Back in the Saddle Again

Greetings!

Finally got on one of my own horses yesterday, for the first time in over a month. Although I ride a lot of horse when I am on the road, the time I get to spend with my own horses is very limited. Sadly, I didn’t get to ride my horse Dually, whom I haven’t been on in a month. Two trips out of town in December, plus the scramble for the holidays, just got in the way of my riding plans. Does that ever happen to you?

My brother and niece are here for the holidays and we’ve been enjoying lots of skiing at Monarch Mountain. The conditions are excellent and except for one day of frigid weather, we’ve had warm bluebird sky days like today. You can see for yourself at http://skimonarch.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114 .

Rich and I only have five horses right now—the fewest I’ve had in decades. We each have our personal horses, Dually and Diggs, plus I have three horses for sale. Normally I like to have about six sale horses in my barn, but I haven’t been shopping for a while. I have two more old mares that are leased out to people that will pamper and love them until the need to retire and come back home.

I have two wonderful barn workers that keep my horses safe, fed, exercised, clean and comfortable for me seven days a week. Susan and Dianna take such great care of our horses that I can leave town 45 times a year without a moment’s concern for my horses. What a luxury! But due to circumstances outside our control, Dianna has been unable to ride for the past month.

It certainly doesn’t hurt the horses to have some time off-- all of whom are well trained and worked steadily throughout the year. Especially since we pulled their shoes a couple weeks ago. One of my stated goals with both our personal horses and our sale horses is that they can sit idle for months, then you can bring them in, saddle up and head out for the ride of your life. But until the horses actually go a month with no riding, you don’t really know for sure if they will get a case of the freshies.

Since Dianna has not been riding and since I have a buyer coming to look at horses next week, I knew I had to get some riding done. I went to the barn and saddled Luke http://juliegoodnight.com/horses/tequlo.html. He is the youngest horse I own, coming five. Most of the horses I buy for resale are about 10 years old—a minimum age in my mind for solid, reliable horses that I can sell to novice horse owners. But I fell in love with Luke’s temperament the first time I saw him—which is as solid gold as his color.

We’ve had Luke for four months now, which is about how long I like to keep a horse before finding its perfect rider. By then we’ve really gotten to know the horse and can be totally confident that there are no holes in his training. Luke has passed every test we’ve given him with flying colors and has shown himself to be a lovable and gentle horse who tries his guts out to please you. It was a good test to see how such a young horse would do after a month’s layoff. I only wish the buyer had been here to see it.

Luke had also never been ridden in the indoor arena, since up until the end of November we had beautiful weather here and Diana had been pounding the trails with him, since that was the weakest spot in his training (having been in two solid years of reining training). Although I have to say I was not surprised at how well Luke did, I can say it made me love him even more. He worked quietly and steadily from the first, only gawking once at our stuffed calf that hangs from the cutting machine (I can truly say that one gets 100% of the horses the first time they see it, because it looks like a dead calf). The tarp hanging on the fence made him a little uptight the first trip around but on the second pass, he boldly reached out and snuffed the tarp with his nose. Gotta love that!

We had a great ride. I sure do like this horse and I am excited about finding him the perfect human. Although he is gentle enough to promote as a beginner’s horse, I will not sell him to a beginner because he is too young. It would be as unfair to the horse as it would be to the beginner buyer. In my mind, Luke’s dream owner is an experienced rider—one who can appreciate a well-trained and responsive horse. A rider that wants to have a fun recreational horse to ride to church on Sundays, but who will also take advantage of his excellent training to progress their own riding skills. Luke is a finished reiner but he has excellent all-around potential. With his big scopey build and his gorgeous way of going, he would make a great English horse too, either hunter or dressage. So I hope to find someone who is looking for just this type of horse. I think I may have found the perfect match—we’ll see next week!

I’ll try to ride him again today, then maybe I can spare some time to get on my own horse later this week. Tonight is the big torch light parade and fireworks display up at the ski area; I haven’t missed that in the last 15 years (it’ll be Rich’s 32 year!), and in fact, I used to be in charge of it back when I worked winters at the ski area (that’s where Rich and I met). So I’ll head up there this afternoon and get some runs in with my brother and niece. We’ll toast the new year up on the mountain at about 7:30, then head down for a party in the neighborhood.

