Making big strides with Prophet
Just a quick report to let you know that Prophet is continuing to do very well! I can now reliably ride him at the walk on my own around the ring... it took longer than normal to get there, but I am very excited about these steps in the right direction!
View more pics of horses trained and Prophet at http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfequestrian/sets/72157628432934967/
Kylee and Angelica Make Progress in the Helpers Program
LFEquestrian launched the Helpers Program this summer - a program where anyone age 12 and up can earn riding and lesson time by helping around the farm. Angelica has been helping us since the launch of the program.
Some of the tasks include feeding the horses, tacking up horses for training sessions, and doing general chores around the farm. Some of the tasks also include helping with horse training.
Kylee is one of my new horses that just arrived this summer. Kylee had experience as a racing Standardbred (cart horse) but had never had a rider. I spent some time with Kylee and started riding walk/trot with her very easily.
Angelica has been learning a lot about horses and riding, and she has a goal of being involved with horse training as a career so she has been helping me a lot with the horse training. Angelica was the 2nd person ever to ride Kylee - and she did a great job of riding walk/trot and practicing steering with Kylee.
Angelica has started to learn to form a partnership with the horses - Kylee used to be very timid around us and would run away and not want to be caught.One of things Angelica does to help this partnership is to visit Kylee in the field to rub and scratch Kylee, without going to catch her all the time.
This helps because non-demanding time is really important with horses. If you spend time with your horse when you aren't asking them to do anything, it helps the horse to view you as a partner and not just that bossy human.
Angelica's efforts are definitely paying off- now Kylee will sometimes greet us at the fence, and she isn't difficult to catch at all. Kylee even trusted Angelica to ride up onto the pedestal!
Congratulations to Kylee and Angelica for making huge steps of success!
Learn more about the Helpers program at www.lfequestrian.com/helpersprogram
Happy Success with Prophet - Finally!!
By Lindsey Forkun, www.LFEquestrian.com
Yesterday was a special day for both me and Prophet - it was a day where we achieved a big milestone together. Prophet is an amazing horse - extremely smart and very talented, but he is also very claustrophobic and panicky (like most horses are, except Prophet had a habit of 'exploding').
Prophet would get very tense with anything around his belly - even a rope around his mid section, or me just hopping up and down beside him near his belly could send him exploding (leaping forward with some bucks).
My goal was to teach emotional control - to keep going to Prophet's 'threshold' and showing him that he could stand, think, and relax. I interrupted the bucking pattern and after a couple months I could saddle up Prophet, send him over jumps, sideways over a barrel, do tons of different ground work patterns and exercises, hop beside him, and sit on him. We even did some walking while riding, but he still felt very tense.
Every day Prophet comes into his stall for his daily grain feeding. Most of the time he gets saddled too - just to eat dinner. Then sometimes he gets unsaddled and turned out, sometimes he gets put in the round pen to eat grass with the saddle on, and sometimes does a training session. Prophet has learned that the saddle is nothing to be feared - he can do 'normal' things with a saddle on.
Recently I started ponying Prophet on trail rides - the goal was to help get him out of the arena and show him what riding can be about. It got him used to seeing me up high on top of a horse. It got him used to getting close to me and having his belly occasionally brush up against my leg as I was riding right beside him. He also started to really move into the saddle as we went up and down hills, through water, over logs, and let him see a purpose to what we were teaching him.
We discovered that Prophet did great on trails - he loves them. He became so relaxed and moved so nicely into the saddle. When we got back from rides I could swing my leg over, bump Prophets sides, sit on him, and he felt the most relaxed he has ever been.
Last night was an exciting night because I decided to try riding Prophet - but not the normal way I would start a horse. Instead I had the help of Cait - Prophet's owner's daughter who is an accomplished rider and has experience exercising polo horses... so she has experience ponying 5 horses at a time!
Cait rode Vinnie and practiced ponying Prophet in the arena. Once she felt ready we hit the trail - me walking on the ground to start, and Elana on Shawna taking up the rear. After about 15 min and Prophet was super relaxed, I decided to hop on him.
I got on Prophet, made sure he was relaxed, and asked Cait to continue ponying him. Prophet took a few steps at the walk, and stopped. We allowed him to stop and think - this is a great response compared to exploding. We want to encourage Prophet to stop and think if he feels nervous.
After he had a minute to look at me on his back and then relax and lower his head, Cait cued him to walk again. I just sat there like a passenger, not doing anything. We rode the rest of the trail walking and even some trotting! A couple times I tried doing simple little things like dropping my stirrups and picking them up, picking up the reins to ask for halt when Cait was too, etc and he was fantastic! I did get off and on a couple more times throughout the ride and Prophet was relaxed for all of it.
