Martin Black colt-start in Redwater

Last weekend I helped out with the public viewing days at the Martin Black colt start at Rocking G Ranch near Redwater. Mostly we looked after the admissions, parking and some clean-up, but we also managed to see quite a bit of the action in the round pen with Martin. Really interesting weekend. Plus I went back on Monday to watch as well. He's at Rocking G from the 15th to the 30th this month starting about 70 colts in that time. They saved 10 for the clinic last weekend. Most of the colts had never been haltered or handled much at all.

Martin uses the same basic concepts that Parelli is based on... make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult... but he turns up the volume quite a bit more than Parelli. In this case, because his time is limited, he has to push through faster than someone doing Parelli would do, but then the results are faster as well. A lot of horses struggled with the "wrong thing" before finding their release, but eventually they would find it. Even then, some would keep testing the boundaries. But consistenly, Martin would continue to make the wrong thing difficult.

That was one of the things that really stood out for me this weekend: CONSISTENCY. Martin never let the horses find release doing the wrong thing. Definitely a lot of cowboys got bucked off, but they always got back on and always the horse was worked through the tough spots, and the horses always found where the release was. Some took longer than others, but eventually they all found it.

There's no way I could do what he does. Mainly because I don't have the skill. Which is why I'm doing Parelli.... I like things slow and safe! But I also learned that you can push a lot harder and still come out the other side with success. That's probably something I don't do enough. And a lot of concepts were really underscored for me this weekend:

- Consistency

- Have a really clear picture of what you're asking

- Always release (provide relief) when they get it right.

- Accept the slightest try... Sometimes this was really small, but Martin always found it.

- If the horse can't find the answer, try a different approach (ask differently).

These are all concepts I'm plenty familiar with and use with my own horses, but were also strongly emphasized in this clinic.

I also fell in love with a nice 2-year-old blue roan colt I named "Socks"... really sweet disposition, nice mover, but more than I can afford. Not to mention that I already have too many horses! Really nice colt though (pictured right), ... I would love to take him home! :-)

(Post-clinic note: A week after writing this blog, I found out that Martin bought this colt! I guess I have a pretty good eye for horses! :-))

Thanks to Rocking G Ranch (Blair and Tami) for allowing us to come watch Martin Black. They didn't have to open this up to the public; they could have just quietly got their own colts started, but they opened their doors and I, for one, appreciated the opportunity to watch and learn from a Master.

Catching up again

Monday this week the temperature got to about 35C without a breath of wind. HOT man!! So I took the opportunity again to spray all the horses. This time the only snorting and backing up was from the movement of the hose as I approached. After the water started flowing, they all stood still with an "Ahhhhhhh" look on their faces! Even Indy who went kind of snakey last time. She flinched at first, but didn't move away and quickly settled once the water started flowing over her.

Tuesday was warm, but not hot (26-ish). I decided to try the 7 games in 7 minutes at liberty with Gypsy. Well, actually, I didn't time myself; I just wanted to see if I could do the 7 games at liberty. Most definitely, a liberty session gives you the TRUTH! AND, it teaches you when you need to back off. I DEFINITELY need to work on this one more. Friendly game went fine -- even the extreme friendly game with slapping the savvy string on the ground all around her. Porcupine was OK too, although she wasn't as responsive as I would like (phase 3). Driving game went OK too, front and back, although she walked off a couple times when I was trying to drive her hind end away. I guess she thought I meant "move forward" (which tends to be her answer to most things when she's not sure). But after a few more attempts I got my timing right (the release) when she got it right, so she didn't feel the need to leave. Yoyo was hilarious. She's always resisted backing up, so without the line shaking, she just tossed her head at me with her ears back (annoyance), so I flicked the carrot stick at her chest which got her attention, but then she just left. So I brought her back, tried again and took it one step at a time: Yoyo one step back, then bring her back, yoyo 2 steps back, then bring her back. The bring back is no problem, but she really hates backing up. So this will definitely need more work as well. Wow, liberty really does test your savvy!

Circling went OK, if you disregard the yoyo at the start. I more or less sent her on the circle from where I was standing beside her. She frequently asked to come in the first 4 or 5 circles, so I was constantly sending her, but eventually I got a couple good circles and her bring back was nice.

Sideways was equally as challenging as the yoyo. Once I started driving her sideways, she'd just leave. So again, I needed to break it down to one step at a time and reward for that. Squeeze: same thing: She'd squeeze just fine, but wouldn't turn and back up, she just kept going!

Wow, this really opened my eyes! And this was in the round corral too, so really even that wasn't the WHOLE truth! :-)

Then I decided to try getting her to canter again. She's never been able to canter online, and the last time I tried this, we did it in the round corral as well, but all I succeeded in doing was making her go right-brained and look for an escape. This time wasn't much better (I had to keep adding pressure to get her to canter a few strides and the added pressure had her looking for a way out of the round corral). However, once she did canter a few strides I immediately stopped the pressure and stood in the center, and she immediately broke to a trot. I asked again - first the pointing, then raising the carrot stick, then swinging the string in zone 5. Again, I had to repeat this several times to get her to canter a few strides, and when she did I stood at "neutral" again, and she immediately broke into a trot. We repeated this a couple times more, the last time I stayed facing her, but kept my stick low (after she started cantering), then after about 4 strides, I asked for a disengagement before she stopped on her own. I left it at that. She was still pretty right-brained, but she did come right in at the trot when I disengaged her and immediately started licking and chewing. Hopefully next time will go better and she can start to maintain the canter on her own -- a bit anyway!

