Claire is back home

Claire is back home. Long story short, I went up to see her at the horse trainer and I was very dissappointed to see her in the pen with no water. All the horses had no water. I was resigned to the fact that people do not care for horses like I do, so I thought I would see what he had taught her. He got Claire out and moved her around on the lunge line, demanding her respect by getting her to yield her hindquarters. He then rode her, trotting and posting very fast. I already could and did that very well and then he tried and succeeded in getting her to pick up her left lead. I got on her after that, and I was very surprised what a different horse she was. She was very stressed and I could not get her to slow down. She was very nervous and reacting to my legs very quickly and not in a good place. I got off her, thanked him and told him that she was visibly stressed and nervous. I could always get Claire to slow down before, and in fact, I was training her for Western Pleasure. I left, went home and got my horse trailer and went back and picked her up 2 weeks early. I knew I couldn't leave her there any longer. I am a firm believer in horses learning in an optimal atmosphere- just a little stress to push them forward, but not to much that they are hyper sensitive and nervous. I am glad to have her back home. I have been riding her lots-- about 3 times a week, and I just love this horse so much. I went back to the clicker training and now I click when she picks up the right lead on the lunge line. I have been able to get to take the left lead a few times, but I am going to have to go back to the basics and strenghten her shoulder and weak side. I so wish she was naturally leaded, but it is obvious that she is so strong in the left lead, that she never wants to pick up the right lead. This will make a better rider out of me and I have ordered two videos to help me with this problem.

Annie-- I have ridden her about 5 times now and Hillary has ridden her once. She needs lots of work and showed some resistance the other day when she did not want to move forward. I had to pop her, and then she moved off my leg. I realized that I do not have the time to train her, especially with Claire needing so much work on the right lead. I have put her for sale and hopefully I can find a good home for her that will take her to her potential.

Annie is a sweetheart!

Yesterday:
Okay yesterday was my first day to work with Annie. I lunged her and then flexed her really well. I got her to move away from me at the shoulder. I saddled her and then lunged her with the saddle. I put her in the round pen and got on her. She just stood there, totally relaxed. I got on and off her several times, and petted her all over. Afterwards, I left her eating grass in front of the barn wearing the bit, (no reins) so she could get use to the feel of the bit. I had so much fun working with her. I am much less nervous working with Annie, because she reminds so much of Poco when I broke her. She is very calm and relaxed.

TODAY!

I know I said the same thing about Claire, but Annie is so much more calm and trusting than Claire. I have absolutely no fear when it comes to riding Annie. Here is what I did today.
1. Lunged her for about ten minutes. She hates to be out from me and the first chance she gets she is always trying to run in the circle to be next to me. When I say 'whoa' she stops really fast and then hurries and trots in to me. It is hard for me to keep her working, because to me she is still such a baby. (She is weeks away from being 3)
2. I took her back and saddled her and then did some driving with her. I ran the driving lines from the bit, through the stirrups and walked behind her teaching her the 'whoa' and how to back up. She stopped really well after a few times running into the bit, and of course I taught her to turn using the direct rein on the snaffle bit. I even trotted her and lunged her in a circle.
3. After that, I took her to the round pen and got on her. I kept fanning my legs and finally she took a step forward. She walked around the round pen with me on her. I worked on her turns, her stops and her backing up. She did really well for the first time, and I had absolutely no fear of her bucking me off. She flinched once when she noticed the goats, but the she just dropped her head and kept walking. The one thing that suprised the most is that Annie really drops her head when she walks. She is very relaxed and her ears were back the whole time really listening to me praise her. I petted her alot and reassured her telling her what a good girl she was. I rode her for about fifteen minutes then unsaddled her.
4. Next I fed her some oats, but left the bit in her mouth, taking off the reins. I let her wear the bit for probably another 3 hours, then I went out and took it off.

It was a fun day today, and I have to say that I think she will be much easier to train than Claire. She seems to be less spooky and more willing to please. Hurray!!

Spurs, and no right lead canter

Alot has happened since I last wrote. On Tuesday I had another rider-- a rodeo guy-- come out and ride Claire out. He rode her mainly in the round pen and got her to pick up the canter departure with no problem. He did well on her-- but had to spur her alot. I didn't enjoy watching, but I wanted to see what she would do. He tried and tried to get her into the right lead in the round pen and she picked it up one time and then changed. All the other times she cantered around in the wrong lead. Very disheartening for me, but I knew that it was me who couldn't get her in the right lead canter.

