Wow!

Once again this is an old post but I want to publish it anyway so I'll have it for later (periodically I read my old posts to motivate myself or just cringe over my past foolish mistakes).  Last Wednesday I had a great lesson with Starbuck, we did a few low jumps and it just went really smoothly - her rhythm was good, I didn't have to nag too much at her and we arrived at each jump really well, without zigzagging, stalling or jumping from too close or too far away.  And even though it was a nighttime lesson with the arena lights casting scary shadows, she didn't spook once.  I gave her extra carrots and went home with a big smile on my face.

But that was nothing compared to last Thursday.  Since I was the only person who showed up for the 7 p.m. lesson and I have the exercises from the last post to work on, I told Marina I was happy to ride on my own so she could have an early night but she told me she'd stay for at least a little while and give me a bit of coaching before I started working on my own.  So since we had her full attention, she set me to working on inviting Starbuck to arch her neck downwards and lighten the rein contact at a walk.  We've been working on this a little at a time at the walk for quite some time now and mostly she knows that when I squeeze the reins gently several times it means for her to lower her head.  So we did that, on a fairly long rein (just short enough to have a constant light contact) and also focussed on keeping the hindquarters active by drawing my legs a little further back than usual and using the crop to tickle her (rubbing her against the direction her hair grows in for instance).  And when I could consistently get her to do it, I worked on getting her to stay there for longer and longer.  When she lightened the contact, I could really feel her back arching up beneath me and see the way the muscles in her crest swayed with each stride - it was an incredible feeling of lightness.

When I had several strides in a row at the walk, we did a few transitions into trot attempting to maintain the same low head carriage, flexed poll equalling soft contact and raised back through the transition.  Needless to say it all fell apart.  But we finally got one where she raised her head a little, then went right back into the correct position.  We then did the same work in trot we had done in walk and let me tell you when we got a few steps in a row it felt amazing.  It felt like riding on Pegasus or a springy magic carpet.  After lots of changes of rein, a few rests where I let her put her head down on a loose rein and some more transitions to walk and back to trot when I "lost" the physical sensation I was going for, we had gone from no strides to two strides to nearly half of a 20 meter circle with her carrying her head and back in this position, lightening the contact.  We felt like we were flying at times, and even though she was completely focussed and not at all spooky, far from having to nag at her to keep going I even had to slow my posting action from time to time to keep her from getting ahead of herself.  Both Marina and I just kept saying "Wow!" and ooh-ing and aah-ing over how well she was working.

We finished up at a canter which is the gait which is hardest for her.  I honestly didn't expect her to achieve this "mini-self carriage" at all but I asked for it anyway.  The first try didn't go so well, and she bucked going into it.  The second try she still bucked but wasn't quite so heavy on the reins as the first time.  On the third try Marina told me to try to "visualize" the same feeling I had in my seat at the walk when she went "light-and-down".  And it worked!  Only for two canter strides, but it was such a good start and much better than I hoped for.

Since then I've been able to "recapture" the same feeling at times, not like that day but certainly more than before.  And our lesson with Daniela on Saturday very obviously benefited from it - she mentioned how much we had progressed since the last lesson.  I just need to remember to ask for it every day until it becomes a habit.

Green + Green

How it all started

Three years ago my husband gave me an untrained, spooky, affection-starved warmblood filly for my birthday.  Three years ago I embarked upon one of the most challenging, stimulating and rewarding journeys of my life so far (and believe me, I've had a few).  Three years ago to this very day I started this blog.  When I decided to take on the challenge of training Starbuck with very little (funny, it seemed more at the time) equine experience under my belt, I was definitely blinded by the fact that I'd always wanted a horse more than anything else in the world and here one was, right in front of me!  I was also completely unaware of just how difficult and frustrating it would be and how important real life experience is, and having read accounts of three-day colt starting clinics, easily convinced myself that with enough love, patience and the internet we'd be galloping off into the sunset in no time.  In retrospect, I am awed and amused by my foolishness and lack of foresight, but at the same time am so very grateful I didn't know any better.  I also have to thank Marina, my husband and my parents for having enough faith in me to encourage me to take on the challenge, even though they must have been much more aware of the risks than I was.

Bumps and bruises

There's an old saying that goes "green plus green makes black and blue" referring to a green horse and a green rider, and I have to admit that the risks were (and still are, to a certain extent) considerable - I've been kicked at, stepped on, run over, dragged behind, bucked off and head-butted more times than I can count.  Any of them could have incurred broken bones or worse, and didn't (well, maybe a toe or two).  And what I was even more afraid of than bodily harm - training Starbuck so badly that she would be unrideable for me and ruined for anyone else - could very easily have happened had Starbuck been one of these really sensitive, fearful horses instead of being nearly as stubborn, brash, clumsy and confident as I am.  But as it turned out, she had enough 'tude to put up with me having absolutely no feel or timing for the first few months, and I had enough 'tude (and luck and apparently rubber bones) to keep getting up, dusting myself off and getting back on.

