Decided against working Max on Saturday, the weather was really really cold and I couldn't face it. They all came in a bit boingy and C worked Rosey and she was like a giraffe on crack. Discretion was the better part of valour!
Today it was still a bit chilly but at least it was sunny and I managed to find some riding gloves and a bobble hat that made life a bit easier. Neil had given the horses a new strip of grass earlier in the afternoon so they all came in quite full and snoozy.
Max was brilliant, no issues with pallets, birds or any other imaginary thing that could cause a fire breathing dragon routine. Was able to ask for more work today, more bend in the next and some small circles making sure he didn't fall in through his shoulder. He was brilliant, I use a Wells cavesson and it is excellent for this sort of work as it doesn't move. I also use a dealer or driving whip which is basically a short lunge whip, this is also great as you can swing the lash towards the shoulder if they start to come in.
We probably did about 20 minutes of nice work on both reins. Only issue we had was I forgot who I was working with and asked for a bit more engagement from the hind quarters, Max obviously felt this was an unfair ask as I got a stamp but he didn't break pace and was happy to carry on. On both reins I allowed him to stretch out on the full length of the line and got some really nice stretches.
He got a nice scratch as a thank you and then a handful of chaff when he got back to the yard.
C also took Charlie Too for a hack around the fields and he was a good boy, she schooled him yesterday and he was not impressed.
Need to get cracking with Max if I want to take him to the February PMG clinic.
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Run On Magnesium
Something weird going on, either magnesium is suddenly being talked about a lot in the horsey press, or on various forums, or there are suddenly an awful lot of loopy and/or laminitic horses at the moment (due to mild Spring like weather after the snow?). Suddenly there is an awfully high demand for magnesium, I have sent out unprecedented amounts in the last couple of weeks. Not complaining but slightly worrying as there has been quite a bit of laminitis this winter and I am definitely getting lots of emails from all around the country. Not your 'typical' laminitic pony either, these are 16hh plus horses.
I think the weather has had an awful lot to do with it, I am seeing a flush of grass after a period where due to the awful weather people weren't able to exercise their horses as much, or the horse was on restricted turn out.
We were lucky in that we were able to continue to turn out and our school and sand track was usable even in the snow, however even when turned out the horses were not moving around as much as they normally do. I have to confess as well it was as much that me and the OH could do to get the taps defrosted and everyone fed and watered, exercising the horses was the last thing on our minds.
It looks like many people are still dealing with the fall out and possibly down South more snow to come. My mother delights in telling me that the year I was born it snowed in April which she reckons was a warning sign of things to come.
No work for the horses during the week again, OH reports they are all well and ok. He has the offer of the first ride on an unridden for six months, newly barefoot, with no prior knowledge of how he goes under saddle, PRE. He has announced that in order to do this he will need to sit on one of mine first, as Charlie Too is the only one in regular ridden work at present it looks like he, and the OH, will be getting a bit of a shock at the weekend.
I dream of the day when I am light enough to ride a 13.2 .....
I think the weather has had an awful lot to do with it, I am seeing a flush of grass after a period where due to the awful weather people weren't able to exercise their horses as much, or the horse was on restricted turn out.
We were lucky in that we were able to continue to turn out and our school and sand track was usable even in the snow, however even when turned out the horses were not moving around as much as they normally do. I have to confess as well it was as much that me and the OH could do to get the taps defrosted and everyone fed and watered, exercising the horses was the last thing on our minds.
It looks like many people are still dealing with the fall out and possibly down South more snow to come. My mother delights in telling me that the year I was born it snowed in April which she reckons was a warning sign of things to come.
No work for the horses during the week again, OH reports they are all well and ok. He has the offer of the first ride on an unridden for six months, newly barefoot, with no prior knowledge of how he goes under saddle, PRE. He has announced that in order to do this he will need to sit on one of mine first, as Charlie Too is the only one in regular ridden work at present it looks like he, and the OH, will be getting a bit of a shock at the weekend.
