Posts Tagged ‘natural horsemanship
Spring Haircut
Its Spring. That means its raining, a lot, but it also means the flowers and grass is sprouting, the warm weather is creeping in, and the ponies are shedding their winter coats. It also meant that it was time for Boomerang’s Spring haircut.
Boomer is a very funny pony. I’m always completely amazed at how unflappable he is. Having only ever had one introduction with the clippers from me, I whipped out the heavy duty ones – put it on full power, and went clipping away. The rest of the horses in the barn were snorting and alert as the sound echoed through the barn, but not Boomer. He was looking around for his treat for being a good boy and standing.
Kisses for my boy – who I forgot to mention turned 7 years old on March 21st! Happy Belated Birthday Chesapeake Boomerang!
Pole Bending at Liberty
Many of you have probably already seen this video on Horse Agility.
Well I was trying to help my mom come up with things she could do with the ponies on the ground – since she will be getting her knee surgery in a week after her fall from Blitz. She really won’t be riding for a while, but there are still plenty of things you can do with your horse from the ground.
The horse agility sprang to my mind as something fun that both my mom and Blitz could do together. So yesterday I grabbed Boomerang and started working on some liberty leading to see if I might be able to get him to do something agility wise. He actually picked up what I wanted pretty quickly and within 15 minutes I was leading him around the arena without a rope. The next step was to bring out some of my bending poles to see if I could maybe get him to bend them on his own. Here’s our third try:
Pretty good for only his third try. Boomer already knew how to pole bend (from our gaming work) – so the hardest part was getting him to recognize that I wanted him to do it on his own and then asking to move away and to me in order to weave the poles.
Anyway I think he did pretty well and I’m looking forward to doing more ground work with him in the future. The funny thing I’ve been noticing about Boomer is that ever since he saw me working with Minnow on his Spanish Walk a few months ago he has begun mimicking it whenever he recognizes that its “trick time”. He’s been doing leg lifts randomly in order to try to get me to reward him. All because he watched Minnow do it one time….smart pony I’d say!
The Paisley Pony Article
The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague and their sidekick, Ammo the Dachshund, were featured in the Winter 2010 Issue of The Paisley Pony. Ammo thinks he’s hot stuff now after I showed him his first published article. He told me he only signs autographs for his fans that bring him dog cookies. I’ve created a monster!
So head on over to The Paisley Pony and check out the Winter 2010 Issue.
Winter Blues
Iron Horse Farm
I disappeared for a little while. Honestly I’ve got a case of the winter blues and I’ve sort of been hiding out inside instead of the farm. Instead of hanging around after my daily barn chores to play with the ponies I’ve been hightailing it home to get a cup of hot chocolate. I’m ready for summer – but as I look at our weather forecasts dotted with snow, I’m starting to think its never going to come. I knew I’d regret my love of snow and snowdays eventually.
But I’m going to have to start riding again soon. I have a show I plan to take Boomerang (and maybe Blitz) to on March 28th…which doesn’t leave me much time to get him back in shape after 3 months off. Perhaps I will start this weekend…if I can get a ride to the farm! My husband’s car broke down on the highway only for us to find out his 2002 Toyota Corolla needs a whole new engine. Poof, there goes the fund for getting me a new truck to pull the horse trailer. Guess I will have to wait a little longer, hopefully my Tahoe can hang in there a few more months.
So anyway since I’ve been neglecting the blog I’m going to do another post today…..so check back to see what is in store!
At Liberty
Here’s a neat video of trick horse trainer, Tommie Turvey, and his two horses Joker and Ace, performing a liberty act.
I don’t believe in everything Tommie Turvey does in his training, but I do think he generally cares about his horses and their well-being. I also think we can learn something from every type of horse trainer out there – adapting it to your views and ways of teaching.
Chincoteague Minnow
This video made me long to do a liberty act with the trick ponies. Alas, Chincoteague Minnow will probably never be able to do a truly noteworthy liberty performance due to his arthritis. Perhaps someday Blitz and Boomer will be advanced enough to perform at liberty with me – but we are a long way from that. Minnow certainly could do it now, but watching him limp around isn’t exactly beautiful – it mostly looks cruel. I always struggle with asking Minnow to perform (which he absolutely loves) and having him look uncomfortable as he limps even at the walk. But the fact is Minnow lives with this pain everyday, if I never asked him to move I would be faced with an even bigger blimp of a pony that would undoubtedly face even more health problems due to his weight. But to an onlooker it can look as if I am “forcing” (which if anyone knows me they know I would NEVER force my horses to do anything) this limping pony to perform. The truth is he performs because he wants to not because he has to.
