Buster's Environmental Education Begins

I was able to get Gretchen, the Dream Valley Helper for All Horse-Related Activities, to take some pictures yesterday. So, if you like the photos, all credit goes to Gretch.

Buster, 17 April 2013

I'm making a concerted effort to work on Buster's feet at least every other day - Eric the farrier is coming in a few weeks, and I'd like to think that he has a chance at surviving Buster's first hoof trim.   So I got Buster out of the pasture and went immediately to the arena to clean his feet.  Julie met me there for horse-holding duties.

Note:  if you ever decide to do this sort of thing, I think you need a minimum of three other people willing to assist.  This is definitely something that I can't imagine doing alone for a lot of reasons!

One of our more successful hoot cleanings

 Buster was way more cooperative than he has been in the previous few days for the hoof cleaning: the front feet were absolutely boring and it only took me two tries to be successful on his right rear - usually where he . . . puts his foot down, so to speak.  So now I'm going to have to start concentrating on getting him to make his feet lighter to lift.

The next thing on the agenda was to start seeing how he was going to do with "external stimuli", so

• I can get started getting him  used to some things I *know* he'll meet on the trail, and 
• He can get used to the notion of meeting new situations and, with luck, learning to trust that I won't put him in danger while doing so.

As you can see, we started with a saddle pad.  First, I used it as a hat (Sunny is *very* suspicious of floppy hats), which only seemed to pique his curiosity.  So we moved on to rubbing him with it, then sort of tossing it over him.  The grand finale was when I pushed it off over his rear end.  He was a total trouper throughout - he looked askance about twice, then decided that if it kept him close to the carrots, he was stayin'.

Sunny will tolerate a lot of things while standing still, but walking with them is a whole 'nother deal, so the next step was to get Buster to take a walk while wearing the saddle pad.  He was initially a little skeptical - as you can see from the picture below, I had to put some pressure on the rope in order to have him come along, which is unusual for him.

 It didn't take him long to loosen up, so we moved over to the center of the arena, where all the horse-fitness equipment is kept.  Take a look at the photo sequence below: After he got pretty relaxed, we marched across the cavallettis, then turned to walk across the little jumps.  Just as I stepped across the second one, I turned around so I could help him across them if he needed it.  I looked just in time to watch the saddle pad fall off his rear end - and, as you can see, he just kept walking with me, then stopped when I did.  Sheesh.

Note the saddle pad on the ground under his hind legs

Then we marched back to the gate where we started, I congratulated him on his accomplishments, and he went back to the pasture.  He did a great job, even if I do say so myself!

 Wanna annoy your horse?  Come join us.

donna

Buster Steps Out

As discussed in my previous blog (Buster's Journey Begins), I'm starting to work with a 16(?) month old gelding at Dream Valley.  My plan is to get Ray Berta out periodically to keep us on course, but to try to do as much as possible myself - we definitely didn't budget for another horse in our retirement!  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Ray came out to work with us for the first time.  As usual, if you don't have a lot of time or interest, don't start - this is a long post!

In preparation for Ray's coming, I had

• Introduced Buster to cookies and carrots 
• Wandered into the pasture at random times and scratched him in places where I thought I could scratch safely
• Made him a halter and we'd practiced putting it on
• Walked him up to the busy upper side of Dream Valley, by the arena
• Fed him small amounts of sweet feed at Sunny's trailer, again, in the unfamiliar-to-him part of the ranch

I quickly found out that he is a wonderfully cooperative and curious fellow.  He seemed to have no problem leaving the pasture, although he got anxious to get home in about 20 minutes, and he definitely preferred to have other horses, preferably from the pasture, around him when he was in the upper ranch.

After doing these things, I made my first Ray To-Learn List:

1. Learn to lead safely
2. Start learning how to tie
3. Start working with Buster's feet so he could get trimmed soon - his feet are awful
4. Get some idea of how to work with a stick of some kind - I've never done it, but it seems like it would make me more effective at a greater distance if I knew how to use one properly.

