First Day Of Work

By Neversummer March 10, 2018 Princess Onna, Rusty 1 Comment

Real work that is.

It was cold and windy this morning after days of beautiful weather. Not bad cold but not as warm as it had been. My husband was out feeding and stuck his head in the door to ask if we wanted to chase some cows. Of course we did, so I started getting kids dressed and rushed out the door. My father in law decides he wants to do something and them starts regardless of whether anyone else is ready.

I have so much great stuff to share from this ride. I’m going to break it into a few posts to keep it manageable.

I saddled Rusty and Princess Onna. Rusty had been good through riding with a new horse in a strange place and checking cows yesterday. I thought he’d be ok for pushing them out of the corrals. He was raring to go. As soon as I hit the saddle he was off. Of course I made him stop and wait, but as soon as I allowed he started off at a trot looking for Princess Onna, they had left again without us.

He zipped along faster than Onna could go. Quite an accomplishment for a non-gaited horse out riding with a fast little gaited mare. Those two meandered happily and slowly along winding back and forth through the obstacles the yard offers. Once we got in the pen e was really off. We were OK though until we stopped to wait for a gate to be opened ahead of us. I turned him on the fence a couple of times and he started hopping. I pulled his head up and got him moving. He was tip toeing the rest of the way. I tried to stay close to Onna, emotional support and all. Onna poked along much slower than we were able to go.

We got the cows out. Really they went on their own, we just followed. We checked for a calf that may have been left behind. Then looked for him in the pasture. We didn’t find him.

Back at the buildings we waved to the guys as they got out of the feed truck then went around into the corrals to sort off the calves that are not going to the sale this week. Our heifers and a couple of steers. On my green, overly excited horse with a small child to help we were not able to pluck any out by themselves. We brought the whole herd out, with lots of help from the guys, and sorted in a different pen.

Having lots of trouble finding the right place to be Princess Onna was soon parked on the fence, her person off to play else where, and I was able to get some good practice in with Rusty on cattle. We may not have been the best help but it was good experience for him. He was working pretty good, if too forward and enthusiastic, mounted but I had to get off to take care of Princess Onna so I stayed off and led him. It was good for him to get exposure to the fast paced hectic environment of sorting with out the stress of figuring out what I was asking for from his back.

After everything was sorted I had a chance to play a little. This was a perfect calf and worked out much better than it should have. I was holding the phone with one hand and working the reins one handed. Rusty was showing that he is starting to figure this whole thing out.

 

 

At It Again

By Neversummer March 9, 2018 Coyote, Princess Onna, Rusty 1 Comment

After a very busy week that did not involve riding Rusty, I was going to say working with Rusty but technically we worked just didn’t ride, we got to go on a grand adventure today. Tuesday he, and Coyote for company, rode along when we took the heifers for their Bangs vaccinations. Princess Onna got voted least likely to kill herself home alone and only two could fit in the trailer with the heifers. She was fine. I’m not sure that Coyote was much for moral support, his purpose in all this, he is a terrible hauler, but he was company at least. Rusty got his teeth looked at, he was having some trouble chewing on his fight side. He didn’t get any work done, she said there was so much growing going on she wasn’t going to touch his mouth until his grown up teeth were done coming in.

He did get to work in the paring lot, along the highway, in fifty mile an hour wind. We got some Spanish walk and a bow before the vet looking out the window concernedly made me think that I ought to go get my children out of her office. She assured me they were fine but she was sure I wasn’t going to be able to get him loaded. He had reverted to the behavior he showed up here with. Again. It is kind of nice to have a reminder of how far he’s come, he crashes into everyone and drags you along at the end of the rope. I’m trying to get him out as much as I can, it would be nice if he could be his wonderful self all the time.

That was a large part of the reason why we didn’t ride. The reason we did ride was twofold. Tanna was home for spring break! She wanted to know if she could come over. I begged her to. Paula was also on spring break and had time to ride without that nasty work stuff getting in the way. She invited us over to ride at the arena. I drug Tanna along too, and the kids, and all the horses. The dogs stayed home.

