The Cold is Here!

It was COLD this morning. Temp outside my kitchen window was -10F. Coldest it's been here since 2005. I bundled up in many layers before venturing outside. The dogs and I had a quick, if somewhat abbreviated walk. We normally do at least 2 miles, but given the conditions, I decided a mile was enough.

It was so cold, the horses had a layer of frost on their hair. Jeeves looks like he's wearing white mascara. :-) They don't seem to mind. When I went out to feed them, both he and Lance were standing outside their stalls, happy as can be. Thankfully, there's not much wind.

I put their hay out and Jeeves went right out, happily munching on the hay while the sun struggled to rise above the horizon. They are eating more hay than they normally eat. The girls are eating almost twice as much. The boys aren't getting quite that much, but they have the benefit of blankets to help keep them warm. Plus, they can go in their stalls over night.



If they want to. They seem to prefer to stand outside, though. The girls have the run-in shed and they'll stay in there if it's really nasty out. But, mostly, they hang out in the open, also.



Riley helped me with morning chores today. He kept a watch on things to make sure everyone behaved.


After about an hour out there, I was starting to get cold, so Riley and I headed inside for the warmth of the woodstove.

Fun With Babies (Horses, of course)

The girls, Cara and Em, arrived here in mid-June. They were both 12months old then. Cara is a sweetie, she would like to be a Lap Pony. Em, aka The Red Headed Wench, is also pretty much a sweet heart, but she does have a bit of an 'attitude'. A few days after they moved here, once she was starting to settle in, she decided to start testing. When I was dumping her breakfast from a bucket into the feed tub in the stall, she stretched her neck out and attempted to bite my hand. I saw it coming and, growled at her and smacked her lightly. She backed off, not upset, not submissive, but accepting that this was not allowed.

A day or so later, as I was opening the stall gate to bring herher grain, she decided to see if she could nip my hand then. I again growled at her and smacked her lightly. Again, she backed off and stood quietly, seeming to mull this over, while I dumped her grain in the feed tub and left the stall.

Then, a day or so later, as I was leading her out, I could see the little wheels in her head turning. I realized she was looking at my hand...so conveniently holding the lead line just a few inches from her mouth. Sigh. She tried to nip, but I was ready and backed her off.

She IS tenacious. The good thing is that she never tried to nip again in the same situation once I corrected her. So, she does learn. She just wanted to see if there was any time when nipping was allowed. She also tested any new people in the same fashion, so I always warned anyone who might be handling her or near her to keep an eye out. She seems to have grown out of that phase, which is a Good Thing.

Cara tried to nip me once, as I was leading her. I didn't even have to smack her, just growled at her, and she started flying backwards in total submission, head up, ears back, teeth clacking. She never tried it again, to me or anyone else. They're so different.

There were a few other things that the Red Headed Wench tested me on over the summer. She's not nasty or mean, mostly she's just having fun. One thing I learned was that I needed to make sure that Em kept out of my space. That was fine until we got into December and the nasty weather and I relaxed those "rules". During the ice storms or snow storms or just the nasty, cold windy days, I felt bad for poor Em being outside the run-in shed while I was cleaning it out and dumping their grains and hay. So, I started allowing her to stay in the shed and get closer to me while I was in the shed.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been telling myself that I need to get back into working with Em to get her out of my space. She's been getting....oh, more comfortable around me. Coming into my space. Just not as respectful as she had been. Nothing nasty, just a little niggling in the back of my head telling me that I've been lax with her. You know, that little voice that you should listen to but you put off.

Yesterday morning was quite cold with a stiff wind. I fed and hayed all the horses then about 30 minutes later I noticed Em was standing outside the run-in. Usually, the girls will spend at least a couple of hours eating their breakfast hay before venturing outside the shed, especially on the colder mornings. I decided to go out and check to make sure they still had plenty of hay. As I entered the paddock, Em came over to the gate and she had that impish look in her eyes. I told her to back off and she did, though she did follow me to the run-in, which had plenty of hay, so I turned to go back to the gate. At that exact instant, Em squealed, kicked out, and took off bucking and running. I jumped to get out of the way of her hooves as she went past me, stupidly not paying any attention to Cara. Normally, Cara is not a problem, but she IS spooky and she figured Em must have been running from something scarey, so she took off running after Em. Unfortunately, the angle she was coming from, she couldn't make it between me and the edge of the shed, so she collided with me, knocking me down. Ack! Fortunately, lots of layers of winter clothing and good layer of snow made the landing painless. Thank goodness she didn't kick out or anything, as she could have quite easily gotten me right in the head.

