Posts Tagged ‘pony
New Home for the Boys
Its official – all 3 Chincoteague’s are now moved into my parent’s new farm, Iron Horse Farm. (not to mention their 4 other horsey friends).
Boomer and Kyley place a flag in the cone
Saturday actually started off with a mounted games competition, in which Boomer and Blitz competed in the training division at a local show. We had a few little episodes – Boomer began rearing when the music got turned up – and both ponies thought it was such a blast to be competing again that they wanted to buck all the way to the finish line. Boomer eventually settled (as I clicked and rewarded him when he didn’t buck all the way home) but Blitz had some anxiety. As the day went on he got more and more agitated with my mom – and we knew it was time to take a step back with him. I think part of his anxiety stemmed from the fact that my mom had been riding him in the hackamore for the last few months and for the competition she decided to put him back in his snaffle bit. I could tell he was not very thrilled to have a bit in his mouth again – so I have since convinced my mom to try the bitless bridle I have been using (and its great I might add!). Below are two videos from the competition.
Boomer and Blitz are the first to arrive on the farm
So after the competition we drove the boys over to their new home – and then went back to pick up Minnow. It was such a uneventful move, which I knew it would be, the boys seemed perfectly happy at their new home. I think they all really enjoy their big dutch doors that have a view of the neighboring vineyard. Its such a peaceful and happy place.
The 3 Chincoteague Ponies look out over the vineyard
On Sunday we brought over the rest of the horses, which included my Dressage horse, Nitro and my sister’s gaming pony Jet as well as 2 borders. Nitro notoriously has trouble adapting to moves (as he sees himself as “herd leader” and takes on the burden on making sure the other horses are safe). And after having his 23rd Birthday on Saturday I think he’s actually starting to grow up a little. He was surprisingly calm (aside from his ear piercing whinny’s everytime he hears a sound in the barn – I’m hoping this will pass). I think Iron Horse Farm just has such a relaxing atmosphere that it instantly calmed all of the horses.
Later on Sunday I decided to show Minnow the new Tuff Ball I had bought for my horses. He instantly took to it, and I can’t wait to put the ball in the ring with all 3 of my ponies. I think they will have such a blast playing with it! I could watch the video I took of Minnow playing with his ball over and over again – I just love seeing him enjoy it. It makes me smile to think of how far he’s come. 2 years ago I would never of dreamed of showing Minnow this ball. It would of sent him running for the hills! Now he’s perfectly at peace as he plays with the ball and my dogs run around him like crazed animals wrestling on the ground. I love my little Minnow.
Anyway so that was my very eventful weekend. I’m now recovering from a pulled shoulder muscle and a bout of poison ivy – but I’m happy that my horses are happy at their new home!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Can’t we all just get along?
So lately I have become obsessed with learning more and more about training horses and the different techniques that are out there. Honestly I like to use a little bit of everything when I train my ponies, which is great because there seems to be thousands and thousands of horse training “groups” and methods to subscribe to. The ever-popular Natural Horsemanship method – which I’m sure all horse owners have heard of is defined by Wikipedia as:
The philosophy of working with horses by appealing to their instincts and herd mentality. It involves communication techniques derived from wild horse observation in order to build a partnership that closely resembles the relationships that exist between horses.
Lately I feel like there has become this cult of horse lovers out there that are convinced that there is only one way to do things – their own personal “natural horsemanship method”. Now I mean no disrespect by any of this, because if I had to peg myself as some sort of trainer I would have to say I was a natural horsemanship trainer as well. But I’ve noticed that the blogs, youtube vidoes, and horse groups have become flooded by comments from people who say things like “you’re being cruel to your animal”, “I don’t like the tone of voice you use to train your animal”, and the ever popular “the way you train your animal is all wrong”. And the interesting thing is these comments are being added to video’s and posts where I can detect no actual cruelty. For example I watched a video of a trainer working with an elephant in which he used a stern voice to tell the elephant to back up, turn around, and so on. There was no cruelty involved what-so-ever, no beating, no physical pain, the trainer simply had a stern tone in his voice. But this video is now getting comments like this is cruel – “I can’t believe someone would train an animal this way”. So I looked a little further and discovered that the trainer uses clicker training, and positive reinforcement methods to train the elephants – so maybe he did have a stern tone in his voice – he didn’t beat the animal did he? Sorry but this kind of stuff is just really getting my blood to boil, because shouldn’t we all be using our energy to chastise the real animal beaters?
(as a little side note I can’t stand when people give trainers flack for using the word “no” – its utterly ridiculous, that word no doesn’t do any harm but tell your animal that thats not the behavior you want. “No” doesn’t mean it comes entangled with a beating! Sorry just one of my pet peeves.)
I’m hearing the “positive reinforcement trainers” chastise the Parelli people, and so on and so on. Its just simply ridiculous because the way I see it, its all Natural Horsemanship (if you want to put a term to it). No one is beating their animal, maybe some sort of pressure is involved (for example asking your horse to move over by pressing on his flank), but is this animal cruelty? I think not!
I’m just tired of seeing everyone turn on eachother when we all have the same end goal – a positive training method that leaves our horses happy and willing to work with us. Anyway thats my rant for today – I just couldn’t hold it in any longer. 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Chincoteague Ponies on the Farm
A few days ago I was enjoying the company of my 3 boys (Minnow, Blitz and Boomer) so I decided to take a little video while I was observing them.
The two ponies in this video are Boomer and Blitz. They come from the same farm in North Carolina and have the same father, Chesapeake Powhattan’s Promise. Near the end of the video I decided to call Boomer over, he’s such a good boy he came right away (all that clicker training helped).
Anyway enjoy the video, just watching it makes me feel like I’m out on the peaceful farm.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Christening the Ring
Blitz and Boomer take a visit to Iron Horse Farm
Yesterday my mom and I trailered out two ponies (Blitz and Boomer) to our new farm, Iron Horse Farm. We plan to move the horses in this coming weekend, but we just couldn’t wait any longer to try out the ring (we’ve gone for so long without one its like a brand new toy). So we practiced some of our games for an upcoming show we have on Saturday. I then introduced Blitz and Boomer to the new Tuff Ball that I had purchased for them. Anyway I won’t go into much detail about it – because you can see for yourself by watching the videos below. Its funny even though Blitz and Boomer have the same father, and they are both left brained horses, they both reacted differently to seeing the ball for the first time. Blitz was very nervous about it and Boomer walked right up to it and began biting and kicking it.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Interview about Minnow
Check out the recent interview I gave about Chincoteague Minnow to The Equineist. I think it turned out really great. For a full store on Minnow’s life, and how he learned to paint please check out my page, How it Began.
I have since been researching Minnow’s past, trying to find out more about where he came from/etc. – so in the interview please note that my facts were a tad off. I had some slightly wrong information before (a whisper down the lane effect) and in fact Minnow was not locked in a stall – he was kept in a dirt paddock with some cows, and although he was not “starving” his condition was not that of a healthy horse. With the research I am doing now I hope to uncover more of what happened to Minnow when he left Assateague Island in 1993 as a colt. His story is becoming more and more fascinating to me as I learn new and interesting facts about him. For example at one point in his life he was living on an Amish farm in a field with nearly 100 goats. I think this perhaps contributes to Minnow’s love of small animals.
Anyway enjoy the article!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
