Posts Tagged ‘mounted games
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So I’ve mentioned before that one of the things that Boomerang really needs to work on is his leading skills. For some reason when I try to lead him (this mostly only happens when he is under saddle) he tries to bite me. Not only that but he will resist my rein pressure when I try to direct him from the ground. This can be a real problem in mounted games especially, because I need him to match my strides when I lead him so that I can easily vault on and off of him.
Ok, so how do I fix it? I had a lesson with the trainer I’ve had since I was 10 years old a few weeks ago. She’s very much into the Parelli method, but has been able to adapt what she knows into my clicker training. We devised a plan to work on Boomer’s bad habit.
The first part of the training is to teach Boomer to match my stride. My goal is to keep myself right at his shoulder – if I do this he is unable to bite me without getting me to move ahead of his shoulder because he can’t physically reach me. So in order to do this – if he doesn’t at first respond to my body cues (a cluck to move forward or a change in my body’s energy) then I use the end of my lead rope to give him a gentle tap on his hind end. And if he tries to dislodge me from his shoulder – I back up to keep in line with his shoulder.
Meanwhile I am also clicking and rewarding Boomer everytime he puts his ears forward during our “session”. Below you can watch a video of our first practice session.
As you can see near the end of the video we have a little battle as Boomer tries to back up in order to dislodge me from his shoulder so that he can bite me. He is unsuccessful and I keep him moving forward until I can reward him for ears forward.
Later the same day after more practice I took this video. As you can see he is no longer trying to dislodge me in order to bite me, but he still has a nasty look on his face. However, he is quicker to put his ears forward and he is matching my stride mostly with the change of my energy rather than me having to use the leadrope on his rump.
Since these videos were taken I have practiced with him several other times and he continues to progress. I haven’t been bitten since we started and he is now consistently matching my stride. My hope is that I can eventually keep his ears forward the entire time as well as teach him that when I place my hands on his neck in a certain position (the position I put them in in order to vault on) he will move quickly forward at a trot or canter. We still have a lot more work to do, but for now I am happy that I don’t have to ice my arms from horse bites. Aren’t ponies wonderful?
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
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!
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.
Hot Dog in a Tent
So during our camping excursion in New Jersey last weekend I had my special little buddy tag along for the adventure. Ammo, my Dachshund, is what I call my “tag along” dog. He’s easy to tote around anywhere and pretty much adapts to any situation. But being 10 months old, Ammo was about to go on his first camping trip. I knew Ammo would be fine with the horses, he LOVES all of the ponies (especially Minnow) and as we take daily trips to the barn he has become quite the farm dog. I still get laughs when people pull up to the farm and see this squaty little dachshund waddle over to say hello instead of the typical lab or jack russell. I have to say I don’t think I’ve seen a dachshund at anyone else’s farm. But infact he is an excellent farm dog. He keeps his distance from the horses (except for his occasionally playdate with Minnow) and when I ride he sits quietly in the barn and out of the way. If I need to tie him up for any reason he stays in his spot without so much as a peep.
So being toted around and tied up while I rode was a non-issue for Ammo. But camping was different. How would he do in a tent, on an air mattress? After I read the Mattress & Sleep Product Reviews – Cosy Sleephttps://cosysleep.co.uk/ advice, Ammo was no longer allowed to sleep on my bed with me – as he likes to be VERY close to the ones he loves and I end up with a dachshund scarf. So for sake of getting my full 8 hours I request that Ammo sleep on his little bed on the couch.
I think Ammo thoroughly enjoyed getting to sleep in the tent with me – this time I had a Dachshund belt – very stylish. But being a small dog who thinks he’s the big guy, with every nightime noise Ammo felt as if he had to protect me. He’d let out these tiny barks and at one point in the night he some how got stuck in between the window screen and the flap that closes it up. (don’t worry I rescued him). So the first night of tent camping was a bit unrestful as I dealt with my guard dog dachshund. But by night #2 Ammo was utterly exhausted from the day’s activities that he pretty much slept all through the night.
Aside from tent camping, Ammo had lots of fun meeting all the fun dogs that came to the event. His favorite playmate is a friend’s Australian Shepherd/Corgi mix puppy named Spencer. Spencer and Ammo could wrestle for hours on end. Ammo even picked up a new girlfriend in the form of a female Jack Russell named Roxie. I think he was sad she couldn’t come home with us.
Ammo curled up at home in a pile of clean laundry
At the end of our adventure Ammo was happy to go home. He had a LONG weekend and was all too thrilled when a pile of clean laundry was waiting for him at home. I can’t wait for our next camping adventure together!
Spills and Thrills
As promised I have some videos to share from our competition this past weekend. So here you go!
The crying hyena in the background is actually my parents australian shepherd/lab mix who is DYING to herd all of the ponies together.
You can’t quite tell from these videos, but both my mom and I are riding Blitz and Boomer with our clickers. After each race, as long as our ponies didn’t buck or do anything unrequested, then they received a click and a reward after the race. It has added benefits in that the horses are right there to put on the brakes after they cross the line (which is helpful if there is a missed handoff that has to be grabbed quickly). It also helps in getting the horse to move quicker through the race. Our ponies know that usually at the end of the race they will be getting a reward – so in their minds the faster they go the sooner they will get to that reward.
I forgot to mention yesterday, that my mom actually took a spill off of Blitz during our first session on Saturday. It was mostly an accident, but Blitz began swerving as he was approaching the finish line for a handoff to me – and in doing so he tripped and fell to his knees. My mom naturally went flying and landed on her back. She ended up being fine – and I grabbed the handoff from her and ended up wining the race anyway. I guess it was inevitable – after this time last year Blitz had bucked me off during the first race.
Tomorrow I’ll talk about how my little Dachshund survived his first camping trip!