Lesson learned, thankfully with not much damage. My left back and hip are pretty sore and nice shade of purple where Cara ran into me, but I count myself lucky that that's all. I can't be lax with these girls. They don't mean to be bad, they're just young and full of themselves. Living alone here, it would really be bad if I were hurt out there. It could be days before someone noticed I was missing and in this cold weather, i wouldn't last days. As I write this, it's already below 0 and getting colder. Tomorrow the temp might not get above 0 all day. I probably wouldn't last a few hours out there.

Since then, I've taken a broom out there with me whenever I enter the paddock. It's long enough that I don't have to worry about getting kicked if one of them reacts by kicking out. A dressage whip isn't long enough, and Em gets excited with the lunge whip. The broom seemed to me to be ideal. It didn't take much to remind Em that she's supposed to stay out of my space. She is back to staying out of the shed when I'm in there. She stayed a respectful distance from me when I attempted to pick the frozen manure out of the paddock. Hopefully, there won't be any other incidents.

I just hope none of my neighbors reports me for "beating" the horses with a broom. Not that I've actually made contact with the broom--just a lot of growling and posturing. Of course, maybe they'll report me as a lunatic...

Wolf Moon

The January moon is known as the Wolf Moon, because the Indians would hear the wolves howling in the cold and snow. This year's Wolf Moon is also the closest the moon will get to the Earth until next year. It was a spectacular moon. I've always been drawn to the moon. During some traumatic events in my late teens, it seemed to be a steadfast beacon in the dark night sky. Or, maybe I was a wolf in a previous life. :-)

Saturday morning, the morning of the full Wolf Moon, I woke about 4:00 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Despite the early hour and the frigid cold, I decided I might as well get up and take the dogs for their morning walk. The dogs are always ready for a walk, no matter the time or the weather.

I bundled up well, double layers all around, triple socks on my feet and the dogs and I set off. The light from the moon was incredible, it was like a spotlight reflecting off the white carpet of snow. The silvery light glistened off the ice in the trees. It was like a fairy world. I was annoyed, even more than I usually am, by the outside lights left on by the neighbors as the dogs and I trudged up the street. One of the reasons I moved out here was to get rid of city annoyances, such as ambient light which makes it harder to see the stars and enjoy the light of the moon. Don't they know that?! Harrumph!

But, we soon got to end of the road, where it turns to dirt and left the houses behind us. Usually, when it's still dark in the mornings, I don't venture into the woods beyond where the road ends and it's just trails. But, the moon was so bright and magical, I couldn't resist. I did keep the dogs on leash. They will both take off in hot pursuit of any animals we might encounter and this time of the day, deer and coyote are likely to be out.

As we followed the trail through the woods, some movement in the tree canopy above us caught my eye. We had spooked a Great Horned Owl, and it flew to a tree a couple of hundred yards ahead of us on the trail. In the bright moonlight, I could barely make out it's shadowy form in the tree as we approached. Again, it flew off as we neared, but landed in another tree further along the trail. What fun, we had an owl for a guide on this cold winter morning! The dogs were oblivious to our flying companion, it was so silent when it flew, despite it's great size. This continued for a few more minutes until the owl flew off into the woods. I could hear it Hoo-hoo-hooo-hooing in the woods for quite a while after that, sometimes coming closer, sometimes further off. But, I didn't catch sight of it again.

The rest of our moon lit walk was less eventful. Quiet. No one else up. No sound of cars, or dirt bikes, or snow mobiles, or planes. Just the sound of my boots crunching in the snow. As we approached home, the eastern sky was slowly starting to brighten. Just a hint of cold, pale blue over the horizon. As I did fed and hayed the horses and turned them out, the moon was slowly setting in the northwestern sky as the sun slowly rose in the south east. What a perfect start to a winter's day.

More Reflections

I figured I would do another post rather than responding the comments. There's sooo much that could be said about all this. Let's see how well I can articulate my thoughts. I should also remind everyone that my experience is strictly dressage, so some things might be different in the western world.

Nuzzling Muzzles had some good comments/concerns about starting her young horse herself and finding a reliable trainer. But, I want to discuss this comment: "everyone has to start training a horse at some point otherwise we wouldn't have horse training professionals."

Horse training professionals do not START out by training babies. At least, not the good ones. :-) Most trainers put in their mileage first with horses that have already been started and they work their way up. Mostly working as an apprentice or assistant to an upper level trainer/rider. Some are able to get in their mileage on their own horses and start training lower level riders/horses and slowly work their way up as they and their students do well. And, all good trainers work with trainers. The learning is constant, it never ends. Even for trainers.

