training at the beach

As you can probably tell from my lack of posts I have been super busy, translation = not doing much with the horses. I have even taken rugs off all of them and they are currently all 'roughing' it - i think they enjoy it! Phil asked me out on a beach ride the other day and having not ridden anyone for ages, i thought - ill take squizzy! The little quarter pony that I have only just started, then put back in the paddock to 'be a horse' again for a while.

Sounds like a dumb idea right? Well, it probably wasn't the smartest thing that i ever did - take a young, green horse to the beach, but I really wanted to see how she would cope - and boy was I impressed. Despite her being super scared of the water, the sand, the wet sand, the dry sand, the grass (you get the idea) she really held it together, we had one little moment of a kick up and a snort - and another where we got surrounded by 'monsters' (twig monsters, sand monsters, grass monsters....) where i decided for both of our benefits I would hop off and lead her through, and that was really it - she actually is a brave little filly, who has been deeper in the water than some of my other horses I have taken to the beach a number of times. Even though she was scared - her way of dealing with being scared was to go up to things and investigate, not turn and run. So in the end we ended up walking along the beach (behind al - phils old quarter horse) and we were doing alright. We need to get back there again, but I was sooo happy with her attitude and response to pressure - at least now I know I can afford to expose her to some pressure and she is going to try and cope,

happy horsing

tk

Im still alive

Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know I'm still kicking!

I know its been a while and I keep promising to be consistent, but being time poor it never seems to happen.

I have had a few remarkable rides, notably, riding dicko for the first time and finding out he has movement to die for!! Elevated trot and an upright, ground covering canter! I would have ridden him much sooner had I realised that I would enjoy it so much!

Finally finishing Squizzy - when I say finished, I got my canters out of her, so I now consider her fully started. Having said that she is still a very very green horse. But an exceptional one at that - the canters were care free - took her on a trail and she wanted to canter and popped up into the smoothest first canter I have ever experienced! Took her out on the trail and found that she wants to go, and really enjoys being out on the ride - ears were forward and flicking back to me to make sure I didnt want anything, happy to trot, walk (walk - she marches!) and canter. The most difficult thing i found was resisting the urge to pull her up - she is just so nice and forward, im used to having to ask them to go.

Finishing Rocky, also out on the trail - got the canters out of him aswell. He was just the same, happy to be out, not a care in the world!

Got to go, Happy trails!

tk

Still Learning

Well, we have been doing a little bit of working with the horses, but between being busy with other things and rain, it has been few and far between. I have had the opportunity to properly start working with Dicko, and I have also started working my old horse Shadow. He is 27 years old, a standardbred, that I have had for 17 years now. I have started working him in the roundyard, just a couple of times a week, to keep him fit. Phil told me years ago when I met him, that a horse will stay as fit as it needs to be, if you only ride them once a week on Sundays, they will stay fit enough to be able to do that ride, if you just leave them in the paddock doing nothing (with the exception of foals - as they play and run everywhere) they have no reason to have any fitness at all. It made sense to me, so I try to keep them doing something at least once a week.

With the addition of the roundyard, I have been able to do a bit of liberty work with all the horses, it was really interesting for me to work with shadow at liberty for the first time. This is a horse that has carried all of my mistakes, i got him as a teenager who knew nothing at all, and have grown and learnt ever since. But I must be doing ok, because he knew what to do. My signals were clear to him, and I was able to trot him around in circles, change direction, call him into the centre. COOL. It takes me about 5 minutes each time I work him, just to get his heart rate up, get his muscles moving. Then I call him in, brush him and pick out his feet. 15 minutes a week and my old horse should be around for a while.

Dicko. Wow I am having so much fun with this horse, and learning so much. He is nothing like any horse that I have worked with before, and If i didn't know his background ( which is great) I would probably assume that he had been a little mistreated. He lets you do anything with him (he has a little problem with his ears - but I’m working on that) but he is easy to worm, shoe, float, whatever you want, he lets you do it. But that is the thing, its almost like he lets you do things to him - he doesn't like it, but he wont muck up to let you know that he doesn't like it. This is obviously a good thing, but i like a horse that at least will stick up for itself.

We are having breakthroughs though. I have worked with him 3 or 4 times in the roundyard, and he is really good - he trots around, changes direction, draws in, canters, pretty much whatever I want, he is not relaxed though - you can see that he is always worried about things, like he is waiting for something to happen to him. He is the horse I am working to sell, and I truly believe that once he gets an owner, and he is the number 1 horse, then he will form a bond with that person. In our household so far, he has been part of a number of horses, and we have cared for him in every way, but he has always been temporary, and I think when you have that in the back of your mind, you aren't bonding as much as say I do with my stallion or my old horse - who are both here forever. That is changing with Dicko though, now that he is being worked, brushed, and time spent with him every day he is finding his place. At the beginning when i called him into the centre of the yard to stand with me, he would almost hold his breath, he would take just the minimum breaths, where as when i call my stallion in, he takes a deep breath, licks his lips, lowers his head, he knows that in the middle with me is where he wants to be, Dicko is only just starting to learn this. The first day it took up to 10 minutes for him to breathe properly and relax. Day 2 was a little bit quicker, and yesterday we were quicker again. I am quite enjoying seeing the changes in him, and forming this bond. I am learning heaps, especially how much patience is required, and what to do and when. I am a real cuddly person with the horses, and I rub them and touch them all the time, but with Dicko it seems to make him tense up. I remember Ken Faulkner saying, “make sure you reward the horse with something he sees as a reward, there is no point in rubbing a horse if he doesn't like it - that is not a reward to him”. And it is so true, when I call Dicko in and he comes and stands near me, if i rub him when he is not ready to be rubbed, he tenses up, his head goes up, and he doesn't enjoy it at all. The challenge for me is to just stand there, still and let him relax. He actually put his head down and into my hand yesterday, and enjoyed a bit of a rub on the nose, so we are getting there.

COOPER

Cooper is pretty cool to work with in the roundyard. He is so expressive it is just great to watch. My stuck spot personally is the canter. All of my horses will trot around the yard until i change their direction, gait or stop them. But I just cant seem to get the canter. They will strike off, but then they will fall back into the trot. So I'm working on it.

We decided to go for a ride, and I hadn't ridden Cooper in a while, so I got him out of the paddock, saddled him, and headed up to the roundyard to warm up. Phil was using the yard already so I went into the paddock to lunge him. He was fine, despite the other horses being around, he was trotting nicely in both directions, stopping, turning, coming in, yielding his hind etc. But when i went to canter - boom! He started bucking like a bronco! He didn't take off and try to drag me or anything, but the bucks were coming fast and strong, and boy this horse can buck! When i started him he smoked me pretty bad, and this was like watching that all over again. I just kept working him through it, and basically ignoring the bucks, and rewarding him when he cantered properly. After a little while Phil was finished with the roundyard and headed over “You’ve got yourself a horse” - thanks babe - i noticed! I asked Phil about it - he reckons there are 2 schools of thought - what i was doing - ignore the bad, reward the good, and the other - punish the bad and reward the good. So, what to do? I decided to keep doing what i was doing to a degree - when he took to bucking, I just disengaged his hind and changed direction, and when he cantered off nicely I disengaged him and let him rest.

