Rika and the Waterpipe Scandal

Last night when I got to the barn I was informed by the  barn owner that Rika broke the water pipe in her stall.  This pipe was one of those that you connect the automatic waters to, but it’s been unconnected for a year because of the previous horse that lived there.  So, there was a 5 inch plastic pipe with a cap protruding from Rika’s stall.  I’m guessing she was bored the night before last because yesterday morning her stall was flooded as was half the arena, and thankfully the arena took most of the flooding and not her stall; I’m sure she wouldn’t of just loved standing in 6 inches of water–

Now she has an auto water, and now I don’t have to worry ,and eventually head out to the barn, if I can’t get there for a night.  It did however drip though, but the float got stuck and the bo fixed it, and placed a bucket underneath just incase.  I also removed the wet bedding in her stall that got wet from the mats, probably a lost cause, but at least it will be more dry than it was. 

We also scraped mud off of her for 45 mins, and went into the arena and played figure eight for a few mins, and then walked around talking with another boarder and her mare, who is one of Rika’s friends.  The arena was pretty crazy too and Rika was such a good girl.  One of the other boarders in there was “disciplining” her horse for not standing still.  That was a bit sad to watch…

I’ve also not mentioned yet that Rika is lame, or maybe lame is the wrong word because it seems to me something in her shoulders having to do with her muscle.  I am trying to get her looked at when someone else at the barn has an appointment with their chiropractor, so hopefully that will be  soon.  It will probably be a couple of weeks though, so until I know whats going on with her we are just playing on the ground ,walking and some trotting, and hacking around (on the ground).

-SavvyHorse

The Diary of a Barn Hopper: A Preview

 

 

Pushing Passenger, Sideways, Undemanding Time, and Lameness…

Okay I didn’t update once this week, I wanted to but didn’t get around to it, so I’ll do a brief update of what we did.

On Monday the horses didn’t get turnout for an unknown reason, so the arena was pretty busy with people exercising their horses.  Once it died down a tad, we went in and played with figure eights on our 22′ line, mostly at the trot.  Once  she had the “oh I’m on a pattern” moment we moved on to playing at liberty.  She started off just walking and trotting around and then the energizer bunny came, and she galloped around like a mad woman.  She ran and then would to flying changes and sliding stops when she got to a corner, and she would rear up to change direction.  She was having fun,  this only lasted for about 10 minutes though and then she wanted to come in, and help clean up the toys.

On Tuesday we played at liberty briefly, with circling game, friendly game, porcupine, and stick to me.  Then we tacked up in the bareback pad, at liberty!  She stood as still as a statue while I put the bareback pad on her back, I was so happy.  She did however threaten to bite, as she so often does with girthing, so I rubbed her until her ears were up.  If I’m consistent with that it usually improves rather quickly.  Slapping her however just increases the behavior drastically. 

We mounted up and did some pushing passenger at a walk for about a half an hour.  Afterwards we did some point to point, and sideways over cones that touch her belly, barely, but still.  I was so proud of her, that was the first time we went sideways, while riding, over anything at all substantial.  One of her favorite activities as of current is to go over anything and everything sideways, so I’m encouraging it.   She also now makes a beeline for the pedestal whenever she’s near it at PP, she loves that thing.  Her dismounts however are not so graceful, but she is finally putting an effort in to figure out where the ground is instead, of just literally falling off and tangling her legs.  You would think she’s some 18 hh young gangly warmblood, and not a 14.2 hh 5 year old.  Oh Rika–

Wednesday was attitude day, but now I’m thinking it probably has to do with her “lameness” .  She really, really did not want her front hooves picked, at all.  She bared her teeth and laid her hers flat against her head in protest.  I did the electric fence, and she got better, but not so much.  While I was doing her left front foot she swooped in and bit me, hard, on the back.  After that she looked almost remorseful and put a happy face on.  I’m thinking she was probably trying to tell me her foot hurt, and I was just not listening. 