Even though a horse might be pretty well along in training, everytime you ride it, or just handle it from the ground, you're teaching it something. Every time you ride it, you're training it. When I bought Jeeves, he had been schooled and competed through 2nd and had done some 3rd level shows. But, partly because of my limitations and partly because of some "lapses" in his training, I basically brought him back to training/1st level. For him, it was mostly to remind him about stretching and staying supple. He had a habit of getting stiff and heavy in the bridle. So, even though he's my "schoolmaster", I'm still training him every time I get on him. This knowledge will help me immensely if/when I get a younger horse. I know the aids to apply for a given movement, how to apply them correctly, etc. So, you are gaining experience training when you work with Lostine and Bombay. I'm not saying you shouldn't start Gabbrielle yourself, just whatever you do, proceed with caution and awareness. From what I've read on your blog, I think you have enough introspection and respect for the horses that you would realize when things are going wrong and seek out help. I think if you can find a trainer that will work with you that would be the ideal.

The trainer that the owner was going to send this horse to is someone that I know and respect as a trainer and instructor. She is one of the best: honest, reliable, positive, is not abusive to the animals, starts the babies out with good, solid basics, builds their confidence, etc. So, I knew that would be a good place for this horse to go for a year. If I were to ever buy a baby, I would only do so if I could afford to send it to this trainer or another one that I trust and respect for a year of training. However, having said that, I would be having lessons and participating in the training process as much as possible. Probably starting out with long lining and moving on to riding when the baby was ready to have my incompetent butt on it's back.

I've had 2 young horses--both fairly well started before I got them. But, even though they were both well started, they were still incredibly challenging. Babies will throw things at you and you need to be quick to be able to stop it, before it gets out of hand. If the horse misbehaves you need to have a secure seat to be able to stay with the horse and remain balanced so that you can still apply aids and send it forward without grabbing it's mouth. You need to know what aids to apply without thinking about it.

Jeeves is my confidence builder after a couple of accidents with those 2 youngsters. He's been very good at helping me get over my fears. With him, if something scares him and *I* get nervous, it's not a big deal. He's not going to bolt or do anything dangerous. While I'm up there on his back shaking and trying to remember to breathe and not clutch the reins, he'll just continue on, maybe giving whatever scared him a wide berth, until I recover and go back to riding him and telling him what to do. My moments of panic are pretty rare now and don't last as long. I have learned I can keep riding with my seat and not clutch the reins with a death grip.

With a baby, those moments of fear and hesitation would only make the baby more frightened. They learn confidence by having a confident rider to guide them through all the frightening things they're going to encounter. They learn things are not a big deal that way. On a baby, those moments of panic open a door that allow the horse to bolt or rear or who knows what. And, they learn those are acceptable ways of dealing with scarey things when being ridden. Like the horse I discussed in my last post--he learned that flying backwards was something he could do. The owner was never able to effectively stop that once he started it and it has now progressed to rearing. If he had had more training in the beginning with a professional, or even if the owner had worked more closely with a trainer at the beginning, he probably never would have learned that he could go backwards.

Horses are extremely forgiving creatures. Most mistakes can be fixed, if they don't go on too long. But, it's so much easier and safer if you can get a baby off to a good start with a solid foundation. Then, the rest of it's training goes much easier.

Reflections on a Wasted Talent

Ok, so I'm not doing any riding, I might as well do some posts on thoughts about training. I'll start with one on a situation that really has saddened me. Several years ago, Jeeves's companion here was a very nice 2 yo Dutch gelding. He was really nice--very athletic, great mover, rather hot. But, he was good about listening to me when I was handling him, even if there was something spooky around, he always behaved when I had him in hand. His owner was not very experienced with horses/riding, but I thought her intentions were to send him off for a year of training when he turned 3 yo. That was a good plan and one that I think would have worked well for the both of them. Even though he was a hot little guy, he wanted to be good, and he wanted to learn things. So, with a year of professional training, he would have been in a good spot for his owner to start riding WITH regular instruction.

However, as is often the case, things did not go as planned. For several reasons, the owner decided to start working with him on her own. He arrived here in September and at that time he had been "started". I think that was 60 days with a professional trainer who did mostly in hand work with him and only got in a few rides before he came here. So, he came here in September, nothing was done with him, except for me doing basic handling like leading, hoof picking, etc., all fall and winter. In March, his owner started coming out to "work" with him. Instead of lunging him, she starts out long lining him. No surcingle, just the reins coming off the bit, and through the stirrups. I know that's not the worst thing and it can work fine with a horse than understands about contact with the bit. I would never do that with a baby!

I was out inthe paddock cleaning up manure, not really paying attention to what she was doing until out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of movement by the arena. The horse was flying backwards out of the edge of the arena, onto the hill that borders my driveway which is covered with rocks. Eeek! She was standing in front of him, PULLING ON THE REINS! Which, since the reins were looped through the stirrups, was basically pulling him BACKWARDS! Eeeek! I dropped the pitchfork and ran over there. She had no whip, so I took my jacket off, got behind him and sent him forward by waving my jacket at him. He lept back into the ring and started trotting around again--head up, back hollow, eyes white rimmed. Every once in a while, he would stop dead in his tracks. Then, leap back into a trot. She had no whip. The stirrups were flopping about, knocking his teeth with every stride. Ack!

