We had a St. Patricks Day show this past weekend. It was the same format as Valentine’s Day – Liberty/Online Spotlights, then riding in the afternoon. We had to be indoors because of poor weather, but it was interesting to see what the kids could do in close quarters. We play music throughout the show to help everyone feel festive and keep things positive.
The ponies are ages 3-12 and trained with natural horsemanship and clicker training, which we call EQxpressionism. The kids are ages 7-14.
Penny, the white mini, invented a couple new tricks on the spot – she did a double humming top, then targeted the Tiger backwards with her rump. Today we started teaching the other ponies to do rump targeting with the Tiger because it’s pretty cool! This was also Penny’s first time debuting her Spanish Walk in a show.
We went to the dollar store to pick up more bright colored leis after Blue Man snatched three through a stall grate and decorated his pen with petals. Fortunately he didn’t eat any! The store was out of tropical colors but had St. Patrick’s Day white and green, and it worked out perfectly.
March weather here is quite tough. We had wind and gray skies – not what we were hoping for! The kids were all coming down with bugs, but remarkably, still did some pretty cool stuff. We played Irish music for the show. I was especially impressed with Linnea (10), who helped our new student, Ella (7), perform with Lily. Lily is the pinto mini. You’ll see them really going for it, chasing the Tiger across jumps and all over the arena. Ella, who just turned 7, has only had about 6 lessons but clearly wasn’t going to let that hold her back!
PonyPros is not affiliated with 4H but we volunteered to give 3 presentations at 4H Idea Fair – Classical Dressage, Hunter/Jumpers, and Horse Agility & Trick Training. The kids were out of school Monday so we did a mini-camp where we worked on horse agility. We used a pattern that was designed by the International Horse Agility Club so the kids could prepare to enter online competitions. We did a lot of simulations for fun and to help the kids learn the course. Each of the less experienced girls was buddied with a more experienced girl who was there to help teach. That afternoon, we took a trail walk in the snow so the kids could work on migrating with the ponies. At the end, there is footage of the kids singing a song we made up. It’s a variation on “There were 5 in the bed and the little one said…” This is “There were 11 in the SHED and the little mare said…”
At long last, I have the video completed from the PonyPros Halloween Show. All the footage took 6 individual vids! I wanted to get the footage completed since we have our first show of 2011 coming up Feb 12 and one soon after on Mar 12. It’s amazing how much the kids improved since Oct. I think you’ll see a huge difference in the upcoming show footage.
I’m not sure why the footage looks low quality here on the blog, but click the YouTube icon on any video to watch on YouTube where it will look better. You can also click here to go directly to our Channel.
At the Halloween Show, kids and ponies exhibited in Liberty/Online and Finesse Freestyle. Age groups were 11 & under and 12-17. In lib/on, kids showed off their trick training and horse agility. The more advanced kids worked with their ponies in cordeos (a rope around the neck, no halter) or let their ponies be free, without a lead rope. In Fin/Free, the kids had the option of riding bareback and bitless, and many did. Kids exhibited 2-3 at a time and performed for 2 songs. It was a very fun day and the ponies looked amazing in the costumes the kids made for them! None of the costumes were purchased, all were made by the kids.
Today’s mini-camp got off to a bit of a rough start. One of the horses had an eye injury in the middle of the night and was undergoing minor surgery when we arrived. It is always very difficult for the other horses when something like that happens because the energy of the situation is scary to them. The outdoor arena was also frozen so we chose to give the indoor to a gal who’s trainer had driven in especially for a lesson. So, we had to change our plans on the fly and start with the quiet indoor games we’d planned to end with.
We went into Karen’s shed to get out of the wind and worked on horse anatomy and parts of tack. We did two songs – “Gaskin, Cannon, Pastern, Hock” (akin to Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes) and “The Hokey Pony” (like the Hokey Pokey but with horse anatomy). Then we looked at English, Western, and Endurance saddles and talked about the differences and why they are made that way. The kids learned the parts of the tack like cantle, pommel, fenders, irons, billets, etc, and we played a game called “Bumpity Bump Bump Bump” where the kids had to recall the names quickly. The kids also learned to feel out the saddle’s tree and got to feel the difference between treed and treeless. Horse anatomy and tack anatomy are really important parts of a complete horse education but very difficult to find time for so it was especially great to get to cover these things today. Makes giving explanations while teaching so much easier!
