I finally got a new "old" horse trailer!!

Ugh this picture is awful.  It was so bright outside and all we had was a cell phone, but hey we're on our new trailer!

My husband and I have been looking for a new horse trailer for a long time because the one we have is too small for Chrome and has a few other features I just don't like (heavy ramp!).  My dad finally found one for us that a friend of his was selling and he gave us a good deal on it (it's nice to have such a well liked dad!).  It's definitely a fixer-upper, but that's fine because our truck broke down and hubby is having to replace the engine in it.  We also will have to get a gooseneck attachment.  For now it will just sit in the pasture so we can practice loading.

The previous owners used it for horses for a long time, but then they got rid of their horses and used it for cattle.  When they got a new trailer this one sat for a while (that's why it is rusted) before they finally decided to sell it.  It needs cleaned, sanded and repainted.  It has really good mats in it, but they need cleaned as well.  I want to pull them out and check the floor really well again even though it has already been checked (I'm really paranoid about floors).  A window needs replaced, but the tires are in really good condition, the lights and gooseneck work perfectly and the frame is still in great condition.  Most of it's problems are just cosmetic (everything rusts here in our humid climate....sigh).

The first thing I did after crawling all around in it was tie Chrome to it and brush him off.  Please forgive his filthy appearance.  He's been playing in the pond lately and the neem oil I use for his sweet itch makes everything stick to him.  He was curious about it and gave it the stink eye a couple of times, but you can see how relaxed he was.  I was so excited to see if he would load I forgot to get a picture of the tack room for you, but it has a tack room with bridle hooks and six saddle racks.  The gooseneck can be used for a mattress for camping or for hay storage.  There is an escape door in the front stall on the side and the back gate has a smaller gate for access to the rear stall.  The divider is missing, but I can get a new one.  I'll get better pictures when I can.

 After brushing I had him pose in front of it.

It looks so huge to me!!  I've never had anything other than the two horse straight load bumper pull that I don't like and I've had for over fifteen years lol.  I've also never had a gooseneck before, but I'm excited about it.  You can see the tack room door and the front stall escape door here.

 Chrome was relaxed (see his cocked hind leg?) while sniffing the thick rubber mats.

I'm going to feed him on it every day, so I put his bucket in the trailer.  He walked right on and started eating with no hesitation.  I was armed with sugar cubes and my clicker and didn't even need it!!  This is the first time in his entire life he's ever been on a step up trailer too.  I think he much prefers it over the ramp on our other trailer.

I made him leave his food to unload and reload several times, then I tried self loading him for the first time.  See the video below.

Direct Link for Video

I was SO proud of him!!  He walked right on with no hesitation.  I think he likes this trailer so much better.  The other one is too dark and closed in.  I love that the inside of this one is white.  It will help reflect heat as well.  The windows will let lots of air flow in too.  He will just have to wear his fly mask to protect his eyes.  Stock type horse trailers are very popular where I live because it gets extremely hot here.  If I could afford a closed in Sundowner with air conditioning I would totally do that, but this will work just fine for our short trips.

I'll keep you up to date on repairs and repainting and I'll definitely let you know when I haul him for the first time on it!  It might be a while though because we are still working on the truck.  I have to go now.  I miss you guys!!

Chrome's New Trick! Video!

I taught Chrome to give me kisses!! In one session!

I haven't done any clicker training in a couple of years with Chrome, but I've been wanting to get back into it because we both miss it.  Since his ear is healed enough to put a halter on him I decided to work on kisses today (I have to take him out of the pasture for training because of Rocky).  Since I haven't used the clicker with him in so long I asked him to do a couple of old tricks and clicked him for them.  He got so excited he started offering all of his tricks.  I finally had to click him for doing nothing just to get him calmed down enough to learn something new.  I love clicker training!!  Being able to click a dog or horse for doing nothing is so awesome!

I started out having him target my hand and then tried moving my hand closer to my face, but he was confusing it with his cue to smile, so it wasn't working.  After about five or ten minutes I got frustrated and walked away.  After thinking for a few minutes I went back to him, bowed toward him with my hands behind my back and waited.  He tried turning his head away, lowering his head, smiling, etc.  When he finally held his nose still near my face I blew into his nostrils.  His ears popped forward and he reached out to touch my face.  I clicked him for that a couple of times and then started making kissing noises as the cue.  That's where the video starts.

