Posts Tagged ‘trick pony
Bridge to the Future
Blitz on the bridge with my mom
Just had to share a few photos of Blitz today. A few days ago Blitz mastered the “Bridge”. Its just a simple walking bridge that by dad had built for the horses and for part of our skillathon. Blitz has always been a bit cautious when it comes to strange objects – as most horses would be. But in the last few weeks he’s really changed. I think he’s finally made a connection with my mom (who now owns and rides him). They have been working together since I sold Blitz to my mom in September 2008.
In the past year Blitz has taken to our clicker training method tremendously. From the very beginning I knew he was a food oriented horse (thats part of the reason I bought him). In fact, Blitz loves food so much that I think it helps his ability to learn skills faster.
In the beginning we struggled with keeping him from mugging us for food, as well as warding off his aggressive attitude in an effort to get his reward. We spent a long time working on keeping his ears forward when we work with him, and teaching him that grabbing for food would not get him anything. He has improved with this greatly, but he still tends to get a little aggressive when other horses get too close to “his” food. Funny because he’s not the “head horse”. Minnow is. And what is odd about that is that Minnow is the LEAST aggressive when it comes to the food – he would patiently wait his turn for a treat no matter how long I make him wait. I really don’t know how Minnow ended up as the boss pony. Before Blitz and Boomer he was always the lowest horse in the herd. But somehow when the two youngsters came along he took on the role of leader – a nice leader. I never see him kick or bite – and I’m really not sure how he bosses the other two around – he just does.
Anyway so back to the bridge. It took Blitz 2 days to get up enough courage to walk on the bridge. 2 days is a tremendous achievement for my mom too, because she has struggled with being patient with Blitz. My mom is a recently converted clicker trainer. I’ve been using the clicker since 2005 but my mom was always just happy to watch me work with the ponies and my clicker system. It wasn’t until 6 months ago that I really convinced her that it was the right tool for working with Blitz. See she hasn’t really had a horse of her own for several years. The last horse she had was her home-bred Throughbred Cross who passed away in 2002. Since then she just rode my sister and mine’s hand me down horses or exercised ours while we were in school – no real “training” involved. So taking the leap into owning a horse again was a big change for my mom.
I watched as she struggled to work with Blitz in her traditional methods. I knew from the beginning it wasn’t the path for Blitz. So I would work with clicker training Blitz on the ground, and occasionally I would ride him. Finally one day after my mom was getting frustrated with Blitz’s desire to jig home after our cross country runs I convinced her to try the clicker on him. After we galloped the horses up a big hill I told her to ask Blitz to stand. When he stopped moving his feet I had her click and reward him. Instantly Blitz relaxed and became a completely different horse. Thats all it took to convince my mom that clicker training was something special – I thought it was cute that she told everyone she talked to that this clicker made her jigging horse walk quietly home. I think it was her aha moment.
So to see my mom patiently take her time and allow Blitz to choose when he was ready for the bridge was really neat. My mom is not one to take her time and wait for the horse (and she will admit this)- this is partially due to the way she was trained to ride. She grew up through the old school pony club teachings (as did I but I chose to take it with a grain of salt) and she spend much of her youth galloping race horses. Racetracks especially have a go go go mentality – which my mom developed as well. Makes me proud to see that she is finally breaking free from this, and I love seeing her being able to take her time now and enjoy learning with Blitz.
I can’t wait to see what the future brings for both of them. I knew Blitz was a special pony from the beginning – thats why I brought him home.
-Kd
www.ponypaintings.com
Feed the Starving Artists
I recently decided to update the PonyPaintings.com online shop. After 3 years it was time for a refreshing look. So get yourself over to the website and check out the new layout. And while your at it, be sure to pick out your favorite pony painting, afterall they are one-of-a-kind originals and the same painting will never be created again.
Don’t forget that with every purchase you are helping to feed and care for the wild ponies of Assateague Island, and the ancestors to the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. Not only that but your purchases also help to keep the Trick Ponies happy and healthy. Your painting purchase goes directly to buying lots of hay for the boys! We can’t have any starving artists now can we!
The Wedding Guest
Our Wedding
On Sunday (October 4th) marks the 1 year anniversary for my husband and I. 1 year ago I married my high school sweetheart of 7 years and my best friend. From the very beginning we knew we’d be married someday. We spent our senior year of high school together and continued on to college together- both obtaining art degrees. And when the day came that I knew we would finally be married…..there was only one guest that I absolutely had to have at my wedding (well aside from my family).
Me and the girls
And that was Chincoteague Minnow. Minnow has been with me nearly as long as my husband has. My husband was there the day that I brought Minnow home to live with me – as a free lease from a family friend. And for 6 years Minnow has tagged along with my husband and I as we graduated high school, left for college (Minnow came with us), and then started our lives together. Minnow taught my husband to ride and appreciate horses and he taught me more than I ever could have imagined. I’ve always said that Minnow is a once in a lifetime horse, and it was only fitting that he should attend our wedding.
