Starting some sort of half assed training.

For one, lets take a look at my groomed, shedded, and amazing horse:

He has become this beautiful horse overnight almost!

So last Friday I went to see him and saddled him for the first time in a LONG LONG time. He has been a little fussy walking on a leadline, but I will say, he was giving me 110% of his attention on Friday.

I set up ground poles for him to walk over. I made patterns out of them and we did a flat walk over them with me on the ground leading him. He did amazing, never pulling on the lead rope, doing as I asked, and pretty much followed what I said.

I worked on the word "over" with him while pushing his on his side to let him move his hindquarters away from me. The purpose to that, in my mind, is so in the saddle he will associate me pushing my leg on him with moving his but over. He did very well with that. We worked on "back" as well, which he is getting very good at.

I then saddled and we worked again on the pattern on the ground. i do need to carry the crop with me as he does NOT want to move out when asked. He has a gorgeous rack, and I am currently working to develop that. Since I do not wear spurs because I do not feel I am experienced enough to do so, the trainer had to get out a lunge whip and "help" him forward. Which, once coerced into the gait, he stayed in it.

He had a slight sweat when we were done and I was very proud of him. I really do love this damn horse and I look forward to putting more work in him.

We have also been working on his mouthing problem. I admit I have caused some of this, but now it's over. He comes at me with his lips and he gets yelled at, or if needed, smacked. He is learning very quickly that I don't play like that and that is a good thing. I also got a sign for his stall that basically says don't feed treats.

I also have to say, my trainer likes him. :) Now don't get me wrong, she thinks he is a bumbling idiot. But, she has told me many times that my horse hasn't a mean bone in his body and trusts her grandkids to work around him. That says a lot. You shoulda seen when her gkid wanted to pick his hooves and the gkid was just bumbling around with it. The kid started whining and saying: but he might kick and his hooves are heavy. She looked at him and said "that horse is being more patient than my horses with you, get it done already". haha

She even pointed out that when I was afraid that he would bolt out of the barn, she said my horse had no bolt in him. He just wants to please. And after she pointed that out, I realized she was right. THIS is why I love this damn horse.

Aw Memphis, don't quit being awesome.

I feel horrible.

For somewhere around 3 months I have done NOTHING with Memphis. I realized today that I just waisted valuable time that I could have been using teaching him something, anything, working with him on the ground even if I couldn't ride. What is wrong with me?!!! I've been so caught up being worried about saddle work that I haven't paid attention to anything else except the weather to see when it is going to rain.

When Dodge was alive we worked ALL the time together trying to get to know each other on the ground first. I haven't done that with Memphis. I have failed him.

Tonight I am going to do ground poles with him, walking over them, around them, and maybe even into them. Might use the plastic sack trick and work on bending.

I should have been doing this all along. :(

Been awhile... wanna know why?

Because for some unknown reason it has been raining like nobodies business. I haven't been able to do ANYTHING with Memphis. He is going to be a fool under saddle when I get back on him... JOY.

Pride

Sunday was a hit to my pride on riding since I let things escalate when they shouldn't have ever even started. I was nervous going into the ride, which in turn, played out with everything I did with him. I hung on the reins, something I don't feel like I do, and gave him no release because I was nervous and he threw a fit. Understandable and I feel absolutely horrible about it. I was in tears when I left.

Joe was with me and stated that he has never seen me give up like I just did :( It was really a blow when he said I handled the entire thing really well and he wasn't ever afraid I would get hurt in the tantrum. I have no idea when I became a nervous rider! I'm usually the one to hop on anything and go happily along with whatever happens. I know a large part of me is terrified to hurt Memphis. I'm so afraid that if I actually put him to work he will come up lame or pull something or otherwise get injured. So when he sometimes gets playful or gets the stupid in his head, I'm afraid he is going to get hurt. I'm not really concerned about my safety, which is just plain odd.

I plan to ride again, but unlike Sunday, I plan to have a clear concise plan in mind. Something I normally do, but Sunday I just let him have the freedom to change gaits at will. Again, something I have never really done. Sigh. Lesson learned on my part.

Hoping the arena is still dried out as that is where I plan to ride :) Set up some poles and just work on walking and weaving with him. Maybe pop it up a notch but just walking and weaving.

Also this gaited horse book I got just enlightened me to Memphis and his gaits. Apparently with gaited horses there are two kinds when it comes to the canter- the ones that it just comes naturally to and the ones that have a really hard time with it. I'm lumping Memphis into the "has a really hard time with it" as he will canter for a few strides but go right back into a pace. It gives ways to help improve the canter and to get them into it, but does say it can take months for them to do it and even then there is the chance that it will be a fight to keep them there. It has to do with the actual build of the horse and looking at that diagram of how they have the horses, Memphis fits into the pacier side of things. Which makes sense, as his bloodlines are chock full of well known pacey horses. There, I learned something totally new! :)

sigh

Tonight I actually saddled Memphis for the first time in a long time. Been weeks for him. I will say that he was calmer today than he had been in a long time. I'm not sure if it was just warm outside or if he just wasn't feeling too bad.

The good:

He saddled fine with the only balk being at me putting the saddle on. He stood still for saddling and lowered his head to take the bit. Worked on poles today at just a walk. He wanted to be a butt and stop randomly, but thankfully he just takes a slight tap with my heel to get him to move. He is also responding well to clicks and clucks.