Some early vids

The crazy thing is that what I thought would be hard were the easy parts and vice versa.  Longeing?  I figured it'd be a piece of cake and didn't even bother to learn how to do it with a "normal horse" but it turned out to be near impossible the first few times - she would either spook and gallop off, dragging me behind her (the little known sport of horse-skiing), or stop and turn to look at me so that she ended up longeing me rather than the other way around.  She had no problem with me rubbing plastic bags, feed sacks and eventually even full-sized tarps all over her body but absolutely refused to pick up her hind feet for what seemed like forever.  And the thing I was most apprehensive about - our very first ride - went so well that I would never have predicted that three years later she still throws the not-so-occasional buck.

Lessons learned

What I really appreciate about having started Starbuck myself is that I have so many priceless memories from before I ever even got in the saddle - the sacking out, the early days at the tying post with my three loops of baling twine, the first time she wore a numnah and girth, then a saddle, then her bridle with a bit..., the first time I worked her in the roundpen (newly built just for her), the first time I triumphantly took her on a walk outside the stable grounds to a nearby orange grove, all the groundwork...  In fact, I'm actually thankful she was spooky and rambunctious enough for me to put off riding her longer than I had planned, since the Parelli games, roundpenning and other groundwork really cemented our relationship and taught me a few important lessons (like how important feel and timing were, and how to start developing them) without even having to get on.

Our first ride

And the first ride?  I still remember how elated and grateful to her I felt, and the wonder of her movement melding with mine as Marina led us around the roundpen.  Then the first ride on our own when I discovered that she didn't really mind me being up there (although she definitely resented me squeezing and kicking her until she figured out what it meant).  The first five or so rides, we really progressed by leaps and bounds and I figured I had it all figured out.  But then we rode in the big arena for the first time and I realized just how wrong I was.  It turns out the first rides were the easy ones, and the hardest ones were (and probably are) still to come.  And after the first few months in the saddle teaching her the basics of go, turn, faster / slower, back, sideways, stop and stand still, more than working on her I've mostly been working on myself, to paraphrase Ray Hunt.  My balance and "stickability", the consistency of my aids, my ability to keep my body relaxed when my mind is freaking out, my striving for an independent seat, not to mention little things like courage, patience, equanimity... you get the picture.

Woooooo!

First ride outside the arena

What we've been up to lately...

Over the past three years we've come pretty far - from just worrying about staying on, to figuring out how to start, steer and stop, to working on correctly performing gaits, simple movements and transitions and by now are so far along that my main concerns these days are more about me refining my aids so they're less bothersome, and Starbuck moving her body in the most efficient, comfortable and sustainable way for her.  Which is in itself a lifelong pursuit, so I don't see us getting bored anytime soon.  And if we do get hung up along the way, we can always get back on track with a little jumping (up to 3 feet now!), trail riding, bomb-proofing, TTouch massage, riding over trail obstacles, longeing, in-hand or liberty groundwork, riding bareback, with a parelli rope halter or just with a neck rope, simply spending quality time together sharing territory or something we've never even tried before.  So does green plus green equal black and blue?  Sure, but somewhere down the line all those bumps, bruises and hard lessons have slowly and surely changed our relationship to solid gold.

Growth

Today was one of those days.  We were all alone at the stable and Starbuck was spooky even while I was grooming her, snorting at the shepherd and his goats (they graze around the stable grounds sometimes) which she's seen a thousand times.  Then as soon as I mounted up, her friend Coco came back from a trail ride and Starbuck wanted to gallop over to see her instead of warming up calmly in the arena.  When we started trotting, she noticed Coco making friends with another horse and got jealous and crow-hopped around for a few minutes and then a car honking its horn almost caused her to lose it completely, she was trembling and snorting and prancing around with her head in the stars like the freakiest of freaked out arabians.  Yep, one of THOSE days.

So I take it as a mark of our growth that we were able to have a pretty normal ride besides all this.  When she wanted to gallop off, we worked walking sideways over poles on the ground to get her focussed on my aids.  When Coco and the other horse were squealing at each other, we did 10 meter circles at the cardinal points of a larger 30 meter circle and then figure eights until she chilled out and started listening.  And when she freaked out over the car honking, we worked on trot-canter-trot transitions until she wanted to slow down.

And after all of this, I felt confident enough to ride her around the stable grounds and then we actually left the stable alone for the first time!  She was a little hesitant but went forward when I asked her to and behaved very well aside from wanting to trot on the way back and trying to jump the paved entrance.  We only went about 300 yards from the stable gate since I didn't want to push my luck, but it was a good first step.

A year ago, I probably wouldn't even have ridden her after the spookiness at the tying post.  And six months ago I would only have mounted up after longeing her and then I would have waited for things to calm down before starting to trot and definitely wouldn't have cantered after the horn honking scariness.  I'm really pleased that I felt so secure and in control of the situation, even with Starbuck in prancy-mode.  We've come a long way, baby ;-)

Woooooooooo!

We cantered today!  And we took our first ride outside the stableyard!

Side note: Yesterday I longed Starbuck old school style, using just the rope halter and while it took a while for her to chill out and tune in to me, in the end I got her listening to me well enough to ground drive some figure eights and do some nice lateral work. It was fun to go back to basics and have to focus more on our connection than on her posture and way of going, or just on getting the crazy out before riding.  I think she had more fun, too.  Anyhow I'm not sure if that had an effect on our lesson today or not, but I think it's important to keep things mixed up.

