Posts Tagged ‘trick
Really Big News!
Blitz and Boomer watch as Minnow paints
On Sunday (as planned) I lugged out Minnow’s paints and easel so that he could create some new artwork. We spent about an hour creating lots of new works (that will be available soon)….but I will post more about this later. While Minnow painted I specifically set up his easel infront of our dutch doors at the farm so that Blitz and Boomer could look out of their stalls and watch.
Why you may be wondering? Because I wanted them to learn by watching Minnow. And it worked.
After painting with Minnow I decided to pull out Blitz (the next oldest at age 7 and the furthest in his clicker/trick training). I haltered Blitz but let him have free range in the paddock where the painting supplies were set up. Surprisingly Blitz decided to take the exact spot Minnow had occupied infront of the easel. So I attached a new piece of Bristol paper to the easel and decided to let Blitz have a try with painting. About 6 months ago or more I had begun working with Blitz on holding brushes in his mouth. At that time we was able to get the concept down but was too afraid of the easel and strange setup to actually touch it to the paper. Since then I had also taught him to play fetch and generally pick up objects in his mouth. So those skills were already mastered.
Blitz and his first painting on 9-20-09
I handed Blitz the brush and he touched the paper with it! Interestingly he began making marks on the paper in an up and down motion (the same way that Minnow had been doing it). He took to the painting with ease – simply as if he had learned by watching Minnow do it. You can watch the video below of Blitz creating his very first painting.
Blitz loving his first painting
I was thrilled that PonyPaintings.com is now home to two painting Chincoteague Ponies. But then I remembered Minnow. I actually started to feel really sad, because painting had always been the special thing that Minnow and I shared. He was special and unique because he was the only one. Now Minnow has to share painting with Blitz – and he’s also no longer the only painting Chincoteague Pony in the World. I almost feel a little guilty for teaching Blitz. I took away something special from Minnow. š
But a long-term goal I have always had was to teach all three of my boys to paint so that someday they could all paint on the same canvas. And Minnow has become such an influence and a teacher to my two younger Chincoteagues. I think they learn a lot by watching him and the way that he interacts with me. The fact remains that Minnow will ALWAYS hold a very special place in my heart. I’ve NEVER (as much as I would love to) felt that way I do about Minnow with any other horse in my life…and I don’t know that I ever will. Minnow will always be the pony that introduced me to clicker training, and trick training, and basically taught me everything I know now about training horses using positive reinforcement. Without Minnow I would probably never have found another way, a kinder/gentler way.
Blitz
So as sad as it makes me that Minnow’s unique talent is no longer unique at my farm, I know that teaching Blitz was a necessary goal in order to better my relationship with him. Minnow will always be special to me and I’m happy that he’s now able to take on the roll as teacher more than ever. I can’t wait for the day when I bring home my very own Chincoteague foal from the Island and Minnow can help me to train him as well. And I guess I’m just going to have to teach Minnow an even better trick so that he can be unique again! What about painting while standing on his hind legs? Or while sitting on a bean bag chair?
Look for artwork by Blitz to appear in the PonyPaintings.com shop soon. But for now you can watch the video of Blitz painting on his first canvas 9-21-09:
September Giveaway
September Giveaway
This weekend I have plans to do some new paintings with Chincoteague Minnow. After Pony Penning 2009 we were nearly cleared out of all his recent paintings – so its high time we start making some new ones. Since we will be adding new stock to the website and our retail shop in Downingtown, Pa I decided that we should make room for the new stuff.
So we’re giving some away! This is the first time we will be giving away a Minnow painting and if it goes well hopefully we will continue to do so in the future.
Today’s giveaway will be for one of Minnow’s mini paintings. These paintings are only sold at our retail location (you can’t get them on the website). This particular painting is a 5×7 painted on matboard – a complete original by Minnow.
So now you are probably wondering, how can I win? Here’s the details:
PRIZE: one 5×7 mini pony painting
TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the words “PAINTING PONIES”
BONUS QUESTION: Tell us what trick you would teach your horse if you could teach him anything. I just might use your idea and teach it to one of the ponies!
CONTEST CLOSES: Friday, September 25, 2009 at 9am EST
NUMBER OF WINNERS: one
FINE PRINT: one entry per person, winners will be selected at random using random.org and announced on Friday.
Be sure to check out all of Minnow’s original works of art on www.PonyPaintings.com and if you don’t win, remember, you can always purchase your favorite painting on the website! Good Luck!
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 situationĀ 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.
Its a Trick Life
On this rainy Friday I’ll share with you some photos of Minnow and I performing at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show last weekend. Minnow was a bit “sluggish” as he was last year as well. I’m not sure why. He was sort of slow to respond to my requests and sometimes wouldn’t do specific tricks. I really don’t know why he was like that – perhaps it was during his normal mid-day nap….who knows? Maybe he didn’t think it was a “real” performance because he wasn’t on a “stage” per say. But no matter, everyone loved him anyway…how could you not?
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
**We will always remember 9.11.01
A New Addition
Minnow at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show
Recently I have been training a new addition to the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. And although he’s not really a pony, he likes to think he is. Ammo, my 11 month old Dachshund, has officially begun his training to be part of the trick pony gang. Last week you saw that I taught Minnow and him to give eachother kisses. This trick was in preparation to have Ammo attend the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show with Minnow and I.
I even made Ammo a shirt that said “Trick Pony Side-Kick”. And a side-kick was just what he was.
Ammo at the Ludwigs Corner Horse Show
I kept having to push the time that Minnow was going to paint back because the organizers of the show wanted him to paint after a specific demonstration (which of course was running really late). So in order to please the crowd that was growing around my small coral I decided to have Minnow do a few tricks. Not his skit, just some fun tricks. So I brought Minnow out and had him up on his pedestal, shaking hands, kissing me, playing fetch. And then I remembered Ammo.
Ammo trotted into the arena and did some of his tricks. The crowd favorite is “Bang Bang” – where I pretend to shoot Ammo with a fake gun and he staggers to the ground and “dies”. It makes me laugh everytime, mostly because Ammo exaggerates it so much. I then had Minnow and Ammo kiss eachother, everyone loved this trick, as do I. Its quite adorable.
I’d love to come up with an act to showcase Ammo’s and Minnow’s tricks someday. I think they would be such a funny pair together. The hard part is that Chincoteague is not the most dog-friendly island. Most of the hotels don’t allow dogs, and you can’t take them into the fairgrounds and many of the parks. It seems to be the one place where horses take president over dogs!
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
