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!!