I headed up to the roundyard to let him canter around at liberty, upon heading out of the paddock he was carrying on like a stallion - the head was up, the tail was up, he was the man of the moment! He was controllable though - i was able to move him, lead him etc - which is a great sign to me. Once we got to the roundyard - the bucking was forgotten. I cantered him around, trotted him changed direction, whatever, and he didn't buck at all, so headed back into the big paddock, tested him, led him down the bottom where phil was, tested him, and he seemed ok to get on. We headed out for a ride - and both of us decided to head out at the canter - if there is one thing that these horses need - its miles and wet saddle blankets. We cantered most of the 4km ride. Not aggressive cantering by any means, but just a nice lope through the bush. The problem with being busy and the rain coming, is that you tend to feed them the same - but they are not expanding the energy. I try to be very aware of this, and I do reduce the feed, but when you haven't ridden for a while, particularly with a stallion, you really need to be on top of the game.

I will ride him again for the next few days, and make sure I make the time to ride him a few times a week.

Happy trails

Tk

Time to Refocus

As I mentioned in my last post - apologising for a lack of posts, i went a million miles an hour, got into a bit of a routine with the horses, then BOOM! Things happen, life takes over - and the routine goes out the window! Well, that happened, and I have been working with the horses - though not as many or as often as I would like.

Today is the day that I have decided to get refocused, now that all the busy stuff seems to be gone & get my routine back on track. I took Rocky & Boogie down to our river flat paddock - they can rest & think about their training until the first week of July. This gives me just over a month to work with Cooper for shows, Dicko to Sell, Shadow (my old boy) to keep him fit, and to finish off squizzy, all i need to do with her is establish the canter and canter aids.

Had the farrier out this morning, Cooper is really sensitive to the nails being hammered in to his hooves, and generally plays up a bit. Today was the first day he only played up a tiny bit - and nowhere near as bad as he has previously AND we even got a comment from the farrier that he had improved.

After the farrier left i put him in our roundyard - THE BEST INVESTMENT EVER!! and just worked him at liberty. I havent worked him for about a week (rain, shoe fell off, busy with other stuff) and I always like to try and reconnect with him before i just hop on. That, and the fact that i just love doing liberty work with him. He seems to really enjoy it aswell. I found a bit of a stuck spot - i can run along beside him to the left (with me in his nearside eye) and he is pretty good, but when i swap sides and directions he gets a little worried. Probably because even though i am aware of working him both ways and on both sides, ultimatley i probably spend most time on the near side of him, and my body position probably changes and he is a little confused. I worked him a little and he kept changing sides to put me in his other eye. Phil suggested sending him and drawing him in a couple of times in that direction, which i did, and he was still a little stuck, but i did manage to walk beside him with my stick on his back in a couple of full circles.

Enough for today - gives me something to work on tomorrow.

tk

Cooper is a stallion

Well, firstly I must apologies for my lack of posts! I went a million miles an hour, and then took a week off - which ended up being a couple of weeks. Of course i have still been doing a bit of stuff with the horses, which I will do some back blogs on. I farewelled my old dog on Friday 7th May, after 14 years together it was his time, so I havent really been that inspired to write, though I have been spending time with the horses, they are like therapy.

Today I decided to ride Cooper - I havent ridden him for at least a week - my mum was visiting, then I was show prepping him, clipping him etc, and I just didnt get on his back, so I decided today to hop on. Normally I would have maybe lunged him about today to take a bit of the edge off, and then ridden him tommorow, or at least taken him on a trail today, give him a path to follow, and just get him a little tired. In the show prep I have been feeding him twice a day and he looks fantastic (not too big though - he is only 3!). I knew he would be full of beans but I decided to head down to the river flat to do some circles, Phil was riding his gelding, and I was on Cooper.

Firstly I saddled him and headed down the paddock to his bottom gate, to lead him through and down to the yards where I was meeting Phil. We got through the gate, and the juniors were in the yards and Rosie and Squizzy were waiting there as well. A road seperates Coopers Paddock and the yards - so he can see them, but he cant get up close. Well, how exciting! Here he was coming out of his paddock, and lo and behold GIRLS! Looking at HIM! (or so he thought!). He started up with his big loud stallion whinnys, to prove to the girls he was worthy of their attention. Phil still wasnt down there to meet me so i had to wait - Awesome. What a great opportunity to get his mind, when he clearly has his mind on more important issues! I started by backing him up (i was on the ground) and asking him to lunge around me, change direction, disengage his hind - all movements that required him to keep his eye on me, and not the girls. I allowed him to stop a few times and rest, and as soon as he started screaming - i asked him to work again. There is a theory that horses will only expand as much energy as they deem necessary, and to them necessary comes down to survival - if you are in the wild, and you use all your energy up playing, and a predator comes along and you dont have enough energy to get away. You die. Pretty simple. It took about 4 minutes for Cooper to realise that if he stood still, I would let him look over at the girls, but if he so much as hinted that he was displaying for them (whinny, posturising, prancing), that he would be asked to work. Once we established this I mounted him to wait for phil, and the same rules applied. Phil appeared after about a minute, and we headed to the river flat. We pranced and danced a little, but I didnt make a big deal of it - i just stopped him from prancing, made him walk, and headed down to the paddock.

He pretty much calmed down, but then when we arrived on the river flat - lo and behold - more horses! This time he couldnt care less if they were girls or boys - they were just there to pay attention to him! Phil opened the gate and i asked him through, rode a distance away from the horses in the paddock (who could not have been more disinterested in cooper if they tried) and put him to work. This was an awesome opportunity for me to educate him about the difference between work and play time. When I go to a show, I wont put up with bad behaviour because there is mares around. So he tried it on me once - struck off into the canter (without my asking) and decided that a leap into the air and a buck and rearing landing would impress the onlookers (who werent looking). I ignored it, kept on going and just kept his mind by doing frequent changes of direction, changes of gait, halt, back up etc. I did probably around half an hour of this at walk and trot, before i asked for the canter, and then we did a few ‘workouts’ - when i say workout, i just make up something that would be given to you at a hack show or western show, with walk, trot, canter and change of directions, and run with it. I stopped him and allowed him to rest in between, and we ended up with some really nice stuff. Home time.

