Tricks
Take a Seat
We’re now less than a month away from the first appearance of the summer for Painting Pony. This year our first appearance will be in New Jersey, at the site of the Mounted Games Across America National Competition. This is a new venue for us, and I’ve been racking my brain for a new performance idea, or some new tricks. I finally decided that we just need some more “wow” tricks. To me this means some funny/goofy tricks, and some amazing tricks.
So trick number one involves the magnificent Boomerang! Boomer will be attending this competition as my designated mount, while Minnow will be attending solely as a performer. Since its rare that I bring two trick ponies along with me to a performance, I decided to utilize this rarity by teaching Boomer something “amazing”.
See Minnow’s specialty is manipulating objects around him. He will pick up anything I hand him, and can easily figure out what to “do with it”. His weakness is putting himself into vulnerable positions. I attribute this to his wild island pony background, as well has his brief stint in a home that neglected him. And although I have been working with him for the past 7 years, he still feels too vulnerable to let me near him when he lays down. So for my next planned trick, Boomer was the obvious choice.
For I decided to teach him to sit.
In the past two weeks I have been working on moving Boomer from the ground. We’ve worked on his backup, his spin on the haunches, and spin on the forehand. With each day, Boomer is becoming progressively lighter in all directions. So on Monday I decided to lug out a bale of straw to see if I could get him to learn the beginnings of putting some of his weight on it.
Boomer is a pretty trusting pony, having had no major life traumas and the fact that he was “home raised” in a loving environment. He’s pretty willing to try anything, and if it involves food he’ll definitely try it. Within a minute of asking Boomer to back his hind end into the straw bale it was evident that he was going to take to sitting pretty quickly. After about the third try I had him resting a good bit of his weight on his hocks, which were leaning on the haybale – and I had him holding it!
Had I moved the bales away from the fence line I probably could have had him “sitting” on them too! But I decided to save the next step for another day.
Boomer was pretty proud of himself and his new trick. As I stepped back to snap a few photos of him he just kept trying to sit deeper and deeper onto the bale (of course I was sure to keep clicking a rewarding each effort he gave). I can’t wait to drag the haybales out tomorrow for another session with him…this time I have a few bean bag chairs too!
The Mounted Rear
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Minnow is one of the smartest ponies I have ever met. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he’s really cued into my body language – and I’m good at using my body to over-exaggerate what I want.
A few days ago I again was working on Minnow’s rear a little bit and I decided to mount up and see if he might do it for me while I was on his back. I imagined gathering my energy into my lap, I then tapped my toes a few times on his legs and lifted up into the air. After a few initial paws to the ground Minnow hoisted himself up into the air.
**sorry about the cry baby pup in the background – Trooper couldn’t stand to not be involved with this trick, but for safety I made him wait outside the ring.
I captured it with the click and that was that. I now had a pony that will rear from a hand signal on the ground and the verbal cue up and a squeeze and gentle pull motion in the saddle. Pretty cool.
I know a lot of people have negative thoughts about teaching a horse to rear. So I thought I would explain why I decided to teach Minnow to rear. #1 he’s retired, which means no one should ever be riding him again except for the occasional bareback stint I do with him. #2 I’ve been working with him since 20o2 so I know that he knows the difference between trick time and not. #3 I handle him nearly everyday and aside from the small group of people at our farm around him I never let anyone else handle him unless I am there to supervise. #4 He will live with me for the rest of his life, so I know that I have no fear of him going to someone who would find this trick dangerous. So that being said I was confident in teaching Minnow this trick. As you have seen I haven’t at all attempted to teach the younger boys, Boomer and Blitz. Because I know that since they are young they would more likely offer this behavior when I don’t want it, and it could just turn into a dangerous situation. I probably won’t ever teach them to rear unless they are retired like Minnow or I have much more confidence in them, or when I am certain they will be living with me forever.
The Paisley Pony Article
The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague and their sidekick, Ammo the Dachshund, were featured in the Winter 2010 Issue of The Paisley Pony. Ammo thinks he’s hot stuff now after I showed him his first published article. He told me he only signs autographs for his fans that bring him dog cookies. I’ve created a monster!
So head on over to The Paisley Pony and check out the Winter 2010 Issue.
The Wild Stallion
Here are some photos taken on January 31, 2010 of Minnow and I. Minnow is showing off his wild stallion rear. With each day he’s getting higher and higher – as he’s building more muscle and getting stronger. Enjoy!
Minnow Caught on Film
I really am on this “looking back” kick. Can’t help it!
I decided to check out some of my REALLY old videos on my Youtube account, so I went back to the very first video I ever posted onto Youtube. And of course it was a video of Minnow painting – published on February 21, 2007.
I had filmed this video for a class I was taking at Kutztown University. Now I must disclaimer first I am not a videographer, in fact I really suck at making videos. My brother is the videographer – and I’m dying to have him make me another video of all three of the Trick Ponies. But alas he is living in North Carolina right now (if you are in North Carolina and need a Videographer/Editor contact my little brother!), so it looks like I may have to reach my 2010 goal of making a new film of the ponies myself. I know it won’t be pretty.
But speaking of stinky videos of mine. Here are a few more I had done for the class I took in college. My downfall is music choice, I really can’t choose a good song if my life depended on it. So when it comes to making my new videos I may just have to enlist everyone’s help out in blog land!
I’ll be waiting until the Spring/Summer to start my new film project – as the ponies will look much prettier without their fuzzy winter coats. So I have until then to really work on some new exciting tricks for the new video.
