Second Job Weekend

I left for my second job this afternoon in the spitting rain. Actually, it's supposed to rain off and on all weekend, so I'm glad to be at my second job making money since I won't be able to ride anyway. Here is the beautiful view outside my hotel:
So I guess I will be on my computer this weekend when I'm not at the hospital doing x-rays and Cat-scans! This will be me:

Hopefully, I won't spend too much money on the internet as the AERC Convention is next weekend in Reno, and I plan on buying a couple of riding outfits and some new boots for Whisper.

This little town of Hawthorne is a quaint little town, and home to the Army Depot where they dis-assemble ammunition. My hotel sits on the south end of town, and I took a couple of pics of the clouds nestled in the mountains looking up town, and the snow capped mountains looking south of town.

I Bit the Dust on Monday, February 18, 2008

I was near the end of a near perfect ride, when I bit the dust off Andi. Mom and I left for a trail ride this morning. Her horse had ants in his pants, so we took the wash trail which has deeper sand, hoping it would slow him down some. But the sand is not as deep in the winter because of the moisture in winter. Mom was getting pissed at her horse which was making him worse, and Andi was being his perfect Andi self, so I told mom to park her horse behind Andi. We rode like that off and on (mostly on) for 4 1/2 miles. A couple of times, Andi shook and Fireman would bump into him. Andi was OK with that. Boy, was I ever proud of Andi.

We were within a mile from home, and mom came out from behind us, and sure enough, Fireman started prancy dancy towards home, so she put him back behind Andi. I **think** Fireman pinned his ears, or lunged at Andi (don't know for sure because I was looking ahead and he had been fine). Anyway, Andi shot forward like a rocket, and when I one-reined him,I got off balance, and hit the dirt (well, sand in my case). I sat there in the sand and watched my Andi Pandi head for home as fast as his legs could carry him. Then mom got off Fireman before he decided he needed to join Andi. As soon as we rounded the corner for home, I saw a car in front of my house and people coming down the driveway. My neighbor had put Andi in my corral, then was coming to look for us. I thanked them, and I'm OK, but I have a very sore shoulder where I landed first. At least it is my left shoulder and I'm right handed. Poor Andi was scared and jumpy when I got him out of the corral, so we did some easy clicker work like getting next to the mounting block and trailer loading before I put him up. Other than the rocket boost, Andi was a very good boy and acted like the old been there, done that horse. That's why I am pretty sure Fireman did something towards Andi that last time he got behind him. He has been knownto pin his ears at Andi before. I think I just was expecting too much of my green boy, even tho he is99.9% of the time the perfect horse.



Oh, and I decided he has Tina Turner hair going down the trail!

Horsemanship Workshop with Josh Foster

I went to a workshop with Josh Foster yesterday. He is the trainer in Palomino Valley who saddle trained Andi for me (and did a FANTASTIC job). I have the utmost respect for Josh and consider him the best trainer AND teacher. Here is his web site: http://www.joshfoster-theequinespartner.com/ There were 10 participants in his workshop, and I rode Whisper while Andi came along to learn to be tied to the trailer all day. Andi was a bit upset at first when I left him, but he soon settled down, drank his water, and ate his hay. He also peed at the trailer. All this might seem mundane to a lot of people, but if you are going to travel with your horse, it is important that they eat, drink, pee, and poo normally away from home.

The workshop started with ground work, then we mounted and flexed and disengaged the hindquarters, and moved the shoulders over. I also learned that I have been doing a one-rein stop ineffectively! I just bring my hand to my hip, but Josh says that allows a horse to move in the direction of his opposite shoulder, and almost everyone has experienced that: a horse still moving with his neck flexed all the way around with his nose at your toe. The correct way has you moving your hand out and up in front on your body. This acts to lock that other shoulder so the horse can not move in that direction. I should say here, that Josh is a mule man, so a lot of his techniques he has adapted for the smarter, more sensitive mule. After we learned to move the shoulders and the hindquarters properly, we played some games that put those moves into use. Josh had a barrel set up with sacks in a bucket that we were to go up to and pick up. Sounds easier that it is!! Here are some pics from that exercise:

We also rode side by side with another horse with a piece of Police Caution Tape between us. Josh handed out the strips of tape for us to allow our horses to get used to it, and one horse freaked out and bucked the owner off. So when I got my tape, I clicked Whisper for looking at it. Since we have played touch the goblin games before, Whisper was familiar with this game, so looked at the strange, flapping in the breeze tape, as a way to get the vending machine to work! I have to admit, tho, I hid the fact that I was incorporating clicker training from Josh, as he is not a clicker trainer and it was HIS workshop, so I tried to respect that (and at the same time, use the clicker where I thought it appropriate for my horse).

