Stacy Westfall Activity Ball- good buy!

I finally broke down and bought one! I have a small exercise ball that I let the horses play with and use for games of mounted soccer, I thought having a larger size would be even more fun. I was really excited when it came, less so when I discovered it was a lot smaller than I had thought. I bought the red ball. The one that was supposed to be 41”. It looks and feels very sturdy and the dvd that came with the ball was helpful, not to mention that the price was very reasonable compared to Parelli’s…

I spent the evening trotting Lady and herding the ball from one point to  another. She liked it because it was finally something different. She is smart and gets the hang of things quick. If you don’t give her something new to do she gets bored. After playing for maybe a half hour we did some dressage, she did better than she ever has. She listened to my seat very well and kept her nose soft the whole time- largely unlike her.

That was the highlight of my day.

Down transition *update*

I am going to go back and correct myself. I wrote a while ago that making yourself stiff at a canter to get your horse to trot did not work. I further understand now why it actually should work. By tightening and holding your seat and thighs, you are constricting the horses forward movement, if you add your hip and weight cues to this, your horse is bound to stop . Not making your upper body stiff and unmovable, as I was doing, will stop you from loosing your seat. If all else fails you’ve still got your reins, but I think that what I try to aim for is eventually not having to use a bridle at all.

Then there is Parelli’s way of getting your horse to stop, which is basically to ‘stop’ riding. Which makes a lot of sense. Go ‘Blah’ on the horse, exhale and ‘stop’ riding, then horse says ‘oh wait! Whats this?’ and stops. That works if you have a touchy horse like Athena, but going ‘blah’ on a hard/stubbern or school horse will get you no where. My isse with this is that if it does not get the horse to stop the first time you have to use your reins right after, where’s in the first method you have three diffrent aids that you can use before you have to use your hands. Going ‘blah’ at a canter is difficult and more offten then not the cue will be ignored by the untouchy horse. That or I am doing it wrong. Which is compleatly probable.

Anyway. Thats my update on stopping a horse.

Lady was so odd today. I took her in the pasture today I had three jumps set up, all about 2 feet high. She was used to the two larger ones and I had a new one made of barrels, she did NOT want to jump the barrels even though it was shorter of the three. Shes like that with every new jump. She has to refuse it once or twice and size it up and then she’ll never miss. Great for the show ring aye? Then we went for a trail ride and I wasn’t going to ask her to go anywhere because it was hot and she had done well in the pen. She wanted to go and just kept going. She went to the end of a street where we have never gone any further because of the traffic and she kept going. It was silly. We got about a half mile down the busy street when a dog popped out from a house and a semi tuck with a tarp on top wized by. Let me tell you I thought I was dead. Lady bolted forward, I was bare back so I kinda almost leveled out with her back at first. It’s shocking how fast your brain works when you think your going to fall. She immediately caught herself though and stopped. Then she was alright and we walked back home. That was THE most bizarre spook I’ve ever ridden through. I was freaked out more at the end then she was. She wanted to keep going. If this were any of my other horses They would have been in Timbuctoo and I’d have been on the moon.

22nd National Pike Festival & Wagon Train

Wagon Train- day 2

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to the 22nd National Pike wagon train. I went with Linda- the lady who owns Cindy the Haflinger I work with. She was going with her two friends and was taking a team of Haflingers named Ned and Mac that she works with for someone else.

The ride started in Springs Field MD and went though Hagerstown to Funkstown and ended in Boonsburo. It was a 40 mile long ride.

We went to Clear Springs on Friday camped out in the horse trailer and tied the horses up outside. The place we stayed at was beautiful. There was an old historic farm-house and barn, surrounded by rolling hills. We were lucky enough to have just missed a major storm by inches, we did get to see some amazing displays of lightning on the horizon.

It was interesting to see all the other trailers come in and unload. There were a couple mule

No cell phones!

teams and some big drafts. There ended up being 25 wagon and 24 out riders.

