Great ride today!

It's January and 60+ degrees in Texas.  Gotta love it.  I had to take the opportunity to get out and ride.

Rachael was happy for the attention.  I had to re-clinch some of the nails in her front feet.  I heard a clicking sound as she walked, and figured that wasn't good.  I tightened up the nails as best I could, and hoped for the best.  I think it's time to have the farrier back out to re-set the shoes.  I sure wish I had the mastery of that skill to do it for myself (and the toned muscles to be able to do the job without being plain tuckered out).

The ride was good.  Beautiful scenery, and nothing eventful happening.  I really had a good time.  I rode with 2 friends from my saddle club right here in Campbell. 

After the ride, I got to help my friend Ann with her new horse.  She rescued a horse about 6 months ago.  It was in a field and just all ribs, so one day she saw someone in the field and she stopped and asked if she could have the poor starving horse.  They agreed and so Ann has spent the last 6 months putting groceries in her belly.  She's fattened up nicely.  She's over 25 years old, and Ann is trying to see what exactly she can do.  Ann is really good at working her horses, and she had lunged this horse without any problem.  Well, today Ann wanted to try and actually ride her in a round pen.  I could tell that both she and our friend Linda (who is also an AWESOME horse woman) were a little hesitant at the thought of hopping on this horses back for the first time.  So I volunteered, cuz I'm young, stupid, and ignorant.  ;)

She lunged great.  When I stopped her from lunging in one direction, she immediately faced me, and then went the other direction.  We all cracked a smile, cuz that behavior meant that this horse has been worked in a round pen quite a bit in her life.  We slowly worked up and eventually I was in the saddle, and riding.  She did really well.  She had a funny gate that I sure wasn't use to.  I was real proud of her.  The only scary moment for me was once when I asked her to move and she busted out into a full lope.  It wasn't her fault though.  I tell my girls to step off by kissing at them.  I've become aware that many trainers use the kiss noise to move a horse from a walk to a lope.  So ... I figure this was the case.  I had to make sure I clicked (which was hard for me).

Sure was a good day.  Always is a good day when it's over 60, sun shining, and playing with horses.

Ground Driving Nellie

It's pretty safe to say that if you give me a day with nothing scheduled, and the sun shining, I'll find a way to fit horses into it.  This happened to me this past Saturday.  I could've just gone on a wagon ride with the team, but decided instead to work Nellie, the new girl.

My goals were pretty simple.  I wanted to attempt to get the harness on her.  When it comes to my training, I try to make a goal that I feel fairly comfortable with, but I always leave it up to the horse.  I want my training session to challenge them and make them learn something.

First things first ... I groomed her all up and made her all pretty.  While doing this, I enforced our ground rules, and made sure she knew not to move in on me, or move while I'm working on her.  She did this very well.  On her feet, I've been lifting and quickly putting them back down.  I'm still working up some trust with her on that, and am taking baby steps towards her just letting me have her feet completely.

Once all clean and ready, I brought over a collar.  I put it in front of her face and let her smell it.  Nellie didn't act scared of it at all.  She mildly sniffed it, just cuz it was in front of her nose, but really didn't seem to care one way or the other that it was there.  I rubbed it against her shoulder a bit, and she just sat there, rear foot cocked, totally relaxed.  I unbuckled the collar, and put it on her without any problems.  She didn't care at all.

Next I grabbed my nylon harness.  I did the same thing with it and let her smell it.  Once again she didn't care, and to my surprise, she had no issues with me throwing it over her back.  She just stood there and showed me what cold blood really means.  :)

It took me about 15 minutes to adjust the harness to fit her.  Once it was on, I let her stand for a few minutes and just watched her.  She was calm, and very relaxed.  I then untied her and led her around a bit.  The noise of the harness, and the jingling and clanking of the metal parts did not even phase her.  I was very happy about this.  I still hadn't challenged Nellie yet, so I decided to keep going forward.

Up next, I put the bridle on.  She didn't object to this, and even after it was attached, she just stood there, chewing on the bit.  I talked calmly to her since this was probably her first time with blinders on.  She was pretty relaxed still, so I led her around with everything hooked up.  She was perfect, and did exactly what I wanted.

Well ... the next step it so actually ground drive her.  So I grabbed my single lines, and started hooking them up.  Got it all on, and unhooked the lead rope.  She stood perfectly.  Then came the fun.

Nellie has never been worked on the ground before.  This means that she had no idea what the cues meant.  When I told her to step up, her ears cocked back and she knew I wanted something.  We then began a battle to keep her from turning around.  She wanted to face me, and so I had to really work the lines to keep her head facing away from me.  It was during this, that I realized how valuable a crupper is on a harness!  :)  After she realized that she could not turn around and face me, she started just backing up fast.  I kept telling her woah, but she wouldn't stop.  I had to start smacking her in the butt hard with my lines to start letting her know that was not what I wanted from her.  Finally she stopped and I let her sit for a minute.  I then started telling her to step up and clicking and kissing at her, and she started backing up again.  We did this for another five minutes, till she finally took a few steps forward.  As soon as she did this, I let go of all tension on the lines, and told her what a good girl she was.  She felt the looseness of the lines and immediately stopped.  We went through this a few more times, and she finally got it.  She started walking forward and I praised her and praised her.

