Posts Tagged ‘training
Sharing the Gift
Next Monday I leave for Chincoteague Island, Virginia – with my best friend, Chincoteague Minnow, in tow! I’ve been looking forward to this trip all year. Minnow and I will spend our evenings doing 2 shows each night at the Chincoteague Pony Centre. Now this is my kind of vacation!
You may be thinking, vacation? sounds more like work. Well it sorta is, but thats what I love about it. I like that I’ll have something to do, and my favorite thing about the whole experience is that I get to watch people enjoying my pony. I love to see Minnow bring a smile to a young child’s face. I love the fact that he might start the spark of a life-long obsession in horses for some lucky kid. Afterall thats what happened to me!
Minnow has a special gift and I am greatful that I am able to be the one to help him share his gift with the world. Its never been about making money (although I do sell his paintings for a profit – more out of neccesity). For me it has always been about sharing the joy of horses with others.
Horses have been a part of my life since the day I was born. I was lucky to have a mom that was also passionate about our large equine friends. I am greatful everyday that I have grown up and been able to learn from some of the most amazing equines.
So now is your chance to experience Minnow’s gift! Stop by the Chincoteague Pony Centre all next week to visit Minnow and I! (sadly my Dachshund, Ammo, will not be tagging along).
To celebrate our upcoming trip I’d like to share two articles about my friends at the Chincoteague Pony Centre:
Horses, Like People, Have Their Bad Days
Chincoteague Pony Drill Team Makes it Look Easy
My favorite part in the Drill Team article is a quote given by the Pony Centre Manager, Kendy Allen:
Mrs. Allen can easily relate to these feelings. You cannot spend time with her and fail to see that as much of a business as pony centre operations have become, her goals go far beyond the commercial undertaking.
Hope to see you all soon at the Pony Centre!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Front Page Headlines
Sunday started off like any other day – up early to feed and let the dog out, turn on my computer and play a few rounds at 666CASINO as my luck in online gambling is higher in the morning, checking my e-mail over a bowl of cereal. That is until I decided to check the online newspaper for my area. As the Daily Local News Page was loading all of a sudden a large photo of myself and Minnow pops up on the screen! I was so excited! I knew that Minnow was going to be in my local paper – but I had no idea it would turn out so big. A month earlier I had sent a press release to some of the local papers about how Minnow and I would be attending this year’s 2009 Pony Penning in Chincoteague, Virginia (we leave next monday, yipee!). A few weeks later I received a call from the paper requesting an interview with me. We set up an appointment over the phone for the next week and she asked if she could send a photographer to take Minnow’s picture. I mentioned that on July 13th a group of campers would be coming to watch Minnow perform – so she put in a request to have a photographer attend (not knowing if they would actually show).
My favorite photo from the day! by Photographer Kali Wallace
So Monday came, and I proceeded to do my interview over the phone. I don’t mind doing interviews – especially about Minnow (I could talk for hours about him). But its always so hard to gather your thoughts when you are asked unexpected questions. For the most part it was pretty straight forward. How did he learn how to paint? I’ve never done an interview where they didn’t ask that! What are his favorite colors? This one always makes me laugh – as if he really cares – but I always get this question too. How did he end up with you? This question always turns into them wanting to know about his “neglectful past”. I always struggle with this question because what I know about Minnow’s past is what I have been told from previous owners – and I just have to take their word about it. I’ve heard things from he was locked in a stall after breaking someone’s collar bone and not fed properly – to his coat was dull, his feet too long, and he looked very sad. So there really is no way to know for sure what really happened to him, but I do know whatever it was it caused Minnow to not trust me for a very long time. But no matter how I explain this story to interviewers it always gets written like he was “abused”. I can’t really force them to not write “abused” – but I always cringe when I see it because I know that I really am not sure he was “abused”. Neglected, I’m pretty certain he was, but abused? I’m not really sure. His temperament when I got him sort of goes along with maybe he was hit some, but unless he can tell me himself I will never know.
Giving my best friend a kiss. By Photographer Kali Wallace
I had one question in my interview that really threw me off this time. What do you think Minnow’s legacy would be? Wow, how do you answer that? I thought I had a pretty good answer for that – but the quote came out a little bit like a jumble of thoughts. I basically said that I thought Minnow would be an example of overcoming challenges and a not-so-great past. He came from this bad situation and now he’s becoming something great and he’s really happy. He enjoys painting and it’s almost like a therapy for him. A way to express himself and let go of whatever may have happened to him before. (I wish that had written it that way, haha).
But aside from a few uncorrect things (they said I went to the University of Delaware instead of Kutztown University) I thought it turned out really well. And on Monday when the photographer showed up at Iron Horse Farm I was even more surprised! I really had no idea that when I actually when to buy the Sunday paper that Minnow and I would be on the FRONT page! In color to boot! It was very exciting. I got recognized at the gas station I picked it up at, and I’ve been getting calls and e-mails from friends and family saying they loved it.