So this morning we had a lesson with Marina and right from the start Starbuck was working nicely - really focussed on me and responding to my aids but relaxed and soft.  Today was the first day we joined in with the rest of the girls trotting in two-point and sitting trot, and also the first day we didn't cut the corners so as not to pass the scary side - she didn't even seem to notice when we rode close to the bar.  We worked over a cavalletti square in the center of the arena, too, crossing it in every way possible - straight through the middle, from corner to corner, in one side then making a 90º turn to go out the next, etc...  Marina complimented us on Starbuck's posture and then later on on how well she was working.  And it's true, the last two weeks have made a huge difference!

When the other girls had their turn to canter, Marina asked me once again if I wanted to try the same exercise they were doing but at a trot.  They were cantering in a 20 meter circle around the cavalletti square twice, then cut in to cross the square through the middle, then changing leads and do the same thing again in the other direction, returning to their "place in line" at a canter.  So I nudged Starbuck into a brisk trot and on our second circle around the square she broke into a canter for a couple of strides.  It was so quick and easy I almost didn't believe it, but when Marina told me to pet her and keep going I knew she had done it!  We repeated the same exercise a couple of times and each time she cantered just a little while longer - the second time we got three good strides in and the third time was long enough for me to really sit into the canter and enjoy it - maybe six or seven strides!  Each time, Marina told me to pet her, then cross the cavalletti poles immediately afterwards and trot her back to her place in line and let her walk for a while.

Later Marina explained her logic to me.  The whole concept is for the trot to be fast enough for her to get a little out of balance, so that these first strides in canter are her idea - making the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard.  Then as soon as she canters, taking her across the poles takes her mind off it by giving her another task to focus on right before I reward her by letting her rest.  This is why I'm so thankful to have Marina's support - I never would have thought of doing it this way but it works!  I was so proud of my little girl and so happy about our progress, Marina had to really get on me about going across the poles the last time I was petting her so much.

At the end of the lesson we joined my friend Belen and her horse Cancunen on a walk around the stableyard and into the parking lot.  Starbuck often spooks there when I'm leading her, so I was a little apprehensive, but she did great and was so cool with all of it that we decided to keep going past the stableyard gates and down the road a ways.  Not too far since there are some very noisy dogs at the end of the road, but we went about 300 meters and back, then doubled back through the almond grove next to the road and rode a few loops inside the almond grove.  Since she had done so well I didn't want to push it, so we left it at that and rode back to the stable.  Not bad for a morning's work, huh?

Oh and also I got my saddle back afterwards, I took it to Manacor to have some of the stuffing taken out since it's always been a little tight on her and now that she's starting to fill out her topline I think it was starting to pinch her withers.  And I also asked them to put some D-rings on the back to be able to attach saddlebags to, so we're ready to roll!  I'll try to remember to take a picture :-)

Bareback!

I'm pretty sure that Starbuck's still not ready to gallop with me riding her and I'm not in any hurry, but I feel like we've really achieved a lot as far as walk-trot-steer, ride in roundpen, ride in big arena goes and wanted to do something different today.  I hadn't ridden any horse bareback since I was a teenager but have been wanting to try it with Starbuck for a while now, especially since it'd be a way to squeeze some quicky riding in at lunchtime during the work week, and decided that if she was amenable today that I'd give it a shot.

I've seen Clinton Anderson use the Jeffrey's Method to gentle a horse on one of his DVDs - you jump up and down next to the horse until she's cool with what you're doing, then jump on her back and lay across her back on your stomach for a second, then do it again for a little longer and a little longer... until finally she's completely calm and you can straddle her.  So I got the jumping up and down part pretty much covered, then lay across her back for a second, but I think I got blinded by the goal because I forgot to "warm her up" to the idea and tried to hop right up and straddle her way before she was comfortable with the idea.  It's funny, I think I knew I was going to fall off since right before disaster struck I actually remembered to take my cell phone out of my pocket...  It was stupid - too soon, too clumsy and without any help.  Luckily it was a good fall and I was able to get right back up, I'm not even sore this evening.

Luckily my friend Virginia showed up to see if I was OK and very generously offered to help out, so she held Starbuck while I gave it another try.  I still did it too fast, I should have lain across her back and "rubbed" her with my foot before I got all the way on, and she spooked a little, but I was able to stay on (no easy feat, I'm pretty proud of myself) and finally we ended up doing a little pony ride around the roundpen with Virginia's help for about 5 minutes.  She calmed down and in the end was perfectly fine with it, and since for now I want her to associate me riding bareback as being something easy and pleasant I decided to reward her by cutting it short, taking the bridle off and leading her to a particularly lush patch of grass to graze.

I have to say, it was the most amazing feeling.  She's so fit that it's really comfortable (albeit hard to stay on!) and I could feel every little muscle in her back moving and could tell she was really tuned into me too.  Today I was too nervous and tired (only got about 4 hours of sleep last night) to be able to relax and focus on it, but I think it's the kind of thing which could be almost meditative.  Definitely something I can't wait to do more of and I think it's what I really need to improve my balance and seat, as well as possibly our communication.

Anyhow here's the video, the most exciting moments are at about 3:25 and 6:35 :P

Finally!