Then I just went for a quick ride up and down the road and let my daughter and her friend have a ride as well.

Tuesday was humbling for me. Definitely, Gypsy has been great on line, and I've been pretty pleased with myself. But liberty really makes you pay attention to what you're doing and it's clear we (I) have work to do to get Gypsy to WANT to stay with me. It went OK, but I definitely thought it would go better than it did!

Revisiting L2 tasks with Gypsy

I finally got back to working on L2 tasks with Gypsy today. We had an awesome day! She behaved exactly the same as she did at the clinic. I started just by working on holding her tongue. Don had done this for me at the clinic as I hadn't had much success with that particular task. I tried again today and did fairly well! At first all I did was rub her nose and lips until she dropped her head, then stuck my fingers on her tongue and held them there until she stopped fussing and repeated this a few times. Eventually I did manage to sort of grab her tongue (slippery little sucker!) and pull it a bit out of the side of her mouth. Not as much as Don did, but I was pretty happy with it!

Then I did some extreme friendly game. Absolutely no problem. She moved her hind end over as I walked around behind her, but not from fear... I think she just thought she should move over for me. Then she did a lovely yoyo over a pole a couple times. I did 7 games with the barrels and she did awesome with all of it! I should have been taping!

We did sideways without a fence (toward and away)... she's pretty straight when she comes toward me, but always drifts forward still when going away from me, so I had to check her back a few times. Will have to keep working at that one. We did some transistions and change of direction on line which were great. The only thing I still can't do is get her to canter on line. I may save this one for an arena. Our ground is really uneven, so she's not comfortable cantering in our paddock (trips a lot).

After all that I went for a ride and walked some patterns around the barrels trying to get her to respond to my body movement rather than the rein. She's slowing starting to get there, but I still have to use the rein. Definitely better though.

I did try some cantering while riding her and she did pick up a canter in both directions, but just didn't maintain it for long. I didn't push it too much, just asked again, then transitioned down before she quit on her own. It's getting there!

Awesome day! :-)

Jake gets some attention

I intended to work on L2 tasks with Gypsy today, but she had other ideas. She REALLY didn't want to be caught today. I played the catching game with her for quite some time and a couple of times she came back to me so that I could have put the halter on, but I wasn't satisfied (not as willing as I'd like), so when she moved away each time I'd also push her away.

As an aside, we have a new horse (Morris) boarding with us and Jake won't let him anywhere near the rest of the horses OR near the water. I've had to catch him every day to bring him to the water (our water is situated in a place where Morris would feel trapped, so doesn't feel safe going there). Long story short, Gypsy got the whole herd trotting around while I was playing the catching game with her and eventually they made their way back to the water at the other end of the field. As soon as Morris saw everyone leaving, he followed me through the gate toward the water. Jake tried to get past me to go after Morris and I stopped him. Jake had also been following me around while I was chasing Gypsy before, so I just decided to catch up Jake (since he seemed to want me to). I figured that would help Morris get a turn at the water as well, and help him bond with the rest of the herd without Jake in the way.

Sarah (my friend from England) was the last one to work with Jake at the end of June (yeesh!). So I repeated what she did with the 7 games. Again Jake flew around me as I was rhythmically slapping the ground with the savvy string. He really doesn't like that. It took quite a while for his feet to stop. Eventually I stopped moving the string as soon as he stopped trotting. He stopped. I let him think about that a while and then walked away and started again. Again he started trotting around, but not too long after that, he snuck up behind me (like he was hiding behind me) and stopped. I stopped too. A couple more of these and he started to figure out that I wasn't asking him to move. He wasn't calm, but he was getting it right at least, so I moved on to porcupine and driving games. Porcupine was great one time, then ineffectual the next. He was having a hard time focussing. I quit on one of the times he got it right. Yoyo was a banana to the right each time (he had to keep me on his left), but once I stopped he would eventually look at me with both eyes. I accepted that. We can work on straightness later.

Driving game he did really well at yielding his hind end, but it took some bumps on his nose to get him to yield his front end. And then when he did step over, he also walked off. So I had to check him back by bumping the lead line; he tried to turn into me and his hind end away, so I had to bump his nose back away from me while bumping the leadrope back until he stepped back rather than sideways. We repeated this about 5 or 6 times on each side and by the 4th or 5th try, he was stepping across and stopping. Good enough! Boy, this just REALLY speaks volumes about being inconsistent! Just like with Indy.... I really have to work with ALL of the horses more regularly. I need to set up a schedule and STICK TO IT. Sheesh.

