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

July 4th PonyPros took Blue Man, Thistle, Ziggy, Peanut, and Wallie to the Bend Pet Parade. It was a HUGE event with people packed in 12 feet deep on every street. There was a skateboarder being pulled by a Pit Bull at mach 10, a Dachshund in a harness floating through the air with balloons, a man playing military calls on a bugle while reeling about on a horse and waving an umbrella, a guy on a recumbent bicycle with dogs on either side wearing harnesses to propel the bike, not to mention the usual people on stilts, mini ponies pulling carts, wild children, barking dogs, flags, banners, weird hats, etc. The ponies did great, even though more than one renegade tiny girl ran out from the spectating area unbidden, hustling up to stroke ponies!

Featuring…

• Trail ride with Emma, Maddie, Zoey, Les, and Kali
• Penny’s first bath
• Les’ fabric paintings
• Kira (10) and Gideon’s (13) second lesson with their Mustangs
• Kali and Ilo
• Simone (6) and Thistle
• Elijah (5) and Thistle
• Anna and Sargento

Trail Ride

After Spring’s terrible weather, we’re anxious to get out on the trails and migrate this summer! Les and I took Maddie, Emma, and Zoey out on a trail ride across the street from the ranch. Fortunately we are right across from the Badlands Wilderness, which includes an expansive 29,261 acres. We’ve been riding on a new trail with an awesome hill. It’s very hard to find hills in our area! This one has a nice, wide forest-service type road, which is great for the kids and dogs. Maddie and I have been going out and practicing trotting duration and it was cool to see that Peanut could come back and do a mellow walk with the group without issues. Wallie is still a little nervous out on the trails, and Zoey, being 8, tends to forget everything as soon as the pony’s life comes up while riding, so Zoey showed good thinking and chose to walk Wallie instead of riding him. Maddie and I each rode Wallie for awhile, just to help him learn the ropes, and he made a little progress. It’s interesting because Wallie tends to be more consistent at shows and Peanut tends to be more consistent on trails. Peanut is LBE with RBE tendencies and Wallie is LBI with RBI tendencies. I’m sure there is something to that but haven’t quite figured it out.

Thistle led the way on the way out. She made her way to the front, even passing Koa and Ilo, who would logically be above her in the herd. Thistle’s uncontested path to the front of the band interested me in terms of alpha leader theory. Presently there are a lot of articles circulating the dog potentially debunking alpha leader theory. The argument is that  individual animals display “agonistic behavior” when it comes to their most prized resource, referred to as “subjective resource value.” Herds and packs may not have “overall hierarchies” as originally thought, but instead have different pecking orders when it comes to different resources like shade, food, and water. I have noticed that individual horses also seem to value certain resources differently than others in the herd might.

So, Thistle led the way out, and interestingly, also wanted to lead the way back. To help her settle in, I took the opportunity to do a lesson with the kids on the varying degrees of flexion. I had the kids practice using a suspension rein to put the pony’s weight on her haunches, then yield the sidebody to create a turn on the center (this is a good video to explain the movement, but we were doing it with vaquero style reining as we are riding with rope halters). The kids are finally starting to get how to use their hands this way. It’s hard, but will ultimately give the kids the ability to take a very slight flexion to regain the horse’s attention, versus disengaging the hindquarters completely and starting over. Being able to take a slight flexion and release immediately builds a finer degree of communication and will help kids and ponies stay connected in distracting environments. If anyone knows of a good resource for vaquero bosal riding, let me know. I’m collecting information about it!

Penny’s First Bath

Gina prepared Penny for her first bath by doing lots of clicker work with the hose. Penny, being a very confident little mare, went from truly being very scared of the hose to pretending to be very scared of the hose for her own enjoyment, almost imperceptibly! After about her 3 clicker sessions with Gina, Penny was ready to  just go for it. Gina hadn’t been exposed to much pressure and release training in the past, but bathing Penny made for a really interesting example. When I turned the hose on, Penny reared and struck at the spray with her forelegs. She tossed her head and stomped her feet a little, and definitely created some commotion, but she didn’t behave like what one would normally expect from a frightened prey animal. Had Penny been really scared, she would likely have displayed the typical flight-mode maneuver – running over the top of the human (ie., bunching up with the herd), then flying around in a circle when the human fails to let go of the rope. Instead, Penny mostly retreated, but did not make any huge attempts to put the hose in the dust behind her. Because she did not hurry to run me over, I felt that Penny was present, thinking, and ready to learn. I put my thumb on the hose and Penny reeled backward. I sprayed until she leaned ever so slightly forward, then immediately released the spray. Though she could have chosen to stand still because the aversive disappeared, she danced because her energy was up, so I aimed the spray at her chest and continued on. She reeled backwards, I let the rope slide but kept her with me, and when she leaned forward, the spray stopped. In about 5 minutes, Penny was standing quietly letting me spray her all over. She even rubbed her face in the spray a little, which is the start of most of her playful behaviors. She loves to toss her mane and shake her head!