After a pretty solid week of Starbuck doing really good groundwork and the sun shining long enough to dry out the footing in the roundpen, I finally was ready to ride her again today!  So before lunch I took her out to longe for a little while on the scary side of the arena and work on her spooking, then after lunch I ran out to saddle her up for a little ride.  At first I was supernervous - I hadn't ridden her in so long and at first she was NOT happy about it, but my friend Virginia reminded me to do my breathing exercises (breathe in three counts, breathe out six counts) and relax my upper body and we both started enjoying the ride.  We worked on turns with some coaching from my friends - I've been pulling my hand too far away from her neck which overflexes her and leads her to stop midway through the turn so a little advice helped us out a lot.

After about 10 minutes in walk, I pulled out my crop, took up a little more contact and asked her politely for trot (fully expecting to need to have to use heavy side-kicking and the crop to get her to do so).  And what do you know?  She went right into a nice trot without even having to kick her once!  At first she was a little rebellious about staying with it and even tried a couple of bounces, but nothing serious and she quieted down really quickly.  I'd much rather she rebel in a controlled environment sooner rather than later, and figure out fast that it doesn't tend to get her what she wants.

One of the things Virginia suggested was for me to just THINK about her hindquarters while I was trotting to see if we could get some of her weight off her shoulders, which I'm pretty sure I could feel working (although with all this thinking about hindquarters I forgot to think about where we were going and the circle turned into a pear!).  But it was super interesting nonetheless.

After all that, we just did some work around cones, doing some cloverleaf patterns, walk to stop transitions and finally a little rein-back.  All in all a really nice ride and in the end I feel like the past month hasn't been wasted after all.  And to reward her when our ride had ended, Virginia and I took Starbuck and Coco on a grazing walk where we ran into some supercute goats!  Starbuck was great on the walk too, she didn't freak out or act up at all.  I can't believe my luck today and know she won't always be this way, but I feel renewed faith in my abilities as a trainer.

The video is only for folks who are really interested in our progress or superbored, but I hope you enjoy the goat photos!

Thanks girl for a wonderful day!

Today

Today was a fabulous day for us!  After a solid midday training session yesterday where we were able to hang out on the scary side of the arena at the end and some roundpen groundwork this morning, I rode Starbuck again and she did great, no bucking at all-- phew, what a relief!!!  She did put her head down a couple of times (I pulled it right back up) and she does a lot of head tossing, but I think that as soon as she figures out that it doesn't get her anything she'll stop doing it... she's phased in and out of a lot of bad habits that way.  For instance, she used to obsessively scratch herself on the tying post shifting her weight back and forth, every time I saw her doing it I would very calmly ask her to back up, then scratch her neck when she backed and stopped doing it.  Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat... after about a month of this she just stopped doing it.

I also took up a light contact on the reins at the walk for the first time today-- I could tell she was 100% comfortable and balanced carrying me so I decided to up the anty just a little bit.  It didn't even phase her, she just kept on truckin'!  I was also able to get a nice trot for two full circles to the right... the left is a lot harder for her and we needed some help from Virginia, but we ended up getting our two full circles to the left too.  So, we've got a good solid walk where she tracks up and I don't have to nag her (much) and the beginnings of a nice trot, she steers and bends nicely without me getting heavy on the reins, our one rein stop is absolutely solid and she stands still while mounting and when I ask her to... what more could I ask?

Oh, yeah, I can ask her to rein-back!  Since I think this is an important exercize even for starting a horse and I finally feel that she's got the forward motion idea down pat, I figured that we could give it a try.  Here's what I did-- I'm writing down the steps because it worked so well, she figured it out in like a minute!

1. Walk her up to the edge of the roundpen facing the fence so she can't go forward.
2. Shift my weight slightly behind my seatbones.
3. Take up a light contact and close my hands on the reins one after the other putting light intermittent pressure on the bars of her mouth.
4. Squeeze my calves against her sides, then give a little kick, then give rythmic squeezes until she takes one little step back.
5. RELEASE ALL PRESSURE IMMEDIATELY AND GIVE HER A LONG PAUSE (slightly longer than you were asking her to back up) AND GOOD NECK RUB!
6. Repeat a few times until she does it without having to kick and then stop while you're ahead!

You can see it all in the video, it's really long (sorry) so if you just want to see the rein-back, fast forward to minute 24:45.  I'm trying to record a couple of training sessions every week and I'm uploading them to my Youtube channel, I think I'll really appreciate having them in a couple of years.

Oh yeah, I also got a photo of the scar I mentioned in the Origins post a couple of days ago, if anyone's interested in seeing it (it's to the right of my hand, she's superfurry right now so sorry if you can't see it well):

Starbuckin'

Success!  We rode in the big arena today without Starbuck running off and freaking out-- I knew she'd be fine!  I did however have a slight lapse of judgement by asking my friend Virginia to ride her mare Coco with us.  Since we set these two mares loose in the arena from time to time to play, I think Starbuck just naturally thought that this was play time too.  So she started kind of biting at Coco's butt, I pulled her head away, she got pissed, things escalated and she started bucking, I mean SERIOUSLY bucking.  I was able to stay in the saddle for the first couple but in the end I realized things were going south, saw my moment and bailed off to the side before she could throw me between her ears.  Luckily I fell extremely well and was able to get right up and hop right back on-- I may not be a great rider but I sure have a lot of experience falling off!