We played in the arena with the figure eight after that, and her attitude persisted.  I would tag her zone 1,2, not her face,  when she did the death pin, and we didn’t stop until after her attitude was gone.  And a sidenote, she wasn’t at all obviously lame.

She had thursday off, and friday was the day I noticed something was off.  She wasn’t limping, or dragging, or refusing to put weight on her foot, but something was “off”.  I made her walk in circles for 20 minutes while I started at her leg, and her movement,  over analysing everything I’m sure.  Her LF was just landing weird.  I can’t say I have any idea what it is, but I can say she was “off”.  Lame probably isn’t the right word at this point, and hopefully it won’t have to be. 

Yesterday I couldn’t get out to the barn, so she got the day off to rest and recupe, so I will brush her and check her today,  but I’ll probably give her tonight off as well just to be safe.

In other news my grandma told me that Diego got bit up by these flies ,that are common where she is, and that leave welts all over their bodies.  Poor Diego, this is turning out to be a rough year for him.

I guess this post wasn’t “brief”, but it does describe what we’ve been up to this week

-SavvyHorse

 

We’re Back, Finaly

Rika has been back for two weeks now, and I’ve been too busy readjusting to spending two hours at the barn everyday and settling her in to blog.  She’s actually at the same barn she was at before she went to my grandmas.  She’s settling in nicely and readjusting to the hectic environment.  Well the arena is hectic, during “prime” evening barn hours, but everything else is nice and quite.

I’m sure she isn’t thrilled about spending the night in her stall when she’s been getting 24/7 turnout, but down here there really isn’t pasture board…  The pasture she’s in is really big though, and I’m sure more importantly to Rika, its grassy.  Here herd is the “nice girls” so there isn’t any biting or kicking, just ear-pinning, so I’m sure she appreciates that. 

We’ve been playing mostly on the ground getting our ground skills reestablished, and her fitness level back up before we do any serious riding.  I’ve also ridden her a few times, and she’s been very well-behaved.  Way more dominance  type behavior then right-brained, which I prefer the Snotty LBI to the her RBE side.  Our seven games our going good, so I hope to be able to get the arena free soon and play with figure-eight and weave on my 22′ line, we’ve already done those patterns, but while she’s still settling in I think they’ll be good for her.

Last night I had the pleasure to scrape mud off of her for an hour, a real pleasure–  That’s the other thing about the Pacific Northwest,  it ALWAYS rains, which means your always scraping mud off your horse.  No matter the pasture there is always a patch of mud they find to roll in, especially the grey ones.

I’ll be back with shorter more frequent post from now on, to record what we’re doing mostly and our plans.

-SavvyHorse

A Break–

Diego’s Head

The horses are both on a break right now as I am starting school up for the year.  Diego will stay where he is (at my grandma’s where we where this summer) , and Rika will be coming “home” with me.  I will do a longer post in a day or so I’ve just been very busy. 

-SavvyHorse

What’s Behind Your Horses Name?

What’s the Story behind your horses name?  Is it from the pedigree, personality, or where you bought them from?  Do you know what it means if it’s a differnet language?  Did you choose it, why?

Does your horse have various nicknames?  Mine sure do “)

Rika:  Rika’s name is from her grandam on her sire’s name, Kalrika.  I have no idea what it means, none.  I choose her name before she was born, I had a list actually, but it was my favorite.  Right when she was born I knew she was a Rika. 

She also has a ton of nicknames.  A TON.  When I call her I usally yell, Reek EE in a singsongey voice, of course.  I also call her Sweetpea and Sweatie a lot.  For some odd reason I call her Miss P too, I have no idea how that one came about.  Reekers, Rika-dika, Reekee-Deekee are also varations of her name.

Her Registered name is Rika’s Rocket Star.  Her dam Star is “Rocket’s Morning Star”, so I just rearranged and included Rika.  Not very creative and I want to change it.

Diego:  Diego actually has a story to his name.  I did not name him, my cousin who was seven at the time did.  He was named after Dora the explorers cousin, Diego.  Go Diego Go is/was a show on Nick Jr.  That he watched a lot.  I know that’s very “special”.  I had these grand plans to change his name when I got him, then when he was, one, two, and three, but I can’t change his call name, although I have tried, a lot.  He is a Diego.