Direct link here.

Sorry I didn't get the earlier stuff on video.  I honestly never expected to get such great results in our first session!!  Isn't he so cute??  He was making such great progress with it I was able to increase the criteria in the first session.  By the end he was standing still (except the one time where I accidentally clicked him for moving), with his neck stretched out and his ears forward!  With clicker training you have to be careful with what you're rewarding.  You can be so focused on one thing that you don't notice other things.  So if he'd offered him nose, but had been pawing or had his ears pinned and I clicked then he would learn that I wanted him to do all of those things, not just stick his nose out.  So I have to be careful to only click when he offers his nose while standing still with his ears forward.  :)
That's also how a lot of people end up with geldings that are always dropped (or even have erections, which give us clicker trainers a bad image in my opinion) while clicker training.  They are so focused on the trick they don't notice he's dropped.  When I first started clicker training Chrome if he dropped I would ask him to back up and would only resume training when it was up.  I know being dropped is a sign of relaxation, but I don't want him doing that every time we're training or showing off tricks, so I specifically made it one of my criteria.  Anyway sorry for going off on a tangent!

For those of you who can't watch videos, here are a few more screenshots.

I love my boy!!  I'm going to teach him to give hugs next, then try again to teach him to nod his head yes.  I had trouble with that one years ago, but I'll try again.  Eventually I would love to teach him to bow, but that's going to be hard.  I tried it today just to see what he would do and he's so flexible he can get his head between his legs without leaning back so luring isn't going to work.  I'll probably just have to break it down and shape it with the clicker.  I hope I can find the patience for that haha!!

So what do you think of his new trick??

Rocky's 1st clicker session+Chrome's ear+Rocky lameness update+lots of videos!

 So handsome!!  His dapples seem to disappear sometimes lol.

Chrome first.  I had to braid his forelock because the hair kept getting stuck in his wound and then I'd rip it back open pulling the hair out.  I hope he doesn't rub his forelock braid out....  The wound is gaping open again, but it's not swollen and it's a lot less red.  We cleaned it today and put more powder on (the rain has made using the powder very difficult grr).

Here is a cute video of Chrome being a goofball.  It also shows a closeup of the wound.  The pictures didn't turn out very good, so the video will have to be good enough.

Direct link here.

Now Rocky.  First of all this is only his third Oxine soak and the improvement is amazing.  I'm a believer in this stuff.

He should dress up as the tin man for Halloween...

he already has the boots!!

Aren't we done with this yet??

Check out these pictures I got of the bottles that I mix the Oxine and vinegar in...

See the gas inside of it?

How about now?

That's the chemical reaction taking place.  That's what happens inside of his boots.  I can't imagine how it must feel, but it does not damage live tissue.  He's a saint to put up with all of this.

It's making a big difference too!  I'll let you see for yourself.  First up is a walking video showing him walking after his trim last weekend and then today.

Direct link.

Then here's a trotting video.  The before clip is short, because it never crossed my mind to get a video of him trotting when he was lame.  He had a huge head bob!  I'm talking he bobbed his head a foot easily.  So the after video is awesome!!

Direct link.

Can you believe that's just from his thrush treatments??  The before clip was taken after his trim.  He was way worse than that before his trim.

He stands under himself.  We're going to start soaking his rear hooves this week too, now that he's so good with his fronts.  I'm going to practice with an empty plastic bag and then a plastic bag with water in it before I use the Oxine.  I have no clue how he's going to react to having something on his rear hooves... I'll update when that happens (and I might get video haha).

Next up is a video of Rocky's introduction to clicker training!  He's never done any clicker training before so this is all new for him.  Sorry the video is kind of long (about 6 minutes I think), but I didn't want to cut anything out.  I had to trim out a couple of sections where I was walking around them (would have made you motion sick) and where I was talking about someone I know by name.

Direct link.

