Getting Off to A Good Start!

The last three months the feature articles have been relating to an Acronym CAWA, which I am using to teach about my philosophy. C stands for calmness in June and July I tackled this aspect. Last month I explained about second letter of our acronym A attentiveness. I started with the attentiveness of the human and I promiesed that this month I would discuss the attentiveness of the horse. However I believe I will wait until next month to deliver that article and instead I have decided to give a little report on the horses we have in training this month. If you would like to follow our progress you can either join our chat group E-mail Leigh, or you can become my friend on facebook.

Wed. Sept. 1st was our official first day of developing 5 very nice horses for the next 30 days. Alyce's horse Peepers arrived Sat. Aug. 28th. She is a pretty 8 year old bay Arab from WY who already has some training so we are working on refining and finishing her. I have already ridden her a week last year another week this year when I was out at Alyce's beautiful ranch near Lusk WY. She is a very smart and sensitive horse. I enjoy working with her very much. I rode her a little Sat. and Sun. plus did some ground work on Mon. and had her stand tied that day as well. So she has a big head start on the other horses, which are all around 5 years old and haven never been saddled or ridden. Erica (my training pratner, used to be apprentice) got to know Peepers on Sept first and she did a fine job getting her over the bridge and on the pedestal. Then she mainly worked on transitions with her while I rode my horse Sorry. Alyce would like us to also get her used to crossing water, riding with a rain coat and working cattle a little. So we will see what we can do about that. I guess we will go do some beach riding on the Calamus Reservor sometime this month, which is great fun. As far as cows go there are plenty in our country and I am sure we can find some to play with.

On Sun. Aug. 29th Kache arrived. She is also a nice brown Arab mare about 5 or 6. I have been told she can be a handful, however so far she has been real easy for us. I did some ground work on Tue mainly for respect. On the Sept. 1st we put her in the round pen at liberty and that went real well with good join up and direction changes. Had fun with invisible driving reins. Then played put your nose on things all around the property for about 45 minutes, followed by put your feet on things, like a pedestal, bridge, tarp, log, etc. Played some circle game, then friendly with plastic bag and tarp. We then put on the bareback pad without any issues, but when we turned her loose in the round pen and asked her to canter she gave us some good bucks for about 15 seconds, then decided it really wasn't worth it. After that she gave us about six nice canter transitions and change of directions. We decided there was no time like the present since things were going so good, so we got on her bareback and rode around about 5 minutes at the walk. She was super relaxed, calm, attentive and willing. So we left her in the round pen wearing the bareback pad cinched up pretty tight for a few more hours, while we worked with Peepers, and cleaned stalls.

On Tue. the 31st Erica brought a small 5 year old sorrel mare named Punky to start and she did the same as what I did with Kache although she wasn't quite as calm and relaxed when Erica first mounted her bareback, but she came around.

Luan arrived with Wildfire on Wed. Sept. 1st. She is also a 5 year old small bay mare (Skipper W and Two Eye Jack) quarter horse. She is a 1/2 sister to Ace the little black horse we had a couple of springs ago. She has a real soft eye and is a complete blank slate, so we are excited to start working with her.

Arlene arrived late in the evening on the first with Maiden, a red roan Tennesse Walker 5 year old mare. So we have all mares this time. She is a foal of City Lights the Black Walker I had in training last spring. She is huge compared to all the other horses we have this time. Erica's first impression of her tonight was she was a little pushy, however she just got off the trailer from a 6 or 7 hour ride and her life long partner and mother City Lights was in the trailer whinnying for her as she left.

Thur. Sept. 2nd: On the first day of each horses training here in Burwell, all were given their first ride bareback (with a bareback pad). I like putting the bareback pad on first before the saddle so they get used to the girth. Maiden and Punky (Erica's horse) did not buck at all. Wildfire only made it around the round pen once before she gave it up and she didn't really put her whole heart into it. Kache put a little more effort into it but it didn't last one spin around the pen either. None of them bucked until we asked them to canter. However after their initial attempt at getting rid of the girth, each canter transition was without any bucking. So we said, "what are we waiting for we only have 30 days so let's ride." We only did walking and lateral bending but it went very well.

Since it was Kache's second offical day of training we rode her a second time, she still bucked with the bareback pad on the first canter transition but again it didn't even last 10 seconds. After riding her again bareback asking a little more of her we saddled her. After desensitizing to the stirrups we turned her loose in the round pen, she did buck a little longer with the saddle but not as hard as she did the first day with the bareback pad. So we were happy. We let her be in the round pen wearing the saddle for several hours while we worked other horses on the ground (flagging, tarping, backing, circling, flexing, etc.) Every once in a while we went in the pen and asked Kache to move again, no more bucking when transitioning into the canter. If this continues we will be putting the first ride under saddle very soon.