I dream of the day when I am light enough to ride a 13.2 .....
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Horseboxes
Bertie Bedford passed his plating yesterday so that means I can get out and about and hopefully get over for some PMG lessons.
Got stuck behind a horsebox on the way to the yard this morning. I am the first to defend the right for slow moving horseboxes to be driven with care on the roads but even I couldn't be positive about this one. Face to face with an Indesit delivery lorry, horsebox had at least another foot it could have pulled over, and a passing place clearly visible about 12 foot back.
Indesit's passenger was doing his best to direct both vehicles and ended up signalling his lorry to move forwards slowly. At this point I started pressing my horn and then got gestures from both horsebox driver and Indesit driver signalling their displeasure at my horn blowing. At that point Indesit driver took the top corner of his vehicle off an an overhead tree branch.
Noticed that the mirrors on the horsebox did not extend past the width of the vehicle which is never good.
Gave B a great lesson on her new pony tonight. We worked without stirrups and both hands on the balance strap stopping and turning with body positioning. She then took her stirrups back and I bet her a £1 that she couldn't do a three loop serpentine in trot without letting go of the strap. It took several attempts but she got there in the end. She was very chuffed until I pointed out I had also told her I would fine her 50p for every time she took her hands off the strap, so I was still up on the deal. Kids are still so gullible sometimes.
Nothing really to say about my lot so far this week, N reports that they have been pretty filthy which usually means they are pretty happy.
Got stuck behind a horsebox on the way to the yard this morning. I am the first to defend the right for slow moving horseboxes to be driven with care on the roads but even I couldn't be positive about this one. Face to face with an Indesit delivery lorry, horsebox had at least another foot it could have pulled over, and a passing place clearly visible about 12 foot back.
Indesit's passenger was doing his best to direct both vehicles and ended up signalling his lorry to move forwards slowly. At this point I started pressing my horn and then got gestures from both horsebox driver and Indesit driver signalling their displeasure at my horn blowing. At that point Indesit driver took the top corner of his vehicle off an an overhead tree branch.
Noticed that the mirrors on the horsebox did not extend past the width of the vehicle which is never good.
Gave B a great lesson on her new pony tonight. We worked without stirrups and both hands on the balance strap stopping and turning with body positioning. She then took her stirrups back and I bet her a £1 that she couldn't do a three loop serpentine in trot without letting go of the strap. It took several attempts but she got there in the end. She was very chuffed until I pointed out I had also told her I would fine her 50p for every time she took her hands off the strap, so I was still up on the deal. Kids are still so gullible sometimes.
Nothing really to say about my lot so far this week, N reports that they have been pretty filthy which usually means they are pretty happy.
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Killer Birds And More Horse Balloons
Decided to continue on with Max and the work we did yesterday. Max is not one of those horses that you can pick up and put down, it is a commitment when you bring him back in to work as you have to work him regularly. It doesn't particularly matter how often you work him each week, although I am sure more would be better but once in work he likes the same sort of routine otherwise he gets very anxious. It always takes a few sessions to get his head back in work mode and there is usually an improvement each time, even if it doesn't always seem like that.
Today he was laughing in the face of the pallets and we started the session really well, so well in fact that after five minutes the thought crossed my mind to finish. I went against my instinct however as I wanted to start getting a more physical session in, rather than focussing on attention. I should know by now that Max is a mind reader, I am not quite sure what caused it but we had one major spook on the left rein. He settled down again pretty quickly which is good for him and we continued as if nothing had happened. Again I thought about stopping but decided to carry on for a bit longer and change the rein. Things were going very well on the right rein until a Kite got in to a bit of a bun fight with some other birds. Not quite sure what was going on but suddenly there was a lot of noise and the sky overhead went a bit dark. Well that was it as far as Max was concerned, bad enough to have things at floor level about to eat him but when things start dropping out of the sky it is too much.
