Photo by Nicole Handley

In Bend, we have “early release” Wednesdays. Kids get out of school 1-2 hours early. Our intermediate and advanced students take group lessons on Wednesdays and Saturdays. We have been trying to do a show on Saturday for a couple weeks now, but the weather was never good enough. So, I promised the kids the first sunny Wednesday or Saturday, we would have our show. It was sunny yesterday, though a bit cold – around 45 dropping to mid 30′s by the time we left. Still, that was good enough for us!

As the kids are getting a little older, it’s been hard to know what to have them wear. Do we try to create a natural horsemanship show attire of our own? Do we dress Western or English? It’s kind of confusing when your horses are in English saddles and bosals, or in a treeless saddle and a bitless bridle. We want something that looks classy and makes the kids feel like the show is important and for the parents to take the shows seriously. I feel like wearing a hunt coat for shows helped me feel confident dressing up for job interviews as a teen and young adult, so for now, we’re going with hunt coats and breeches.

Since we only had a little over an hour and a half, we did 5 classes – Liberty/Online (where the kids were judged on their ability to warm their horses up on the ground), walk/trot pleasure, walk/trot equitation, walk/trot/canter pleasure, and walk/trot/canter equitation. This was actually our first show offering a walk/trot/canter rail class. It’s way more than people realize to ask kids and ponies to canter on the rail in a group. They have to maintain their spacing, keep the horse going at a reasonable pace without breaking gait, and reassure the horse that just because everyone is cantering doesn’t mean there is something to be scared of.

I really liked having the show be after school because it kept it short and sweet, which meant it was less tiring for us, and more like half again as hard as regular lessons rather than 4 times as hard.  I think the shorter schedule and the fact that the show fit almost right into a regular lesson slot reduced some of the kid’s anxiety. Coming from school, they came from a bustling social atmosphere, into a bustling social atmosphere, rather going from home to the show. They didn’t have much time to worry about getting ready, which meant they had less opportunity to work themselves and the horses up. All in all, I think it made a lot of sense.

We usually play music at our shows, but we didn’t have time to set up the PA system, so we went without. I missed the music. I think it is easier for the kids to stay focused with the music and helps keep the horses moving. Horse shows are all about hurry-up-and-wait and it is hard for the horses to go from standing around to riding in a class, then back to standing around, then back to riding.

For Hannah and Linnea, this was their first show doing a rail class. Last year they were still on the longe. This was Gillian’s first show ever. The kids did a good job on their spacing. That’s probably been the hardest thing to teach. I had to really ask myself, what do I look for when I try to find a new spot on the rail? How do I know how much time it is going to take me to get from where am I to where I want to go? Is the spot still going to be open by the time I get there? What if it’s not? Where do I go then? Passing is a hard thing to teach. Sometime I’d like to do a study to see if horseback riders are in few car crashes than normal drivers. I bet they are because we have to be good at judging distances and being aware of our surroundings.

Something that is kind of cool is that almost all the advanced kids have taught themselves to braid tails, and a few of the parents, also. That all came from me teaching Maddie and the other kids picking up on it seeing her do it. Braiding tails is kind of a “high barrier of entry” activity. It takes about 10-15 minutes to do, you have to stand directly where you could get kicked, and it’s easy to mess it up. Despite being challenging, it is a really good skill to have, especially if you want to french braid your daughter’s hair one day Horse tails are much easier to learn on. Plus it makes the horses look so much more put together.

This was the first show we clipped up the ponies. Emma and Morgan, who are now 14 and 15, did Thistle and Ilo. Ilo is really interesting because she’s the only horse we have who truly loves to be groomed. Most horses put up with it. Ilo likes looking clean. I had never introduced her to clippers, and she clipped perfectly for me and for Morgan. It was pretty amazing. She’s such a girly horse! Thistle used to be terrible about clipping, but clicker training was really effective for her, especially because we had her stand tied and watch Ilo get treats first. That got her motivated. She was actually great for Emma and Morgan to clip. It’s funny, but clipping is another surprisingly challenging thing for a horse to do. To clip under the chin, the horse has to stand well with the halter just around her neck. It’s pretty amazing that they can learn to stand and be clipped when they could easily just leave. Something I’ved noticed about clipping – most horses are either ok with their legs or with their face. If one doesn’t work, try the other and work your way from end to end. Usually by the time you finish with one end, they’re ready to get started on the more troublesome area. I thought it was good experience for the kids and ponies to know how to clip, plus it made us all feel a little more like spring was coming, even though we all know that in Bend it isn’t Spring until June.