Long story short, the kids did great. They both rode all around inside and out. Tanna did eventually get a horse to ride. I eventually got on Rusty. Paula eventually got her horses feet trimmed and her horse, unridden for months settled down and got on. The kids took off for parts unknown, hope they had fun.

Then we decided to trail ride. Found the kids in the pickup, honking the horn. They were looking for snacks. They each got an apple. One got put back on Princess Onna, the other  got to ride in front of Tanna and out we went. We knew our ride had to be short. As soon as we all got settled and on horses we got a call that one of the cousins needed picked up at school unexpectedly. So we went around the hay field. Onna made it clear that she was not going to be ponied. She is the greatest awesomest little mare, until you try to pony her. Then it is entirely possible to hate her. They got turned loose and did just fine, I don’t know why we ever doubt them.

Rusty was a little antsy at first but settled down and did wonderfully. On the way out he set the pace at a walk even speedier than my other two speedsters. He didn’t spook. He didn’t buck. He was horrified by this new funny colored horse 😉 He kept looking, neck all arched, snorting and sniffing. The two dogs that were along decided they wanted to walk under Rusty. He wanted to stomp them. We survived though, dogs and all!

Paula’s nice, older, broke mare was not alright. She had enjoyed her time off and was feeling her oats. They pranced and circled and at one point I realized that this was the horse she let me borrow last summer for the play day. I’m glad she hadn’t had so much time off then. We had lots of fun teasing Paula about just who was riding the crazy green colt. We had to rush back to make it to school in time but hopefully we can do it again. There are lots of good riding opportunities over there.

We had time to ride more once we got home and Tanna and I rode out to look over the cows. They’re getting close to calving and I was curious just how close they were. We found two that looked quite near to the event and played on the hills in the pens. It was great fun. This evening one of our picks had her calf! Calving has begun.

 

 

Worth Her Weight In Gold

By Neversummer March 4, 2018 Princess Onna 1 Comment

We brought a couple of the horses in. I had finished the chanfron for Princess Onna and wanted to try it on and I wanted to play with Rusty. I got Onna saddled for my daughter and set her up on to ride around the yard while I worked with Rusty. I no sooner set her up in the saddle then she left.

She said something about how hard I had worked to get Onna to stay by me, and now she was going to have to work just as hard to get her away from me. And she steered Onna around behind the chicken coup. I went around the other side to try to get a picture so she turned her around behind the shop.

I gave her the space she wanted and went back to Rusty who was digging a hole behind my pickup. As I brushed him I looked up to see my little girl and Princess Onna disappear into the hay bales. My husband and I looked and worried. I declared that gorse to be worth her weight in gold, if the two of them made it back together. I put Rusty away and grabbed Coyote. I brushed a little spot big enough for me to sit and hopped on Coyote bareback in a halter then set of in search of pair gone astray.

At a trot Coyote and I went through the yard. Looking down the rows of bales I saw no sign of them. Then I saw Daisy trot across the drive way down in front of me. There they were happily, quietly meandering back towards the house.

I persuaded her to keep going with me on a longer ride. We went out through the pasture, then out into the corn field and the whole time she rode Princess Onna by herself, not even a lead rope for just in case. Instead of whining that she couldn’t get Onna to go she held her reins with perfect form and gently insisted that they go where she asked. Onna took great care of her little passenger and is working on teaching her to be a great rider.

 

Getting Along

By Neversummer March 2, 2018 Clicker training, Rusty 1 Comment

Our last few rides have been nice. Nothing was wrong exactly. Things just weren’t quite right. The first one was rushed. My daughter was along on her mare, we had an hour before my husband who was home with the youngest had to leave. It was icy. We didn’t get to warm up at all. It wasn’t amenable.