I am afraid I got a little bit tough with him. If I am going to get back on him, and if there is to be any chance that C will ever be able to ride him, and possibly compete, then he needs to know that he can wobble, but not surge. I also had the surge but come at you with the shoulder routine so he got a bit of a flick with the rope and put in the corner. You have to know with Max when it is and isn't appropriate to get a bit tougher, sometimes I don't always get it right but tonight we did regain our head and he was happy to carry on working in that corner of the school. He got lots of praise and fuss.
I was happy that we had finished on a good note so turned to walk across the school to the gate. He obviously wanted out of there fast as he attempted to water ski me across the arena. This resulted in another 10 minutes work until we had head lower and some nice sighs. This is another thing I need to remember with Max, only start something if you have all the time in the world to finish it.
Because of the length of time I had spent with Max I decided against working Jamie as well. Whether the OH was inspired by me working and wanted to join in, or whether he was jealous that I was having fun I don't know but for reasons known only to himself he decided he was going to take Merlin in the school. Merlin is a horse I bred who is no longer ridden due to kissing spines, if you try and ride him in a tree'd saddle he throws himself on the floor although he is happier in a treeless and much more comfortable since going barefoot.
They just worked on some walk, halts and turns with the OH using body language to move Merlin around the school. He was rewarding with treats although not clicking so not true clicker training. Merlin is very food orientated and once he realised he would get a treat if he stopped when the OH stopped he was very attentive. He was a little tight behind (he is pushing 20) so I may see if the OH will try some of the LFS work, not sure if he will let me teach him, he is funny like that we get quite competitive when it comes to riding.
C worked Rosey and Charlie Too so we still got something done with four of them which was good.
The OH also trimmed Tommy, Tommy is our severely laminitic pony who was a rescue a few years ago. He has a deformed hoof that we often struggle with and just recently he has not been too happy to lift it up to have it picked out. N managed to take quite a lot off the heel and he was moving a lot better afterwards so I think we are heading in the right direction. He has not had pulses for months now, it is the residual damage to his hooves that are the problem.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Horse Balloons And Crab Ponies
Had a Peter Maddison-Greenwell clinic this morning. The two lessons that I watched were advanced work, one was working, and getting changes, and the other was concentrating on obtaining a slightly higher, and more advanced head carriage, her horse has a habit of being a little deep at times.
Sometimes, I can leave a clinic feeling pleased for what the others have achieved, but slightly depressed because I no longer have a horse that I can do the more advanced work on. However, I am pleased to say that my positive frame of mind from last weekend has continued.
Work has meant that it didn't really have the opportunity to do any work with Max since last weekend. The OH was helpfully trying to spoil my positive mental attitude by laying bets that the improvement we got by the end of last weekend's work he would have completely forgotten and therefore I was going to have horse eating pallet syndrome again.
Things did not start well when C and I were bringing the four of them in from the paddock. I don't know why this surprised me but all four were inattentive bringing in and staring strongly across the field towards the muck heap, they were a little on their toes and jumpy. I couldn't work out why this would be until I realised they were uncomfortable with the disappearance of the horse box which had gone that afternoon to be serviced prior to it's plating. Now I don't know whether this says something about my four, they did after all stand and watch the lorry being towed across the field by a land rover due to the mud, so clearly saw it disappear and drive up the road. However, spooking at the empty space they seemed to find appropriate behaviour. I have the only horses that can spook at something, and also nothing.
Temple Grandin explains this phenomonem in her book Animals In Translation, basically if you consider animals, particularly horses, to be autistic, then any change in their environment can cause them to exhibit signs of stress. Some horses cope with this better than others however I seem to have some from the lower end of the functioning spectrum :)
So, Max was absolutely fine with the pallet, very happy to work near it, past it, stand next to it etc, etc. Carried on with the work from last weekend but was actually able to do more 'work' rather than focus on attention. Started on the right rein and this went very well, we had soft, round, attentive and some nice circle work.
