Posts Tagged ‘uspc
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
My Buddy Nitro
Dressage Rally with Nitro 2002
So I feel like I’ve completed an entire day and its only 11am! While my parents are away at my brother’s graduation in North Carolina I’m in charge of our many animals. My parent’s dog, Trooper, is staying with me, I also have to feed the cat at their house, and of course the 9 horses we are in charge of. On top of that my retired dressage horse, Nitro, now has an abscess in his hoof. Poor guy is hobbling around on 3 legs. So last night after working a 10 hour day at my shop (I own a custom picture framing shop) I drove out to the barn to check on him. Seeing that his condition hadn’t improved I scheduled a farrier visit for today. So I woke up really early, loaded up all the dogs, helped my hobbling husband (he broke his foot on tuesday) to the car and headed for the barn. I began soaking and removing Nitro’s poultice for the farrier – and when he arrived I took on the task of holding Nitro still. Now Nitro is a 16.3 hand Thoroughbred/Conemarra/Welsh cross – yes he should of been a pony as his mother was 13 hands, today I found myself wishing he was. Nitro, although much improved, at 23 years old is a pain in the butt to keep still for the farrier. We have been battling this issue (along with his fear of cows) for 10 years now, but if you saw him when I brought him home I think you would be VERY surprised how far he’s come. He has no respect for personal space and he has no problem barreling through anything that stands in his way. Needless to say I got clocked in the face several times by his massive head which resulted in a fat lip.
Nitro at USDF Young Rider Championships
Anyway, after an hour of chipping away at his foot still no relief was found, so we opted to wrap his foot back up and wait for whatever is in there to work its way out on its own. So poor Nitro is still hobbling around on 3 legs. By this time its getting close to the time I need to open up my shop. So I quickly feed and turn out some of the horses (one of our co-op people was supposed to feed instead of me). I load up the dogs again and head back to my apartment, quickly change then its off to feed the cat at my parents. And amazingly with 5 minutes to spare I unlock the door to the shop. Now here I sit writing this post, utterly exhausted, when I really should be framing something. So thats been my day so far – and I just have to do it all over again as I’m scheduled to feed the horses tonight too. I’m tired just thinking about it – the things we do for our horses. 🙂
USDF Young Rider Championships
So aside from that, the real thing I wanted to talk about today was Nitro. Now I usually write about “The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague” but dealing with Nitro today got me thinking about his story. So here goes. When my parents bought Nitro for me I was 13 (I’m now 25). I had sprouted long long legs and outgrew my childhood pony, Oopsie Daisy (whom I had up until last year when he passed away). So my parents decided it was time I got a bigger horse as I had become extremely interested in Dressage. After many attempted purchases (one horse I had on trial flipped me over backwards when I tightened the girth) we finally found Nitro. He was up for sale at a dealers barn – and while I hesitate to purchase from dealers, I had been looking for almost 2 years and there was just something different about Nitro. This 16.3 hand grey was built like a tank, but his eyes were so gentle and kind. My parents purchased Nitro to a tune of $6,000 thinking he had been to events and kinda knew his way around the block. Later we were to learn that he had only had one owner (who had him foaled by her pony mare) and he pretty much did nothing his whole life besides be a “pasture pet” and then he was sent to the dealer to be sold at 14 years of age.
Nitro makes a great Super Hero for USDF Pas De Deux
Now your probably wondering why we didn’t try to find this out before we bought him – and well its because he was well behaved and seemed to know a lot of things and we trusted the dealer. Big mistake, because about 30 days into having him he went all split personality (we now believe he was under the influence of a 30 day tranquilizer). Nitro began having panic attacks, kicking out at fences and people when I rode him, spinning, sweating bullets, and simply walking on top of anything that got in his way, this included me. Some his background began to emerge – he has these dents in his neck which we were told happened when a bunch of geldings broke into Nitro’s field and attached him – who knows if thats true, but I sorta think it is because he’s always had issues passing horses he didn’t know in warm-up arenas. But the fact is (other than being tranquilized and taken to a new home, and being attacked by horses) we didn’t really believe he was abused, or had a horrible home in the past. So really – why was he so crazed?
To this day I’m still really not sure. I wish I had discovered clicker training back then, it probably would of helped me a ton. But I began working with a very nice trainer who believed in natural horsemanship, if it wasn’t for her I don’t think I could have fixed Nitro. Many a times throughout the process of retraining Nitro my parents threatened to sell him, they thought he was too dangerous for me. I can’t even count how many times he knocked me down in the barn only to run back to the pasture. But somehow I managed to evade my parents attempt to sell Nitro, and honestly if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be the rider I am today, he taught me how to ride through anything (in a confident and humane manner I might add). My biggest hurdle with Nitro was getting him to trust me – and not letting him push my buttons to the point of frustration. So in my lessons I began working on the ground with him teaching him to “follow me” – I guess looking back now it was probably very similar to the “join up” method so many trainers use today. To this day Nitro will follow me at liberty over jumps, through obstacles, at the trot and even canter – its our own special game we like to play. So for probably 3 years I spent working on the basics, I’m not going to go too far into it, because honestly I always write way too much in these posts. But in the end I produced a calmer horse, that I could control and even though he occasionally had panic attacks – I could gently calm him down again. Nitro went on to take me through 2nd level Dressage, we earned reserve champion at the USDF Young Rider Championships, and in 2006 he took me through my C-2 Rating in Pony Club. This was a HUGE accomplishment because jumping was a big contributor to Nitro’s panic attacks (luckily for him I loved Dressage). But being asked to complete a cross country course as well as a stadium course to pass the rating was very hard for Nitro. I probably spent several days just getting him to take one very very small step down jump in the woods. But he did it, maybe not with flying colors, but he atleast made it through.
I actually did try to clicker train Nitro in 2007, he was nearing retirement then, but I decided it would be fun to try to get him to target a big yellow ball. He sort of understood, but I truly believe he has ADHD, I could not keep his focus for more than a minute. But being 23 years old and after 10 years of working hard for me, I think he’s earned his retirement, so I wasn’t going to push the clicker training. When my family makes our big move to Iron Horse Farm in a week (yippee!) I may start up with the clicker training again on Nitro. By then we will have a more adequate working area, the place we occupy right now is really not conducive to working with a VERY big horse that is sort of set in his ways.
So thats Nitro’s story (well the shortened version), he was a huge part in teaching me how to train horses, I think he may have been my toughest case (Minnow comes a close second – but being 1/2 Nitro’s size he was a bit more manageable). And as a short side note, Nitro came with the original name Royalty’s Pal and I’m sure you can guess why I renamed him Nitro (Niatross is his show name). 🙂
-KD
www.ponypaintings.com