Thanks to Virginia, who reminded me that I can use one rein to pull her into a circle which disengages the hindquarters and takes away her power to buck, I was able to stay in the saddle for the next round of crow-hops and Starbuck learned a valuable lesson: bucking doesn't get her out of having to work.  After those two brief rebellions, she calmed right down and did fine.  I can tell she feels a lot less constricted in the big arena, her strides were much bigger and freer and just the fact that she was confident enough to buck with me on top of her tells me she's feeling stronger and more balanced carrying my weight.  Also she didn't seem to have any urge to run around like a chicken with her head cut off and responded really well to the reins so I feel confident about riding her in the big arena from now on.  

Here's the video of the entire ride, it's too bad that most of the rodeo action is either off-camera or blocked by other horses, but you get the general idea.  I chickened out trying to get her to trot, so after a couple of strides I gave her a break.  Next time I'll be sure to have my crop with me so I'm not teaching her to ignore my leg cues.

Just a note to remember for next time: I dewormed Starbuck today too with Eqvalan Duo, I think that this next time I'll wait 3 months and use a less powerful wormer.  I'd also like to do a fecal analysis, when the vet comes to vaccinate her I'll ask her about it.

Seven

Today I had planned to ride Starbuck in the big arena since up to now the previous six rides have been in the roundpen.  My idea was to work a little first to "get the fresh out" then buddy up with Virginia and Coco so that Starbuck could kind of follow Coco around at first, then branch out a little on her own.  But when we got to the tying posts, there were a bunch of people tacking up for a lesson including a fair amount of first-timers and I just didn't feel comfortable taking her out-- I didn't want her going all rodeo and spooking one of the lesson horses.

So after doing some leading work on the "scary" side of the arena, we rode in the roundpen which was fine... nothing wrong with getting just a little better at upward transitions and steering before riding her in a more open area!  Anyhow I can really see our progress which is fantastic-- we were able to maintain a decent walk and transition into trot, first after tapping her shoulder with the crop and then with just leg pressure.  We also achieved two whole circles in trot in each direction, yay!  Here's the video:

On a more philosophical note, I'm really trying to keep in mind what I read on Carolyn Resnick's blog about how to approach training:

"Expecting performance is what ruins a good horse. With every response that a horse offers, he will build upon it until it becomes a habit to perform or behave in that way. A horse builds behaviors bit by bit, day by day and ride by ride. On the days he falls backwards the horse should not be pushed. The simple rule to follow is, always accept what your horse offers even if you have to start at the beginning. Evolution will advance the horse’s training because of the consistency of day by day. Each day I start out by putting my focus on finding the connection and willingness before I ask anything from the horse. What I see often between trainers and the horse, when the halter is being put on, is that neither is paying attention to the other and no time is taken for the greeting ceremony. The greeting ceremony is important. It allows for the magnetic connection to bring you together with your horse. It also gives the time needed for you and your horse to give full attention to your leadership and to bring the herding behavior out in the horse to glue to you.......Here is a tip that you might want to develop when relating to a horse that is ill at ease. When a horse is not connected with you and does not want to be, when he is agitated, unhappy or fearful do not allow this energy to reside in you. Then intentionally create the energy you want the horse to have inside yourself. Feel this new energy deep within you, and this will cause a horse to connect with you and begin to relax. I have used this all my life and it works wonders…"

-- Carolyn Resnick 

So far this is working surprisingly well, I mean I'm not surprised it works but by how quickly and completely just keeping this in mind has improved my relationship with Starbuck.  I've really seen how when she gets jittery if I just take a deep breath and relax myself, she picks right up on it and relaxes along with me.  Her spooking is definitely something we still need to work on, especially with the number of kids without any idea about horses running around the stableyard, but I'm really pleased to see that I have that kind of influence on her.  Which makes me think, when I get nervous what kind of energy she picks up on...

Anyhow I'm going to read up on John Lyon's "spook in place" method tonight and I think hobble training will be replaced by spook in place training for the next week or so.  Stay tuned!

Great strides

This morning I was updating photos on Starbuck's Facebook fan page and got to thinking about how very far we've come this year...  So I wanted to revisit them with a month by month summary:

• July: 

I notice Starbuck for the first time; her paddock is across from my friend Virginia's horse Coco's paddock and she's pointed out to me as "that German filly" since her mother was a Hannoverian.  She has duck feet and is dirty, skinny and top-heavy, with her head and neck visually overpowering the rest of her body.  After I spend a little time with her once or twice rubbing her and hand-feeding her some apples and carrots, she starts to nicker to me when I walk by and watch me when I'm with other horses.  So I ask Marina about her and am told that she was purchased as one of a set of several horses and that they don't have time to train or do much of anything with her, that they tried to bring the farrier out to trim her hooves but she was too panicked to let him and that they were hoping to sell her.  To help out Marina, I start grooming her in hopes of improving her appearance and do a little work teaching her to give to pressure from the halter, lead quietly, be showered and stand tied without pulling back.