So that's where we were when Ray came out.  He was supposed to arrive at . . . 11:30, I think, so about 11:15 I went down to the pasture to get Buster ready.  About 11:20, Julie yelled at me, I turned around and there was Ray.  Do you know any other trainers that would get there *early* for a lesson??!!  Sheesh.  I was hoping to have any pasture faux pas out of the way before Ray came, but he was there, so he marched over and joined me, about half way into the 9 acre pasture.  The horses were all the way in the back and when they saw Ray - new guy alert! - about 5 of the horses came tearing by us going toward the gate, including Buster.

But the cookies paid off.  Buster got about 5 yards past us, made a sudden U-turn to leave the herd, and presented himself for rewards and haltering.  Ray looked *really* impressed.  I tried to look like someone to whom that had happened before.  I don't know how successful I was. Anyhow.

I haltered Buster up and we headed for the gate.   Ray's method of leading, which I had tried to learn before, has the horse following in your tracks, at a consistent distance that you choose.  You don't constantly peer over your shoulder to make sure they are in the right place, you use the weight of the rope in your hand to tell you where the horse is.  If he gets too close, you give the rope a shake.  If he continues to crowd, you give the rope a BIG shake.  I didn't ask, but I think it's preferable to keep walking while you're doing this, if you can.  If you can't, you stop, turn around and do what it takes to back him up.

When we had done our walks around the ranch before Ray came, I led Buster the way I lead Sunny - which is pretty much how Ray wants you to lead - and I also sort of assumed he knew everything that Sunny knows, which, to my surprise, worked in my favor.  So, initially when Buster got too close, first I gave a little rope bump, and when he didn't respond, I turned around and bumped the rope while glaring at him, as I do with Sunny.  It took about two bumps for Buster to offer a step back.  It took about three iterations of that for him to figure out that he was doing the right thing, and that if he'd just back off at the first bump and it would save us all some time.

So, when we went to leave the pasture on line, Buster had some idea of what to do. We were fine until one of his pasture playmates came charging by him, really close. Buster jumped by me and tried to follow him.  I let the rope slide, keeping a little pressure on it, and ran a couple of steps with him.  He gave up the chase and faced me. Whew!  Another first.  Ray was really impressed with Buster's ability to recover and get back with us, I think.

I got us turned around and we headed out the gate.  I figured we'd go up to the arena, but Noooooo.  Ray saw the singletrack trail that leads out of the ranch and runs to Calabasas Road, and that's where we headed:  me leading, Buster following me, Ray following Buster.  My job turned out to be mostly walking confidently, because Buster was a total explorer.  He stayed off me, he moved willingly, and when we got to our turn-around point - about a half mile out - he wanted to continue out the trail!

The only place where we didn't kick hand-walking butt was at the first of two places where there are springs right above the trail, which cause huge, sticky, post-holed puddles that last until about June.  I just marched through the first one, and Buster came along, but didn't follow my path.  Ray stopped me and pointed out that Buster was probably worried about getting through and that I should have stopped, let him take a look, then guided him through; that is, pick a path for him to follow, rather than let him choose. So at the second puddle, that's what I did and Buster followed directions, although it was clear he would have gone a different route if it had been up to him. BTW, I gave directions by waving the end of my rope sort of vaguely at the part of him that I thought should move first.

At our turn-around point, I walked around a sapling to turn, and Buster took a short cut on the wrong side of the tree - no one got excited, but Ray took the opportunity to stress that I shouldn't let Buster cut corners.  The rest of the trip back was uneventful, and we proceeded to the upper part of the ranch, where we started the next chapter:  tying.

Fortunately, there was very little going on, so we had the tie bar to ouselves.  We have one post with a Blocker Tie on it, and Ray hooked Buster up to it, with enough slack for Buster's nose to about reach the ground.  Ray then used a stick/flag to gently move Buster so that his nose stayed in one place, but his rear end moved to be parallel to the tie bar, from both directions - so he was doing a 180 degree turn pretty much on his forehand.  Ray said that this had several purposes:  Buster was learning how to figure out his movement options when tied, he was learning to respond to the flag, and he was moving his rear end sort of independently.  We did that for just a few minutes, and then a crowd descended on us:  horses in the arena, horses in the wash rack, horses coming off the trail . . .So we quit.