He did such a great job!!!!!!!  Hubby did too hehe.  I don't think it will take long before Rocky moves on to other things.  We are going to do short target training sessions for a few days and introduce following it.  Then we will do the grownups are talking game to keep him from mugging.  After that we will finally be able to work on his hooves.  He's been in so much pain that we can barely clean his feet, much less rasp them.  I'm hoping in another week he will be comfortable enough to at least let us clean them out, do some clicker training to reinforce holding his feet up nicely (and not jerking them away violently like he does now) and then we can start rasping his toe and flares between trims.  :)

I hope everyone had a fantastic fourth of July!  I spent it helping repair a toilet and sink that broke and cabinets that were sagging.  Didn't see a single firework!  We were invited to go see a show, but when we walked outside our tire was flat and it was the only vehicle we would drive that far.  We didn't feel comfortable driving that far on the spare so we didn't go.  Oh well.  We got a lot done around the house and the weather was crappy anyway.  Why did the rain have to come back?????

Sorry, I'll stop whining.  I hope you enjoy the videos.  I'm so excited because hubby is so excited about clicker training Rocky.  I think I'm going to get back into it with Chrome too.  He loves it and I miss it.  :)  I'll update again soon (hopefully tomorrow, but if not it will probably be next week because I just don't have time during the work week).

Ride 98 - My horse is a genius and I have a GoPro!!!!

I got a late Christmas present.  A GoPro!!  Yay!  So of course I had to go home and test it out... sadly I got out of work late and it was getting dark and I forgot to set it to low light mode so the pictures are blurry.  I can't wait to try it out during the day.  :D

It actually got over thirty degrees today so I was planning to ride anyway.  Chrome was great (which is awesome considering he and Zep were being nutso right before I went out to get him)!  I saddled up and just walked around for almost fifteen minutes and then I decided to work on having him yield his haunches to my leg in the other direction from last time.

I tried not to tilt his head too far to the left (about the 10 o'clock position) while asking him with my leg.  I tried just pressing with my leg behind the girth and when that didn't get much of a response (it worked once then he ignored it) I started bumping my leg.  He kept trying to walk forward or backward and was generally just confused.  He was moving his haunches right, but he was also moving his shoulders left... so spinning kind of.

Finally he stepped his haunches over without moving his front legs so I told hubby to give him a piece of sugar (hubby was standing in front of us to block Chrome from going forward and he had snitched some of my sugar cubes....).  Hubby gave him sugar while I praised him.  Then I asked again............ Chrome stepped his haunches over immediately with a light leg cue!!!!!!!!  Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke I asked two more times and he did it perfectly!  You can so tell this horse was clicker trained.  When he doesn't understand something we both end up frustrated.  When he knows exactly what he did right he does it perfectly and catches on so quickly.  I have to start using the clicker again (so he doesn't start mugging and because it works).  I was amazed at how he immediately understood what he was supposed to be doing.

Before I asked hubby to give him the sugar I was releasing the reins for correct guesses, but I don't think I was consistent.  Sometimes I wouldn't release quick enough and sometimes I would release the cues accidentally for a wrong response, so it's really understandable that he was confused.  When he did it correctly and got a clear reward he finally understood what it was that I wanted.  So it's not like he was holding out for treats (he didn't even know hubby had them) or anything like that.  If I'd given a clear release and reward without treats I probably would have gotten the same response.  Let's face it though, he's very food motivated so I definitely get faster results using clicker training.  So yeah this totally has me convinced to start using the clicker again.  It's something he understands and something we both enjoy.  :D

I also forgot to mention that the sugar cubes are helping with bitting.  I've posted a video before of how amazing he used to be to bridle, but after he banged his teeth a few times by accident he got very resistant to taking the bit.  He was throwing his head in the air and backing away from me (there is nothing wrong with his teeth, but it hurts when you accidentally bang metal against your teeth).  Now he's slowly getting back to how he was before with the help of sugar cubes.  I'm giving him one cube before the bit, putting the bridle on and then giving him another one.  Since he's being cooperative he's not banging his teeth anymore so hopefully with that and the positive association of sugar cubes we can get back to our awesome bridling that we used to do.  :)

The ride was only fifteen minutes and .25 miles.  I used Endomondo and although I looked at it when I dismounted I forgot to hit pause so I didn't bother taking a screenshot.  I'm glad I at least looked at it hehe.

