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…”

Today Les and I took Emma, Katelynn, and Morgan on a long trail ride at Tumalo Reservoir. We started and finished with a deep water crossing – halfway up little BlueMan’s back! And we got to picnic half way. The ponies munched on bunch grass and tried to convince us that tortilla chips and oranges were really delicious and acceptable pony food. We did a little trotting and a little jumping, one steep hill down and one steep hill up. No one fell off, though two ponies did lay down with riders when they spotted some particularly nice sand. Oh ponies… Always good for a laugh

All 3 girls are age 13. Emma has been in horses for about 8 months. Morgan and Katelynn have been in horses for about 2 years but have only been riding for 6 months.

Emma rode Sam. This was Sam’s 3rd ever haul out trail ride and first one with a youth rider. He surprised us by being very calm, and almost poky! Sam is Kali’s trick pony and is usually pretty up. Kali recently paired Emma with Sam so Emma would put her creative, athletic energy to good use instead of daydreaming and cowboying

Katelynn rode QuickDraw. This was Q’s second ever haul out trail ride and first one with a youth. It is a miracle that Q is now feeling better. He has severe back problems and and was unrideable for the last year. It is thanks to Katelynn’s work and Les’ trimming that Q was able to come on this trip. He kepts us all entertained with ridiculous shenanigans revolving around his trying to keep his girlfriends, Ilo and Koa, away from Sam. He is a big goof.

Morgan rode BlueMan. This was Blue’s first ever haul-out trail ride and his 5th trail ride total! Blue was a superstar. He did well just about anywhere in the group, but took the lead when we were trotting. He has that Welsh cart trot where he can really move. Nice to get out and give him somewhere to go!

Emma said this adventure was more fun than spotlighting at the Parelli tour stop. Katelynn and Morgan said it was close, but maybe not quite as good. We’re all in agreement – it was fun!

Featuring…

• Huge group – Eden, Big Zoe, Little Zoe, Maddie, Emma, Kali, and Les
• Almost all the ponies – Sam, Ziggy, Sundae, Peanut, Wallie, Cinnamon, Blue Man, Ilo, Koa
• Elijah’s third lesson with Thistle
• Koa and Les trail course, trailer loading, corners pattern, and circling pattern with a cone
• Ilo hanging out with Kali

Featuring Penny learning to rear, Ilo practicing her sit, Blue’s first real ride, and Emma riding Cinnamon

Initially I had Blue out just for for an easy day. However, when we came into the arena, he acted very spooky about the stick and string. Silly man. He’s normally very good with it. So, I did the whippings and got him thinking. Then Kae, one of our 12 year old students, needed more info on how to play Hippity Hop, where you lay on the horse’s back. Since I was working with Blue, I asked him to demonstrate, since he’s usually very good. Blue spun around, protesting like he was scared, then nipped at my side. Aha! One big hint that he was actually feigning fear because he was so bored that he had to make up things to entertain himself!

When a horse nips at my side when I’m jumping next to him, it’s usually time to do the first ride. The nipping is an indication that they’re confident enough in their relationship with me that they feel they can express their opinion about things and I won’t eat them alive. Generally nipping is an indication that the horse feels he holds the cards and that the ball is in his court. So, riding will only take their confidence down to a normal level, rather than making them into a scared prey animal.

So, having been nipped at by Blue, a light went on. Mount up. So, I yielded his forehand a few times to make the point that he was not to nose me while I was getting up, and then hopped up and sat on him bareback. Blue took a big sigh and appeared glad something new and interesting was happening (I love ponies, lol). I called Gina over since Blue was supposed to be her first PonyPros colt. I passed Blue off to Gina telling her to open a rein to give him somewhere to go and ignore him when he backed up.

Of course Blue felt the open rein and backed up several times. That’s what colts do. But Gina was patient and persistent, and soon he walked forward like an old pro. They rode about 15-20 min bareback and called it a day.

