A great horse goes home...

I've had Tina in my training program for about 1 year. She's been a challenging horse, but she came around and now I enjoy her immensely. It's hard to imagine her not being here, but it's time for her to move on.

I showed the owner how to keep M's mouthiness under control and they were happy to see his black coat and slightly improved hoof condition. I wish I'd had time to do more to his feet.

Reka was easy to catch and halter and we lead her back to the barn with M. I was glad to see her show her comfort with this.

The horses loaded great, with the mares in one stall and M in the other.

It was a nice, short visit and sad to say goodbye to those horses - especially Tina. I look forward to seeing them again soon.

Cantering and Trimming

... in the snow! Not a lot of snow, but a cold, cloudy Colorado day nonetheless.

I started with Tina. We warmed up and then rode in the arena. Worked on getting the canter depart lighter, leg yielding, and a soft feel on the bit. A great session and her work ethic is fantastic. She sometimes loses momentum when I ask her transition down, so worked on keeping her forward motion in the down transition. She's great with her leads naturally and I get some unexpected lead changes from her quite often. Her canter felt more from behind today, it's better every session.

I played with Reka in the round pen. I haven't been playing with the young ones for November, but she goes home in a couple days and I wanted to spend a little time alone with her and make sure she's in a good place for leaving. She's an introverted horse and I believe her to be more left-brained. She saw my Great Dane in her winter blanket for the first time and was startled and wary, but her very next move was to go closer and check the dressed dog out. (My Dane in her winter coat typically takes every horse by surprise!) She was fine in the round pen with me, easy to play with. We did a little porcupine game, working on her yield to pressure. She's a sweet, sweet mare.

I then pulled M out and got his fronts trimmed. I'll trim his hinds and touch up Reka before they go home on Wednesday. It's strange to think of them not being here. I'm going to miss Tina terribly. :(

Catching up

Had a rough week for horse time due to my travel and Steve being out of town. I wanted to play with Gem and Tina, first and foremost. Then, I really wanted to get some more feet trimmed.

I started with Gem and decided to start some trick-training with him. I've been pushing him to be more exhuberant and I believe I need to attack it from a different place. So, I'm choosing to teach him a few tricks with hopes of improving our relationship and motivating him to put more effort into it on his own. We worked on the Spanish Walk today and the spin. I've never done either with Gem, but he learns amazingly fast. He was having a good time - I could tell by how much he was willing to do! I also taught him to rear. He already offers this sometimes in our groundwork, so I want to get him doing it on my ask and controlling when it's offered. I also hopped on and played with getting his backup softer. I hopped on bareback which I realize I've hardly done with this horse. He has a comfortable back for bareback riding and in the winter it keeps me warm! It was a fun session with him. I enjoy this type of training quite a bit and Gem is a great horse for low-energy play like learning tricks. We'll get back to the 45' line for groundwork soon enough.

I put a trim on Cowboy as it started to snow and I thought I'd have to ride Tina tomorrow. However, it didn't snow for long so I pulled Tina out, trimmed her hinds and played with her on the ground. We worked on the clippers also. She had a very hard time with this so unnatural tool for grooming. She's getting better and I really wanted to send her home confident with clipping. I've got a few days to focus and I'm sure I can get her good enough to cope with clippers. Tonight I was able to rub them all around her face when we finished and have her smell them while they were running. She's so skeptical and the trick for me is not lose her trust.

I also brought M and Reka into the barn today for the weekend. I want to get fresh trims on them before they go home and I wanted to spend some time with Reka before she leaves. They both look really great - nice coats and full bellies. They seem to enjoy the west pasture.

It was a cold winter day, but I enjoyed a couple horses and look forward to tomorrow! I also need to catch up on my blogging.

Tina and Cowboy take a ride

Loaded up Cowboy and Tina for a day at my great friend's house. Jess has land and cows on the adjacent property and it's a great place to go ride around. Tina had a fantastic day. Our big goal was to get more balanced in the canter. Having eyes on the ground (Jess) was very helpful so that I could get a better canter from Tina.

The wind was slightly obnoxious, but it was a great day regardless. We built a better canter depart and I rode a few amazing flying lead changes (Tina is a master at changing leads). I found that if I asked for a faster canter, she gathered herself up better and got lighter in the front. After about an hour of off and on cantering, she felt much better! Her canter was much smoother and she was more willing to get into the canter and stay there. Her best gait to me is her trot, but her canter will continue to develop and will be very nice in time. I also wonder if she's still growing and once she gets slightly higher in the wither she'll come together more.

Jess was able to get her L2 Freestyle audition completed and filmed, which was great. She's been wanting to get that done for some time.

