First Bareback Ride!

Yay!!

So, today I went out not expecting to ride at all. But I went out, and I was like, hmmm, I don't really feel like walking her all the way to the roundpen (which was what I was going to do originally). So I got out my rope reins for the first time (yay!), and put them on, and worked on flexing away from the pressure. She got pretty confused at first, despite her looking quite dashing in her new get up:

Lookit how pretty! Purple's a good color on you, girlie!

So basically, I stood at her left shoulder and gathered the reins up in my right hand as though I was riding, and put pressure on either one rein or both. If it was one, I waited for her to give to the pressure sideways and flex away from the pressure; both reins, she had to back up.

Just starting to understand the pressure! (And being cute.)

Naturally, I'd click when she got the right answer and drop the reins completely in a big, obvious release. Then I gave her a bit of carrot for being such a smart horse!

Grumpy face!? But you just got a treat! :(

That's better! Happy ears! And more chewing.

She started to understand after a few repetitions that there were 3 answers to my asking her a question with pressure: left, right, and back. Soon she started to go through all her options if she was stuck or confused. Soon she started to realize that there was a method to my madness, but it took a little while.

Remember that I said she was being ridden in a western leverage bit? Well, she doesn't know how to neck rein, and I don't think anyone ever taught her how to direct rein, either! A horse that doesn't steer... no wonder she has trouble listening! She was never actually taught anything!

Cuteness!! It took me a while to get one where she was lookin' at me

with both her ears forward. She was a tad bit grumpy that the treats stopped ;)

So it wasn't her being unwilling... she just didn't know. (Look at that face.. I mean, really, how could she ever mean any harm!?)

Like I said, soon she began to understand that one rein meant steer, and two reins means back and/or stop. Since she was doing so well, I thought I needed to switch it up a bit, since we'd been doing this on both sides for a while. So, I walked her to the fence, and wanted to teach her to stand for mounting. But... what do you know! She didn't need to be taught! She stood just fine while I climbed up on her paddock fence and hopped up on her bareback. She was trying to crib, though, so I put pressure on one side of her halter to flex her towards me, and she did! Click and treat!

And here's the great part: she really hasn't been clicker trained for very long. I wasn't sure how she'd react to it undersaddle. What'd she do? She stopped, and twisted her neck around to my boot and waited for me to present her treat! Wow! Wasn't expecting that one!

Not a care in the world!

So, I squeezed for us to be off, and she balked a bit. I don't think she was taught what leg cues are supposed to mean very well, or maybe she really is just ornery? Who knows! So I bugged her until she took a step forward, and I clicked, and gave her a treat. The next time I asked her to move off my leg? Lo and behold, she walked off perfectly fine! Maybe she really was just confused... So I let her step a few more steps, clicked, and treated. Then I added in the one-side pressure to get her to turn; she thought it meant "stop." I clucked at her and put a little more leg pressure on while holding the rein to the left, and she took a few steps toward the left. Good girl! Click and treat!

Hmm... you want something, don't you? (She's trying to figure 

out what the pressure means now that I'm on top of her!)

Through this baby step method, I was able to ride her around her field, bareback and in a riding halter, with no trouble at all! She just needed some encouragement to know when she was doing something right, and I gave it to her. She needs to work on straightness and continuing on the path I set her on, but she steers and listens much better now!

So then, we worked on her understanding two-rein pressure and that it was different from one-rein pressure. I used both reins to stop the forward movement, clicked, and treated. I did this a few times, and then I kept pressure on when she was stopped to get her to shift back. She didn't understand this at first, and tried flexing both ways, and giving at the poll, and curling her neck to get away from the pressure (no bit you can evade sweetheart, sorry!). Finally she began to shift back just a tiiiiny bit - click!! Treat!

I asked again right after she finished her treat, and she backed up almost immediately. So smart!!

This is a video of one of her backing up tries. I'm sitting on her, and then I gather up the reins to put a little bit of pressure on. She backs up, and the sound you hear is me clicking her. Then I lean over and she comes around to get her treat! :D

Afterwards, I petted her lots and let her munch her hay for a minute or two.

Her ears look so floppy here! haha

So then, I walked her to a stall and fed her dinner and groomed her while she ate. Unfortunately, I totally forgot the HHC I bought to work on her coat, and I was so upset with myself! Her tail is still much too static-y and lacking moisture, but her coat is looking so much better. I even think I can see that she put on a bit of weight since I first brought her home! Glee!!

But then, I notice... THIS:

Lookit that fat leg! Ugh :( She wasn't walking funny at all, or anything, but man, good thing I didn't lunge her today! Dodged that bullet, yes I did. Note to self: groom BEFORE working with her, so you can notice these things! But I would've seen if she was lame, and we didn't do anything but walk today, so it wasn't really a big deal.

However, I was very sad. I felt it, and it didn't seem to be hurting her at all - she picked it up fine, put weight on it fine, and didn't mind me feeling on it and poking around it. It was a bit hot, though, which is bad news! I told Nick about it and he said he did hear squealing and a kick that connected to something solid, so she probably kicked out at the fence. Silly mare! If it doesn't go down in the next few days I'm going to pick up some liniment stuff for it. Nick had some, but he's out, so I'll have to grab some myself. Hopefully it'll be less noticeable tomorrow! If not, I'll pick some up on Wednesday and bring it out to her Thursday. (Stupid school schedule!)

