Really Big News!
Blitz and Boomer watch as Minnow paints
On Sunday (as planned) I lugged out Minnow’s paints and easel so that he could create some new artwork. We spent about an hour creating lots of new works (that will be available soon)….but I will post more about this later. While Minnow painted I specifically set up his easel infront of our dutch doors at the farm so that Blitz and Boomer could look out of their stalls and watch.
Why you may be wondering? Because I wanted them to learn by watching Minnow. And it worked.
After painting with Minnow I decided to pull out Blitz (the next oldest at age 7 and the furthest in his clicker/trick training). I haltered Blitz but let him have free range in the paddock where the painting supplies were set up. Surprisingly Blitz decided to take the exact spot Minnow had occupied infront of the easel. So I attached a new piece of Bristol paper to the easel and decided to let Blitz have a try with painting. About 6 months ago or more I had begun working with Blitz on holding brushes in his mouth. At that time we was able to get the concept down but was too afraid of the easel and strange setup to actually touch it to the paper. Since then I had also taught him to play fetch and generally pick up objects in his mouth. So those skills were already mastered.
Blitz and his first painting on 9-20-09
I handed Blitz the brush and he touched the paper with it! Interestingly he began making marks on the paper in an up and down motion (the same way that Minnow had been doing it). He took to the painting with ease – simply as if he had learned by watching Minnow do it. You can watch the video below of Blitz creating his very first painting.
Blitz loving his first painting
I was thrilled that PonyPaintings.com is now home to two painting Chincoteague Ponies. But then I remembered Minnow. I actually started to feel really sad, because painting had always been the special thing that Minnow and I shared. He was special and unique because he was the only one. Now Minnow has to share painting with Blitz – and he’s also no longer the only painting Chincoteague Pony in the World. I almost feel a little guilty for teaching Blitz. I took away something special from Minnow. 🙁
But a long-term goal I have always had was to teach all three of my boys to paint so that someday they could all paint on the same canvas. And Minnow has become such an influence and a teacher to my two younger Chincoteagues. I think they learn a lot by watching him and the way that he interacts with me. The fact remains that Minnow will ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart. I’ve NEVER (as much as I would love to) felt that way I do about Minnow with any other horse in my life…and I don’t know that I ever will. Minnow will always be the pony that introduced me to clicker training, and trick training, and basically taught me everything I know now about training horses using positive reinforcement. Without Minnow I would probably never have found another way, a kinder/gentler way.
Blitz
So as sad as it makes me that Minnow’s unique talent is no longer unique at my farm, I know that teaching Blitz was a necessary goal in order to better my relationship with him. Minnow will always be special to me and I’m happy that he’s now able to take on the roll as teacher more than ever. I can’t wait for the day when I bring home my very own Chincoteague foal from the Island and Minnow can help me to train him as well. And I guess I’m just going to have to teach Minnow an even better trick so that he can be unique again! What about painting while standing on his hind legs? Or while sitting on a bean bag chair?
Look for artwork by Blitz to appear in the PonyPaintings.com shop soon. But for now you can watch the video of Blitz painting on his first canvas 9-21-09:
All About Mounted Games
Kyley and Chincoteague Minnow
At the suggestion of a reader (thanks!) I’ve decided to make a page on the blog all about Mounted Games! Mounted Games has been my equestrian sport of choice since I was 14 years old (11 years!!). Although I have a deep passion for Dressage among other disciplines, Mounted Games will always be my true love.
But it came to my attention that most people don’t know what Mounted Games is – I didn’t either 11 years ago. So in order to make all my posts about mounted games here on out easier to follow please check out the new Page on Mounted Games. Be sure to leave comments and suggestions….because it honestly is a hard to explain sport if you have never seen it!
September Giveaway
September Giveaway
This weekend I have plans to do some new paintings with Chincoteague Minnow. After Pony Penning 2009 we were nearly cleared out of all his recent paintings – so its high time we start making some new ones. Since we will be adding new stock to the website and our retail shop in Downingtown, Pa I decided that we should make room for the new stuff.
So we’re giving some away! This is the first time we will be giving away a Minnow painting and if it goes well hopefully we will continue to do so in the future.
Today’s giveaway will be for one of Minnow’s mini paintings. These paintings are only sold at our retail location (you can’t get them on the website). This particular painting is a 5×7 painted on matboard – a complete original by Minnow.