There is a time and a place for pressure and release as a teaching tool. To know when to use it, you just have to remember to ask yourself what the horse is motivated by – safety, comfort, food, or play. Penny is mostly motivated by play. She gets bored easily and loves to have an audience. However, because she is a baby and because she is a horse, her first instinct is often to be afraid. Given that, Gina did a great job making Penny feel safe by getting her used to the hose slowly with clicker, comfortable by getting Penny confident in her environment and in the mode of teaching, and created Penny’s motivation through the use of food. As it follows, the last necessity for her learning was to turn bathing into a game. By spraying Penny with the hose until she came forward slightly and stopped pulling away, I gave Penny an opportunity to win the game. Of course the human’s intention is paramount in this type of training, and every other. Energy is everything to horses and I took care to maintain a playful expression and demeanor while getting Penny used to the water.

My choice to use pressure and release with Penny’s bathing training was reinforced by the fact that when we turned her loose in the round pen to roll, she bucked and romped and pranced all over the place,  buzzing by us like Tom Cruise with air traffic control in Top Gun. If Penny had been really disturbed by the bathing, she would have run round and around the round pen with her nose looking out. Instead, she kept trying to engage us for play

Les’ Fabric Paintings

Les painted these about 3 years ago when we were at grad school in Colorado. They are made from fabric from thrift stores and painted with discarded house paint. The images are all of horses. My favorite one isn’t shown here. It’s a beautiful corduroy horse, a lot like the horse from the Science of Sleep. We have to pick that one up from the book store where it was hanging. It’s about 5ft square and really great!

Kira and Gideon

Kira and Gideon came for their second lesson. Their mom has trained over 40 BLM Mustangs, most from failed adoptions. Marietta is an amazing trainer. We had her judge the outdoor trail course at our Play With Purpose shows and she taught the kids so much. She also did a bridleless flag carrying presentation to open both shows. If you haven’t seen it, watch it now! Back to Kira and Gideon – they remembered most of the 7 games from their first lesson. Both are working with horses at are a little challenging, as all Marietta’s animals are rescues. For their first lesson, we learned the first 3 games and learned about sending. I set a bunch of obstacles up as squeezes by the rail. They sent the horse next to the rail, through the squeeze, and stayed on the outside. That got the horses a little further away from them. It’s a great way to get started.

I have a new trick for teaching circles – I tell the kids we are going to travel from one end of the arena to the other with the horse circling around them. I help them send the horse and then they start walking. All they have to do is keep walking and move the stick when the horse stops. Sure enough, the kids learn Travel Together very quickly. Since learning to play with flow is such a challenge, this is a good way to get started moving with the horse straight away and reduce the whole “stand around looking confused” phase. Travel Together is essential to making ground play fun.

Kali and Ilo

Ilo and I have been working on suppling. Ilo is a very muscle bound little mare. She’s a stocky Mustang from the WY BLM. I’ve been using the suspension rein technique I mentioned earlier in this post to activate her hind quarters, plus using Linda Tellington-Jones idea for an impulsion rope behind,  some stretches to open her hips, and volte’s while longeing. The idea behind the volte, in our case, is to make the smallest circle the horse can make while staying united. This article is kind of similar. Things are working awesome and Ilo is calmer, more synchronized, and more flexible!

Simone and Thistle

Gina gave 6 year old Simone her second lesson. Simone started out doing Stick Together to synchronize with Blue Man but we were moving the ponies to a new pasture outside and their prancing got Blue fired up. After switching to Thistle, Simone did seatwork on the longe and  a tiny bit of trotting on the longe. Bareback, of course, since that’s how we start the kids out. I got some adorable pictures of Gina, Thistle, and Simone. It just so happened the girls all matched today, right down to Simone’s white boots with pink toes.

Elijah and Thistle

Lucky Thistle did 3 lessons in a row Friday. First she helped Alicia, a 5 year old with sensory processing difficulties, then little Simone, then Elijah. Five year old Elijah was in from out of town. His grandma is pony-shopping for him. Elijah had only ever ridden a little mini at the fair so this was his first real lesson. Les taught Elijah the basics of Friendly and Porcupine and they played with a ball and stomped in mud puddles. Thistle is the most amazing pony with little kids. Elijah’s grandma said she couldn’t believe how calm all our ponies are (yay!). Elijah was too nervous to ride, so Les had Elijah tag him for the pieces of mounting up on Thistle, then for little tasks while riding. It must have worked because when Gina taught Elijah’s lesson today, he was on and off riding 3 times and begged for more.