The rules were that we were not allowed to use cell phones and we had to dress in the ‘times’, so no sneakers or printed shirts and such. I look really do look bad in plaid. I’m just glad I didn’t have to wear a dress.

Good Morning!

There were a lot of ‘spectators’ who came out to see what was going on. A lot of children. I was just waiting for something bad to happen. But it didn’t. We met a woman named Lisa, who camped next to us and brought her horse ‘Halo’, who she kept tied to the back of her jeep. Her friend who camped with her was named Lisa as well.

There were no showers or bathrooms (other than the porter potty…) so we didn’t get to wash up much. We slept in the trailer and that was insane because the wind kept slamming the doors open and Ned kept banging on the outside of the trailer and pulling at his hay net. We also parked ‘conveniently’ close to the porter potties and thusly got to hear everyone go by… I didn’t fall asleep until 2am.

We got up around 5am, even though we didn’t need to be up until 6, but no one could sleep- this was

The mules...

mainly due to the braying teams of mules, who sounded like squashed bull frogs. We got the horses and everything ready before 9am. Linda drove the trailer to the next camping spot and took the bus with the rest of the riders back to the horses. Everything went incredibly well and everyone was ready on time. There were one or two teams that acted up but nothing much.

It was like a giant horse parade. 100′s of viewers lined the streets, food stands, yard sales and flea markets met us along the way. Our first rest stop was at an old style general store. There was another big crowd of curious people who came to watch and pet the different horses. There was a semi-live band realistic with the times… The store even sold raccoon hats.

Moving on, we went over an old stone bridge that they only open once a year just for the wagon train. We stopped twice more before we reached the camp. No bathrooms again. Great. Lisa and Lisa managed to find us again and talked for a while… That night I fell asleep the second I hit the ground.

Everyone was ready on time again and we were on the rode with the trailer already moved by 10am. Then the parade started again. I wonder how many times we got our picture taken?  Linda let me drive for a while, that was fun. I kept wanting to use my legs to turn the horses… but clearly that

The bridge...

wasn’t going to work. We stopped once for lunch and then went on to where the trailers were parked. There was one spot where a large herd of cows chased us along the fence. I’ve never seen anything like it. The horses hadn’t either.

I got to ride on top of a stage-coach and even got to drive it for a while. It was awesome, and the view was spectacular.

At the last destination we were to keep the horses harnessed for half an hour in a large field so another crowd could see the horses. There were a LOT of people. We left a little earlier then everyone else to get the horses loaded and the trailer out before we got stuck behind everyone.

Then we drove home for three hours and that was my weekend. The views were beautiful, the horses perfect and the people friendly. Other than not being able to brush my teeth for two days, I learned a lot and had fun. I defiantly would love to go again next year.

Horses whisper, so listen.

I wish that people would just look at their horses some times. I wish they’d try to understand from their point of view… I think that that’s all natural horsemanship is- the attempt at understanding something that does not  and can not have a rule book. Though, if people paid more attention and listened to the horse, I wouldn’t have much of a job.

There are times when I know that I’ve stopped listening to the horse and it takes a fall to knock me back to my senses. Everyone says it- 99% of the time its the riders fault, the other 1% is just in case the horse has a health issue. It’s true. The whole thing is like a ‘Stop and smell the roses’ type of issue, no one has time.

I wish I listened better then I do. Then maybe I could figure out Athena.

Equine rabies vaccine;

I thought maybe this might be useful to someone;

Last Thursday the vet came out to give the horses their shots. We knew from previous years and from proses of elimination that Lady was allergic to the Rabies vaccine. We had to give it to her because according to our vet, if she was bitten by a ‘rabid’ animal without the shot (whether or not she was infected, it wouldn’t matter) the government would have the power to put her down (can not have that). No one seems to be quite sure if a horse actual needs more then two doses of rabies shots to build up an immunity to the disease. We did not give Lady the rabies shot last year, because of her bad reaction, but the list of cases rabies is on the rise and seems to be getting closer to home- this is said to be due to large amount of feral cat colonies.