It was a fun and successful day, for both Andi and Whisper, and they had their trailer ride home in the dark, which was probably more scarey for me than for them! We got home at 7pm where we were greeted by loud winneys and a huge heehaw from the herd since dinner was late!

A Great Day for a Ride (or 2)

It reached 60* today! After not riding for a month because of cold, windy, snowy, weather, this was a treat! I called a girlfriend last night to see if she wanted to go riding with me, and she said she'd bring over 2 horses, which is great, since I had 2 horses in mind to ride, too. My mom was feeling better after a 4 week bout with a cold, so she joined us for our morning ride. Cheryl wanted to ride her 4yo filly first with a steady horse, so that would be my newly saddle trained Icelandic gelding, Andi. Believe it or not, only 4 months under saddle (and not ridden for a month) and he is my steadiest horse! I had a fanny pack full of carrot slivers to click him for whatever I felt necessary. It was Andi's first trail ride in his new hackamore. It is a rope hackamore similar to Dr. Cook's Bitless Bridle; it is also called an Indian Hackamore by some. I've heard good things about this, and terrible things about this hackamore, so I decided to let Andi be the judge. I know one thing - he likes it better than his bit! I've also recently introduced a "saddle stablizer" thingie, so I can mount my treeless Sensation Saddle from the ground if I have to get off for any reason (the treeless rolls unless you use a mounting block). This stablizer attaches to the off side on the saddle, goes under the horse's armpit, and attaches back to the saddle. This has the horse's armpit acting to hold the saddle in place as you mount from the other side. Today (with the clicker, of course) I was able to lift myself all the way up to the saddle 3 times with Andi standing completely still. Now, I need to get a pouch to store it in so I can carry it on the saddle.

Andi came upon his first mud puddles today - some as big as a lake! Being in the desert, it isn't often you come upon puddles in the desert to train your horse in. We've had such a wet (as in snow) winter, with the warmer weather, all the ice has melted to make big puddles. Andi drank from them, and got c/t for every forward movement in the puddle. Before I knew it, he was all the way in! That's my AndiPandi!

When we got home, I took a good look at the areas where Andi was wet with sweat and I decided I am going to give him a little clip job this weekend so he stays a bit cooler untill he has finished shedding. I clipped him a bit this past November, and I think he needs to be re-clipped because he has some really thick hair and I'm afraid he will overheat. Besides, the WORST of the winter is over. (Knocking on wood!)

Second out today was Whisper. We rode with Cheryl and her paint horse, Captor, to see how compatible their gaits were. Cheryl wants to start riding in some Endurance rides, and like me, she just wants to do it for fun, and not to win. When Captor jogs, it is the perfect speed for Whisper's saddle rack, so I think they may be compatible. We will continue to ride together and see how they do. Whisper was feeling very relaxed and happy today and I think she enjoys not having a bit in her mouth, too. I got an S Hackamore for her and her lips and eyes are more relaxed. Of course, she is also getting clicker training, and she enjoys that. At the start of the ride, she kept stopping to beg for a treat, but that is a small price to pay to see her going down the trail a happy horse instead of a miserable horse. She had a couple of "airs above the ground" but they were happy airs and not anxious airs. I knew the difference immediately as my own heartrate did not go up, and I was not fighting her. She was just a bit exhuberant! I did not go trotting or cantering down the trail after that, tho. I did not think I could stick in the saddle with that kind of exhuberance! On the way home, Whisper was licking and chewing, and I would have done more head down exercises, but I had run out of carrot slivers (note to self: wear the bigger fanny pack that holds more carrots). She never once got "fish butt lips".

I did wear my helmet cam today fastened to my leg just above my knee. However, there was so much camera motion that I couldn't even watch them back. Guess I will have to find another place for the camera.

The Power of Positive Training - Clicker Training

I was introduced to Clicker Training shortly after I brought home Andi. Andi was an 11 month old Icelandic colt, and I knew I couldn't start his saddle training until he was at least 4 1/2 years old, but that didn't mean I couldn't do other training! I had heard some things about clicker training, so I bought one of the best books on clicker training horses: The Click That Teaches: A Step-By-Steo Guide in Pictures by Alexandra Kurland. This is one of the Gold Standards in Clicker Training for Horses.