We then worked on Buster doing circles.  He actually turned and would go off in the direction I suggested with the rope, but he definitely moved into me at certain points - there was a *lot* going on.  Ray was trying to coach me to see the first signs of the move and cut it off - he said that Buster was leading with his head - but I was unsuccessful at seeing it.  But Buster circled both directions, in the midst of horse chaos, so I was pretty happy.

The last thing on my first list was working on feet.  Ray held Buster and had me try to lift a foot. I was to rub by the chestnut on his leg until he gave, then release.  After a few successes, I was to hold the hoof up and rotate the leg.  Ha.  I rubbed the chestnut and Buster lifted his leg pretty quickly.  Then slung it back, then put his total weight on me, then jumped sideways on three legs, which is when I gave up.  I tried again with the same result, so Ray took over.

It took about  . . . 5 minutes(?), but it was 5 minutes of fascination for me.  Ray and Buster had the same look of very professional commitment; Ray's to getting to Buster's feet, Buster's to keeping his feet to himself.  At one point, they were both on their knees in the arena.  I've only dealt with three horses and they've all been Arabs, and when they've gotten into scuffles like this, they've pretty quickly gotten panicky.  Buster never did - he had this aura like a professional wrestler:  "Nothing personal, Ray, my contract just says I don't get paid if I let you lift my feet, so why don't you give up and we'll go get a beer?"  But Ray didn't, and after about 5 minutes, Buster just gave up.  Ray lifted the leg he'd been working on, then proceeded around Buster, lifting and rotating all four legs.  He did that twice, then had me come in and do it - which I was able to do.  Then Ray hopped in his Volvo and drove off into the sunset.

What a great lesson. The only thing that I didn't get to do was the work at the tie rack, and that was because other people needed to tie their horses, and that was the only thing that Ray didn't have me try before he stepped in.  And in all cases, Ray tried to coach me through without taking Buster from me.  I can't tell you how much more confidence that gives me; to not only know what to do, but to know that I've done it successfully at least once.  And I'm trying to suss out Buster's "tells", although I think that's going to be a long learning process.

Current status is that I'm trying to work with Buster about three or four times a week for about 30 minutes - most people seem to think that's a good schedule for a young horse.  We are champion trail walkers, alone and with company, and pretty good circle-ers, although Buster is much happier going left than right.  He has toured the area and stepped over cavellettis and helped me roll barrels through the sand.  Tarps and beach balls are next on his list.  Oh yeah, yesterday while walking the trail, we ran into a rider coming back to the barn, riding and ponying an additional horse.  Buster was sort of worried until they got close, then he was able to lead the parade all the way home, no problem.

The foot checking is coming along, but I haven't been nearly as successful at that.  He's getting better with his front legs, not so good with his rears.  I can hold him and work with the front feet, but I need someone to hold him to do his rear feet - he keeps following me.  I think there are two reasons for that:

1. I've spent a month teaching him to follow me when I have the rope and he can't figure out why this would be different
2. He knows that I frequently keep carrots in my rear pockets and why would I point my bottom at him if I didn't want him to help himself? 

In any case, I've been able to lift all this feet and yesterday I cleaned his feet with a hoof pick, as well as pounding on them - so some progress is being made.

Sorry about the length of this, but I'm writing so I can remember this more than I'm writing for you - so I'm not going to strive for too much concision (a software term) in these posts.

And as soon as I can find someone to wield my camera, I'll post some pictures of Buster as he is now.

wanna go for a walk with our horses?

donna

Buster's Journey Begins . . .

Buster at about a week with his Mom

So.  About a year ago, a just-weaned gelding was sort of abandoned in the Dream Valley pasture.  It isn't as awful as it sounds - ask me about if you're interested in the whole story - but, a couple of months ago, Julie, the owner of Dream Valley and a wonderful resource for anything horse-related, decided that someone *really* ought to start working with the "baby", since he was then about 16 months old.  I was nominated.  I was, and still am, somewhere between really intrigued and really scared.  I ended up agreeing to do it.  I'm still not sure that was a good decision, but I'm going to give it a try.