• August:

I get attached (surprise!) and Marina suggests that I buy her and train her myself, quoting a ridiculously affordable price and assuring me that she'll help me along every step of the way.  I mention this to my husband, who offers to give her to me for my birthday.  After thinking long and hard about my capabilities (emotional, economic and otherwise) and considering other options like leasing a more experienced horse, I couldn't resist the temptation and on August 15th, Starbuck was officially mine (and this blog is born)!  In August I start to teach her to longe and get better at leading.  While longeing on one of the first days Starbuck bolts and runs over me, pushing me down and stepping on my foot.  It's a good wakeup call and I start paying way more attention to our movements and defending my space.  It's the first and last time she's run over me so far.

• September:

We get lots better at longeing and start working over cavalletti.  We also do lots of sacking out starting with a dressage whip with some cloth tied to the end, then with a plastic bag and finally with a saddlepad... We work on longeing using the saddlepad and a surcingle to get her used to the feel of the girth and use a lead line to simulate a bit and teach her to open her mouth on cue.  We also continue leading work, upping the anty by first exploring the "scary" parts of the stable yard and then walking to a nearby orange grove in the company of other horses.

• October:

This was a big month for us: I was able to lift and pick out Starbuck's front hooves, we put on the saddle for the first time, Starbuck got her teeth floated and we really improved our transitions on the longe line.  I also get a bridle and D-ring snaffle bit and put it on Starbuck for the first time, which took some getting used to!  I practice rubbing her and leaning over her from on top of a mounting block and putting more and more weight in the stirrup.  It was the first month where I could realistically think about riding her and at the end of the month I made up a list of goals planning to ride her in November.

• November:

We take advantage of a rainy day to sack her out with an umbrella, we keep improving our longeing and I was finally able to lift and pick out all four hooves.  I finally bite the bullet and build a roundpen, where we do lots of work at liberty and I feel like I really start to gain more respect.  I watch some Clinton Anderson videos for new control-and-respect gaining exercizes and notice the benefits immediately.  Once I feel like I can control where she goes on the ground 95% of the time, I work up the courage to get on her back for the first time; first just leaning with my belly over the saddle and putting all my weight on her, then by being led around the round pen in this position by my friend Salvador and finally getting all the way on and being led by Marina!

• December:

Starbuck is bit by bit gaining the skills to be my dream horse and I hope to be gaining the skills to be her dream owner.  After a major backslide the first crisp and windy week of December when she started acting like a crazy wild thing again and dragged me over one day while longeing, she got even better and started paying way more attention to me in our groundwork training sessions, working on transitions, small and large circles, ground driving through figure eights, cavaletti patterns, ground tying and more.  She is also finally calm enough about having her feet handled to have the farrier come out and trim her hooves, I find a lovely synthetic English saddle for sale for a pittance and I start riding her once or twice a week.  She now more or less understands the leg cue for transition from stop to walk, can maintain a walk with continued intermittent leg pressure and works at a trot with some help from the ground.

All in all a year full of progress and lessons learned; here's hoping that next year will be just as wonderful!

Today!

Today we started the day with a candy cane, to celebrate Christmas Eve.  I broke it up into little pieces and left it for her to find with that prehensile upper lip of hers... sooooo cute!  I also gave Barn Kitty some treats:

Afterward we did some on-line groundwork-- working on Parelli's Circle Game to teach her to keep moving without having to constantly remind her, then some direction changes and transitions, then lateral flexion and yielding hind- and forequarters.  She's getting really good at yielding, today I tried driving with the end of the rope instead of applying direct pressure and she didn''t skip a beat.  We also worked on our figure eights... which I think is more of a challenge for me to communicate what I want then for her to do it!

After all that and a good long rest while working on ground tying, I took her into the round pen and mounted up!  Today I practiced mounting and getting down from both sides, so if I ever need to mount her from the off-side she won't freak out.  At first we just worked on moving forward from leg cues (keeping her going is still a major challenge) and after a while of that I kicked it up a notch by asking her to trot.  I DID eventually get a couple of strides of trot out of her but couldn't get her to repeat it, so my friends Ivón and José Luis helped me out a little.  Hopefully soon I can teach her the cue and we don't need an assistant, but I can't complain-- this is only the fourth time I've ridden her after all.

Sometimes she gets a little pissed at me for kicking her, pins her ears and then turns around and looks at my foot, it's super funny but I try to act all outraged so she won't try to bite my foot at some point and then I'll have to get really serious.  Hopefully she'll figure out that if she just moves forward, the pressure and then kicking will stop.  I try to be all discipline but she's just sooooooo good!

Here's a video at the walk:

And again at the trot:

Offline!

No, I'm not talking about the internet.  I headed over to the stable today on my lunchbreak and decided to try saddling Starbuck up and riding her again, this time without anyone longeing or leading us.  So after about 20 minutes of roundpen work I hopped up onto her back and away we went... or not really!  It turns out that without someone on the ground moving her around, it's really hard to get her to move forward.  Which I had read like a million times but still wasn't so sure... everyone else seemed to be worried about how I would be able to stop her, but in the end that was SO not the problem: she just wanted to stand still.

So how did we do it?  At first I had my friend Virginia "leading" Starbuck around the pen but without any line, just moving her off with body language.  Then we tried just cueing her to move with increasing pressure: 1st a light leg squeeze, then a light kick and vocal cue, then medium kick and vocal cue, then hard kick, vocal cue and a slap with the rope on the neck.  But that wasn't working very well, so we tried walking in circles (horses have less balance to the side so it's much easier to get them to move to the side than forward and back) and then straightening up, which worked better but still not 100%.

