February 14, 2010 | Posted by Black Horse Rider
Dino is a great horse. Considering I was there about 30 minutes after he was born and have been with him ever since, I’ve got a bit of an attachment to him. But, he’s also been Charlie’s primary horse so my time spent working with him over the last year or two has been marginal. However, I’ve been on a trick-training spurt and decided that Dino, given his very mellow and accepting nature, would be a good candidate for teaching the bow and eventually the “lie down”. So armed with halter, rope, stick and a handful of yummy treats, I proceeded to start with the “bow”. Our first day was spent getting Dino used to the rope around his ankle and working on lifting the foot off the ground with pressure. The second day was more of the same. On the third day I held the foot up by dallying the rope around the saddle horn and applying some side pull pressure on the leg rope and the halter. As I crouched beside Dino, treat in hand, I used the stick to tap his knee (saying Booooowwww) and with some patience waited until Dino bent down on his knee using the leg that was being held up, to get the treat. Once he was rewarded for that move, the stage had been set! And Dino is a sucker for treats, petting and lots of attention – all of which he got in large doses.
The next time I worked on the bow with Dino it took very little pressure on the rope and only a couple of taps on the knee before he went down, several times.
The series of pictures below was the fifth time we worked on the bow. I still had to use the rope although I don’t think I’ll need it too much longer as Dino will start to lift his foot and scrunch down on his own. He just gets a little confused about how much to bend the leg so the rope helps to guide his leg. He likes performing this, for the treats of course (and I’m working on moderating this….) and he’s a big sucker for all the attention. Having done several nice bows from his left side, I decided I’d better work on his right side, just so he was balanced and each leg got an equal workout.
…more about Dino’s Bow!
Popularity: 43%
Categories: Horses in General |
Tags: bowing horse, horse laying down, Horse Training, trick training |
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February 11, 2010 | Posted by Black Horse Rider
A common problem I hear over and over again is of the horse that canters wildly around the arena, either with a rider or on a lunge line, seemingly without any ability to control this breakneck pace. When riding this kind of horse, it seems as if it’s a constant battle of pulling pressure to slow the canter down. When lunging this kind of horse, there is a constant drag on the lunge line, it’s chaotic and out of control and the end result is often some nasty rope burns across the hands (key point: wear gloves!). Many aren’t sure what to do or how to work on getting this horse to slow down.
This is typical of a horse that hasn’t learned to shift his weight onto his hind end while being ridden or one that hasn’t been taught correctly before working on a lunge line. I usually will tackle this problem in one of two ways. First I determine if the horse is doing this because he’s underdeveloped in his back and hind end muscles and hasn’t learned to carry himself, especially with a rider, or if he’s doing this because he’s being naughty and disrespectful to the rider/handler. Usually what I find is that it’s a combination of both these, especially in the older horse. With a young horse it’s often the case that he just hasn’t learned to carry himself. There is a lot that can be done to help develop his back muscles and his mentality so that he can shift his weight back and develop that slow, collected canter we all love to ride.
…read more about controlling the canter
Popularity: 58%
Categories: Horse Training |
Tags: best training practices, canter, horse relationships, Horse Training, round pen, running horses |
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January 26, 2010 | Posted by Black Horse Rider
I sincerely believe that good riding makes for a good horse. This can’t be emphasized enough. When our horses act up and give us problems we need to take a long look at how we ride them. You will hear people say that it could be due to other things like bad fitting saddles, bad conformation, bad attitude, bad breeding, horse in need of a chiropractor, wrong equipment, etc…. Some of these things do contribute to unwanted or dangerous behaviors in a horse. But nine times out of ten, good sound riding with attention and time given to developing the horse’s body and mind will correct unwanted behaviors. This is of course assuming that the horse is not sick or in poor health and we are providing him with the proper nutrients and environment to foster good physical and mental health. And I say riding rather than training because as we ride “well”, we are essentially training our horses in a less concentrated manner.
…more about good riding
Popularity: 38%
Categories: Horse Training |
Tags: good riding, horse gymnastics, Horse Training, muscle development |
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January 23, 2010 | Posted by Black Horse Rider
It breaks my heart to read about and watch the videos of this horrific case of horse neglect and abuse in Mill City, Oregon. It also makes me so mad that I want to go pound the crap out of this Tania Herring person.
I just don’t understand HOW someone can look at their sick, starving and neglected animals and not SEE the truth there! How can they walk by these horses, day in and day out, and not see the ones that can’t get up, the protruding ribs and backbones, the open sores and the flipping CHUNKS of missing fur!! This is a sick person!
…more on this horse abuse case
Popularity: 87%
Categories: Horses in General |
Tags: horse abuse, Mill City Oregon, sick horses |
6 Comments »
January 18, 2010 | Posted by Black Horse Rider
Several weeks before Christmas I found myself swamped with all the hubbub of the holiday chaos. I breezed in and out of our horse’s lives with little time to spare for riding – only to feed and pass out some kindly pats on the neck. Then it got bitterly cold and I blanketed everyone up snug and got even quicker with my feeding and visiting regime, trying to limit the time before my fingers, toes and nose suffered severe frostbite.
Rain, looking a bit scruffy, meeting the Friesians!
Unfortunately after the cold spell, rain hit in buckets and what once was a suitable shelter became a mucky mess (it was a ground water issue)! So, amidst the frantic and last minute holiday preparations, we also had to move the horses to more suitable environments. I took Hershey and Dino back to Walnut Spring Stable for boarding, farmed Rain out to a good friend for a little R&R and some Friesian company and my older daughter took her mare back to her Dad.
Hershey and Dino adjusted well to stall life again, and Charlie and I love having a spacious, light and airy sand-filled arena to work in during the winter. The beauty of stall boarding is:
- How clean you can keep your horse!
- How easy it is to get your horse – for riding, brushing, company, etc….
- And Most Importantly…. How easy it is to manage their diets individually!
…read on-you eventually get to the trick!
Popularity: 35%
Categories: Horse Sense |
Tags: Friesian Horses, moving horses, trick training, winter horse care |
4 Comments »