Wishing you a fun and safe new year’s eve, and a healthy and prosperous 2009.

Julie

Another White Christmas

Greetings!

We celebrated another mellow Christmas this year, same as usual. Rich got up early and went to work—he’s worked xmas day for the last 30 years or so (being in the ski business means the winter holidays are major crunch time). I got up a little late and fixed my traditional xmas breakfast: egg & ham cups, home-made sweet rolls and fresh fruit salad. Yum. This year I mixed it up a little and added potato pancakes—thanks to a recipe I saw on the Today show.

Normally I fix b’fast by myself then haul it all up to the ski area and Rich and I enjoy it in his office. This year, my son Hunter stopped by with his friend, so we ate it at home. Rich was SOL on the traditional xmas b’fast this year. After doing the barn chores and cleaning up a little, I headed up to the ski area and Rich and I had great fun skiing in some AWESOME conditions at Monarch Mountain. We always ski on Christmas and it makes for a fun day—especially with an abundance of fresh powder. POW! As we like to call it.

Today we are in full-blown blizzard conditions and they are forecasting 20-30 inches of snow for the  mountains. My brother and niece are driving up from New Mexico today in challenging weather. Almost every road between here and NM is closed, so they are having to take a circuitous route. But it will be worthwhile because tomorrow may be one of the best powder days of the year. They’ll be here for a week of skiing and we’ll be sure to have lots of fun—day and night.

Rich and I did not make much of xmas this year for ourselves. In fact, we agreed not to exchange presents and just focus our energy (and money) on all our loved ones. This really took a lot of pressure off both of us and I highly recommend it. After spending weeks trying to find a puppy for Rich’s December BD, I was pretty spent on trying to find a present for him. And we are really enjoying the puppy—most of the time. She’s well on her way to being house broke and so far the chewing damage is to a minimum. I expect the latter to change.

Tonight I will cook a Christmas dinner for our family and friends. Yes, it’s a day late, but who cares? I’m making Beef Wellington, twice baked potatoes and sautéed zucchini. Before you get too impressed, the beef wellington came from the Honey Baked Ham store, compliments of my sister.

The horses are hunkered down for the storm—glad to have their blankets on for a change. And just so you know, horses do not need to be blanketed here—they’ll do just fine in the winter coats mother nature gave them. We keep them blanketed strictly for our own convenience-- to keep their coats thinner and laying down so that we can ride indoors without lathering them up and so that the look better. People often ask me, “What do you do with your horses in the winter?” Simple answer: the same thing we do with them in the summer. But I have to say, between keeping water unfrozen and shoveling frozen poop—it ain’t that easy.

How about you? What do you do with your horses in the winter? Is your riding time restricted or even impossible? Is it actually nicer riding weather in the winter where you live?

Happy holidays!

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Horse Master Online

Greetings from the frozen north!

Winter has arrived with a vengeance here in the “Heart of the Rockies” and we welcome the snow, but I could live without the single digit lows. The skiing’s great and right now that seems more appealing than riding. There’s something about highs in the teens that makes riding hard. To check out the webcam at our ski area, click here: http://skimonarch.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=114.

We’ve been working hard to upgrade the Horse Master website. We’ve uploaded clips from every episode on the website and there are also links to articles from my Training Library that relate to the topic of each episode. So even if you do not get RFD-TV, you can see what the show is about and maybe learn something about the training issues addressed in each show. Unfortunately we are not allowed to upload the entire episode, but there’s enough to see what the show is about. http://www.horsemaster.juliegoodnight.com/episodes.html

I cannot believe that Christmas is next week! I’ve been so busy with work that shopping and Christmas cards have eluded me. It dawned on me yesterday that if I hadn’t sent out cards by now, it was probably too late. Actually, it was a good realization because now I don’t have that task hanging over my head anymore—I just gave up for this year. Some years are like that for me and being out of town for a week in the middle of December definitely was a contributing factor. Does this ever happen to you or are you the type that does your cards before thanksgiving so they are ready to mail? Fortunately I had done a little xmas shopping in advance this year, so I don’t have much to go.