Hi!

...why are you pointing that cell phone at me?

I ended up turning her out with her neighbor horse, a little tricolor paint mare who's about 18 and probably a good 2 hands smaller than Reina. I thought Rei would boss her around, since she's big and has a bit of a queen attitude, right? Nope. Little mare bossed Rei! It made me laugh. We'll see if this keeps up and who ends up bossing who. Nick said they talked over the fence all the time, though, and seemed to get along well, so we're hoping this will cure Reina's nasty cribbing habit and make her a bit less bored. If not, I have a cribbing collar on its way to me soon, so that should fix it in any case.

Overall, it was a very good day! She's a total love and we're really bonding. I could lay on her neck while she walked and she didn't care, and we sauntered around bonding for a while inbetween me teaching her things. She's very laid back and really loves getting attention from me, which is great, because I love snuggling and grooming her!

So I leave you with some more adorable pictures from today:

She looks like she's pondering the meaning of life in this one.. hehe.

Wondering why I'm walking away from her when I still have treats.

Being ADORABLE because she wants treats! It's so hard to resist.

I'm going out to ride tomorrow, but I won't be on Rei - I'm gonna ride one of Nick's horses. I hope I'll have time to play with Reina a bit before I leave, but how much time I have will depend on how ready I feel for my test tomorrow night, so... I'm not expecting much. But I will be trying very hard! In fact, the only reason this got written was because I'm nursing a physics headache as I type this.

Today I learned:

1. Reina continues to prove how smart she is.

2. She can be super adorable when wanting treats... must resist!

3. She's not stubborn; just confused. And even if she is stubborn, it goes away with a click and a treat. Force is absolutely unnecessary!

4. We need some more work on responsiveness to cues before we start trail riding and conditioning and such.

5. Having a general marker for "okay, clicker training is over!" is quite important. If I don't give her a peppermint and pet her and say, "Okay, good girl! All done!", she gets a little nervous and nudge-y and wonders why we stopped playing. Note to self: be consistent!

Today Reina learned:

1. Pressure from left = go right.

2. Pressure from right = go left.

3. Pressure everywhere = stop/back up!

4. Leg pressure = go!

5. Click means stop and turn your head around, ears forward, and wait patiently for treat!

6. Kicking fences is bad. (Well, I hope she learned this from her fat leg!)

Breakthrough!

So, I finally got to go see my girl today. Yay! I rushed through my research lab to get out to the barn in time to spend a few hours with her before it got dark.

So, she's sound! Perfectly sound. I saw it with my own eyes. And she came up to the fence to visit when I walked up! It was terribly adorable!

Nick says he thinks she's bored. She ran out of hay to munch and dragged her hay net across her paddock. Sigh, Reina! Well, at least I know she has a brain in there somewhere! ;)

So, first off, I worked her in the round pen for the first time. Hooray! She's obviously been lunged before, as she understood what my lunge cues meant and went around really well.

There's video number one! She didn't freak out and start bucking or take off at first, either, which was nice. She just trotted real big and nice, with her nose up in the air (we're really going to have to work on her headset... yes, yes we are). She settled down some though, which is when I took the videos. And then she settled down even more, into a shorter trot, and then I let her walk. We switched directions pretty frequently and I tried to keep her engaged and work her evenly. She didn't take even one off step and was a very good girl. I only lunged her for about 15 minutes, but she was blowing and a bit warm by the time we were done. She needs to get in shape!! But I can't really blame her; Nick commented that she looks about 200 pounds underweight. Poor baby. We're workin' on it!

Here's the video to the left:

Anyways, we had a very positive lunging experience. She's always so good!

On the way back, she started snorting and rolling her eyes at the old broodmare barn we had to pass to get back to her paddock. So I rolled my eyes at her and walked her up to it. I petted her and walked her onto the concrete floor and let her snort and blow at the big old cart thingy that was in the giant isles. I petted her some more and she put her head down, calmed down, and walked on just fine. She really is quite sensible!! I love this about her. She's not an idiot! Who knew!? Nick said he doesn't think I'll have any trouble with her at all if she's this sensible already, race bred, and hasn't had much done with her. I agree.

So then we did clicker training, and this is where my breakthrough comes in! We tried targeting, touching her nose to a cone, again. She understands that when I click she gets a treat, but didn't understand that her behavior was causing it. She's so polite with her nose that she goes out of her way to NOT accidentally bump into the cone, which can be frustrating for me, as a handler, trying to teach her specifically TO bump the cone! So I switched up my game and tried something else.

We worked on flexing with her riding halter. I figure if I'm going to get on her bitless, she needs to be prepared! Good thing I did, too, because the first time I pulled on one side of her riding halter with the lead rope I had, she just stood there for 30 seconds. Then she backed up. Then she stood some more. THEN she bent her head towards me. (Please note: I was merely putting a bit of pressure on it. I didn't increase the pressure at all, just kept it steady until I elicited the correct response.) I clicked and she got all excited for her treat. I gave it to her, and repeated the exercise. It only took her 5-10 seconds to release the pressure this time; no backing up. I switched sides, and got it down to 5 seconds. I put the lead rope over her withers and went around to the opposite side; pulled over her withers like I was "riding" her and made her flex away from me - 3 seconds. I clicked/treated with every correct response. I love clicker training; they learn so much faster when treats/positive reinforcement is involved!!

