Twosox: Getting used to eagles.

Twosox has some sort of an eye infection and so I have to spray antibiotic in his eye. It seems to be working and just for the record, he doesn't appear to be in any pain what so ever. So for almost a week now, two times a day I have to spray this stuff into his eye. Now even humans don't like having stuff put in their eyes so I knew that I had to find a way to do this while not expecting Twosox to just stand there and take it.

I have been trying lots of different things and finally today, after praying about it a lot and trying to figure out the best way to help Twosox I found a way that I think will work. It was totally God because I was out of arrows :) The phrase "If you want then used to blackbirds, get them used to eagles" came to mind and that made a world of difference.

What I was doing was simulating the sound and such, like you would do with fly spray, and then when I actually did spray the stuff I would keep going with just the sound afterward until Twosox lowered his head and stopped moving. That was working but it wasn't working well enough I guess because Twosox was getting worse (behaviour wise).

Today what I discovered was that when I was making the noise it was quieter than the actual noise when it sprayed so Twosox knew the difference. So this morning I took about 25 minutes and got Twosox used to an even louder sound than what the actual sound would be.

This worked wonders and when I did actually spray Twosox gently in the eye his reaction wasn't nearly as extreme and I was actually able to keep the rhythm and he lowered his head a lot sooner. Afterward I did it a couple more times without actually spraying anything just until Twosox was able to stand still and be somewhat relaxed.

So the proof will be in when I do it again this afternoon. Needless to say I have been spending a lot of time with Twosox :) But unfortunately less time with the other horses.

Naturally,
~Keri

Prince: Small things at Liberty

February 24 2011

I didn't have much time to do a whole lot with Prince today so we kept thing simple and played at Liberty. We did smelling the tail on both sides for 10 seconds. Prince did really well considering we haven't done this in a long time. He was so soft and flexible!

After that we played with him accepting my fingers in his mouth and touching his tongue. Since we have been bridling a lot and that is going well this task has been much easier. My goal is to be able to hold his tongue so I have to be able to touch his tongue and play with it a little with Prince being okay with that and not moving his mouth around to much :) Sound be fun!!

That was all I had time for but I was happy to be able to do anything!! 

Naturally,

~Keri

Twosox: Lots of new experiences...

February 21 2011

Twosox and I went on a trail ride with Mom and Knightly today. We definitely had lots of new experiences. A couple were, riding across the bridge (the water was running really quickly today also... very noisy!!), riding through town, having a minor spook at a truck that came over the hill way to quickly (I thought one was supposed to go 50km/h in towns??), riding past the skating rink, crossing the road, up and down hills, and riding past man holes (we past three in total, the first two Twosox shied away from but the last one he stopped and sniffed it!! Touch down!! 

All in all it was great. I wasn't sure how everything would go considering we only played on the front yard because the riding ring is very icy. But Twosox was a champ and was really relaxed, excluding the one spook with the truck :) One thing that I noticed with out mistake was the fact that Twosox drags himself up hills. It is a huge difference compared to Prince who pushes himself with his hindquarters up hills. So I know what we need to play with come spring and summer!! (1) Hill Therapy and (2) well I shall leave you in suspense for that one ;) More to come in a later post, can't get to far a head of myself here :) 

I dismounted and walked Twosox home because we went to see a friend of my Mom's so I was already off so I decided just to walk him home. It was so much fun! I couldn't get over how relaxed Twosox was! He seems to really love being out on the trail! Maybe I have stumbled across the key to what motivates Twosox?!? Maybe... just maybe :)

Naturally,

~Keri

Prince: Figure eights, circles and more.

February 15 2011

 

Prince and I mainly did Figure eights and circles this afternoon while we played. Figure eights Online and Circles Freestyle. 

We started though with bridling. On the first try Prince took the bit into his mouth like he had been doing it all his life!!! It was amazing! Again he wasn't sure whether to lick the honey off or try to get the bit out but he chose to get the honey off so after a couple seconds I guided the bit out. We are doing lots of approach and retreat!! The second time I guided the bit into Prince's mouth and Prince licked it for a couple second and then his mouth went quiet and still. So I took it out :) And that was where we ended. I was so proud of Prince!!! It was so easy and hopefully will just keep getting better and better!! 

With Figure eights the challenge was for Prince to maintain gait around the ends. We haven't done Figure eights in a while so Prince needed a little bit of reminding as to what I expected. Then after that was going well we did Figure eights at the canter. Or at least we played with it. Prince cantered around the left barrel (to my surprise, as that is his hard side) really well but would break gait when he got to the middle, where he would over had to do a flying lead change if he had of maintained gait. But that was okay because we were so close to getting it!!! I am definitely going to continue playing with it and hopefully Prince will just continue getting better. 

What I am going to try next session is to do simple lead changes, dropping to the trot in the middle, and then picking up the canter again while going around the ends. This way once Prince gets that solid then the flying lead change with come eventually, no rush though :) 

After that I mounted and rode! I set two barrels up. One at each end because I wasn't sure where I wanted to ride the circles. I started at the one end but didn't like the footing and the fences so I switched to the other side. Even though it was challenging because of the size of the riding ring and all Prince and I still had success and we were able to  get some good results. 