The first thing I had to do was figure out how you approach a horse that hasn't learned to learn - from a human -  yet.  I think I know the basic rule:  release pressure instantly when the horse makes an effort.  I get that, but what counts as an effort?  What counts as pressure?  If you're teaching them *not* to do something, do you wait to apply it until the deed is done, or do you try to react at the moment that you think that they're thinking of misbehaving?  What if you're wrong?

Then, I don't know how you all are, but a serious problem I have with dealing with horses is knowing how much to expect from them, how quickly I should get a response before I increase pressure, how much of a response I should get before I decrease pressure, and how quickly those expectations should change over time.  And it has to vary, horse-to-horse, so how do you start the process of learning to "read" a specific horse?  (Hmmm.  I guess I've strayed from the case of the horse with little experience: I have those same concerns working with Sunny.)

Buster discovered Big Horse Food early on

There are a zillion ways break the problem down, but a way that highlights one of my weaknesses, is to divide things into the case where you're trying to teach a horse something for the first time and the case where you're trying to refine a skill that he already has.  Some of the new skills can be taught by waiting for them to offer them up, then rewarding the tries - but I don't know how to even approach some skills, like how do you teach them to tie (Sunny's still nervous after all these years) and have you both stay safe?

Then, to illustrate the refinement case, how many horses have *you* seen that back up on-line, but only if the handler threatens them with death-by-shaking-rope?  And other horses (or the same horses with different handlers) back up with a change of the handler's posture - *and* they're willing to back in circles, around trees, up hills . . . I've been pretty successful at getting Sunny to do things:  step on a tarp, side pass to pick something up, open a gate - but I've been pretty miserable at helping her to get better at those things, that is, I'm not so good at changing my expectations and upping the ante.

Buster, not too long before he was weaned

I guess what I'm lacking is judgement about horse behaviors - how to tell if they're on the edge of learning to do something new, or on the edge of learning how to yank my chain.  Or if they're really overcoming fear to do the little bit more that they've offered, of if they're very effective negotiators and are giving some finely calculated amount to to make me stop annoying them.

That's where Ray Berta comes in. We don't have the resources to hire Ray to train the baby for us, so my plan is to develop a list of things that the baby and I are working on, or would like to be working on, and have Ray come out periodically and set us off in the right direction.  For me, I hope to get instruction on the physical skills that I have to develop to be effective, and insight into what's happening internally with the baby; that is, to work on developing judgement. And, if Ray thinks something's out of my skill set, I hope he'll let me know and we can figure out how to deal with it.

Buster & his mom in the pasture - note the "baby lips" on Buster

So.  I'm going to attempt to blog regularly about what the baby is up to, the insights Ray is offering, and if I'm having any luck putting Ray's ideas into practice.

Oh yeah.  The baby's name used to be Kharma.  After working with him for awhile, I changed it.  He will henceforth be known as Buster.

Buster and Sunny in the pasture

A Thought Provoking Ride

So.  Last Thursday, Cory and I took Jade and Sunny to Calero Park, near Morgan Hill. We've ridden there before (see our rider's review of Calero Park) and enjoyed it, so we thought we'd check out how the trails had survived the winter - what there's been of it - so far.  It was a beautiful day, and the trails were mostly in good shape.  We climbed up to the ridge top, where we could see forever in about all directions, and rode along it for a couple of miles, then descended. The descent was the only sketchy part of the ride:  there were a couple of sections that were (a) not dry and (b) really stinkin' steep. Fortunately, Sunny and Jade have been practicing their slaloming techniques, so we made it down safely.

But this post isn't about our ride, and I'm just coming to the point.  The trails at Calero are hilly, winding and tree-covered - so you can sometimes see the trail a half mile ahead of you, but nothing any closer.  In this case, we came around a corner and saw a group of three horses, probably about a quarter mile away, heading in our direction.  The trail curved at that point and we lost sight of them, so we just rode cautiously, knowing that we were going to meet up with them at some point. 

