Red and Snips 4th Ride Videos

Suppling, Lightness, Respect, Focus and Trust

One thing you can work on on a rainy day is having your horse bend from a touch on his side.  Specifically you want to go to the end of the withers and then drop straight down to about his elbow height and apply pressure.  What you're trying to do is trigger the nerve ending that will cause a muscle contraction at his point of oscillation ( right behind the withers) thereby bending the horse at his middle.

I like to touch as light as a fly and release as soon as the horse starts to bring his head towards you at all, even a whisker.  Then touch again and release as he tries.  Some horses require a "big fly".  I always have a hoof pick in my pocket when I start and then if the fly touch needs to be increased and my thumb is not enough I can add the point of the hoof pick, like a spur.  Once I apply pressure I do not release until I get a try, then release immediately.

If the horse moves I try to stop him but do not release the pressure unless I see a bend. If the horse tries to bite or kick you discipline as necessary but keep asking.  Most horses will get nice and light fairly fast.  If I want to build this in to leg yield or circling I will click but if I don't click he shouldn't move.

One thing you should check is how you're standing when you ask for this.  I like to face the shoulder so the horse knows to stand still, keep your weight more on the foot that's furthest from his head and keep your hip pulled away.  In this manner you won't be blocking what you're asking for.

You can practice this first on his good side to get an idea of how it works then work on the bad side.  I was working a new horse one day that would run away and not bend while two trainers at the rail talked  about all the reasons why he might be doing this, including him not being able to bend well.  15 minutes later I had this horse bending around to his girth on both sides.  This ruled out the question of whether he couldn't bend as well as teaching him how to respond to my leg.

When he's light you can saddle up and repeat this on the ground to rule out saddle interference, then get on and sitting in one place bend him from side to side with your legs.  When you ask him to move have him already bent with your legs and see if he'll move off without straightening or dropping in, if he does use your spur if necessary as you used the hoofpick to get him to yield his ribs.

This exercise can be used to develop respect and focus by insisting the horse always maintain a slight bend of the ribs away from you when on the ground.  A horse that bends in to you is in a power position, ready to push you out of the way.  Not only does maintaining true bend teach a horse to stay focused on you it also teaches him that you're aware every time he loses focus or bends in to you.  Proving your awareness makes you a better leader and develops the horses trust that if you are that aware, you may just see the cougar lurking in the bushes.

Now our horse is supple, light, respectful, focused and trusting.  Not bad for one little exercise

Cocoa's 3rd Ride Videos

Each horse averaged 10 Minutes from start to finish. There will be things in these videos that aren't how I would prefer the horse to look and times when my position may be wrong but I need you to keep in mind that these horses had a 3 week crash course from halter breaking to being ready to ride and only 3 or 4 rides and  may leave any day.  I would prefer to spend the time to establish a good and light bend on the ground while standing and through in hand leading and lungeing in the vienna line and also to keep their heads low to get endorphines. I have showed them a little but if you read the other blogs you'll see they had a lot to learn in a limited time.  When these horses leave they will not be handled with correct, tactful Chris Irwin style body language so part of my job is to make sure they will do their job regardless of the persons position.

I was pleased to see Cocoa only flinched a little at the end as I reached up to tighten his bridle, he was one of the horses that hid his head from the halter and you still have to put your hand across the nose to halter rather than bringing it up from the bottom.  

You'll notice throughout these videos that I mount, dismount and saddle from either side and that the horses have adjusted well to having scary ropes tossed and dragged around them.  Unfortunately Matthew, my excellent videographer missed filming me mounting but Cocoa stood nicely bent around while I got on.  I prefer to have them bent when my butt hits the saddle so I know which way we're leaving.

You'll see I'm steering very lightly with timing and lots of release as soon as the horse attempts to go the right way. The amount of contact I keep with a horse depends on how comfortable I feel.  The sooner I can get out of their faces, the lighter they will stay but there are times when a firm contact is needed both for my safety and the horses comfort.