Ride 32 - I HATE my saddle!

 

I have no clue what I was doing in the picture above, but I have a feeling it has something to do with an insect of some sort.... mosquito, fly, spider..... I look too calm for it to be a spider.  Anyway that's basically the only picture I got of our ride because the camera was acting weird.  Oh and I seriously need to dig through our storage building and find the rest of my clothes because it's beginning to look like I wear the same thing in every blog post LOL!  I promise I don't hehe.

Anyway my plan for the ride was to give the saddle one last try, get some video of us trotting and work on my posting trot..... none of it went very well.  I've decided, without a doubt, that I hate my saddle.  Chrome was acting fine in it and it's totally fine for walking around or trail riding, but it sucks for trying to post the trot or any sort of equitation practice.  The Aussie saddles are just so bad about pushing your feet forward in a chair seat.

I did get some video, but it was blurring in and out really bad so I won't post it (not to mention I looked horrible lol).  The main thing I noticed is my feet swing back and forth when I try to post the trot.... not a little bit, but like a whole foot!!!!  I can post normally for a couple of strides then it pushes my feet forward and I keep having to pull them back which causes the swinging.  It's horrible!!!  So I've decided to put trotting on hold for a while.  I can't post in the saddle.  I'm too out of practice to post bareback.  I really don't need to be sitting the trot on a four year old.

I'm going to save up for a dressage saddle, but right now every spare penny is going into building my house so it may be a while.  I want to wait until I can take lessons before I do anymore training on him because I don't want to screw up everything we've done so far.  So for now my focus is going to be trail riding.  That's what I really want to do anyway right now.  I miss just going out and having a fun, relaxed ride without worrying what I should be doing, or shouldn't be doing, etc. We have plenty to work on with trail riding and I can teach him more tricks and I can build obstacle courses, etc.

There is a couple of things from the ride I do want to mention.  One is that a huge limb fell while I was riding!!!

I was riding away from the tree when the limb started cracking.  At the sound of cracking Chrome's head popped up and he tucked his butt, but he didn't break stride.  Then it crashed to the ground a second later and he did that again, then stopped when I asked.  Such a good boy!  It scared the crap out of me so I'm happy he stayed so calm.

I rode for half an hour which I totally didn't mean to.  I meant to make the ride short since I've missed a few days (been very busy on our house, check out my previous post to see what we've been working on).  I started warming him up, then the limb fell, then my grandma came out of her house and asked why Chrome was limping.  I didn't realize he was, so I checked all of his feet, but they were fine so I walked him some more.  He wasn't limping, but stepping really high with one front leg.  Turns out it was a fly.  I let him scratch his leg and he was fine lol.

So then I got back on and continued our warm up.  Then I started trotting and my husband was taking video, but the stupid camera was messing up.  I finally got frustrated and decided to quit.  Before quitting I decided to try something fun first.... cantering!  Chrome cantered.... okay fine he crow hopped three whole stride before dropping back down to a perfectly calm, relaxed walk LOL!  He had no clue what I was asking!!!  I wish the video weren't blurry because he had his neck curled, his back hunched and his butt tucked and looked super cute crow hopping along LOL!  The thing that made me happy though is that I was laughing and wasn't scared at all!  He wasn't being mean or trying to throw me, he was just confused and surprised.  :)  I probably won't try again until we do some in hand work and he knows the cue for canter.  And of course until I have a saddle I'm more comfortable in.  I just can't find a secure seat in my saddle.

Anyway I finally got the video my friend took from a few days ago on our last ride.  Here is the video.

Wow he looks as long as a limousine in that video for some reason... maybe because she took it with her IPhone?

And here are some snapshots I took....  as you can see he isn't as long as a limousine lol.

Doesn't Chrome look great here?  His nose is just in front of the vertical and he looks like he's using his back pretty well for a green four year old!  And I was sitting the trot bareback.  :)

So anyway, I have a plan for progressing with our trail riding, so keep an eye out for our next ride in a few days.  :)

P.S.  I totally forgot to mention I was using my clicker to click Chrome for his trot transitions today, but I forgot to fill my pouch and ran out of hay pellets  after just a couple of minutes.... oops hehe.

