Winter Upkeep 01/06/2012
 
The weather so far this season has been very conducive to being outside, so I am able to spend some time keeping my stud's manners intact.  We have now gotten to turning to the inside when working in the roundpen, and are working on showmanship maneuvers.  Keep in mind, I don't expect him to win showmanship for me, but I believe EVERY horse has the physical and mental capabilities of these maneuvers, and thus there is no reason they don't need to learn them.  I also find these to be installed by very basic ground manners that every horse should have, especially studs.  My husband has taken a keen interest in learning to do things with the stud, and I will admit it is hard to have both parties learning at the same time.  However, I did the same thing with my gelding so why not?  Matt isn't as strict on some things as I would like to see, but he handles every situation very well, and they both get along, which is very important.
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Rosie 2nd week 09/04/2010
 
This week we seem to have mastered some of our ground manners so we started riding.  1st day we went to the round pen and she liked to put your leg into the wall just like she did on the ground.  2nd day we went to the indoor arena, and after looking at some things, i decided to tackle a few. Pulled a tire out from behind the fence that she had been looking at and also pulled out a tarp and spread it on the ground.   After dragging the tire with me on the ground, we walked over the tarp and proceeded to also walk over it while I was riding.  She never got comfortable enough to drag the tire while I was riding.  While attempting to take a picture of her standing on the tarp, I realized that you must enforce that the word "whoa" does not only mean stop, it means stand still.  This is very important if you think about dealing with stressful situations.  Kid broke to me partly means changing the way a horse handles stressful situations. They are a natural fight or flight creature, but will follow another horse through such situations. Thus you must make yourself a trustworthy lead mare, so that when you say its ok to go somewhere, they don't make it into a stressful situation. 
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Rosie and I got started working 2 days ago.  We started out she would only walk behind you, would rather knock you over than worry about where you were walking, wouldn't back up, and liked to pin you against the wall of the roundpen if she could.  The first day in the round pen I got her moving away from me most of the time, the backing became MUCH better, although she still tried to pin you if you got yourself against the wall.  Quit with progress that day.  2nd day backing is extremely easy, she no longer tries to pin you against the wall, and now walks beside you.  I also started having her walk and back with her head low, which I believe is important if horses will be working with children. 
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"A colt with a tired brain will make a good horse."  That's what my instructor told me the other day.  Makes sense.  Some horses are harder to wear out than others, trust me.  Tip of the day: Tie a young horse up quite often to let him/her think about the world with nothing to do. I always wondered why old Roper studs could stand on a fence packed together like sardines all day long and you'd never hear a single squeal.  They've spent so much time tied up it don't matter anymore.  No pawing to China, no dancing and prancing and making noise, they just had to stand there until there was nothing more to interest them; and then they got to stand there even longer.  And riding a horse 2 or 3 times a day never hurt them either.  Not long, just 20 minutes after breakfast, stand all day while you ride others, and another 20 minutes before dinner.
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First Post! 03/12/2010
 
This blog is for anyone who would like some tips, help, or just to learn.  Most of these conversations will be between me, my sister, and my cousin.  Being at college, I can't always be home to help them with their riding, so I'll be trying this as an experiment to log riding hours, progress reports on training, and lending advice and support.
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