So now you are probably wondering, how can I win? Here’s the details:
PRIZE: one 5×7 mini pony painting
TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “PAINTING PONIES”
BONUS QUESTION: Tell us what trick you would teach your horse if you could teach him anything. I just might use your idea and teach it to one of the ponies!
CONTEST CLOSES: Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9am EST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: one
FINE PRINT: one entry per person, winners will be selected at random using random.org and announced on Friday.
Be sure to check out all of Minnow’s original works of art on www.PonyPaintings.com and if you don’t win, remember, you can always purchase your favorite painting on the website! Good Luck!
Speed Racer
One Way Ticket...because she's never coming back
Meet One Way Ticket, or as we call her, Jet. Jet came to live with us several years ago as my little sister’s new horse. We found her through a friend and she had been living as a children’s hunter pony. The young girl who owned her had named her GEM (which were actually the child’s initials) – we definitely didn’t keep the name. So with a little letter rearranging she became Jet – which fits her PERFECTLY. Infact, we were really surprised the child didn’t sell her sooner, because she was an awful hunter pony. Not that she didn’t try, but Jet was just destined to be something else. That something else had to involve racing, because Jet only knows one speed and its warp speed. This Morgan cross was a New Holland rescue at the age of 3 (New Holland is a local PA horse auction where most damaged and unwanted horses go – many end up in bad homes or worse bought by the meat packers) and I’m convinced she’s got to be part Thoroughbred.
Jet not only gallops fast, but she speed walks everywhere she goes. Speed walks to the pasture, speed walks while she grazes. Jet would probably scare most people because of her need to speed, but not my sister. My sister, Laurel, and Jet are perfectly matched. Laurel is a bit of a daredevil (I guess you have to be to play mounted games) and she enjoys Jet’s constant power walk through life. I consider Laurel a rogue rider, partially because while growing up she refused any formal horseback training. True we both went through the levels of the United States Pony Club, but Laurel hated everything that wasn’t fast and forget about getting her to take a riding lesson. Me on the other hand, I studied under numerous trainers, progressed my way through the Dressage levels and enjoyed learning what I could from everyone. There isn’t anything wrong with Laurel’s riding preferences but sometimes I wondered if we were really related.
See technically speaking, Laurel is one of the worst riders. She doesn’t know how to use her leg when riding, she barely uses her seat and relies mostly on hand aids. But somehow this works for Jet, Laurel uses gentle rein pressure to steer her, and Jet is extremely sensitive to the neck reining aids. I’m telling you they are the perfect match. I truly hate riding Jet – rare for me to say about a horse. Jet and I have a love hate relationship. Jet hates me because I have long lanky legs (as opposed to my sister’s short legs) and I like to wrap them around her fat body. I also like to steer with my seat and my legs as opposed to my hands. Jet HATES this.
Jet and Laurel
I went through a period of time where I didn’t have a horse to ride. Minnow had just been diagnosed with ringbone and pronounced unrideable. So on occasion I had taken to riding Jet. I ended up taking her to a local mounted games clinic despite the fact that we really weren’t a good match…I mostly just wanted to ride. Long story short, Jet crashed me into another rider and horse as we flew in to a handoff. She was not too happy with me because I was apparently using too much seat and leg with her (I mean really what horse wants you to pull on their face…I really don’t get it) so she opted to ignore my aids and POWER through the horse infront of me. Really we just brushed the other horse – everyone was fine…except for me. I somehow took a stirrup to my shin (at top speed of course) and to this day I have complete nerve damage from my knee to mid-shin. Its an inconvenience if I ever I cut myself there because I have no idea I’m bleeding since I can’t feel it.
Plus Size Model
But despite all this, there is one thing I enjoy about Jet. Jet is very photogenic. Being an avid photographer (I did go to school for photography afterall) I enjoy taking photos of my favorite subjects, horses. So over the years I have collected quite a few of Jet. She always seems to want to show off her fierceness for the camera. Recently some of these photos have caught the attention of a UK based children’s book company. So now Jet is set to be published in an upcoming horse sticker and activity book as well as a foldout book for children. Even though I took these photos, I have to say I’m a little jealous…I’d obviously like to see the the Trick Ponies published in the book. And I find it quite funny that Jet has been chosen, because from the side she looks like a beautiful pony mare, but from the front she looks like a fat cow. No joke. We actually had Jet tested because she was SOOO fat we thought somehow maybe she got knocked up or had a tape worm or something! I’ve taken to calling her Plus-size model. 🙂
So as soon as I get a copy of Jet’s book I will be sure to share it.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Jet is pictured as a sticker on the top left of the turquise square
Rain or Shine
Ammo waits in the car while we ride
On Saturday Boomerang and Blitz attended the Pickering Hunt Pony Club Mounted Games Competition in Ludwigs Corner, PA. I entered the boys into the training division as I’ve decided to finish out this show season continuing to take it slow with the boys. Hopefully next Spring Boomerang will be ready to compete in the Masters division and Blitz will go on to ride in the Veteran (or Fossil) division with my mom. I’m sure we will inquire some separation issues (especially with Blitz) when the boys are no longer riding in the same division. Until then they’ll just trudge along together.