Then decided to work on the left rein so asked Max to stand still while I swapped sides and sorted my rope out. I had just said 'stand' and then the OH very helpfully dropped something very loudly out of Max's sight. This resulted in Max performing his 'horse balloon' impression, this basically involves him launching himself in the air with his front feet somewhere above the level of my head. In these situations I try and stay calm, not make a big deal of it and just carry on, I did make myself laugh however by uttering what must of been the most useless command as he launched in to orbit which was 'stay standing'. I think that horse had bolted, almost quite literally.
After that it took two full renditions of 10 green bottles to get him back in to some sort of work mode again, my preference is for alcohol related songs to keep my breathing and to help him relax, my other particular favourite with Max is 'show me the way to go home'.
We finished on a good note however and it was a definite improvement on last weekend.
As the OH was busy trimming in the yard and I still had daylight left I decided to also do some ground work with Jamie. Jamie is an ex race TB who is generally very good but can have his moments, you normally see the twinkle in his eye before he actually does anything really bad, and he does at least have the courtesy to boing when he is well away from you. He usually starts off quite good so I was a little surprised when instead of walking out and away from me he started to bend himself in the middle and cross both front and back legs walking sideways like a crab, as I moved he moved, but sideways.
Now this was probably a fairly advanced movement however it wasn't quite what I was expecting so it left me a little confused, until I realised part of the heavy rope I was using on the cavesson had got caught underneath the bottom of my coat so his head was attached to my body and he was trying to do his best to do what I was asking him for.
Jamie always makes my smile when I work him and he decided to cheer me up even more by showing me his rear and spin manoeuvre. This is a move that he has perfected, he rears vertically and then before he lands does a 90 degree turn, usually to the left. Today's was a particularly high scoring move, I never make a big thing about it now, I just said 'no' in a stern voice and then carried on where we left off. Jamie seemed to find the bending work quite hard. I thought he was a right bend horse until he was even worse on the right rein so have now decided he is just a 'no bend' horse.
We will try again tomorrow and see if he is any different.
C rode Charlie Too and worked Rosey in hand so that was four horses worked and one trimmed today which must be a yard record for us.
Sometimes, I can leave a clinic feeling pleased for what the others have achieved, but slightly depressed because I no longer have a horse that I can do the more advanced work on. However, I am pleased to say that my positive frame of mind from last weekend has continued.
Work has meant that it didn't really have the opportunity to do any work with Max since last weekend. The OH was helpfully trying to spoil my positive mental attitude by laying bets that the improvement we got by the end of last weekend's work he would have completely forgotten and therefore I was going to have horse eating pallet syndrome again.
Things did not start well when C and I were bringing the four of them in from the paddock. I don't know why this surprised me but all four were inattentive bringing in and staring strongly across the field towards the muck heap, they were a little on their toes and jumpy. I couldn't work out why this would be until I realised they were uncomfortable with the disappearance of the horse box which had gone that afternoon to be serviced prior to it's plating. Now I don't know whether this says something about my four, they did after all stand and watch the lorry being towed across the field by a land rover due to the mud, so clearly saw it disappear and drive up the road. However, spooking at the empty space they seemed to find appropriate behaviour. I have the only horses that can spook at something, and also nothing.
Temple Grandin explains this phenomonem in her book Animals In Translation, basically if you consider animals, particularly horses, to be autistic, then any change in their environment can cause them to exhibit signs of stress. Some horses cope with this better than others however I seem to have some from the lower end of the functioning spectrum :)
So, Max was absolutely fine with the pallet, very happy to work near it, past it, stand next to it etc, etc. Carried on with the work from last weekend but was actually able to do more 'work' rather than focus on attention. Started on the right rein and this went very well, we had soft, round, attentive and some nice circle work.
Then decided to work on the left rein so asked Max to stand still while I swapped sides and sorted my rope out. I had just said 'stand' and then the OH very helpfully dropped something very loudly out of Max's sight. This resulted in Max performing his 'horse balloon' impression, this basically involves him launching himself in the air with his front feet somewhere above the level of my head. In these situations I try and stay calm, not make a big deal of it and just carry on, I did make myself laugh however by uttering what must of been the most useless command as he launched in to orbit which was 'stay standing'. I think that horse had bolted, almost quite literally.