He really doesn’t have any cool nicknames,  I on occassion call him Little Man, or My Boy though.

His registered name is Bailador, or dancer in Spanish.  This name really wasn’t found in any special way except that I searched a Spanish to English dictionary.  

What’s behind your horse’s name, I would be interested to find out.

-SavvyHorse

An Update

Wow, I’ve been a bad blogger lately… So I’ll write a brief update over the last few days.

Diego snoozing

Last Friday the chiropractor came and looked at about 6 horses, including Rika and Diego.  Last month when she came for the first time Diego’s back was sore, and he had soft tissue swelling in his front legs, however this month she said he was perfectly fine, phew.  Rika didn’t have any issues last month that weren’t related to the cougar attack, but this month she too had a sore back from being out of line on her left side.   What?  This happened in a month, with minimal riding and she’s never had a sore back before.  I think it may have just been an injury related to the cougar attack that just started showing up because she was looked at only a day after the attack happened.  Diego’s issues were related to being “used” at training.

So after an adjustment the horses need two days off, which just so happened to be Sat/ Sun.  Oh well, undemanding time for Rika it was.  I did end up playing with Diego and Riding him on Sun though.

The horses both had this Monday off, and last night we took Jed and Rika for a short play in the arena.   Man, Rika is a lot of fun to work with right now.  She did a trot send to the pedestal 22′ away!  I’m so proud of her   She even likes coming to play now, and trots in from the pasture when I call her. I hopped on her bareback for a quick ride Monday too, literally quick, probably for 10 mins. 

Diego also went on a trail walk in the morning for about 40, he was pretty good, but a bit nervous because of the wind gust we’ve been having.

That leads us to today.  Today I took Diego out this morning with the intent to go for a short ride.  However there was a chainsaw less then 20′ from the arena.  He wasn’t that fond of the chainsaw.  We did some groundwork until he was a bit more focused and then he got to run around the arena like a manic.  He did calm down a lot after our second round of ground work, but not enough to ride.  Oh well.

-SavvyHorse

A Fun Bareback Ride

We started the session with Rika wanting to eat everythingon the way to the barn.  So we used our lead, lift, swing, touch phases with the end of the rope.  She caught on fairly quickly that it was a lot more comfortable when she would just walk nicely without dive bombing the grass.  Then amazingly the pressure went off and I let her eat, amazing. 

I went into the arena with her bareback pad already on ready to play on-line.  We played some touch-it,  friendly, hide your hiney, and sideways.  The sideways was really cool because I actually stood in zone three and directed her from phase one over the barrel!  That was the first time we went over a barrel from zone three, normally I stand in zone one, in front of her head.

She was listening and thinking so I mounted up.  She didn’t care that I got on today, sometimes while bareback she tries to bite, but today we played friendly first and she was fine.  We did our lateral flextion and since I didn’t have cookies she got scratches, a lot of scratches   We did to rotations of on-the-rail each direction, and then we played with some figure eights.  She showed a little bit of opposition reflex ,but all she did was bulge her left shoulder and look right, instead of the normal trot right.  We are now using small bumps when she braces as those are harder the brace against then steady pressure. 

She seemed to enjoy the ride, and after we were done she happily followed me to get the carrot stick and then went back to the gate.  I even pointed forward and applied pressure to her zone three, phase two tapping the air, with the CS and she didn’t walk away!  That makes me happy.

Tomorrow the chiropractor is coming to do some of the horses here, but we’re planning on heading out early and playing in the arena for a bit.

-SavvyHorse

Diego’s first adventure

Diego eating the trailer–

Yesterday Diego went on his first off the property adventure.  Every month there is a Team Sorting practice held at Ghost Rock Ranch and I thought it would be a good experience for

Diego to be around so many horses and bustling activity.