Briefly, what clicker training does is mark the exact behavior at the exact moment and rewards that behavior. The "mark" in this case is a mechanical clicker, and the reward for my horses is a sliver of carrot, piece of apple, or a store-bought apple treat. I have since graduated to doing a click with my tongue, because I find I would need a third hand to ride with, otherwise! Besides, I always have my tongue with me and I never worry about being out of position to mark the desired behavior. When you begin, you first teach your horse to touch an object (a soccer cone in my case) and this brings on a click and a treat (c/t). At first, I put the cone only inches from Andi's nose, so he would have no choice but to touch it, then c/t. Lots of repetitions of this, and it only took 10 minutes for Andi to realize that by touching the cone allowed him acces to the vending machine (me). Then I gradually brought the cone lower until it was on the ground, and from there placed it away from me until Andi was walking to it to touch it to get his c/t. Watching the "lightbulb" moment in the horse when he realizes what he has to do to get his treat is a very rewarding moment. That is when you know you are communicating with another species without the use of pressure, spurs, whips, etc... Touching an object like this is termed Targeting and this leads to other behaviors. I used targeting his cone to trailer load Andi without a halter or lead rope and NO PRESSURE what-so-ever! He learned to trailer load on his own by me putting the target further and further in the trailer until he was loading and unloading easily. Then I put his halter and lead on and asked him to go on without any problems. Thus, the trailer was never an issue for him and he only had pleasant experiences with it. We also went for walks in the neighborhood and did Touch the Goblin exercises. In this exercise, you c/t when the horse first looks as something they might perceive as a monster, like a trash can, plastic bag, etc. What I did, was c/t for everything that did not "belong" in the environment. It didn't take long for Andi to take me to every piece of trash in the desert and stick his nose in every empty garbage can on trash day! This goes against a horse's natural instinct to be afraid of everything "out of the ordinary" for self preservation. I later used clicker training to teach Andi to get into position beside me at the mounting block, and stand still for mounting. Here is a video of the beginning of that process when I was first putting weight in the stirrups: (excuse the belching of hubby - he is only a man and can not help himself!)


Now that I am riding Andi, I have a bold little trail pony that is curious about his surroundings, and if his ears perk at something different, I will let him investigate on his own and he gets a c/t for it.

February 8, 2008

Tonight, I am sitting in my hotel room in Hawthorne. This is the first decent weather we've had in 3 months, and I have to be at my second job instead of home, riding my horses. But my weekends here not only allow me to have my horses and our toys, it also is my reading and relaxing weekend. So I decided to start this blog as my journal. It will also give me a chance to look back and see if I am making progress with the continued training of my horses. Speaking of which, let me introduce them.

Raven was the first horse I bought when I moved here to NV. She is a solid black TWH. She was 18 months old and untrained. Somehow, I was convinced that since I used to ride (15 years ago), I could somehow train a baby. If I only knew then what I know now!! Raven is 8 now, and riding her has taken a backseat to conditioning Whisper and Andi for Endurance.

Whisper is Raven's half sister (same daddy). Her mother was an Arab tho, so she is 1/2 TWH and 1/2 Arab. She is grey, so while she was born black, she is getting lighter and lighter every year. She is 7, and has been under saddle for 2 years. I got smart(er) and had a professional train her. Since she is 1/2 Arab, I decided to give her (and me) a try at Endurance Riding. I love trail riding and Endurance seemed like just a really long trail ride. We did our first LD (limited distance) last April. A 30 mile ride in our own Stillwater Mountains. It was a blast and now I'm hooked! Due to some training issues with Whisper, that was the only ride I was able to do last year; but, I have several on my list for this year! I ride Whsiper in pink to promote breast cancer awareness even when riding. It is my way to combine both my passions.

Andi is my palomino, Icelandic gelding. He will be 5 on April 15, 2008. I bought him when he was 11 months old and he didn't have a rider on his back till this past summer. I wanted to be the one to start him, and I did! On his third ride, I came off and decided Andi needed a real trainer, so I sent him to a trainer I admire and trust for 30 days of saddle training during the month of October. I hope to start him in some LD Endurance rides this coming summer.

And then there is Foxi, a half Icelandic, half Shetland; and her son, Vinney. Vinney's daddy is Andi, but Andi is gelded now, so Vinney will be his only baby.

And last, but not least, is Daisy the Donkey. Daisy was gotten to be a companion for Raven, because I was only going to have one horse! But horses are like potato chips - you can't have just one!