We repeated all that we had done with Kache yesterday with Maiden, Wildfire and Punky. Then we will saddle them tomorrow. We believe that we will be able to ride Maiden under saddle on Friday, and maybe Punky too. But have doubts that Wildfire will be ready until the next day. She may need a little more confidence.

Peepers is doing great too. I rode her last night while Erica rode Dozer. That Dozer loves his girl Erica, he is actually Keith's horse. She got him up on the small pedestal with all fours last night. Wish I had my camera. I will try to take a pic of it sometime soon. Last year she got him up on the big pedestal with all fours but the small one is a real challenge. They are soooooo cute together. Peepers and I worked on a lot of subtle control of HQ, FQ, sideways, and backing. She didn't want to sidepass over the logs but was doing fine anywhere else I asked her to do it. So I spent some time desensitizing her to the logs. It was a lovely evening riding because the wind had finally went down. It was brutal here again yesterday, however, we can count our blessing for the trees around our pens which broke some of it. We rode until after dark, the mosquitos were coming out and we were getting exhausted so called it a very successful and easy second day after 12 hours of work, but a very satisfied feeling was in my heart as we wrote the notes in our training diary.

Day three Fri. Sept. 3 morning
WOW!!! Erica and I are knocking our own socks off. We had the most amazing morning ever with 1st rides under saddle. It is really only Maiden, Wildfire and Punkies second day here. Kache is a day ahead of them, and of course Peepers is way at the head of the class but she has a big head start.

Anyway, we are jumping for joy right now with the peaceful easy morning we had. We rode Maiden, Wildfire and Punky under saddle and it was the first day they had ever had a saddle on them too. Erica and I keep talking about how much easier it is when we have clean slates and that is exactly what these three are.

Here is the process we repeated for each one of them.
A little liberty work in the round pen.
Put the bareback pad back on them. They all cantered without bucking. So rode them bareback at the walk again.
Change of direction this time, and one rein stops.
Saddled them very slowly and gently, using lots of approach and retreat.
Desensitizing to the stirrups.
Move at liberty around the round pen, invisible line driving while carrying the saddle.
Sent them into a canter.
(Amazingly enough only Wildfire through in a few bucks but it wasn't anything we could not have ridden. It only lasted a few seconds, then the rest of the canter transitions were A OK. )
Took all three of them to a bigger arena, I rode Dolly and used my new long whip, to move them around at faster speeds and turn backs. Dolly loved chasing them around the pen and even got down cutting them for me. It was a blast.
After seeing they could really move out, change directions quickly, increase and decrease speeds well without any issues, we took them back to the round pen and rode each one. Only at a walk.
Did a little change of direction and 1-Rein Stops, lots of flexing and called it a very very very successful morning.

3 horses saddle and rode for their very first time in 4 hours without one single issue. YAHOO!
This afternoon we will do the same, with Kache!
Then we plan to take Peepers on a trail ride, looking for water and cattle.

Afternoon of day 3 went exactly as planned. Could not have been better. Kache did great on her first ride under saddle. She did do a little half hearted buck when we first asked her to canter before mounting, but changed her mind quickly about that being a very desirable thing to do. Put her in the arena with Peepers, since they are best buddies now, and moved them around while mounted on horseback, just like I had done to the others this morning. I think my horse Dolly has more fun than I did. Also ponied Kache from her a little.

After putting Kache away, we rode out to the school section seeking cattle and water for Peepers next step in her education. Found both at the windmill and Peepers handled both very very well. It took about 6-8 minutes to get her across the water, and the cattle were a none issue. Next plan for her is the rain coat.

We are looking forward to this month and hope that it continues to go as well and easy as it has been the first three days. We are off to a very very good start and feel confident that the horses will teach us much this month and that the owners will be satisfied with their horses at the end of our time together.

In the middle of the month (Sept. 18th and the 25th) we will have another auditor day if anyone would like to come observe us developing these horses. There is a fee of $35/day and the bunkhouse is available at $35/night if you want to stay more than one day.

We pray that they will continue in the fashion that we have begun with their horses. I thank the owners for putting their trust in us and we will take the best care of these horses and not only gain their respect and trust but we will help them to be more valuable horses. We hope to bring out the potential that each one of them has.

We welcome new apprentices to learn with us next spring as we get another group of horses off to a good start! Or anytime, if you are a serious student of the horse I am more than eager to share my passion with you.