I was happily surprised when he climbed on the trailer with no coaxing, I didn’t even have to ask him to load, he just climbed in on his own accord. Yay!  We took Savannah “Savvy” to be his ”babysitter” for the night as she is a Steddie Eddy so to say.  As soon as we got there and unloaded I took Diego over to some grass and let him graze, he was really calm to and just a little bit nervous.  While we waited for Savvy’s owner to arrive I tied both horses to the trailer, and groomed Diego.  This is also when he decided that the trailer looked tasty and decided to eat the window, typical LBE. 

We  took the horses into the arena to play on the ground and exsopse them to the busy atmosphere.  There was about 20 horses in there and needless to say Diego was a bit overwhelmed, but he handled himself quite well.  The only thing he did was neigh, a lot.

 

The tractor we came across on our walk

After the horses got acquainted and overwhelmed with the hustling and bustling atmosphere we decided to take them outside on a walk.  Diego did very well and calmed right down.  We then made our way back to the trailer ,once again, to retrieve Savvy’s bareback pad, and then trail riding– err walking we went.

I stood in zone three, and did a mock-trail ride/ driving-game with him.  We came across a herd of horses that had to run to the fence, and he did really well with that.  Then we went on our marry way until we came across a beautiful pond with a observation deck.  He of course didn’t notice this, but I had to take a picture of it anyways.

The next “obstical” we came across was an old tractor that had a sign engraved with “wide load”  He gave this a faint look but nothing much.

We came across two horses coming down the trail too He put his head up, but was more

 

Inside of the arena (and Diego’s back)

concerned with Savvy.  We got in a lot of exposure training on this walk.

Once we got back from our hour or so walk we ventured back into the arena, this time though there were only about 15 horses.  It was fun though, and I am quite happy with how he handled himself.

-SavvyHorse

 

 

 

Some more pictures–

Parelli Level Two Clinic

A photo from last years level two clinic

This weekends clinic was very intense, in both temperature and the amount of information we learned.  With the levels changes we are back to intermediate level two or so, which is fine I’m in no rush.  I had a good time and I learned a lot and I also had a lot of “lightbulb” moments.  It was nice to spend so much time with Rika as well.

I’m going to just bullet some of the things that I learned for now than later I will tell some stories from the clinic.

• Send:  The send is very important and once done correctly your horse will maintain gait and go for longer periods of time.
• Follow Through:  If you ask your horse to do something you have to follow through, even if you ask wrong the first time, and then have to re-ask.
• Don’t always yo-yo:  We were told that if the only way you ever ask your horse to back up is by using the yo-yo game than once you start playing at liberty you won’t have a good bring-back.
• Rein positions:  Mainly the indirect rein controls the hindquarters, and the direct rein controls the front-quarters– Very helpful for sideways.
• Break things down:  Before you ask your horse for something, such as sideways, make sure they get all of the components first.
• You ride a horses feet, not their mouth:  The feet are what make a horse move, if you can control the feet you can control were you are going.
• Phases:  The phases were reinforced starting with a long phase one, but then going as high as you have to so that the horse responds.
• Our horses train us:  For example when a horse steps on the rope, and we rush over to untangle its foot then we are training the horse that they get out of work by stepping on their rope, even if it’s only momentarily.  Instead he told us to have the horse back up so that they learn they have to do a little bit more if they want to step on their rope.
• One step forward two steps back:  If our horses took a step forward then we asked them to go two steps backwards, same Principal as above.
• Learn the eight keys to success and the parelli principals by heart:  I just need to do this.
• Focus:  Focus is very powerful especially with LBI’s.
• Our horse’s train us:  When they cause us to regather for whatever reason then they get their break once again, so if we get frustrated and give up they get some rest time.
• Drive Line:  In front of the drive line gets a horse to slow down, back-up, or turn, and behind the drive line gets a horse to speed up.
• Energy:  Energy accompanies our phases, and our intentions.  Different energy for different tasks i.e.  cantering and friendly game.
• Level one is the foundation:  If your having a problem it most likely is based in level one, go back and fix it.

I also learned to wear sunscreen in august

-Savvy Horse