So that was breakthrough number one. I got her flexing pretty nicely tonight and I'm definitely planning on building on it this weekend. She was a very good girl, so I'm going to be breaking out the proper reins now, and probably sitting on her bareback just to see if the steering/brakes transfer here in the next week. Excitement!

Breakthrough #2: my clicker training books (by Alexandra Kurland) always told me that the way you give the treat can make or break the manners of the horse. On my last (and first..) clicker experiment, my leased horse Ruby, I never understood this. I realized that this is because I was doing it wrong! Ruby got impatient and grabby sometimes, and I didn't understand why this was. Now I do. Alex says specifically to hold the treat away from your body (which I did) and make them back up out of your space to get it. I didn't do the last part, and that's like, the most important part! I started doing this with Reina, making her back up to get her treat - I would click, go to get the treat, her nose would be near me and she would be looking adorable and excited for the bit of carrot... I'd step towards her and hold the treat near her chest and wait for her to back up to get it. Five repetitions of this and it got to where, after I clicked, I just had to shift my weight towards her and she would back up and wait patiently to take her treat.

BREAKTHROUGH! Seriously.

So after that amazing little clicker training session (maybe 10 minutes), I let her have her grain and groomed her. Then I had to say goodbye because it was getting dark, I have homework to do (which I'm still procrastinating), etc., etc. Life apart from horses is stupid.

In summary, I learned:
1. Reina can lunge (at least in a round pen).
2. Rei is getting more and more attached to me, and is totally adorable. (Yay!)
3. Good treat delivery skills REALLY ARE ESSENTIAL for clicker training. Don't skimp, self.

And Reina learned:
1. Mom knows how to lunge me (at least in a round pen).
2. Mom can lead me to scary things and they don't end up eating me.
3. Pressure on one side of the riding halter means move away from said pressure. (Still a little unsure about this, though!)
4. Be polite when Mom clicks! Otherwise I have to wait longer for my treat. :(

She also stood in her paddock at liberty and let me love on her for a few minutes before I left. Her ears were pricked and she had her head down so I could rub her. She really is a sweetheart. I'm definitely falling in love with her. I hope she's liking me as much as I'm liking her!! :)

Grr. But Also, Yay!

The Grr: It's RAINING. I planned for today to be a wondrous horse-and-rider bonding time. The carrots were chopped up, I went to bed on time so I could get up earlyish to have most of the day to spend with her, and everything. But it's RAINING! And not like, oh no, it's sprinkling, whatever will I do. It's like, there's-a-creek-in-the-middle-of-the-road, kitty-and-I-got-woken-up-by-thunder-that-made-us-both-jump-three-feet-in-the-air, oh-my-God-how-did-it-get-that-wet-outside, the-sound-of-the-rain-on-the-window-almost-isn't-even-relaxing-anymore-because-it's-so-crazy-LOUD kind of rain. Which means that the .5 mile stretch of dirt road I have to drive on in my little bitty 10-year-old sports car is... probably covered with puddles and/or is just one giant stretch of water. Not to mention that the barn doesn't have a road, per se... it's just that I drive around on the grass. Eep.

Which means... I will not be seeing Reina today. And this is so saddening, after not seeing her Sunday AND Monday, that I ordered Chinese food to alleviate the pain (and also because I'm hungry). I checked the forecast, and it's supposed to rain ALL day, and on into the night. :(

A picture of me and Reina on the best trail ride ever. Her previous

owner finally emailed me these, so now I get to share them! Yay!

The Yay: She's sound!! I called yesterday to check on her (since I had school things and couldn't go in person), and they said she's putting weight on her abscess-y hoof and getting along perfectly well! Yay!! I couldn't be happier. :D (Well, I could be - if it WASN'T RAINING!) But really, this is fabulous news.

Also, I'm getting a miracle cribbing collar for half price because it's used! A nice person offered to send me theirs since they don't use it anymore. Seriously, guys, if you don't troll the HGS Forums, you really should! I've gotten so much great advice and many great ideas and lots of cheap, used tack and goodies from them. It's great!

Yep, another one of me and Rei on the trail! And yes, I rode with my stirrups 
like that the entire ride. They were too long, so, I rode stirrupless! *flex*

Anddd... I splurged on Reina more! This is becoming a common theme in my life, I think! lol. I got her a small bottle of Healthy HairCare (the mane/tail/coat conditioner), some Hilton Herballs (which I read about in a fabulous blog called I Am Boyfriend - they're all-natural, sugar free, healthy, and small, which hopefully means they'll be great for clicker training!), and a fabulous equine spray bottle (it's purple, and has a horse on it! Yay!!). I'm so excited. I can't wait to try out the HHC and the treats; her coat/mane/tail really need some lovin', so hopefully the HHC will help them get healthy again faster than just nutrition alone *crosses fingers*. And the treats, well, new treats are always fun. And, naturally, I needed the fancy horse spray bottle for the HHC. Besides, it matched. How could I resist??

Well, that's it for today, since I can't actually go out and see my lovely mare. She'll have to be neglected until tomorrow. Hopefully it stops raining before tomorrow... sigh!

The Whys

So, I promised this blog a post about why I'm doing what I'm doing, re: bitless and clicker training.

Since I have nothing better to do today (because I'm sick and stuck inside, sigh!), I shall try to explain my reasoning here.