I beleive there is a balance between work and play, whats acceptable and whats not. I felt today was a win for both of us, some people would have worked him until he was almost dead for playing up, but the way i see it i left him in a reasonable place. I showed him that i was more important than girls, i made him tired enough for him to think, hmm ive been trotting and circling for a while - maybe if i concentrate this will end, without making it a total nightmare for him. Yes i needed to make him a little tired, but in part that was my fault - he had little work and a fair amount of feed in the preceeding week. I was also working with nature. nature tells him that he has to keep breeding, nature tells him when mares are around to posturise, whinny and show off to get their attention. I have a performance horse - I want him to get attention! My job, as i see it, is to harness this desire to show off, and turn it into passage, piaffe, extended trot, sliding stops and pirouettes. If i tell him he is wrong when he carries on a bit, then I will crush this spirit - what i need to do is let him know its ok to feel that way - but he has to take the cues from me and use his energy in ways that are desirable - for both him and me. He has not served any mares yet, but nature tells him what to do - it really is incredible to watch.

I took him to the Coffs Harbour show on Friday and he was an absolute angel. I only went for the led class - but our ring was the last one - so we had to walk past every concievable type of horse there is, with all types of behaviour, mares, stallions and geldings from minatures to crazy thoroughbreds! And he was perfect! He didnt whinny, didnt play up, and then when he was tied to the float - he went to sleep! So i am super happy with his temperament.

Days off and a well earned break.

When we got back home from Grafton, the next day was the ANZAC Day holiday, I had all intents to continue the week as I had been, but I wasn't feeling too crash hot so I decided to have a day off.

The day off ended up being a week! I had, before we left, let the juniors into the bigger paddock, and they have ended up next door (lusher, greener grass), and since it has rained the way they get back into the paddock has water across it - so makes it that little bit less appealing to come home.

I was going to begin riding Dicko this week, but by Tuesday Phil was crook as a dog, and I had to leave home earlier, to get to the school and open up etc.

I did get the chance to move Jesse (thoroughbred yearling) to our river flat paddock, and he was a little worried about heading down the road by himself. While I was leading him, he continually wanted to turn around and head back to the paddock he just came from. I have just finished reading Mark Rashids Book - Horses Never Lie, in which he deals with a horse like this (while riding - the horse continually wants to come off the rail of the arena), his theory, in the book, is to let the horse do want it wants (turn around) and then just turn it back around and keep going. The theory is, that the horse will figure out he is using more energy, doing all these circles, and just carry on. So I did it with jesse, he wanted to turn around, so i let him, then I just turned him back around and continued. It worked. I only had to do it once, and he just walked the rest of the way - coincidence, or a sound theory? I don't suppose I will know until I try it a few more times - food for thought though, as this is alot less hassle than having an argument and trying to make the horse go forward.

To top off the week - I just found out that my book - Maximum Returns, Minimum Concerns - A Guide to Successful Property Investment is getting published, so I am very excited about that, it does mean that I will be busy after the release date (August 1), so my horses may have to take a backseat for that time. At least I know now - so I can plan for this.

Happy Horsing,

TJK

Making the right choice

We headed up to Grafton for the show. Saturday we headed up a little later in the day, spent the morning getting the home front organised. Arrived at Grafton around lunchtime, got the horses off, gave them a wash, and settled them in for the night.

Spent the night out at a friends place, nearby and got back to the club in time to get ready for the led classes. I pulled Coopers rugs off, and he was looking a little ordinary. Yesterday was pretty hot and when I took him out of the paddock to load him on the float he was very sweaty. That, coupled with the travelling and the overnight stay in the stable and he wasn't looking too flash. So, I decided not to do the led parts of the classes, which is primarily what I was there for. I'm all for 'having a go' which is what I was heading up to do, but I don't want to insult the horse (or the judge) by presenting him to a led class that he clearly is not ready for.

So I helped Phil out a bit, and put cooper back away for the day. Headed over and watched Phil do the led, in which George received the 2nd, and Reserve Champion - after much deliberation by the judge.

I went to ride Cooper, to take advantage of being on the grounds, with their flat grassy workout areas and open spaces - he doesn't get to work out in that environment very often! So I headed over to the flat, after doing a small amount of ground work, just to supple him up, and have a bit of a chat before I hop on. I got to the grassy areas, and didn't we have some fun to start with! He doesn't often get to workout in areas like that (if you haven't seen Hawthorne Park at Grafton, they have a HUGE grassy area which some houses back onto. The area would fit around 10 dressage arenas in I'd say, its that big. So he started out just looking around, wanting to look at all the distractions in the backyards - the people, dogs, cats, washing on line, kids toys - you name it, and it was there to see. So the first 10 minutes or so was spent just letting him walk around and have a look, and then proceeding up to the trot. He still was in a bit of an argumentative mood in the trot, not wanting to round up, but I just let him do what he wanted (with his head) and continued to ask him to put it where I wanted. When he relaxed and put his head down, I relaxed, when he put his head up, I just asked him to put it down again. We got to a good place in the trot, so I asked him to canter, and I did some awesome long lines in the canter, with circles at the ends.

I was really happy with his work today. It would have been easy to get frustrated with him, and It would have turned into an argument. I just have to be more patient than he is, and keep asking him to do what I want, and reward that. I have to put my emotions in check, and not take what he does personally - he is a 3 year old colt, with allll this stuff to look at, of course he wants to look, and thats ok. Its not what I want, but its ok, I just let him look for 5 minutes or so, then let him know it was time to get down to business. At the end of the day, we had a good workout - it was probably longer than I anticipated, but who cares?

So I headed back, and walked around to the arena in time to watch Phil do his trail class - nailed it! George was just cool as a cucumber, and they did the class without a fuss for a 1st place. I headed back to the float, and hosed Cooper down and popped him into a yard with grass so he could have a pick.

Then I went back to the arena to watch Phil for the afternoon. He had a cracker of a day, winning each class he entered from trail, to pleasure, to western horsemanship, to equitation and even the rookie reining. After last weekend ranch roping for 3 days on george, and literally roping him to 500kg beasts for him to hold, to then turning up at a western event and cleaning up, certainly shows the versatility of him, and he is what you would call the 'poster child' for our stud philosophy - versatile horses that you can do anything with.

At the end of the day, we were packing up and I saw someone over looking at Cooper, I headed over and found it to be the judge of the day. We got to chatting, and she asked me why I hadn't shown Cooper today - obviously he didn't look as bad as I thought!

Never mind, we learn something new everyday!

We arrived home in the dark, and the rain, rugged up the horses and let them into their paddocks. Found out that the team penning was cancelled for Monday, and so decided on a day off. I headed out this morning (Monday) to check on the Juniors who i had let into the big paddock. Sure enough they were where I expected them to be - next door eating their lush grass! So, I decided it would be a real day off for me, and besides feeding all the horses, I wouldn't work with any of them today.