Recently I was reading about Native American scouts in the army. Apparently they could pass all kinds of amazing tests. For example, they might be asked to sleep in the woods, and the scouts would somehow always wake if there was a person sneaking up. However, when they got their military hair cuts, they could no longer perform as well. I’ve found that our ponies with the most mane are the most sensitive, especially auditorily. I’ve been playing with braiding their manes and seeing how it affects them. They are more sensitive when it is loose. Clipping their muzzles seems to be good for making them calmer also. It makes sense to me. It must be hard to be pet on the muzzle all the time when someone touches your whiskers first. With our horses that need to be a little more sensitive, I’ve been leaving them Mountain and Moorland style/hippie pony style – all unclipped. Just one more tool for making our interactions with horses a little less complicated.

Wow, I guess we are going to have to start looking for a second big trailer! Now that some of the kids need 14+h horses, we can’t fit enough ponies in the trailer any more, so today a few kids had to take turns. Today was our second trail adventure out since Quinlyn was born. The first one we did when she was only 5 weeks old. I was impressed with the horses for loading well despite having almost 7 months off from being in a trailer. The motorhome comes in really handy for getting kids to the trail head because it has 7 seat belts. Zoey, the “baby whisperer,” kept Quin entertained while Les and I loaded ponies. The older girls are getting really good at trailer loading and know how to move quickly and make sure the door gets managed properly. Trailer loading is stressful because it has to be done right, and we are so lucky to have such a large, competent team!

We are lucky to have some really good loaders in our herd. Thistle got in and pushed the other ponies over enough that we were able to put 2 more ponies in! You’ve got to love a mare like that. Blue is a great one to load at the end because he’ll climb in half sideways. Sam is also an amazing loader – it’s about the only thing he does with total confidence. He’s a real trooper. I remember the days when I had to work really hard to load just one horse and now we can load 8 on a schedule. The best part of the day for me was getting to the trailhead only 15 minutes late and leaving actually on time!

The kids were really good about getting tacked up promptly. We used to have them ride bareback in halters on the trail to limit the chaos, but today everyone did a really good job getting ready efficiently. It can be really hard to make sure everyone’s girth and headstall gets in the trailer when you have so many sets to worry about and it’s school horse equipment so some of it is shared. Maddie was a huge help passing everyone equipment and all the kids did a great job unloading at the end. It’s starting to get really natural where the older girls call the younger girls to help and everyone learns the flow of things.

Les led on Koa and I walked at the rear with Gillian. It was Spirit’s first trip out with us and we were told she is fearful on the trail due to getting into a bee’s nest one time. Gillian who is 10 and has only been riding since June had such a great attitude about having to walk and allow Spirit to regain her confidence. I was impressed as I looked ahead to see so many horses riding single file and most of the time on a loose rein. Most of our horses have only been under saddle a year or two, and of course the only one who had had quite a bit of riding before we got him was the only one we had trouble with – go figure! It was great to see how far we’ve come from the days when it was just Maddie, Zoey, Les, and I getting on and off while the ponies figured everything out. Today was a big group, but I was really excited to see my second year students riding with the third years and keeping up! The more the merrier…

Lily's and Hannah's first time jumping

Last July, we rescued Lily. We paid $125 for her, despite the fact that her hooves looked like elf shoes and she had had no training. We knew that she had a great temperament, pretty coloring, and decent conformation that would help her to excel despite a rough start.

The first day we brought Lily home, she could hardly trot or canter. When the other ponies got running, she would try to go, then give up. For 6 months we filed Lily’s hooves diligently every 2 weeks. Now she is on a 4 week cycle. Initially, for a few days after each trim she would need time to figure out her balance again and could not be ridden. We could tell because she would hop into the trot when asked to go, or would sometimes take a couple canter strides. She would also have a hard time walking off straight when she had been at a halt, or would stop and swing her hind end separate from her front end when asked to turn. Gradually we built up Lily’s stamina and athleticism with tricks and games. She loves chasing the tiger!

10 months later, Lily’s hooves are balanced and she just had her first day of jumping with a rider! The rider, 9 year old Hannah, started with us last summer, about the same time we bought Lily. Yesterday was Hannah’s first time jumping, also! Lily was very careful to trot and simply step over the jumps at first. As soon as Hannah gained her confidence, Lily offered to jump round and tuck her knees, and we rewarded her with a click and treat. Hannah did a great job getting her hands forward to release, never popping Lily in the face. Hannah will need to learn to stay a little closer to the saddle and keep her heels down, but for her first day, she did awesome. Hannah is a very bold, focused rider who listens attentively and works hard. Lily is lucky to have Hannah as a little pony jockey to help her learn!

It’s so great to see the progress the kids can make with the help of the ponies, and the progress the ponies can make with the help of the kids. We are so lucky to be able to give the children the experience of teaching a pony and seeing the impact they can make on another’s life.