The neighbors' cows came up to us at one point and I was on Tina at that point. She was so curious about the cattle! She was wary for the first minute or so and then she wanted to go to the cows. We got as close as we could on Jess' property, but Tina wanted more. I had to ask her to watch from where we were, but I was dying to go through the gate and see what Tina really would do with those cows. They were bigger cows than I've ever moved so it was just a bad idea. The fact that she wanted to get closer vs. run from them was huge to me. Her attitude about new things has so drastically improved.

Chrissy had some rough moments with Cowboy, but she really got it together after a bit of time. She got on him at one point, but didn't stay on long. I rode him for her as Tina had been pushed enough for day. He felt really nice! He's been a bracey horse, but he was quite soft in the mouth and neck today. I enjoyed riding him! He had good forward movement and offered the canter with ease. We worked on getting more suppleness in his body and neck especially. He was quite fun and felt very willing.

It was a very fun and productive day! I was very, very proud of Tina.

Tina Reaches a New Peak of Confidence!

I saw Tina push Rio around today. Wow! It is absolutely astonishing how much she's changed in a year. She now is higher on the ladder than Starlet, Rio, and will push M around.

Rode her in the arena today. I had planned for the front pasture, but got out late today. Chrissy wanted some help and time so Tina and I gave her assistance together. We worked on leg yielding, the beginning of haunches in, canter work, and extended trot. Her trot is so amazing and has become very powerful.

Worked with Chrissy on building up to sideways. From the ground, Cowboy is moving sideways nicely. She hopped in the saddle to she me how she can isolate the ends. We worked on getting him to understand to move only one end and I helped Chrissy develop that ask in the body. I was able to demo end isolation with Tina pretty well. It was good for Tina to just stand with me on her back and relax versus have me constantly asking for something.

Wanted to get more trimming done. More tomorrow...

More time with Tina

Rode and played with Tina. We rode in the front pasture and just enjoyed the warm evening and the beautiful sunset. We trotted figure 8's and played with end-isolation. I also trimmed Tina's fronts. Nice night!

Quick ride on Tina

Tacked her up for a quick ride moving her out at the trot and building more balance in the canter. Her isolation on the ends is much better, too. We did some large figure 8's and then some passenger lesson.

Brought Gem out for more building of maintain gait and driving from zone 3. Got some very nice and energetic trot departs on the circle.

Tina at the canter

Gem - hard session for him in the front pasture building his circle game and maintain gait. I pushed him quite a bit from the ground, asking for energy and responsiveness. This was a great session for both of us, really. He needed me to step up my leadership. I need to be sure my timing is right so that I'm not simply making him hyper-sensitive to my ask, but asking for thoughtful responsiveness.

Tina - rode really well. Used western saddle for the first time in a while. Cantering - she needs time to develop that better and get more balanced.

Rode Rain for a short session in the playground. I got her to stand on the bridge finally. Trimmed her hinds. She took a pic with steve for steve's company - kinda cute. Steve sat on her bareback with his laptop in his hand for an advertisement.

Progressing Tina

Had a very nice ride on Tina. We worked on a 20m circle and developing her forward energy at the trot on the circle bend. When her trot became elevated and full of power, I'd release and let her find comfort. She seems proud when she moves that way, as she should. We also worked on leg yielding with my stick as an aid. I have to be careful to make her feel criticized. She can be very easily offended. We worked on yo-yo at the walk with the intention of building her halt a bit. I've lost a little of the down transition from my seat somehow. We also worked on "soft feel" with the bit. She can be slightly over-reactive when I pick up the reins, so I want to help her feel comfortable to follow the bit and not at all defensive.

She's doing so well and her confidence is at an all time high. The days are very short and it's tougher each day to get more than one horse going. I've got a full weekend of horse training ahead of me - looking forward to it!

Gettin by with a little help from my Friends!

Had my great friend Jess come out today and play horsetime with me. Had a very productive day!

Started with Tina... played with some new natural dressage groundwork I'm learning from Karen Rohlf. I'm watching Karen's videos and trying new techniques in "Conversations with Energy". I am loving this stuff! It's amazing how tuned in Tina is to me and how easy it is to get her flowing with my energy. We did some of our cool obstacle stuff like strattling the two pedestals, teetering on the teeter totter, and jumping the barrels. Then I hopped on and had one of the best rides on her I've ever had.

