Equine Lingo – a break down

Important Horse Terminology:

Event Prospect = Big Fast Horse
Dressage Prospect = Big Slow Horse
Hack Prospect = Pretty Color
Sporting Prospect = Short Fast Horse
Barrel Prospect = Fast Horse which can turn
Endurance Prospect = Fast Horse which will turn sometimes
Flashy = White Socks
Stunning= Makes you say "Good god, is that thing a horse?!"
Attractive = Bay
15.2hh = 14.3hhh
16.2hh = 15.3hh
To Loving Home Only = Expensive
To Show Home Only = Very Expensive
Needs Experienced Rider = Potentially Lethal
Elegant = Thin
In Good Condition = Foundered
Free Moving = Bolts
Very Responsive= Sit still and hold on tight
Rescue horse= most likely crazy, dangerous and untrusting
Quiet = Lame in Both Front Legs
Dead Quiet = Lame in All Four Legs
Good in Traffic (Bombproof) = Lame all Round, Deaf and Blind
Loves Children = Kicks and Bites
Kids horse= Stubborn and never moves
Pony Type = Small and Hairy and stubborn
Arab Type = Looks startled
TB Type = Looks Terrified
Quarter Horse Type = Fat
Warmblood Type = Big and Hairy
Draught Type = Big and Exceedingly Hairy
Easy to Catch = Very Old
Great prospect= Spoiled pasture pet
Great Project horse= Dangerous and time consuming
Greenbroke= Someone once sat on it
Very people friendly= Thinks it's a dog
Best when lounged first= This horse is a ticking energy bomb
Must Sell = Wife has left home and taking kids
All Offers Considered = I am in Traction for 6 months
Reluctant Sale = Comes with Title Deeds to Sydney Harbor Bridge

As found on Tales of Terror, Disgust and Amusement: My Life as an Equestrian – click for the rest of this hilarious post – Things that only horse people find funny.

See ya,

bonita

2014 – New Beginnings

Well, I don’t know what happened to the last year, but I suppose that comes of having a baby.  Our second child was born in April, so what with the first six months of new-baby-zombie-brain, I guess that accounts for most of the year!

Then Joey bucked me off, I broke my elbow, decided to sell him, rode him around with said broken elbow, sold him and started discovering fun things with Copper, like I needed a new saddle. Bought a Wintec 500 All Purpose saddle, had some great rides, (lateral work for the win! Shoulder fore, shoulder-in, leg yields and turns-on-the-forehand have been a regular part of our schooling routines recently, and for good reason, as they really unlock my ex-trotter, softening and suppling him up) and some terrible ones – in which we learn never to try and tire out a Standardbred. Don’t try this at home kids. Just don’t.

So with 2014 shaping up to be a quiet year on the equestrian front – I think I’ll pop down some goals to work towards, but they will be very prosaic I’m afraid.

Copper:

- Find his relaxed trot, and make it consistent. That’s a hard ask, but it is in there somewhere, so this is my foremost goal. He must learn to relax while he trots.

- Do some jumping. As previously mentioned, we haven’t done this in ages, but I really want to do some with him again.

- Maybe go to a dressage show??? I don’t have access to a float anymore, and unless we put electronic brakes in our car before the end of the year, I don’t really see this one happening, but I can try nonetheless.

Me:

- Work on developing my seat; primarily focusing on allowing Copper’s back to soften, and his energy to flow over his back from his hindquarters.

- Keep my hands up and elbows bent! I am a shocker for dropping my hands and locking my elbows, it’s my worst habit.  I have been working on this, but I really need to concentrate on eradicating this dreadful form.

- Never, ever, resort to a battle. When something isn’t working, change your approach! Every once in a while I forget this, and that’s when we have our shockers. I need to stop, take stock and change tack if it’s not working, rather than figuring out the solutions when I’m off the horse and it’s too late to help with that particular ride.  Sure, it’s good for the rides following, but I’d rather not leave it that late if I can help it.

 

So that’s me.  I want to try a get more videos of my riding this year to help critique and improve my equitation, but that’s a bit hard, so we’ll have to see how we go.

What are you planning for the new year?

See ya,

bonita

Seasonal Greetings!

 

Have a wonderful Christmas and a lovely New Years - we are celebrating with our family, than going away for a trip to see the great grandparents (my grandparents) and a few days at the beach.  Copper will get another holiday that he doesn’t need, but oh well.  It will be fun - I’m looking forwards to it.  I’ll see you in 2014!

See ya,

bonita

Good ride, good ride, BAD ride!