The reasons behind both bitlessness and clicker training are similar, at least for me. It's all about being humane. I'm a bleeding heart, and I love animals almost to the point of silliness. Really. I've loved them all my life. I'm a really compassionate person by nature, and I'm always very aware as to how my animals are feeling. They can't talk and it's not like they can sue people who mistreat them, and a lot of times they don't even understand why they're being punished or what they did wrong. They don't think like us, and people don't understand that. Having said that, I absolutely believe that they have feelings, of course. But they don't have the same kind of reasoning we do, and we can't really explain it to them, now can we?

Clicker training, for me, is a way to talk to my animals. Now, with my kitty, it's not so important. She knows what I want from her, because it's very simple. She's small and snuggly and very un-menacing, and she has very few rules in my house.
1. Don't jump on my dresser or my coffee table.
2. Don't knock over breakable things.
3. Be sweet and cute.

Examples of rule #3 being followed. Isn't she adoooorable!?

Her life is pretty simple, so communicating with her is easy. She knows when I approve, and when I don't, and the difference is clear and she understands her boundaries. Listed above are really the only rules she has to worry about, so it's an uncomplicated existence.

Horses, however, are entirely different. They're a lot bigger than we are, and they can get dangerous if they don't understand or act out. Now, my cat acting out and running around like a maniac... that's adorable! Aww, look at the kitty bein' a racecar. But a horse, running around like a maniac? Oh God, someone stop it, it's going to hurt someone! Catch it! Tranq it! Do SOMETHING!

See where I'm going with this...?

Clicker training is how I tell my horse which responses are correct. It's gives me and my horse a way to talk to one another. It's not me saying "here, I'm going to poke you and annoy the crap out of you until you move over, and then I'll stop. And if you pick the wrong answer, I'll smack you." How eager would you be if your teacher or professor trained you that way? It's a miracle that horses still want to BE with us and have relationships with us after how we've gone about training them! So in clicker training, I give my horse a "YES!" answer. It's clear, precise, and most importantly, the HORSE controls whether or not it wants to do any given behavior. It's entirely within the horse's power to get me to click... or not. So she can help control the pace we go, what we learn, and how we learn it. It's an amazing tool, and I highly recommend that everyone with a horse gives it a shot. It opened up an entirely different world for me and my horse, and I'm still learning.

It's amazing how suddenly, when I started using positive reinforcement, I realized just how much I was programmed to correct the horse instead of rewarding it for the correct behaviors! It's very eye-opening, and something I still struggle with a lot, but I'm trying very hard to get better.

And now, bitless. It's the same sort of thing. I've never believed in huge bits or crazy contraptions to control horses; I've always known that if you can make your intent clear, the horse will do whatever it can to please you, as long as it's physically and emotionally possible for the horse. All my life, every horse I've worked with, has tried so very hard to understand what I was asking and do what I wanted.

So... why do I need a stick of metal in its mouth? What's the point? If I could, I'd ride off bareback and bridleless into the sunset. But I'm not that good, yet. I do, however, think that Reina and I can take a step forward and learn to go bitless. This is my compromise with myself. I'm trying to teach myself to be a better horseman, to listen instead of tell.. and I think this is a great place to start. Eventually, I want us to be able to communicate without anything but us. But for now, this will do. This is my starting point.

Besides! I get to order awesome matching gear like this:

We're gonna be communicating in STYLE. Oh yeah!

And besides. I never really bought into the "be the boss" mindset. I mean, if that's how my horse has to see it, then fine. But my horse shouldn't treat me like a lead mare! Heck no! I don't want to be kicked, bitten, grumped at, tested... nope. I'm a human, not a horse. I don't want my horse to move whenever I walk towards it. And besides - my horse is allowed to have an opinion. I don't tell her where to put her feet; she doesn't tell me where I want to go. It's a partnership. I've always thought about it this way. My horse has always been my buddy, and that's how it always will be. And I've never had disrespect problems; she trusts me, and I trust her.

So, there you have it. My philosophy and why I'm doing what I'm doing.

A Little Bit Discouraging...

So, yesterday was fabulous. But today... was a bit discouraging.

Rei cribs. Ugh! She's a cribber! I even hate saying it. :( So now I'm stuck trying to find some way to fix it. I want to try one of those bitter sprays to discourage her grabbing the paddock fence... and I suppose if that doesn't work, I'll be stuck buying her a cribbing collar. So depressing!

BAD, BAD HABIT! Bad horsey! No!!

And just for clarification: She doesn't chew wood; she windsucks. She mostly does it after she eats, I guess, but she does it in her paddock. My BO says she may stop when we get her a companion, because she's alone right now. The paddock is big, though, and she's out 24/7, and is finally getting free choice hay and breakfast/dinner with lots of nutrients and proteins and all that good stuff. The only stressors for her right now would be a new place and not being out with other horses, although there are horses right next to her all the time, so she can talk to them, see them, touch noses, and grump at them when they're around and she's eating. And the fact that she's underweight and out of condition and such.. but I'm working on that! But yeah. Ugh. Cribbing. Yuck.

I'm now wishing I didn't procrastinate and not write about yesterday, because I was feeling so good about us yesterday! But really, apart from the cribbing, she was a very good girl again. She's still eating well, walks up to me in her field, is very easy to work around. She gets a little grumpy if you get too close to her mare parts or stick fingers in her ears, but she's totally fine with everything else and stands like a pro.

