New Year's Resolutions

The last day of 2011 is shaping up to be memorable around here, but not in a good way. We are having what the meteorologists call a “fierce wind event.” Living just below the Continental Divide and at the mouth of a river canyon (a big wind funnel), the wind can definitely wreak havoc around here. Right now the wind is howling—shaking the window panes-- but later today we are expecting gusts over 100 mph.

 

Even the horses are staying holed-up in their stalls rather than coming out to soak up the first rays of sun as they usually do. They don’t have to see the weather report on TV to know what kind of day it’s going to be. Today is one of those days where being in a stall and bundled in a blanket doesn’t seem so bad to them.

 

I love making NYs resolutions. I do it every year and almost always keep them. Last year one of my resolutions was to use up all the food in my freezer. I almost succeeded. This year, I have three resolutions that have to do with my personal life, my horse and my professional life. Here they are:

 

First, I resolve to finish my project of cleaning out every nook and cranny of my house—getting rid of unused clutter and organizing the remaining stuff. I’ve made it through my dressers and most of the bathroom. Just have the mud room and kitchen to go. Watch out Good Will—here I come!

 

Secondly, I resolve to work on Western Dressage with my horse and perfect our bridle-less riding. This doesn’t really take much resolve on my part because I love doing it but a person needs to have goals. Actually, I set these goals because of some presentations I will be doing at expos this year, so I thought I’d co-opt my goals and turn them into a resolution. Why not? If you’re going to do it anyway, may as well make a resolution out of it!

 

My professional resolution is to focus on bringing our new programs to fruition. We have been working on developing a “study club” for individuals and groups who want to get together with others and study horsemanship. Think book club. We have also been working on an apprenticeship program and I am hoping to bring both these programs to fruition in 2012.

 

I love this time of year because looking ahead to the new year-- it is all potential. A fresh new start. New opportunity awaits and who knows what exciting adventures the new year could bring! I love making resolutions because it is an opportunity to challenge yourself and do better. What about you? What’s your resolutions?

 

With all the wind today, it looks like a good chance for me to hole up in my house and start cleaning out closets. Believe it or not, that sounds like fun to me!

Happy New Year!

Julie

 

 

Horse is Terrified of Being Mounted

Hello Julie,
I have a 4 yr old registered paint gelding, Zippo Pine Bar bred, tall and gorgeous that I have had for just over a year!!! But, he is terrified of being mounted. I bought him knowing he had a troubled past, but I can't seem to make any new progress with mounting. I have done a ton of ground work and desensitizing which he does great with. The problem comes in when I am on the mounting block. His body gets very tense, his lower lip will quiver with concern and his eyes look terrified. I usually stand on the mounting block doing stretching exercises and touching/patting him all over until he relaxes- which sometimes doesn't happen! If I get on without using my stirrup he is OK, still nervous but stands fine. However, if I even start to put weight in my stirrup he will bolt away from me, and once that has happened I will not be able to mount that day (he gets way too freaked out). Strangely enough though, once I am on you would never know he is such a challenge to get on. He rides like a dream, still green, but a wonderful 4 yr old! I have all the time and patience in the world for this horse, he truly is an amazing animal that was damaged by an uncaring human by no fault of his own. I just want some direction on where to go with him!
Thank you so much!
Nichole

 

Nichole,

Sounds like your horse was lucky to find you! It is not hard to make drastic mistakes in the process of starting a horse under saddle. There are many steps at which things can go very wrong and there are many stupid mistakes to be made by people in the complicated process of training a young horse to be ridden.

 

Who knows what happened with your horse, but chances are it was entirely preventable. That’s why I always encourage people to hire a professional to put a good foundation on your young horse—it is a time that can make or break a horse’s riding career. In your case, it seems like his previous training left him broken, but not broke.

 

During the process of introducing a horse to the saddle, to mounting, to balancing the weight of the rider, to taking cues from the rider, there are many crucial steps that, done wrong, can turn into a very negative training experience for the horse which may cause problems for the rest of his life. Something went wrong with your horse—either something hurt him physically like an ill-fitted saddle or something scared him so badly that his reaction caused him to get hurt (a self-fulfilling prophecy to the horse).

 

So now you are left to undo the damage that was caused when the horse was “broke.” Good training and many many repetitions (until the good experience far outweighs the bad) will fix this horse. The good news is that he is young and still impressionable. It’s really good news that he is working well under-saddle—it tells me if you find the right technique, he will be entirely fixable.

 

It’s critical to make sure your saddle and/or poor mounting technique is not causing the problem. If it is digging into his wither or shoulder when you mount, he has good reason to react poorly. Unfortunately, the fear of pain may have originated from his previous training so even if your saddle is not currently causing a problem, in his mind, he may think mounting will always hurt him.