The next day Gina warmed Blue up with the 7 games, rode him bareback for about 5 minutes, then longed him in the saddle (something he’s familiar with), and then rode him for about 15 min in tack. Blue was amazing, riding all around the arena with kids and ponies every which way. Fortunately Blue tends to get worked with on the craziest days, so he’s very comfortable with a full arena. He got a little gate sour, but even with 3 new visitors standing there watching, I was proud of the job Gina and Blue Man did together.

So many new things today…

I worked with Ilo on her sit. Something we haven’t done in a long time. I pushed the beanbag up to a barrel and had her leaning back on it. Ilo knows “target back” (where she backs up into a hand signal), so I transferred the hand signal onto the beanbag, using it as the target. Once Ilo could rate on the beanbag backwards, she started backing right into it and would offer leaning back with just a little porcupine or driving at less than 4 ounces. I was so proud of her! It was great to see her lowering her haunches with confidence. The beanbag, of course, is sized for 12h ponies, so I couldn’t have her truly try to sit, but we’ll try it again with a hay bale one of these days. The cool part is she has the idea and is stoked on it!

The other thing Ilo and I worked on is her piaffe. It’s really not a piaffe at this stage – I’m just teaching her better proprioception. I wanted to teach her to lift her hind leg straight under her body with confidence. It’s usually hard for horses not to lift it out to the side. So, I transferred the gentle squeeze of the tendon that I use for hoof picking to a light touch on the hind leg, and then transferred that to reaching for a pool noodle under her belly. When I touch the pool noodle to her hoof, she follows the noodle up into an nice expression of movement with the hind leg. Most horses reach for the noodle. Ilo follows it. Her way is always so unique Anyway, I’m SO excited about what it has done for her confidence and balance. Just a couple short sessions of this and her hind end has really improved. I she’s happier, too, with her increased flexibility, balance, and awareness. Who wouldn’t be?

Then there was Penny learning to rear. What a riot. Gina had been asking me about rearing since Sam and Q are both trained to do levade and pirouettes. Penny showed the same propensity as QuickDraw and when asked to go sideways, wanted to place her hind feet and lift up. Cool. That could be problematic, but only if you let it be So, after observing Penny’s propensity, Gina and I decided to capture it and transfer it onto a pool noodle.

Thankfully Penny had just learned leg targeting earlier that day, so all we had to do was place the pool noodle in the right position, tease Penny a little, and click and treat when she offered a rear. That little one has amazing balance. She could got into a pesade and pump her legs in unison 3 times rapidly like a little ninja! Most horses have to develop the balance. For Penny, it was easy. She never wobbled or had sloppy forelegs. She kept them in tight except for the time striking at the noodle She even took a few steps on her hind. How wild! We got several pictures of Penny with her pool noodle. We used one that is hot pink and matches her halter, just to be extra ridiculous

Later I remarked to one of the moms that Penny was going to have to learn to do some useful things too and Paula happily stated that she couldn’t be more useful if she tried – “She’s really a pet, after all. Entertaining is her job and she’s really good at it!” Paula is right. Penny is still focusing on the 7 games and lots of groundwork, but we couldn’t miss out on this great opportunity. Plus, just earlier that day, we’d spent an hour clipping her up, and she was a perfect angel. What other 9 month old pony with only 1 month of training would stand untied for an hour to have her face and neck shaved, never having been clipped before? Penny’s just a superstar, thanks to clicker, Parelli, and some awesome breeding.

At the end of the day Emma rode Cinnamon walk/trot for a few minutes in the saddle. Emma was super distracted, some CinCin was pretty lazy for her. That said, I’m happy to see a 3 year old pony opting for lazy instead of hot when paired with a new young rider! CinCin is so handsome that it was easy to capture a couple nice trotting pics.

Naya, age 6, gets to lead QuickDraw around the arena and find out about focus! She learns to give Q a little YoYo whenever he gets too close. QuickDraw, always the clown, helps Naya learn by trying to sneak up and lick her helmet

Cinnamon tries picking up a hulahoop on the ground, so I click and treat him. Soon I can walk backwards, toss the hulahoop between us, and he will bring it to me. Then I ride Cinnamon around the arena and we stop at the hulahoops. One by one, he picks them up and hands them to me, with me sitting on his back!