Yesterday... yesterday was Reina's first farrier visit! Our farrier is also our BO, so he's very convenient. He does teeth, too! I feel spoiled! Haha. Anyways, yes, I held her in a stall while he trimmed her feet. She's barefoot, and I'm hoping to keep her that way. She was a good girl. She wiggled some, but not much!

The bad news: He found an abscess in her right hind. Eep! He said her back feet looked totally neglected, but her front feet weren't as bad.

The good news: it was old, and had healed over on itself. There was no way of knowing it was there - she was 100% sound - and when he went to trim the foot, BAM! abscess ick! Poor girl. She wiggled, but not too much, she was so good! He said it should heal up fine, and he's checking it regularly to make sure there's no heat and she'll be better in a few days. He also said she has great, hard feet (especially for a TB!). Yay!

So I fed her in the same stall afterwards and groomed her really well.

Poor girlie looks so thin in this picture! I'll fix her up, though!

Lookit how sweet! Coming to say "hi!" in spite of her feed being in front of her nose.

Isn't her halter stylish? Purple is SO her color. I did good!! :D

It looks like she has some rain rot on her back, so I curried her really well, and I'm hoping it'll solve itself with her new, healthier diet and lifestyle. If not, I'll have to break out the disinfectants here in a few weeks! Beware, rain rot! You'd better get yourself gone off my horsey!!

Yuck! This is the worst spot of it, though, thankfully.

She looked so much shinier and healthier after I groomed her. I was proud. :D And! I brushed all of the tangles out of her mane, tail, and forelock. I know everyone says if you want your tail to grow, don't brush it, but... I'll worry about that later. I can't stand having tangles like that. I'll stop brushing it when I get some nice leave-in conditioner. I'm still looking for my leave-in conditioner of choice.. will keep you updated!

It looks longer in the pictures than it actually is. It only goes to the point of her hock, about. It's kinda frazzly around the top, but it's surprisingly thick elsewhere. I think with her new nutritious diet, it'll start growing long and even thicker! My goal for this tail: be gorgeous and long come summertime. Can we do it!? I hope so; if not, I'll fashion her a tail-wrap with a built-in fly swatter so she's not miserable.

That's all we did yesterday, though. Bonded over feeding, grooming, and our first farrier visit together. Yay! She was definitely sore, but she was walking okay by the time I left.

So! Today! Nick said she was running around like an idiot in her paddock today; he thinks she wants to be out with the other horses. We'll get you a buddy soon, girlie! Hang in there! I think all of her running made her footsore; she overdid it. Horses!! *rolls eyes* She was super lame when I went to see her, and Nick was confused because he checked her over that morning and she was totally fine. Silly horse ran herself lame. Doesn't she know that she needs to take it easy if something hurts? Geez.

I introduced her to clicker training today. She was so cute! She was starting to understand the targeting concept, but I didn't push it too much, as I didn't want to overface her. But she's a very eager clicker student, and she's going to be a lot of fun. I plan on working with her more tomorrow, so stay tuned. (And she does, in fact, like carrots!)

Cuuuuuteness! That's my favorite picture of her yet, with her halter and matching lead rope (I really did good on the matching front!) and pricked ears and hay wispies in her mouth, lol! She looks is just as sweet as she looks here!

I had to walk her across her paddock to get her to her feed. She was almost three-legged for the first few steps, but she was walking okay on it by the end. You could tell it still hurt, though. I felt bad for her, my poor little horsey. But I'm sure she'll be fine in a few days. Just no more running around like an imbecile! Sigh. :)

Good news: even when she was hurting, she let me touch her ouchie foot and pick it up. She didn't like it, and took it away after a minute, but still. She trusts me that much, at least! And she let me lead her with just her lead rope around her neck to get her moving to get her feed. She really is a doll.

Now that I've written all this about her, I don't really remember why I was so discouraged. Cribbing is controllable in 99% of cases I've seen, and abscesses are common and will more often than not heal up with no lasting issues. In the shape she's in, I'm really lucky this fixable/preventable stuff is the only stuff she's faced me with. Crossing my fingers that this is it, and she continues to improve! I think I worry too much...

Winter fuzzies!

I'll just pray that after this, she stays sound and continues being sweet, loving, and trusting. I think she's starting to look forward to my visits; she always pricks her ears when she sees me! Yay. :D

SHE'S HERE! She's finally HERE!! :D

Okay, I know, I promised a post or two about bitless and clicker training. I'm sorry. College actually started making me work, and stuff. But I'm here! And said posts will come eventually.

But a more exciting topic: Reina came home today! It's official! I have her JC certificate, coggins, bill of sale... the works! She's currently safe and adjusting to her new home. :D I am beside myself with joy! Finally... a horse of my own! It's been far too long since I had one.

Anyways! So. It was quite a drive up there, but my BO was nice enough to take me and his truck & trailer up there for the price of gas! Such a great guy. Time passed pretty quickly on the way up, and getting Reina into the trailer actually proved easier than I expected, I suppose. She was pretty terrified and upset that we made her go into the big hunking monster of claustrophobia, though. But she was being silly, and we just kept being persistent. She bounced up a few times and actually hit her head once (!). She didn't bounce up again. Smart horse. I wish she didn't do that, though. I felt so bad! But there was nothing I could do; she'd walk on perfectly fine and then, with one step left until we could close it, BAM! OMG-I-DON'T-LIKE-IT-IN-HERE-itis set in and she backed up so fast she'd pop up sometimes. So she bonked herself and learned to keep her hooves on the ground. My poor tall TB!