We have been having really good rides recently; Copper has started to soften his back while trotting for a few strides here and there (this is a BIG thing for him, being an ex-trotter, he really finds that hard and definitely prefers to power around with a locked neck, shoulders and back).  I’ve been riding in two point quite a lot to encourage this, and avoiding 20 meter circles because he just locks up when I ask him to do a full circle.

But – and here it is – the other day we had a perfectly terrible ride.  I thought I’d ride in the jump paddock for a change of scenery to the arena and to see where he was at in preparation for starting some jumping work as we haven’t jumped in - *thinks* yup, years.

That didn’t work.  Our ride quickly dissolved into a pulling battle, arguing about what speed we were going to go at. He wanted to canter, and I didn’t, so he was racing around with a locked neck at a hundred miles an hour.  I ended up hanging onto his face, because no matter how and which way I tried softening up on the reins, he just didn’t want to go slower than full pelt! 

We did canter a bit, and I managed to get a nice, soft canter, but as soon as we dropped back to a trot it all fell to pieces again.  I tried serpentines, 10 meter figure of eights, trot-halt-back up-trot transitions.  No beuno.  He wasn’t having any of it.

The goal was a soft trot (not necessarily slow, as that is harder, but soft so that I knew he was using his back properly and not resisting) on a longer rein for a more open frame.  I did not come even close to achieving that. *sigh*

So I tightened the contact and at least I could stop him from running off, but relaxed it was not.  So we went out on a trail ride.  Still trying to achieve the soft, rhythmical trot – still getting no where.  Ugh.  At this stage I was just glad that at least at the end of the trail we had some half-decent lateral movements and I could call it a day on a semi-positive note.

Sheesh!  That was not pretty.

Lesson Learnt:  Copper does NOT do “ride it out”.  If he’s tense, I can’t just ride him around and around until he relaxes.  It won’t work.  I will be exhausted long before he is, and that’s just trouble.

I need to engage his brain to get him thinking, rather than just racing around. Figures are good, but his balance is pretty good so they have to be darn tight to slow him down. And if they are too hard, he’ll just break into a canter, which defeats the purpose.

Take Away:  What I’m taking away from this is that Copper needs to engage his brain when he’s rushing – regardless of whether it’s caused by him being anxious or over-eager.  Lateral work is the best thing for this. This will be applicable knowledge for taking him to shows.

Where to now?  Well, we need to get that trot SORTED before I can start jumping.  His canter is good, and I suppose I could just canter around the place and ignore the mess that is trot, but I don’t know how productive that’s going to be, and frankly, I personally hate ‘moving up’ gaits before basics are established. And a controlled, relaxed, rhythmical trot is pretty darn basic. Anyone have any clues on how to help a trotter forget their training?? :/

I’ll keep plugging away.

See ya,

bonita

Bittersweet

So Facebook is a wonderful and terrible invention – I’ve kept in touch with the young girl (through her mentor) who purchased Joey. I saw some pictures of him today and he looks happy. Though I am glad for news of how his doing, I have to be honest. It hurts.

Apparently, he loves the bush trail riding, he’s jumping logs, and is making a great team with his new owner. That makes me happy – I’d hate for it not to be working out for him, but ouch…

I still miss him. *sniff* It’s awful.

See ya,

bonita

Spread a Little Sunshine

 
I am so thankful for this nomination for the Sunshine Award by Karen of Bakersfield Dressage – (which, by the way, I was extremely surprised and honored when she did – I’ve been reading her blog for ages and love it) of course I’m a million years behind and everyone has already been nominated. But if you haven’t and you feel like playing along; I nominate YOU!  : )

Mares or Geldings: Geldings. Mares are too moody and frankly, that’s my job. I don’t need that from my horse, or there might just be a hormone explosion!  : P

English or Western: English. Western can be fun to do every once in a while, but dressage is my passion, so English all the way.

Do you prefer "younger" or "older" horses?  Hmm. I don’t know. All of my older horses haven’t been that old and Joey at four and a half has been my youngest horse. So I can’t really judge.

Do you prefer riding or groundwork? Riding. I like working with my horse on the ground, but well, we all love to ride right? ‘Cause that’s when we get to fly….

Have you trained a horse from ground zero?  No, but it’s on my bucket list for sure.

Do you board your horse or keep it at home? I board – well, not really. I adgist my horse in 24/7 turnout. There are no stables, no barn, just paddocks.

