Clicking away

As I was telling Wolfie last night in the comments, I tried the treat method to keep Gwen calm outside the barn and away from her brother. It worked fairly well, she stayed pretty calm and attentive. We didn't get very far before she started getting anxious, only to the front of the barn (about 20 feet), but no one got upset or started a fight. It felt like a win to me.

When I was driving home I though to myself, "gee, that felt a bit like clicker training." LIGHTBULB! Last summer before the quarters arrived, I got a book out of the library on clicker training horses. I scanned it into a pdf and saved it on my computer (maybe not that kosher of a thing to do) and bought some clickers. Then forgot all about it. As soon as I got home last night I dug the clickers out and stuck them in my purse so I'd have them at the barn today.

After I rode Coriander, more on that in a bit, I went into Gwen' stall with a pocket full of treats and a clicker. As soon as she turned her head in my direction I clicked and gave her a treat. Pretty soon wherever I moved to in the stall she was turning around to face me. I had her full attention! Clicker training FTW! I took her out, groomed her, and took her for another little walk. She got a click and a treat every time she stopped her feet when I said "whoa," with that method we got a little further away from the barn than last night. So far so good!

Coriander is doing great getting back into the swing of being ridden. We rode in the indoor last night. We did a little bit of trotting and then did a fun ground pole exercise that I learned in my last lesson. I set down two ground poles in the middle of the ring walking distance apart. We went around the outside, turned in and walked between them, then turned and walked in a circle over them. We did it in both directions. Even though he definitely has a stiff side, he turns very easily and isn't bothered at all about walking over ground poles. We're practicing up for those trail classes!

Tonight, since it's been so warm, we were able to ride outside. We did a little more trotting, just down the long sides while walking the short sides, trying to get those transitions a little better. Then I tested him a little. I wanted to see if I could get him to walk in a serpentine without using the rein aids. He did it! It wasn't textbook perfect by any means, but we made it all the way down the ring and back without the reins. What a good boy!

Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde

In case anyone is worried, my finger isn't broken. There is obviously soft tissue damage in there though. I'm going to have a big purple finger for a while.

So here's the bit I didn't mention last night. After she ran off towards the barn I slowly meandered over to it, catching my breath and making sure I wasn't upset. Why was I only meandering after a loose horse? Because I knew exactly where she was going, I got into the barn and there she was standing next to her brother's stall. I walked up to her, unclipped the lunge line, clipped on the lead line and draped it around the post in front of his stall. She didn't move. This is the point where I just groomed her and massaged her.

I've been trying to find a cheap saddle to use for starting Gwen and last night I had a candidate in my car. I found this very nice lady through Craigslist who actually suggested I take the saddle home with me for the night to try it on her, without paying for it. So I've got this saddle for one night only so I really want to check it for fit. I picked it up and brought it over for her to smell, she wasn't bothered by it. I walked over to her shoulder and put the saddle on her back. Know what she did? NOTHING! Didn't even shift her feet. I moved the saddle around to see how it fit and then my barn owner came over and slid the saddle around to see how it fit. Gwen still did nothing. You know why? Because Coriander was RIGHT THERE.

This is why she's so frustrating to me. When my stepfather met her, he gave me this ringing endorsement, "sell her, crazy doesn't go away." But I don't think she's crazy. I know that if she's comfortable, she's a great horse with a good mind. If she's not comfortable, watch out. And she's only comfortable with her brother nearby. Obviously I can't keep her right next to her brother indefinitely, but I don't know how to get her comfortable away from him.

I've got a new idea I'm going to try tonight. I'm going to buy a big bag of horse treats today, just for her. Then I'm going to just walk her out of the barn, give her a treat, and walk her back in. I'm going to keep doing this and see how far from the barn we can get without her freaking out. It's worth a shot.

By the way, the saddle didn't fit. It was too long for her back and pinched over her mutton withers. Bummer.

Abject miserable failure

The day started out so well. I was super psyched about the cold spell breaking and planning a full week of working the horses everyday. I turned them out this morning and the weather was gorgeous. I got back to the barn after work and the temps were still quite comfortable. A great day to lunge the quarters.

I took Coriander out first and lunged him. He was a little rusty at first but generally really good. I'm going to keep lunging him on and off so he can learn the canter cue which will make it easier when I try to get it under saddle.

Then I took Gwen out. All seemed fine at first, she was at least walking around me, even though it was impossible to get her attention off the door. She was starting to cut the turns a little too tight so I took her back in the barn and got my lunge whip so I could have something to push her out with (sometimes poking her in the shoulder works). MISTAKE! We got back in the indoor, she spooked at something, and it was all over. Pyscho Gwen had entered the building. Me, being a complete frigging idiot, got in a fight with her. She would not stop, not even for treats, and then she started trying to jump on top of me. I tried throwing an elbow into her to get her off me, and she completely ignored it. She got more and more upset and hysterical until she finally pulled the lunge line out of my hands and high tailed it for the barn. I think she managed to break my finger in the process, which is my own stupid fault, I should have been paying more attention to keeping the line from wrapping around my hand.

What's the lesson here? As soon as I realized I had Psycho Gwen I should have thrown in the towel, getting in a battle only hurts our relationship. Then I have to try and repair the damage from fighting with her. For the next 45 minutes I gave her a gentle massage, possibly broken finger and all, until she finally starting putting her head down and relaxing.