The next ride was ok. We had our warm up. I may have drilled a bit too much on sending him out around an object. The mud was ankle deep. The ice was still there. Rusty was feeling energetic and would have like to buck. Then he was anxious to get home. We went back and worked back and forth in front of the other horses in their pen. It wasn’t a bad ride. But it didn’t leave me feeling that glow that comes from a good ride. I left feeling as though we had argued.

Yesterday, finally, we had a ride that didn’t have any undertones of conflict. We had a nice warm up. I didn’t work too long on sending him out around our barrel. We worked on targeting a little. Then got on and went out around the yard. We worked, calmly, on stopping from a walk. He didn’t want to at first. He was full of energy and wanted to move out. Why would he want to stop when we had just started? We trotted on a loose rein along the feed bunks. We went to see what the cows were upset about. We walked through the water running down the driveway. We walked between the towering stacks of hay in the stack yard.

Then we went back to the horses and worked back and forth in front of them. Trotting along the feed bunks again I sat and whoad and he did! Slammed on the breaks. I gave him a chunk of apple and asked him to back up. I remembered an article I recently read and clicked him as soon as he started to step backwards. After he finished chewing we did a rollback and trotted off the other way. In his enthusiasm he broke into a canter. There was no immediate bucking. I sat and tried to remember how to ride a canter not in a defensive position. We cantered nicely the length of the horses pen and well into the calves portion. Then I sat and said whoa, and he did!

As he started the stop I dropped the reins onto his neck and let him do it all on his own. Another good reward, so glad the kids didn’t finish their apple snack earlier. A step backwards, a nice rollback and off the other way. He isn’t leaping into a canter out of the rollback yet, but I’m not asking for it yet either. Trotting out is good for now, we’ve hardly worked on this at all. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly horses pick up on things when it is a fun game for them with food as a reward.

Finally a ride that left me, and hopefully him, happy and glowing. Today it is supposed to be in the fifties and there’s no way I’m going to be able to get out and ride. Oh well hopefully the happy will last until we can go play again.

Show and Tell

By Neversummer February 28, 2018 Clicker training No Comments

It was her turn to bring something, the kids get a chance once every few weeks to bring something for show and tell. I asked my daughter what she wanted to bring and she said the horse painting. I had no idea what she was talking about, we don’t have much for horse art in the house.
She was disgusted with me as usual, the one your friend sent you, that her horse painted. Duh. Of course silly me, the horse painting. That was well in advance, I was excited but sure that her mind would change before the time came. I didn’t want to force my likes upon her, I asked again as the day grew nearer. Was she sure that was what she wanted? Was there anything else she would like to take? She still wanted the horse painting. I was ecstatic.
We went along to carry it and to bring it home afterwards. I cherish my horse painting and didn’t want anything to happen to it. My youngest played in the sand box while they did, whatever it was that they were doing. Discussing things and coming up with rhymes, until it was finally time for show and tell.
We had talked about Australia on the way in, that it’s on the other side of the world, that our friend is just waking up as my daughter is getting on the bus to come home from school. Maybe not exactly but close enough.
She stood up and proudly held the pictures so that she could see them. I tried to stay back and not interfere. The teachers got the pictures facing the right way and the children pondered how in the world a horse could hold a paintbrush?! She told them that the painting came from Hawaii? Oh yeah, Australia! I carefully keep the pictures of Monty and Ineke with their painting, and she showed them around the room. I did join in a little to point out that in the picture with the Monty’s paintings on the beach, there are crocodiles in the water and you can’t swim.
There was lots of discussion and some decided that if they were holding a paintbrush in their teeth they’d hold the side with paint in their mouth. Everyone giggled a lot. I wished that they were old enough that I could bring up positive reinforcement. And that it was any of my business to do so. All in all it was a resounding success.

Heavy Training

By Neversummer February 27, 2018 Clicker training, Rusty No Comments

One of the first things Rusty and I did together was to take long walks down the driveway. He spent most of the time crashing into me and hitting the end of the lead rope as he tried to run off. I nearly gave up on him. By the next winter he was walking down the driveway loose at my shoulder practicing tricks and whoa as we walked. Today we walked again, as we often do. Not down the driveway but through the scary trees of the tree row.