After our sojourn in the garage, we took the less experienced kids to the arena to learn about setting a jump course. I bet the kids were surprised to see how much thought goes into the obstacles we set out for them! Setting a course is a very interesting process because you have to count the number of horse strides between each jump and also set the jumps up on the correct angles so that the horses can make proper turns. The kids rode imaginary horses through the course and it was very revealing to see that they made the same mistakes without horses as the do with them I was glad we did the exercise because it gave us an opportunity to teach them how to look ahead through the turns and plan a good approach. No doubt this will come in handy down the road when you are teaching them to drive
Next Emma, Katelynn, Morgan, Maddie, and Zoey did a riding demonstration for us using the course we built. While the more experienced girls were riding, we asked the younger girls questions about what they were doing that was good and had them Tag the girls for a good release over the jump. In other words, the girls used a clicker to mark the moment they saw the riders extend their arms to allows the horse to extend its neck while jumping. I was impressed – the younger girls didn’t miss a single tag point. That’s very good focus for such young kids and for tagging a task most had never done themselves.
While the more experienced riders untacked we went and got the less experienced kids’ ponies. Unfortunately right about this time the temperature dropped suddenly and the wind ramped up. None of us were expecting it and before we realized it, the sudden change had as all a bit on edge. Not really realizing how tired we all were, we continued on with our activities (see highlights).
Highlights:
- Hannah trotted a pole on the longe for the first time
- Anna learned to write her name in the air while riding
- Lauren concentrated really hard to learn to bump, drive, then send the horse out on a circle to smooth out her lunging
- Taylor did a good job learning to increase her phases and match Sarah’s energy level when Sarah got a little pushy because she was nervous about the blocks under her feet
- Linnea trotted on Lily for the first time in a saddle and learned to post
- Haley worked on jumping on the longe and is getting much quieter hands
- Zoey did a great job riding Wallie faster and getting him over the 3-jump gymnastic
- Morgan did a great job getting Ilo over all the jumps and taking the jumps like hurdles versus big events
- Katelynn did a great job keeping her seat and not putting any weight on Q’s neck over the jumps
- Maddie did an extra good job keeping her cool after riding and then going on to helping Hannah
- Emma did a really good job being self-directed during her warm-up and focusing right in on her turn to jump the course
So, if the kids are really tired, we are too! Being a little off schedule meant that there was less one-on-one pony time than expected and the activities requiring a lot of exertion were at the end instead of at the beginning, not to mention that lunch was late. That said, everyone did some really cool things today and the kids are learning a ton, even if they haven’t realized it yet Right now the forecast for Friday is mostly sunny so hopefully it will be a little warmer out. We have the option of pushing back to 12-3 also if that would help.
Today we started camp by showing the kids a sheet with challenges. We explained that they would each try to complete a certain set by the end of the week. The goal for the week was to get all the kids confident in the skills they already have and set them up to take on some new fun challenges in the new year.
Highlights
-Riley worked really hard to learn about keeping contact on the longeline so Sam would stay confident
-Hannah learned how to put on a Western saddle
-Haley did sideways over new, bigger obstacles for the first time
-Linnea rode in an English saddle on Lily for the first time
-Anna learned how to have CuteZilla back up while playing Stick Together
-Maddie did a great job explaining posting diagonals very correctly to Hannah
-Katelynn caught on really quickly to teaching Anna hoof picking tag points
-Emma made sure to have Lil and Blue fed and grained when we got there
-Morgan did a really good job teaching Haley change of directions at the trot, which is tricky
Kids raising their hands to show that they already knew how to do many of the tasks and would just be working on perfecting them.
Playing a game called “I Like” to teach everyone each other’s name
Playing “Pulse,” a game that teaches kids to use laser focus and improve click timing. The person in the middle clicks when they see the “pulse” going around the circle.
Laughing while playing Pulse
The kids learning about how clicker training works with other animals, like dogs. They took turns having our dog, Asher, do regular dog things like sit, roll over, etc, and pony things like jumping the blocks.
Linnea having Asher jump, Riley giving the treat
We paired the kids who had more experience with the newer kids. The more experienced kids helped the younger kids work on their Challenge Sheets, which included ground skills and riding.
Just a funny picture of Koa, Les’ horse, laying down during lunch
Everyone lined up to eat while we waited for parents
Very amusing podcast featuring stories about Blue and Zilla and why they are super ponies! I’m not a podcasting professional by any means. Let me know which link works for you!
