Posts Tagged ‘iron horse farm
My Buddy Nitro
Dressage Rally with Nitro 2002
So I feel like I’ve completed an entire day and its only 11am! While my parents are away at my brother’s graduation in North Carolina I’m in charge of our many animals. My parent’s dog, Trooper, is staying with me, I also have to feed the cat at their house, and of course the 9 horses we are in charge of. On top of that my retired dressage horse, Nitro, now has an abscess in his hoof. Poor guy is hobbling around on 3 legs. So last night after working a 10 hour day at my shop (I own a custom picture framing shop) I drove out to the barn to check on him. Seeing that his condition hadn’t improved I scheduled a farrier visit for today. So I woke up really early, loaded up all the dogs, helped my hobbling husband (he broke his foot on tuesday) to the car and headed for the barn. I began soaking and removing Nitro’s poultice for the farrier – and when he arrived I took on the task of holding Nitro still. Now Nitro is a 16.3 hand Thoroughbred/Conemarra/Welsh cross – yes he should of been a pony as his mother was 13 hands, today I found myself wishing he was. Nitro, although much improved, at 23 years old is a pain in the butt to keep still for the farrier. We have been battling this issue (along with his fear of cows) for 10 years now, but if you saw him when I brought him home I think you would be VERY surprised how far he’s come. He has no respect for personal space and he has no problem barreling through anything that stands in his way. Needless to say I got clocked in the face several times by his massive head which resulted in a fat lip.
Nitro at USDF Young Rider Championships
Anyway, after an hour of chipping away at his foot still no relief was found, so we opted to wrap his foot back up and wait for whatever is in there to work its way out on its own. So poor Nitro is still hobbling around on 3 legs. By this time its getting close to the time I need to open up my shop. So I quickly feed and turn out some of the horses (one of our co-op people was supposed to feed instead of me). I load up the dogs again and head back to my apartment, quickly change then its off to feed the cat at my parents. And amazingly with 5 minutes to spare I unlock the door to the shop. Now here I sit writing this post, utterly exhausted, when I really should be framing something. So thats been my day so far – and I just have to do it all over again as I’m scheduled to feed the horses tonight too. I’m tired just thinking about it – the things we do for our horses. 🙂
USDF Young Rider Championships
So aside from that, the real thing I wanted to talk about today was Nitro. Now I usually write about “The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague” but dealing with Nitro today got me thinking about his story. So here goes. When my parents bought Nitro for me I was 13 (I’m now 25). I had sprouted long long legs and outgrew my childhood pony, Oopsie Daisy (whom I had up until last year when he passed away). So my parents decided it was time I got a bigger horse as I had become extremely interested in Dressage. After many attempted purchases (one horse I had on trial flipped me over backwards when I tightened the girth) we finally found Nitro. He was up for sale at a dealers barn – and while I hesitate to purchase from dealers, I had been looking for almost 2 years and there was just something different about Nitro. This 16.3 hand grey was built like a tank, but his eyes were so gentle and kind. My parents purchased Nitro to a tune of $6,000 thinking he had been to events and kinda knew his way around the block. Later we were to learn that he had only had one owner (who had him foaled by her pony mare) and he pretty much did nothing his whole life besides be a “pasture pet” and then he was sent to the dealer to be sold at 14 years of age.
Nitro makes a great Super Hero for USDF Pas De Deux
Now your probably wondering why we didn’t try to find this out before we bought him – and well its because he was well behaved and seemed to know a lot of things and we trusted the dealer. Big mistake, because about 30 days into having him he went all split personality (we now believe he was under the influence of a 30 day tranquilizer). Nitro began having panic attacks, kicking out at fences and people when I rode him, spinning, sweating bullets, and simply walking on top of anything that got in his way, this included me. Some his background began to emerge – he has these dents in his neck which we were told happened when a bunch of geldings broke into Nitro’s field and attached him – who knows if thats true, but I sorta think it is because he’s always had issues passing horses he didn’t know in warm-up arenas. But the fact is (other than being tranquilized and taken to a new home, and being attacked by horses) we didn’t really believe he was abused, or had a horrible home in the past. So really – why was he so crazed?
To this day I’m still really not sure. I wish I had discovered clicker training back then, it probably would of helped me a ton. But I began working with a very nice trainer who believed in natural horsemanship, if it wasn’t for her I don’t think I could have fixed Nitro. Many a times throughout the process of retraining Nitro my parents threatened to sell him, they thought he was too dangerous for me. I can’t even count how many times he knocked me down in the barn only to run back to the pasture. But somehow I managed to evade my parents attempt to sell Nitro, and honestly if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be the rider I am today, he taught me how to ride through anything (in a confident and humane manner I might add). My biggest hurdle with Nitro was getting him to trust me – and not letting him push my buttons to the point of frustration. So in my lessons I began working on the ground with him teaching him to “follow me” – I guess looking back now it was probably very similar to the “join up” method so many trainers use today. To this day Nitro will follow me at liberty over jumps, through obstacles, at the trot and even canter – its our own special game we like to play. So for probably 3 years I spent working on the basics, I’m not going to go too far into it, because honestly I always write way too much in these posts. But in the end I produced a calmer horse, that I could control and even though he occasionally had panic attacks – I could gently calm him down again. Nitro went on to take me through 2nd level Dressage, we earned reserve champion at the USDF Young Rider Championships, and in 2006 he took me through my C-2 Rating in Pony Club. This was a HUGE accomplishment because jumping was a big contributor to Nitro’s panic attacks (luckily for him I loved Dressage). But being asked to complete a cross country course as well as a stadium course to pass the rating was very hard for Nitro. I probably spent several days just getting him to take one very very small step down jump in the woods. But he did it, maybe not with flying colors, but he atleast made it through.