Do you do all natural stuff or just commercial stuff?  I like all natural when I can – I am a big fan of the wonderful treatments you can find in the plant kingdom and the like. I think that they work really well for a reason. Sometimes nature doesn’t always win though, and then I am certainly happy to borrow someone’s brain and use the products that were invented to deal with things that nature can’t.

All tacked up or bareback: I love bareback for fun, but prefer to be tacked up. I feel like I have more freedom to try different things when I’m in the saddle.

Equestrian model?  No one in particular. I’m not really up on the equine sport news. Although I quite admire Mark Rashid for his horsemanship and I think very highly of Mugwump’s down to earth and thoughtful training techniques.

What's your one, main goal while being in the horse world? To improve and bring out the best in whatever horse I am working with. If one day I happen to be able to train up to Grand Prix dressage while doing that, I shall be a very happy equestrian. ; )

See ya,

bonita

Help! My horse is herd bound!

I’ve been thinking and reading, reading and thinking, and after five or so years of riding Copper I have finally connected all the dots – my horse is extremely herd bound.

The reason it’s taken me so long to pick this up is because he doesn’t exhibit the typical behaviors you’d expect in a herd bound horse – behaviors that Joey showed.  Copper doesn’t whinny longingly or loudly, he doesn’t refuse to go out on trail rides alone, he doesn’t pace around looking for his herd, or anything like that. 

But last night I had an epiphany – Copper’s herd bound-ness manifests itself in different ways.

1. He always drags his feet when you go to catch him and bring him in from the paddock. He has the slowest walk ever; he’s coming, but he will move like molasses on a cold day. He always has the grumpiest face while you bring him in, groom and saddle – in fact the only time he doesn’t look cranky while you have him out is when you feed him.  Naturally. 

I have checked his bridling, his saddle, his feet – I don’t think he is in pain, and for me, the biggest indicator is that it isn’t pain related is that his gear has been changed and refitted over the years, but his behavior hasn’t changed. It’s gotten worse.

I could be wrong about the pain thing, but I am always looking out for that, and I think the problem is bigger than that.  I think it’s a mental thing. Pain problems are easy to solve, mind problems are not.

2. He races under saddle. He has always been like this. The minute you hop into the saddle he is off, off and away! He doesn’t like standing still for mounting, he wants to run/trot as fast as he can whether you are trail riding with other horses or alone, or schooling in the arena, or jumping – whatever you are doing in the saddle, Copper is fast.

In the past I attributed this speed to his racing history.  He was trained as a trotter for at least six years (he was foaled in Sept, 2000 and his last registered race was 2006), and that sort of conditioning will impact a horse’s personality. So I assumed that he just like racing and running.

Now? I’m not so sure. I think that Copper is simply trying to get the riding over as fast a possible so that he can run back to his herd.

3. He likes to bolt off when you un-halter him in the paddock. This didn’t used to be the case; after I leased him out and got him back unexpectedly, he started this habit. Previously, he’d just amble back to wherever the herd was, but now 90% of the time he’ll take off at a gallop.  I turn him to toward the fence and get him to tuck his nose in and down towards me when I slip the halter off, but he is really good at turning on a dime and – excuse the French – pissing off like a bat outta hell.

These are the three main reasons I have come to the conclusion that he is, in essence, herd bound.

What do I do?

I don’t think it is my riding – I am willing to admit that we have had our share of struggles. I have really had to adjust my riding so that I am not pulling on his face, and I try very hard to control his speed with my seat.

We have been working together a lot better than previously – I have been using lateral work to switch his mind from “Charge! Forwards ho!” to “Oh, I have to think about which foot goes where.”  This has been working really well for calming him down and slowing down his trot and canter without hanging on to his face.

BUT if the underlying problem is not just “Speed is fun!  Whee!” like I thought it was, then all of these techniques aren’t really addressing Copper’s main problem.  He doesn’t feel safe away from his herd and he does NOT enjoy riding, like I thought he did.

Oh help. I guess I’m going to have to do a lot more reading and thinking, because I haven’t the foggiest clue how to go about reaching Copper and changing his mindset.

I don’t know if ground work is the answer, or maybe riding him out on trail rides and dismounting and feeding him in the middle of the ride? I really don’t know what to do at this stage, but I’m not giving up on trying to find a solution.

See, in the end, I think that Joey and Copper actually have/had similar problems. But Joey was at least willing to communicate and reach out, whereas Copper is very shut off. How do you open up lines of communication when your horse doesn’t want to talk to you? How do you begin to show them that work is good and fun and safe?

So many questions that I don’t have the answers too… I think I’m going to write a letter to Mugwump.  I need help.

See ya,

bonita