On Wednesday I drove her up to a horsetrainer in Scurry Texas. He is going to work with her and when I told him about the lead problems, he suggested for a chiropractor to come out and look at her. I left a blank check for her to come out. We will see what will happen. I plan on leaving her there a month and then getting her back in time to go to the first ETHSA horse show. I will get her back before April 18th, the day of the show. I am going up for two lessons-- the first in two weeks. I will be anxious to see what he has taught her. All I really want is for her to be picking up her right leada and to have a nice canter departure.

I am starting to work with Annie today. I figure I have 30 days to get her started, before Clarie comes home. At least by then I can have Hillary riding her. I think I might try the Clinton Anderson method. We will see.

Small Victory-- Big Insight

Today I rode Claire. I did lots of flexing, and yielding the hindquarters. I rode her and found that she is developing the habit of balking or stopping when she doesn't want to do something-- like go forward. She was acting a little skitish, and her mind definitely wasn't on me so I decided she needed some round pen work. I led her in the round pen and surprisingly she didn't offer to buck or kick out. She walked, trotted and cantered on comand. At the time I didn't realize what a great victory it was until later. I took her back into the arena and began riding her. She trotted and I rode her in several circles, yielding the hindquarters. She kept wanting to stop and I was getting frustrated, so I tied her to a post for about 20 minutes and took a break. I went back out and this time Poco was walking around freely in the arena. I walked and trotted Claire and she was less spooky. I also cantered her and again she was so entirely lazy, that she kept wanting to stop. All I had to do was think stop and she was there. I have to say that I didn't realize it at the time, but she picked up the canter departure pretty nicely most of the time. This is great, considering that yesterday, all she did was trot faster, when she was asked for the canter departure. I got a little depressed today, because she did not pick up her right lead at all in the canter. I never cantered her very far, and so I have now hired my horseshoer's son to come over for the next four days and ride her for about an hour. He is a very good rider, and more experienced than the boy who came a few days ago. I needed someone who could tell right off that a horse is in the wrong lead. I have two goals for him: Get her past her present resistance for working hard, and get her to take the correct lead. He is coming for the next four days-- and I am excited for the possibilites. I need to start on Annie, but I need someone else to get Claire past this hurdle of being too lazy. We will see what happens tomorrow.

P.S. I know that Claire will be a good pleasure horse, once she gets past all this resistance she is giving me. I believe it is time to get a better rider than me who can ride the hide off of her-- or at least canter her for about 20 minutes-- a full ride out at about 45 minutes.

Small victory--- knows what a canter departure is

Big insight-- I need a different rider to push her past her resistance.

New rider on Claire!

Today I had a young man, (age 15) ride Claire today. He is trying to make it as a horsetrainer, and has a good seat in the saddle. I was a little nervous, because nobody else has ever been on Claire except me. He did well on her, and walked and trotted her around the arena. It was very, very windy today and she only spooked once. She kinda jumped a little sideways, but then she settled right down. The biggest thing we discovered is that Claire did not remember the cue for the lope. I think she was just acting lazy, because she got to where she didn't want to go forward any more and would just balk. First we tried the clicker and then found that she needed more negative reinforcement like a small riding crop. He had a lot of trouble getting her to go, so I hopped on and got her going right off. After riding a few times around and asking for the lope, she decided she was tired (I'm guessing) and refused to go. I had to turn her and spank her several times to get her going, but she eventually went forward. After that, I let Lane back on her and told him to get five lope transitions going in both directions and then we would call it a day. I was riding Poco too, and Hillary was riding Spencer. He had tried and tried before I got on and she never broke into a canter for him, so his legs were a little tired. He did a great job, and got five transitions both ways, but I saw that Claire did not pick up her right lead at all. This was a little disheartening for me, and I concluded that I need to go back to the trot and practicing moving the hip over, and I will probably need to take her to a trainer. I have one in mind, so hopefully things will work out. Afterwards we rode out, and she did fine-- no spookiness around the house. I was very proud of her for not bucking or acting crazy. Once we get her over this resistance, she will be an awesome horse! She is pretty lazy by nature, but that will change this year. Great Day! My butt hurts--- I haven't ridden in so long!

First Day Back on Claire!