I feel a bit like a proud mom! The last quote in the article is perfect! “He’s an example of a horse that didn’t have a so- great past, but he’s gone on to become something great and amazing and my best friend.”
You can read the article here or download the PDF from the actual paper. Minnow already sold one painting yesterday – so you better hurry and snatch up your favorite before its gone!
A Look at the Horse’s Mind
photo by kiekje.be
Here are several great articles in a series about the Horse’s mind and learning abilities. They discuss positive reinforcement (like clicker training) and how beneficial it can be to horses.
Equine Learning Ability
Horse Learning
Equine Attention Span
Equine Long-term Memory
What does Licking/Chewing Mean?
Horse Training
I thought the article on long term memory was interesting – stating that horses that were asked to identify (or touch) an image they had seen years earlier remembered the specific skill and all were able to touch the image. Basically stating that horses have a very good long-term memory. Makes you sad for all the poor/abused horses out there that can never forget their past. (My Minnow is one of those)
I also liked the article on Attention Span, stating that horses have a very short attention span and will learn better if new skills are broken up into short maybe 5 minute sessions. I typically train this way anyway – but it can sometimes be hard if your horse is sooo close to learning a new skill and you don’t want to give up until they get it. Knowing now that its pretty certain they have a short attention span and that any longer than maybe 5 minutes will just set your training back – I will defnitely try to keep my training sessions short.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Minnow gets ready for the Beach
After my week-long beach vacation I picked up a few things for Minnow. One of my purchases was a beach bucket and shovel. I really wasn’t sure what I would teach Minnow with this “prop” but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try something. So I started off with the obvious – teaching Minnow to carry around the bucket. Then I decided this was just too boring. So I then proceeded to teach him to pick up the shovel – which evolved into asking him to “scoop” sand. Below you can see the video of our near-final result. Took him about 5 minutes to master this skill. He’s amazingly fast at learning new skills – he continues to impress me with each new task.
Minnow even performed this latest trick during our newest skit for a group of campers yesterday (and a newspaper photographer!). But you will just have to wait until to tomorrow to watch that video! And within the next few days I hope to be posting up a new newspaper article written about the famous Minnow of Chincoteague! So be sure to check back everyday – or else you might miss something exciting!
Hippo….what?
As promised I have plenty of new and exciting things going on with the trick ponies! I stayed at Iron Horse Farm until 10pm last night working with the horses. I missed them so much after my week-long beach vacation. After spending the week reading my new book “The Click that Teaches: Riding with the Clicker” by Alexandra Kurland I had lots of ideas spinning in my head that I wanted to try with my own horses. So when I arrived at the barn around 6pm last night, the first thing I did was drag out an old bareback pad that I had. I attached stirrups to it as well as some extra thick pads underneath for added cusioning. I “saddled” up Minnow and threw a bitless bridle on him. I think Minnow was a bit concerned because he hasn’t had any type of girth on in well over a year – due to his diagnosis of ringbone (equine arthritis) in March of 2008. (don’t worry all we did was walk)
My plan was to attempt the hippodrome stand. Now if you are hearing this word for the first time you are probably thinking – what the heck? Basically the hippodrome is a trick riding term which pertains to standing on the top of your horse while he usually gallops around the arena. Many trick riders use this in their performances and some even perform the hippodrome roman style – meaning having 2 horses in tandem that they stand on. I’ve never had any trick riding training, and honestly I’ve only ever seen it performed in demos/exhibitions. I secretly wish I could attend a trick riding school because it looks so cool.
So that being said – here is an example of a young girl doing the hippodrome stand on her pony Puddles.
I have noticed that most trick riders perform the hippodrome with a special trick riding saddle that in addition to having lots of extra straps and handles to hold onto, it has 2 foot loops near the front to put your feet into in order to perform the hippodrome. But since I don’t own a trick saddle I figured I’d try to do it bareback (hence the bareback pad). I have seen bareback roman riding – but I haven’t been able to locate any hippodrome stands with a single horse and bareback. Maybe its not possible? Its definitely hard! Lucky for me Minnow is so fat and wide that I had a little extra room to spread my legs for balance. But before I say much more….watch my attempt below:
As you can see when Minnow starts and stops suddenly it is very hard to keep my balance (hence why I fell off at the end). I was trying to experiment with different ways to position my feet for balance. I think I’m going to have to do a bit more research – especially to find out if anyone performs the hippodrome without straps to straddle the horse. This idea would be very similar to the way a jockey rides. Their stirrups are so short that when a jockey straightens his legs he’s almost standing.
So anyway I hope you enjoyed my failed attempt at the hippodrome stand. If there is any trick riders out there I welcome as much help as I can get! Check back on tuesday – because I not only worked on the hippodrome stand with Minnow, but I also taught him a brand new trick. But for suspense you will have to wait till after the weekend to hear about it!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
