Harness News & Clinic Details

Tuesday evening, Daisy was trailered over to Jean's. I have absolutely no pictures, but that's alright.

With the help of  my friend Lisa, we harnessed Daisy for the first time. It mostly went well!
Except for what you see below. 

I have no idea what those straps are called, but the two parallel ones are supposed to be right there....but there are no keepers to keep them from sliding. How's that supposed to work? What's more, this is a horse size harness, but Daisy's a small horse. The harness fits her fine, but how it would be able to fit a bigger horse, I don't know. In a few places, we have it on the looses hole possible. Like I said, it fits her, but her being a "small" horse, I can't see this fitting anyone bigger...which is a little strange.
But the 'biggest problem' is still those straps.

We simply put them through that other strap (so I have no idea what the terms are for the harness parts. Crupper I know... that's about it.), which works, but I just wonder if that's where it belongs? That's where I'm putting it from now on in any case, though.

I ground drove her in Jean's arena with the harness. It was so fun, it's much easier to do with the harness. Lisa gave me some tips as she watched me go around...I hold my reins and whip the right way  now ;) I was holding them like a lunge line for whatever reason, but now I can hold them like regular reins.

The pictures in this post were all taken with my cellphone; I forgot my camera.

Yesterday I took her out and ground drove her outside in her paddock.

She was a really good girl.

We have excellent weather right now.Yesterday and today it was in the 40's!

The clinic was very cool as well. It was done by Joann Long of Gentle Dove Farm. Various obstacles were set up around the ring...in the end, there was a "car-wash" (tarp cut in strips to walk through), followed by cardboard and flowers to step on on the ground, then a tarp with pool 'noodles' and empty plastic bottles all over it to walk over. Along the way, there were noise distractions. We all rode in a long line with a leader (me) through the obstacles, one after the other. It was cool the way it was done because you were constantly keeping your horse busy trying to keep up, or turn at the same place as the horse in front of you, that you didn't simply ride up to an obstacle and try to get your horse through. It flowed nicely. By the end, Daisy went over the tarp half way unfolded, didn't even flinch over the crackling water bottles under her feet, and got through the car wash with all the strands down (we started with no strands, then went to one, then two, then a few more, etc). We practiced a technique called "head-away" where if there was an obstacle that could potentially spook your horse and you didn't have enough time to completely work through it, you bend their head the other direction and shift there hips toward the object. At the very end of the clinic, we rode the horses around, getting closer and closer to, a flare in the middle of the arena, which the horses were surprisingly good with. We also heard and air horn, and if the horses handled it well at distance 'a', we would step closer, and then closer, etc. Most of the horses were alright with that.

If I have time, I want to do another post tonight. But if I don't get to it... Happy New Year's eve! ;)

I Just Can't Help Myself...

I want to blog!

Today was an excellent day at the barn. The last few times I've gone to ride or ground drive have not been stellar. Riding as been alright, but she's already getting bored of the arena some days, and so the riding doesn't go as well. Before today, the last time I ground drove (I don't remember one) was sort of chaotic. I was trying to enforce the "whoa" by voice command, and then "back" by voice command. She would stop, but then she'd get impatient and want to walk, so she just would. Or she'd stop, and then all of a sudden move sideways, so that the lines ended up over her back. At one point she turned so sharply from a standstill that the line went over her back and slid under her saddle. She tensed up into a spook (a stationary one). I talked her off the ledge, fixed the lines, and had her going again, but she was just too antsy that day. She was in more of a mood for galloping hills than placidly walking the arena. I was a little worried about how that all ended.

Today I ground drove her again, with her English saddle (tomorrow a friend of mine is going to harness her for me and show me how to do it when Daisy gets over to Jean's house). She was the opposite of last time! She was really excellent. She had the voice commanded "whoa" down perfectly, and she stood until the moment I clucked, and then she'd move right off without any help from the whip (I found what I think is a driving whip in Jenny's barn. It looks like a long whip, but with a much shorter line at the end...so I'm going to think it's a driving whip). I realized that I was probably confusing her last time I ground drove because 90% of the time when I asked her to stop, I asked her to back as well. Today I made sure to do very little backing, so that each time we'd stand it would be only for standing. She backed very well as well. Her only problem at this point with it is that the lines keep pulling on her mouth even when I want her to just stand, so it sends mixed signals and takes her a minute to realize I only want her to stand. But considering that, she's doing well. 

