Posts Tagged ‘mgaa
My Journey with Minnow
Minnow arrives at my farm
Since I’m on a looking back kick lately I thought I’d delve into the past a little more today. The day I’m thinking of was an extremely important day for me – its the day Chincoteague Minnow came to live with me.
I had actually met him several weeks before he came to live with me. He had been trailered out to a mounted games practice I was attending so that I could try him. When I saw his fat little body waddle off the trailer I instantly fell in love. I was warned he had a bucking problem – an extreme bucking problem – as in every other stride was with intent to dump. So as I trotted around the arena I suddenly felt Minnow start to bottle up his energy for an attempt to dump me, I gave him a tap on the butt and sent him forward before he had a second to think about it. He never tried to buck with me again. As I circled the arena I could feel Minnow bottling up his energy – he desperately wanted to let it all out – which led me to believe he had the speed I needed for mounted games. I really should of recognized he was good at holding in his emotions.
I didn’t even really need to ride him that day. The second I laid eyes on him I knew I would take him home.
On June 30, 2003 I headed out to pick Minnow up. His owners were sad to see him go, but knew I would take excellent care of him.
When I got him home I decided to take him for a short ride in the arena. I should have known then that he was going to be the most challenging horse I had ever met. He kept atleast 5 feet between him and any object we passed in the ring, including cones, poles, and jumps. Anything I showed him he pretended wasn’t there – its like he was in denial about being faced with something scary.
I had a few short months before I was set to leave for college so I got started training him right away. We did dressage work, took lessons and I introduced him to the games equipment. He seemed like the dream pony as he calmly adapted to everything I presented him with.
As the months passed Minnow was gaining more and more experience. I was gearing him to compete competitively with me the following summer. If I had had known what I know now I would have noticed that Minnow wasn’t actually “seeing” everything I showed him. He was ignoring situations that frightened him, and he was bottling up his fear with each new situation I put him in. He didn’t trust me to keep him safe. But at 19 years old I have never met a pony like him. From my eyes I saw an adaptable little pony that seemed calm and fine in any situation I put him in. True it took him extra long with the games equipment, and it took him months to get just one step closer to it, but I had no explosions, no bucking, no fits.
It wasn’t until June 28, 2004 that what was really going on under the surface came out. I had taken Minnow to many low-key competitions before this date. I honestly thought he was ready. I entered him in to the USPC Advanced Qualifying Games Rally.
I think it was the noise the ultimately triggered him. The smaller competitions didn’t have the crowds that this competition had. The cheering, the yelling, the loudspeakers, the music – it pushed Minnow to his breaking point. He had always been sensitive to sounds and I think this day they just pushed him over the edge. After a year of bottling up his fears they were finally released. I had on my hands a pony that was racing around the arena uncontrollably. He was bucking and rearing and there was nothing I could do to stop him except hold on for dear life. I managed to survive through the competition – barely.
Getting ready to explode
I wasn’t even upset with Minnow, I was upset with myself for not recognizing his signals before. The turning of his head to avoid looking at scary objects, the complete avoidance of anything new.
Looking back now I’m sort of glad it all happened. I may never have recognized his distress if this hadn’t happened. I would have never searched for new training methods, I would have never discovered clicker training.
After the competition one of my childhood trainers approached me. She had seen Minnow in the arena and thought she could help us. She mentioned she was starting to learn more about the Parelli method, and natural horsemanship, and she thought she could help Minnow. That summer I began retraining Minnow to trust me. We experimented with the Parelli method and made great strides to become better partners. Slowly I was chipping away at Minnow’s wall. The wall that was put up after a life that had once been filled with distrustful humans, neglect, and suffering. Each day I saw a little bit more of his true personality come out.
no brakes
By year 2 Minnow was more trusting but we still weren’t there yet. We still had our uncontrollable rides and he still avoided the scary stuff – but I saw improvement. I was starting to feel a little discouraged again, so by the end of the year I found myself searching for any and all new training methods. The Parelli was moving a little too slow for me and I wasn’t sure it was REALLY getting through to Minnow. Enter the first Trick Training book I ever owned, Trickonometry by Carol Fletcher.
It was January and I was teaching Minnow to give me a kiss. I watched as he actively began THINKING about what I was asking him. He started experimenting. How do I get that food, if I do this will she give it to me, if I touch that will I get more? After about 20 minutes Minnow had learned his very first trick.