 

After you’ve ruled out a physical problem, only time and patience will reprogram your horse. You need to retrain the mounting process as if you were starting from the beginning, only it will take much longer. It always takes much longer to undo training mistakes than it does to train a horse right to begin with. Wouldn’t it be nice to know about all the potential mistakes you could make in training a horse before you actually do it?

 

We have four new episodes of Horse Master coming out in February 2012 about starting a young horse under-saddle—each step you take, how to do it right and what mistakes to avoid. This same info is also available in my full-length training DVD, Ready to Ride. One whole section is on mounting and I would use the same process on your horse. It is my hope that this information will help people avoid making the mistakes that were made with your horse.

 

Based on the info stated in your question, the first thing I would do is get rid of the mounting block. It is possible that it is contributing to his fear and I would want to see what his reaction to mounting was without it. I’ve seen a lot of training problems that involve a mounting block.

 

Of course, this means you have to be very good at mounting from the ground and getting your weight centered over the horse’s back as soon as possible, so as not to hurt his back. I have also seen many mounting issues caused by poor mounting technique on the part of the rider.

 

Next, you’ll break down the mounting process into tiny steps and then use a process known as pattern conditioning, where you repeat a certain pattern over and over until the horse has a conditioned response that is relaxed and accepting. Your horse already has a conditioned response to being mounted, but it is not a good one. Breaking it into small steps, releasing the pressure on the horse when he responds correctly and repeating this pattern again and again, will fix your horse.

 

There are a lot of articles in my Training Library, http://juliegoodnight.com/q&a.php, on desensitization and dealing with fearful behavior. You may want to read some of them—even if the articles are not exactly the same as your horse, you will likely find some info that helps. It is important that you fully understand the process of advance and retreat desensitizing and when you give the release.

 

Also, be sure to tune in to Horse Master on RFD-TV in February to see the episode on first mounting. If you don’t get RFD, you may want to order the DVD, Ready to Ride. It is the fourth DVD in my “From the Ground Up” series and covers the very critical stage in a young horse’s training when you first begin riding him. BTW- the previous three videos in the series are pre-requisite to this stage and cover round pen work, lead line work and training the horse to respond properly to bit pressure.

 

Take your time, have lots of patience and you will get past this problem with your horse. He sounds like a good egg—he just needs some reprogramming.

 

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

 

A Winter for Riding Indoors

I love the meditative state we get into, my horse and I, riding round and round in the endless monotony of the indoor arena. Nowhere to go, nothing to look at, no distractions, no surprises. But don’t get me wrong, every day through the winter that I ride in it, I thank my lucky stars for having it.

 

With more than a foot of wind-packed snow blanketing the outdoor arena and treacherous ice on all the trails, the indoor is a blessed sanctuary. Almost any avid rider that lives in Colorado would kill for an indoor arena this time of year. But they are so expensive to build, few people can justify the cost.

 

I live on a dead-end county road where there are less than a dozen homes—most of them horse owners. And there is an indoor of moderate size on about every other property. When you live in the high mountains of Colorado,  the value of an indoor to a rider is way bigger than the hit to your savings account.

 

My arena is insulated and passive solar heated, so you can see why I thank my lucky stars. It’s cozy warm and a solid barrier against the wind and blowing snow. The kind of riding I do in the winter is far different than the rest of the year. Circles, collected work, school figures, reining maneuvers (minus the big stops because our horses are barefoot this half of the year). Later in the winter we usually set up the cutting machine, for a fun change of pace.

 

Always in the winter I find one or two major goals to work on. It helps you forget about the monotony in the indoor. A few years ago I rode bareback all winter and my end goal was to cut a cow on my horse bareback—not an easy feat with the quick dives he loves to pull on a cow. I made it as far as working on the cutting machine before the spring thaw and I went back to riding outdoors in a saddle.

 

This year, I have two different-but-complimentary goals for the winter term, both having to do with new presentations I will be doing this year at horse expos: western dressage and bridle-less riding. My horse and I have been doing both for some time, but doing presentations on it requires a lot more focus, practice and contemplation.

 

There’s nothing like taking your bridle off while riding in front of a large crowd in a huge stadium to motivate you to practice a little more. Dually and I actually practice bridle-less riding a lot, so he’s pretty good at it. Lately, I’ve found a workout pattern that makes him even better.

 

After 20 minutes of collected trot and canter, transitioning through all the specified gaits of a western dressage test, http://westerndressageassociation.org/ circling and school figures, Dually is ready to shed the bridle and work in the frame he wants. He loves the freedom of riding bridle-less and he is willing to work extra hard at finding my signals for the chance.