When we got back to the arena I could cue Prophet to trot and he was listening really well and stopping!
It was a really exciting night for me - we finally made some huge progress with Prophet - but it took some creativity and willingness to do things a bit differently.
Next steps for me are to try riding him on the trail again, with Cait leading me again, and then for me to start picking up the reins and initiating more of the cues until its me doing all the cues. Once I am doing all the cues (not Cait) then I can try un-clipping the lead rope and riding Prophet on my own.
Very exciting!!
Some tips when starting new horses:
- If the horse feels tense, don't bother trying to go to the next task. A horse needs to be relaxed at walk if you want trot or canter to go well too.
- It is important we teach our horses to stop & think when they are nervous or scared. If your horses gets nervous or scared, don't just try and tell them to 'go', or you could end up teaching your horse to explode or take off.
- It's okay to ask for help! Sometimes it is safest and best if you have someone else help you. Every horse is different.
- Keep it positive. It is important that Prophet felt like he could do the things I wanted - so I always keep my exercises realistic for what he is both physically and mentally able to do.
Key learning this week: There is hope for even the most difficult horses - time, patience, and natural horsemanship can help!
LFEquestrian has launched a new Trail Riding Club!!!
Partridge Farm, home of LFEquestrian, is surrounded by thousands of acres of trail riding through Pontypool Forest, Fleetwood Conservation area, Durham East Cross Forest, and more!
We even have access to the ponds of Pontypool where you can go swim with your horse!
We have launched the new Trail Riding Club to make it easier for you to join us on trail rides!
You can come join us on a single trail ride, buy a monthly, or season pass so you can take advantage of our quiet, safe, and well trained horses on the beautiful trails.
Learn more at http://lfequestrian.com/trailriding.html
Some pictures of our recent adventures around the farm: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfequestrian/sets/72157628432662965/
LFEquestrian launched a new Helpers Program!
This is a program where you can help out at Partridge Farm (in Pontypool, Kawartha Lakes area) and earn hours for free riding time and lessons with LFEquestrian!
The program is perfect for summer time students looking for something to do - and great for anyone who has a love for horses and wants to make horses a part of their life.
Learn more about the program here: http://lfequestrian.com/helpersprogram.html
Pictured here is one of our new helpers, Anjelica, who participated in the Trail Riding Clinic with Riddler after earning helper hours to pay for the clinic!
Getting Started with Natural Horsemanship
By Lindsey Forkun, lfequestrian.com
Over the June 23/24 weekend we had a get started with Natural Horsemanship clinic and learning to advance your skills clinic. The Saturday focused on learning to get really good basics with your horse.
It is really important to have really crisp, clear, and easy to understand body language between you and your horse. This is because if your horse can understand very precisely to back up, move just the shoulder, move just the haunches, move sideways, or go forward then you can combine cues to make things more advanced and fun.
Some tips to having really good basics:
- only perfect practice makes perfect: so make sure to always end on a positive note that is better than how you left it, and double check you are using proper technique
- give a long ideal cue: give your horse a long chance to notice and respond to your ideal, then add pressure quickly so your horse is motivated to respond to the ideal cue
- don't give up: have the patient persistence to keep asking and trying until the horse starts to respond the way you want
- put it to a purpose: once you have some basic understanding, start to play with your horse so that you don't become a drill sergeant
Sunday was a day when we learned how to advance our skills and really have fun with horse. This means we used all of our basic cues and then learned how to have fun with it while building better trust, communication, and respect.
Some ideas for putting basic cues to purpose:
- backwards figure 8
- backwards weave pattern
- halt halfway over poles
- go sideways over poles
- back up over poles
- do traveling circles
- go over a tarp
- push a giant ball
- follow me (on the ground have the horse stay beside you as you walk, trot, etc)
The key message after the clinic was to be aware of your body language and how to use it to communicate with your horse.
Key tip this week: Establish really good basics with your horse. Make sure you can move them in all different direction. Once you have understanding, then have some fun and put the cues into patterns like a backwards weave pattern. This helps to make it fun, fresh, different, and more like a conversation.
View pictures of clinics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfequestrian/sets/72157628433224817/
Trail Riding Natural Horsemanship Style
By Lindsey Forkun, lfequestrian.com
On July 7th we had a trail riding clinic at the farm. The purpose of the clinic was to help riders and horses become safer and more confident out on the trails using natural horsemanship.