Finally I remembered something I think I read in one of either John Lyons' or Elisabeth de Corbigny's books: you get them to yield the hindquarters left, then right, then left again, then right again but bending less and less each time until they walk forward.  With this I really was able to get the meaning of the leg cue across to her, and for the last 5 minutes or so she consistently moved forward with either a squeeze or a light kick.  During the ride I only used a leadline attached to a rope halter to steer, but at the very end of the ride we worked on giving to the bit with lateral flexion right and left.  I think maybe three more rides and I'll start using the bridle more than the halter, but I want to get some good impulsion first-- I hate lazy walkers.

The whole way back to work I was BEAMING, I really feel proud of myself and of Starbuck for reaching this goal-- and without any broken bones (knock on wood).  I know that we still have a loooooooooong way to go, but for me this is a huge step in the right direction.  And the best part is that she seems to be mentally 100% comfortable with me on her back and not "sour" at all about it.  I have to make sure not to screw that up by pulling on her mouth or not releasing pressure when she responds to a cue... lots of old "lesson horse" habits to break.  But that's a whole 'nother story.

I apologize in advance for the video-- it's really long since it encompasses the entire ride, and unfortunately my "tripod" is an orange tree where I don't have a full view of the roundpen, so there are lots of gaps where we're not even visible.  If you're interested, just kind of skip around until you see some action.

Our First Ride!

After the outstanding weekend that Starbuck has given me with amazing concentration, focus and progress on Friday, Saturday and today, I felt pretty confident about at least getting into the saddle for the first time.  So after a fairly strenuous workout of leading, longeing, yielding hindquarters and forequarters and sending work, I took her into the round pen and just let her rest while I did some preparation work; standing on a mounting block and rubbing her, tapping the saddle, putting a little weight in the stirrup, rubbing her belly with the tip of my toe and finally standing up and half mounting which is what you see here..

Afterward my friend Salvador helped me get Starbuck used to my weight (sorry girl, but this is Thanksgiving weekend after all) in movement by leading her around the roundpen with me just kind of half mounted like this and resting my belly over the saddle and she did great, no bucks or bunny hops or even any insecurity, she just took it completely in stride.  So I asked Marina, the owner of the stable, to help us out with our first ride and this is the result!  She's a little wobbly and you can tell we still need to work on finding our balance (I'm leaning forward to try to take some of the weight off her back), but I'm soooooo proud of her (and of me!) for being able to be completely relaxed and confident in movement with me sitting on top of her.

The other big change this weekend was that we moved Starbuck to new digs with a nice shed to keep her warm and dry this winter, so after our ride I made sure she had an extra big serving of bran mash, three freshly scrubbed out buckets of cool water and a bed of hay about 3 feet deep inside her little shed; she deserves some luxury after being such a good girl today!  Here's a fuzzy photo of her enjoying her new home:

How to...

Build a roundpen for less than 50€!

1. Buy, beg or borrow 8 to12 thin fiberglass posts (preferably 6 feet long and no less than 4 1/2 feet long), 2 screw-on insulators for each post, two insulated handles and about 300 feet of electric fence tape (our horses respect this kind of fences so we don't have to connect it but if your horses aren't familiar with or don't respect electric fencing, you'll need an energizer to electrify the tape).
2. Get out a 20 to 30 foot longe line (20 feet for a 40 foot diameter roundpen, 25 feet for a 50 foot diameter roundpen and so on...).
3. Find a friend and ask them to stand in the center of where you want your round pen to be holding one end of the longe line.
4. Hold the other end of the longe line and walk around them in a circle, imagining that your friend is the center of a compass.
5. Mark the ground clearly (the actual direction doesn't matter, this is just to visualize where to put your marks) at N, E, S and W, then at NE, SE, SW and NW (if you make a 60 foot roundpen you'll have to make two marks between each "cardinal" direction).
6. Choose where you want your "gate" to be and mark the ground accordingly.
7. Hammer your posts in at each mark (helps if you do it after a particularly rainy day) until the posts are firmly set in the ground.
8. Screw your two insulators on each post at roughly the same height; the upper one should be about 3 1/2 to 4 feet off the ground and the lower one about halfway down.
9. Tie the tape where your "gate" opening will be and wrap the tape all the way around the top of the fence, snapping it into the upper insulator at each post, then looping completely back around the bottom of the fence, snapping into each lower insulator.
10. When you get to back to the door, tie or fasten the electrical tape firmly to the gate "hinge" post so that when the door is opened, the rest of the fence won't droop.
11. Tie or otherwise attach your handles so that they can just be hooked around the far gate post with a little stretching.
12. If you're using an energizer, connect it up and voilà!  You've just built a roundpen in under two hours and for less than 50€ (not counting the energizer)!!!

Before you get started, be sure to check out these safety tips:

• This roundpen is NOT sturdy enough for wild, extremely green or very spooky / nervous horses who are afraid of humans: they'll run into or over it in a heartbeat.
• It's a good idea to wear a helmet, especially if it's the first time your horse has worked in the roundpen: they tend to get rebellious at one point and can kick or strike out at you.
• The most dangerous situation is when your horse won't move off and you have to get in close to make it drive away from you, so be sure to use a flag, longe whip or your twirling rope as an extension of your arm.
• Extended roundpen (or longeing) sessions on extremely hard or soft footing are bad for your horse's legs-- hard terrain jars their bones and soft terrain can cause muscle and joint strain.
• If your horse is sweating profusely, having trouble breathing or stumbling constantly, back off and let him rest!  If you make sure he's facing you while he's resting, he learns that standing still and looking at you is a good, comfortable thing.