I spent most of my time and shopping energy this year looking for Rich’s BD present. I got him a beautiful puppy for his birthday, which was last week. I brought her home on Thursday and she is a real cutie—a Yellow (white) Lab. Although it was a fun surprise, he already had a name picked out for his future dog—Samantha—named after the awesome hero dog from the movie “I am Legend.”Although it is a lot of work having a 10 week old puppy in the house, we’ve been having a lot of fun with her and even our older dog, Lucy likes her.

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the time I get to kick back and relax, cook nice meals and have fun skiing with my brother, niece and husband. Who knows, maybe my son will even make a cameo appearance. Even if I wanted to work, it’s hard to get much done the last two weeks of the year because most everyone else is out enjoying the holidays. I’ll sit by the fire a lot and get caught up on my writing and reading and if the weather cooperates, I may even get some riding done.

I hope you have time to kick back yourself and spend some quality time with your friends and family.

Wishing you the best,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Living Aloha

Greetings!

I am afraid I have been remiss in writing. Being in Kauai will do that to you. I am starting this post on the last leg of my journey home, after a week spent in one of my favorite places on earth-- the north shore of Kauai, in the towns of Hanalei, Princeville and Kilauea. Did I mention it also lays claim to being the rainiest place on earth? And this week was no exception.

My first clue was when I reserved my rental car and discovered that a convertible was the same price as the smallest and cheapest economy car. Sound too good to be true? At least I am glad I didn’t pay extra for the convertible because I never had the top down once! Actually, having been to the north shore many times before, I know of its rainy tendencies and I knew full well that I was headed there in the absolute rainiest time of the year. But I did not care—I love the rain. Living in the high mountain dessert, the warm gentle rains of Hawaii seems like a luxury.

I arrived last Wednesday night, in time for a late dinner with some of my dear friends there. Thursday was a lazy recover-from-jet-lag day spent visiting, a bike ride to the beach and lolling about. With a full day of clinics and lessons on Saturday, I spent Friday checking out the arena, confirming plans, and managed to get a walk on the beach. By Friday afternoon, it was raining hard but we still went out to a party and then had a lovely dinner with friends. Friday night the deluge began—I have never heard it rain so hard for so long.

I awakened early Saturday morning so I could get to the barn early for my clinics and the rain was still coming down hard. Right away we discovered the bridge that connected us to the rest of the island was closed due to flooding of the river—there was no getting out and the rain was still coming down hard. In short order the clinics had been cancelled and our plans were to do it all the same on Sunday. That left us free to relax, talk story (as they say in Hawaii) and just have some relaxing down-time with friends.

By Sunday, the rains had stopped and the river level was down and the roads opened so the clinic went on as scheduled. I did a half-day clinic for the new 4H club there and we had 10 riders. They were all very enthusiastic and engrossed in learning. The 4H used to be very active on Kauai—my first timer there I did a 4H clinic with 28 riders. But as is common in 4H, the leaders are the glue that holds it together and when a strong leader moves on, the clubs tend to fall apart. With new enthusiastic leaders, the 4H club on Kauai is coming to new life and I was pleased to do my part. It’s the least I can do when the leaders and Silverfall Stables, where the clinic was held, are donating their time, horses and facility. I have a lot of admiration for the people that donate their time and energy to youth riders.

The rest of the day was spent in private lessons. It’s been a long time since I’ve taught in the one-hour lesson format. I enjoyed it but it would take some getting used to since I am used to teaching one group of students all day. And although I went over-schedule with each lesson,  I enjoyed it and worked with a variety of horses and riders. But I think I’ll stick with the clinic format—I like teaching big groups all day.

The rest of my time in Kauai was spent visiting friends and walking on the beach between rain storms. No swimming or sunbathing on this trip—my legs are just as white now as they were when I left. But that hardly matters because with the extreme winter conditions I came home to, it’ll be a long time before my legs see the light of day! I finally got home 24 hours later than expected due to a cancelled flight and my luggage still has not surfaced, but as always, it was good to sleep in my own bed last night.

I hope you have some time to kick back and enjoy the holidays with friends and family!

All the best,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Hard to Catch

Greetings!