Some things we learnt to help set a horse up for a safe trail ride:
1) Desensitize the horse to various objects like umbrellas, dogs, bikes, tarps, plastic bags, etc so that the horse understands to stop, think, and wait for your cue instead of taking off in fear.
2) Sensitize your horse to the cues and movements you want your horse to react to like teaching good steering, brakes, and being able to move your horse around or over obstacles.
3) Think about Herd Dynamics so that you don't take two hot and anxious horses out on a trail, or try to make a dominant fast walking horse ride at the back of 10 person ride.
We practiced some different exercises to help horses and riders gain skills in the above three areas. Some things you can do to get better in these areas:
1) Send your horse over a tarp, log, water, and in between tight spaces like between two barrels. Practice opening and closing an umbrella as you walk away from your horse. Have someone ride their bike in the arena while you ride around.
2) Practice exercises to help your horse be sensitive to your cues like transitions, steering exercises like a weave through pylons, or riding patterns like circles and serpentines.
3) Practice riding with calm and quiet horses, and practice asking your horse to follow horses, then move into a lead position, and then fall back to a following position again. This will help your horse become more comfortable at riding in different positions on a trail, and help the horse be more calm.
Key tip this week: Trail riding can be fun and relaxing for both you and your horse, but it takes some preparation to help make sure both your and you can stay safe. Take the time to do some exercises with your horse before you go out to make sure your horse is ready for the challenges that come up on a trail.
You can view pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lfequestrian/sets/72157628433224817/
Gemma Finished her Training - Some Things to Remember with Green Horses (or any horse)
By Lindsey Forkun, www.LFEquestrian.com
This week Gemma completed her 3 months of training and was returned home. It was sad to see her go because she is such a beautiful and smart mare, but it is always rewarding to think about what they have learned over the last couple months.
When Gemma came 3 months ago, she hadn't had much handling other than leading into her stall for dinner time, or basic handling for the vet and farrier.
Within the first month Gemma had learned all the basic cues both on the ground and in the saddle. She knew walk, trot, canter, halt, back up, forehand, and haunch turns. She knew sideways on the ground - but not yet in the saddle. All in all she had learned quite a bit and was quite relaxed, calm, and willing too. By the end of her 3 months she has become a trail riding star - going through town, forest, field, subdivision, roads, and even leading trail rides too.
When horses are in for training, owners are allowed to watch all training for free, take free lessons with their horse, and/or participate in clinics for free too - this helps owners get to know their horse, the cues, and understand the process.
When it came time for Gemma to leave, I wanted to share some key tips for her owner to remember... and you can use them with all horses, but they are especially important for young and learning horses:
- hold with loosely on the rope: I usually hold about 2-3ft of slack... because the horse is trained to stop/back up with a wiggle in the rope. If you hold right under the chin there is no room for a wiggle in the rope. Also if you hold under the chin it is like you are trapping the horse - which shows the horse you are not a partner. Holding under the chin will also provoke a pushy natured horse to be pushy.
- use patient persistence: never give up once you ask for something, and never second guess yourself. Have the patient persistence to wait for the horse to respond correctly. If you keep your energy calm and your message clear, the horse will eventually get it and then you can reward them (or at least a step in the right direction). For example if you are riding and trying to go left, you should NEVER give up and decide "ah well it would be easier if I just switched hands and pull right" - it is important you keep on the left rein until the horse understands to go left.
- reward means praise or silence: reward doesn't mean treats, or a pat on the neck. Often my reward is just the release in pressure (i.e. I stop bugging them with the cue). If it takes the horse a minute or two to understand something, then allow a minute or two for them to think about it before asking for more or something new. You can give the horse a friendly rub... but it is really good for the horse to just be allowed time to think.
- nothing says you have to stay mounted: there is no rule that says once you start something mounted that you can't finish it on the ground. If you get on and something doesn't go right, get off, and walk the horse with you on the ground to complete whatever the goal was. Once you are both relaxed again, you can always get back on.
- start with some ground games: always start with a few ground games to see how spunky, respectful, and full of play your horse is before you go to get on. Once you have played with your horse enough to know they are calm, respectful, and ready to listen, go ahead and ride. Otherwise stay on the ground and play - it is safer than being in the saddle.
With these few key things in mind, it should be really helpful to set your learning horse up for success.
Key tip this week: Working with a young or learning horse takes a lot of knowledge, patience, and confidence in yourself. If you are working with a learning horse, learn as much as you can to help set both your horse and you up for success.