So Saturday ended up being a rainy and mucky day. But being rough and tumble mounted games players there is no amount of rain that would keep us from playing. We were the first division to ride, so of course we got the worst of the rain. Not to mention the ring was really flooded with puddles everywhere. Both ponies were a little weary of the big puddles so we opted to “click” them into it. During warmup we asked the boys to walk into the puddles. Each time a foot touched the puddle they got a click and rewarded. Within 5 minutes both ponies were trotting and cantering comfortably through the muck. Ahh the power of a click.
Cute pony butts
I was a bit bummed that it was raining because I had hoped to use this competition to ask Boomer for a bit more speed. But since the footing was not ideal I decided to not push him and have him fall. If he fell likely it would undo a lot of my training making him fearful to go faster. But despite the rain, Boomer put in a good effort, especially considering the week leading up to the competition I was only able to ride him once. My mom was convinced that my 6 year old would surely give me some bucks since he’d had a little time off. But he didn’t buck once. My Boomerang is growing up.
We placed pretty consistently second in most of the races as we had some tough competition against some much faster ponies. Although I’d like to add that the competition ponies might have been faster than us, but our boys were the best behaved. The fast ponies were obviously being pushed too fast, and most were having “freak outs” at the start as well as some uncontrollable meltdowns during the races. This is usually brought on when a young horse is pushed into racing and going fast without basic flat skills and experiences. Most of the time these young horses get an adrenaline rush when put into a racing situation and they have not learned how to control it (ever see young race horses at the start gate freak out?). So instead of dealing with the stress they feel they blow up, become uncontrollable, or some even shut off and refuse to move. It makes me sad when I see horses like this (and roughly 50% of mounted games ponies have this issue) because it could have easily been prevented had the horses been trained properly from the start.
A mounted games rider tries to control her pony
Too much emphasis is placed on speed in mounted games – although yes it is true you can’t win if your horse isn’t fast. But mounted games isn’t like horse racing, we don’t run a straight line at top speed. We stop and go, spin around, halt, reverse – basically maneuvers you would see a talented dressage horse doing. But lets face it, how many people that like to go fast do you see doing dressage? They are polar opposites. I may be the exception as I love dressage and mounted games, I trained my big guy Nitro up to Second Level Dressage. But the fact remains, that if you want your horse to be a controllable (and calm) mounted games pony then you need to do your flat work first. Not only that but I strongly believe that one of the BIGGEST skills that a mounted games pony can learn is how to deal with their adrenaline. The way I accomplished this with my boys is to take them to an open field and allow them to gallop up a hill as fast as they want to go (which is pretty darn fast) and when we reach the top I ask them to stop, stand, and wait. This is VERY hard for a horse to do. After exerting all that energy (and racing another horse on top of it) they have a huge amount of adrenaline that likely would cause them to rear, buck, spin, or run off if you asked them to stop in the middle of their race. But by using clicker training I have successfully taught my boys how to control this feeling. They now calmly stand after a good gallop. Not only that but they stand like statues on the start line and when the other horses have finished the race and we’re not done yet they don’t become anxious about being the last to the finish line.
A mounted games rider tries to play through her rearing horse
Anyway thats my rant for the day on uncontrollable horses. The same principles in mounted games goes for barrel racing or any type of speed sport.
So onto the competition…Boomer and Blitz ended up taking an overall finish of third place and I was very proud of how they behaved. Both ponies have improved in leaps and bounds from the beginning of this year. I can’t wait to see how much more they learn next year.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Ludwigs Corner Horse Show Grounds
P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos from the show. We didn’t have anyone to take photos for us, not to mention it was raining.