When I suggested a lunge whip, she refused saying he was "plenty forward". I tried to explain the difference between "forward" and flying around, out of control, stopping on his own, and backing up every once in a while. With a whip, she could prevent the sudden stops and the flying backwards. I also suggested a surcingle but she refused saying that he had never had a surcingle on and she didn't want to introduce a new piece of equipment. :-( Ok, I thought to myself. She doesn't want to introduce new equipment but she doesn't mind that her horse is flying around out of control, backing up over the edge of the ring and basically learning all sorts of bad things.

When she was done, I told her that my instructor would be happy to come over and work with her a few times to help her get him re-started with lunging and long lining. She said she was "very particular" about who worked with her horse and she didn't know my trainer so she didn't want to use her. Trainers that she already knew wouldn't come out this far. I can understand being particular about trainers, but it's not like I was suggesting sending her off to someone. She would have been there, learning how to handle him, and helping him gain confidence.

She really blew my mind when she said that her horse "had an amateur owner and she was going to make mistakes, so he was going to have deal with that"! I almost fainted right there. I managed to calmly, if tersely, say that I, also, an am amateur owner and I considered it my responsibility to have professional assistance to minimize the number and severity of my mistakes! I had never heard such a thing before! I know we all have different theories about trianing and the specific details, etc. But, to be so arrogant as to expect your baby horse to deal with your mistakes?! Huh?

As you can probably guess, I asked her to leave shortly after that. She came out one more time with similarly disastrous results. I could see this was not going anywhere good. The stopping and backing up was going to result in a horse that reared. Totally unnecessary, as he was basically a sweet horse who wanted to cooperate. I spent many nights struggling with this. This was all going on during my divorce and one of my ex's complaints was that I was a control freak and everything had to be my way. So, that was haunting me during this. But, after much thinking and worrying and angsting, I concluded it wasn't a control thing as much as I just didn't want to witness or participate in the disaster that was unfolding.

Over the last couple of years, I would occasionally hear about them. Not good things. One of my favorite instructors worked with them in a few clinics. Apparently, things were not going well. The trainer told the owner that she needed help and suggested a local trainer who could ride the horse for her and give her more regular lessons. Owner didn't follow through as the local trainer was too expensive. :-( Sigh. The trainer also suggested sending going back to the original plan and send the horse up to her for a year's training. But, that was too expensive and the owner wanted to be riding him. The story continues, much the same with the horse's behaviour getting slowly, steadily worse. She did try to get someone else to ride, but it wasn't someone who had lots of experience with young horses or with hot horses. And, by the time she did that, things had gotten even worse.

Sadly, I just heard last month that the horse is for sale because he's rearing and is dangerous. What a waste. All because of, what? Her ego? It's one thing not to listen to me. I'm not a professional, she had no reason to listen to my training advice. That was fine. But, to be paying a well-known, well respected, talented trainer and ignore her advice is appalling. What I find most upsetting, though, is that it's the horse that paying the price for her mistakes and her ego! The horse is now considered dangerous. If he's lucky, someone talented and patient will get him and rehab him. But, the odds are stacked against him. This owner has most likely started him down thise road where this cycle will repeat for him, again and again. I've seen it too damn many times. I take no satisfaction in being proven right. I would have loved nothing more than to see them at a show.

This just makes me so angry because there is no need for it. It's a senseless waste of what was a talented a horse. Why do people think they can train babies themselves? It's a very rare amateur who can really deal with a baby (and I'm not implying that I am one of those rare people! Not at all!!) Babies need a confident rider/handler who can give them the confidence they need. They need someone who is quick enough--both physically and mentally--to prevent the horse from doing something other than what he's supposed to be doing. To prevent or short circuit those sudden stops or leaps or whatever the baby might throw at the rider, both in hand and under saddle. They don't mean to be bad, they're just figuring things out, learning what they can do. And, ego never has any place when working with horses (or any animal) and especially babies.

Is it the breeder's fault for not "vetting" the buyer out better? But, he can only go by what the buyer says. Her plan was a good one--send him off to a good, well known trainer for a year of training. But, somehow, that all changed. And, the horse gets the short end of the deal.

Ok, enough venting...for now.

Another ice storm is on it's way, due in tomorrow night, early Wed. They are saying there are likely to be power outages. Ack. Well, I am prepared. I have enough food for all of us to survive a couple of weeks. But, please, I hope we don't go through another disaster like the last one. Please hold a good thought for us.