Posts Tagged ‘polocrosse
The Husband Horse
So I promised my husband I wouldn’t post these photos on facebook….but he forgot to mention not to post them on the blog. So don’t tell him, but I’m sharing them anyway!
I convinced my non-horsey husband to take a ride on Blitz over the weekend. Mike doesn’t have anything against horses, infact I think he enjoys coming to the farm with me sometimes, he just isn’t interested in riding them. He’s tolerated me teaching him the basics of riding but he’s still very much a beginner. Although I have to say for a beginner he really has no fear. He’ll willingly canter around the arena despite the fact that his reins are too long (causing him to really have no control over this 800lb animal) and his heels are up as he bounces around in the saddle.
This was the first time that Mike has ridden Blitz. Before this weekend he had always ridden Minnow – who was his favorite (mine too). Minnow (after his re-training with the clicker) seemed to know when to take care of his rider – as most horses do. Infact while in college Mike and I used to ride Minnow double out on the trails. Mike I think figured out pretty quickly that he could trust Minnow to keep him from falling off. Not to mention at 13.1 hands tall he really wasn’t far from the ground. So when Minnow was diagnosed with ringbone in 2008 and pronounced unrideable that pretty much put an end to Mike’s riding. For most of last year I really didn’t have anything suitable for a beginner to ride.
My sister’s horse, Jet, could definitely carry a man but her need for speed scares most beginners. And my 16.3 hand horse, Nitro, well frankly scares people with his size, not to mention his explosive and untrustworthy behavior. I never feel comfortable putting people on him.
When I purchased Blitz last summer I knew he’d make a nice man’s horse someday. His size was perfect at 14.1 hands and he’s definitely sturdy enough. Not only that, but he was ridden by a man at the farm he came from. Not just any man – a beginner rider who I watched catch him in the mouth over a fence while Blitz continued on in his steady pace. So when Blitz came home with us naturally we gave him time to adjust – getting his bucks over with, but now that its been over a year I really felt comfortable putting a beginner on him.
I really wasn’t surprised when Mike commented “I can’t get him to go faster” because Blitz is for sure a kick ride and if you don’t know the right button to push he will continue around the arena in his molasses pace. But I can say he took care of my husband. He walked the bridge with him, he even did a few cross rails and let us mess around with the Polocrosse rackets. I laughed when Mike gave him the wrong signal and Blitz proceeded to do his little back up and 180 spin maneuver that we have been teaching him. Mike is now convinced that he’s an expert rider because he make the horse do what we do. I beg to differ.
But in the end I was impressed that I even got my husband to ride…and that Blitz really proved to me that he’s a pony anyone can ride. Boomer will be there someday too I’m sure – but we need to eliminate the bronco buck once and for all first. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Boomerang the Wonder Pony
Boomer 2009
I had a busy weekend with the boys, full of trick training, riding, working on the farm and polocrosse. Rather than to go through everything in one day – I think I’ll split it up over the next few days, it will give you something to look forward to! So be sure to check back each day.
So today I’m going to talk about Boomerang (Chesapeake Boomerang to be exact). He’s the newly turned 6 year old that I have been training since the end of last summer. I took a short video from over the weekend of the progress he’s made with his back up. Now I can get him to back up using voice commands and weight shifting – the hope is that in the future he will respond to my voice and a slight weight shift rather than the exaggerated movement you will see in this video.
Everyday I become more and more pleased with the progress Boomer is making. I was thinking back to when I first brought him home at the end of August. I had arranged to have his owners bring him to the Chincoteague Pony Centre from their home in North Carolina. I drove down there with my trailer to try him out to see if I would like him. I spent several hours testing him out, trying to make sure he had speed and was ok with the games equipment. As he passed all of my tests I offered to purchase him under the condition that he passed my vet when I got him back home. We all agreed and I was excited to get my new pony, and Blitz’s half brother home. Back home I had the vet come out to look Boomer over. Everything went well until it was time to flex test his joints (holding each leg tight against the body for several minutes than asking the horse to jog off when released). Boomer jogged off lame on his left front. I was heartbroken – according to my vet, she would never purchase a pony that didn’t pass the flex test.