Anna and Sargento

I’ve been working with Anna and her Lusitano, Sargento. Sargento is a huge horse. He’s only about 15h but is built like a Percheron. I’ve been helping Anna to get Sargento’s weight on his hindquarters and limber him up. We’re working on piaffe and taking levade when Sargento offers it. You can see he’s showing good elevation in his canter, now. He’s really heavy and out of balance but he’s Anna’s primary riding horse so we’re just doing whatever we can to get him put together more so she can keep going with him. It’s been cool to work with a Lusitano. He’s a different sort of horse. Very smart but gets very nervous and emotional.

So, we’ve had a busy few days for just getting back from Alaska Tuesday evening! Next stop – Bend Pet Parade. Wish us luck!

The PonyPros tell you how to develop communication and relationship with your pony using the terrain of your natural environment. Great video for kids and pony-lovers!

Photos from our awesome field trip to work with youngstock at Evans Welsh. We took 2 coaches, 3 moms, 9 girls ages 8-13, and colt started 11 ponies and did halter training with 7 yearlings.

Featuring Sundae wearing a Western saddle for the first time, Naya’s (6) first lesson on Thistle, and cute photos of Sundae being a ham.

Sundae did great packing the Western saddle around. I had a feeling he might like it better than an English because it is very secure. Temple Grandin writes about the calming effect, for both her and the cattle, of squeeze chutes, and I thought Sundae might like the squeezing effecting of the Western. It was a hit. He walked and trotted nicely around the round pen and the arena, both on the longe and at liberty. It really helped him find a nice, rhythmic pace. We were very cautious about putting the back cinch on him as Sec A Welsh have a tendency to buck, but we set Sundae up for success and I think the back cinch was nice for him. Kept the saddle from bouncing as he trotted and distributed the cinching of the saddle some. Sundae looked very cute when he trotted out wearing it. I was so pleased to him migrating with confidence.

Naya, age 6, took her second lesson. We got to be in the outdoor arena! Finally some good weather! I got some great photos of Naya and Thistle against the blue sky. Les used TAGteach to help Naya learn about rein positions. Oh, how many steps there are just in getting one’s hands organized for a back up! TAGteach was a great help in breaking things down into small pieces. Naya also did seatwork on the longe at a walk and is really getting the hang of all her seat synchronization “tricks.” She can do arm circles, kick downs, kick ups, laying back, twists, petting down the neck, and, of course, the famous, “Frog on a Rocket.” Don’t Thistle and Naya look amazing with the clouds and sky behind them? Naya got to take 3 lessons in a row this week and she is really looking confident sitting on Thistle

At the end of the day I spent a couple minutes hamming it up with Sundae. He LOVES the camera probably as much as Ilo. He was nuzzling it and staring at it, making sure I got him from every angle, lol.

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.

Video of our spotlight at the tour stop:

Woke up at 4:30am. About 8 hours of sleep in 2 days combined. Took 9 horses and ponies to the Parelli tour stop. Filled the arena with PonyPros. Blew even our own socks off. The Parellis were amazingly generous with us. They gave all the kids halters and lead ropes, plus the levels 1-4 pack, and gave Les and I four-week scholarships to the center in CO. Feel like I need to sleep for days, but it was worth it Can’t believe how awesome the kids and ponies were. Check out the photos of Linda when we showed her our video, told her we had 5 more kids at home, and that we boarded 30 minutes away.

Some quick facts:

• Blue Man has only been with us for 4 weeks. This was his first experience traveling off property for an event. He was rescued a year ago by Mustangs and Mohr, then came to us at the very end of April. At that time, he had basic groundwork but had not been started. He has 1 ride on him now and is, as you can see, having a ton of fun with Parelli!
• Thistle has only been with us for 2 months. She was 10 years old and was ranch raised, so had had no training before coming to us. This was her second time ever in a trailer and only only her second time away from the home she was born and raised on. Look how awesome she is now!
• Thistle’s partner, Emma, is a 6th grader and has only been involved in horses for 3 months. She has learned all this from PonyPros in just 12 weeks!
• Peanut and Wallie are only 4 years old. This was only their second time hauling out to a different arena. They have been with us for about 9 months now and were unstarted when they came to us.
• Casey is an adopted rescue horse. Conner has only owned him for four months.
• Koa is an adopted rescue horse. This was her first time ever hauling out to a strange arena.
• Celebrity has only been with us for 2 months. Chloe, age 12, was his partner at the tour stop.
• Sam is a rescue pony who used to stand like a tri-pod because he was so fearful and in so much pain. He used to run to the other side of his pen and smash against the panels when someone walked by. He has been with us for almost 2 years now.
• Because the horse who Katelynn normally works with is a rescue who is not strong enough to travel, this was Katelynn’s first time ever working with Sam. Talk about a good pony and natural student to put it together so fast and so well!
• Our dream is to have an Atwood Ranch style program for ponies and to have the best kids program in the world.