Her confidence has soared. She's actually offering some leadership and trying to take over a bit in our riding sessions. This makes me so happy. Today, as I asked her to move with energy, she gave me some of the most beautiful trotting to ride. Wow. She was moving freely from behind and getting some amazing elevation in the front. I felt a moment of suspension with this powerful trot. Such a great feeling! We practiced more leg yielding - which is much easier on the fore than on the hind. We'll keep building the yield on the hind. Just a great session with this amazing horse.

Then, I played with M. I tried some of the new dressage groundwork with him and he did quite well. I also played with sideways, obstacles, circle game, and backing. He's giving lots of try and I'm so pleased with his new attitude about humans. Jess visited with him and he didn't offer to bite or get dominant. His respect for humans is so much better - makes him safer and will help him get along better in life. We also played with stick to me a bit where I ask him to trot when I trot, walk when I walk, or halt when I halt - all from zone 2. We'll play with this some more as it was a new concept. The 6th time, he halted when I did and we quit there. Big improvement from where he started.

I then played with Gem. I didn't tack him up, but we played a few mins on energy and then Jess and I took the horses for a walk. Jess is retraining an OTTB and she decided not to hop on him today. Her horse seemed introverted so a walk seemed like a good idea to get his feet moving w/o a lot of pressure. He did seem better as we just walked and Gem never once called for home. Gem was perfectly content to leave the property. Once we were about 1/2 mile away, I did some circles with him and played some more with getting the trot I wanted from the ground. I'm enjoying the introduction to all of this dressage-focused theory and technique in natural horsemanship.

I also finished trimming Gem tonight. He didn't want to give me his left hind at all, but I'm pretty sure it was because he needed to go potty. I didn't get the left hind done as nicely as I'd like.

Gem and Tina at a friends house in the country

The weather was amazing today and I had planned to spend it with a friend at her place. I loaded up Tina and Gem, Kendall and her bike and headed out. I spent the majority of my time with Tina. She had a large open pasture with obstacles and an arena with no fencing. Tina was amazing today! She was not tense or nervous about this new place at all! Wow. We had a nice easy ground warm-up and I was ready to get on. I started her in the round pen and waited for her to blow and show that she was ready. Then, Jess watched us and helped me to get her lighter on the front by working her more from behind. Jess is an amazing horsewoman who's trained for years. I felt some nice hind power from Tina and it gave me a good idea of what to ask for/look for during our sessions at home. Then I rode Tina in the big open area and she just did so great. The wind had turned on and it was blowing like crazy by now, but Tina was solid.

I then switched for Gem and just did some ground work with him. He definitely didn't get a lot of my time today, but it was good for him to take the drive and stand at the trailer for patience practice.

Jess is working with rehabbing an OTTB and we worked together on making some changes with him. He's a huge LBI who quickly goes RBI if asked for too much. He might appear confident, but he's sucking his thumb on the inside so I told Jess how it looked to me and what I'd do with him. Then, she and I took him into the round pen so she could mount him. This was his first mount since racing. He was somewhat RBI, but mostly seemed ok with things.

Jess and I helped eachother tremendously today! Thankful for my close horse friends. Just a great time with horses.

Moving Tina along

Great ride on Tina. Worked on isolating the ends, softness in the bit, turns and soft feel. I'm asking her more softly with my legs and body to move her body with me. As she gains confidence in the bit, it helps tremendously with developing seat and leg aids. She's not so worried about the bit, so we get more going with other zones.

Helped chrissy soften Cowboy with turning at the trot. I just think Chrissy has a great horse, but he does have a lot of built-in brace. He used to be a lesson horse and with his high intelligence, he learned some ways to get out of doing what's being asked. I hopped on him, asked for trot and we spent a good 20-30 minutes turning. I would only release when the turn was free of brace and we would immediately turn the other direction. At first it was like riding a merry-go-round horse - he was turning on zone 3. But after the first 10 mins or so, I started to feel his neck flex and he started to follow his nose a little. By the end we had made some progress and it was a good place to quit. He needs a program of this to get softer. I really believe he doesn't know how to be soft at this point - he needs to be taught.

After that, it occurred to me that Chrissy may not really know what soft should feel like. How can a rider get softness if they don't know what they're striving for? So, Chrissy rode Z and felt it for the first time. She felt how easy it can be to talk to a horse via the reins and with her body. She rode sideways for the first time. I think it made quite an impression on her and opened her eyes to what I strive to develop in horses.

I then rode Z and worked on the canter in the round pen. Z's canter depart in the pen or arena is typically not happy looking. It's very, very different on the trail - she's forward and happy. But arena riding is tough and she doesn't like it. I wanted to see how I could play with asking her to canter that would not cause her to get tight and mad. This was interesting! She's learned to cut to the middle and spiral to a tiny circle. She would put her ears flat back. She's been like this since I bought her and I've worked on developing less mental brace with the canter depart, but obviously I haven't gotten there. She was like this with trot departs and I've gotten that completely fixed. But canter departs with no mental brace - we still don't have that down. I found a good place to quit, but I would really like to get her attitude about canter departs better. I'll continue to play with this and see what works.