Ride 23

I have to warn you this post is looooong and wordy with no pictures, but there is a question at the bottom so I hope you'll read it.  :)

Chrome got a whole week off.  I haven't ridden him since last Sunday.  Oops.  The weather has been horrible and I haven't felt well.  Oh well.  Today after working on putting up insulation in our house most of the day, my dad asked if I would ride the four wheeler because it's been sitting too long and didn't want to start.... of course I said yes!  So I rode the four wheeler around the pasture and had soooo much fun!  After riding the four wheeler I looked at Chrome and thought about walking around for twenty minutes bored out of my mind....  definitely not as exciting as zipping around at top speed on the four wheeler lol.  So I had a brilliant idea!  Ride with the clicker!  Using the clicker would make walking around a lot more interesting.  :D

Yesterday my husband was working on our truck (changing the fuel pump) and he was using an air impact to loosen some bolts.  Chrome has been around an air compressor before, but he was a little jumpy (the day before a neighbor's horses were loose galloping around and got my horses stirred up, which is actually why I didn't ride that day) and he associated the scary noises with the truck, so today he was eyeballing the truck like there were monsters hiding in it.  So since I've noticed his confidence is lacking a bit when I'm on his back I decided to use the clicker to teach him how to approach things without me being in the lead.

I got on Chrome and clicked him for walking toward the truck.  At one point Chrome walked between the truck and a tree, but got too close and smashed my leg into the tree.  It just scraped my shin a little, so I stayed on.  After walking him around the truck I decided to work on teaching him to back up since we haven't worked on it before with me on his back and I have been in situations where I needed him to back up to get turned around.

First we had to work on standing still because he's gotten to where he likes to walk off before I ask (while mounting too so I really need to work on it!  In fact on my first attempt to get on him today I was using something too low and he walked off and I slipped off.  I landed on my feet so it wasn't a big deal, but it's not a good habit at all.  We will be working on it more!).  Then I asked him to back up.  I'm very proud of him because he dropped his head and backed off of medium to light pressure instead of throwing his head in the air like he sometimes does when I ask on the ground (or ignoring the reins completely like when I was first teaching him to halt-we've come a long way!).  I've never really taught him to yield vertically to the reins so I was happy that he seemed to make that connection.  He was still backing crooked sometimes, but we will get there.

After that I worked on asking him to yield his haunches.  That was a lot harder than I thought!!  I never even realized that he was moving his shoulders while turning this whole time instead of his haunches, so that's cool!  Normally it's easier to move the haunches.  After a couple of tries I finally got him to step under with his right hind and clicked.  I only asked him to do it a few times and then called it good since his stifles are still locking occasionally.  I didn't want to overdo it.  I'll work on the other side next time since his left side is the one that locks.  I'm going to have to be patient teaching him to yield all of his body parts separately, but it will definitely make our rides more interesting.  I might enlist the help of my husband on the ground because it would be easier if he gave the cue Chrome is used to on the ground while I give the leg/rein aid.

Finally I decided to ride him around some at the walk since we hadn't really moved out during the ride.  We walked up and down the driveway and then I had him trot up the driveway.  As soon he started trotting my treat pouch started bouncing.  The noise caused him to pop his head up and drop back down to a walk.  I tried again and had the same result.  So the next time I held the treat pouch still and he trotted half the length of the driveway (it's long) before I clicked him.  As soon as I started clicking him for trotting that's all he wanted to do lol, but he listened and walked and stopped when I asked without fighting me.  :)  He loves to go fast.  I let him trot back up the driveway and he started getting really floaty (I was bareback by the way) and it felt like he could break into the canter at any second so I clicked him lol.  The cool part is that I felt really comfortable and relaxed on him, even bareback.  I love trotting him!!  I can't wait to canter.  :)  I think it was the third trot where I finally let go of the treat pouch and let it bounce.  He hesitated, but with a cluck I kept him going.  It was like a really big, exaggerated half halt.  Pretty cool actually.  :)