Back on deck tomorrow though,

Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend, and remembered the people who sacrificed, so we could enjoy the lifestyle that we do today. Lest we forget.

TJK

Out on the trail

Friday 23rd April

Headed out at a reasonable hour this morning to run a few errands around town. When we arrived home Phil gave buddy his penicillin shot for the morning and I headed down to get squizzy for our trail ride. Today the plan was to head right out on what we call our “short ride”, its about 6 ks around. So I headed down to the yards and fed the 2 juniors, I couldnt see Squiz anywhere so i started calling her. It took me about 5 or so minutes to get organised and once the 2 littlies were eating I set out to find her. After a bit of calling and searching I spotted her in the neighbours paddock. She was a fair distance away and was head down bum up eating. I grabbed the rope hackamore and was heading out to walk to her and ride her back, when I got within her earshot - as soon as she heard me calling, she threw up her head and started bolting towards me.

Its a great feeling to know that she responds to my call like that, she cantered to a bridge, walked over it, got focussed on me and ran straight towards me. She found the gap in the fence and galloped up the hill and stopped right at me. I was laughing my head off, she is just so sweet :). I put the hackamore on, led her up to the saddle & saddled her & walked out of the gate. By this time Phil was almost down the road, so we walked back up the hill together (i was still leading squizzy as it is on the road, and I dont think it is wise to ride a horse out for the 2nd time on a road). We got into the paddock - and it was just as interesting as yesterday for her. She was having a look at the other horses, but once I started the ground skills she focused on me and I was happy to hop on.

We headed out and she kept up with Al, who has a really nice forward walk. This time we just went straight down to the dam (the gate to the trail is next to the dam), went through the gate and hit the trail. The first thing she had to do after going through the gate, was to go through about 6 inches of water - and she just sniffed it, and followed Al through. This is why I wanted a confident horse on the trail with her, to show her there was nothing to worry about. We headed up the path, over the gate and she was great. Phil and I swapped a few times on the trail - Id go in front, then he would, to teach her that she couldnt just follow the entire ride. I clicked her up a bit and we trotted some parts, and I worked the start of her collection. She has a high head carriage, so It is a little difficult to get her to lower her head. When I halt and back up, she tends to lift her head, so I worked on some exercises to help her to lower her head. We went up hills. down hills. over gravel. over leaves, through water, through the bush, into open spaces, we led the trail, we followed the leader, we walked, we trotted. Oh, what a great 2nd ride out for this horse. I am planning on building the canter on the trail, as it is fairly natural for them to canter up a hill, but as this was her first time out, and she was a little worried about stump monsters, I just walked and trotted. I am super happy with the performance of this little filly, she has a temperament to die for! There is alot to be said for training a young horse out on a trail, it gives them a direction to go, and you can do heap of stuff with them, and expose them to things. It can seem a little boring - "a trail ride" but when you think of all the things that you can do - which is pretty much anything , and the things that they learn - for example, when Squizzy jumped over that stream yesterday, she did her first jump, and did her first canter strike off with me on her back. Pretty Cool huh?

After a bite to eat, I headed down to Rocky, and much the same as yesterday, I haltered him, saddled him & set to work on the ground skills. He looked pretty good, a little cranky in the face on the trot circles, but I disengaged him when he relaxed and we got through it. I mounted him and asked him to walk around. His progress under saddle has been alot quicker than his ground work, so I walked him around in the yards, turned him, disengaged his hindquarter. I asked him to walk out of the yard, and into the larger paddock, and he did that quite well. When I asked him to trot today, his head came up a little but he handled it, and trotted a fair line for me. So I stayed out there and trotted him in lines, came back to a halt, walk, back up to the trot. I did this for about 5 - 10 minutes and was happy with that. I left him there.

What a great day of training!!!

AWESOME Day! Love it when things just work!

Thursday 22nd April

After Phil made us a lovely breakfast, I headed down to get Squizzy for her first ride out. I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. It had all come down to this. All the training, the hours I had spent with her, they were all going to be tested today. Sure, I had made progress and we had reached milestones, She had become accustomed to the saddle, to being ridden, to being in an open area and being told which direction and which gait to go in, and this is not the easiest thing to do, while making it a good deal for the horse. But, today we had to go into unfamiliar territory - into a paddock that she had never been in, and that was about 12 acres, so she had a fair amount of space.

So I headed down, caught her, saddled her, and walked her up the road to the paddock we had to go through to get to the trail. Phil headed down on his old horse Al, as we were going to ride together, I wanted to have an old solid horse with her, to help with her attitude. We got in the paddock, and I started doing some groundwork with her to see where her head was at. She was looking around, but she seemed pretty keen to be there, and fairly excited about it. There were 4 other horses in he paddock to distract her aswell. Now Phil and I had planned to head out on a trail, but Phil asked me the time and it turned out to be 15 minutes before he had to leave home. So we decided to just hack around the paddock for a while - it is a huge 12 to 15 acres, with a dam, hills, gullys, trees, muddy patches and streams, so there was a fair amount of stuff to expose her to.

First we headed out down to the dam - she moves so nicely, just goes forward lovely. It is hard not to pull her back, because she feels like she is running away sometimes, and she is young, so it takes a bit not to panic and pull her up, but her forward walk is something alot of horse people take years to build to, so I don't want to ruin it. We got to a muddy / boggy patch and she sniffed it and went through, we got to the dam and turned to go through some more muddy areas, and got to a stream. First she wanted to just look at it, then she tried to go around it, and I just kept pointing her towards it and asking for her to go through, and she just popped over it, not a silly cat leap like alot of horses, but a nice little first jump. Then we headed back up towards the gate, down a hill and through a gully with another stream at the base, again she questioned my intent when I asked her to go over, but when I said, yep this is what I want, she popped over again. I then set out up a hill asked her to trot up it, and she was happy to do so, she stopped a couple of times, but I just asked her to keep going and she did. By this time we had been hacking around for about 20 mins, and it was time to go. What a first ride!!! I was beaming from ear to ear, she was nice and calm the whole time, she is an awesome little horse!

