Tricks
Picnic with my Pony
Minnow paints a t-shirt for a camper
On Monday I again had a group of campers from Fox Meadow Farm come out to Iron Horse Farm to visit the Trick Ponies and watch Minnow perform and paint. This has been a great way to get Minnow geared up for Pony Penning 2009 as it gives us a way to practice in front of an audience. Minnow can sometimes have a mind of his own (don’t all ponies) so I’m having to train myself to work through his little “miss steps”. I can never be quite sure what he will do (or I guess not do) with any given situation so I have to be quick on my toes to ad-lib sometimes. Sometimes I find this difficult because I’m a very quiet and reserved person and I definitely don’t have acting in my blood! I’d much rather prefer to be on the sidelines and watch Minnow perform all the tricks I have taught him, but the fact is that I’m his trainer and just as much a part of his performing as he is. I think this is why I love painting with Minnow so much, its sort of a quiet time we can share even if its performed infront of a crowd. I don’t have to talk and Minnow becomes the focus as I sort of blend into the background as his “helper”.
Anyway, below is a video of “part” of our beach picnic skit – if you want to see all of it you will just have to attend Pony Penning 2009 and visit Minnow at the Chincoteague Pony Centre!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
P.S. I’m in the works of developing some very special contests on the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague Blog. So keep reading daily to learn how you can win some fabulous prizes!!
Minnow gets ready for the Beach
After my week-long beach vacation I picked up a few things for Minnow. One of my purchases was a beach bucket and shovel. I really wasn’t sure what I would teach Minnow with this “prop” but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try something. So I started off with the obvious – teaching Minnow to carry around the bucket. Then I decided this was just too boring. So I then proceeded to teach him to pick up the shovel – which evolved into asking him to “scoop” sand. Below you can see the video of our near-final result. Took him about 5 minutes to master this skill. He’s amazingly fast at learning new skills – he continues to impress me with each new task.
Minnow even performed this latest trick during our newest skit for a group of campers yesterday (and a newspaper photographer!). But you will just have to wait until to tomorrow to watch that video! And within the next few days I hope to be posting up a new newspaper article written about the famous Minnow of Chincoteague! So be sure to check back everyday – or else you might miss something exciting!
Hippo….what?
As promised I have plenty of new and exciting things going on with the trick ponies! I stayed at Iron Horse Farm until 10pm last night working with the horses. I missed them so much after my week-long beach vacation. After spending the week reading my new book “The Click that Teaches: Riding with the Clicker” by Alexandra Kurland I had lots of ideas spinning in my head that I wanted to try with my own horses. So when I arrived at the barn around 6pm last night, the first thing I did was drag out an old bareback pad that I had. I attached stirrups to it as well as some extra thick pads underneath for added cusioning. I “saddled” up Minnow and threw a bitless bridle on him. I think Minnow was a bit concerned because he hasn’t had any type of girth on in well over a year – due to his diagnosis of ringbone (equine arthritis) in March of 2008. (don’t worry all we did was walk)
My plan was to attempt the hippodrome stand. Now if you are hearing this word for the first time you are probably thinking – what the heck? Basically the hippodrome is a trick riding term which pertains to standing on the top of your horse while he usually gallops around the arena. Many trick riders use this in their performances and some even perform the hippodrome roman style – meaning having 2 horses in tandem that they stand on. I’ve never had any trick riding training, and honestly I’ve only ever seen it performed in demos/exhibitions. I secretly wish I could attend a trick riding school because it looks so cool.
So that being said – here is an example of a young girl doing the hippodrome stand on her pony Puddles.