BlueMan and CuteZilla have the exact wrong breeding to be the amazing ponies that they are today. Blue is a Section A from hot, hot lines. Zilla is a half foundation Shetland mare. Both are rescues. Blue has only been undersaddle for 5 months. Zilla has a handful of rides on her. Here are two stories that will leave you wondering, “How is it that both ponies do such a good job?” We sure wonder!
As part of the PonyPros program, we take our kids and ponies on regular adventures. For this adventure, we surprised the kids by taking them on a haul-out trail ride right after school! The middle school girls helped us get the ponies to the trail head and the elementary schoolers got to go from school right to the BLM. We walked and rode for about an hour. No water crossings because the canal was off, but we went up and down hills and the kids jumped a sizeable log that was about 2’6 in diameter. It was pretty cool to see how far they’ve come in one year. This time last year, trail riding in a big group was the dream! The kids and ponies learn with natural horsemanship, classical dressage, hunter/jumpers, trail riding, and clicker training, which we call EQxpressionism. We try to make every day as artistic, balanced, wholesome, and inspiring as possible. Being in nature with great friends and pony-people is the perfect set-up for us!
I just finished our video from the 4th of July! Boy am I behind on video July 4th, 2010 we took 5 ponies in the Central Oregon Pet Parade. It was a very exciting event with packed streets and crazy things like a Dachshund wearing a harness, floating in the air, held up by big balloons, and paddling like he was swimming through the air! Everyone did awesome. The ponies unloaded well and did amazing walking through the busy streets and letting spectators pet them. We were extra special because we were accompanied by Cinderella. Emma’s 17 year old sister is an amazing seamstress and put the costume together only the night before the parade!
The ponies are all young – ages 4-7 and are trained with natural horsemanship and clicker training. The kids are ages 8-12. This was the first-ever parade for the kids and ponies!
Now that I’m back from my honeymoon I can finally tell you about our amazing wedding! We had a beautiful wedding Saturday, August 21, 2010. Hawkview Ranch, the facility we train out of, was generous enough to host our special day. All of our students and friends came together to make the event possible.
Instead of having a groom’s dinner, we had a groom’s breakfast. Les’ family treated all of our guests to the most perfect breakfast at McKay Cottage, my favorite breakfast place in Bend. We had a huge table with something like 25 of us all sitting together. It was at 9am and already a nice temperature out. There were delicious fresh scones and traditional breakfast dishes with the Cottage’s special coffee drinks. We had everyone introduce themselves and give us a one-line piece of advice. They were all great, especially Erica’s – “Uuh, umm, ya, I am, uh, sixteen, sooooo, I don’t really know anything!” I was thinking, “Ha, you probably know what we all have forgotten!” I also really liked a few other’s. The best man said, “Make pretty babies,” (good to know we have his blessing, eh?). My dad said, “Don’t forget that how to love can be learned.” The MOH said, “Never got to bed angry.” Les’ stepdad said, “Do one thing for yourself every day.” Les’ cousin-in-law, Brent, said, “Say ‘I love you’ every day,” and Brent’s wife, Katie, said “Just keep doing what you’re doing!” I can’t believe how many of the pieces of advice I can remember! Apparently I was really focused that day, lol.
After breakfast I went to have my hair done and Stephanie, the friend I have known the longest and joint MOH, drove me out to the ranch. It was wonderful to arrive and see all the girls dressed up – it made it real! I walked into the ranch owner’s house and 9 pony girls and Gina, one of our instructors, appeared on the stairs. I felt like Mr. Von Trap when he whistles and all the kids line up in the Sound of Music! We had decided ahead of time that the girls would all do their hair in rag curls. They looked outstanding and their positive energy really made everything exciting. The house was filled with giggling.