 

Based on the condition of the outdoor footing, it looks like we’ve got a lot of time to practice between now and the expos that start in February. http://juliegoodnight.com/schedule.php We had a great work out today and I’m looking forward to tomorrow, even if it’s single digits again. What’s your winter riding plan?

 

Enjoy the ride,

Julie

 

 

Horses Aren't Pets

I watched a new sitcom this week on CBS, called Two Broke Girls. The reasons why I didn’t like this show could fill a book, not the least of which is how it portrays women and how it portrays horses. In my opinion, the show does a great disservice to both.

 

The story line involves a very rich and privileged perky blonde whose father is in jail due to white collar crime and she loses everything and is suddenly broke and waiting tables. She moves in with another server—a buxom rough-cut brunette. Turns out the rich girl had a show horse, which she could not part with so the horse lives in the back yard of their apartment, hanging his head into the kitchen whenever he wants a cookie, reminiscent of Mr. Ed, although he does not talk.

 

The show is predictably full of sexual innuendo and while there is some clever writing, I just can’t get past the stupidity of the premise of the show. The women are portrayed as idiots and loose and trashy. I used to wait tables—you actually have to be smart, organized and have good people skills. But my biggest objection is how the horse is portrayed.

 

For starters, the horse’s name is “Chestnut.” A particularly clever and creative name, since the horse is bay in color. That was my first clue that the writers, producers and actors know absolutely nothing about horses. You’d think maybe they’d hire a consultant. But when it comes to horses, most people don’t know what they don’t know.

 

So it’s no great surprise that the horse is in the back yard of their tiny apartment and that they think they are doing the horse a big favor keeping him there. Now I seriously doubt that someone will watch this show and rush out and acquire a horse to live in their back yard, without any thought to his physical and emotional needs. But I just hate it when horses are portrayed this way.

 

These days, with critical numbers of unwanted horses in this country, the last thing we need is for the average person to think of horses as pets. They are not pets and horse ownership involves a higher level of skill, knowledge and responsibility than owning a pet.

 

While I appreciate a good laugh on TV and I realize that even reality shows do not portray real life, I think I’ll stay away from this show. Have you seen it? What did you think?

 

Enjoy the ride!

Julie

 

 

horses in the cold

It was 6 below zero this morning. Relatively warm by some standards, when you compare it to 25 below, which our neighbors had. That’s why our valley is known as “the Banana Belt of Colorado.” http://coloradoheadwaters.com/chaffee_county/colorado_mountain_weather.cfm

 

While we recorded a mere -6° this morning, the valleys to the north, west and south of us all were all in the 25 below range. Now, you may think there is not much difference between 6 below and 25 below, but I’m here to tell you there’s a big diff! while we got well into the 20s today, the South Park (yes, there really is such a place in CO and it is much like the cartoon!), Gunnison and San Luis Valleys were lucky to crack zero today.

 

That’s the difference between being able to work horses or not.

 

We have all kinds of rules about the weather—from what blankets the horses wear-- according to the temperature, to when it is too cold to work them. When it is single digits or below, we don’t work the horses because of the potential for lung-burn. Have you ever experienced it yourself? I have, and it is a serious physical issue that can turn into a respiratory nightmare (a factor of high-altitude, dry, cold air and breathing heavily).

 

Also, it’s very tricky working horses in ultra-cold weather, especially in a warm indoor arena (ours probably got up to 40° today). If the horses get warm and break a sweat, not only do they have to go back out to the sub-zero temps, but if they are wet, they will NOT dry and will have a serious chill all night.

 

That’s why we blanket, ironically, to try and keep their hair coats down so we can work them in a warm indoor without a huge amount of body sweat and to keep them warm at night even if they are damp. It’s a complicated scheme. Thank goodness for the Bucas full-body coolers and power turnout blankets!

 

When the weather is so extreme, you have to be diligent to check the waterers (are the heaters working, are they drinking?), feed extra hay (make sure you have straight grass hay so they can eat all night long), are their feet getting sore from cold and hard ice?

 

Horses are incredibly adaptable animals and able to adjust to the most extreme environments. That’s how they’ve not only survived but thrived through the millennium. But adjusting them to meet our personal demands (live in a high-altitude mountain environment but still be on a performance horse regimen) sometime takes some strategy.

 

Thankfully, tomorrow should be a warmer day, but we still have plenty of sub-zero temps to go this winter. The horses will be waiting for the first rays of sun in the morning, no matter what the temps—standing in the very spot the early morning sun hits first. And I’ll be watching out my window, wishing them warm thoughts.

 

Enjoy the ride,

Julie