So, long story short, we got her in after 10-15 minutes of persistence, and then rode back to the barn.

Let me take a moment to say: I love my barn! It's huge and quiet and gorgeous and has everything I could possibly want! Empty stalls for use; nice, knowledgeable BOs who have been in the horse business for years; one of the BOs is a farrier and an equine dentist, as well as a horse trainer (he's awesome!); a nice, big, solid round pen for training; tons of fields to ride around in; and dozens of trails and thousands of miles of state parks within a 10-minute trailer ride! It's so great!!

Okay. Rant of how awesome my barn is.. over. So she was banging around back there for the first 2 minutes or so while we were stalling in the driveway talking to her owner previous owner; but then, once we got going, she got quiet. Good girl. :) She was a very good trailer-er.. no banging after those first few minutes, no massive shifts of weight, no talking! She rode like a champ! Then we get to the barn, and she gets all nervous and shaky when the ramp comes down, but surprisingly!, she doesn't fly off the trailer (my old pony used to do that; talk about making handlers nervous! Yeesh). She just stood there while I undid the butt bar, and then she backed off really easily. He handed her over to me and I walked her to her new paddock! It was all set up for her with a giant net of hay, her dinner in shallow rubber bucket on a mat next to the hay, and several buckets of water. She gets the place to herself for now, while she and the other horses get acquainted! So I walk her over, and she's snorty and looking, but she doesn't spook or run. She's so very sensible!

In fact, she doesn't pull against me at all. We get into her paddock and I go to undo her rope halter (which I'm not very fast about, I'll admit - I'm new to the rope tack scene!), and she just stands patiently. Snorting, yes. Looking, yes. Tense, absolutely. But she stands perfectly still for me until the halter is clear off her face and my hands are back at my side and she's sure it's okay to leave, and only then does she go! And she doesn't even take off; she just trots out big, flipping her tail up in the air, snorting with her head up high, prancing about inspecting things!

Inspecting her new domain!

Lookit that tail! I guess nobody ever told her she's not an Arabian.

This prancing snortiness goes on for 2-3 minutes, and then she settles right in.

She's pretty, and she knows it. Here she is modeling the "Classic 

Thoroughbred" look. It's all the rage in Kentucky, you know!

And this is her, being cute, walking towards me! :)

This surprises Nick (the barn owner (BO) who came with me to get her). It makes me quite proud. She's really quite sane; I knew she was smart, but she keeps impressing me with just how well she keeps her cool for a horse that really doesn't seem to have been handled too much. She's such a good girl!

So she beelines for her dinner after this little parade and a few bouts of sniffing with the locals. She takes a bite, then pins her ears to make nasty faces and warn off aforementioned locals. Takes a bite, makes grumpy face.

Grumpy face for locals! 

Take a bite.... 

Another grumpy face! That is HER dinner, thank you. 

Anddd... more bites!

Rinse & repeat until food is gone!

All gone! Now, she gets to pose for more pictures! More "Classic TB."

Said locals are unimpressed and merely keep staring at her with pricked ears.

I could almost see their thought bubbles: "OMG! A new mare! Lookit that!" 

"HEY! A newcomer!" "Hihow'reya!?" "Who're yooouuuuu!?"

So after dinner, she walks around a bit more. I hop into the paddock and walk up to her, hold my hand out, and she takes a few little baby steps towards me to sniff me and put her nose on my hand. Cuteness. I pet her for a minute, and then she decides to sniff another new neighbor horse, so I let her be.

These 2 pictures were added in for the sole purpose of extra cuteness. :D

Oh, and Nick said she was at least 16.3. Who knew! I got a big horse!! That should help me make up for being short on the ground, and this pleases me greatly. :D

All in all, Operation: Relocation was a resounding success!

Hooray!

Reina's coggins came back, which means she gets to come home soon! The date is set: next Thursday, I'll be bringing her back with me! I'm so very excited.

I'm getting all prepared. I bought a bunch of neat used horsey items for her (including black SMB boots, a purple saddle pad, a fly mask with purple fuzz lining, a fluffy girth, and a book of jumping exercises for horse & rider), and I got the first shipment of those yesterday. The girth should be here tomorrow. And I'm getting her a brand-new... purple riding halter with matching (purple with white tracer) adjustable reins and, of course, a matching lead rope! Yay!!

So that's all, really. I just wanted to gush. It's finally happening. I'm actually getting a new horse. Who knew my persistence would pay off and that things really would work out!?

Today is a good day.

I'll add another post in before she comes home just to keep you guys interested (if anyone is indeed out there). I've been wanting to write about why I'm choosing to retrain in a hackamore/riding halter and why I'm going to clicker train.

Stay tuned!

Only the Best Trail Ride Ever

...no, really!

So let me explain.

But first, let me say: I've decided. I will call her Reina (pronounced "ray-na"). It means queen in Spanish. Fitting, no? And I can call her Rei ("ray") for short! Yay!