Anyway, after that we did some circling/squeeze over my barrels (walked over). He seemed to like that. He always stopped to look at me with his ears forward as if to say: how was that? There was even a point where I was trying to get him to change direction and he was resisting, so I started waiving my stick in front of him which he skirted around, then moved toward the barrels, stepped over and turned and looked at me. I had to smile. He's trying! I'll take that.

At this point I felt he'd calmed down enough to ride and went to saddle him. Since we got the natural performer saddle, saddling is no longer an issue, which is phenomenal! Jake used to bolt as soon as we brought any saddle out. And I couldn't blame him. He's such a wide horse that no saddle ever fit him properly. Now mine do and he's visibly improved as a result. And now he's even wider what with all the grass and lack of exercise!! I felt like I was riding a tank! Look how fat he is!! :-)

We rode around the pylons and over and around the barrels, then I got my son to open the gate and we rode down the road a bit. He's really unconfident on the road. Lots of stopping and trying to turn around. So we did quite a few circles or I'd just let him stop and work through those thresholds. Good thing we didn't have a destination or we might never have got there!

It started to rain as we were making our way back, so our ride was cut short (yes, I'm a fair-weather rider!)

It's a start (again), so if I can stick to a schedule, hopefully we'll move forward rather than keep repeating the same thing over and over as if it's new!

Indy's first bit

I've always ridden Indy in a hackamore. Today I decided to see how she'd handle a bit.

After grooming and saddling, I took her into the paddock to review the 7 games again. She was definitely better today. Maybe I was more patient? Anyway, yoyo was nice and straight and responsive at phase 2. Circling was more consistent (and more round!). She did pull a bit to the outside at first, but eventually settled into a circle and even maintained gait. We did both directions a couple times at the walk and then moved on to driving and then sideways. She has a tendency to drift forward when I drive her front end around (much like Gypsy), but I was able to stop and check her back each time. Will have to keep at that until we can get a consistent step across in front without walking off. Her hind-end yield is nice. When she yields her hind end, she almost crosses in front of me with her head... almost like she's blocking me... probably is! Sideways was MUCH better this time. Probably because I stopped as soon as she got it right (go figure!). We repeated both sides 3 or 4 times and each time got a bit better and more controlled.

We did everything nice and slow today and it went well. I wonder how she'll do when I turn up the volume? She was almost sleepy today!

After all that, I went to grab the bridle and put it on. She stood nicely while I was trying to put the bridle on, but it was quite a while before I got the bit in her mouth. She tossed her head quite a bit and avoided the bit. I stopped a couple times and just rubbed her mouth until she stopped fussing. Then I tried the bit again. I managed to get it in her mouth and the bridle over her ears and then just left her alone to play with the bit. She rolled her tongue quite a bit above and below the bit trying to spit it out, rubbed her nose on the ground, tried to scratch it off with her hind foot, and shook her head a lot. After about 5-10 minutes she settled down and her mouth quieted.

I then started asking for lateral flexion using the reins. Lots of resistance at first. and more on her right side than her left. I think I asked about 15-20 times from each side before I felt she was starting to figure it out. Not really great, but coming along. I left it at that and put the hackamore back on her to ride her in. She's not quite responsive enough to be ridden with the bit yet, and I'm not sure enough of myself yet that I won't pull too hard in reflex if she does something unpredictable.

When I first got on her she just stood there and wouldn't move. Quite a bit different from the last time we rode and she could barely stand still. So it took a fair bit of encouragement and change of direction to get her moving. After she did get moving, her responsiveness was much better than the last time we rode. Her lines are straighter and she's starting to yield to my leg pressure better. We pretty much did everything at a walk today which was fine. It wasn't about the speed, but her responsiveness today. We weaved around some pylons and barrels did some sideways and hind end yields and some backing up and called it a day. Not too bad considering it's been about a month since I rode her last. I really have to get past this crazy busy summer so I can build some consistency in their training!

Bath Time!

I took advantage of the 30+ degree weather today to see how the horses will handle the hose and spraying water on them. The theory being that the cool water will feel nicer if it's really hot out, so theoretically the horses should accept the hose better. I caught all 4 of them and went to work. Jake was the easiest (he only moved away a few steps when I started the sprayer before settling down). He's also the easiest to apply fly spray to. He seems to love it - the others... not so much. Next was Gypsy, who trotted around me a bit, but then after some approach and retreat and stopping the sprayer when she stopped moving, she got the message. Plus I think she started to like the water! Skittles pulled back, then trotted around a bit. Eventually she stood still, but not calmly. Then she lowered her head and was licking and chewing and relaxed. Lastly was IndyAnna. She went pretty snaky on me to start with (sorry no photos of that!). It took me a while just to get her to move forward without the hose on. She never really completely calmed down, although she did stand still for me eventually (I would stop the sprayer as soon as she stopped her feet). And once we were done, there was lots of licking and chewing. By the time I put Indy back though, Jake and Gypsy were already dry! And Skittles rolled in the dirt. By the end of it all, I think I was as wet as them!Attached are the photos of each of them, before and after they accepted the sprayer (in order: Jake, Gypsy, Skittles and Indy):