After that it took two full renditions of 10 green bottles to get him back in to some sort of work mode again, my preference is for alcohol related songs to keep my breathing and to help him relax, my other particular favourite with Max is 'show me the way to go home'.
We finished on a good note however and it was a definite improvement on last weekend.
As the OH was busy trimming in the yard and I still had daylight left I decided to also do some ground work with Jamie. Jamie is an ex race TB who is generally very good but can have his moments, you normally see the twinkle in his eye before he actually does anything really bad, and he does at least have the courtesy to boing when he is well away from you. He usually starts off quite good so I was a little surprised when instead of walking out and away from me he started to bend himself in the middle and cross both front and back legs walking sideways like a crab, as I moved he moved, but sideways.
Now this was probably a fairly advanced movement however it wasn't quite what I was expecting so it left me a little confused, until I realised part of the heavy rope I was using on the cavesson had got caught underneath the bottom of my coat so his head was attached to my body and he was trying to do his best to do what I was asking him for.
Jamie always makes my smile when I work him and he decided to cheer me up even more by showing me his rear and spin manoeuvre. This is a move that he has perfected, he rears vertically and then before he lands does a 90 degree turn, usually to the left. Today's was a particularly high scoring move, I never make a big thing about it now, I just said 'no' in a stern voice and then carried on where we left off. Jamie seemed to find the bending work quite hard. I thought he was a right bend horse until he was even worse on the right rein so have now decided he is just a 'no bend' horse.
We will try again tomorrow and see if he is any different.
C rode Charlie Too and worked Rosey in hand so that was four horses worked and one trimmed today which must be a yard record for us.
Sunday, 16 January 2011
The start of something
Well, last attempt at a blog went by the wayside, so much so I think I only managed one post and can't even remember the name of the blog or the password!!
I'm not one for New Years resolutions, in fact a few years ago my resolution was never to make a resolution again, however for some reason this year feels a bit different, don't know if it is starting the new year in a new job, and investing some time and money in some training that may enable me to work with horses full time or just that the weather is better and the evenings are beginning to show some hope of getting lighter. Whatever it is it all feels like now is a good time to start things.
So, I am the owner of seven barefoot horses and the responsible person for one other, our full livery. The horses are a mixed bunch, some in work, some capable of being in work and some retired. My riding horse is Max and like the majority of the others he has had the winter off due to lack of time, lack of light and appalling weather. We have a teenager that comes and helps at the weekends and during the school holidays in return for lessons and rides her name is C and she mainly rides Charlie Too who is our Welsh Section C, he is the only one that has been in work throughout the winter as C is happy to ride in all weathers although not sure Charlie is so keen.
This weekend I decided that as we seemed to have an extra 30 minutes or so of daylight and if I was going to start riding Max it would be a good idea to do a month or so of in hand work first. I love in hand work, I never was one for lunging in circles although I think it has it's place, instead I like to work around the school and do different shapes and routines. Marji Armstrong calls this distance work and Peter Laidely calls it dancing. On some of the horse forums I go on there has been quite a lot of talk recently about the work of Marijke de Jong, she is a Bent Branderup student and has some great videos on Youtube. Marijke advocates working the horse in hand with the neck low, a bend through the body and stepping under with the inside hand, she calls this LFS. The technique is quite similar to some of the exercises I have been taught in hand in the bridle but the work starts in the cavesson with a long line which is a bit easier to start with.
So the plan on Saturday was to start with some gentle circling work to try and encourage his hind end to step under and then maybe to do some baucher flexions. As my horses often teach me, what I intend to do and what I end up doing are often two different things. Max has not been in the school for a couple of months and since that time two pallets have been put on the other side of the fence at the furthest short end of the school. Max decided these were the scariest things he had ever seen, obviously horse eating monsters and did his headless chicken impression which a friend of mine describes as giraffe on crack. This basically consisted of whizzy past at high speed snorting and trying to change rein on the lunge and disappear off in the other direction. I am so glad I wasn't riding him because he was being a complete pain.