Headed back up to the house for a bite to eat, and then went onto Rocky. After my ride and after Rockys good performance yesterday, I was pretty excited to see what today would bring. I headed down there, and Rocky was the first one to come and say hello. I had already fed them this morning, so I just grabbed the gear, put the rope hackamore on him, saddled him, and started the ground skills. He was very responsive again today, so I just turned him a few times, did some circles, backed him up, yielded the hind and forequarters, and tested his tail. All was good so I decided to hop on. I was out in the bigger section of the dairy yards, and I just started doing some long lines of walk, turning at each end, and maintaining gait and direction. He was getting this pretty good, so I headed down to the yards, which is down a slight slope, then up over a log and up a slight slope, just hacking around. I started to try and build a trot, and he did quicken his pace a little but we didn't quite get the trot. This boy is a different kettle of fish to Squizzy - he really is a bit lazy and has to be asked to go forward often, and continually reminded to continue. So I decided to take him back out of the yards and into the bigger paddock, I asked him to trot out there, and he tried but didn't quite make it. I took him to the end of the paddock, and asked him to trot towards the back of the dairy, he picked up a trot and kept going. Yes! I rode the trot (rising) all the way to the yards, gave him a rub, and hopped off. He really tried for me, so I am happy to leave it there.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

More Breakthroughs - Rocky gets a ride

First up this morning was heading down to the Juniors, feeding them, Phil got Buddys injection done, and we headed back up to the house to head out for a trail ride.

Phil rode his stallion George, and I decided to give Cooper another run out. I saddled him, and took him up the front to do a few circles and see where he was at. He wasn't happy today. He didn't play up on the lunge like yesterday, he was just flat. He may have been a little sore from yesterday, but i decided to head out anyway. He has a show this weekend and he needs to have a bit of work beforehand.

Its funny, Phil and I were discussing Cooper, and how he has been sore in the feet, and Phil pointed out that he is the same age as Squizzy, and yet he has so many more expectations on him. Of course I know he is the same age, but it is interesting how we treat different horses, well, different. He was a large yearling, and, as such was started right at 2 years old, whereas Squizzy is fairly small, and as such I left her until she was 3 to even start her.

The plans now for Cooper. Our philosophy is to have horses that will last us for 20 years or more. This means, growing them out naturally, starting them when they are ready, and giving them rest periods. Not putting undue stress on them, and definitely not feeding them before their bones, tendons and muscles can handle it. Now Cooper has been grown out naturally, yes he has been hard fed - due to the size of his paddock, and because I ride him, but if you look at his photos he has always been of fair size, and at times could have been called ‘ribby’.

My plans for him at the moment are to show him this weekend, more than likely in just the led classes, but I may do a hunter class, and for the immediate show season I will only show him in led classes. As for weekly exercise I will only lunge him a couple of times a week to keep him fit. When breeding season arrives in July / August, he will be serving mares, but I am going to limit this to 10 outside mares, and a couple of my own (if I own any by then!).

So, we headed out on the trail, and Cooper was pretty tired. I asked him to trot out, and he did for about 5 minutes, and then slowed. I did ask him to keep on going - he needs to learn work ethic, and to push through that barrier (he is a bit like me, he wants to give up when he gets a bit tired!). We picked a trail today that had heaps of really steep down hill sections to it. This meant the horses had to really get their butts underneath them and work from the hind. Cooper kept wanting to creep sideways (this lets him not use his hind as much), but i asked him to straighten up and go straight down the hill. We were doing ok (not as good as Phil - he has done a heap of this sort of stuff, and his horse just goes where he is pointed!), and then we hit a really steep spot, Cooper just turned sideways and I was just looking down going, oh god, we are going to roll! But we didn't of course, however Cooper just wouldn't listen, he backed into the scrub, and parked himself conveniently over a skinny tree stump that had broken off and was quite sharp - so now im freaking out that if he does stumble, he could stake himself. I was in my dressage saddle aswell, and i wasn't feeling too secure! I decided to hop off and lead him down the rest of it. We did this no probs and I re-mounted at the bottom of the section.

The rest of the ride wasn't bad - Cooper kept giving me “pixie ears” which I was a little worried about - Ken Faulkner says “The last thing you saw before you got bucked off was probably pixie ears” and he is dead right. Cooper gave me super pixie ears before he smoked me when I was starting him. Thankfully he didn't buck today - i kept working his hind, and also asking him to flex properly in the front. I got him home and washed him, rugged him, and put him in his new paddock. He and George have swapped paddocks, so Buddy can be up near the house for his treatment.

After Phil headed to work and I had some lunch, I headed down to the juniors paddock. I had about and hour and a half and I wanted to ride both Squizzy and Rocky, but I was umming and ahhing about Squizzy. She is ahead of him in her education, and she is heading out for a trail ride tomorrow morning. She has also been a little naughty and has been left out in the paddock with Rosie, to get a bit of bossing around. So I get down to the yards, and I can see Squiz way over yonder, in next doors paddock. No wonder - It has lovely grass that gets slashed all the time, so I'm happy - a day off in a nice paddock will probably do her the world of good. I wanted to get Rocky ridden, as he had only had those couple of pony rides, and the one time I rode him and wasn't happy, and my goal is to have him done, and back grazing in the “bush” paddock by the end of April.

This is part of our philosophy, start them at 2 or 3 - whenever they are ready, put 10 or so rides on them, then put them ‘away’ for 3, 6 or 12 months. Give them time to mull it over, and grow, both mentally and physically.

I head out with my saddle, rope hackamore, stick, and get cracking. Rocky and Boogie headed straight for me, wanting to check out everything I’ve got. They are so funny, they just want to touch stuff, and smell it (and walk on it - thanks boogie!), and they jostle for my attention, like little children or puppies that unconditionally want your attention.

I haltered him, saddled him, and he was just so nice and calm. I thought, there has been another change, or maybe this is the continued change from the work yesterday, but he just seemed to be talking to me alot better - or maybe me to him - who knows, but we were on the same page today! I started doing a few groundskills with him, and it was really positive. We were just really working together today. I wasn't going to ride him at all but the stars were aligned so i led him into the yards. I did some more work with him, and even did driving which we only did the other day, and squeeze. He got a little “off” in the driving and I had to be a little direct with him and tell him to stop stuffing around, and he came good. I yielded him the front, the hind, put the rope around him and asked him to go away from me, and it was all so smooth and lovely. Even his backup today was light. So, I hopped on. It took a couple of goes to get him to walk out, I think my weight on him (he is quite small), he was like, your joking aren't you?! But once he got moving he was great, I did a few circles on him, halted him, backed him up and it was, slow, and he was hesitating a little, but the feel was good. He was really trying. So I asked him to walk out of the yards, and along the paddock, and up a little hill, which he all did absolutely lovely, so i got off him.

What an awesome day :)

change your plans when you need to

Woke up this morning pretty refreshed but still tired from the weekend. Went to get groceries and mucked about a bit, then headed down to the horses. I fed Cooper first and then headed down to the junior paddock. Buddy, the injured horse is locked into one of the sections of the yard, so the babies cant follow me all the way to the feed shed. They are all waiting at the gate for me. Squizzy has been fairly bossy with Rocky, I think I mentioned in an earlier post, but Phil had a bit of an issue yesterday. It has been raining a little so the ground is fairly slippery. Their paddock is the side of a hill that goes flat at the top, so it is fairly on an angle. Last night when Phil was setting up Buddy in the yard, and then went onto feeding the juniors Squizzy chased Rocky down an embankment, he slipped and while he was down she turned and double barreled him.

