# Shutupjoe's Journal



## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Annalie:

Goal- Lose weight, quieter response to cues, standing for farrier

Plan- Reduced fed down to nothing but one flake of hay, riding or exercising 4 to 5 times a week for at least 40 minutes if not more. Rewarding response to cues immediately and asking for responses in a more relaxed manner. Work with picking up hooves and supporting weight on three legs for a longer period of time. 

Alice:

Goal- Gain weight, get hooves in better shape

Plan- Grain everyday by herself. Make sure she gets her share of hay. Do not over exercise. Farrier work on hooves every 6 weeks. 

Davinci

Goal- Learn to lead properly, learn to stand for farrier, learn to lunge, learn trust and respect, introduce saddle and bridle for future training.

Plan- Slowly introduce all elements until completely comfortable. Been working on picking up feet. When I first received him he would rear or kick everytime I tried to pick up his hooves. He would strike out if you touched his belly. He has gotten a lot better by slow and calm handling. He works well with gentle petting and food rewards. Does not lead well and gets anxious when away from the other horses. Do not plan to do more than teach him to lead and stand for farrier at this moment. Once he is completely comfortable with his hooves and leading then I will work on ground manners further. My plan is to mess with his hooves at least once a day if not more and lead him at least 6 days a week once a day if not more. 

Willow

Goal- More responsive to cues, doing the cues that are asked of her, lunging, pushiness on ground

Plan- Rewarding her for listening to the cue given and punishing her for not immediately. The second day Willow was here I tried to lunge her and she took off toward the barn pulling the line right out of my hands and in the process injuring several of my fingers. The only way I am able to lunge her is with a chain on or bridle. I'd like to be able to lunge here without either. I have not come up with a plan of action for this except to continue to lunge her until she begins to stay relaxed and she listens to her cues while lunging and then attempting it without a bit or chain. Immediately begin earning her respect on ground. She likes to walk ahead of the person leading her when headed back to the barn. I plan to correct her the first step she takes past where I want her. She needs to learn to stay by my side. Work on pushing me with her head when I am going to slow. I am leading her with several stops and goes as to acquire her attention. She is doing fairly well. 

Any helpful advice is welcome. No harsh comments, thanks.


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Subscribing!


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Davinci-
Yesterday I worked on Davinci and his feet. I used a rope and tied it with an emergency release knot around his pastern. I put a steady pressure until he picked up his foot then I released the pressure. I did that several times until he was lifting his hoof with the slightest pressure. Then I continued the pressure until he held his hoof up for a longer period of time. He did fine with his front hooves but it took awhile for him to catch on with his back hooves. He is really unsteady on just three feet. 

Today I will be working all of them and will update later.


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Sunday 

Davinci-

I worked on desensitizing him to a rope. I slowly passed the rope over his body. He did really well until I got to his back legs. When I passed the rope lightly around his back legs he kicked out at it. So he got a nice wallop with the end of the rope which sent him darting into my "space". So my rope desensitizing lesson ended up being a space lesson. In the end he was fine and today was fine with me passing the rope around his hind legs. He is learning to respect space as well. He is doing very well with picking up his hooves. When the horses are eating I stand guard over him so nobody steals his hay. He likes to nudge me while he is eating. 

Annalie- 

Haven't worked with her except for a couple rides. She was so relaxed on our last ride she had lipstick foam. She really listens to my signals when riding. 

Willow-

Today I worked with lunging. First I started with a chain. After a few times around I clipped the lunge line to her halter. She didn't pull the rope out of my hand but when it was on her halter she kept the line tight. Sunday I noticed that the bridle I bought for her was lose. I took it up a couple notches and she did excellent the whole ride. Her only problem was things draping on her sides. She doesn't like the reins or cinch rubbing and will bite at it until I fix the problem. I rode her at a canter for the first time on Sunday and it was rather pleasant. I could barely feel it under you.

I was going to post pictures but my camera decided to break.


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Great job, and glad to hear of progress already!


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Thanks! I really wish I could go back and edit that post lol. I put You can barely feel it under you. Then decided it didn't sound right and meant to put I could barely feel it. But must have stopped mid-edit!


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Haha I figured out what you meant! I'm glad Willow is doing well for you. Like I said, she's a tester, but once she figures out her tricks don't work she buckles down and makes a darn nice little ride. I'm honestly inclined to believe being broke to drive might in part be related to the difficulties you are having with lunging her. As I mentioned, I never lunged her, and I'd bet she's probably simply never learned how. Best approach it as though teaching her for the first time. I found she's awfully bright, and will generally catch on super quick if you show her a way to be successful in real black and white. Please keep posting, I love hearing about her (and the other kiddos as well! Can't wait to see how Davinci turns out. He reminds me so much of an appendix my ex had named Maverick.)