It’s another travel day for me. Oddly enough my flight was not only on time, but actually left early, making an already long layover in LA even longer. Why doesn’t this ever happen when I have a tight connection? The drive to the airport was surprisingly mellow after a major snow storm, with only about 20 miles (of the 180 miles to the airport) of black ice. So far so good. I’ll be in Kauai tonight, where there are predictions of flash floods. Still better than the single-digit temps I left behind!

On Horse Master this week is an episode called “Catch Me if You Can!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGyYPeLd38g It’s about a Peruvian Paso whose favorite past-time is to make his owner run around the pen chasing him for an hour or two before each ride. The owner is frustrated and disgusted with his antics but I have to admit, it was rather humorous to watch. The horse certainly had her trained to play his game—one in which he wrote the rules and in which he pretty much won every time they played.

There’s an easy and fool-proof cure for the hard-to-catch horse and it has to do with not playing his game and showing him your string level of determination and commitment. I call it “walking off” a horse and there is a detailed article on my website about how this process works http://juliegoodnight.com/questionsNew.php?id=12 – or you can just watch the episode.

In the middle part of the episode, where I work with the horse to sort out the problem, we only have about 8-10 minutes to get the point across. I was a little concerned going in that it would take much longer than that to convert this horse, given that his behavior was VERY engrained. I warned the videographer/editor that she would have to film it all and then edit it down, with an indication that it took longer than what was actually shown.

To my delight, the horse gave it up relatively quickly and although not every second was shown, it took less than 15 minutes before the horse was frustrated by my relentless and determined approach and my unwillingness to play his game, and he stopped and faced my and dropped his head in defeat. The next day, after the owner had worked on catching him in the same process several times, he was so good that it almost looked fake. Once again, it was more a matter of changing the human’s behavior than changing the horse’s. So often, when we change our attitude/approach, the horse responds immediately, proving once again that almost all “horse problems” are actually human problems.

Have you dealt with a hard-to-catch horse before? Did he have you trained to play his game—chasing him around like a puppet or bribing him with treats, only to have him take the prize and run off with his tail up in the air? What did you do to solve the problem.

Until next time,

Julie

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

'Tis the Season!

Hello friends,

Wow! This holiday season is really in full swing and our phones have been ringing off the hook! Don’t get left out of our great Christmas specials—whether you are buying gifts for others or investing in your own horsemanship—‘tis the season to save!

This week only…FREE STANDARD SHIPPING on all domestic orders. You can order online or by phone at 800-225-8827 and save big today through Monday, December 15^th—the last day for regular shipping.

From December 16^th to 19^th on any gift orders, you’ll get free gift wrapping and a personalized card from yours truly. You’ll have to opt for fast shipping to get it in time, but we can get it there.

And remember, you can purchase a gift certificate online at any time and print it out on your own computer—right up until Christmas day! A great option for us procrastinators.

I have barely begun to think about Christmas shopping, but like everyone else, I am kicking it into high gear this week. It’d be a whole lot easier if I lived somewhere close to some shopping centers, but we are 100 miles away from the nearest city-shopping. Thank god for the internet!

Last night we got about a foot of snow and I’ve been shoveling all morning. Since we rely on the snow for a great ski season, not to mention for irrigation water next summer, no one really complains about it and most of us are happy to see it. Besides, I’d be hard-pressed to complain since I leave for Hawaii early tomorrow morning. I was thinking about that as I shoveled this morning—bundled up in my coveralls in a foot of snow one day and on the beach in my bathing suit the next. Life is good!

Aloha,

Julie

 

For training tips from Julie, visit the Training Library at http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php and check out her online store--full of training tools and DVDs-- at http://juliegoodnight.com/products.html

Let it snow!

Greetings from snowy Colorado!

Today the ski area http://skimonarch.com/ finally opens. Yippee! The winter has been slow to get started but we know that the snow will always come eventually—there’s never been a winter without snow here in the Rockies. After several nights of snow this past week, Rich gave the word to open up the lifts. So I am headed up the mountain this morning to make a few turns and hopefully start getting my legs back in shape before the steeps are open.