Today is the first day of Spring Break and I decided to get back to riding horses. I had a great day on Claire and she was such a sweetheart. The whole cracked hoof thing is all resolved and the horseshoer came yesterday and took off Claire's front shoes because the crack is now gone!! Yeah! I lunged her in the round pen and she bucked a few times, but after that she settled down and did great. I saddled her and rode her for about twenty minutes. We walked, and trotted and she did great! She lowered her head and flexed very softly. I used the clicker and 'clicked' everytime she lowered her head. After we rode we walked around the arena ending on a very good note. I fed her some oats and brushed and petted her and I know she knows I love her. The only thing that makes me nervous is sometimes her head will shoot up when she hears a sound and I wonder if she is going to buck or something. She didn't do that when I was riding her so much, only when I was leading her. I have a young boy coming tomorrow that I am going to talk to about riding her out and really cantering her and getting her to move to the next level. I just might do it myself, but I am not sure at this point. The one thing I really need to break her of is trying to kick all the other horses when I take her to a show. I know this will be a problem for her, so I have to figure this one out. I am going to ride Poco this afternoon. Good Day Today!!

At the Show

Well, we had our first show. Good and bad stuff happened.

When we first got there Claire was very calm. I immediately saddled her up and got on her. I could tell she was not really listening to me, so I rode over to the round pen, got off her, and lunged her a bit. She did pretty well, even cantering in the right lead occasionally. I got on her after that and rode her in the arena. I kept her feet circling as I could tell she was a little nervous. She spooked at the far end of the areana by the chutes and I kept her there for a awhile-- both circling and standing still. Brian was in the arena riding Poco, so that helped. Claire is very attached to Poco, and relaxed when she saw her in the arena. He left the arena and rode Poco out to go to the trailer to help Hillary get ready for the show. Claire started to get a little nervous, so I kept her feet moving and then we eventually left. I went over to the trailer a little peeved at Brian for leaving without telling me, but I got over it. I rode Claire with Hillary riding Spencer over to the round pen, and I rode her in there awhile. She was still a little spooky, but had moments where she dropped her head and was really listening to me. Later I rode her in a class and there was only one other person in the class. Claire has a very bad habit of when she gets near another horse, she starts to back up and wants to kick them. I stopped that real fast, but I never got real close to another horse after that. I went into my class and she did not want to go in the arena by herself. She reared a little and then I just corrected her and made her do the greenhorn horsemanship class. She had to trot and walk and back up. She also had to back into an L, which she did horribly. We got last place out of two, but I was satisfied I made her do it. Once when I was sitting over in the warm up with her and was flexing her side to side, she whirled around really fast, ( she was getting spooked about what was in the woods) and I fell off. I immediately got back on, more determined than ever to make her mind and settle down. She really did okay considering it was her first show and everything was new and all. I need to go back in my training and train some more for the head down cue. She did not do well when she was nervous about coming down into the bridle, -pushing through the bit---but I am determined to backtrack and really work her on that. I have got to push through some of this resistance that she has shown me in the past about working, because that is a respect issue more than anything else. I am beginning to realize how much work a 2 year old is, and I am wondering if I should send her to a trainer who can ride her out at shows and get her over all the spooky stuff. I was proud that I started out so brave, but I wasn't real excited about riding in the Walk/Trot class with a bunch of other horses, because I wasn't sure what she would do, and I didn't want to get bucked off. I thought I signed up for the class, but they didn't call my number so I didn't go in. I hope I am doing the right thing by training her. I have to get a lot more strict about any resistance from her on the ground. I have decided I need to ride her longer, and start loping her once I get the hip over at a trot down. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Another Great Day of Riding

I rode Clarie again today. I lunged her first with the saddle, and she did fine until she was asked to canter. We had a little bit of a rodeo with bucking, rearing and backing away with a refusal. I popped her and kept her going and finally she cantered in both directions without having an all out fit. I stopped her as soon as she cantered with no resistance. I can't figure her out with the loping. She does the same thing in the round pen without a saddle. I just have to figure that she is plum lazy. We had a good ride after that. I trotted her in several large circles with her keeping the same rhythmn and cadance. I wore big ball spurs for the first time and she responded bettter. I will definitely keep wearing them. I am trying to get her ready for the show. I will try and ride her tomorrow, and hopefully Friday as well. I will try and get Brian to take a short video of me tomorrow! She is a dream horse-- aside from the bucking on the lunge line!! She is picking up the right lead now, but it doesn't seem to be her favorite side to travel on. She picked up the the left lead on the right lead circle, but then switched to right lead. I have decided to stop worrying about it. I am going to be working on trot, walk transitions and arena exercises starting tomorrow. Now that I have a watch-- I will time my rides to at least thirty minutes!