This morning wasn't much different. Squiz was hunting Rocky around the yard, and then she turned on Boogie. I went to the shed and grabbed my gear. I put the hackamore on squizzy. I have been referring to the rope hackamore that I am using to break her in, incorrectly as a macate - I thought that the term macate was for a hackamore / bosal type set up with the extra rein, this is incorrect - the term macate just describes the rein. So apologies for that. Anyway, I put the rope halter on her, saddled her, and headed down to the flat area to have a little fun. I asked Phil to come down on his old horse, because I enjoy his company but also to expose her to another horse, and if there was a cow in the paddock, Phil could help me teach Squizzy with it. So i was working her on the ground, and Phil came down. She was a little bit fresh on the lunge, but nothing serious. Her tail lifted nicely, she was yielding, so I hopped on.

I did what I have been doing, rode her up and down, trotted her, and she was going pretty well. She was fairly interested in the presence of Al & Phil but was behaving herself. As it happens there was a cow in the paddock so, I asked Phil to help me work it - just for a minute - with squizzy. We headed down there, and Phil walked behind the cow, so he moved. I asked Squizzy to keep her eye on it, Phil told me to make sure I stopped before I turned her, and I tried hard to do this, but I have been doing fairly large circles with her, so the turning on a dime wasn’t working that well! She kept her eye fairly on the cow though and we managed to track it back and forth a few times, with Phils help - he was moving it from behind. Then it continued on its way and we followed it. I pulled her off. I was really happy with this little exercise. It helps me judge where I am with her - a little bit of pressure to ‘turn now’ doesn't hurt because it tells me how well (or how poorly) I have educated her. Working something external, like a cow also helps her get her mind off me riding her, and onto something else. I was happy, so we then just rode up to the dam, and I hopped off to give her a drink. I am using this ritual as a reward for her - she loves going up to the dam, so I take her up there, hop off, give her a drink, and lead her down the hill (my weight throws her off a bit on the steep hill so I will wait until I have done a few less steep hills before I go down this one), then I get back on her and ride to where my stuff is. Today I went to my stuff, she stopped and posted a bit on the way, but when she does this I just ignore her and ask her to keep going, and picked it up while I was on her, and rode up a different hill in the paddock. I decided today to leave her in the big paddock (as posted before i have been using it to my advantage that she likes being in the big area - but it is possible that she would injure one of the babies, so she can stay in with Rosie to get pulled into line.

Phil had to leave at this point, so I went onto Rocky. I walked him up to the flat area of the paddock and did some backup. He did this quite well, so I wanted to try and get the groundskills done that I hadn't done the other day. I started with driving. I pointed my hand in the direction I wanted him to go, put my other hand on his back and asked him to go. He was happy enough to walk beside me, but ask for the trot - and all hell breaks loose! He goes in every conceivable direction, other than the one I want him to go! So after trying with just my hand for a while, I decide to grab my stick. At least with the stick I am able to reach his back without following him in the wrong direction. After a few goes, he gets it. He trots along beside me without a fuss. Go to the other side - All hell breaks loose! The same thing all over again, hes going sideways down the hill, backwards, forwards past me - the whole box and dice. I started over, as I did with the other side, just asking him to trot forward with me next to him. I must admit - it wasn't pretty all the time. He ran down the hill and I had to keep asking him to go forward with the stick, he did come through it and was trotting beside me, I don't think he was all that happy about it, but he did eventually relax. I decided to leave him there. Its hard to write all the minute details of what happened, but he went through another big change today. When I took the halter off him, he followed behind me.

So up to the house, and I had a bit of time up my sleeve before I had to work with Cooper, so i decided to watch Ken Faulkners - Primary Groundskills. I have seen the DVD a few times before, but I find, the same with any educational DVD, the more you watch, the more you learn.

After watching the first part of the DVD, it was time to work with Cooper. I needed to get some “Tuff Stuff” on his feet - recommended by the farrier, to help with his feet - they have gotten quite soft with the change in the weather. I also wanted to brush him, pick out his feet and work him, I wanted to start teaching him the Hunter in Hand pattern. So I set out into his paddock with everything I needed - brushes, tuff stuff etc. I got to the flat area up the top of his paddock - and he headed straight for me. I had fed him yesterday when I got home, then phil fed him in the afternoon, but I hadn’t actually spent time with him.

I haltered him, ground tied him, and took his rug off. I brushed him, picked out his feet and started working with him on the lunge. He was feeling a little fresh today, and normally when he is, I can use it to my advantage - he stays within my range on the lunge, but whenever i call him in, he does this huge stallion snort. Then when i send him again, he gets all fussed and kicks out. Today he decided to kick out towards me. He was only playing - if he wanted to kick me for real, he could with no problems, but it is still dangerous. I tried to do the hunter pattern - but it was not much use - he was playing and carrying on. Right, time to ride him on a nice trail ride!

I led him back to the house, saddled him up, walked back up to the flat and worked him a little, and walked him through the gates to the paddock that leads to the trail. I lunged him a bit and hopped on.

This was a bit of a moment for me, because when I started him, i put the first 2 rides on him with no trouble. On the 3rd ride he smoked me pretty bad, and If I learnt one thing - it was that this horse could buck! So to see him doing it on the lunge, and then to get on him and take him out, I was pretty happy with myself.

We headed out on the ride, and he was fairly full of himself. He wanted to go, so i let him canter up the first few hills, and after that - he was tired, but still wanting to go. So I just hacked him out and we both enjoyed the ride. I asked him to give me flexion a few times, but for most of the ride I just asked him to go forward, and come back in the gaits. It was raining by the end of the ride, which I thought was great - this will teach him to keep going even when the conditions are a bit crappy. When I got him home, he was really tired, but not over tired. If a horse is fresh, I like to hack them out and most of the time they enjoy it. If they are fresh all the time, and I make sure I’m not feeding them too much, then they may need a few long rides to give them a bit of respect. I brushed him out, cleaned up his feet and managed to clean and dry his hooves for the application of the hoof treatment.

I was happy with today, from Squizzy having a cow to work with, to Cooper hacking out with me.

Awesome!

Enjoy your horses.

TJK

Rest days, injuries and breakthroughs Monday 19th April 2010

So yesterday, Sunday 18th April, I was meant to come home from the roping clinic at Grafton, and work some horses. I was having a good time just chilling out, and learning a bit from watching, so I stayed a little longer. By the time Phil was finished - he was of the opinion he couldn't be bothered driving home (1.5 hours!), and wanted to stay. I was umming and aaahing about whether to head home without him, and decided to stay.