Tomorrow, we’ll have all our horse’s shoes pulled for the winter and then we’ll be relegated to riding indoors—another sure sign of the changing seasons. We’ll set up the cutting machine at one end and we’ll spend lots of days working on things you can do in a small space like collection, circles, spins, rollbacks. Once a week or so, we’ll fire up the remote-controlled cutting machine, which has a stuffed calf suspended from two cables, and work our horses for correctness on the cow.

Some horses love the cutting machine, some hate it—but the riders always love it. It’s a blast! I have to be very strict with myself not to overdo it—I limit myself to one go around per ride. Otherwise, you can get quite greedy and the next thing you know, your horse is fried and hating every minute of it. Have you ever had the problem of getting too greedy with your horse and reaching the point of diminishing returns?

It’s really hard, when your horse does something well, not to do it over and over again because it is so much fun. But over-training on a maneuver is a sure-fire way to sour your horse. So once I get one good response from my horse, I try to move on to something else. And I try really hard not to practice the things that he is already good at and save our training for the things he needs work on.

How does your riding routine change in the winter? Do you just bag it until the weather improves or are you lucky enough to live somewhere where the weather is not an impediment? Or maybe you have a great facility that keeps you comfy and cozy and with good footing all winter? I’ve always loved a change of seasons and the new pace that comes with it—whether it’s cutting back or kicking into gear. I’m certainly not hanging up my saddle for the skis, but will definitely cut back a little on the riding for the next couple months. After all, there’s just so much you can do riding indoors!

Stay warm,

Julie

Paralyzed with Doubt

This week on Horse Master is an episode called “Master and Commander." It’s about a woman who did all the right things when looking for a horse—she bought a mature, push-button reiner from which she could learn and excel on. Renae is an experienced, life-long rider but yet she never had any formal training. She did have enough experience to know that she wanted a horse with more training than she had, so that she could advance her horsemanship.The only problem was that she doubted herself.

I see this kind of thing all the time—from all level of riders. When they go out and purchase a well-trained horse—an excellent thing to do—they tend to worry excessively about screwing the horse up. This kind of thinking leads to self-doubt and paralysis, which most horses will capitalize on.

In the case of Renae—who was a very good rider—every time her horse resisted her, she became totally passive, thinking she was making some awful mistake. She thought she was miscuing the horse so he didn’t know what to do. From the horse’s point of view, he was thinking, "chaching! I don't have to do what she asks." Although he was a well-trained and cute little horse, he had a little bratty side and her lack of authority led to him doing whatever he wanted to do—and nothing more.

When Renae asked him to canter, he went for a few strides then turned sharply into the middle of the arena and stopped. Renae convinced herself that she must be mistakenly cueing him to spin and that it was her fault. So she became passive and allowed the horse to come into the middle and stop. When she did insist that he continue cantering, he threw a few mild bucks and that definitely make her stop him. Again, the horse found out how to make his rider ease up. He didn't have to exert energy after a mild buck.

My first job was to let him know that his antics wouldn't work with me. I put him to work in no uncertain terms. He bucked a few times but very quickly determined that the path of least resistance was obedience. He quickly turned into Mr. Manners.

My second job--which was not as easy--was to build Renae’s confidence and convince her that she needed to take charge of this horse. I reminded her that she was indeed a perfectly good rider and that she need not worry about giving her horse a perfect cue—It was her horse's job to figure out what she wanted.

It was sad to see how devastated Renae was when we started; she had totally convinced herself that she was unworthy of this horse and was a terrible horse rider. When in fact, she had excellent skills and it was her self-doubt that had led to all her problems. She finished up feeling good about herself and her ability to take charge of this horse. I hope that comes through in the show.

My overall advice from this episode? Once you have issued a directive, reinforce it—whether your cue was perfect or not. Your horse is perfectly capable of figuring out what you want. Don’t waffle in your authority.

We all have periods of self-doubt. At least I know I do--how about you? What’s important is to analyze your thought, make changes and move forward with a positive attitude. Have you ever been paralyzed by self doubt and let it affect your riding? What happened to you? Have you had a horse get the better of you simply because of your inaction? How did you figure it out and what did you do to make a positive change? I love hearing your stories. . . .

Heels down and chin up!

Julie