Les and Koa ride bridleless using a hulahoop in place of a cordeo. Koa sidepasses and jumps the barrels like a pro. Les says he loves the hulahoop because it creates a frame for the horse to work within but doesn’t add pressure.

Inspired by Les, I longe Cinnamon using the hulahoop as a cordeo. He goes wtc both directions and we even try jumping the barrels! That one got him a little fired up, so we toned it down and did some more fetching.

Instead of worrying about Ilo worrying about the sound of the arena door rattling in the wind, I decided to encourage her. Taking a couple plastic sacks out of our bean bag, we did some desensitization, then I tied them gently to her halter.she looked like a butterfly! Then we practiced things she knew how to do very well with the distraction of the plastic sacks. Eventually she graduated to sacks in her mane and around her pasterns! What a good girl.

Penny, sporting her new custom made pink rope halter, learned to lay down on the soccer ball beanbag like a camel. Since Penny likes the tarp, we laid the tarp on the bag first and scrunching up the tarp is what gave her the idea to lay down. Then Gina used a hand target to keep her laying down for longer and longer. One time she even flopped on it and rolled off the side like a little kid We also got a cute photo of her pawing the bag with her foot. Look out World Cup, here she comes!

Cinnamon, who we now call CinCin (chin-chin) as a nickname, also pushed the ball for the first time while riding. I’ve always thought horses push the ball into things on purpose, and CinCin does without a doubt. He pushed it right into the stackers like he was making a goal. Cowboy soccer anyone?

We also celebrated Dorothy’s birthday and Hawkview Ranch’s 10th anniversary. It was a great party! The kids were playing with these wild spongey, snake-like toys right outside Sundae’s pen (great desensitization!). It was adorable to see how at first he was scared, then he wanted to play! He watched the kids enthusiastically all evening. Halfway through the night, the kids came running up asking if they could do groundwork in the arena. Smart kids. They knew I’d have to give it to them if they asked for groundwork and not riding So the ponies got out for the second time that day. I met a nice family at the bbq and we now have another set of twins in the program (fun!). But, the best part of the evening had to be Dorthy’s horse shoe cake with the cute bay pony lounging on it. Not longeing, but lounging (hanging out), mind you I never noticed how closely related those words are. Anyway, it was hilarious when ten-year-old Maddie ran up to ask me if she could have a piece of cake, even though her mom was at the party. The trainer next to me looked at me like, “Wow, you run a tight ship!” Really, Maddie just wanted me to cut it for her, lol.

Today Les and I went on a trail ride at the Flat Iron trail head, which is about 5-10 minutes from our barn. We love hauling Ilo and Koa out and they love getting out. Asher and Tovi came with us, Tovi with his forearm bandaged since he still has a sore ankle. The vet wrap did wonders, though, and he was still in good shape by the time we got back.

Flat Iron is super cool because it has lot of ups and downs. They are gentle enough you can trot them in most places, so we did! Day 2 of Ilo and Koa’s trail trotting careers! Both girls were super good. We even stopped to take some photos with the spring wild flowers. They’re tiny, unlike flowers you get in wetter climates, but really pretty accents to the desert colors. Ilo, of course, loves the camera, so here’s a silly picture that makes her look like a hippopotamus. Seriously cute.

Les and my legs and abs were uncomfortably sore from getting back into yoga, so we were processing some junk as we walked. It’s no fun how emoitonal baggage comes up with those physical releases. Ilo kept nudging me like, “Hello, Earth to Kali…” because I kept getting sucked in by my hamstrings wallerin’ I love yoga, but it’s hard when you spend so much time walking in sand. We’re doing a 6:30am vinyasa practice so we don’t stay out at the barn til 8:30 at night every day! Send some positive thoughts our way if you’re up that early!

Today was a busy day! Conner (12) rode KC, and Emma (12) rode Thistle and Celebrity. Les worked with Sundae and rode Koa, I rode Ilo, and worked with Sam. Gina worked with Blue Man and got things prepared for her new mini!

Blue Man was laying down when we went to go get him. He showed a lot of trust and didn’t hurry to get up. He looked very handsome and we were able to snap a few pictures. He’s such a site with his mane standing on end!