She is really good on bit pressure, and turns her head at the slightest pressure.  She also stops very good.  One woah and some tension on both lines and she stops perfectly.  If I was facing away from the other horses, she would step off very good.  But when the other horses were in her sight, she was a bit of a butt.  I worked her for about 30-45 minutes just ground driving.  Lots of it was nice and she did really good.  Occasionally she would forget what step up meant, and we'd wrestle to keep her facing away from me and going forward.  I finally ended on a really good note where she went for an entire figure 8 on my property with no problems.  Always gotta stop on a good point.  At this point, I took the following picture.

After that, I praised her a ton, and pet her really good.  I then left her tied, and went in the house to get myself a drink.  It was good for her to stand with all the equipment on after a break.  She stood well, and didn't get too impatient.

After that I took off the harness without any problems, groomed her again, and turned her out.

She did very well.  I'm really excited about working her.  She's smart, and she figures out what I want pretty well.  I'm also happy about her response to pressure.  We'll need a few more lessons, but I'm very happy with her.  She was very stressed during Saturdays lessons, and the amount of sweat she had worked up showed that to me.  After a few more of these sessions, she should be ready to pull something.  I'm real happy with her!

Introducing Nellie

A week and a half ago, I brought home a new horse.  My family is getting concerned that I'm addicted to Belgians.  This new horse is a 9 year old Belgian mare named Nellie.  Nellie came to me from the Bev at the Double M Warhorse Ranch in Terrell, TX (www.doublemwarhorseranch.com).  So as far as I can tell, here's her story.

Nellie used to be owned by a spur maker.  The spur maker decided that he was going to make Nellie his riding horse.  He paid someone to put 60 days on her, then started riding.  Apparently on one ride, Nellie decided that she was not going to go through a gate.  You can imagine what a spur maker might have on his heels, and he made use of them on Nellie.  2 days later he woke up in the hospital.  After that, he wanted nothing to do with Nellie.  Bev at the Double M Warhorse Ranch was contacted and took the horse in. 

She's really pretty, and has some nice action in her trot.  Her papers are pretty good too.  Bev kept her for over a year as a brood mare, but right now with all the clydesdales she is bringing in, she needed the room.  And that's how she ended up with me.

She's a gorgeous horse!  I really love her.  Her hair is really thick.  She's a smaller build than my other horses, but is just as tall.  She's got a whole lot of spunk to her too.  Working with her reminds me a lot of working with Lily.  It's been kind of nice.

I just got in from our first real work session.  Ground manners and grooming were the topics.  Ground manners are something we're going to really have to work into her.  While tied, she moves around a lot and does not care if you are there or not.  Today she responded well with me just popping her in the side when she would try to move in on me.  She's really sweet, but makes you work for her love, and she's very responsive to pressure.  I had a good time working with her.

My goals with her are to get her into hitch working shape.  This would mean I could do 3 abreast for all my farm work, and I'd love to try and learn to drive a unicorn hitch with the 3 of them.  I'm really excited about the future of this horse.

Nellie has also taken the lead mare spot here.  She and Rachael can't seem to get along.  They still get in fights occasionally.  Rachael has let Nellie have the lead mare spot, but is not going along with it willingly.  Pam on the other hand, is Nellie's new best friend.  She is by her side constantly and with how submissive she is, Nellie has no problems with her.

More fun to come!

One Last Wagon Ride for 2010

I've been off work this whole past week.  I had planned to do a lot of horse stuff, and really start working Nellie, the new Mare I am working with.  Sometimes, the weather can sure change plans in a hurry.  This past week has just been nasty.  Really cold temps and rain.  The ground has been soup here, so there wasn't much that could be done outside.  Friday Pat and I decided that only a hard rain would stop us from a wagon ride though.

The idea was for me to bring my horses over to his place, and then we'd hit the road.  The nice thing about this, is that Pat has an extra wagon (the hay wagon I borrowed for the Greenville parade this past year), so I can do a wagon ride at Pats, without having to haul my wagon.  Very nice!  Pat was going to hitch his horses up as well, and then we'd hit the road.  The long route we were planning was 7 1/2 miles, but we could scale it back if needed.

The first thing I did was call the girls out of the pasture.  This was a bit of an ordeal.  Due to having Nellie, the herd dynamics have changed.  Nellie has established herself as the lead mare, and Rachael is not happy about it.  Pam is a follower, and is now always side by side with Nellie.

Rachael was very easy to get.  She walked right up to me almost asking to be taken away from Nellie.  Pam was a bit different.  She was fairly easy to get haltered, but once we started heading to the gate, ol' Nellie realized that we were going to go out of it.  Suddenly she came trotting over, as if to make sure she wasn't going to be excluded.  This lead to a bit of a struggle at the gate.  Since I am working alone, I have to open the gate, walk through it with Pam, and then close the gate.  This means that I can't have Nellie close by or else she could possibly squeeze out the gate as Pam is walking though on the lead rope.  Eventually, I was able to get her to back away far enough that I got Pam out and closed the gate before Nellie could make a run on the gate.

