Shocking!

Chrome has a really bad habit of slamming his chest into fences and even rubbing his chest on them.  This is very destructive when you have field fencing, so we ran an electric wire along the top of their pasture fence.  It took all day because we had to clear the brush off of the fence..... I am going to be so sore tomorrow I won't be able to move.  Clearing five acres of fencing is hard work!!  So anyway, Chrome has never seen electric fencing before so I grabbed the camera to film his reaction... I know I'm a mean momma lol.


He didn't overreact like a lot of horses I've seen do.  He just reacted to the shock, spun around and trotted away.  He's such a stoic horse!  I still remember when he had the puncture wound in his hock and the vet was digging in it and flushing it out.  Chrome lifted his hoof, but didn't react otherwise.  I think the vet was surprised lol.

Anyway I know he will have to touch it a few more times before he realizes it's the fence, because right after getting shocked he went around the barn and slammed his chest into the gate.... brat!  He will figure it out though and hopefully my fences won't take anymore damage.  Now everyone needs to keep their fingers crossed that the dang deer don't hit it while jumping over the fence and tear it up. 

Couch to 5k - Awesome Longe Lesson!!

I had one of the best longe lessons with Chrome today....... and of course no picture or video because my husband is out of town.....  Darn!!

Today was his third workout following the Couch to 5k program.  It started out with a five minute walk, two minute trot, five minute walk... and I just realized today it should have been a five minute walk, three minute trot, five minute walk... oh well.  I'll do the three minutes next time.  :)

I've been doing his workouts loose in the round pen, but I felt like he was too high headed and a little stressed, so today I got out my longe line and went out into the middle of the pasture.  He did soooooo much better on a line in the middle of a field than he did in the round pen.  I think there is just too much to distract him in the round pen such as the gate, the hay bale, the poop pile (yeah he won't go through it and I really need to clean it up lol), the duck's food bucket (the only place we can feed them that the horses can't steal it), etc.  Out in the field he concentrated completely on me.  Faran and donkey stood just outside his circle and stared at him as he went round and round lol.

The thing that totally surprised me and made me soooo happy is that he remembered EVERYTHING!!!!!  He listened to the voice cues for walk on, and trot, and best yet whoa!!  He did them perfectly!!!!  His whoas were so impressive.  As soon as I'd start to say it he came to an immediate, and SQUARE, halt!  :D  Love it!  I was using my clicker and treats since that's how I originally taught him and when I would click and he would stop or if I said whoa and he would stop he waited there!!!!  He waited patiently and quietly while I walked to him, fed him his handful of timothy pellets and walked back to pick up my rope and whip.  :D :D :D  I know the smileys make me looks like a silly kid, but I'm just that happy with him.  At one point he did try to turn in to me, but I flicked the whip at his shoulder and he went back out on the circle and waited.  :)

It wasn't until our walking cool down that he finally remembered to lower his head.  So during his cool down we worked on that. We will work on duration with his head down and head down in the trot later.  :)  I wanted to keep the session short and sweet, not to mention we were following the 5/2/5min Couch to 5k workout.

After the workout we walked around the pasture working on head down some more, then we went to this dirt pile (where we dug out the pond when I was a little kid and left the hill of dirt, talk about fun to play on!!).  I had him walking up it, backing down it, walking down it and backing up it.  We also worked on shoulder yields and hindquarter yields.  He was a total rock star!  I love my horse!  I'll try to get a longe session on video when my hubby gets home.  :)

P.S.  All of the work on the dirt pile/hill was at liberty.  :)  Oh and since my husband is out of town I don't have help for measuring him, so I'll do his Monthly Progress Report when he gets home. 

Trotting Chrome! - Chrome's Seventeenth Ride

 Hey guys!  I rode Chrome today instead of taking him for a hand walk out on the road.  I rode in the round pen because I decided to work on trotting!  I had my husband video tape us, but I'm waaay too embarrassed to post it.... my riding position has gotten horrible with no practice or lessons in over seven years... I have no core strength at all and couldn't figure out how to post to Chrome's trot at all because he was slow, fast, slow, wiggle, drop shoulder, fast, turn head to outside, wiggle, slow, fast, etc.  A typical baby lol.

I've been longeing him some, so he's figuring out the trot on cue.  He actually did really well picking up the trot!  His biggest problem was maintaining the trot and circles.  He just doesn't have the strength yet.  We only trotted six or seven strides per trot, then I would click/treat.  I definitely need to strengthen my core because I kept collapsing forward when he would stop so suddenly for his treat.  :)

He nailed his whoas which is awesome, because that's one of the things that had me worried.  :)  I started out in the saddle, but he was being balky so I pulled it off and rode bareback.  It didn't change the way he was acting so I don't think the saddle is to blame.  I think it's just really hard work for him because he has no muscles!!

There was one point when he ducked in sharply on the circle and tried to stop so I tapped him with the whip and he ducked his head as he jumped forward into the trot again.  It felt like a crow hop, but it wasn't.  If that's the worst "attitude" he pulls I'm totally cool with that hehe.  I think I totally psyche myself out sometimes because when I think about it I start thinking of everything that could go wrong, but once I'm on his back I'm as happy and confident as can be.  I get to start taking dressage lessons again in June (on a school horse) so hopefully that will boost my confidence some more as I get my strength and position back.

I rode for probably twenty minutes but only got about five minutes on tape because my memory card was full.... go me!  :-/  I took some screenshots off of the video of some of our better moments.  I was wearing jeans and sneakers so my pants leg pulled up.... I'm wearing breeches from now on lol.  The jeans were horribly uncomfortable.  Like I said my position is horrible.... I constantly caught myself looking down which causes me to slouch and my toes kept pointing out and my feet sliding forward because I wasn't on my inner thigh/calf like I'm supposed to me.  It's just a lack of practice over the years.  I'll get it back I hope.  :)

Sorry for the rambling.  Here are the pictures.

 Our trot!  This is only the ?fourth? ride that we've trotted on and our first ride trotting more than three or so strides.  I can't wait until he develops some rhythm.... he can be sooooo balky.  It should get better with some more practice on the long line I hope.  :)

I like this picture.  :D  My position sucks, but he sure is pretty!!

I'm changing my whip so that's why my arms are stretched forward.   This shows how he was reaching down at times in the walk.  I also like the way the sun is highlighting him.  :)

And this last one is for Faran.  He stood right there watching us the whole time!  Such a good boy.  :D

Anyway that's all for now.  I'm going to stick with my plan to do the Couch To 5k with him in hand and on the longe to get him in shape because he was definitely struggling with me on his back at the trot.  He could barely trot going to the right.  He kept spiraling in on a tiny circle and trying to turn around, so we will be spending a LOT more time in that direction on the longe!!