I went home that day thinking I would have to send him back – what games pony would hold up that didn’t pass the flex test – afterall look what happened to Minnow at 15 as he was diagnoised with ringbone (he however was never flex tested). I told Boomer’s owners what happened and they agreed to arange a date where we could meet up again to return him. A few days passed and I couldn’t stop thinking about Boomer – I just couldn’t give up on him. I decided to have him xrayed and I started reading up on the flex test. Many vets seemed to agree that the flex test did not determine a future of lameness in a horse – afterall if you were asked to hold a leg up tightly and then run- would you be able to keep from limping slightly? (I tried it and I can’t). So when the xrays came back clean I decided to give Boomer a few weeks to rest and then I would flex him again with the vet. As the weeks passed I was fighting becoming attached to Boomer, I tried not to love him like I love Minnow and Blitz. I was trying to save myself the heartache if I ended up having to send him back. I think Boomer noticed this as I seemed distant from him.
But when it came time to flex him, Boomer trotted off perfectly sound. Despite my vet’s doubts in him I decided to keep him anyway (we will just have to wait and see if he ever develops lameness issues). I was thrilled to have Boomer, but I think its taken me a long time to build a connection with him. For a while he was “just the pony I rode” instead of “Boomer the pony who I have a special relationship with”. It was also extremely hard to replace Minnow with another riding mount. Minnow and I have a relationship that I have never had with another horse – we can read eachother like no one else – I also believe I will never have a connection like we share with any other pony. Minnow and I were destined to find eachother.
That being said its hard to give that same love and respect to Boomer when deep down I have felt as if I’m replacing Minnow. But with each day Boomer and I take one step closer to understanding eachother and creating our own unique connection.
I took Boomer to a Polocrosse scrimmage yesterday so that I could referee on him. As I warmed him up – performing his sliding stops, his spins and back up – I looked around at all the other horses. Boomer, at 6 and very inexperienced, was more controlled and responsive than any of the seasoned polocrosse/competition horses there (not to mention I performed these tasks bitless). He clearly shined above them all and yet he had never set foot on a polocrosse field or even witnessed a game. He rode up and down the field with me taking hits to the face with the ball, chasing the ball when it went into the tall grass, and standing clamly so that I could throw the ball in.
After yesterday I can honestly say that we took a huge leap forward in our respect and understanding for eachother. I don’t think Boomer will ever be able to replace Minnow, but I think in the years to come we will become an unstoppable pair. And I can say now, that Boomer and I were meant to find eachother as well.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Polocrosse
I’m so excited that I have another long 3-day weekend (I claimed my casino rewards early and decided to close my shop saturday through monday for memorial day weekend) to play with my ponies. Who knows – maybe I’ll be really bad and sneak out early today. 🙂
On Sunday I am trying to plan a Polocrosse Scrimmage for the local Pony Club that I coach. I don’t really talk about Polocrosse much because I’m not as active in the sport as I once was. My sister and I were actually very competitive in the Intermediate Pony Division a few years back – earning rights to compete at the National Level, as well as my sister’s horse winning best horse at several tournaments. For those of you that don’t know – Polocrosse is:
A team sport that is played all over the world. It is a combination of polo and lacrosse. It is played outside, on a field (the pitch), on horseback. Each rider uses a cane stick to which is attached a racquet head with a loose, thread net, in which the ball is carried. The ball is made of sponge rubber and is approximately 4 inches across. The objective is to score goals by throwing the ball between your goal posts.
Minnow playing Polox
I used to compete with Chincoteague Minnow in the #1 position – which is essentially the scorer, and my sister played as the #3 which is the defender. We then would have a #2 player which acted as a mid-fielder. Most of the time we played under the team name The Flying Cadets. Minnow unfortunately was not extremely fond of Polocrosse. I think because he is so short he didn’t like having to get close to all the other horses that towered over him. Frequently he tried to run off of the field with me – and he actually succeeded once, dumping me to the ground near the sidelines. I ended up bracing my fall with my left arm – which resulted in several weeks of physical therapy and an elbow that still isn’t quite right. But despite Minnow’s protests to Polocrosse, he was actually a very good #1 because he was fast (even with his shrimpy legs) and he could spin rather quickly to get away from the defenders.
I am hoping to bring Boomer and Blitz along so that they can both play Polocrosse in the future. Both ponies have been exposed to the rackets and seem to do quite well, and hopefully sunday I will referee off of Boomer. We’d have an all family team then – me, my mom and my sister – The Flying Cadets shall return again! 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
For more information on Polocrosse please visit these websites:
American Polocrosse Association
Bucks County Polocrosse