I actually did try to clicker train Nitro in 2007, he was nearing retirement then, but I decided it would be fun to try to get him to target a big yellow ball. He sort of understood, but I truly believe he has ADHD, I could not keep his focus for more than a minute. But being 23 years old and after 10 years of working hard for me, I think he’s earned his retirement, so I wasn’t going to push the clicker training. When my family makes our big move to Iron Horse Farm in a week (yippee!) I may start up with the clicker training again on Nitro. By then we will have a more adequate working area, the place we occupy right now is really not conducive to working with a VERY big horse that is sort of set in his ways.
So thats Nitro’s story (well the shortened version), he was a huge part in teaching me how to train horses, I think he may have been my toughest case (Minnow comes a close second – but being 1/2 Nitro’s size he was a bit more manageable). And as a short side note, Nitro came with the original name Royalty’s Pal and I’m sure you can guess why I renamed him Nitro (Niatross is his show name). 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
2009 MGAA Nationals
Chesapeake Boomerang and I
Are you familiar with the exciting equestrian sport of Mounted Games? If not, let me describe it in the words of some of the competitors – “fast and challenging,” “the most intense riding ever,” “a partnership between rider and horse.” Mounted Games is an equestrian sport that involves head-to-head team relay racing requiring skill, agility, courage, and discipline from riders, as well as speed, obedience, and flexibility from their mounts.
In July of this year, Mounted Games Across America, the largest mounted games organization in the United States, will hold its second National Competition. Over two hundred competitors, along with supporters, family members, and spectators, will be in attendance. You or your company can be a part of this event by sponsoring MGAA Nationals with either a financial contribution or a donation in kind.
Benefits to sponsor include:
• Recognition in the official program
• Listing and link on the MGAA website
• Announcements of your name or your company’s advertisement during the competition.
• Donations are tax deductible. (MGAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization)
• See form for other benefits.
Two types of sponsorships are available—an entire division or a single race.
Division Sponsorship: Over the course of the 3-day National competition, 75 races will be played in each division. Your company’s name will be displayed and announced throughout the entire division of 75 races.
Race Sponsorship: Over the course of the 3-day National competition, each race will be played 4 times. Your name will be announced each time the race is played.
Please see the attached form for descriptions of the sponsorship levels and the full benefits of sponsorship.
MGAA members would like to thank you for any level of sponsorship support you are able to offer, whether in cash or product donations. We all appreciate your generosity!
Stacey Calhoun
President
Mounted Games Across America, Inc.
As an avid member of MGAA I fully support the organization and all of their efforts to further the sport. PonyPaintings.com plans to donate several paintings, if you are interested in contributing please check out these sponsorship options: Download Forms Here and Here.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Rope Riding
I’m hugely addicted to the website Etsy.com, I used it a ton when I was planning my wedding last year – its a great resource for any and all handmade things. Much like Ebay, Etsy is meant as an outlet for artists to sell their handmade items to the world. They even have a section where you can request handmade things and other artists can bid for the chance to create your dream item. As I hit my usual website searches tonight (craigs list for a 3 horse bumperpull trailer, ebay for playfood for Minnow’s act, and Etsy for Chincoteague Pony items) I came across some pretty neat handmade tack on Etsy. Someone has listed an handmade Indial Bosal that is soooo similar to the bitless bridle I am currently using at 1/4 of the cost ($16.00). I bet it works just as well too! Just had to share it with everyone! Enjoy!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
HorseFlix
Ok, so I admit I’ve been sort of M.I.A. from my blog the last few days, but I have a very good excuse! I’ve spent the weekend (my weekend counts a 1/2 day saturday thru monday since I hold hours at my shop on saturday from 10-4 and I’m closed sunday and monday) at my family’s new horse farm, Iron Horse Farm. Unfortunately it rained all weekend so while our plan was to finish the fence building we instead hung fixtures and worked on electrical stuff.
But anyway – on to the real topic of this post, HorseFlix. I stumbled across this website that is very very intriguing. Apparently it is very similar to the popular Netflix, which my husband and I use to the fullest as we are huge movie buffs, but instead you can rent horse movies and instructional dvds. The website says plans start at $9.99 a month and it looks like you have 21 days to keep and watch the movie before it needs to be mailed back. This is a neat idea if like me you are a visual learner and really enjoy watching instructional dvds on horse training. As someone mentioned in a blog I came across:
Most training and instructional DVDs cost big bucks and it’s often hard to know before hand if you’re going to end up liking it or not (much less whether you’re going to want to watch it multiple times). I usually end up not buying DVDs that I’d like to watch just because I’m unwilling to invest $50 in a DVD that I might not even end up liking.