After trotting around I walked by the truck and he was back to eyeballing it again.  I finally pinpointed it to the tail gate leaning up against a tree.  It was squeaking when the wind blew (did I mention it was very windy today?).  So I worked on asking him to approach it.  I found his limit (about three feet away) and let him stand there.  When I asked him to go closer he tried to spin away from it, so I made him face it and stand there.  Each time he took a step forward he got clicked.  I finally got him standing with his nose an inch from it, but I'm not sure if he touched it or not.  I couldn't really see.  He did lower his head and blow out, so he was definitely more relaxed than when we started.  I look forward to finding other scary things to work on.  I want him trusting me from his back before we go out on a lot of trail rides.  :)

Last I worked on standing still again.  I would ask him to whoa and then just sit there and click him if he didn't move.  If he moved I would ask him to whoa again.  I will work on making it longer and longer with time.  I think he needs to stand tied for an hour or two to remind him to be patient.  I've been slacking on the ground work because he's such a laid back horse.  It won't take much to remind him though.  I showed my husband, mom and dad how well Chrome was backing up in his first session and then trotted him out to the pasture to put him up.  The ride was twenty five minutes.  I'm going to slowly increase the amount of trotting we do.  Once we can trot for a minute or two I'll start doing the Couch to 5k again.

I have one question (sorry this post is so loooong and wordy).  If the Aussie saddle is slightly too wide can I put two saddle pads under it?  It's built like an english saddle underneath and if I remember correctly doubling up pads isn't a good idea with an english saddle?  Or maybe I'm remembering wrong?  I'm going to need a saddle if I'm going to start doing more trotting.  It seems to fit pretty well but it feels like it tips forward a bit when I'm riding so I think it's too wide.  It's not sitting on his withers though so it's not wide by much at all....  I'll take some pictures sometime soon and see what you guys think.  I need to ride him on a hot day (if it ever warms up) and see how his sweat marks look.  So far he's only sweated under the girth lol.  Anyway sorry this post is so long!  I'm planning to work on some ground work tomorrow so I'll post again (and try to get pictures and/or video).  Later!

Donkey Day (and Chrome's stifle update)

 First a Chrome update.  As you can see in the above photo he is back to his old self.  :D I have just been walking him, letting him graze in the yard (he walks around a lot while grazing), backing up in a relaxed posture and walking him over the hay bales.  Tomorrow I'm going to start over on our Couch to 5k workouts, but I guess I'm going to try running with him so he's not on longe circles.... yuck.  Wish me luck lol.

 And now on to Donkey Day!!  As you can see in these pictures I let Zep out of the round pen because we had bad weather for a few days.  I'll probably put him back in as soon as we can build him a lean-to.  If I could find Faran a home I would just train Zep out in the pasture since I could easily put Chrome in the round pen or out in the yard to graze while I worked with him.

Zep tries to help me out and bites Faran trying to get him to go away.... but little donkey teeth don't make much of an impression on the Hulk lol.  

These pictures weren't taken during a training session.  I was actually guarding Chrome while he ate his supper because he eats soooo much slower than the other two and they try to steal it from him.  They were totally mugging me lol.

 We want FOOD!!

 So anyway, on to the training.  Even though I wasn't training when I took these pictures I took pictures of what we've been working on so you could see.  I just snitched handfuls of Chrome's food to reward Zep for cooperating.  :)

 Petting him on the nose.

The first day I took my target (tennis ball stuck to the end of a dowel rod) out and worked on touch.  He quickly remembered the work we'd done with that.  In the first session I was able to get him to transfer and target my hand!!!  :D

 Holding my palm out flat so he can touch it with his nose.  I'm so excited for him to learn the hand target because that teaches him that my hands are good.  :)

In a later session I started holding my hand up toward his face.  His natural reaction was to turn his face away, but I just left my hand in the air.  When he turned back to face me without moving away I clicked and gave him a treat.  It took no time at all before I was brushing my fingers down his forehead and then putting my whole palm on his face.  :D  I can tell he remembers all of this, it will just take time to gain his confidence again.  Hopefully we will have better weather next week and I will be able to work with him more.  We only had three clicker sessions this last week.  The exciting part was that when he was in the round pen he was walking over to where I sit to train him before I could even get in the pen lol.  He loves it!

  As you can see by his total mugging of the camera he is definitely finding his confidence again.  :D

Zep says bye until next week!!