The Boys
So in May of last year I started the daunting task of searching for a wedding venue. No easy task when you want to have a horse as a guest. My mom was thrilled with the idea and we schemed about what Minnow would do/be in the wedding. My mother-in-law was a bit on the fence about the idea, but she willingly went along. I’m probably known as the horse crazy daughter-in-law. Many places laughed in my face when I said I wanted my horse IN the wedding, while others seemed quite willing to accommodate. I finally settled on a place that happened to be right across the street from where Minnow was living at the time – a nature conservancy that had an old mansion to accompany it. And then came the task of figuring what Minnow would do in the wedding.
Minnow walks down the isle with my sister
My mom jokingly told me that I should have Minnow be the flower girl – I don’t think she had any idea that I would take the idea seriously. I decided that I would train Minnow to throw flowers out of a basket as he walked down the isle. I knew that if I could teach Minnow to paint that it would be totally plausible for him to learn this. In fact he picked it up after 2 days of training. Below is a video of the training process that my husband filmed.
My husband tolerates the love that Minnow and I share
Once friends and family began to hear rumors that there would be a “Flower Pony” at the wedding I was met with much skepticism. In their minds it was one thing to have a horse at the wedding (I’m sure they were thinking horse drawn carriage) but to have him actually walk down the isle – and throw flowers? Most people asked me – what will you do if he leaves a stinky surprise behind? and won’t the crowd scare him? what if he runs into the audience? I usually responded with none of that will happen – I know Minnow. And I really did.
My sister and Minnow
If I had thought about having him attend 2 years earlier I would have said there is absolutely no way that he’ll be calm. Infact 2 years earlier Minnow was terrified of almost everything – I could barely even handle him at a horse show. So to think that only 2 years after his trick training and all around clicker training began that I would be having him walk down a wedding isle with hundreds of people was kinda crazy. But Minnow and I pulled it off – as I knew we would. I think he knew that this was important to me.
The Flower Pony
October 4th, 2008 came and I was so excited! Not just to marry my high school sweetheart – but also to prove my friends and family wrong as my little Minnow walked down my wedding isle. I also think I was proving to myself, that I knew this pony, and I knew that he would make me proud. It was sort of a culmination of what Minnow and I had learned together over the years. Clicker training completely changed our relationship – but would it be enough to ward off a horse’s natural instincts and the desire to run from anything frightening. Not only that but I was not going to be the one walking Minnow down the isle – my little sister would. And as much as I try to impress my teaching methods on my sister – she has little patience for the training techniques I use, and she’s not “connected” to Minnow the way that I am.
So as I peeked through the trees that day, I watched as Minnow stepped up onto the stone ledge infront of my guests. I watched as he marched infront of them dropping flowers as he passed. And I watched as he walked up the steps. No stinky surprise, no freak out, nothing. I was so proud.
(sorry I don’t actually have the real wedding video to show you – I still haven’t seen it! If you are reading dad….is it ready YET?)
The wedding party
What made the day even better (well other than the fact that I got married) was that as an EXTREMELY generous wedding gift, Minnow’s owners decided to give him to me. I was so happy. I knew that they would probably never ask for him back, but in the back of my mind I always worried that one day they would want him again. Knowing that he would be with me forever was one of the most wonderful things I could have ever asked for. I found out that he was to be mine while I was on my honeymoon in Nicaragua. So when I returned home the first thing I did was rush to the barn so that I could whisper in Minnow’s ear that he would always be with me.
So thus ends my enchanting wedding story. Does anyone else have a story about a horse in a wedding? Am I the only crazy person to teach their horse to throw flowers down the isle? Do tell.
If this isn’t a convincing enough story as to why you should try clicker training with your horse, I don’t know what is.
Photography courtsey of Daniel Williams Photography. Aren’t they amazing? Hire him!
Sweet Baby Blitz
Young Chesapeake Lightning "Blitz"
This weekend marks a lot of big milestones for me. October 4th is my one year wedding anniversary and October 5th is Ammo’s (my dachshund) first Birthday. As the week continues on I’ll share with you some great “look backs” into my wedding (which one of the trick ponies attended!) and Ammo’s first year with us. But while we are on the topic of looking back I thought it would be a great time to share some baby photos of one of the trick ponies.
Blitz and his mom, L'Eggs
Sadly its not Minnow – my only island born Chincoteague pony, because he was born in 1993, one year before they started keeping detailed records on all of the Chincoteague Ponies from the Island. But I am lucky enough to know exactly where Boomerang and Blitz were born. Which means I have their baby pictures too!!