I also like to start using my legs on them right away, both for go and give your hindquarters.  At the end when the horse keeps going around his front end I've actually just bent him and am waiting for him to stop again so I can dismount.  I like to have them bent at that time as well in case they get scared.

Stay tuned, I will post Red and Snip tomorrow after the videos upload.

An Uneventful Session

Rode the 3 boys again today.  Once again all I did was tack up, drive a few minutes and climb on.  I worked Red on some backing up on the driving lines to help him figure it out when I got on him.  He's getting pretty light at turning and is only occasionally flipping his head up even though I know he needs his teeth done.  When I rode him I put a light feel on the reins and clicked at him and he gave his nose. That's real progress as he tends to be high headed. Another click and he moved backwards. A definite improvement over yesterday.

While I rode Red, Mackenzie brushed Cocoa.  He was nervous about it being a different person and tried to leave twice but she got him stopped and kept working on him. After a bit he really started to enjoy it.  He was really good today for his second ride.  It took him a few minutes to find forward as every time I put a leg on him he moved his hindquarters away but he eventually found out he could walk around the pen, change direction, stop and drop his head for me.

Snip also forgot how to move forward for a few minutes but soon figured it out. On the driving lines I worked on walk to trot to whoa transitions but decided not to trot on him yet as it was pretty windy and this was his third ride.

Altogether it was an uneventful session, just the way I like it.

Cocoa's First and Red and Snips Second Rides

Today went really well.  Everyone got saddled from the right side including Cocoa who was a little concerned and moved a bit, oh please don't make me have to throw the saddle up there twice, he's the biggest horse.  It's actually easier to put a western saddle on from the right because there's only 1 stirrup to throw over the horse instead of all the rigging and then you're already on the correct side to put the rigging down and only have to change sides once to do it up.  My other reason for saddling from both sides is these horses will be packed and have to have boxes loaded from each side.

Snip and Red each had just a few minutes of ground driving and then I got right on, from both sides again.  You never know when you may have to mount from the right side in the mountains where you want to be on the up hill side. I rode Snip for 10 minutes at the walk riding figure 8's. Go, Stop, Back and Turn on the forehand. What a clever and willing boy.  He was very light both to the legs and the reins.
I also rode Red for 10 minutes.  He was almost as good.  When I dismounted I worked on backing him from the bridle to improve his understanding so hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

Cocoa was excellent on the driving reins.  He was the one I originally had trouble steering. His steering was great but his stop was impressive.  He listened to the word whoa and tucked his butt under him. Very athletic for a big horse.  I worked a little on moving his hindquarters with the driving lines.  He scooted a bit at first but he figured it out quickly.  Next I climbed up on the fence and reminded him what it looked like to have me above him.  This horse flinches each time you touch a new part so I was a little worried he wouldn't like the weight in the stirrup but he was really good at being bent around and letting me stand in the stirrup.  I found it a little tricky on the right, apparently my right hip isn't quite as flexible as my left.  I climbed on and off him a couple of times then I climbed on and sat there moving my legs a little on each side and changing his bend.  He was okay with that so I asked him to move and he walked off even better than the other two had. We did a couple of short starts each way then I dismounted and told him how great he was.  If I didn't own 14 horses and had to keep one, he would be the one.

First Rides

Yesterday I spent some time with Red, Snip and Cocoa. They had not been worked since March 1. See link for "Driving Training". Previously they had 3 weeks work from wild off the range.  I spent 1 hour with each horse and did a quick review, lead, lunge, bridle, saddle, rope around butt, driving, work on whoa and bumping side with stirrup for go.  That's all I did with Cocoa as he felt like he could use another day of driving.