Blue Man is just about ready to start so I have been having Gina watch colt starting dvds by Lesley Neuman, Ray Hunt, and Parelli. She recently watched the Parelli Savvy Club dvd where Pat helps Jake start the blue roan QH gelding. Pat demonstrates ways to desensitize the horse and Jake rides the colt bareback, then later with a saddle. It’s a fascinating dvd because you get to see it all. We use some of the same techniques in starting our colts.

Blue Man is working on synchrony. He is very distractable and, while he likes humans, he thinks they are senseless and only require about 1% of his total brain power. We are working to convince him that we are interesting, useful, and worthy of his attention.

First we did Travel Together with Blue Man. He’s naturally balanced and relatively relaxed on the longe. Then we worked on Hippity Hop. He was not too keen on on standing quietly to have Gina lay on him so we went on to The Whippings. Blue Man became quite calm and attentive in no time at all. We then worked on balancing the for quadrants of the horse doing a pattern that involves sidepassing a pole, the balancera on the rail, and jumping a barrel at a walk.

Blue Man had never sidepassed a pole before, so Gina had to work up to it, starting with one step of sideways without a pole, all the way up to sidepassing the whole 12′ pole. As with everything, Blue learned quickly. Blue had very little trouble with the balancera. He was light and moved forward and back attentively with ease. He’s naturally nimble. When invited out of the squeeze, Blude did a good job not rushing through Gina’s hand in anticipation of the barrels. He was quite beautiful over the barrels, jumping calmly and efficiently, with good form.

During Emma’s lesson, I tagged her for the same thing I had Chloe working on the other day – a good release over the jumps. Emma progressed very quickly. It was Thistle’s first time trotting a gymnastic. We were working on migrating through the gymnastic, focusing on a fluid, no-brainer ride for horse and human. The jumps are treated as non-events, just an obstacle on the trail.

Thistle is the wonder pony, as Emma is the wonder rider. Thistle has been under saddle for just 1 month and Emma has only been riding for 3 months. Emma started Thistle herself with our supervision and has done all but 3 or 4 of her rides. The gymnastic was a trot-in cross rail, bigger vertical, then a smaller vertical, one stride in between, though Thistle trotted the whole gymnastic rather than cantering at all. We did two 15 minute jumping sessions with clicker play for Thistle in between. Thistle was quite quiet and content to just hang with Emma. She seemed to enjoy snuggling with Emma as much as pushing the ball or playing other games.

At the end of the lesson, we did a little liberty play, as Thistle usually likes it and is naturally quite fancy. Thistle jumped the obstacle on her own several times, even though we were guiding her away from it. She is a beautiful, brave jumper. She did the canter strides in between the jumps, making good distances 90% of the time.

Next Emma rode Celebrity. Isn’t she lucky to go straight from school to lessons where she gets to play with as many horses as she can in 3 hours? Celebrity was awesome. Emma trotted the same gymnastic on him as she did on Thistle Conner rode at the same time and worked with KC on a big X and on the gymnastic. Both girls were working on synchrony, building the range of what they could do together with their mounts. KC, traditionally a bit lazy and a head-shaker, was doing quite well. It was fun to see Emma on 12’1h Cebs and Conner on 15’1h KC jumping the same jumps.

Lastly I worked with Ilo on migration at the trot. She tends to worry quite a bit about sounds and any little extra movement I make on her back. We’re working on keeping trotting. Ilo has such a little shuffle of a trot that, as I’m encouraging her to keep trotting, makes me think of Dory singing, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” from Finding Nemo.

Les worked with Koa on synchronization while trotting bareback. He used a cone as a target for the circle. Koa progressed very well, building up to being able but connected to Les. Les felt discouraged at the end of the lesson, though, because Koa didn’t have much play drive, probably because they were working on a task that challenges her emotional fitness. During their play sessions, Les has been working with Koa using Mediterranean horsemanship principles to teach piaffe. While she was a little unexcited yesterday, Koa is doing quite well working towards piaffe. He cues her forefeet with a touch near the elbow and her hind feet with a touch near the flank. It it is quite imperceptible and graceful.