It was pretty cool sitting round a camp fire, with some long time horsey people, who have been involved in horses for over 30 years, and one of who makes saddles, the other makes bits, the teenage son of one, and Phil who has ridden since he was a child. They have all ended up in the same place - interested in the vaquero style of horsemanship, and ranch roping. Which is super interesting. I'm not that interested in roping, but the vaquero style of horsemanship is very intriguing, and makes alot of sense to me. Maybe one day Ill raise a horse that way.

So the conversation was pretty interesting, and I learn alot about, well, alot just listening. But as the night went on, I was antsy, and started kicking myself for not heading home. The horses were right - they all had grass and water, and I knew I'd be home pretty early on the Monday, but I was still annoyed at myself. By this time though, the beer had been flowing, and i was dog tired - so no driving home for me!

Once we woke on the Monday, I had a quick coffee with everyone, then we packed up and hit the road. Phil commented on how much brighter I was, and I must admit - despite sleeping in a swag in the float, I felt a hell of a lot better, and rested. I was so tired over the weekend, and today I felt good. So we hit the road. When I got home, i went straight down to the juniors paddock and fed them out some hay, fed Rosie and the baby, went up to the house, helped phil feed the old horses, and threw my stallion a bit of hay. The only horses I didn't check were the 3 in the bottom river flat paddock - I don't know why, I do it everyday, but not today.

We had a long breakfast, chilled out around home for a while, I read the paint horse journal that I just got in the mail, then got off my butt and went to work with the juniors. The idea was to get everyone worked today, to start the week off. I've got a show this weekend - rookie day on the Saturday, then the full show on the Sunday, which I will take Cooper too - he has hardly been worked because he was lame for that 12 days, but gosh darn it I'm goin to the show! I went to the juniors first, and they all came running up, so I started with Squizzy first. I wanted to work with her for led classes, so I started doing that, she leads well, but just gets this shocking look on her face when she trots. So I was trotting her, and whenever she relaxed, I stopped. This wasn't working - due to my level of fitness! I couldn't run for as long as it took her to relax, so I just started working the ground skills. I worked on refining her backup - she has been doing it reasonably well (and doing all of the skills well) for the past couple of weeks, but now I am starting to ask a bit more of her, like 1 cue, 1 step. She did this great, so i went onto circles. Perfect! I was happy with her circles today - no playing up, no bucking, only 1 sour face, then the rest all good. I asked her to do a couple of turnarounds on the lunge - no problem:) So I led her into the yards, and worked her yielding - both to a feel and a suggestion. Again I simply wanted to refine - make sure it was 1 cue, 1 step, make sure she wasn't drifting forward in the movement - all good, not perfect, but we are talking a short amount of training.

I went onto squeeze - the initial goal is to have the horse confident and happy enough to go between you and a solid object like a fence - and respectful enough that they won't creep into your personal space and bump you in the process. I had only done squeeze a couple of times with her, and was happy when I asked her to put her nose on the fence, then her hind, then opened the space and allowed her to go through - and she did it without complaint. I did this a few times - disengaging her hind after she had gone through, and sending her the other way. I was confident enough in her to ask for her to stop in the middle of the squeeze, and she was confident enough to do it.

I was going to leave it at that, and then i got inspired by an old fence post lying on the ground - i thought, ill just get her to go sideways over that, then Ill leave her for the day. Well, she did it lovely in one direction, and then I heard galloping behind me, and turned to see Rosie bolting up the hill with Beatrix close behind her. Phil was on his way down the road on his stallion. Now we had a distraction to work with, which is great, you can have all the awesome work in the world - but if it all goes out the window when the distractions come into play, then what do you have?

I continued to ask her to move sideways, and just ignored her focus on the stallion. Phil arrived at the yards, and I just asked her to shift over. She wasn't great at it - she drifted forward a couple of times, but I am happy to let this slide for today - she is young, and she did do what I asked - again, it wasn't perfect, but she is immature in her education.

Her finished I tied her up and went to grab Rocky. On the way I noticed that Boogie was limping a little (we have had rain the last couple of days and they are coming out of a really dry time, and now their feet are on wet ground), I Haltered Rocky, tied him up, and haltered Boogie. I tied her up and cleaned the mud of her rear foot. She had a crack where an abscess had busted out - I think i mentioned this in a previous blog. Now this with the wet weather had softened and allowed a bit of moisture in, making it a bit uncomfortable for her. I left her tied and went to work with Rock.

Well, first up I just wanted to rub him a little. He took the opportunity to walk right up to me, and stand right in my space. I asked him to back up, and he came further forward. I asked him again, without moving my own position, and this time after asking with just a wiggle of my finger and not getting a response, i put a loop down the rope which caught him on the nose. He backed up. I then asked again with my finger, and he backed up to the end of the rope. I let him rest out there, and he licked his lips like there was no tomorrow! Oooo are we having a breakthrough with Rocky? Maybe yes. I let him rest for a while out there, and then I asked him another couple of times. I actually got some backwards, that Ken would refer to as "happy feet" Yes! We are talking to each other today!

From here I went onto desensitisation - just rubbing him with the stick and string, flicking it over him, doing the helicopter over his head, and hitting the ground. He fussed a bit when I was hitting the ground, but I maintained my relaxed posture, and continued to hit the ground until he stayed still while i did it, and left it there.

I then went onto yielding, both to a feel and a suggestion. He moved away from my prompts quite nicely. I had to correct him a couple of times - which I am happy with, because there was no argument from him, just misunderstanding. I got some nice steps from him, both at the hindquarter and at the forequarter. Wow. By this time I am wrapped about the change in this horse today. He is really trying for me, and just putting it on the line.

Next we try circling, and the improvements just continue. He still is pulling his face today, but he doesn't stop and turn and argue as he has in the last few sessions. Even his face pulling is left to the couple of departures where I have to use my stick and string, and when I had to use the stick to keep him going. Today I was actually able to stand in one position, lean the stick on me, and ask him to go around me to maintain gait and direction. AND he does it! Today he actually takes responsibility, and does what he knows he is meant to do. And I am bursting :) I am so rapped in this little fellow today, I leave it right there.

I am just tying him up, when Phil gallops up "we have any wire cutters up here?" I say no, and he says Buddy (one of his horses) is stuck in the fence. Bugger. I've got 3 young horses tied up here, and I'm downhill from the house. I quickly untie them all, and sprint. I make it to the house in time to help Phil - he's getting the fence pliers, I get the car keys, and he goes. He has tied the stallion up to a tree, and he's in his ute, heading down to cut Buddy out of the fence. I'm not far behind him with bandages, a halter, bucket, white ointment, and whatever else I can lay my hands on in my 30 second hunt. When I get down there, he is out of the fence but it doesn't look good. His leg is pretty swollen, and we have been away, so we really don't know how many hours he has been caught up. He is eating, and able to put some weight on it. He was tangled right near the dam, and he doesn't go straight for water - hopefully this means he is not desperate for a drink and thus has not been caught for long - by the looks of it, it would appear probably overnight. Thankfully it was a cooler day, and he was caught under a tree.