2005
When I went to the barn the next day I was greeted by a bight eyed pony that looked generally HAPPY to see me. He WANTED to learn more. I quickly recognized that I had stumbled across something that made Minnow want to learn, and want to be with me. I decided to take him to college with me that semester so that I could delve a little more into this trick training. In the beginning I merely saw it as a way to get Minnow interested in me, which it did. He started to look forward to my visits and I was having so much fun teaching him to shake hands, pick up objects and even bow.
After several months I finally realized how I could use this training in my riding. Not only was it improving our relationship, but it was creating a language between us. I started using it to teach Minnow how to play each mounted games race. I even began using my new found reward method to teach him a western stop among many other useful tools. By the next spring I had discovered clicker training and Minnow and I were well on our way to a relationship full of trust and understanding.
Looking back these 7 years I barely remember how Minnow used to be. I now use him as an example to my younger horses, who seem to learn merely by watching Minnow. I am always amazed at how far he’s come. He’s now truly MY pony and I’m really HIS special person. He’ll always be the pony that taught me the language of horses.
I’ll take the Apple Flavor today
One of the clicker training blogs I read (I Feel Good, My Horse Feels Good) just did a post about a new bit that is available that is perfect for clicker trained horses! Its called the Nutri Bit, and basically it delivers a flavorful liquid into your horse’s mouth through the bit. You dispense it by pushing a button on your reins.
If you check out the post by a fellow clicker trainer about the Nutri Bit you can easily see why she’s so excited to try it. Its essentially the same reason why I just HAD to do a post about it too.
Myself, I’m imagining being mid-spin around a mounted games obstacle and “dispensing” the “treat” to my horse for an awesome spin without ever breaking stride.
I’m also picturing getting Boomerang over his extreme distaste of the bit – he’s the reason I now ride my ponies in a Bitless Bridle. As much as I love the Bitless bridle I still have a few control issues with Boomerang, and I don’t like the fact that he’s figured out that by bucking and rearing he never has to endure a bit in his mouth again.
Anyway that being said, I’m anxiously awaiting the “Clicker Training Review” on the Nutri Bit, and if it passes the test I just might have to invest. My only concern is that for my sport I really need to knot my reins or I risk tangling myself in looping reins with all the on/off work I do. So I’m not sure the bit would still dispense properly if I did this. I’ll just have to wait and see.
Trick Pony Goals
So I thought if I wrote down some of my goals for the Trick Ponies in 2010 it might actually help me to accomplish them. Hopefully our cold winter doesn’t last too long and I can get to training them soon! So here’s my list (in no particular order):
1. Teach Minnow to rear
2. Teach Blitz and Boomer to lay down on command
3. Finish teaching Ammo and Boomer to paint
4. Come up with a new skit for Minnow to perform
5. Make a new video of all of the trick ponies (and the Dachshund) performing
6. Move Boomer up to compete in the Masters Division in Mounted Games
7. Take Blitz to a bombproofing clinic/and or some Dressage events
8. Teach Ammo and Minnow some tricks together
9. Find more venues/performances for Minnow to do – events that raise money for charities would be great.
10. Spend more time doing “nothing” with the boys
Blitz is the first of the Chincoteagues to learn to lay down
So what do you think? Anything I should add? Suggestions on new tricks to teach the boys? I’d love to hear your goals – maybe you want to learn more about clicker training – maybe you just want to teach your horse one trick? Whatever it is, I wish you much success in the new year! Click on!
Whats on your list?
When I was a kid Breyer Horses were always on my Christmas and Birthday lists. I wanted them all! I would spend hours adorning them in hand-made blankets, taking them on trail rides in my back yard, and practicing dressage tests in my tiny dressage arena. (Don’t judge – I was the abnormal kid who loved to do dressage and definitely didn’t think it was boring).
As a adult grown up supposed-to-be grown-up person I still have Breyer Horses on my list. I have boxes upon boxes of Breyers in my basement – but the special ones make it to display on shelves around my home. And if you haven’t guessed the special ones are real-horse look-alikes. Mainly models that I have painted to look like my own real-life horses. But this year I’m making an exception to this (sort of), because I’ve found myself (and a Minnow) look-alike Breyer Model.
