walk

I took Epona & Lyra for a walk today, went a whooping 3 miles. We did do a half mile of hills though, so there's that. Today was more the psychological challenge of having both horses on lead, together, with just me. We went passed the little ponies (Lyra got wild with them, Epona could care less so Lyra stopped being so upset) then we went passed the cows, who in true form came stampeding over to say hi (Epona started to freak, but Lyra could care less, so Epona calmed right down). We also encountered a couple of large trucks, including a UPS truck, the driver said we three looked like three teenagers walking down the road from afar, how flattering. :-) Started raining midway through the walk also, which was actually kind of nice, I was a bit over dressed for the sun. Epona's hooves weren't ouchy on the gravel road at all, which was awesome!!, Lyra's hooves only got ouchy when she caught a stone in her still having a hole left front hoof. All in all went well. On the return trip Epona looked at the cows, then ate some grass with them literally two feet from her, way to go Epona!!!
Tomorrow I am taking them for a much longer walk, might even ride, what a concept, and put Epona's Easyboots on Lyra, lucky me, they wear the same size, so we don't have to deal with the stones getting caught on her. Discovered a much longer, private (yes I got permission) gravely dirt road a little further up the road with loads of hills and valleys and straight aways and it is very quiet. If we can survive the traffic to get to it, it will be really nice to ride on, better daily exercise than the other road. I am hoping, at this rate we will see, but to go on a trail ride with both of them July 19th. It's the Ride for Research held here in Olympia, in Capitol Forest, all entry fees go to support the Washington State Universities equine research department. Good cause, nice event far enough in the future to use as a motivating get out and ride factor. Will see. Perhaps Erica, my twin, will ride with, could be really nice. I did not expect Lyra to be so far along in her training at this point, she's just so willing and easy!!

lessons

Transcribed lessons from the Band.

Band of horses that is: Epona, Lyra, and Xandra.

June 4, 2008

Lesson One: it’s not personal. When Lyra or Xandra step out of line, Epona schools them back into place, but it isn’t personal. She doesn’t add emotion into the equation, she swishes her tail or pins her ears, maybe even has to go so far as to kick out at one of them, but then it’s done. While the lead mare may discipline, it is done swiftly and then over.

Lesson Two: Escalate. Don’t start off with the harshest measure. When the lead mare disciplines, she starts with a swish of her tail, then pins her ears, then bares her teeth or kicks out in that horse’s direction, then actually kicks them or even runs them off. She goes in stages of gradually escalating her discipline, makes it a lot quicker and easier the next time. Should get to the point where just a look is enough.

Lesson Three: Pressure. Use pressure to get a horse’s attention. If you’ve asked them for a response and they haven’t given it gradually escalate the pressure, go from a look to a movement in air, to slight pressure, to increased pressure, to a lot of pressure so they will start to learn to listen sooner. Should only take a look, not a muscle war.

Lesson Four: Work. Horses, generally, don’t like to work harder than they have to. If the horse isn’t doing what is being asked, make them work for it, the right answer is the easy answer. The wrong answer requires a lot more work.

Lesson Five: Stay Calm. No matter what, stay calm. No matter the situation, if your horse isn’t doing what you ask or your horse is getting nervous, your horse feeds off of your energy, so stay calm. If you breathe in and out and relax, get back to being calm, your horse will follow your lead. You must stay calm though, no one, including your horse, wants to follow a crazy, wound up, irrational, angry, ill tempered leader, they want calm, cool, rational, consistent for their leader. Do as you would have done unto yourself, stay calm.

feeling better

Todd (my Uncle) and I rode out in the far back field together yesterday. He rode Epona while I rode Lyra, I have to say that the sensation of getting to ride out, with company, on my own horses is truly wonderful!!
That said, Lyra is definitely feeling a lot better, she threw a couple half hearted bucks and rears in before we got going, I just sat very calmly in the saddle, took a deep breath and reassured her that the grass would still be there when we finished and it would be a lot easier for her to just walk along nicely. She quickly settled down and off we walked. Xandra followed behind, lose, what a firecracker she can be at times!! She kept getting distracted by new grass, would look up, realize we'd all moved on, then kick up her heels and charge after us, she'd pass a little ways up and then dive for more grass, pretty funny!
I plan to trim Lyra's hooves again tomorrow, will see if that continues to help her, she still has some hoof wall separation happening, after the improvement from the last trim though, I'm more than happy to keep her as well trimmed as I am able. Might even go for another little ride, this time with Brandon, Yippie!!
Also for all of you barefoot hoof people out there, I wanted to say about the Easyboot Bares, they are a snap to put on! Might not be orthodox, but if you put your horse's toe in the boot, pull the gaitor away from their heel, then place the boot's bottom on your lower thigh, just above your bent knee, support your horse's pastern with your one hand, while you push their heel into the boot with the other, then place their hoof on the ground and let them push their hoof snug, it takes all of about 30 seconds to put one on. Not sure why the fuss about how difficult they are, I actually find them easier to use than the epics. Actually, I thought I must have fit them wrong since it was so easy, looked through all the info again and no, they fit Epona perfectly (don't have a set for Lyra yet, working on it). Anyway, I highly recommend them!!