I stopped the ride when he did a small run walk for me and stopped when I said woah. I'm trying to keep the lessons short for right now since he hasn't done anything in almost 5 weeks. I want to instill a few basics and then stop. Sunday's ride will be about 10-20 minutes longer than the 15 I put into him today.


The bad:

He had a bad fall today. :( I was lunging him before I rode him to get out some of his kinks. (I am in the lunging before riding if you haven't ridden in awhile) He tried to bolt... which is not good because we were in an enclosed space with not much room. I yanked his head too late and he lost his balance and fell.... hard... he hit the stall with the pony in it hard. (the barn he is in is huge. the stalls are on the outside walls and there is a large soft tilled dirt in the middle. Not big enough for a horse to go too crazy, but large enough to get some work done) He hopped back up pretty quickly, we walked for a few minutes to see if anything was hurt and then I moved him on the line to see if he was acting gimpy. He seems fine. But that still doesn't not make me feel horrid. I shouldn't have yanked his head but I was afraid he would bolt into the barn doors...

Bucking fools!

Memphis on the other hand was bucking it up last night. He is really ready to get out of his stall, all of the horses have been stalled up for 2 weeks because the pasture is a muddy wreck or its a watery grave. Poor guy has had a stud chain over his nose every time we walk. (not under saddle, just walking) because he wants to dictate the speed or he is being an idiot and spooking at everything. He's giving me my nut up or shut up moment with horses.

We let him run around the barn for a bit while cleaning his stall out and he was running around bucking, snorting, rolling, and having a grand old time. My barn owner says he looks like a woman when he starts gaiting because of the back and forth movement in his butt. :D

At this point though, it puts my training and everything I want to do with him behind. Once the tractor moves (It's been broke down in the middle of the barn) I can finally start lunging him again and getting him back up to speed with voice commands. I also want to sack him out quite a bit. He needs to be able to handle random things coming at him if he is going to make me a decent trail horse.

He is also bending quite nicely so I know his butt can do it under saddle. You say "Back" and he is backing. I take his head slightly towards me in halter and push on his side and say "over" and he moves his hindquarters away from me. Just like he should. So this tells me clearly I need more saddle work.

Although, he was the perfect gentleman for grooming yesterday. :) Even had a hoof ready to lift for me and everything. Now I need to work on space issues with him too, he always wants to be in my space. I've been pushing him away from me and letting him in when I want. He gets a little upset with me, but tough. If I want to win with him, I'm going to have to show him that I'm leader and he can come in when I want him in.

Aren't horses fun??!!!

Memphis got promoted!

Oh happy day for Memphis! He got promoted to inside the barn! Where he is boarded there is "outside" and "inside" board. Basically, its a lady's personal residence, so this is NOT boarding facility. I was torn when I started boarding him to either, a large boarding facility or this lady that had taught me how to ride and had helped me through many issues with horses.

In the end I feel confident with my barn owners abilities to care for Memphis, she has enough sense to reprimand Memphis when I'm not there, but also enough sense to leave me to his training and future. I love where he is at and cannot wait to buy a horse trailer to haul him around in!

Anywho, I'm rambling as always... There is the main barn with 6 stalls that is indoors and then there is a sorta lean off of the barn with two stall in it. These are not protected by the barn doors but are out of the elements. Memphis stayed in these conditions most of the winter. Without the barn doors he still stayed very warm without a blanket and I stood in his stall for over an hour one in the teens night just watching him eat without getting cold. So I never did worry about his well being.

Anywho, again, he got promoted to the inside barn! Another two horses moved in for a period of time and so my sweet sweet Memphis was moved in the big barn. I feel honored and happy that he is inside. I almost feel safer for some reason.

I mean I have Memphis insured for close to 3k including his tack, so if something did happen to him, I would be able to buy another horse, but that's not what I want. I really do LOVE Memphis. I plan on keeping him till he is well into his 30's and unrideable. It took me almost 3 months to gain a connection with him, in fact I wasn't sure if I could for a bit. Almost to the point where selling him crossed my mind.

I know, crazy right? Then Memphis started to morph for me and become MR sweetheart. Today for example, he licked me. Had no intention of biting me or nibbling, just wanted to lick me. So totally sweet it was. Then I just let him wander the barn for no other reason than I wanted him to. He respected me and my needs the entire time.

Which reminds me, I was out there last night to work on BIG SCARY OBJECTS and saddling. We worked on feed bags, plastic crinkly bags, and scary clunking together coffee cans. I have found that while he will object to such objects, if I take them myself and play with them for a second, then make said loud noises with them, he is much more calm. Near the end of BIG SCARY OBJECT night, he was much calmer. I plan on continuing the work with these items to get him desensitized to almost everything he could come across.

Although, the largest thing to get him good with is the barking dogs next to my trainers house. That is the thing he is most terrified of and last time I had to stud chain him to get him within 10ft of the dogs. Now granted they are scary loud dogs, but they are being a 6ft privacy fence and they have no way of attacking. So I WILL get him past them without the stud chain. I know he has it in him. I just know he does.

Again, as with Dodge, I am no horse trainer, nor do I have a horse sense. I'm just employing common sense and a whole lot of what I've been told and read about horses. I will not beat Memphis unless he totally asks for it. Even then it's a quick smack and a then were done. I do not believe in making a horse "submit", I want my horse to do what I ask because he knows he should. Nothing more, nothing less. I have been known to be too lenient with horses before and have been quickly told and shown the error of my ways.

ARG! I'm rambling again! More to be posted this week!