We had to finish early because I had an appointment with my Mom, brother and sister. But that was okay. Prince did well and we ended on a good note and hopefully we shall be able to pick up again next session. 

Naturally,

~Keri

Twosox: Figure eights and circles!

February 15 2011

I was going to play with Prince after Ruffian but when I opened the gate to let Ruffian out, Twosox came in. So I played with him. We played Online and did Figure eights around two barrels while I stood on the pedestal. These went fairly well but Twosox would loose the connection while going around the barrels. So we played with this until he was able to keep the rhythm and connection at the walk. 

Then I asked Twosox to trot through the middle and walk around the ends. Since we were just on the 12ft line there wasn't enough room to trot a good Figure eight so we just ended when Twosox was able to maintain the rhythm, relaxation and connection through out the pattern. 

After that I climbed up and we rode circles! At first they were supposed to be Figure eights but Twosox wasn't responding to my focus very well so I decided to ride circles to help that. They were small circles because Twosox was also a little bit impulsive. Towards the end Twosox did really well and I didn't have to make nearly as many corrections. So we ended there. We hung out at the barrel for a while before I got off and let Twosox go. 

Just after I took the halter off Twosox started yawning a lot! Which is something (I just noticed recently) that he never really does a lot of either with the other horses or with me. So it was great to see him actually relaxed!! 

Naturally,

~Keri

Ruffian: Confidence at last!

February 15 2011

Ruffian and I had a great session this morning. It was amazing to see how confident Ruffian was but at the same time it was challenging for me to be able to keep it interesting enough for him while not putting to much pressure on him and sending him unconfident again. 

We started out with some Touch it and then circles on the 12ft line. Ruffian kept breaking gait. So I decided to handle it as a lack of confidence/ misunderstanding issue by resending him gently and then going back to neutral. That didn't really make a difference so I decided to see if it was a lack of interest/ boredom. So I picked up the pace and we did some changes of direction and falling leaf which really worked well. Ruffian started maintaining gait and he came alive. 

Since we had done the falling leaf pattern over to the other side of the riding ring we then did some circles there and I set it up so that a single barrel would be in the way. Ruffian jumped it confidently each time, which was about 3 times each direction. Then I brought him in and let him lick and chew over what we had just done. 

Ruffian was looking really rideable so we went over to the fence and played with mounting then we did some Follow the rail along with direct and indirect rein. Ruffian lateral flexions are amazing so we didn't have to spend long with those. We were able to do Follow the rail at the walk for about 3/4 of the way around the riding ring, which for Ruffian was really great!! 

The whole ride Ruffian was confident and the best part was that he didn't try laying down on me ;) That was a big bonus :)

Naturally,

~Keri

Prince: Online

February 14 2011

Prince and I were able to play Online today and focus on some things that we hadn't played with in a couple days because we had been playing at Liberty mainly for the last couple sessions.

First we started with bridling at Liberty though. Prince did so well and he took the bit in his mouth first try. He tossed his head a little bit but then he wasn't sure if he should toss his head or keep his mouth closed and try to get the honey off the bit. The look on his face was priceless!! We did that a couple times and then ended with me letting Prince lick the remaining honey off the bit with out it in his mouth. Bridling is progressing a long so well!! 

So we played with close range circles, changes of direction, backing up by the tail, sideways at a trot, traveling circles close range at a trot, and zone 5 driving with one rein with turns, transitions and jumping, 

Everything went well. Prince was light and responded well. While we were doing sideways at a trot Prince did really really well on the left side, his hard side, but on the right he had a little bit of trouble. Not much, just some little things I wanted to play with. Once we did that we did zone 5 driving. Prince wanted to come off of the rail a couple times so I took it, while still walking a long the rail and asked him to do a full turn and keep on going. 

The barrels were set up a long the rail so we jumped them and carried on. Once Prince started maintaining direction better and not coming off of the rail when I didn't ask for it we stopped and then I rode!

Our ride was good. I rode with the bareback pad on which was nice. We started with Follow the rail and played with trotting departures. Prince did well and towards the end we were getting them at a phase 1! They weren't perfect but they are getting better. Up next was circles. Prince had gotten less responsive to suggestions with my body so I wanted to do circles to help improve that. 

The hard part is that our riding ring is so small that there isn't hardly any room to do circles unless they are small, and Prince being a LBI it makes it harder. He tries really hard and will maintain the trot well and all but I can tell that it really isn't that interesting trotting such small circles. 

But we had something to play with today because he had to figure out the puzzle, how to keep my in neutral. It took a while for me to get a good clear circle in my head but once I got it things seemed to go pretty quickly. I had to make loads of corrections at first but we persisted with it and pretty soon we got a nice circle with only one or two small corrections so we ended there. 

Over all it was a great session. There are some things that we need to continue playing with but it was fun for both of us and I can tell that we are both making a lot of progress. 

Naturally,

~Keri