A young Blitz, destined to be a trick pony
Boomer and Blitz were both born on a small breeding farm in North Carolina called 1000 Welcomes Farm. Boomer spend 5 years of his life living on the farm until I purchased him last summer. Blitz was auctioned off at a Sport Horse Auction as a yearling and spent 5 years of his life living on a small farm in Maryland. Lucky for Blitz (his name was actually Lucky ironically) he had a wonderful life on this small Maryland farm. When I purchased Blitz last summer as well I made a point to track down where he came from originally. After I located the farm I contacted the owners to let them know I now owned one of their offspring.
Interestingly I found out that Blitz was actually the first foal that they had ever bred and they had always wondered what had happened to him. Thrilled to know that Blitz was happy and healthy I eventually received LOTS of baby pictures of him. So enjoy a look back at Blitz’s adorable baby pictures. He was teasingly known as the lap dog at his birth farm – because he’d crawl in your lap if you let him. I could definitely see him still doing that today.
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
Blitz (and Boomer's) father, Chesapeake Powhattan's Promise "Squat"
Keeping it in the Family
Boomerang
Last weekend was a busy painting weekend as Minnow created lots of new works and Blitz took to painting his first masterpiece with ease. But what about Boomerang? Younger brother to Blitz by a year and devoted follower/watcher of King Minnow – Boomer has the least amount of trick training (or training in general) out of all the Trick Ponies. But that didn’t stop Boomer from picking up the paint brush just like the others.
I mentioned a few days ago that I basically taught Blitz how to paint by allowing him to watch Minnow create his own masterpieces. But Blitz had already had some basic training on how to pick up objects and had already steadily been practicing holding the paintbrush. So when I decided to let Boomer give it a try, I wasn’t sure how he would do. Boomer knows one “mouth” trick and thats to play fetch. He successfully retrieves a fetch toy with his mouth – a trick that he really only learned this summer and has yet to have much practice with it. So I had a lot of doubts that he would even hold the brush considering I had never showed it to him before.
Boomer playing with the tuff ball
But Boomer is not your typical horse. I’m not kidding when I say I have YET to find a single thing that Boomer is afraid of or won’t do. Odd for a newly turned 6 year old that doesn’t have much life experience. In fact before I bought him last summer his only true experiences were ring work and a few hunter shows. He’d never even been out on a trail – something that can be quite scary for a horse the first time. Scary rocks, tall trees, rustlings in the bushes. So on the day that I purchased him in Virginia I was amazed when he went out on a trail with me, walked over a bridge, and let pool noodles smack him in the face with not so much as a bat of the eye. I knew then that Boomer was a special kind of horse. Since then I’ve exposed him to countless things that never seem faze him.
Just this Wednesday I had an 11 year old boy stop by my farm. I popped him on Boomer and told him to run through the obstacle course I had set up in my ring. The obstacles consisted of the giant ball, a tarp, some strange flags, a bicycle, and a bunch of soccer balls among many other things. Boomer had seen some of the stuff…never the soccer balls. Boomer kicked the ball around with the boy on his back, he tamped over the tarp, picked up the flags, let a pair of jingle bells flap all over his face, let the child ride the bicycle while leading him and trotted through the cluster of soccer balls. Lets just say I was so proud of Boomer. He’s definitely one in a million.
Boomer after his painting session
So that being said – back to the painting. After letting Minnow and then Blitz practice their painting skills I decided to pull Boomer out as well. He stomped up to the easel and stood infront of it like he had been doing it all his life. I handed him a paintbrush and he actually held it. After a few practices holding it I decided to ask him to touch the paper. Several minutes later he was consistently touching the paper. I decided not to ask too much of him (like strokes and such) in one day, but I have no doubt that within the next week or so Boomer will be the third painting Chincoteague pony to reside at Iron Horse Farm.
Boomer has been really fun to train because I can do/show him almost anything. With Minnow (and Blitz too) I have always had to be careful how or what I show him. Minnow in the beginning had extreme trust issues, not to mention he had issues with sound or anything that made a noise. As you can see he’s progressed TREMENDOUSLY in the 6 years I have had him, but I still always have to be careful what I ask of him or show him. With Boomer he’s like a clean slate. The first time I showed him a tarp he picked it up and flung it at his unsuspecting brother Blitz. Funny – but it set me back a bit with Blitz’s training…thanks Boomer. On Wednesday I brought out the big ball and he proceeded to put all of his weight on it until the point where he layed down on it (with me on his back!). With Boomer the possibilities are endless as to what he can learn. It makes me dream of days where maybe I will be walking him into a school or a nursing home so he can entertain people or perhaps he’ll be riding on a float in a parade – if I can think of it he will probably do it! My guess is (and he’s lucky) Boomer has never been given any reason to not trust people. He was born and raised by the loving people that I bought him from (www.1000welcomesfarm.com) and I think he’s been fortunate to have a life thus far where nothing bad has ever happened to him. I’ve never had a horse before that didn’t have some sort of traumatizing issues – and as much as I love working and helping the troubled ones, its a bit refreshing to have a pony that has no issues.
So I ask you….can you think of anything CRAZY I should try with Boomer? I’d love to hear your suggestions!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