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. 

Chrome's Thirteenth Ride!

 
We've been having some crappy winter weather, so when today turned out slightly warmer and sunny I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to ride Chrome.  :D  He was such a good boy!

I got my clicker, treats, bridle, helmet and gloves, then headed for the pasture.  I bridled him and then used his tire pedestal to get on bareback.  First we worked on some lateral flexion because even though he knows it from the ground I haven't really worked on it from his back.  He can be difficult to steer (although that's getting MUCH better) because he doesn't fully understand bridle pressure, so I figured lateral flexion would help him understand the lateral bridle cues.  It worked!  At first when I asked him to flex he would walk circles, but he quickly figured out to stand still.  The funny part is he thinks bumping my leg is what I'm clicking LOL!  We'll work on that.  After I got him doing both sides off of light rein pressure (okay it was light for him, we need to work on lightness some more) I asked him to walk off and then tried circling him.  It worked!  He listened to the rein pressure much better.

So then we started walking off into the pasture.  He was a little hesitant because of the mud (and he was still thinking about flexion) so I asked my husband to lead him so I could click a straight, forward walk.  Once he figured that out I decided to try trotting.  It took a couple of tries, but he finally trotted (going off of the cue of my husband jogging, he still doesn't understand that leg pressure can mean go faster, he just thinks it means walk).  We only went three or four steps before I clicked and he stopped.  The second time he wasn't too sure, but the third time he was all for it!  You could tell he was understanding and getting excited about trotting and earning a click.  So I decided at that point to work on walk and whoa again lol.  I don't want him getting too excited, especially bareback with iffy steering and stopping hehe.

I only rode for about ten minutes and then I got off and practiced a little with his backing from his tail.  He thought at first he was supposed to spin circles, pulling me along by his tail, but my husband put his hand on Chrome's chest to remind him to go backwards and he did great after that.  Then I took him for a short walk on the road.  We went to the hill and practiced backing uphill.  He remembered the work we had done on it, but still needs practice at backing straight and with his head down.  We will get there.  :)  I'm going to try to get out and do more clicker training with him, but a lot of it will depend on the weather.  :)

I think I'm going to skip doing a recap of 2012 post because it was rather boring and full of non-horse related things lol.  I'm going to try to make 2013 a lot more horse/fun filled.  I gotta get out of this rut I'm in.  So look forward to a Goals of 2013 post soon!!  One of my goals is going to be getting back into posting on my blog and reading yours!  Sorry I'm been so quiet.

P.S.  My apologies for not getting any pictures today.  The one up top is an old one.  :)

Chrome's New Trick Video!!

Check out Chrome's new trick!!  He's only had one session yesterday (for less than five minutes) and this is how well he's doing today (we started filming from the beginning; we hadn't practiced at all today until this video)!  He's sooooo smart!!



Isn't he so cute!  I have a couple of ideas for some other easy tricks I want to teach so keep an eye on his blog.  :D

P.S. So sorry for the video quality!  My camera is acting up bad!!

Chrome's First Official Longe Lesson - Video

I was playing around in photoshop with one of Chrome's pictures way too late last night... what do you think?

Well, we had our first shot at a longe lesson and although it wasn't horrible, it wasn't great either.  I think instead of calling it a lesson we will call it . . . testing the waters to see what he remembers (and to see if I'm coordinated enough to hold a line, whip, clicker and treats lol)?  I've only worked on longeing one other time almost a year ago when he was gelded (has it really been that long??) because he had to be trotted twenty minutes a few days to keep his incision from closing.

So he definitely seems to remember walking around me in a circle, but wasn't too thrilled about trotting.  I think he was just being lazy because the ground was sloped and wet (we don't have any flat spots for longeing) and the flies were bothering him horribly!!  So we will try again with copious amounts of fly spray next time lol.  I don't think I'm going to ask him to trot next time since we need to work on relaxation and voice cues.  The only reason I want to do any longeing is to teach him to ground drive and we won't be trotting in long lines for a while so we don't have to worry about that right now.  :)

So any suggestions on what we need to work on (besides me not nagging?  and being more prepared and coordinated?)?  He finds loneging so boring and tedious, so I don't want to work on it too long.  I just want to practice whoa some and then try ground driving again so we won't be stuck on circles (and bored!).  :)  Here's the video:


Here are some pictures for the people who can't view videos. 