In a few minutes, we heard, "I know why he's so worried - his bit is hanging out of his mouth!"    And then we saw the group.  The first rider was a woman on a horse with a bit dangling from the left side of his headstall, leading a horse with another woman on it, and the third rider was a guy.  As they came into view, the woman being led said, "Can you fix it?"

And the woman leading the horse said, "Well, I *think* I brought my string bag, but I'm not sure . . ." 

At that point, I piped up and offered a zip tie, which I've always carried in my fanny pack since the exact same thing happened to Sunny and me.  The woman leading the horse said that would be great, so I dismounted to walk the zip tie over to her. 

At that point, the woman being led said, "As long as you're off your horse, would you mind just fixing the bridle?  I'm a paraplegic and it makes me nervous when Cathy is off her mount."

Why, yes, she did say "paraplegic".  I was sort of slack-jawed, so rather than ask questions, I just fixed the headstall.  Cory managed to respond intelligently with "Really?" 

The woman said, "I was a Search and Rescue pilot.  I crashed three years ago near Truckee."

By that time I was done with the bridle and we headed our separate ways, Cory and I shaking our heads at the courage of the woman.  We got to the trailer in a few minutes and were futzing around with the mares when the guy from the group arrives in the lot, ties his horse to his trailer and comes over to thank us for our help.  He had been politely asked to leave the group because his mare was . . . acting like a mare and disturbing the gelding zen. 

His name is Steve, and he is the paraplegic woman's husband; her name is Karen.  He had to leave his mare tacked up, and his phone on because if Karen got dumped, he would have to find them and lift her back onto the horse.  I had noticed some velcro bands around her legs, just above the knee.  I asked if those held her in place.  Steve's response?  His words, not mine:

"Ah, those just keep her legs from flopping around.  They're designed to break away if the horse does something foolish.  She's a PARA-plegic, not a QUADRA-plegic - her core muscles are fine, and that's where the balance comes from.   Horseback riding keeps her fit and she loves it." 

Whew!  We talked for awhile longer about horses knowing who's riding and modifying their behavior to match, then his phone rang, telling him that the women were on their way back, so he went back to the trailer and we loaded our ponies and left.

What a humbling and inspirational experience.  To bring it all back to me (which is where I prefer things to be focused), I guess maybe I can work up the nerve to canter Sunny, at least in the arena . . .

wanna ride?

donna

A huge thank you to Donna for setting up a blog for us to chat about our horse-related adventures-- hopefully including both kinds-- lesson adventures, AND our adventures out on the trails.

As I sit and write this first entry, I'm watching the rain fall just outside my window.  Since I'm not really one to ride in adverse weather anymore, it won't be a riding day unless the clouds break and the sun comes out...  If it does, I'll be attempting to ride Zsa Zsa in the round pen-- it would be my 4th ride on her (her 11th ride overall, I believe).  Ah, the joys of a young horse-- not sure if the steering or brakes will work (or the accelerator, for that matter).  Although, I have to say that those things aren't really what gives me the butterflies-- it's the thought that the whole "system" might go haywire at any moment that is the kicker (literally?).  Anyway, from the previous 3 rides, I already know that I like the feel that she gives under saddle-- she seems to be steady, thoughtful, and attentive, if not a little sassy.  But, after all of the worrying that she would not be a good ride for me, she seems to be doing really well.  I actually look forward to riding her-- even though it's a lot of work!

Of course if I can't ride today, there is still plenty to do... standing in the crossties is still a major to-do, as is picking her feet, putting the bridle on, and all kinds of other "grown-up" horse stuff that I always forget that our well-behaved horses learned somewhere along the way.  Sheesh...  horsey kindergarten is quite a long way from where we need to be.  Hopefully the road to that place is a 4-lane highway with no traffic!

So, as I get ready for Thanksgiving this year, I have to think how thankful I am-- for the chance to start a wonderful new horse, for the well-trained and sweet horse that I have that is always ready for an adventure, for the friends and horses that live and/or visit the barn, for the love of dressage and teaching that I get to share every day.