The other neat thing is that I found lots of the parelli videos on there – and I personally know how much those parelli dvds can cost, renting them would be much more cost effective. And if you need to go back and review something simply just rent the video again. I might just have to try out horsefilix, perhaps I could get a few friends to go in on it and we can all have “horse movie nights” – maybe I’ll even get my local pony club involved. I just might have to hid this from my husband though, he probably won’t like the idea that I’m taking up valuable netflix time for horse videos. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Controlling Emotions
Yesterday I set out working with my mom and Chesapeake Lightning (Blitz) with clicker training. Blitz is an extremely left brained horse – click on the link to learn exactly what this means. Taken from the Parelli site:
LB horses are not afraid of people, they are self confident, brave, are relatively insensitive, playful, mouthy, exuberant and dominant. At minimum, these horses can be pushy and disobedient, and at worst they are aggressive. Keep in mind, these horses can be dangerous when they don’t like or trust people.
LB horses need you to become a lot more interesting. They need things to do. They are usually quite playful and are easily bored by riders who are fixated on perfecting a maneuver, and that’s what makes them act up. Because they are so confident they are fast learners.
Blitz shaking hands with me
This describes Blitz’s personality EXACTLY! For months my mom and I have been taking natural horsemanship/Parelli lessons with our two Chincoteagues, Blitz and Boomer (hence how we learned about the different horsenalities). We started taking these lessons because the ponies began acting up due to the fact that we had to ride/train them in a wide open field with no structural boundaries. I’ll save Boomer’s problems for another day – but Blitz had developed a spin and bolt maneuver when something upset him. Mainly he was using rustling in the woods from deer, or a passing car as an excuse to act up – more simply he didn’t know how to control his emotions. What we learned at our lessons improved Blitz greatly – we were giving him alternatives to his spin and bolt, and we began placing “hidden” treats on barrels in our “riding area”. The treats were a big motivator for Blitz as he soon began seeing this scary field as something that produced food for him. Until yesterday I hadn’t really introduced my mom to the Clicker Training way – I had already taught Blitz about the clicker with ground work – he successfully targets objects as well as numerous tricks (shake hands, kiss me, say no, play fetch, lay down). But I hadn’t yet helped my mom with working him using clicker training under saddle.
Blitz attempting a buck when I first bought him
So after convincing my mom that Clicker Training would change Blitz’s attitude (old school training habits are hard to break) we set out to our “riding area” with treats and clickers. Now being left brained Blitz can be a notoriously sluggish pony (a common trait). So we started out rewarding him for moving forward off of leg pressure – within a few minutes Blitz had a nice forward moving trot, and he was actually excited to be working. We noticed he was even tuning out the sounds coming from across the street (which typically would of sent him into his spin maneuver). After working with him some (really just introducing him to idea of being clicked and rewarded while under saddle) we decided to test him out on the trail – where a lot of him bad habits for controlling his emotions seem to kick in. On the way out Blitz spooked at a rock – after remembering the video I had seen about trail riding with the clicker – I instructed my mom to have him touch the rock and when he did he got rewarded. (see the video below). This quickly calmed him and he began to associate the scary rock with a good thing.
So then out to the trail…we typically have hills that we let the ponies race up (being in mounted games training we are trying to teach our horses to be competitive – I don’t recommend this unless you have a reason for your horse to want to race) and usually after our race Blitz has a difficult time controlling his emotions and excitement. He won’t stand still and he most of the time jigs all the way home. So this time after racing up the hill (Boomer beat his big brother this time I might add – go Boomer!) we asked Blitz (who was jumping and jigging around I might add) to stop and stand still. Once he stood for a few seconds he got clicked and rewarded. All of a sudden his body relaxed and he seemed to ignore his emotions. We asked him to stand longer and he got rewarded again, and when we saw he was calm we asked him to walk off slowly towards home. Now let me say at this time my mom is now completely convinced that clicker training is going to help Blitz improve, she was even more convinced when a jogger came out of the woods and scared us and the horses to death – yet promptly Blitz stopped and stood and waited to be rewarded. A HUGE contrast from his typical spin and bolt for home.
Rewarding Blitz for laying down
I wish I had gotten more videos of our training session – but I dropped my camera in the woods after our race up the hill – needless to say the ponies got 2 training sessions on the hill as we had to go back to look for it. Luckily its safe and sound now – phew!
Anyway, Blitz had a successful learning day on how to control his emotions – and my mom is now in love with Clicker Training (as I am too). We’re going to continue working with the ponies and I hope to post more about their training soon. I’m looking forward to having some great training sessions this weekend as its going to be gorgeous here in Eastern Pa.
