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 )

We just got our first minis! They are rescues. Many of the original owner’s animals were seized by Deschutes County. These two were given to the person’s friend. One is REALLY fat and the other has very bad feet. Other than that, they’re sound and healthy with great temperaments. The little one is 9’3h (39in) and the other is 10’2h (42in). The big one has a head that fits a cob halter! She must be half Classic Shetland. The little one is absolutely darling and sooooo gentle. The big one is 6 years old and the little one is 3 years old. Their parents were registered but these girls are not. The little one is a little sickle hocked but for the type of work we’ll be doing with her she should be ok. They were very calm and sweet for their first day at the ranch! We’re taking name suggestions! Right now the big one is Sabrina and the little one is Lily.

Penny is a 9 month old miniature who has had one month of training. She wasn’t even halter trained or catchable when she first arrived! Penny is being trained by PonyPros assistant coach Gina Papa. Penny has learned all these fun tricks and games using clicker training and natural horsemanship.

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 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.