Endurance rides & colt starting.

Wow. So much has been happening lately since my last post. My first resolution is to write about what Im doing much more regularly!

Boogie - my little filly, by Chickabar Gold is coming along so, so nicely. She is still under 20 rides - she had a big rest while I went to the Australian Natural Horsemanship Study Centre to study for a 2 week supercamp in May. Since returning I have put a few rides on her and she is just coming along in leaps and bounds!

Ride number 16 for this girl was a 22 km endurance ride. She vetted in perfectly and handled the ride like an old pro. It was a number of firsts for her - first time in a float for over an hour, first time to an outing / event, first time on a ride that took 3 hours, first time meeting all those strange horses, and first time staying overnight away from home.

And she took it like a trooper! Better than that, she didn't even fuss! There were seasoned horses on this ride, that carried on bucking, rearing and the like, and my girl just rolled an eye back to me, I gave her a reassuring rub & told her she was going to be just fine, and thats all she needed. She trotted and cantered alongside strange horses, up hills, through water, down slopes all in a days work really!

After seeing her perform like this, on a ride where a large percentage of horses really couldn't handle it that well, It got me to really thinking about our starting program and what a solid foundation it puts on our horses. "The first ride on a young horse is not just something, its everything" - this quote has been around for years, but it really is something that I take to heart and think about when Im giving them a start.

Hope you are enjoying your horses,

Tanja

Cooper is coming along!

Well its less than a week until my boy and I head off to SUPERCAMP with Ken Faulkner! 2 whole weeks of horses, horses, horses. I can't wait to see how much we both learn in that amount of concentrated study :) Awesome.

Been bringing Cooper back into work in preparation for supercamp, but also in prep to start campaigning him this year. Headed out on the trail yesterday morning - only our 3rd ride together (ive been doing ground work with him) and he was fantastic! He still gets a little excitable when he sees the other horses in the paddock, but we are working on it:)

Went out for about 1.5 hours and he was buggered (so was I!), great bush trail so walk trot and canter were all on the cards, and he was a perfect gentleman.

Love my boy :)

Tk

Tribute to my old mate

I had to make the heartbreaking decision to let my old horse

shadow go yesterday - April 20th 2011. After 19 years with me and

at 28 years of age, my old mate had too many aches and pains and the

upcoming winter would not have been kind.

This is a little poem for him,

I remember when I got you

You were stubborn from the start,

But that didn't matter to me

I loved you with all my heart

It wasn't always easy

As I learnt to ride

But you remained so patient

As I tried and tried and tried

From barrel races to hack shows

I dragged you here and there

I pushed and pulled and prodded

And you just didn't care

Down the beach at Cabarita,

You loved an ocean swim

to hours of trails at newmans

So many places we have been,

Although you did get cranky

you were a great old shoe,

Helped the kids learn how to ride

And some adults too

Now I have to let you go

And the choice is hard to make

I believe it is the right one

Before it gets too late

19 years is a long time

So many memories

Thankyou shad my old mate

for growing up with me,

Goodbye to my 'old man'

I'll miss you every day

Id rather let you go now,

than let you fade away

Im glad that you went quickly,

It was as if you knew,

A few last carrots and a mars bar

and your best mate next to you,

Rest in peace my shadow

In that pasture in the sky

You'll be forever young there

& I'll see you again sometime

x x tjk

Limited time - working in with the weather

So. I am 9 days into the start of my little girl and despite my grand plan of starting her over 10 days straight, having a couple of days break, and then doing another few days - things didn't go to plan whatsoever!

Over the past weekend (april 1 - 3) I had no time at all.

I thought - no problem I will work her all next week - I go away on Saturday 9th.

That was going to give me 5 straight days riding. And then the rain came. No riding at all, in fact I didnt even get her out of the paddock. Today, I cracked. Its been raining and shining on and off, so I bit the bullet and went and caught her. I intended just to do some ground work with her, brush her, do some farrier training and leave it at that.

Which is what I pretty much did, adding in jumping on her bareback and doing some turns etc.

I am soo happy with this little horse, she really is trying hard for me, and whilst I wont call this 'ride #10' done, I will notch it up to a lesson of working with what I have. I kept procrastinating about working her as the roundyard is much too slippery and they can lose confidence - but I worked around it. I just worked her in a different area of the yard, where it was not as slippery, and I asked for just basic groundwork skills etc. The session built her confidence, taught me a lesson, and got my little filly that little bit more educated - what more could I ask for?

That lesson complete - I headed straight out to my stallion with the rain threatening. I decided not to even put the halter on or to take his rug off - I just did 10 minutes of full liberty, in which we achieved 2 circles in each direction 2 times. Backup from me at his tail, backup from the front, draw, walking next to me and stopping. Done, awesome :) big smiles all round.

I could have stayed in the house - but what would I have learned?

Work with what you have

Happy Riding :)

Tanja

Welcome to my VLOG

So I am still mad about horse training, and have decided this year that I am 'going the whole hog'. I have finally decided to follow my dream and train horses for a living. I have plenty of my own to get kick started, and I am looking forward to taking on young horses to start, and horses and ponies for basic training and education. My blog is going to continue - but in video format! I found that working the horses then coming inside to sit and type up my experiences was taking a couple of hours - so I have decided to video and post!

Here is my first video!

Happy riding :)

Tanja

Squizzy argues!

Well, todays ride was a little different, squizzy decided to have a bit of an argument with me, which was great, because before they argue, you really don't know what you are dealing with.

So I went ahead of Phil into our big paddock on the way to the trail, because Phil was riding a different horse. What I discovered though, was that squizzy wasnt that keen on heading out by herself - the other horses company means alot to her. So she kicked up a bit of a stink - nothing too major, but as she is young, and still a little out of balance with a passenger, when we started heading backwards down a hill, I thought it best to hop off and lunge her about a bit!

I remounted, and the argument continued, I stuck to my guns this time though, just politely asking her to stick to the path and head to the flat area. We got down to the flat and I continued with some circles and frequent changes of direction, pace and stopping. She was all but 'cured' and Phil turned up to head on the ride - we went on the same trail as the day before, and she was all smiles again. I really like this little ones attitude - she does just need a bit of a work ethic put into her, which I will work on.

Heres to arguments!

Tk

An UPdate!

Wow, I cant believe i actually get to do an update on my horse training blog!

Have been super busy, but have brought squizzy back into training to basically finish off her start. Was mucking about in the round yard with her for a few days, and decided to take her out on a trail - Phil was riding his old horse Al, who is super solid, so squiz was just happy to follow along. I asked for some trot and canter, yielding, and she was more than happy too. She has a stop to die for and I am soo happy with her:)

Have to bring up my other filly soon - she turns 3 in Feb so she is just reading to start..

Happy trails

Tk