We opted to try and give Lady DEX before the Rabies shot, to try and prevent her from having a severe reaction- even though the DEX would dilute the shot.

Didn’t work. Within an hour her face was covered in hives, then shortly after it moved through her neck, chest, legs, belly, and hindquarters. She was extremely uncomfortable. The only thing that seemed to help was hosing her down with cold water. She laid down a few times and we thought she might have been colicing. We gave her a shot of Banamine, which did nothing. It was an insuferabol couple of houres before she was able to calm down enough to eat grass. The hives were still there in the morning- albeit smaller and not as itchy.

I am not looking forward to nest years. They say the reaction gets worse every time they take it.

Leesburg VA eventing show.

If you can see me- which you can’t- you’ll know that I’m smiling.

Yesterday I went to Leesburg VA to watch an eventing show with Al- who was going as a groom to help his friend and her 8 YO horse named Unbelievable who was a cross between a Connemara pony and a Thoroughbred.

I’ve never seen eventing in person before. I’ve never seen quite so many good riders and horses all in the same place at once either. I have only watched small shows at small barns and state fairs, the riders aren’t very good and the horses not very happy. These riders were great, and their horses pretty fantastic.
The lady we were watching was showing at the Preliminary level. I thought that the dressage test and the stadium jumping almost looked doable (lol… though not that I could have gotten my horse to have done it). Then we walked the cross-country course. I think you would have to be just a little crazy in order to have done that. It looked like a blast. The place this show was at was amazing. It was huge. Over 1,000 acres, rolling hills, green grass, beautiful jumps.

They did Dressage first, then Stadium, then cross-country. She got almost straight 7′s on the dressage course and cleared the jumping with no faults and she was only 5 seconds over her time on the cross-country course. We stuck around for a while after to hear the results. She won blue.

It was a pretty awesome day.

Chincoteague Pony Spring Roundup

This winter has been very harsh on the horses of the eastern shore. Maryland, Delaware and Virginia all received record amounts of snow fall and cold weather. No doubt this winter has been even harder for the wild ponies of Assateague and Chincoteague.

These photos were taken of the southern herd of Chincoteague ponies at the annual spring vet check. The Ponies are rounded up on April 16th and 17th (The southern herd on the 16th and the northern herd on the 17th) and then are wormed and given all their shots on the 18th- this is generally preformed by one or two local vets.

I was shocked at the poor condition the ponies were in. They were a far cry from the generally healthy and content ponies that you normal see. It was a sad sight. Though I guess it was only to be expected after such an unrelenting winter.
I hope that they will be able to get some weight back on the ponies soon. It’s going to make for an interesting auction this year.

One stallion had a very large gash in the side of his neck. It looked almost as if something had taken a big bite off him.

They remain in good spirit.

Though despite the sadness of their situation, they seemed happy enough to groom and play with each other.

• Here are some additional shots of the ponies;
• 

We need human trainers, not horse trainers.

It really is almost always the riders fault and not the horses isn’t it? We need human trainers, not horse trainers.

I’ve been working Lady a lot on transitions because they seem to be the cause of all our other problems when riding.
We were cantering down a field yesterday, she was feeling nice and flowy and my rein was loose and she wasn’t taking advantage of it, so it felt close near perfect. I knew however, that when I would ask her to go down to a trot, I’d lose the flow, become too stiff or pull too much because she wouldn’t want to stop. I’ve read and been told many times that holding your torso tighter making it stiff/locking your hips, was how you constrict a horses movement and bring them down a notch. I agree that that is how you would do speeds within a gait, but to make yourself suddenly stiff at a canter to go into a trot and have it not all fall apart doesn’t work for me.

SO.

I thought about Athena again. She is super sensitive to your every pressure and weight, even when  you don’t realize that your giving her a command she responds. Never had a problem getting her to stop. Thank god.

