Posts Tagged ‘training
Good Boy Blitz
The character that is Blitz
The majority of my posts always involve my two Chincoteagues, Boomerang and Minnow, because they are the two that I actually own. But my farm is also home to one more Chincoteague that I consider one of my own, Chesapeake Lightning or Blitz. I actually used to own Blitz, until I sold him to my mom recently. I bought Blitz last May in the hopes that he would be my next mounted games pony after I retired Minnow. I tried Blitz in Maryland one rainy day and he seemed like he might fit the job. He seemed to have some speed, was unaffected by the equipment and was defintely a food oriented pony…perfect for trick training. Not to mention his stunning good looks won me over instantly. I bought him right then and there – well I guess actually I agreed to take him on trial for a few days back home before it was official. During my trial period with him I began to notice that he didn’t seem as speedy. He became a lot more sluggish and slow to move off my leg and I began to have doubts that he’d be the speedy mounted games pony I desired. I contemplated sending him back (even though I had already fallen in love) but my mom convinced me to keep him – thinking the speed would come later. 
After several months of working with him it was evident that he just wasn’t cut out to be speed demon games pony – although I was successful in getting him more forward than he was. I decided it was best to sell Blitz, and I was in luck because my mom wanted to keep him for herself. Blitz is still in training to be a games pony, but at a speed better suitable for him and my mom. So in the end things have worked out – Blitz gets to stay with us and his Chincoteague brothers, and I still get to work with him.
I took a short video the other day of the tricks Blitz has learned so far. Unfortunately there isn’t many – mainly because once I bought Boomerang I didn’t have as much time to spend working with Blitz. But luckily Blitz is a very fast learner, he almost has a dog like personality – I’ve never met a horse quite like him for sure. I think he’d crawl in my lap if he could. He has a quirky attitude that commands everyone’s attention – I think thats why he was so easy to call in love with. I definitely have plans to keep training Blitz to perform, and I have been grooming my mom to teach him new skills as well.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Boomerang the Wonder Pony
Boomer 2009
I had a busy weekend with the boys, full of trick training, riding, working on the farm and polocrosse. Rather than to go through everything in one day – I think I’ll split it up over the next few days, it will give you something to look forward to! So be sure to check back each day.
So today I’m going to talk about Boomerang (Chesapeake Boomerang to be exact). He’s the newly turned 6 year old that I have been training since the end of last summer. I took a short video from over the weekend of the progress he’s made with his back up. Now I can get him to back up using voice commands and weight shifting – the hope is that in the future he will respond to my voice and a slight weight shift rather than the exaggerated movement you will see in this video.
Everyday I become more and more pleased with the progress Boomer is making. I was thinking back to when I first brought him home at the end of August. I had arranged to have his owners bring him to the Chincoteague Pony Centre from their home in North Carolina. I drove down there with my trailer to try him out to see if I would like him. I spent several hours testing him out, trying to make sure he had speed and was ok with the games equipment. As he passed all of my tests I offered to purchase him under the condition that he passed my vet when I got him back home. We all agreed and I was excited to get my new pony, and Blitz’s half brother home. Back home I had the vet come out to look Boomer over. Everything went well until it was time to flex test his joints (holding each leg tight against the body for several minutes than asking the horse to jog off when released). Boomer jogged off lame on his left front. I was heartbroken – according to my vet, she would never purchase a pony that didn’t pass the flex test.
I went home that day thinking I would have to send him back – what games pony would hold up that didn’t pass the flex test – afterall look what happened to Minnow at 15 as he was diagnoised with ringbone (he however was never flex tested). I told Boomer’s owners what happened and they agreed to arange a date where we could meet up again to return him. A few days passed and I couldn’t stop thinking about Boomer – I just couldn’t give up on him. I decided to have him xrayed and I started reading up on the flex test. Many vets seemed to agree that the flex test did not determine a future of lameness in a horse – afterall if you were asked to hold a leg up tightly and then run- would you be able to keep from limping slightly? (I tried it and I can’t). So when the xrays came back clean I decided to give Boomer a few weeks to rest and then I would flex him again with the vet. As the weeks passed I was fighting becoming attached to Boomer, I tried not to love him like I love Minnow and Blitz. I was trying to save myself the heartache if I ended up having to send him back. I think Boomer noticed this as I seemed distant from him.
But when it came time to flex him, Boomer trotted off perfectly sound. Despite my vet’s doubts in him I decided to keep him anyway (we will just have to wait and see if he ever develops lameness issues). I was thrilled to have Boomer, but I think its taken me a long time to build a connection with him. For a while he was “just the pony I rode” instead of “Boomer the pony who I have a special relationship with”. It was also extremely hard to replace Minnow with another riding mount. Minnow and I have a relationship that I have never had with another horse – we can read eachother like no one else – I also believe I will never have a connection like we share with any other pony. Minnow and I were destined to find eachother.
That being said its hard to give that same love and respect to Boomer when deep down I have felt as if I’m replacing Minnow. But with each day Boomer and I take one step closer to understanding eachother and creating our own unique connection.
I took Boomer to a Polocrosse scrimmage yesterday so that I could referee on him. As I warmed him up – performing his sliding stops, his spins and back up – I looked around at all the other horses. Boomer, at 6 and very inexperienced, was more controlled and responsive than any of the seasoned polocrosse/competition horses there (not to mention I performed these tasks bitless). He clearly shined above them all and yet he had never set foot on a polocrosse field or even witnessed a game. He rode up and down the field with me taking hits to the face with the ball, chasing the ball when it went into the tall grass, and standing clamly so that I could throw the ball in.