And here is a link to my previous post on different NH roundpenning techniques, so go out and enjoy your new toy!  

Report Card

A few weeks ago I found an interesting website with different forums for horse issues like conformation critiques, training advice and lots of other stuff.  So I posted a question about Starbuck spooking into me or dragging me around and got a lot of answers, some more useful than others.  But one great thing that came of it is that I got some terrific advice from someone who's trained a lot of young horses and now manages a ranch (Colored Cow Horse Ranch) dedicated to breeding Quarter Horses with distinctive paint patterns.

She has a list of things that any young horse should know how to do before he or she is ridden for the first time and that this list allows the will-be rider to make pretty darn sure that the horse will be ready for just about anything you can throw at it once you're on its back.  The idea is to give your horse a grade from -5 (Horse tries to kill you when you ask him to do it) to 5 (Horse does it easily and eagerly), with 0 being that you haven't tried this yet or the horse has no idea what you want him to do.  If you do this right, you don't get on its back until you get consistent 4s or 5s on all the items.  Now I'm anything but patient and am pretty sure some things like trailering will have to wait until after I've ridden her (not least because I don't have access to a trailer), but I do plan on trying for a good grade on most of the issues before I hop up on Starbuck for the first time.

So here's the original list; I like this idea so much that I've created a page where I can keep track of our "grades" over the months and years, adding some of my own requirements along the way:

1.)  Horse steps back from stall or pen door/gate and allows room for person to enter.
2.)  Horse accepts person within stall or pen without resistance (no evasion, no aggression...pinned ears, ugly faces, butt turns, tail lashing etc.)
3.)  Horse drops head with touch cue to poll or verbal cue
4.)  Horse puts nose into halter on his own, stands quietly for buckling or tying of halter
5.)  Horse waits for stall door/pen gate to open and does not move toward/through until handler indicates...either follows or goes ahead as indicated by handler....does NOT crowd.
6.)  Horse stands for grooming (cross tied, single tied, ground tied) including face, ears, mane pulling, mane/tail braiding if indicated by breed/discipline, clipping, bathing, sprays of water or fly spray incl. pressurized spray cans
7.)  Horse picks feet up with verbal or touch cue (all four) and doesn't put them down until told to do so...does NOT pull back or attempt to remove foot from handler/farrier hands....tolerates tapping, nippers, hoof knife etc.
8.)  Horse leads with head in location accepted/expected by handler (will vary by breed/discipline) without any pressure on lead, stops when handler stops, turns with handler without lead pressure.
9.)  Horse stands without pulling, fussing, fidgeting while tied or being held by handler or ground tied.
10.) Horse moves out on lunge line as asked without hesitation or resistance at gait requested.
11.) Horse works loose in round pen on verbal cues for speed/direction, changes of direction, inside/outside turns, stops on "whoa", stands either parallel to rails or facing handler (depending on how he's trained), comes to handler only when called.
12.) Horse moves shoulders, hindquarters to minimal pressure (from "look" to direct hand pressure to cue from lead rope end or presence of whip) without fear or fussing...from both sides.
13.) Horse sidesteps to pressure to shoulder/hip alternated or to pressure mid barrel or to verbal cue, from both sides and without fear or fussing.
14.) Horse steps back with verbal cue, hand cue, slight halter pressure.  Does so with diagonal steps and without resistance and does so in straight line.
15.)  Horse stands for desensitizing with tarps, pool noodles, balloons, saddle blankets, horse blankets, umbrellas, noise makers, ropes under/over/around feet/tail/belly/head without fussing or evading.
16.)  Horse tolerates ropes around legs/body/under tail, over head/ears, will lead with one front leg rope, will stand hobbled without fighting, fussing.
17.)  Horse leads without halter or bridle (bare headed) through trail obstacle course including backing through patterns such as serpentine poles.
18.)  Horse goes through narrow spaces on cue from trainer (sends) and returns.
19.)  Horse loads into various types of trailers...stock, straight load. slant load, ramp or stepup, stands and waits to be tied, hauls without fussing, waits to unload on cue.
20.)  Horse stands for tacking without fussing....cross tied, single tied, ground tied.
21.)  Horse drops head and opens mouth on touch or verbal cue to take bit and waits for crownpiece to go over ears.
22.)  Horse responds to light contact with bit to move head laterally (single direct rein).
23.)  Horse flexes at poll with light contact with bit (both reins)
24.)  Horse ground drives straight, circles, figure 8's, through obstacles, backs, sidepasses, stops, goes at all three gaits on cue, without resistance.
25.)  Horse stands for stirrups to be moved back/forth and slapped against side
26.)  Horse stands for rider to step into stirrup on both sides and "half mount", lean over saddle, brush over rump with arm.
27.)  Horse stands tied or ground tied to be untacked without fussing.
28.)  Horse opens mouth and drops bit on cue without pulling or throwing head or rubbing on handler/rider.