Okay. So back to the Best Trail Ride Ever. I went out to see Reina again yesterday. She was having her vet check and getting her coggins pulled. I arrived late (due to registering for classes... stupid, inconvenient school, interrupting my real life!), so I don't get to meet the vet, but she got a clean bill of health. Yesss! So her owner (let's call her Mary) says we can take a trail ride around her neighborhood; she lives near some woods, so we'll take the back roads (and when I say back roads, I mean barely-wide-enough-for-1.5-cars and underwater-when-there's-lots-of-rain kind of back roads) in a loop around the neighborhood. It's about three miles long. I say, yes! What better way to get a feel for a horse than to ride it more, right?

So then she informs me that Reina has never seen this place before. Okay, well, we're about to find out how she keeps her cool in unfamiliar territory. Oh, and there's a LOT of water from the rain. So some of the puddles are, well, more like small ponds. Horse-knee-deep water covering the entire road. Well, you only live once, right?

So we go out to tack up, and I get this bridle to put on her. It's western, which is the first confusing thing about it; it has a chin strap, but no nose strap, and the bit is one of those leverage bits, with too many places to attach things. Second confusing part: It's rope and it's all tangled, so I'm trying to figure out how it's supposed to look and hook together and I really just have no idea what I'm doing. Rei ended up suffering through me asking her to take the bit 2-3 times and putting the bridle on and back off twice. She actually put her head down for me to put the bit in her mouth and the bridle over her ears. Just enough, too! Not too far down to be annoying, but just far enough for me to reach easily. And she stood there, still and totally the picture of patience, while I fiddled. She didn't even make nasty faces. This was the first plus. She was a real trooper, and after all that, I got to snuggle her, too! Good girl!

So after that ordeal, we set off, Mary on her trusty steed of 32 years (he doesn't look it, and he's such a good boy!) and me on Reina. At first, herdbound-ness sets in: we're leaving one of the herd members behind, and he hates that, and our mounts don't like it too much either. However, they soon get over themselves and we're slowly trotting down the road. When suddenly....

CAR!!!


So we scoot over and the car passes. Reina doesn't even give it a second glance. Good girl!

So then we veer off and start to head into the woods. We pass various houses, some with very scary-looking, bright fencing. We pass a little shiny Christmas tree up on a post. We pass fallen trees, children playing with shiny, noisy toys, an old construction site or two (complete with tarp housing and a crane or something), a person in a wheelchair revving down the road towards us... and she never spooks! Not once. Her ears are up, she's going forward, and she's not caring! She's looking, but she's not freaking out. Good horse!!

So at first, I mistook her jogging, ears-pricked "OMG let's go!" boogie dancing underneath me for borderline spookiness. It took me about 1/3 of the trail to realize that this isn't right: she's just excited, and energetic! So once I start to trust her, I let her move out and we canter. Just a little bit, though. She comes to a stop when we hit the children making noise and doing crazy things she can't see or understand, and wait for her old buddy to catch up. We walk on with some jigging and arguing about which direction we want to go, but I already said she has steering issues. She does. She was nervous, and that made them worse. But still no spooking. Very levelheaded... just stubborn. Cool! Stubborn I can deal with.

So we move on and she still wants to go. Mary says she's really fun to gallop. I take this as an invitation. Whether I had a death wish or just hadn't had an adrenaline rush in too long, I decide to go for it. So I throw my reins away (which were loose to begin with, but I know she can feel the difference), lean forward, and say "okay, let's go!!" and with a little nudging, she does! And we're FLYING down this back road track, like woah! So fast one of my eyes tears up a little. SO FUN. And then, maybe 30 seconds - 1 minute later, I realize that I'm galloping in the woods on a horse I barely know who happens to be a Thoroughbred with someone I barely know far away from home. So I'm like, okay. Better not push my luck. And even though I'm grinning from ear to ear and she feels controllable, I ask her to stop. She tosses her head a bit, slows, but clearly says "but I don't want to stop!" I insist. She says fine and stops. She's great at stopping, but needs work on transitions. Note to self. She kinda hop-skipped. But she listened. Good girl!

So Mary catches up on her horse and we continue, with Rei jigging underneath me because she was excited about her gallop. Then... we come to a puddle. And I use the term puddle loosely. It was huge. And deep. And took up the whole dang road.

Mary calls up, "Hey, do you want me to go first?" because by this time, Reina wasn't scared anymore and had no trouble leading the pack. (My kinda mare! ;) ) I said "no, let's just see what she does!" because by this time I was starting to have faith in her sanity. So we walk up to the "puddle" and I pretend I don't really see it. She stops. Looks at it. I wiggle and think "forward!" She obliges, steps right on in like it's nothing, and isn't even dainty about it! So we slosh through the first of many "puddles," leading the way.

The last half of the trail she settles in to a nice swinging walk and stretches her head and neck out more, and relaxes into the trail ride. She's still looking around, but she's no longer "on edge" or wanting to take off. (Not that I felt like she was going to bolt; just that she was a lot more energetic and wanting to gogogogogo at the beginning!) She started to hit her stride, and she was leading and walking and taking in the sights and nothing was a big deal at all. She started once, and by started I mean stopped and kinda did that horsey double-take "OMG what's THAT!?", but once she stopped I just told her to walk on and she did, and so she got lots of pets for that.