firsts

After spending the last couple of days round penning Lyra and getting her to hook up, as well as having had a saddle and surcingle on her , Shaylise (Lyra's co-owner and my 9 yr old niece) rode Lyra for the first time today!! Very exciting, Lyra was very quite and calm about the whole situation. Was a lot of fun!! Plan to have Shaylise ride Lyra again tomorrow, will see how she feels.
Shaylise and I rode double on Epona afterwards. She was a little curious as to what we were doing while trying to get Shaylise up behind me, but all in all was rather chill about the whole thing. We just did a small ride, a little trotting too. However the neighbor was going about saddle training her mare, in a rather aggressive fashion, so decided to curtail the ride early before Epona decided to go to this horse's rescue.
Also trimmed Xandr'a hooves today. They are looking better in some regards, not as great in others, will keep at it. Is great being able to start to know what it is I'm seeing.
Fantastic day!! Looking forward to tomorrow's adventures!!

ground work

First off, Xandra is FINALLY shedding!!! Wahoo!!!
I worked with all three in the round pen. Went pretty well. Lyra did not want to hook up, understandable, she's newer and very hard headed (much like me in that regard) :-) gotta love her, she did finally hook up in the end, after about 2 minutes. I actually progressed with Xandra to starting to sack her out with different things, she is so completely comfortable with me that nothing phased her. She was actually walking around with a plastic shavings bag on her head, just because, wish I'd gotten a picture! Massaged her ears also. She's a little worried about the fly spray, I think it's a learned thing from Epona who is phobic about the spray (wonder if she ever got some in her eye or some such thing?) anyway, will work more on that tomorrow, didn't want to over load anyone.
After round penning I worked on Lyra's hooves again. Took me about 3 hours, this after two hours yesterday, she is pretty sure she doesn't want her feet worked on. Hopefully after all of this and figureing some more out on her particular hooves we should have an easier time of it in the future. Hopefuly with more ground work she will trust me as her leader more and be more willing to do as I ask too. Will see.
I've been doing my own horses' hoof trimmings since December 2007. Long story, but I've always wanted to, lost the only barefoot trimmer in the area and decided now is as good a time (or better) than ever. So I dove in head first and have been trying to catch up on everything I should already know ever since. I highly recommend this website if you decide to take on barefoot hoof trimming or just for better information and understanding on how this works: http://www.barefoothorse.com/. Also the folks over on the yahoo barefoothorse group have been very, very helpful, so Thank You!!

Graduating!!!

I will be graduating June 13th, at 1PM, from The Evergreen State College!!! It's taken me eight years, as I've taken a few "breaks" along the way. I'm thrilled to be finishing this chapter of my life! Now as to what next?, not entirely sure. Will figure that one out I'm sure!! :-)

missing piece

Looking through past blogs, I realize there is a substantial missing piece.
Mattie, the Mustang, did not work out, tried to flip herself over backwards, twice, and well, not really what I have in mind for an eight year old. Truth be told I always had a little prejudice against her, not her fault, but she isn't a Curly. So...she now lives with my neighbor, still shares a fence line and everything, but she is no longer directly part of my herd.
As her replacement for Shaylise, we went out and visited some more Curly horses. We went to meet Warrior's Phantom aka Lyra in April and it was love at first site! She is an absolutely darling, grulla, four year old Curly mare, followed Shaylise around like a puppy dog trying to get a nip of Shaylise's cowgirl hat!
She is an integral part of the herd now. While we have been fighting with boughts of lameness (locking stifle and an abscess) we are hopefully going to get her sound here pretty soon and will be starting her saddle training in earnest. Keep your fingers crossed for her!!
She is almost as friendly as Xandra, which is saying a lot!!