I longed her a bit before I drove her, just to see if she was lame, or how much energy I was up against. She was great on the longe, even at the canter she didn't buck, so I knew it would be a good day. It was. :)

I emailed with the clinician for Wednesday about what we'll be working on. Police techniques for handling situations like tarps, gates, flares, balloons, horns, and dragging stuff (etc). I'm so excited! I've never gone to a clinic.

Alright, I've got the blogging out of my system.

Christmas, Hay Net, and Barn Tour

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Daisy did. She had a nice salad of apples and carrots (like every other Christmas...) and a little bag of skittles (no, I do not feed my horse skittles on a daily basis, just her birthday and Christmas). She happens to love skittles. :)

I had an excellent Christmas as well. The biggest (and only) horse gift was the harness my parents got me for Daisy! A friend of mine is going to show me how to harness her on Tuesday...but that's for later.

When Daisy is kept at home, she is given a flake of hay about every couple hours. This is for a few reasons. Partially to give her something to look forward to and do while I'm not home and she's alone in her pasture (and to keep her from eating other such things like...manure...trees...dirt...etc). We also do this because it's better for horses to eat continually (or at least in small meals like that) throughout the day because it mimics how they eat in the wild. When Daisy goes to board, however, she's given 3-4 flakes at 6am when she's brought to her pasture, I imagine she's done within the hour, and that leaves her with nothing to do the rest of the day, as well as cold, when it's winter. Similarly, at night she's given 3 flakes that she quickly eats, leaving no entertainment or heat for the remaining 12 hours. 

Enter hockey hay net! I first saw this idea a (long while) back on Laughing Orca Ranch's blog post. I decided to try it myself this year. I ordered the hockey netting online, and when it arrived, I cut it into pieces and tied up the sides of two of them. Today we went and got screw eyes and carabiner clips and hung it on the stall!
It wasn't actually that easy. The walls are oak and I had no drill so I had to use a nail, then remove it, then screw in a screw eye, lose the nail in the stall, find the nail in the stall, attempt to make another hole, lose the nail again, find the nail again so Daisy wouldn't wake up with a puncture wound, finish making the hole, screw the screw eye in, have it break in half half way into screwing it in (yes...I couldn't find the perfect screw eyes at walmart), be forced to make another hole, almost lose the nail again, and screw in the last screw eye.

Needless to say, if you do this yourself...it probably won't be that frustrating. :)

But it's finished! And stuffed with Daisy's dinner hay.

It looked very small hung on the wall, and I was a little worried it wasn't big enough, but it stretched perfectly and held all her hay. If I ever need more, I can just put a flake or two on the ground anyway, and I'm sure she'll survive ;) For now I only have one in her stall, I have to figure out a way to make it possible for her to have one outside.
I brought her in for a test run.
This is a dark video, but...here it is:

On Saturday when I rode shortly, I took Daisy out bareback and bitless on the trail in the snow, had a wonderful time, and then took her in for a little Christmas barrel racing...she slipped going around one barrel and her hind end went down; for a second, I thought she'd completely go down. She didn't, and she trotted out fine on the lunge and didn't seem hurt, but I called it a day anyway. Today when I brought her in, I trotted her out again..she seemed totally fine. I didn't ride today anyway though.
Tuesday Daisy goes to Jean's...and Wednesday... !! We're doing our first ever clinic! It's with the mounted police officer who hosted the trail trial we did in September. It's going to be all about bombproofing and sensory training your horse...pretty exciting!
That said, did I mention I love being at Jenny's? I love the use of the ring, and the trails, and the cleanliness and how small it is; just me, two other boarders, and her horses. It's very homey. :) So I took an impromptu tour on tape today...I didn't mean to, but I wanted to see if my camera flash would turn on if I taped (it didn't). So anyway I decided to upload the tour anyway. The dark opening behind Daisy is the entry to the arena. Lydia said it well when she said it's like a 'farmette'...has a little bit of everything. :) Here it is:

And so I leave you until later, bloggers :),