(Sorry about the grainy photo! All we had on hand was an iPhone )

Highlights:

- Bella trotted a jump on the lead-rein for the first time and learned the Tango
- Haley got Pixie to trot after much difficulty and afterward had extra solid legs on Thistle while trotting jumps
- Hannah rode Pixie over all the jumps at a walk by herself and mounted Blue from the ground
- Zoey was a rockstar with riding Pixie and set a really good example for the other kids about perseverance and believing in yourself
- Katelynn took great pictures and, we forgot to mention, did an awesome job improvising with TAGteach to help Anna earlier in the week
- Maddie impressed us by being really calm and focused with Hannah and Blue, and by riding Zilla with a lot of conviction
- Morgan did a good job keeping Thistle trotting straight and smooth for Haley on the longe
- Emma put a great ride on Zilla, showing a lot of improvement since last spring in her steering and focus, and remembered to get off and give her back a rest intermittently

*Also, special thanks to Karen for the hot beverages! They were just the boost we needed half way through! And thanks, Kirsten and Gina, for helping out!

Summary:

Friday’s mini-camp was a big success and made up for the tough Wednesday weather It was cold, but sunny, and we had a ton of fun. We started with setting up jumps. The kids did a great job counting strides and getting the jumps on good angles – good retention from earlier this week! You’ll see the in the photos that the kids jumped the jumps a lot themselves during set-up We also played Bumpity Bump Bump Bump with horse and tack anatomy and did the Hokey Pony again to solidify our horse anatomy knowledge.

We began our pony time by having a contest based on university equestrian team competition. Because most college students can’t afford to bring their horse and because horses are hard to transport, when you go to a college equestrian team meet, you get about 2.5 minutes to mount a horse you don’t know, adjust your stirrups, and ride into the arena to be judged. You don’t get to practice – you are scored on how well you ride a normal class on a horse you’ve never ridden before. The horses are warmed up before the show starts and they have classes in everything. Jumping is especially big on the East coast. For our competition, the more experienced girls (ME’s) rode Zilla and the less experienced girls (LE’s) rode Pixie. Zilla was nervous about the snow sliding down the roof and Pixie was a bit stocked up and ornery after having had about 10 days off. But, the girls did a good job of focusing and riding the ponies through their issues and coming out with some good results.

It was cool to see the LE’s step up a lot after watching the ME’s ride. The LE’s rode with a lot more conviction That’s really the key to riding – believing that what you’re doing will work – because horses pay a lot more attention to what you are thinking than what you are doing. Horses think 8 times as fast as humans do so a lot of what the LEs learned with Pixie was that you have 3 seconds to get a response. If you don’t get it in 3 seconds, the pony is going to learn that what you just said didn’t mean anything and ignore you. On the other hand, if you can make something happen in 3 seconds, the pony will wake up and want to see what you’ve got in the works.

A lot of the kids had never ridden Pixie before so it was a very cool challenge for them. In horses, there will be times when riding a lot of different horses is really valuable to your learning and times when riding the same horse all the time is the right choice. There is a lot to be said for developing one horse to the most of his and your potential, but it’s also really important to ride different horses so you have perspective. What you learn by riding another horse can really add a lot to your relationship with your normal horse.

After the pony riding contest, we got hot chocolate and turned the heater on in the tack room for a little break. While the kids were finishing their cocoa we went over horse colors and quizzed the kids as we flipped through a big horse book. At the end, we made sure all the kids could answer the basic questions about their horse – name, age, height, breed, and color. Riders ask other riders these questions all the time and it’s kind of a status thing that they know the answers

After the cocoa, we got the ponies out and reviewed our bandana checklists. We ran a little over (sry! thx for your patience!), but the kids all got awarded their bandannas at the end of the day. The bandannas are meant to be like the belt system in karate or tae kwon do, going from white to black. The MEs seemed proud of the LEs, and the LEs seemed proud of themselves. We picked bandannas since their sort of an icon of the Old West. The MEs haven’t gotten their bandannas yet as this week was mostly about the LEs but we’ll be working on their lists in the next 2 weeks and getting them bandannas too!

What We Did Today:

Learn, Do, then Teach

• Gaskin, Cannon, Pastern, Hock song
• Hokey Pony song
• Tack anatomy with Bumpity Bump Bump Bump
• Course setting
• Riding demo with TAGteach
• Working on Challenge Sheets

Photos:

• Counting strides (4 people steps = 1 horse stride)
• Haley trotting a jump, working on her “crest release”
• Working the angles for a straight approach to the jump
• Riding our imaginary ponies to the jump
• Linnea working on 2-point (because you only have 2 points of balance, one on each foot versus 3 if you are sitting)
• Putting up the jumps, choosing the appropriate height
• Counting strides
• Linnea’s first time doing posting trot
• Anna doing a twist

Long Version:

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

Photos

• 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