Learning to listen...

E. had her first lesson in over a week. Consequently, Curly was on the energetic side. The wind blowing all around us didn't help, either!

Trying to get the horse to take a bit is still a big ordeal. E. got very frustrated so her trainer stepped in to help. After working a few minutes, Curly finally accepted the bit when she said "Open." We are now wondering if perhaps he was trained to use this word as his cue....or perhaps it was a pure coincidence! We'll try saying "open" next ride...

His head tossing is substantially reduced - down to maybe 10% of what he started with. E. still uses the martingale, but perhaps by July Curly will be able to go without.

The big lesson today was listening - something the horse didn't want to do (E., on the other hand, can be an excellent listener!). He tried to take control of their movement in the arena and there were many struggles between Curly and E. over direction and speed. But E. stuck with it and made him realize that she meant what she said. This is not always an easy task, and really not a fun way to spend an hour on a horse, but eventually her focus and determination will pay off.

E. unintentionally discovered that Curly has a great response to a particular cue for transitioning from a walk immediately up to a canter. He was very smooth and looked wonderful!

4-H Ride Nights...

E.'s 4-H club had one of their ride nights yesterday. I've come to really look forward to these couple of hours spent chatting with the other parents as we watch our children ride together. Everyone is so nice and I always end up learning something new about the horses and riding.

E. was a bit frustrated during the ride. All the other girls got to ride bareback but she had to stick with a saddle. Until Curly's "steering wheel" gets a little better she'll have to keep using the German Martingale. I think she's also really tired - we've been out at the barn working almost daily, plus she's been having lots of outside play time with neighborhood friends as well. Her body is just plain exhausted!

The club used a weigh tape to estimate their horses' weights. It showed Curly at 1124, but everyone there thought it was closer to 1250 lbs. We also measured height and he appears to be 15.2 hands. He's really shaping up quickly - just has another 100 to 150 pounds to lose!

Called to have hay delivered. I'll feel better once we have a good supply of feed on hand....but wondering where we will store the extra ton we'll need to get us through the winter months (there's only room for one ton in our allotted storage space at the barn - or 2 to 2 1/2 months worth of hay). Perhaps the carport here at the house??? That'll raise some eyebrows in the neighborhood!

Holiday fun...

E. and I spent the afternoon out at the horse barn today, along with bunches of other people. Seems we were all taking advantage of a day off to come play with our horses.

It's pretty dry out there right now and we are all a bit gritty from all the flying dust. It must have been miserable for E. in the round pen, standing in the middle of the dust cloud:



Curly was fairly cooperative today and continues to work hard for E. in the pen. She still has to tie reins to the saddle to help with the head position, though. But he is getting better.




You can see in the picture above that he is losing weight nicely. That's also our new saddle on his back - used but decent quality. Next we purchase reins, bit and saddle pad.

Because of Curly's lack of training, E. has been using two hands on the reins. This gives her more control and power when trying to get him to turn. She still has to put quite a bit of muscle into all their riding. Maybe by the end of summer it will be easy.....

Training Part II

On Friday, E. tried out the techniques her trainer had shown her at the last lesson. We all thought that it would probably be a little rough but Curly proved us wrong! They stepped into the round pen and he did exactly what he was supposed to do - it was amazing to watch. I think E. and Curly will make a good team.

E. tried out a new piece of equipment later in the lesson to help him learn the leg cues and rein cues she'll be using in the show ring, and to help him get his head in the right position. I believe the trainer switched him to a snaffle bit with a German Martingale (I could have that last part wrong - there's so much to learn and so many different types of equipment!).

Anyway, it was almost comical to watch E. working to get Curly going where she wanted. She really had to pull and turn his head to get him to circle and reverse. Best part, though, was that she didn't get frustrated and really seemed to enjoy the challenge. She ended the ride with a big smile.

We will try out a new(used) saddle today or tomorrow.

Training begins....

Curly has the bad habit of tossing his head whenever he changes gaits. Today we started the process of getting rid of that habit. There was no riding during lesson time today. Instead, E.'s horse trainer showed her how to use some reins hooked from his bridle to his saddle on both sides of his head to help him keep it in the correct position. Whenever he would try to throw his head up, the ropes would pull him back but whenever he put his head in the right place he felt an immediate reward - no pressure.

We also began to learn the correct way to use the round pen for training. E. was shown how to use her body language and position to "tell" Curly what to do. By looking at his tail and being behind his cinch line she tells him to move forward. Shifting to the fore of his cinch and looking at his shoulder tells him to stop. There were other movements and body positions to learn as well - it was amazing to see how much the horse watches and reacts!

This is all completely new to Curly but after the hour he was getting the hang of it. In many ways he's a pretty green horse. Thank goodness that he's basically a gentle guy!

On the diet side, he's really beginning to look good. We can see muscle definition already. E. let him munch away at the grass surrounding our trailer today. He was quite happy to oblige.....

R. gets to ride...

R. had her first ride on Curly yesterday. E. saddled him up, adjusted her helmet to fit R., and then we hoisted R. up into the saddle.



She was surprised by how high up she was! E. then led them around the property for a little while - I think this is the longest horse ride R. has ever had.

Both girls were pretty excited and happy about our activities at the barn. I think it will be good to have something that they can do together. Since there is such a large gap in their ages it is sometimes hard to find activities that they both enjoy equally. Maybe horses will be it....

Curly's first 4-H ride night...

E. writes: Today Curly was very,very excited. Usually I have to kick him as hard as I can to make him move, but tonight I barely had to touch him. Since he has never riden with so many horses before, he thought he had to keep up with the leader! Once, he was so focused on catching up, he ran into a wall! Curly never wanted to slow down, only speed up. At the very end, we got to canter around the arena and I did my first "long distance" canter! By the end my legs were aching, but overall it was fun.