Snip was the first horse I rode. First I took off my coat and then unzipped my vest and zipped up the pockets. You don't want anything that can hang up on the saddle horn when you're getting bucked off.  Next I took off my knife, better safe than sorry and then took off the cell phone too, no surprises.  I was wearing my helmet, chaps and cowboy boots, the pull on type.  I never do first rides in lace up boots because they will not come off if you get hung up in the stirrup.  I hopped up and down beside him on both sides to make sure I would be able to dismount without scaring him.  Next I bent the horse around, put my foot in the stirrup and stood up and leaned over to rub the other side, first on the left and then on the right.  When you first ride a horse and you change from going left to going right that's a prime time for a horse to lose it.  I avoid this problem by mounting from both sides before I get all the way on.  I have the horse bent around so if he scoots I know which way we're going.  I bumped lightly with my inside leg and asked Snip to move.  As he moved I said eeaassyy, a word he had learned earlier meant relax as I really hoped he would. After 3 separate starts on the left of 1 or 2 steps each and  lots of deep breathing on my part we switched bend.  He was definitely more alert on the right side but handled it.  I rebent him left repeated, definitely calmer, then right, better. Finally I bent left, rocked the saddle a little so it wouldn't surprise him and dismounted. What a good boy.

I followed the same procedure with Red who handled everything about the same except for once on the right when he scared himself and trotted a couple of steps but got himself stopped without incident.  Thank goodness.  I hate it when the first spook involves 3 or 4 revolutions of the roundpen at top speed.

The Other Sampson

Today I talked Tom in to climbing on Boomer. His hips don't let him ride much these days. He tried out Boomer's spins and back up as well as suppling and following his nose.  He said he's the lightest horse of mine he's been on. Yay!  Unfortunately I didn't get any pics today but did manage to catch him last summer when he was trying to teach Roisin about suppling Partner. Get a load of that cowboy's saddle.

Trailer Loading - No Sweat

Audrey Siewert: Trish Hyatt; The Horse Maker is down training ponies and me. We are working with 10, ranging in age from less than a year to 3 yr olds. Focusing on respecting the space of handlers, proper bend, leading, lunging and trailer loading. We are on day 5 for most, day 2 or 3 for a few. All are loading into the trailer. All the ponies are from our stallions American Pharoh, with 2 from our stallion Frost inthe Forcast.

Samson is 2 in June

Trish Hyatt Anybody looking for ponies, I've worked with these bloodlines before. They are very willing with awesome movement, just little horses really. Well some not so little, they managed to breed some big mares too and have one 2 year old already 15,2 and all sizes in between. Really fun guys to work with and quick learners.

PJ is 8 months old.

Audrey Siewert:  I highly recommend a few sessions of this, everyone learns.

Trailer Loading 12 New Horses and Ponies

 I've been helping an owner to start 12 of her own horses. I have worked with her before so she does what she can while I coach and I step in when needed.  We don't get them all worked every day, depends on the horses. These horses have all been led a little with a halter but are not what I'd call halter broke so that's where we started.  First rule, no you can't leave. Second rule, no you can't run over me, and excuse me but that foot stays on the ground...

The third day there we trailer loaded 6 of them. Some had had one halter training session and some two. The session involved lungeing the horses over poles on the ground, direction changes, backing the horse and leading by drawing them in. They needed to understand to come towards the pressure of the rope and move forward from pressure of the whip towards the flanks.  As we lunged on the third day we looked for the horse to show an interest in the recently parked trailer. As the horse turned to leave the trailer he was asked to move his hips away and head back toward the trailer. Minimal pressure towards the shoulder was used to suggest the horse travel towards the trailer with increasing pressure as he chose to move away from it.  It's not as much that you're telling the horse where to go but rather where not to go.  When the horse went up to the ramp and stopped then we went inside and used the previously taught drawing to bring them in.  Pressure to the flank area suggested movement was required.  The rope was only used to keep the horse lined up and not to pull on the horse which would cause backing and rearing. Once all the way in the horses were given one bite of goodies and then unloaded.  If a horse tried to unload too quickly we just turned around and went back in. The owner and I loaded each horse about 6 times. Some times leading, some times lungeing.  The owner even had one horse load itself on the original introductory lunge toward the trailer.