It's been 2 weeks since I last put my hands on the girls due to Christmas and the crappy weather.  The picture above shows them right out of the pasture (they look much better in the picture than up close though).  Their coats were covered with mud and the rain had matted them up a bit.  The show sheen I had put in their manes and tails for christmas has done wonderful at keeping the cockleburs out.  It took me around 30 minutes to clean the girls up and get them harnessed (without bridles).  Cleaning their feet was a task with all the mud we have right now.

This leads me to one of my ways of thinking when harnessing a horse.  When it comes to bridles, I think of it as an extension of my arms in directing the way I want them to move.  The blinders on them are telling the horse to trust me and not worry about the things I'm not allowing them to see.  This means to me, that it is my job as a teamster, to make sure that nothing happens to scare the horses while those blinders are on.  This can lead to a breach of trust, and I don't want that.  So, because of all this, I only put on the bridles, if I'm actually about to drive them.  Once I am done driving them, I take the bridles off immediately.  I think of the bridle as a tool, not tack.  I only use the tool when it is needed.

While I'm waxing on about things I do, I might add what I did next.  Next I loaded the horses.  Yes, I loaded them with harnesses on.  Now I've heard all kinds of people say that you should never do this.  I've heard all kinds of stories of things getting tangled up, caught, pinched, and on and on.  For me, I have no problem doing this for a short trip.  If I'm hauling somewhere that is 30 minutes or less, I have no problems harnessing them and trailering them.  I have an open stock trailer, and the girls, due to their cold blood and laid back nature, just don't move that much when we're on the road.  It's so much easier on my back to haul harness from the tackroom, to the horse, than from the tack room, to the truck; from the truck to the horse.  The harnesses don't get tangled this way either.

So ... anyway, off to Pats house my son and I went.  When I got there, Pat was hitched up and ready to go.  I unloaded the horses, and tied them, and then we made sure the wagon I was going to use was ready to go.  Once it was, I put the bridles on, and I ground drove the girls over into position on the wagon.  Once they were hitched up, I drove them up to the truck and we threw some bales of hay on the wagon for me to sit on.  The pictures below show this.

It was time to hit the road after that.  We grabbed drinks, and used the restroom and we were off.  My son had eyed Pat's wagon, and determined that the nice looking bucket seats up front looked more appealing than the hay I was going to sit on, so I got to ride alone while Pat got to enjoy the chitter chatter from my son.

The ride was awesome.  I started off trailing Pat since he knew the way.  Rachael and Pam were great.  They were calm and cool while getting ready to go, and were pulling great on the road.  Working them hard this past fall has given me a really nice team.  I really enjoy driving them.

One part of the drive had us cross a very busy highway.  Pat had some lucky timing and didn't have to stop.  I was not so fortunate.  Did I mention that this stop is on a hill?  Rachael and Pam were leaning forward for all they were worth to keep us still at the stop sign and keep the wagon from rolling backward down the hill.  I was very VERY pleased with them.  Occasionally they would have to get new footings on their rear feet but they didn't move.  After a few minutes, I had a window, and the girls were happy to get moving and get the wagon off that hill.

Not too long after that, Pat asked me if I would take the lead.  Pat hasn't been working his horses too long as teammates, and they are still getting used to how things are supposed to work.  One of the things Pat has had problems with in the past, is them wanting to run the entire time they are hitched to finish things up faster.  Working from home can be difficult with this.  The horses know that when you come back, they are done, and this can lead to some barn sour.  Pat was hoping that with my girls taking the lead, that his girls would settle down and walk nicely.  This was a great idea on Pats part, and it worked great.  They even stood still when we stopped and acted like they enjoyed the break.  The next two pictures are of one of these stops.

 Have I mentioned how pretty Pat's horses are?  Dolly is an AWESOME specimen of what a belgian horse should look like.  She knows it too, and is a DIVA!  :)

The rest of the ride was awesome.  It was so much fun to just be out on the road, seeing the sights, and enjoying life at 2 miles per hour.  As I was enjoying myself on this adventure, I think I really came to see what Bob Skelding see's in horse travel.  For those of you who don't know, Bob Skelding is the wagon teamster and he's been traveling across the country by horse team and wagon.  I met him as he came through Texas, and I've conversed with him enough since then to consider him a friend.  (his website is www.wagonteamster.com)  As I sat there driving the team, I really came to appreciate all the life you get to see when you travel this slow.  Small little details in life that are normally missed when traveling by car.  It's a beautiful thing, to have the chance to enjoy life at 2 MPH.

My last ride of 2010 was an awesome one.  I'm thinking I need to do more of it.  I wonder if I could talk my wife into a weeklong wagon ride someplace for our summer vacation instead of a plane ride and a hotel.  On second thought, I think I already know the answer to that one.  :)

Happy New Year everyone!  Best wishes for 2011!