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## JackofDiamonds (Aug 31, 2010)

Subsribing  

I have to admit that the rope desensitizing lesson turn space lesson made me giggle! That happens alot to me! :clap:


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Today I decided to teach Davinci the basics of lunging. Basically, please go in a circle at a walk around me, thanks. What it ended up being was please just move one step forward so I can stop swinging this rope at your rear end. It took a good 30 minutes before he decided that in order for the tapping to stop on his butt he better move forward. By that time my arm felt like jello. After he figured that out he went around at a walk without a problem. I also tried a little Clinton Anderson give to pressure lesson. Pulling his head around with the lead rope at his withers until he gave to the pressure on the rope. I pulled the lead rope around and he did a "she wants me to move, she wants me to turn, she wants me to back up, she wants me side pass, she wants me to go forward, she wants to turn in a tight circle, she's not releasing, she wants me to turn, she wants me to go forward, she wants me to stop, this is starting to hurt my neck let me adjust, oh wow she let go." After that he did great. He had his first hoof trim on Monday and he actually didn't do as bad as I thought he would. He didn't like the rasp across his feet but there wasn't a big fit about it. I fed him some carrots while he was getting his feet done. I'm so glad that he wasn't bad about it. The work I put into picking up his feet paid off. 

I worked Annalie on lunging from walk to trot. Apparently she only knows how to trot or canter at a lunge and none of it is voice command. Although she does know whoa best of all. So she would trot in the circle and I would tell her to walk and pull the line just a hair and she would do a dead stop and turn toward me. I would get behind her shoulder and make her move off with a soft gesture and tell her to walk. She'd trot off again. After a few stops and goes she finally figured out I wanted her to walk. I got to help trim one of her hooves when the farrier was here. It wasn't at all easy. 

I rode Willow yesterday. We did some walk to trot and trot to walk and trot to stop transitions. I think part of her problem is the bit I have on her. She is in a shank bit and I think she really needs a plain ol snaffle. But I don't have a snaffle small enough for her. I'll have to get one as soon as I can. I also worked on her walking five feet in front of me. If I stopped and she kept going I would back her up about ten steps. She isn't getting that I want her head to be about at my shoulder. She thinks it's ok if she walks completely ahead of me. Which might be from her driving training or her hurry to get back to the barn. She is getting better about it. 

I let the kids brush Alice today and pick out her hooves (or try to). She stood really good for it. The farrier thinks her hooves are awful and they are really going to need work. He thinks she gentically has no frog. : /


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Saturday someone I work with came over and rode with me. I swear Willow has got to test everyone the first time they get on. She really hated having the reins draped on her sides. I'm going to have to put some shorter reins on her bridle. Amber (the girl) got on her and she went crowhopping every other step. Amber is a really good rider (she won at Congress) so it wasn't a big deal. Eventually Willow settled down. 

I haven't worked with them lately because Annalie and Alice got out of the fence and into the neighbors yard so we've been fixing that while the horses have been stuck in their stalls. What a mess that was. Took me two hours to clean the barn. Then Joe took an old gate and drug it over the pasture so the manure is officially no more. The pasture looks a lot better. 

Even though we fixed the fence I'm going to secure the paddock and the horses will be spending the nights in there. Now on to hunt down some round bales for my starving horses @@.


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## Indyhorse (Dec 3, 2009)

Oh yeah they look starving lol

Willow always was a tester, and I honestly am not sure how much of that is just part of who she is. Once she gets over testing you, you have very little problem with her, right? But someone new is a new opportunity lol. I always rode her with barrel reins so I guess I never really experienced her issue with the reins draping over her side. Can you gather them up in one hand WP style? I never got her neck reining really well, but had started on it, and I got her to a point where she was leg cuing really well, so it shouldn't be hard to get her to start neck reining.

Ah, I need to drag my pastures too. As soon as it stops raining going to see if I can borrow the neighbor's drag chains.

Good luck and keep me posted, always feel free to call/email/pm if I can help with anything!


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

I use a lot of leg pressure with her. I don't like neck reining her with the bit I'm using on her. Once she is done testing and realizes that it doesn't help she is fine. If I ride her for a little bit and then put someone else on her she will go fine. 