In the afternoon we decided to reload 2 of the horses that were coming to my place.  In the morning the back of the trailer had been wide open but now we had to put the center divide post in place.  In addition to looking different we had to load 2 and they were not broke to tie. I decided to lead both together with lunge lines on and instructed the owner if one lagged behind to touch it with the whip. I directed one on either side of the post and we all loaded. Then they turned around to unload, darn, now I'm behind them. The owners flipped the ramp up but were then unable to shut the doors. I managed to get up along side the bigger one and draw her back around.  The doors were shut.  I took off the halters so they couldn't catch on anything, sent the horses towards the back of the trailer and sneaked out the front door. Total time from going to catch to driving out the yard, 15 minutes.

On the fourth day we trailer loaded 10 horses. 4 we had done four days earlier and 6 we hadn't.  The ones we had previously done just walked right in.  This was the first working day for 3 or 4 of them. Most were really good, one practically loaded himself. One took over an hour on the preliminary halter work but once she understood the rules and we headed for the trailer she walked right in.  Just goes to prove the trailer loading is rarely a trailer issue but rather a halter breaking issue.

Dropped Off The Face Of The Earth?

No, I'm still here. Haven't been doing much with the wild bunch, (waiting for owner to pay their bills). I have worked quite a few different times with Sampson, still no halter on. I have managed to touch a lot of him, two hands, even combed all the burrs from his mane and forelock but he scares so easily.  Makes you wonder if he doesn't see right or if something really bad happened.  I can, with difficulty get a rope around his neck and a loop around his nose and he's learning to give to the pressure.  All I want to be able to do is rub his face all over with 2 hands and then slip a halter on, sounds easy enough.  He's not mean at all but so very protective. I fear when he leaves here someone will get fed up and try and force the issue which is not going to be in his best interest, that's why I have been putting so much of my own time in to him.  I do believe however he will not be suitable for what the owner wants him for.  Hope to have an update tuesday if owner comes back then.

Looking to Relocate

Hello friends, followers and  family.  I am looking to relocate to better facilities by June. Clinic dates will not be changing but July will be Duncan, not Nanaimo.  I am looking for accommodation for adult family of 3 with dog if possible. Room for horses, stabling, riding arena, covered would be better. Possible part-time resident trainer or coach with spare time to develop my own horses and clients.  Will consider any location depending on facilites, price and location. Please pass this on to anyone you know, post on your facebook page for wider coverage. My resume is basically my website:  http://horsemaker.ca   I can be emailed through my website.  In addition I am currently working on my Al Dunning Reining apprenticeship.  Thanks Everyone for putting out the word.

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Paypay's first introduction to Cows.  4 of his kids are for sale.

Don't Fence Me In

Put Sampson (the horse) in the round pen today and then had Matthew help me swing in 5 panels to enclose him in a mini round pen.  That worked much better.  It's very important to give the horse a way out as you're approaching so he doesn't feel trapped.  A trapped horse will defend himself, either kicking out or climbing out. I use 6' high panels and really watch my position.  Sampson doesn't want to hurt anyone. I got the rope around his neck without much difficulty and proceeded to rub on him some more.  When I was able to rub right up his neck I managed to get the neck rope around his nose and tuck it back through the neck area as a makeshift halter.  Although he and I both knew I couldn't hold him with it I was still able to use it to suggest boundaries and allow him to feel me on both sides of him.  I worked on rubbing his face all over from both sides, ears and nose.  I had to use an advance/retreat format but he started to really like it.  It was really windy so instead of pushing my luck putting a halter on him I decided to rub some baby oil in to his mane and forelock to start the deburring process then untied the rope and walked away.  Great progress was made and hopefully the halter will be on next time.

The Other Youngsters

Burr was very similar to Blue in not wanting his nose touched. He also had been haltered once before. Luckily he didn't take nearly as long as Blue to accept it.  I didn't put it on and off as much but left it on for next time.
Sampson took about 1 hour again to accept being touched. I then gave him a rest and came back to him later.  He let me rub him a little on each side and it was dinner time so that's all I asked for.
Oreo was another story. I had made a lot of progress with Oreo. I could halter him, lead, lunge, saddle and had started getting him used to the rope around his rear for driving.  He had lost some confidence with the rope but we had worked through it and he hadn't been a problem to catch.  I guess he and Blue must have been exchanging notes.  He was pushing his ribs in to me and when I called him on it he pushed his shoulders in to me and tried to run over me. Bad horsey. We spent a lot of time working on move over, get back, come up, get off me, don't be rude... He was pretty sweaty when we were done but a lot nicer.