I’d tried before, sitting back more on Lady to ask her to trot out of the canter, but it never helped. Sally Swift popped into my head then and I tried shifting my hips back, instead of leaning back. And of course she goes into a lovely extended trot almost immediately.

I thought maybe that was just a lucky try. Went back into a canter shifted my hips and BAM! Extended trot.

Ha.

I was pretty angry at myself for not having tried or seen it sooner. It’s ridiculous how obvious the answers to things are, and it still takes us forever to notice. I felt like a happy idiot today when we rode. It just feels so perfect. I think she was happy I wasn’t getting in her way anymore. She actually wanted to do dressage.

Over and out. I’m nastily exhausted tonight. I’ve got the vet in the morning and then were going to the beach to drop off some art for a contest.

The little trainer that could?

Someone called me ‘The little trainer that could’ today. I’m not sure what he meant by it, but I was flattered.

I remember another time the father to one of my riding students came to watch his son and daughter ride for the first time and of course it had been raining and the mud was horrendous everything looked horrible. I apologized a few times for the mess, he stopped me mid sentence and told me that it was obvious that I really had to love what I was doing what I was doing or I wouldn’t do it.

Lady

I was coming back from my jog tonight and a neighbor stopped me and for some reason asked if I was going to be a vet or not, I told him I was actually thinking about it. The way he looked at me and said “good for you”- like he sincerely meant it- was a great feeling.

It’s silly, but it means a lot to hear even a little bit of encouragement (I’m like Athena I fall apart if I  don’t know I’m doing alright). It would be so simple to just ‘not do’ what I’m doing and take the easy road. Think I’d be happy?

I still don’t know if I should settle for teaching riding for the rest of my life, or if I should go to college and become a vet, or do what I always thought I wanted and become a trainer. I could do anything I wanted right now. Thats almost worse than having no options.

There’s that saying that you have to be sane enough to have a dream and stupid enough to follow it.

I think I can, I think I can. 

Pat Parelli

First off, I amend and congratulate Pat Parelli for all he has accomplished in the natural horsemanship community. He has opened the doors for many people and their horses to learn more about one another and strengthen their bond using simple and gentle methods. He has made it possible for millions of horse owners to learn about natural horsemanship- who other wise never would have known something like it existed. He has done this more so than any other trainer that I can think of. When I was 9 I had my first introduction to natural horsemanship through a trainer and her daughter who practiced Parelli’s method. I still very often use a lot of  Parelli’s techniques. He has improved the lives of many horses, which is what we should all strive for. It is amazing.

But…

My issue is not with Parelli’s method per say, but with Parelli himself. Over the years he has become exceedingly, OBSESSED with money. People follow him around like he is something of a god. If he actually wanted to help people and their horses, he wouldn’t charge $190.47 for a rope halter, lead rope and a stick- but wait! If you’re a savvy club member it’s only $142.85! He has become obnoxious, and boastful. A friend let me barrow her success series dvd collection. He advertises himself on every other sentience, saying that the answer is not in this dvd, but another that you can buy off his web site. The man refuses to wear a helmet or support other people to wear a helmet, because he wants to prove to people that he thinks his horse is safe. Does he have any idea how stupid an image that is giving to new riders? If you do Parelli you can’t wear a helmet because everyone knows that anyone who wears a helmet when riding, his horse isn’t safe. Not the case Parelli! Linda Parelli jumps full-sized picnic tables without a helmet on. It’s just ridiculous. I don’t care how good your horse is, anything could happen at any time. They are horses. You shouldn’t forget that. The money and fame has gone to his head. He doesn’t listen any more. He just tells.

The above video is an older one of Parelli, it’s my favorite of his because he seems to care. Now it’s not so much. Now he’s just like everyone else.

If you want to learn natural horsemanship, the Parelli method is a great place to start. It’s been simplified to a T, and I am positive anyone can do it. But don’t waste your money or time on his videos and gadgets- unless you have money to spare. You can get the same quality products for half the price elsewhere. Always be willing to change you approach, don’t stick to just one method. Trial and error is the best way to learn.