Leading Amarillo

By Neversummer November 1, 2018 Amarillo No Comments

I have a bit of a crush on Harvey. I tend to devote my time to him when I have a chance to work with a horse. Amarillo is still here though! He comes in to visit when the horses come up to say high. He’s gotten played with a little and had a sadlle on his back when Tanna was here to play. Mostly we’ve been loading the clicker and working on targeting.
He’s gotten to where I trust him enough to let him out in the yard to graze. They need to be able to be caught so I can put them away when the time comes. when I went out the other day we were playing a little as we went back to the corrals. He was being so good I decided to try to get some video. He led clear back to the corrals using only targeting! Such a good pretty boy.

 

Accidental Mounting

By Neversummer October 30, 2018 Harvey No Comments

All this work with Harvey ends in one accidental mounting! Not that he isn’t ready for it. I just hadn’t meant to quite yet. We were practicing from the fence, letting him get used to me up there. This is his fourth time of doing that. Once out of the corrals and once in where he wasn’t real interested in getting close to the fence. And once at the gate when he started presenting his right side for a good butt scratching. Apparently he wants his right side up to the fence. I am letting him decide and he switches back and forth a lot.
I had been putting a leg over then right back off. He gets worried and I want him completely calm before I sit on him. This time I lost my balance a little and fell. Onto him It’s not graceful but he did a great job of it!

 

Calming Cues

By Neversummer October 29, 2018 Clicker training, Harvey No Comments

I’ve been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get out and play with Harvey. He’s getting calmer and happier every time we work. As with Rusty I’m playing around with adding a calming signal. It can be kind of fun to experiment with cues. See what works and what isn’t as good in the end. With Rusty we are doing the usual rein signal. On Harvey I am installing it on stroking his neck. When horses are nervous we stroke their necks right? It’s probably not as practical as the rein but I can always switch it over if it isn’t working out.
I left in a bit where our stand offish, please don’t touch me horse is laying in to me and enjoying a wonderful scratch! Such big changes.

Cherished Ponies

By Neversummer October 28, 2018 Coyote No Comments

Today started out quite terrible. We, my daughter and I were going to sneak out for a little ride. Rusty met me at the gate as usual. Coyote stood and looked. I had to walk clear over to him and he stood there waiting. I wasn’t worried yet though. After tying them both I offered Coyote a handful of feed. He barely lipped it and let it fall from his mouth. I very nearly panicked. Turning Rusty loose to graze I untied Coyotes lead and took him to see if he would eat grass. He not only wouldn’t but he proceeded to lay down at my feet.
I did panic then.
I called the vet. She said that we could wait and see what he does, avoid an emergency fee. Cuts and swellings don’t bother me, colic scares me half to death. Besides This was Coyote we were talking about! I told her I didn’t care. He wasn’t bad but I wanted to get him looked at in hopes of preventing him from getting bad. She said to be in in an hour. That worked out about perfect by the time I checked air in the tires and got everyone loaded. Coyote farted a few times on his way onto the trailer, I began to hope I was getting all worried about nothing.
At the vet he hopped off the trailer still subdued but looking better. He had pooped though! Rusty pawed and raised a raucous in the trailer, because I can’t haul Coyote by himself! That would have killed him out right. He has absolute fits. Overall the noise she listened to all his noises very carefully and took his temp.
She declared him to be alright. His gut sounds were all normal with maybe a bit of air somewhere. I’m not a vet, I can’t remember exactly To be on the safe side he got a shot of an anti inflammatory and a steroid.
Once home I turned him straight out on the grass to graze and he went right to it. I love when a trailer ride cures colic. He ate happily for the rest of the day and hasn’t shown any further signs of not feeling well.
I started Coyote as a three year old. In his younger years he took good care of me over many a mile working cattle, braving over protective mama cows through calving, was able to move calves on his own through blinding blizzards as I tried to keep the wind from blowing me off his back. Now he baby sits my daughter building her skills and confidence. I would far rather rush him to the vet at the slightest hint of an issue than risk loosing a horse as priceless as him.

 

Giving Permission?

By Neversummer October 27, 2018 Harvey No Comments

I wasn’t going to film this part of playing with Harvey today. Then he started offering a behavior that I thought was interesting enough that I wanted to share. Every time I stood beside him to do up the cinch he would step over into me.
It seem pretty obvious where the behavior was coming from. We’ve worked a grand total of three times on stepping over to the fence so I can get on. The last time was just when I went to let Rusty out to grazr and stayed to pet Harvey awhile because he was sad about not getting to go out.
He offered to step over, putting me on his right side. We had never worked on that before. It wasn’t too long ago that he wouldn’t let anyone on his right side at all. Now he was offering it to me. I wasn’t going to let him down, I started scratching. Anywhere he wanted. Somehow that ended up being his butt. Amazing how itchy those things are. I scratched and scratched. Then I climbed on the fence and scratched some more.
He was a little nervous at first about me being up high. By the end I was sprawled across his butt still scratching away.
Apparently it was a strong reinforcer. Interesting how it transferred to his other side, on the ground, away from any fences.So I wanted to share him stepping into me asking to be cinched. I waited every time until he did this before touching the cinch again.
Also I had a request for a video showing how I do the cinch up. Since that was what we were working on anyway I thought I would leave it going to show that part too. But to see any of it you’ll have to go to the facebook page. The video is too long to load here 🙁   https://www.facebook.com/309985332692651/videos/487958695021536/

 

 