So, 20 minutes of circles getting closer and closer to the horse eating pallets we eventually had a calm walk past them on the left rein so we called it a day.
C had an in hand lesson with Rosey and she was very good, she always likes to start the session with a bit of a boing but settled well, we are also doing some of the LFS work with her and she struggles with straightness and since her colic surgery last year struggles to engage her stomach muscles. C enjoys this work and has a good feel for it.
C also hacked Charlie Too around the fields and he was a good boy, he can be a little bit nappy but she is getting a bit firmer with him which is helping.
Today was a repeat of yesterday except Max was a GoC on the right rein and it took 15 minutes for a nice walk past the pallets.
All three horses comfortable on the surfaces they worked on nothing exciting to report there really.
I'm not one for New Years resolutions, in fact a few years ago my resolution was never to make a resolution again, however for some reason this year feels a bit different, don't know if it is starting the new year in a new job, and investing some time and money in some training that may enable me to work with horses full time or just that the weather is better and the evenings are beginning to show some hope of getting lighter. Whatever it is it all feels like now is a good time to start things.
So, I am the owner of seven barefoot horses and the responsible person for one other, our full livery. The horses are a mixed bunch, some in work, some capable of being in work and some retired. My riding horse is Max and like the majority of the others he has had the winter off due to lack of time, lack of light and appalling weather. We have a teenager that comes and helps at the weekends and during the school holidays in return for lessons and rides her name is C and she mainly rides Charlie Too who is our Welsh Section C, he is the only one that has been in work throughout the winter as C is happy to ride in all weathers although not sure Charlie is so keen.
This weekend I decided that as we seemed to have an extra 30 minutes or so of daylight and if I was going to start riding Max it would be a good idea to do a month or so of in hand work first. I love in hand work, I never was one for lunging in circles although I think it has it's place, instead I like to work around the school and do different shapes and routines. Marji Armstrong calls this distance work and Peter Laidely calls it dancing. On some of the horse forums I go on there has been quite a lot of talk recently about the work of Marijke de Jong, she is a Bent Branderup student and has some great videos on Youtube. Marijke advocates working the horse in hand with the neck low, a bend through the body and stepping under with the inside hand, she calls this LFS. The technique is quite similar to some of the exercises I have been taught in hand in the bridle but the work starts in the cavesson with a long line which is a bit easier to start with.
So the plan on Saturday was to start with some gentle circling work to try and encourage his hind end to step under and then maybe to do some baucher flexions. As my horses often teach me, what I intend to do and what I end up doing are often two different things. Max has not been in the school for a couple of months and since that time two pallets have been put on the other side of the fence at the furthest short end of the school. Max decided these were the scariest things he had ever seen, obviously horse eating monsters and did his headless chicken impression which a friend of mine describes as giraffe on crack. This basically consisted of whizzy past at high speed snorting and trying to change rein on the lunge and disappear off in the other direction. I am so glad I wasn't riding him because he was being a complete pain.
So, 20 minutes of circles getting closer and closer to the horse eating pallets we eventually had a calm walk past them on the left rein so we called it a day.
C had an in hand lesson with Rosey and she was very good, she always likes to start the session with a bit of a boing but settled well, we are also doing some of the LFS work with her and she struggles with straightness and since her colic surgery last year struggles to engage her stomach muscles. C enjoys this work and has a good feel for it.
C also hacked Charlie Too around the fields and he was a good boy, he can be a little bit nappy but she is getting a bit firmer with him which is helping.
Today was a repeat of yesterday except Max was a GoC on the right rein and it took 15 minutes for a nice walk past the pallets.
All three horses comfortable on the surfaces they worked on nothing exciting to report there really.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)