The weather was wild that day and made getting ready very complicated! The ponies were quite up because of the wind and inclement storm. We were supposed to have rehearsal at 11, then at 1:30, and finally had it at about 3. The girls were running in and out of the house grooming ponies, shining ponies, moving ponies around, and exercising ponies when the ponies got too overwhelmed by all the grooming, shining, and moving! I was very proud to see how knowledgeable they all were about what to do to get ready, especially having to get themselves ready as well. They were very cute running all around in dresses and cowboy boots. The ponies looked amazing. They were clean and sparkly. We got stick on crystals for them and Peanut looked especially grand. Katelynn, one of our 13 year old girls, had gone way out of her way to arrange meetings for the girls to decide on a walking order and to make sure everyone had supplies to make decorations for the ponies. She even downloaded the walking music so they could practice! Seriously – how cool are these kids?! The moms were amazing too. I don’t dare start listing all the things they did because I would be writing for days…
Right up until 4:45, we were very uncertain about whether or not we were going to be able to have the ceremony outdoors. Last minute, the groomsmen moved the reception tables into the coverall arena so we could have the ceremony outside and then send the guests inside after the reception so they would be at least somewhat warm. I walked around trying to answer questions, wearing a bandana because apparently the groom isn’t supposed to see the bride “in all her splendor” before the wedding. The bandana kept Les from seeing my hair, which, thankfully, became looser in the wind. My hair stylist, who is also named Kaylea (kay-lee), and who happened to be getting married one week after me, used a ton of hair spray to make sure the curls could handle the outdoors. I was relieved that between the bandana and the wind it loosened up some and didn’t take its job of being curly quite so seriously!
While everyone else was working hard outdoors, my mom and my 3 bridesmaids were working hard indoors. When they helped me into my dress, it felt like it took 30 minutes to do all the buttons! The buttons ran the length of my back and then some. I have no idea how they got them all buttoned. I had what, to me, was the best dress ever. You’ll see it in the photos
The flowers were my one “bad luck thing” that got all the bad luck out of the way. The gal I had doing my flowers failed to tell me that her sister had had a baby and she went out of town. So, after calling and emailing to check on my flowers for days with no response, I finally sent a text. I received a message back that read: “This is Faith’s assistant. Didn’t you know? Faith’s sister had a baby and she’s out of town. She’s not going to be able to do your flowers.” Gah! 2 days before the wedding! So I called another flower shop saying, “Before you tell me you’re really busy and hang up, let me tell you my story!!!” Fortunately, the woman was able to make bouquets with stargazer lilies (which I love) and blue hydrangeas, which kind of worked with our colors (our colors were purple and gold). So, in the end, I had a bouquet, the 3 bridesmaids had bouquets, my grandma had a corsage, the pony girls each had a carnation, and we did Salvia in galvanized buckets on the tables, so we were good!
We ran a little late (of course, it’s “us”) and the wedding procession started at about 5:15 instead of 5. The ceremony was set up in one of the pastures with a view of the mountains. It began my brother, Cory Vanagas, playing acoustic guitar. Cory learned Pachabell’s Canon and Hear Comes the Bride specifically for our wedding so we had wonderful music for the whole ceremony. The PonyPros were radiant leading ponies down the aisle. The girls were wearing dresses of all different colors, cowgirl boots, and halos – head pieces with tulle, stars, and streamers. The pony geldings sported bowties the girls made themselves to match their dresses and the pony mares wore tiaras and tulle. All the ponies sparkled with glitter and stick-on rhinestones
Little Zoey, age 9, led the group. When Wallie balked at the site of the pergola decorations blowing in the wind, Maddie took the lead. Afterwards, a friend remarked that he was very impressed at how Zoey handled Wallie’s nerves, and how Maddie jumped right in to help. He said that he was surprised that kids could be so composed with an audience and not become nervous when the pony became nervous. I told him that I was so glad that he could see that because that is what PonyPros is all about – teaching kids to train ponies. Ponies take physical, mental, and emotional balance. To excel, you have to be a self-directed learner with a vision and the self-confidence and emotional fitness to pursue it. I think all of our kids have that, but of course I am biased!
The girls walked down the aisle past the 80 adults and 20 kids in attendance. The PonyPros were Maddie & Peanut, Zoey C. & Wallie, Zoe V. & Frank, Katelynn & Quick Draw, Kae & Sam, Morgan & Blue, Elizabeth & Caron, Eden & CuteZilla (Zilla, can you believe it?! She’s a much better now!), Gina & Penny, then, at the very end, Emma & Thistle, with my little sister, LuLu, riding. The older girls did a really good job keeping thing moving calmly forward. It was only LuLu’s second time ever on a pony and she is only 2 years and 1 month old. Her mom walked right next to her but LuLu did an amazing job balancing on her own on such a wild and crazy day! She was in a purple corduroy dress with horses on it and a little cowgirl hat. I suspect we have another pony-lover on the way up
After the PonyPros procession, the bridesmaids and groomsmen made their entrance. We have such amazing friends…5 were friends from high school and one bridesmaid was Les’ 1/2 sister, Erica, who is also a wonderful friend. While the bridesmaids and groomsmen were getting situated, Maddie and Zoey ran back and carried my train for me while my dad walked me down the aisle. Maddie and Zoey looked very fancy in dresses that their nanny helped them to pick out at a hispanic dress shop. The dresses were the perfect color to match the intensity of the sky, which was periwinkle, purple, and white, just like our decorations.