I call the vet and organise for them to come straight away. I feel soo guilty. I planned to come home on Sunday, and this shows that I should have. These horses are in a 15 acre paddock full of grass and with a big dam, so I thought they would be right, and for the last 2 years when I have stayed somewhere overnight, they have been. Funny thing is though, that I may not have even noticed if I had come home on Sunday. When Phil found him, he was just standing still under the trees - Phil actually rode straight past him and said hello - then rode the stallion in the paddock for about 1/2 an hour, and only then thought something was up, as Buddy hadn't moved. So If I had driven past to check them, I may have just seen him standing under the tree - and not noticed until the next day, that he hadn't moved. These horses on the river flat are rarely fed so we don't call them up - we just drive past to check that they are happily grazing. They are all wormed and treated with Brute, when we need to, but they are our grass eaters, and are all fat as mud. There are so many variables here - even if I had someone checking him, maybe they would have checked him Sunday morning, and he got caught Sunday lunchtime - the same result would have happened.

The vet has tended to Buddy, and he seems to think he will be ok, he is bandaged up, and needs penicillin shots for the next few weeks, so we will see.

So, on the training front, a great day. Lessons learnt - take the time to rest, it makes you a better horse person. Organise for someone to check your horses if you are away longer than a day. Persist quietly and kindly when you are not getting on with a horse, you may just get a breakthrough.

Happy trails

TJK

When the rain comes

Saturday 17th April.

Well Phil headed up to the roping clinic at Grafton yesterday, so I was heading up to join him. I wanted to get all the horses fed of course, but I also wanted to work Cooper and Dicko before I left. And its raining. Yay!

So, I want to get something done, but the ground is pretty wet, and i don't want to take their rugs off and get them wet, and then put wet rugs back on etc (if anyone wants to sponsor me an indoor arena - i wont knock you back!). So I left their rugs on and decided to do 5 of the ground skills. Finding myself working basics again, by the end of it I realised how important and beneficial these skills are.

So I start with Cooper - he was already up at the top end of the paddock in the flat area, so I headed up there with stick and halter and lead in hand, he turned and saw me, and headed on over :) I love it when he is interested in what we are going to do for the day. I haltered him with his rug on, and started with desensitisation. He is pretty good in this area, but he doesn't like the string going over his head - like a helicopter. Obviously if i ever need to swing a rope or stock whip he needs to get over this, so I work on him a little each time. He is getting better and today he stood still while i was doing it - progress :)

He is happy for the stick and string to touch him all over, even if i am swinging it. I did find out that he is not real keen about me hitting it on the ground near him - he takes it as a direction to do something. So I worked on that for a while and when I got him to the point where he would stand still with me hitting the ground (still about half a meter from him), I left it and moved onto the next thing. Backup. He is pretty good at this so i can ask a bit more of him. I want it straight, and at the speed I ask, and when I ask for it. I also want him picking up and placing his feet down, not dragging them. We only did this a couple of times - he is pretty good. Next on was Yielding - to a feel (actually touching him), and to a suggestion (pointing to the area i want him to move). He is not bad at these skills, but he does tend to drift forward - both when I am moving the hind, and the front. So i worked on these a bit, and just asked him not to drift. At first he drifted, but after a few times he did It quite well so I left it alone - I asked him to yield his hind from both sides, and both to a feel and to a suggestion, and his front aswell - of course i break up which area i am asking him and how, so it doesn't all run together. I do each move (eg. move hind to a suggestion) finish it with a rub, and then either change sides, or change the area (hind to front for example).

Next up was driving. I alter the driving skill slightly, as I am also teaching him to do halter classes. So i stand next to him, and ask him to walk or trot beside me, then when I stop, I use the voice command “square up”. Initially when i was teaching him this, i would move his feet (by actually picking them up and placing them where i wanted them) while still saying square up, then once he was standing square i would rub him to show him that is what i wanted. He is progressing with this, and 3 or 4 times he has actually squared up himself. Sometimes i still have to help him, but he is getting there. Once he is square i let him stand for a while, and i move from side to side, as if I am in a halter class, so he gets used to this, and doesn't think that me moving is a reason for him to move.

So this done, the 5th skill i am doing is sideways. I decided to leave out circling and squeeze today - squeeze because i don't want to use a barb wire fence, and circling because it is too wet, and also because he still has his rug on.

Sideways went quite well today, he is great going away from me when I'm on the near side, he crosses his feet and stays quite balanced, but with me on the off side he isn’t as good. Now i do work both sides pretty evenly, but this may be a balance issue on his part, or it may be my body placement or even the way i ask him to go sideways from the off side. He does go sideways, and I have to be happy with that, but he is getting to the stage where I must continue to ask better of him (mostly on the ground) for him to be a great horse, and a great stallion. I don't like seeing stallions that cannot be handled, and I despise the people that make them that way.

I waited until i was pretty happy with sideways, and that was him for the day. I let him go and headed over the road to Dickos paddock - had to fix the gate on the way, pain in the butt, but i was glad that i actually did it. Its funny, when there is a man around all the time, i found my first reaction was “oh I need Phil” but Phil was in Grafton, so i pulled out my muscles and got it done myself :), note to self - don't be so damn lazy!

I decided to do the same 5 skills with Dicko. Got desensitisation done real quick - i can swing the stick and string at him, over his head, and hit the ground, and he just stands there - solid as a rock. Backup is pretty much the same, he goes backwards, and comes towards me. At this point, for some reason I chose driving, didn't do the yields - I was going to come back to that - not today! Dicko is ok to walk beside me, I wouldn’t say happy, but he does it - ask for a trot though - and it all goes out the window. He starts running sideways, pulling back - everything but trotting along next to me. So I just continued to ask him, and no deal. I went back to the walk, and made a really big fuss over him when he did it right. I went back to the walk as the trot wasn't working, and he was just getting more and more flustered, so i gave him something he was fairly comfortable with and made it really nice. When he was settled again, I asked him to trot, and this time the reaction was not so bad - i just kept running along next to him, and telling him that it was ok - and he settled into it. When he did a complete line with me, i left him there - took the halter off and walked away and leaned on the gate. He sort of stood for a minute, then ate some grass, and I though - great he is not even licking his lips, he doesn't even realise that I have rewarded him! But he turned around, and walked up and stood behind me.

Cool.

Time to feed them all, feed the chooks, feed the dogs, pack, shower and head to Grafton.