Great day!

Riding Tina in the pasture

Great ride on tina in the front pasture. She was super soft and we worked on circles and flexing. We did the teeter totter (she's great at that!) and some figure 8 patterns. Her flexion is wonderful and She's comfortable in the bit now. I'm very proud of how she's going!

Played with M and got our softest canter depart online yet. He's come a long way with the groundwork. He was very willing and compliant and it's time to time him to the next level. Very cool. This was the first time I've asked for an online canter. He's offered up lots of cantering of course, but it's been hard cantering with a lot of brace in his mind. Today, he was my willing partner and that canter depart meant his mind was soft and easy. Wonderful!

Tina and M

Tonight, I played with Tina and starting developing leg yielding. I also added the cavesson to her bridle so she could get used to that piece of equipment. That was a non-issue. I did some circles with long-lines in zone 3 to help her learn more about the bit pressure with me on the ground. She's gotten much quieter in the bit, but she needs more time. She did very nicely with me in zone 3 as the line had to wrap around her hocks and I could manage her collection with the outside rein. She looked so gorgeous trotting around me with her powerful movement coming from behind. She is going to do well in the ring when she gets there.

Played with M and had the softest, most wonderful online session with him since he arrived! Wow! He was so obedient! Sideways was so soft and nice, we did figure 8's and he took some responsibility for the pattern, and we did some smooth turns on the fore and haunches. Great, great session!

Reka's first trim

I've been working on getting Reka ready to stand for her first trim. Today, she seemed ready and I was able to get under all 4 hooves and give her a great trim! She had no worries and handled the trimming with such patience. She is going to make a fabulous mount. Her temperament is perfect.

Rode Tina - we rode in the arena and on the playground. I played circle game with her near the hanging obstacle but did not ask her through it. She shied from at first but as we left circles and went on to something else, she was no longer shying away. I'm glad I didn't ask her to go through it - she needs more time gaining confidence simply near it. Worked on voice commands for the gaits from her back as well. We have more practice to do on that.

M and Tina

Tina - riding with the bit and asking for collection. Then put the western saddle on her and played with voice commands on the circle. Her voice command responses are great, with a little more work needed to transition down to walk.

M - great, great circles!! Beautiful, soft sideways. Best session ever.

I love what I do

Tina in the roundpen, awesome session! Moving fore and hind after lots of trotting and asking for canter. If she changed or slowed on the circle, I changed direction. Worked great and she was giving me more and more unguided trot - maintaining her gait by herself and not requiring me to keep her there. Isolating the ends was very interesting as she is a little confused, but after a few attempts, I got some nice isolation of the ends. Good girl!

M - nice circles! Took a little time to get them, but he's doing really great. Sideways is much harder when i'm on the left, so we played with lots of sideways in that direction. We finished with figure 8 and helping him squeeze past me and around w/o changing his stride. His attitude is very changed and he's progressing wonderfully.

As I do nearly every day, I spent a lot of time loving on Reka and asking her to yield to various directions. We're picking up feet every day and just getting her overall comfortable with all the human interaction. She's the sweetest little filly - so interesting.

Riding Tina

In the arena. It was raining off and on so I didn't ride for very long, but she was great - relaxed, calm and responsive. Worked more on soft bit communication and moving into the bit. We played for a bit with the hanging obstacle, but I've brought her way back from it to help her gain confidence. I also played with the clippers some. I've started to wait, wait, wait - as her horseanality needs me to do. I turn them on and she turns her head away. I wait until she looks at me and the clippers and I immediately turn them off. This makes her braver to look at the clippers and is a very effective way to encourage her bravery. I started with approach and retreat, but this method is working better.

Fence fixing and training

Played with Z in trailer. She goes in fine, but she's not confident while in there. So, we worked on loading and staying in and expanding her confidence inside. She did better. I have a long 4-horse trailer, so I played with having her stand in the 3rd stall, closer to the door, hoping that she'd feel less claustrophobic if she wasn't so deep in "the cave". It seemed to help and I decided to trailer her that way for the trail competition the next day. It's amazing how much better the trailer is for her if there's another horse. She has no issues if she's not alone.

