need a right now solution.
I parked the rig on a level area and measured 18 inches. I made some 4″x6″ blocks that I could drive the rear wheels up on and drove up on them. It took 4 wheel drive and low range gears but it raised the rear wheels 4 inches. This lowered the step up to 16 inches. Not enough.
So I will build a loading ramp on the trailer. I have wanted to try a two horse trailer style stocks in this trailer for some time. It is a bumper pull trailer and this will best position the horse weight in the trailer. They will have to back out and I think a ramp will help with this. I went by Miller’s this afternoon and got the steel. This will give me a very large 2 horse trailer with tool and tack storage up front. In the 70’s I hauled 4 horses in this trailer. My horses are bigger today and not even one will fit in the back compartment.
Tuesday, February 7 2012
Magic walked into the trailer today like it was where he wanted to be. I will have to do some experimenting. I know one way that works and one way that does not.
Monday, February 6 2012
I groomed Magic and walked him to the trailer. I opened the door and he walked in. I paid attention to what I did. I left the whip out of sight leaning against the trailer. I did not cluck or coax. He obviously knew what was expected of him. I believe that when you train, especially with pressure, a horse or dog to do something and you fail to get him to do it, then you have trained him how not to do it. That was our situation Friday but Magic did not learn the wrong thing. I am happy to be wrong this time!
Magic is smarter than Mark Twain’s cat. The cat sat on a hot stove. He learned a lesson but it was the wrong one. The wisdom was not to sit on a hot stove but the cat learned not to sit down at all.
It must be something else, not just the height. Maybe he sees a “gaping black hole” under the trailer rather than just a step up. A loading ramp might work but will be a lot of time and expense just to test. It might work if I elevate the tongue somehow. I could easily solve the problem here at home by just always loading at the present location but I could then run into the problem when I am away and have no option to park favorably.
Sunday, February 5 2012
I groomed Magic, did two minutes work on the lunge (lead) line, went to the trailer and Magic loaded like he was eager to get into the trailer. He walked in without me clucking or anything. I stayed on the ground and threw the lead line across his back. It is like it is a different world. We loaded two more times. I just walked him up to the trailer, he would look down to check the footing, and then just walk in. The only difference between this pleasant experience and the two hours of hell we endured Friday is six inches. It is not like my trailer is real high. Lots of other horses have loaded with no noticeable problem. We will keep on doing this for several days.
Friday, February 3 2012
We worked at the trailer again today. The first two hours did not go good. Then I moved the trailer so the step up was not so high. At the new parking situation, he loaded twice in ten minutes. The step up is about 18 inches and the new perspective made it less than 12 inches. I don’t think the height is that important but I will not argue with success. I will continue working at the new parking situation and hope it will be that easy next time. I feel guilty that this might be the problem and I have put Magic (and myself) through this ordeal just because I missed the obvious. Rosie Crawford, our local horse trader legend, always drove a one ton ford and loaded thousands of strange horses onto that high deck. But he was Rosie Crawford and I am John Brown. I just moved the trailer out of desperation that what I was doing was not working. We will see what happens. I hope it is the problem. I’ll buy some low profile racing tires for my 1972 Hale Stock Trailer!
Thursday, February 2 2012
Magic and I worked at the trailer again today. It took about an hour. He did load. Magic has worked hard to diminish the effectiveness of the rump rope as a persuasion to help him get into the trailer. He will just stand still and buck. I thought it was just wasted effort on his part but he has learned just how to buck in a way that unseats the rump rope. The rump rope was effective in the past but he has patiently learned how to evade that pressure. I guess you might say Magic and I progressed into a fight today. I even called him a name when he bumped me out of the way. Magic is the only one of us that can claim to have drawn blood but I claim victory. He did load. And we did it in a way that I think indicates progress. I would ask him to move forward, tap him with the lunge whip and he would push his way between me and the trailer rather than take a step towards the trailer. One of those times was when I called him a name. I think name calling is not effective and indicates a failure of character. I apologized. But something that happened during that time convinced Magic that he should not push me out of the way. So we made progress in that he would take a step, make a move, towards the trailer when I asked him to step forward. Then we would rest and regain our composure. I would ask him to step forward again. We just kept that up and finally he leaned back on his haunches and jumped up into the trailer. That was the first time he has loaded while I was still on the ground. I have hope that we have made progress and will get this loading problem behind us. We’ll work on it again in the morning.