Today I decided to see if I could do some trick training. I decided Willow needs to learn to bow. She picked up the concept pretty quickly using apples. I only did it a few times to introduce her to the concept. I used a rope around her pastern and pulled her leg up and showing her the apple had her lower herself down. As soon as she dropped her head I gave her the apple and let her up. We didn't actually get to the point where she did it without a ton of coaxing but she didn't flip out about it. I also rode her bareback with a halter and she did really well. I really like how I can get her to trot beside me. We worked on her staying by my side and remarkably she didn't once go ahead of me. 

I know I'll probably catch some flack but I laid Annalie down today. I thought I'd try it and if she threw a big fit and started rearing and flailing around I wouldn't do it as it was my first time doing it with a rope around the pastern. Because she trusts me so much she wasn't to concerned about me asking her to do something new. What concerned her was what exactly I wanted from her. I would pull her head around and her leg up and she would hop around and turn to me. After about five minutes I got her down on her knee and because she went down without to much of a fuss I let her up and let her have a breather. Something must have clicked in her head because I brought her leg back up and her head around and she went right down to her knee. I saw that she was ready to lay down but was unsure about it I grabbed the horn of the saddle and gently tugged. She went right over and let out a big sigh. She let me pet her all over and then I let her up. I rode her around for a little bit after that with her halter. I didn't do it because we have issues. I wouldn't lie a horse down my first time that I didn't trust. 

Today I introduced Davinci to the saddle. Dun dun dun! I lay the saddle on the ground and brought him out to look at it. He was mildly interested but much more interested in grazing. So I took the blanket and showed it to him. He spooked a little and was a little concerned about me putting it near his neck. After a minute he must have remembered my rope lesson and figured the sooner he stopped moving around the sooner I would quit waving the blanket at him. He stood still and I put it on his back. He looked utterly bored. So I picked up the saddle and showed it to him. He yawned. I put it on his back and waited. He turned his head to look at it but went back to pretending to doze. So I cinched up the girth loosely. I stood back and waited for him to at least hitch his back up. Nothing. So I lead him a step forward. Nothing. So I walked him all the way into the barn with the saddle on. He wasn't the least bit concerned. So Introduction to Saddle complete : )


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Trick training, success and failure

Success:

I swear I own one of the smartest horses EVER! I decided to try and teach the horses each a trick or two to see how it goes. Annalie is already really good at laying down and I've done it about seven times. I'm trying to turn it into a cue by squeezing on her neck. I put the rope on her leg and pull it up and she goes right down. So I decided to start teaching her the spanish walk. The first part of teaching a horse the spanish walk is teaching them to strike out their hooves. From what I see on youtube there are two different ways to do this. I went with the tapping a horse on the pastern until the strike their leg forward, kind of as if they were trying to get rid of a fly or pawing while in cross ties. I thought it would take forever. Annalie picked it up in ten minutes. I'm not kidding. Now I'm having problems with getting her to move forward while doing it. Once she gets that down I want to teach her to sit. 

Willow..... Willow.... lol. That girl has some issues with giving up trust. I tried the spanish walk and got no where. I'm not giving up and I've moved on to another way to teach her it. I also worked with her bowing and she did ok. The one thing I am proud of myself for coming up with is that everytime I do something with her I drape a lead rope over her withers. I'm trying to get her over the bitting at her sides when the reins drop down on them. She really hates anything even slightly rubbing her sides, even the tall weeds out in the pasture.

I haven't really done much with Davinci. He isn't the brightest bulb in the box. In fact I've kind of considered finding him a new home with someone who could put him to better use. It's not that I don't like him, I do and did the first time I saw him. I didn't ask the people to bring him to me. It's just that I don't ever see myself picking him to ride or do something with rather than my Haflingers. He just seems so odd and clutsy. I don't know. If I do sell him it won't be until next year because there are hardly any horses selling right now. 

My husband would like to find another home for Alice. I really think she's the cutest thing ever but she gets herself into trouble with the other horses and I'm afraid she's going to get hurt. She thinks she is the size of a Clydesdale. I think she needs to go somewhere where they only have Minis or at least smaller ponies. One good knock from a Haflinger hoof and she wouldn't be the same again. Right now Alice is pretty much stalled a lot because I don't want her to get hurt. Isn't really fair to her as she really likes to be outside and paces the stall relentlessly.


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## ShutUpJoe (Nov 10, 2009)

Not much to update. With Christmas and the weather I haven't been riding. I can't ride Willow until she gets her hooves trimmed on the 5th anyway. I have worked a little with Annalie and her tricks. All the horses are doing fine and enjoying the time off anyway.


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