Played with Rain on bridge. She doesn't have confidence on the bridge or teeter totter and I believe it's because she slipped once or twice. She's had a couple slips in her past (on cement once, too) and she's wary of standing on something that doesn't provide her good footing. So, we worked on the ground, building her trust that her feet weren't going to slip. Once that was better, I hopped on and we went over the bridge repeatedly. I didn't get her to stand on it today, but she was crossing it much better, so we found a good place to quit and go soak. I love her - her way of thinking things through is so wonderful.

Played with Tina through the hanging obstacle. This is extremely hard for her. I believe its the idea of these noisy and unnatural things overhead. I pulled some items back so the squeeze would be less daunting. She knows I want her to go through so she tries so darn hard to overcome her fear and get through the obstacle. The problem is that she doesn't get more confident this way, she actually gets more and more afraid. I thought to try flooding technique and gave it a try. This did not work at all - she got less and less confident. So, I quickly changed back to approach and retreat and we got a slight improvement. I've learned to recognize quickly when her confidence is leaking away and change my method. For Tina, confidence and trust in me are the keys to success. We'll need to work with this obstacle for a while.

I then hopped on and rode her in the arena. Worked on follow the rail and turning with feel and softness.

Last for the day, helped Chrissy with bareback riding. She wanted to develop her independent seat and decided to hop on her horse bareback. I led her around and tried to help her find harmony by feeling the horse and moving with the horse. This is so good for Chrissy! She's forced to breathe and relax to get more fluid.

A fun night!!

Miss Reka - so cute. Following me around and just loving the attention she's getting.

Pulled Tina, Gem and Zarah out for some time tonight.

Tina: I spent time yesterday reading up and remembering all the interesting things about RBI horses. One thing I want to make sure I'm doing well is waiting! Do I always wait until she's ready for the next step? Are there times she's telling me she's not ready by not giving me 2 eyes and I'm not seeing it? Do I need to slow down more often? RBI's can be difficult horses and the beginning of something new is typically very hard for them. I went out with a renewed vision tonight and really studied her behavior and tried to listen to her intently. With the hanging obstacle, I asked her through and then I waited. She went through fairly calmly. A few more sends and she was as calm as she'll ever be. With the clippers, I turned them on and I waited. I waited for her to ask me a question or show me a new level of calmness. I tried to turn them off at precisely the right time (Timing is EVERYTHING!). Finally, she looked to me with the clippers turned on and I released by turning them off. We did it twice and I felt like that was enough. Tina teaches me to hone my skills and pay close attention.

My goal: make sure I arm her owner with as much information as possible. The beautiful thing about RBI's is that they excel in dressage! They thrive on the consistency of the patterns and they are ultra-obedient, making them fun to work with. RBI's make the best dressage horses. I'll be printing off flyers and info for her owner to take home and no doubt they'll have much success.

Gem - darn, he's so handsome in english tack! His winter coat is coming in, which is super black. He just looked so nice tacked up and he was ready to go for me. I only rode him for 20 mins or so and we played with leg yields and backing. We rocked on the teeter totter (I swear, he loves that obstacle!) and we worked on headset with different directions of hind movement. I tried to play with the 8-bends, a super useful technique for teaching isolation of the ends from the saddle. We did it all in a hack, the first time I've used a hack with him in a long time. I was surprised how soft he was with it. We are building some great things together and I'm so, so happy with him.

Z - I'm taking her to a trail competition on Sunday and I really wanted to hop on and see how she's feeling about being particular with/for me. I'm trying to do something with her about once/week, just to keep her handy. She feels the same whenever I hope on - like an old comfortable shoe. So, we just did some easy things - figure 8, over the pedestal, moving the fore and hind. Eventually Kris showed up for some Rio coaching and Z was the perfect horse to have help with that session.

Rio - we wanted to continue to evolve his relationship with Kris by exposing him to more separation from Z and leardership from Kris. It was getting dark, so she stayed on the ground for tonight and we went to the front pasture. She had her plan of taking over his feet if/when he got upset or fearful and tense when Z and I left. The first time we left, he got a little tense and she decided to back him. The second time, she didn't need to - he was fine with staying there with Kris even when Z and I were out of sight. Huge changes and I know Kris is loving the metamorphosis that's occurring in their relationship. She seems astonished most of the time. This stuff really, really works!

After it became obvious that Rio was ok with this, we decided to start building the turn on the haunches. This is one thing that Rio has seemed to struggle with. He came here with some decent ground work knowledge and I was impressed by what he knew. But the turning on the haunches has been tough for him for some reason. Tonight we worked on one step at a time and he was great. He was so relaxed, he kept dropping his head to graze. For some horses, this would be annoying. For Rio, it meant the world (to me, at least). Kris and Rio are making huge strides.