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
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