Wonderful Claire!

I have started back riding again. I have ridden now 3 times after taking a long break. The best news of all is that Claire no longer has a problem wiht her right lead! She takes it naturally in the round pen. She is wearing front shoes now, to keep the crack from getting any worse. I have to conclude that her problem before with her heistation to take the right lead was because of the crack in her hoof. Yeah! I am taking her to a horse show this Saturday just to get her used to the surroundings. I am a little nervous as I am sure she will get spooked, but I have to do it sometime. I have decided to leave the 'clicker' behind in my training, now that we are getting serious about working hard.

Here is what I did yesterday:

1. I trotted her in big circles and really put my weight in my seat bones and leaned back off her front end to get her off the forehand. She did wonderfully! She kept the same pace in a nice slow trot. I was very pleased. We went several times and in both directions and I occasionally asked her to lower her head and come into the bridle. I am going to start working on more collection this week.

2. I rode her out around the house and she was a little spooked. She runs out when she gets spooked and I just turn her when she does that. I rode out with Hillary and her friend. They were riding Spencer and Poco.

3. I am going to start doing some light cantering this week-- I think. I might just work on trot circles and on some more arena exercises. I hope to ride her at least three times this week.

I really love this horse-- but it is time to start working with Annie!


I will post a video this week on our trot circles.

Back in the Saddle Again!

Well I am back in the saddle! I didn't realize just how much I missed riding until I was riding Claire yesterday.

Here is what I did:

I saddled Claire yesterday and I could tell she was perfectly happy about riding again. She moved over to me when I hoisted the saddle on and she acted really happy to be riding again-- that is until it got a little hotter and maybe she got tired?

I walked her mostly, but did trot some. It was really neat because when we started trotting she immediately put her head down and tucked her nose in. I clicked after she held it for awhile and it was neat to see her remember it from almost a month ago. There is no doubt in my mind it was the clicker training that taught her to lower her head when trotting. I rode her for about 15 minutes, and after that we worked on turning on the forehand (moving the hauches around) and a little on sidepassing. She did a little step on sidepassing, but I am really premature on this because I have not done counterbending enough (walking her forward and sideward at the same time.) She was fair on moving the hauches over and seems more stiff on one side.

Here is what she did for the first time. She just stood there and wouldn't move! I think she was trying to tell me she was tired? or wanted to join the other horses grazing in the back? After several tries I knew I needed a popper. I got off and took off my breast collar and used one of the leather straps for an aid. I got back on and asked her to go forward, she refused, and then I popped her on her butt. That woke her up and she started to move. I was beginning to feel a little guilty but I wasn't about to end our training session on that note. I wanted her to move off of pressure willingly and without having to get popped. She did and we worked through it. It is really the first time she has shown resistance in wanting to move forward.

I should add that the horseshoer came a few days earlier and put shoes on her front feet in an effort to stop the crack on her right foot from getting any worse. I rode her another 10 minutes and we quit on a really good note.

After I put her up, she charged like a wild comanche to the back to get to the other horses, and that told me it was not pain she was avoiding, but was showing me a little attitude.

So later that day I worked with Annie on the lunge line. She loved it, getting 'clicked' for taking the canter departure. I didn't keep her in in it very long, just long enough for her to get the idea of what a canter departure is. Anyways, after that I decided to work with Claire. I lunged her in both directions and she showed me the resistance again when she would stop and back away from me and the lunge whip.

I popped her on her but, (after I could get behind her) and she didn't really give me any more resistance after that. I used my 'clicker' to signal and reward for taking the correct lead. She took the right lead 4 times out of about 7 times. I didn't lunge her in the canter very long, but I think several sessions of clicking for the correct lead will hopefully teach her which lead to take in a circle.

I should add that after I finished with Annie and put her up, she raced up and down in the back pasture because she wanted to be in the arena still training and getting treats. Pretty funny.

Annie is not lazy at all, like Claire, and will be a different ballgame when I get her undersaddle.