I have noticed that most trick riders perform the hippodrome with a special trick riding saddle that in addition to having lots of extra straps and handles to hold onto, it has 2 foot loops near the front to put your feet into in order to perform the hippodrome. But since I don’t own a trick saddle I figured I’d try to do it bareback (hence the bareback pad). I have seen bareback roman riding – but I haven’t been able to locate any hippodrome stands with a single horse and bareback. Maybe its not possible? Its definitely hard! Lucky for me Minnow is so fat and wide that I had a little extra room to spread my legs for balance. But before I say much more….watch my attempt below:
As you can see when Minnow starts and stops suddenly it is very hard to keep my balance (hence why I fell off at the end). I was trying to experiment with different ways to position my feet for balance. I think I’m going to have to do a bit more research – especially to find out if anyone performs the hippodrome without straps to straddle the horse. This idea would be very similar to the way a jockey rides. Their stirrups are so short that when a jockey straightens his legs he’s almost standing.
So anyway I hope you enjoyed my failed attempt at the hippodrome stand. If there is any trick riders out there I welcome as much help as I can get! Check back on tuesday – because I not only worked on the hippodrome stand with Minnow, but I also taught him a brand new trick. But for suspense you will have to wait till after the weekend to hear about it!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Camper for a Day
Yesterday Minnow entertained a group of campers from Fox Meadow Farm as well as a neighboring camp. There was a big turnout (bigger than I expected) and everyone seemed very interested to learn about the amazing Minnow. Minnow performed (for the first time I might add) his skit that he will be performing at Pony Penning 2009, he then demonstrated the basics of clicker training (such as targeting and building onto things to learn a specific skill), we then answered questions by the campers. Later Minnow demonstrated how he has learned to paint – I will have his latest creation up shortly – and to wrap up Minnow painted t-shirts for all the campers. If you are looking for a camper, Casita found on shoppok.com it is perfect for you! You will find the Best Class B RVs for Winter Traveling. Winter camping comes with some obvious challenges. Whether pursuing a good environment for winter sports or simply seeking the peaceful solitude of a snowy landscape, winter campers looking for the right RV might wonder where to start.
Minnow with the campers
I let everyone choose the colors they wanted and Minnow set about painting 15 t-shirts. Everyone was amazed at his focus and the fact that he waited and stood at his easle the entire time. I think Minnow found it relaxing because as the day went on I noticed his eyes starting to droop to the point that he was actually painting with his eyes closed. When we were finally done with the t-shirts I had a hard time getting Minnow to go back to his stall, he wanted to paint more!
Everytime I see Minnow perform it puts a smile on my face. I see how it lights him up and how he loves the attention given to him by the audience. He was born to be a performer – and even better he has become an ambassador for his breed, the Chincoteague Pony. I’m looking forward to our trip to Chincoteague with Minnow, as I’m sure he is too.
Left, Boomer & Right, Blitz
After the campers left I felt a little guilty that Boomer and Blitz didn’t get to participate in the day’s fun (although they did get lots of pets by little hands). So I pulled each of them out of their stalls and let them create their first “signature”. I painted their right hoof and had them stamp it on a piece of paper. Later I will use this image to create a stamp of their hoof prints which then will be used to stamp the back of any canvases they paint (essentially creating their unique signature). I already have one that I did for Minnow a couple years back and all of his paintings come with his unique signature stamped on the back.
Overall it was a great day, I even got time to hop on Boomer later for a short trail ride (in which he took off through the woods because he was so excited to be out – good thing I’m training him to be a racing pony.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Minnow Performs
On Saturday we had our big barn party to celebrate the opening of Iron Horse Farm. Despite the on and off downpours of rain we had a pretty good turnout. The rain even cleared enough so that Minnow could paint and perform for party attendees. Minnow seemed to be a big hit as all the children gathered around to watch him. He created 3 new paintings – one of which I decided to keep because it turned out to be a colaborative effort between Minnow and my Dachshund, Ammo (who ran across the painting while it was wet giving it some very neat paw print marks). Perhaps Ammo will be the next artist in the barn.
Minnow was definitely on his game on Saturday – as soon as crowds appear he becomes the little showman. He performed all his tricks flawlessly and even for the first time got on his pedestal with all 4 feet. I thought he was quite impressive and I was very proud of him!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