Mary and I went out of our way to take the horses over a ditch off to the side, too. Just to see what Reina would do. She didn't even bat an eyelash; she just went! And there was a giant unseen hole in one of the puddles, too; she didn't bat an eyelash at that either. It surprised us both, but neither of us fell and I sat back and we got into the groove. She trotted out of the puddle just to keep us going, but slowed to a walk and walked through the next puddle totally fine. She's very unflappable. You wouldn't believe it if you looked at her, because she's always looking and curious and energetic and up; but she's not spooky. It's a fault of mine that I always tend to think the more energy, the more spook. I know it's not true, but it feels that way sometimes. But Reina... yesterday, she proved to me that this was certainly not the case - at least with her. It's fabulous to ride a horse with a personality, drive, and energy, without all the baggage of the spooking!

So when we rounded the course towards Mary's place, Reina saw "home" and the horse left there calling. She didn't take off. I didn't even need to pick up the reins any; she got some more "oomph" in her step, but that was all. That was great, too!

All in all it was a great day. When I got off, I was like, okay. I found my horse. She's so... sane. And smart. I'm positive that she's going to be a complete joy to work with!

And... she likes me. Mary said so. And Reina said so herself. When I was standing on the other side of the pen, talking to Mary about something, she walked over just to nudge me and get some pets. It was adorable. Then she walked back to where she was before.

So here are a few pictures of Rei to hold you guys over. I took them so I could have some "befores", and also so that I could ask for conformation critiques. I know she's skinny; this is the first thing I'm going to take care of when she comes home. She's also getting her tootsies trimmed before she comes home with me. And... I'm going to groom the crap out of her. She needs some currying something fierce, and some mane and tail detangler. She's going to be one gorgeous horse when I'm done with her, though!!

Told you she had a pretty, baby doll face!!

Awww. Hi, sweetness!

So I was right when I had a hunch that she would be a great horse. She is everything I'm looking for. I just have to work on the turning; and that might be solved pretty easily by getting rid of that giant bit in her mouth, too. We shall see. :)

And yes, I know, some of her fabulousness may be due to having a sane trail partner and the stopping might be due to the giant bit. But I know horses who run through and evade bits in general; at least she listens. And if she runs through my riding halter after I've retrained her to it, well, I can always upgrade to a snaffle if I must. But I'm going to try, first. And about the partner... I'm sure it helped, but honestly, no matter how sane the partner horse, if she was going to freak out, she would have freaked out. I'm very proud of her.

I found my new partner, and I can't wait to get her home and start spending time with her!! :D Her coggins will be back in 7-10 days, so once that happens, one of the owners of the barn I'll be boarding at and I will be driving his truck and trailer up there to get her. I. Can't. Wait!

Hello Out There!

Hello, interwebs. You can call me Kae (pronounced "kay").

I'm new to this whole blogging thing so please bear with me. Let me be up front and say: this is a horsey blog! Its sole purpose is to help measure the progress my new horse and I make over the course of oh, well, however long I feel like. I thought it might be nice to share, and to be able to look back in a few months and note actual progress. I might even inspire someone along the way.

So, I'll start by introducing my new horse: her name is Mighty. This will be changed as soon as she's properly mine (please pass the PPE, please pass the PPE!), but I haven't yet decided on a name. She's an eight year old thoroughbred mare. She's never been raced or bred that her current owners know of. She's at least 16hh tall. She's currently a backyard, out-of-work trail horse (who hasn't actually been ridden in an awfully long time). When her owner's husband contact me through email, he sent me these:

So... she doesn't look like much, but she's a heck of a lot prettier than most of my other prospects. And cheaper. So I decided to go see her.

This is the video of her current owner trotting her about for me:

Hopefully this works.

She tosses her head, has a short and choppy stride, bucks when you ask for a canter, is generally stubborn about steering, is very sticky in her transitions (as in, you-can-kick-me-all-you-want-but-I-still-ain't-trottin' kind of sticky), and is a pain in the butt to catch. But for some reason, I love her. She's smart, quiet in spite of her jerkiness, very sweet on the ground (and in the saddle... when she's getting her way), has a lovely baby doll head (see end of video!), loves peppermints (I consider this to be a dealbreaker when horse shopping! ...okay, not really, but almost.), and I see loads of potential in her. So I'm going to get her. By my reckoning, a tack change (as the saddle doesn't fit her correctly and the bit is far too harsh for her soft mouth) and some consistency and she'd be a gem. I hope I'm not wrong (this has been known to happen)!

Slightly off-topic: I'm a college student (low on time, and low on money. Yay!). I've ridden for as long as I can remember (I started when I was 5 - classic example of "horse fever"). I used to do hunter/jumpers, but have recently gotten interested in dressage and eventing (although God knows I haven't actually done either... except for that one dressage lesson, that one time...). So I'm going to train her to do what I know, for now - hunter/jumper. Trail riding. Lots of bonding and bareback riding!

But one thing's for sure. She needs a ton of groundwork and flatwork before we ever get to the over fences part of her training. But hopefully she'll love jumping as much as I do!

Oh, and there's another catch. I'm going to be training her in hunter/jumper and (very) low level dressage in a side pull bitless bridle. Basically, a rope halter with reins. And I'm going to be clicker training her from the ground up. More on why I went from the hunter A circuit to rope halters and clicker training in a later post (no, it's not just lack of money! haha).

Now, I must stop procrastinating and go to sleep so I can be somewhat awake for the first day of classes tomorrow.

Heres to possibilities!