Near Face Plant

By Neversummer October 26, 2018 Harvey, Rusty No Comments
I went to get Rusty out of the pen for a ride. He and Harvey came galloping to the gate. Racing for first place in hopes of going out to graze. I braced both hands on the gate in case of a crash. They didn’t.
They were both being pushier than I thought acceptable though so I waited for them to sort themselves out and settle down. I opened the gate a little to see if I could let Harvey out or catch Rusty without being smashed. Not seeing an opportunity I pushed it back shut, holding it closed behind me.
Both horses, Harvey mostly driven by Rusty, spun about to take off, not over their galloping excess of energy yet. As Rusty took off he kicked up with both heels. Higher and harder than I was expecting. Coyote likes to do that, directed at me but low and carefully, to show his endless disdain. Rusty went full out though. I heard the solid thunk of his hoof hitting the railroad tie the gate closes on. An arms length in front of me right at head level.
Just that morning I had read a post about a trainer I follow getting kicked in the face by a horse. I admit it, I thought, that would never happen to me! My horses are far to well trained. He must have done something wrong. Such a silly thing to think. People always seem to think they are immune to injury. It’s a good thing sometimes. If we spent all of our time thinking about all the ways we could get hurt we’d never get anything done. We think that “we” do things better. That a horse who has been well trained will never hurt us. I know I got  few comments along those lines when Rusty and I crashed into each other a few days ago. If I had done a good job training him that wouldn’t have happened.
It’s important for us to remember that they are live animals who think and react to things in the way that they want or feel appropriate. Sometimes they flail about like a three year old at the dinner table, taking out everything in sight. Sometimes they want to play and forget we are smaller. Sometimes they spook and smash us before they have time to think. Even the best horsemen get hurt, Shawna Karrasch broke her nose, Andrea of Mills Horsemanship and Hoofcare is currently sporting a black eye. Accidents happen. The best we can do is be prepared and train the best we can to avoid injury to horse or human.
I did go back through that gate. It was scary. Nobody did anything untoward. They remembered the manners that are expected when a person is present. I think I didn’t count earlier because I was outside the gate. Rusty and I continued on, going for a… very enthusiastic ride. But that’s a story for another time..

Long And Low

By Neversummer October 24, 2018 Clicker training, Rusty No Comments

And our third time working on head lowering. This slow, easy, boring session is brought to you by: apples! A very high value treat for him.
It was a long slow lazy sort of ride. For me. It gave me lots of time to think and ponder and listen to Rusty breath. I came to realizations that I knew already. Kind of. Things I realized in fully thought out ideas instead of half formulated feelings. I know Rusty has a high double whorl. That he has two personalities. A silly joker who’s not afraid of anything. Then there’s his more serious side. A very nervous hard worker who has great powers of concentration. I know he gets worried about things. That he’s an over achiever.
As we meandered slowly about I listened to him breath. Every time I asked for something that he even slightly didn’t understand his breath got shallow and noisy. I could hear it roaring in and out of his lungs. He was breathing like a horse under heavy exercise. At a walk. He wants so bad to be perfect to get what I am asking of him just right. Anything I ask for he does to the extreme. No simple getting the job done for him. He will do it then add more and more until he has himself tied into a knot.
We will see if he stops worrying so much about this and does start to relax eventually.
Until then, I saw lots that I did really like when I watched the video. I was afraid that teaching this would throw him onto his forequarters. Instead I saw many moments where he was lifting beautifully through the shoulders. Truly rounding while stretching long and low. I saw his tail swinging rhythmically, no swishing or wringing. I think it is starting to help him relax even through the worrying.
The other thing I’ve been working on along with this is riding without reins. Coyote will work completely from seat and legs. It’s something I’ve always installed in a horse. I’m not doing it with Rusty though. Not on purpose. Back when I used to start horses I was riding all the time. There’s been a long stretch inbetween where I was busy having children. A good deal of time where I was sick pf training horses. All I wanted to do was sit on Coyote bareback and plod around in a halter. Coming back to training there’s a lot I need to relearn, re-remember.
Rusty still hardly ever gets ridden. I’ve found as I make the effort to drop my reins that his over thinking, over reacting applies to this as well. No big surprise there. I’ve known he does that when I ask for turns on the quarters. I touch him with a leg and he shoots off. Then I try to ride him off and he spins on some quarter or other.
With no rein to aid in the guiding I touch him with a leg and he curls around that leg bracing hard in the opposite direction. He has trouble curving to the right anyway but this is a bit extreme. Here I am thinking hard, perhaps too hard about cuing him. I am concentrating intently on leg placement, weight shift, breathing. In the end I added rein to clarify my desire to him. I did find that if I quit looking at him and looked where I wanted to go it help an amazing amount.
I will stop now, droning on about tiny discoveries, rediscoveries, that are only of interest to me. Nobody is reading by this point anyway. Oh well, it’s my blog to help me remember these things anyway so 😝

Another Try At Head Lowering

By Neversummer October 23, 2018 Clicker training, Coyote, Rusty No Comments

I get videos I want to share here, things I want to talk about, but before I can get the video to a computer and have time to cut them down from ten, twenty minutes to a more watchable, less boring, time, I get new video! Then I have to decide if the first one is worth the effort of should we just skip to the next one where we’re doing better? I’m going to put this one up here to show the progression. He gets so much better every single time we work on something.
This is our second time working on lowering his head. The first time I cued it by touching the base of his neck. Our cue to graze. I wanted that to stay our grazing cue so I consulted the experts. They recommended using the reins as a cue. I hadn’t figured out the exact usage and wasn’t completely happy with my cuing. He easily switched cues though and was really getting the idea.