Posts Tagged ‘clicker training
SAVE THE DATE! Minnow to Perform
Minnow the Painting Pony will be visiting Pottstown, Pennsylvania to perform this summer!
Minnow the Painting Pony and Ammo the Dachshund will be attending the Ryerss Family Fun Day on Saturday, June 13th from 12 – 4pm. (rain date is June 14th)
Minnow will be painting and showing off tricks and Ammo will be performing some of his famous super hero moves! We’ll even be selling Minnow’s paintings and donating a portion to our friends at Ryerss to help feed and care for the retired horses on the farm.
And don’t worry, even if you aren’t local we will be sure to share all the details on the blog afterwards!
SAVE THE DATE:
when: Saturday, June 13th (rain date June 14th)
what: Ryerss Family Fun Day
where: Ryerss Farm for Aged Equines – Pottstown, Pennsylvania
P.S. if you want to find out more about past performances we’ve done, be sure to check out our archives!
Minnow’s Adventures at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show
Well it took me long enough to get an update on the blog about our Labor Day Weekend Adventures at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show, but better late than never!
And it’s now so easy to buy a horse as there are lots of horses for sale online so you can have a good look through all of them and choose the best one.
Minnow “kicked” off his first performance of the day by showing off some of his favorite tricks.
He’s never shy about telling me how he feels in my choice of wardrobe.
Or that he’s quite happy being retired from riding.
Minnow even posed for photographs from the paparazzi.
And he signed some autographs.
Minnow then painted some fabulous works of art, you can see them all in our shop!
“Horse Show Glimmer” by Minnow [shop this painting]
After taking his bow it was time for Ammo to show off some of his “super” tricks.
Always the showmen, Ammo and Minnow put on a great show! And all just before a nasty thunder and lightning storm rolled through the grounds. Minnow made it safely onto the horse trailer to wait out the storm while the rest of us rode it out under our tent. But once it passed Minnow came out to paint a bit more.
“Storm Cloud” by Minnow [shop this painting]
“Summers End” by Minnow [shop this painting]
“Wet Paint” by Minnow [shop this painting]
At 20 years old Minnow is still just as fabulous as ever!
Thanks to all who came out to meet Minnow and Ammo over Labor Day Weekend!
Painting Pony to Attend Ludwigs Event
We are excited to announce that we will be attending the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show this year!
Minnow the Painting Pony & sidekick Ammo the Dachshund will be visiting the Ludwig’s Corner Horse Show on Sunday August 31 from 12 – 5pm! (and painting at 1:30pm and 3:30pm) – we hope you’ll come visit us!
We haven’t been to the Ludwigs event in 2 years (missing once due to rain, and another time due to a scheduling conflict), but we’re excited to return to this fun event!
So come on out, bring your friends, and meet the boys! Ammo and Minnow can’t wait!
Swimming the Ponies at the Lake
Over the weekend we decided to take the ponies to the lake for a swim.
We brought along Blitz, Minnow, and Ammo the Dachshund as well as the ponies’ barn mate Lilah (for her very first swim).
Minnow’s no stranger to the lake, and considering that he was born on an island I think it’s pretty safe to say he loves the water. It felt good to take him on an adventure again as he hasn’t been anywhere since I think maybe pony penning last summer! (that’s far too long!)
Blitz is a bit more cautious about the water, and while he thoroughly enjoyed wading out pretty deep we still have yet to see him actually swim! (some day….)
But that didn’t stop him from having fun in the lake!
Minnow on the other hand graciously gave EVERYONE a swim, even Ammo hopped aboard for his very first swim session on the back of a pony.
I can’t wait to take the ponies back to the lake again soon. It’s the absolute best way to keep cool on a hot summer day!
P.S. Thanks to our friends at My Life, Naturally for providing some of the photos for this post!
Cowboy Race in New York
Over the 4th of July Weekend we packed up the ponies (Boomerang, Blitz, and “sister” Jet) and headed north 5 hours to New York. The plan was to spend the weekend camping with the horses, trail riding, and competing in a Cowboy Race.
While Boomer has competed in a few cowboy races before, this was the largest course we had been on – with a lot of new obstacles our ponies had never encountered.
The way this course was run was that the day before and day of riders could introduce their horses to the obstacles, but you would not learn the course you were riding until right before you competed.
Some of the obstacles were similar to things you might see on a cross-country jump course, while others were designed to look very out of the ordinary (for most horses).
This was Boomer’s first competition since last summer, and the first real event he’s been to since his injuries this winter. We discovered Boomer had been bruising his front ankles on the entrance to our shed all winter (likely for years) every time he backed out quickly (most likely because the other ponies chased him out) as well as inflammation in his tendon sheath on a back hind leg (probably from running around like a crazy pony in the pasture over the winter).
I’ve since discovered that because of these injuries Boomer is now very sensitive to being asked to back up over things, or walk over things that he thinks might hit his ankles (for fear of it hurting). So we will be starting over in a sense on a lot of obstacles that he was once unfazed by, and trying to build his confidence so he doesn’t have to worry that he will injure himself. Not to mention he now wears boots for protection 24/7.
Also because Boomer was just getting back into the swing of competing my plan was to take it easy with him. No racing around, no tight spins, no jumping. Well a lot of the course required some speed, and despite my best efforts to keep him going a relaxed pace….Boomer had other plans. He also decided it would be much more fun to jump the obstacles than trot over them….silly pony! At least he had fun!
I would say Boomer’s favorite obstacle was these “porcupine” noodles. With clicker training I’ve taught him to walk his face through “noodles”, so he loved rubbing his face all over them.
One of the more challenging obstacles on the course was the pinwheel. You had to lift a (heavy) board off a barrel and spin it around. The challenging part was not moving too quickly and keeping the board from falling off the barrel on the other end.
Another challenging obstacle was the trailer load. You had to load your horse into a strange trailer with streamers on the course.
I was proud of Boomer for mastering the tire cross. He was very unsure of it the first day I introduced it to him, but by the time he had to compete he was confident enough to cross it with ease.
My sister’s mare Jet also came with us, and did great on the course! She hasn’t been exposed to as many obstacles as our Chincoteagues, but she tried her heart out on the course and held her own against all the cowboys. Even in english tack!
I’ve found a lot of these courses are designed for riders that ride western – requiring the horn for some things. It’s sort of a bummer that I think a lot of time us english riders (my saddle is a treeless english saddle) are discouraged from participating in events like these (or looked down on because we ride english). But as you can see, just because I ride english doesn’t mean I can’t do all the same things. I ride english to do team penning, ranch sorting, trail riding, mounted shooting, cowboy races and more! I don’t think it should matter what type of saddle (or even bitting too in some cases) I chose to put on my horse.
Blitz also competed in the “on-line” division and did great! He took home first place in his class.
Boomer was all smiles by the end of the weekend adventure! I’m not sure when we will be back to New York again (it was a long long drive!) but it was a fun trip.
On the way home one of our trailer tires burst! Thankfully everyone was ok, and after unloading a pony on the side of the road & popping on our spare we were no worse for wear.
Have you been camping with your horse? Any recommendations on places to go for our next adventure?
P.S. I hope to have a video to share of Boomer on the course soon. Since the grounds were so large a lot of the video is shot far away, so I’ll have to see how much of it turned out (without it looking like tiny little ants are running the race).