Haltering Blue

Finally got back to the young ones again. Blue nickered at me and followed me through the gate, poor boy, he thought he was going to dinner. It was easy to get a rope around his neck and not bad to touch but was not going to let me put on a halter. He kept taking his head away and touching his girth to bend him was not working.  Every time he took his head away and therefore pushed his ribs towards me I pushed his hips away and lunged him forward and started again.  He would let me rub his forehead but each time my hand went over the bridge of his nose he would bend in to me again. Eventually he let me rub his nose.  I needed to be able to have my right hand, holding the halter strap over his neck while my left hand reached over his nose to take hold of the nose band while my third hand held on to the rope around his neck.  Where did I leave that third hand? Finally he let me rub the nose band on the far side of his face and while slowly backing away let me slide it up over his nose. Yay, success! I gave him a bit of grain and took the halter off.  That only took 2 hours. The thing was, I had haltered this horse before, once.  For a horse, once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times they start to see a pattern developing and four or more times it starts to become a habit.  So I proceeded to start to put the halter on, again.  Did I not just halter this horse, did he not get a nice bite of grain, apparently not.  After much repetition of the preceding tactics I got the halter on again.  More grain, halter off, start again...  After another long stretch I got the halter on a third and fourth time, hello coincidence, habit, where are you?  Finally about the ninth or tenth time it felt like it was starting to get easier so I left the halter on and let him go have his dinner.
The next day I put the rope around his neck and took off the halter. After rubbing his face a little I put the halter back on with only a little backing up. After a bite of grain I repeated the procedure and let him go back to his friends.

Driving Training

Had a great weekend with Lyz. She is a Silver Level Chris Irwin trainer and a horse chiropractor. Anyone needing her can contact me and I'll put you in touch.  My horses all benefited from her skilled hands, the changes apparent immediately.
While here Lyz ground drove 10 horses all at different levels.  She started with Boomer and Partner working on the technicalities of turn on the forehand (TOF) and turn on the haunches (TOH) on driving lines.  Both horses are normally very light but Boomer's been practicing tuning out students so required a strong blocking rein as well as correct timing.  Partner was being too light on the reins and Lyz had to remind him to stay up in the contact while still asking for the requested movement.
The next day she was able to perfect her timing driving Pal, Bright and Papa. Although well started they haven't done much lately and only a little TOF and TOH so they were a good test of whether she was communicating clearly. Combining a step of TOH immediately followed by a step of TOF tested the concentration and coordination of both parties.
After lunch I had Lyz work through all the steps of preparing for and driving a young horse.  Handy will be two this year and my son started his ground work last year.  He hasn't had any formal work since my son introduced him to his first day of driving at a demo last june.  What Lyz discovered was that if the timing was right a horse that's just learning can already do TOF and TOH.
Just in case she didn't believe me I also had her do the same routine with Pearl.  Pearl turns two this year and other than round penning a couple of times last year to catch her and trimming her feet, she hasn't been worked.  She does wear a winter blanket.  Pearl was introduced to the bridle, surcingle, lunging, vienna line, line around the butt to turn, line across back dragging to make sure she didn't panic and then driving lines. She also showed after a few turns that she was capable of offering TOH and TOF if asked correctly and with proper timing and release. I was very proud of both of them.
The final day I saddled and Lyz lunged the 3 older wild horses and drove 2 of them. This was their second time in the bridle.  They accepted the change in people without difficulty. Lyz was surprised to find all the horses so light but understood by the end where the lightness came from and how to maintain it.

Lyz checks out Red isn't afraid of the dragging lines.

Or of a line going around his hindquarters