Does anyone reading this have advice for dealing with an extremely herd bound horse? I cannot get her full attention, ever, even with treats. My barn owner says she's the clingiest horse she's ever seen. She throws a massive fit every time the horse next to her in the barn is taken out and she will literally climb the walls for as long as that horse is gone. It doesn't matter whether the horse is gone for thirty minutes or two hours, she'll work herself into a foaming sweat and rubs the hair off her neck until she's bleeding raking against the door. It's completely neurotic. So if anyone has advice I'll gladly take it.

It was a balmy 27 degrees...

So I rode Coriander. I haven't ridden him since December 26 because it's been SO COLD I didn't want to take his blanket off. So today I had to strike while the iron was hot because after tonight the temperature drops back down to horrifically cold. Ugh, you know it's a rough winter when 27 degrees seems warm.

I didn't figure it was worth it to really work on anything with him except remind him again that he's a riding horse - I won't be able to get on for another week at least. I hopped on bareback in the mini-indoor and mostly worked on my balance. We did a couple walk/halt transitions and did a lot of turning and walking over ground poles. He was so good: no spooks, no bucks, no tantrums. How many green horses can you jump on bareback after not riding for two weeks with limited turnout and have that kind of ride? Not many.

I got a bridle for Gwen today in the mail, quarter horse size. I tried it on her to see how it fit. I left it mostly undone so I could adjust it on her (without the bit), she wasn't too keen on all those floppy bits of leather coming down over her face but she finally relented. I was a little worried about buying her a bridle, she's got such a tiny head I didn't know what size to get. I was surprised that I had to let the quarter horse sized bridle almost all the way out for her. Hmmm.

Then I decided while I was playing with bridles to introduce Gwen to the sidepull. I put it on and took her out to the mini-indoor to work on giving to pressure. It's hard to work with a horse when you only have 20% of her attention at any given time, the rest was completely focused on the barn. Despite that, she did figure out that she's supposed to turn her face away from the pressure and not fight against it. She didn't rear or have a mega flip-out. I did feel like I was dealing with a teenager though. She'd kind of ignore me for a few seconds and then turn her head all exasperated. Like she was saying, "fine, GOD. I'll turn my head. Quit nagging me, can't you see I'm trying to pay attention to the barn? Sheesh." She is 5, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to get some teenager behavior. I'm happy with what we accomplished though, she got it and next time we work on it she'll be better.

Horses Wearing Plaid

The title of this post was kindly provided by my husband.

Snow Babies

So the temperature across the country has been about 20 degrees less than ideal. I think we can all agree on that. The quarters have been cooped up in the barn for a couple days due to the Siberian temps and the wind. Tonight, after I got out of work, the wind had died down and I snuck the quarters out for a little while.

Tonight you wouldn't have known that they've lived most of their lives in Florida. Right outside the barn door there was a chest deep snow drift. You'd think at least Gwen would have a little freak out about it- but guess what? They both plowed right through it without hesitation, even Gwen. Moments like that give me real hope that there's a sane, dependable horse hiding inside all that nervous.

Then they had a ball in the pasture. Coriander, of course, had to roll in it and turned himself completely white while Gwen just ran around bucking and kicking and having a grand old time. Sorry, no pictures, there was just enough ambient light for me to see them but not enough for the point-and-shoot I carry around with me. Hopefully I'll be able to turn them out tomorrow morning and I'll try to get some pictures then.

Welcome 2010

It's been 5 months since the quarters were loaded onto a stock trailer and brought up to NY from Florida. A lot has been accomplished since then.

-When he arrived, Coriander had only been backed maybe 5 times and had no idea what leg aids were. Now he very willingly walks and trots under saddle and steers almost completely from my leg and seat.
-Coriander has improved greatly on letting the farrier work without falling on him. He's now had his feet trimmed twice as many times as when I got him.
-When I got Gwen, it was very difficult to even put a halter on her. Now I can walk into her stall and put her blanket on without tying her and she doesn't blink an eye.
-Gwen wouldn't pick up her feet at all, now all I have to do is tap her front fetlocks and she picks up her feet for me. I can now pick out her right hind hoof, I'll get the left one when her leg is fully healed.
-Gwen has been introduced to vets and has learned not to freak out about needles.
-Both quarters have had their teeth done and it was completely trauma free.

I'm very fortunate to have found a great barn for boarding my horses that's also 5 minutes from my apartment. Through my barn owner's connections I've gotten a great, patient farrier and well-skilled, patient vets. I've learned some good stuff about barn and pasture management that I'm definitely going to use when I get my own place. Plus my barn owner is a great huntseat trainer. My riding has improved quite a bit under her instruction and I hope to be jumping full courses in the summer.

I wish I could be further along with Gwen by now, but obviously her significant leg wound has had a huge affect on that. But she's almost healed so now progress can be made!

My goals for the first half of 2010:

-Start teaching Coriander seat aids for tempo this month.
-Introduce Coriander to the bit before April. I have a nice, french-link, full cheek snaffle that I'm going to start him in.
-Start Coriander cantering under saddle before his 10th birthday on April 1. This is completely weather dependent, it needs to be warm enough for me to ride him and get him ready for it.
-Start lunging Gwen with a saddle in February.
-Start teaching Gwen rudimentary steering from the ground with the sidepull in February, or possibly sooner.
-Teach Gwen how to free jump on the lunge in March.
-Introduce Gwen to the bit before April.
-Possibly back Gwen in April.
-Have Gwen walking and trotting under saddle by June.

I'd also like to try to show Coriander in some halter and walk/trot classes this year, but since I don't have a trailer I'm not sure how that's going to work. I'll have to work on that.