 

 

 

Thanks for watching.  We look forward to your comments.  :D

P.S. We did work in the other direction too.  :)  I just didn't get video of it.  Oh and we worked on it for less than ten minutes.

Chrome Saddled Part II

 

He's not that butt high.  We were facing downhill.

 I rode Chrome in a saddle for the first time ever today!!!!  A recap for any new readers:  I bought Chrome at five months old and he's now just over three years old.  I started riding him when he turned three, but only bareback so far.  He's had ten rides total (counting today) and it's been two months since I last rode him (giving him a break over the summer because it's so hot and I want him to grow more).  He did AWESOME!!!!!

Sometimes I just can't believe how laid back and accepting of things he is.  He's braver than a lot of horses three times his age!!  Even after a two month break and only nine rides I was able to get on him and ride him around in a thirty acre pasture in a bitless bridle!  Okay, sorry I'm bragging (I think).  I just can't help it.  I love this horse.  :D

I attribute our success to several things.  Number one is breeding.  Chrome is a Friesian/Arabian cross and both of his parents are very confident, level headed, sweet horses.  Also, the great start his breeder gave him.  When I bought him at five months old he walked right on our trailer with no hesitation.  He knew how to lead, lift his hooves, stand tied, etc.  And he's taken everything in stride since.  I also think clicker training had a big part in our success because it has taught him to be confident in all situation, to explore his environment, think for himself and to trust me.  Last, and probably the most important, is just hours and hours and hours of time spent with him.  Taking him for walks, grooming him, taking pictures (hehehe), working on his hooves, clicker training, teaching him tricks, playing games together, desensitizing to everything I could find to play with, etc.  A lot of work went into getting him where he is now, but the awesome part is it didn't even feel like work!!!  Spending time with him and working with him is just so much fun.  :D

Anyway, sorry I got all talkative.  Here's what you probably care more about. Pictures!!!!  Captions are below the pictures and you can click to enlarge the photos.

 Faran makes us look tiny lol. I like how the sun makes Faran's face and Chrome's neck look golden.  Also we're standing downhill from Faran hehe.

I trotted him around a little to make sure he was still okay with the saddle.  We accidentally went too close to my hubby, but I still like the picture he managed to get.  :D
 

I like how this one turned out.  I was talking to Chrome and adjusting his bridle (you can see my thumb by his noseband).  Love his expression.

 Excited (me) and ready to go (both of us).  :D

 In this one he could hear the ducks playing on the pond and he could see one of the ducks walking around in the trees.  I don't know why he was so intent on that duck but he just stood and stared for a long time.  :)

 Riding around the pasture.

 The ducks started making a TON of noise on the pond while playing and he was acting all googly eyed about it, but he never did spook or anything.  Silly boy.  He sees them play everyday.  I think he was just being goofy.

 Getting a treat for being brave.  I LOVE the lips!

He got brave and puffed himself all up, then strutted off toward the pond to see what was making such a racket lol.

I love his face.  Oh and my best friend got me that t-shirt which says Besties and has a couple of nerds (which would represent us) on it hehehe.  :D

I was having fun.  Can you tell?  :D  Chrome is so used to my antics he barely even notices lol.

Hugs for the best colt on the planet!

Chrome had fun too!  Smiling for the camera is totally his favorite trick.

More hugs.  How does the saddle look on him?  I checked for his last rib and the saddle ends right at it, so it's borderline too long for him.  I think I looked okay with him though, don't you?

 

It's been a great break in the weather, but still warm enough for him to break a bit of a sweat (we only rode for ten or fifteen minutes at a walk).  The sweat pattern looks even to me.  What do you think?  I think the saddle was a bit too far forward though, so it probably is too long for him.  Also I don't have a girth small enough for him so I was using the bottom half of my surcingle and it has that sheepskin stuff on the inside so that's why the girth area is much sweatier.

We had a fun ride!  I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I look forward to your suggestions about the saddle (do you think I should keep riding in it or wait until I can get one specifically for him?).  Thanks!