It is slick and icy and warm and I didn’t have time to ride even if the slick didn’t make it so dangerous. My daughter and I tried a quick ride Friday and the horses nearly did the splits a couple of times. I wasn’t going to try it today, even had I had time enough. I had been more than a little grouchy all day and was hesitant to even get Rusty out, afraid that my uncertain temper would rear its ugly head with him. Instead the opposite happened. I calmed down and cheered up. I think I had been without my horse fix for too long and was going into withdrawals.

We skipped halters and leadropes entirely for the day. I joined a new group, Obstacal challenges for equine clicker trainers, by Hearths James, it’s been great fun in the very sort amount of time we’ve been in It never ceases to amaze me the amount of really good free, or cheap, clicker training help is out there. A popular Natural Horsemanship trainer might charge hundreds, or thousands, of dollars for a set of DVDs or a membership. So many excellent clicker trainers offer lots of free training advice and reasonable costs on what they charge for. I’ve spent time watching her videos and studying. We took advantage of a day without riding to practice.

Walking up into the trees was scary. Scary places are perfect for slow easy work such as targeting with his chin. Then his cheek, fun simple, lots of rewarding. A great way to make a scary place fun. There are also lots of dead tree stumps. We used them to work on February’s challenge. Sending the horse out, away from you, around an object then back to you. As we worked it occurred to me that Rusty had already learned how to do this around the wing fence in their pen. We just needed to generalize, not as easy as it sounds.

By the time we finished we were calm and relaxed enough to give a good bow in a very scary place and still without any physical means of control. He thought about leaving a few times when it got to be overwhelming. I called him and he stopped, thought about it and came back to me.

And finishing with some random Rusty pictures I hadn’t used anywhere yet.

A Day Of Firsts!

By Neversummer February 19, 2018 Coyote, Rusty 1 Comment

I got to haul Rusty over and ride with a friend at an indoor arena. It’s only a few miles away and we are lucky to have, nearly, an open invitation to come ride, so why don’t we ever go? Good question, we’re going to start. Not having a trailer of our own and the whole kid thing are little impediments but surely we can work around that. The day had started out warm but was cooling quickly in preparation for our blizzard that is blowing in. We pulled in to mud, lots of mud, and had to park far away to unload horses and children. It was a mad rush to get saddled and inside where it was warmer. The kids went up on the horses to get to the arena. Paula took them and I led a crazed Rusty and carried arm fulls of stuff.

We made it to the arena without anyone dyeing. Always a plus. Rusty was still crazed, all the more so I should say. Paula took the kids, got them helmeted and in the arena on their horses. Rusty pawed and swung around and stirred up dust. Paula lead Coyote around and kept taking care of the kids, Rusty looked at things, snorted, spooked and bounced off the end of the rope. Paula turned Gus loose and cleaned up some things in the arena while the kids did an amazing job of not getting killed. I am very proud of my fearless son and the job he did riding Coyote around all by himself! What very good boys they are. The girls were a bit whiny and clingy, one was whiny because the other was clingy. She didn’t want to have to steer her own horse, she couldn’t get her to leave me, and so on. They did good for the most part though, when she could get Onna to follow Coyote and her three year old brother who could steer his own horse. Rusty calmed down enough to do some tricks.

They finally got tired of riding and wanted off. We tied the very well behave Onna, who can stand tied by herself, at the hitching post and left Coyote in the arena. The kids climbed hay bales and I got on Rusty. Paula got on Coyote. She filmed a little. We trotted circles until Rusty stopped with the head tossing and tiny attempts at bucking. We even loped our first actual circles!! It’s amazing what you can do on good footing. Once he stopped with his silly attempts at bucking he did very nicely. I kept it short because someone was terrorizing her red heeler, seriously not a good idea, rotten kid. The dog refrained from biting and we stopped so I could do some yelling.