After yesterday I can honestly say that we took a huge leap forward in our respect and understanding for eachother. I don’t think Boomer will ever be able to replace Minnow, but I think in the years to come we will become an unstoppable pair. And I can say now, that Boomer and I were meant to find eachother as well.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Training on a Misty Day
Mist over the vineyard next to Iron Horse Farm
We had a downpour of rain yesterday just as I was getting ready to leave work and head out to Iron Horse Farm. But I was in luck because the clouds parted and the rain stopped to allow just enough time for me to ride Boomer. I worked on making him into a “western horse” (with english tack). We worked on spins, backing, neck reining and my sliding stop. Boomer is developing a killer stop with all the clicker training work I have been doing with him. I can now ask him into a flat out gallop and by shifting my weight back (and no rein pressue what so ever) he tucks his butt under himself and throws on the brakes. I even had my sister jump on him so she could see how much he has improved over the months. My sister has been away at the University of Delaware up until yesterday, so the last time she rode Boomer he was a kick ride, with no balance and no steering. She was amazed to find that since turning 6 this year Boomer has really “grown up” and he’s definitely no longer a kick ride – now he has speed and more speed (which is good because he wouldn’t turn out to be a good gaming pony if he didn’t know how to go).
I also helped my mom work with Blitz and asking him to move towards the barrels. He has developed a habit of scooting his butt away from the games equipment in order to face it, and we have determined that during some lessons when out instructor placed treats on all the barrels to get Blitz used to it – it completely confused him into thinking now he has to face all the barrels. He’s improved some but I’m hoping some targeting practice with his feet will help. I plan to have him target a mat by placing his front feet on it and eventually moving that mat to the exact spot that I want him to stand when approaching a barrel.
Anyway yesterday was a successful ride for all the ponies. Today I hope to work with Minnow as well and teaching him to stand on his pedestal with all 4 feet.
**hope you enjoy these photos I took yesterday when I left the farm. The neighboring vineyard looked beautiful with the mist that appeared after the rain.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
You can’t learn it from a book
I’ve been clicker training my horses for 5 years now – and I just bought my very first clicker training book a few days ago. Thats really sad. I think the reason I never did it before was because I felt like I knew what the clicker did (it made a sound to signal that my horse performed correctly and would soon be rewarded) so what more did I need to know? I’m slightly stubborn in that I want to feel like I created my own path in training my animals. I’m pretty sure this is why I never really got too involved with the Parelli Method. There is such a HUGE following of Parelli people that it made me feel like I wasn’t going to be anything special if I trained this way and that I was just buying into it like the masses – spending the big bucks on the dvds and special training equipment (this is similar to my reason as to why I don’t go to church – not to mention I’m Quaker).
So instead I turned to the clicker – which seemed very basic to me, and there was no “level program” or training steps that had to be taken. All I really needed was the clicker and some treats and I was good to go. I recently decided to purchase Alexandra Kurland’s new book “Riding with the Clicker” because I felt like she might have some pointers that I could adapt to my own ponies. As I’ve mentioned before I have been training my young Chincoteague, Boomer, how to be a mounted games pony. Since I bought him the end of last summer he has improved with leaps and bounds and responds amazingly well to the clicker training I have been doing with him. I really don’t know much about riding with the clicker – except what common sense has taught me and what I know about horse training. So I finally gave in and bought this book in the hopes that I can turn Boomer into the dream pony I have always wanted (not to say that my previous horses weren’t ever dream horses). I’m looking forward to reading more about how others train – but I still believe the best way to train a horse is by understanding how to communicate with them and then the rest will come. The clicker has helped me create a language with my horses and its up to me what I’m going to tell them.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Polocrosse
I’m so excited that I have another long 3-day weekend (I claimed my casino rewards early and decided to close my shop saturday through monday for memorial day weekend) to play with my ponies. Who knows – maybe I’ll be really bad and sneak out early today. 🙂
On Sunday I am trying to plan a Polocrosse Scrimmage for the local Pony Club that I coach. I don’t really talk about Polocrosse much because I’m not as active in the sport as I once was. My sister and I were actually very competitive in the Intermediate Pony Division a few years back – earning rights to compete at the National Level, as well as my sister’s horse winning best horse at several tournaments. For those of you that don’t know – Polocrosse is:
A team sport that is played all over the world. It is a combination of polo and lacrosse. It is played outside, on a field (the pitch), on horseback. Each rider uses a cane stick to which is attached a racquet head with a loose, thread net, in which the ball is carried. The ball is made of sponge rubber and is approximately 4 inches across. The objective is to score goals by throwing the ball between your goal posts.
Minnow playing Polox
I used to compete with Chincoteague Minnow in the #1 position – which is essentially the scorer, and my sister played as the #3 which is the defender. We then would have a #2 player which acted as a mid-fielder. Most of the time we played under the team name The Flying Cadets. Minnow unfortunately was not extremely fond of Polocrosse. I think because he is so short he didn’t like having to get close to all the other horses that towered over him. Frequently he tried to run off of the field with me – and he actually succeeded once, dumping me to the ground near the sidelines. I ended up bracing my fall with my left arm – which resulted in several weeks of physical therapy and an elbow that still isn’t quite right. But despite Minnow’s protests to Polocrosse, he was actually a very good #1 because he was fast (even with his shrimpy legs) and he could spin rather quickly to get away from the defenders.
I am hoping to bring Boomer and Blitz along so that they can both play Polocrosse in the future. Both ponies have been exposed to the rackets and seem to do quite well, and hopefully sunday I will referee off of Boomer. We’d have an all family team then – me, my mom and my sister – The Flying Cadets shall return again! 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
For more information on Polocrosse please visit these websites:
American Polocrosse Association
Bucks County Polocrosse