Wearing platform shoes to help keep my dress off the ground was quite a trick! Not only do I not normally wear heels, but, in fact, I normally wear negative heel shoes. I’m glad I didn’t try to practice ahead of time or I might have nixed the shoes all together! I made it down the aisle relying on my dad’s arm some and glad Maddie and Zoey had control of the dress! My veil was blowing in the wind behind me and I was so glad we went with finger tip length and not long. As it was, it felt like a long mane, with one always having ponies on the mind
Somewhere in there all the girls had found their seats on haybales. My mom had wrapped the haybales with white sheets and tied them with bows. It was such a nice touch. Really made the wedding feel home-y. I doubt many brides feel like everything is that perfect when they get to the altar, but I felt like so many of the people who are important to me had had a role in the ceremony and made it special. I really felt like the day brought together the best parts of my life for all to experience. It felt like 10 Christmases, New Years, Easters, Halloween’s and birthdays all rolled into one!
The ceremony it self made me laugh. Ryan, of course, brought his unique goofiness to his speaking parts. We had the 3 bridesmaids and 3 groomsmen alternate speaking. We had given them copies of the script to read over a head of time, but the script we set at the altar had a surprise – at the very end, we had written in a section for changing our last name. I have grown tired over the years of hardly being able to pronounce my own last name and Les’ last name isnt very exciting, so we decided to opt for taking a new last name. We picked “Kiger,” jokingly because Les’ horse, Koa (aka “The Big Bear”) is head of family, but more truthfully because we like how the word sounds and Kiger Mustangs are smart, kind, playful, and athletic, all things that we value. Our friends were surprised to find themselves reading the new lines but recovered well.
Instead of having readings in our ceremony, we had 3 couples who we admire speak. We asked them to speak about something they saw in us that they thought would make us successful as a married couple. It was really great to be able to put these 6 busy people on the spot and hear their thoughts. Seeing as how it was my wedding day I figured I could ask for what I wanted, haha. The first to speak were Henry and Sandy, our college art history and painting teachers, respectively. Next were Neil and Teri. Neil was our college English lit teacher and we got him back into horses about two years ago. Neil’s wife, Teri, owns a used bookstore downtown and is just a really genuine, cool lady. Lastly were David and Kelly, our acupuncturists/herbalists. David treats us and Kelly treats my mom and brother. Kelly and David had written something where they alternated lines, which was very cute, and ended with a Thoreau quote, which I thought was awesome since Henry and Neil used to team teach some together and Thoreau came up often. We know what we like
After the ceremony, we did the receiving line and got to say hello to all the people we thought we would have time to talk to but didn’t (which was pretty much everyone!) I had to stand on a linen table cloth in the arena so as not to get my dress dirty (hurrumph) but at least had somewhere warmer for everyone to go. The weather made for amazing photos… It was our favorite kind of light, the light we based our theme around, in fact. So, it is only fair that the wedding itself would end up having crazy weather.
Our friends were amazing about making the photos special. It seemed to take forever, but the Giant (our 6’11 friend) added goofiness to the photos by pretending to propose and other charming stunts. We did a shoe photo with all the girls (something like 15 of us total with the PonyPros and bridesmaids). The colors in the photo are awesome – just about every color in the rainbow as we had hoped
We did the cake cutting and eating back in the arena. Few people there I think truly knew how important the cake was to us. We had been engaged for 3.5 years and people were always asking us when we were getting married. Our answer, for the last 3 years, had been “when we can eat cake.” Since we had gotten sick in Colorado, we couldn’t eat any sweeteners or any starches, so cake was fully out of the question. We have only just recovered enough to eat gluten-free carob cake, so that is what we had. It was amazing.
By the end of the day I was completely exhausted, as I think was everyone else! We left on our honeymoon 3 days later. It was the best wedding and honeymoon I could ever imagine. Ten million thank-you’s to everyone who was involved!!!!!
I was glad we did the exercise because it gave us an opportunity to teach them how to look ahead through the turns and plan a good approach. No doubt this will come in handy down the road when you are teaching them to drive 