Then we discussed training practices. She offered some really good ideas and pointers and even refrained from saying anything mean about me and my weird clicker training. Instead of criticizing it she told me when I ought to click and when I should wait. Like the time I clicked him mid buck as we came out of a rollback. Yeah, I’d say she was right about that one. She pointed out that I need to sit deeper and push more with my seat as I ask him to rollback into the fence. I thought about it as we practiced it again later, after the poor horse had caught his breath from trotting two circles. Then I sat and used my outside leg more, I realized I had mostly been letting it hang. It was great to have someone to ride with besides children.

In way to short of time the kids were wore out and ready to go. We repeated the same mad rush back to the pickup and trailer where the horses happily leapt in. It was incredibly nice of Paula to let us come ride with her and to help us so much when she didn’t even ride, her own horse that is. For some reason she said she had fun, such good manners, I don’t see how she could have, and she even asked us to come do it again. I can’t wait until we are able to!

 

The kids doing a wonderful job of riding!

 

Rusty being very Rotten and so good all at the same time

 

Little Horsemen

By Neversummer February 14, 2018 Coyote No Comments

I love to ride, obviously, but I always worry that my kids wont. My daughter is a bit of a princess, she likes pink and ruffles. my son loves forming and tractors like his daddy. I jump on any chance to get them out and riding. So when my daughter got off the bus on a recent warm day and wanted to go ride I was more than happy to oblige.

It was late though and cooling down quickly so we decided to skip the saddles. It would get them on faster and keep them warmer. We’ve talked a lot about why I ride bareback, on good old Coyote if not Rusty so much, and why she has to wear a saddle if I don’t. I keep telling her that she can ride bareback whenever she wants, as long as we are just going around the yard. It teaches such good balance, but I’m not willing to let her go out across the pasture without a saddle just yet. It’s hard enough learning to steer without having to try to stay on too. As for him, he can’t reach the short kid stirrups yet anyway. Might as well skip the saddle.

I lead Coyote but Princess Onna is Ok off the lead, she wont wander far even if her little person might not be doing the best job steering. We meandered about the yard, spent lots of time eating, and even trotted a little. I’m so proud of how good both of them are doing riding, and staying on, bareback!

 

 

 

Cow Horse Wannabe

By Neversummer February 13, 2018 Rusty No Comments

I rode Rusty today!! It’s been a rare occurrence. The weather has been cold and icy or warm and muddy. The kids have been sick, I’ve been sick. We’ve been busy. Today I was not going to miss out on the warm weather. The snow on the ground hid the ice underneath. If I can’t see it I don’t have to worry about it 🙂

We did a lot of ground work. Walked out through the corrals, did some more ground work, then opened the gate into the bulls pen. First we looked at the bulls. Rusty did some visiting. I’m not sure who won that one but it was fun.

 

Then we made use of their big pen to work on transitions. We trotted some big circles. He does great to the right. Not so good to the left. Did some figure eights, the change of bend was new and a little difficult for him. It was so fun feeling him bend and flex to my legs and to guide him with the outer rein. You read about the importance of it all the time but last time I tried he wasn’t far enough along to know what I was talking about, and maybe our circles were guided more by the confines of the arena than my legs and reins.

I could feel him want to break into a canter so I sat and pushed. He leaped into the canter and bounded along for a couple of strides. I clicked and rewarded him. We did it again the other direction, same over enthusiastic results. We walked, trotted, walked again. Then we did it again. We meandered, we side passed, we went up and down some hills, otherwise known as manure piles. Then we cantered again.

He leaped and bounded. I didn’t stop and reward him for the transition, I sat and pulled up on the reins. I pushed him forward maintaining the canter while staying on and pushing him through the bucking. It was great. It was awesome. He’s such a fun horse to ride. I sat and said whoa once we had a couple of canter like strides. He slammed on the breaks and stopped. My knee was cramping. We had survived. It was probably time to call it good. We had a great ride and I hope we can do it again sooner rather than later.