Thats right, Breyer has ripped off my likeness! Ok, well maybe not really – but I’m going to claim they did anyway so I can feel a little special. Breyer has come out with the very first mounted games rider and pony. I think the sport has finally arrived if we have a Breyer Model now! Yipee!
This model features a female rider with thick RED braids – tip off #1 that its me. When competing in mounted games I usually wear my hair (my RED hair) in 2 HUGE braids because trust me, you have never seen a red-head with as much hair as me. Not only that but the rider is on a paint pony, that may not look like Minnow’s clone, but there are some similarities.
So maybe I’m not the muse for this model (a girl can dream can’t she?) – but its fun to pretend. And if you have read my blog before, you know that a dream of mine is to have Chincoteague Minnow made into a Breyer Model someday. I’ll have died and gone to heaven when that day comes.
So if your a kid or a kid at heart like me and would like to own Breyer’s very first Mounted Games Model you can purchase one here.
| 61035 | ||
| Classics® Pony Games Set | ||
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USET and Olympic Dreams
I posted the other day about my trip last Sunday to the site of the United States Equestrian Team Training Facility, Hamilton Farm, located in Gladstone, NJ. I decided I had to go back and talk about this location, because its unlike any other horse training center I have ever been to. I have been to this particular facility several times before, and its beautiful every time I go.
First a little history (taken from the USET website).
The United States Equestrian Team Foundation supports equestrian athletes, promotes international excellence, and builds for the future of equestrian sports.
The eight High Performance equestrian disciplines supported by the United States Equestrian Team Foundation are dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, para-equestrian, reining, show jumping and vaulting.
More about what the USET Foundation does can be found here. Now although they don’t specifically help the equine sport of Mounted Games, USET does allow us to use their beautiful facility for competitions. Hopefully someday Mounted Games will be added to the list of recognized Olympic Sports (steps are being taken to do so!) and will be supported by the USET Foundation.
So anyway onto the facility. I was able to sneak around one (yes one) of the main barns where some of the competition horses for our event were stabled and the site where we rode was. This particular barn is actually two floors – yes two floors – with stalls on both levels. There is then a third floor that has a glass floor you can see down into the barn from. I think the third floor is mostly used for award ceremonies/etc. They even house several trophy rooms in this particular barn.
Standing in the isle ways made me wonder if any famous horses had walked these halls – or stayed in these stalls – or rode in the ring. Many of the stalls had dedication plaques on them, but I ran out of time to look through all of them. I’m sure many were for past Olympic mounts – many of the greats.
I hope to one day see this barn filled with Mounted Games ponies – ponies that are destined to be Olympic horses. Not many ponies can say this as most of the Olympic disciplines are reserved for the bloodlines of horses, although some exceptions apply, Theodore O’Connor (Teddy) comes to mind – even though he was never really in the Olympics. The 14.1 hand pony who competed at the highest international eventing level with Olympian Karen O’Connor (although Teddy was from horse lineage). Teddy was an ambassador for ponies everywhere as he shed light on the fact that ponies weren’t just fuzzy backyard pets relegated to be children’s sidekicks and babysitters. Some are destined to be great.
I don’t doubt that someday Mounted Games will be among the list of Olympic Sports. In fact this year a petition was sent to have an exhibition of the sport in the World Equestrian Games for 2010. Although the petition was denied (I have suspicions why) the beginning is in place. My guess is that until there is one recognized organization and rulebook for mounted games than this cannot happen. Currently we have several organizations within the US (all with their own set of rules) instead of one main organization – we need to have one lead group…like the USDF (United States Dressage Federation), one governing body that sets the rules nationwide. Difference in opinions caused a split in our one organization – The United States Mounted Games Association, now we have two, Mounted Games Across America and USMGA. Not to mention that the United States Pony Clubs even has their own set of rules separate from MGAA and USMGA. Its sort of a big mess right now – so I think until thats all figured out there is no way we will be permitted in among the Olympic arenas.
But I do think that someday it will happen, hopefully I live to see it. The first modern Olympics to hold equestrian events were in 1900 in Paris, France. Only three disciplines were contested: Show jumping, high jump, and long jump. Several horse sports have made their appearance in the Olympics since those beginnings. You can see a small photographic history of Equestrian Olympics here. So there is hope!
