2 steps forward, 3 steps back

[Marsha Cassada]

The lesson in ground tying has been a tremendous help!! It has changed everything.

We are still driving in a controlled area. He is only allowed to trot in a figure 8--this keeps him focused and keeps his mind off escalating to a bolt. I can really feel that he is improving. I believe we have regained our original ground and are taking steps forward.

Hopefully I have not boasted too soon! I may take him out on a less-traveled road next time, just at a walk, and see how he does in uncontrolled space.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We went out on the road yesterday. I am checking my neighbor's mail, so we drove to his yard, got the mail out of the mail box and then drove to the little barn where I was supposed to leave it. He also has three grain bins that make nice figure 8-type maneuvering, so we drove around those. Everything was at a walk. About 1 1/2 miles, round trip, and Ranger did very well. When we got home, we did trotting in a controlled area, transitioning from trot to walk frequently. Practiced ground tying for harnessing and brushing and it is making a tremendous difference.

All this walking is hard for me as I like to get someplace quicker! But it is good discipline for me; I know we have to do this to be successful in the long run.

A comment on the overcheck: besides keeping him from putting his tongue over the bit, I notice it keeps the whole harness apparatus more centered from poll to tail. I do plan to remove it once he is solid, but I can see advantages of it.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

We have regressed to three steps back. Today was terrible. Started off well. I was tidying his bridle path and he let me clip his ears for the very first time. We practiced our side passing, standing on a pedestal, and some giving to pressure ground exercises. Ground drove a little, then I got in and we took our controlled pasture route. He tried to bolt once, but easily came under control. That went well. We did some figure 8s at a trot in the pasture. Went out behind the house, where we have gone many times, and that went fine. On the way back we went past some pine trees and a sprinkler was in our way. Plenty of room to go around it, but he decided it was scary and bolted. IT was a full blown bolt. He crashed into the pine trees. I fell down into the cart but managed to stay in and get him under control. We got out of the trees and headed back to the pasture, with him trying to bolt every few steps. I thought I was too shaken up and sore to keep going, but decided we had to keep going. I made him do figure 8s, stop, walk, trot, for quite a while. He finally settled down and stopped trying to spook, so we finished our "drive". Several broken pine branches, he has a skinned nose, and I am skinned and really muscle sore. No damage to cart or harness. I have decided I cannot train him and will probably send him to Pat Elder. I will wait till after World, when she has more space. After she has worked with him, she can give me a professional assessment of him as a driving horse, and our compatibility. Meanwhile, we will continue our ground work. She gave me some suggestions for desensitizing and we will work on those.

 

[sdust]

Marsha I am so very sorry. I don't know at my age if I could do anything different. Trey is so reliable that training another seem out of my range. Good luck and if he doesn't work out as a driving horse then I hope for your sake you let him go and fine something else.....

 

[Marsha Cassada]

While I'm waiting, I started working on the exercises Pat Elder suggested. I had to wait a few days so my knee would be better. I did the rope one with him this morning. It's pretty aerobic!! Took about 10 minutes for him to accept the rope. By the end, I was able to even flip the rope against his back legs and he stood still. I don't say he was happy about it, but he stood still. Tomorrow I'll do the whip with the plastic bag, then alternate with both over the next month.

Yes, I will let him go if it can't be worked out. It's just so dang hard to keep trying horses until one finds a keeper! And I'm not getting any younger...

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

How frustrating for you!

 

[Marsha Cassada]

The rope desensitizing went great. Hohum. The plastic bag on the whip? O my. Yesterday he tried to jump over the moon. Today he was a little spooked by it but much calmer. I think in a day or two more he will not react much. Drove him in the sulky yesterday and he did fine.

 

[lucky seven]

"Thanks for the education. I know that Seven is afraid of cows and deer, he is also afraid of tarps. Everything seems to spook him and have always wondered if he would make a good cart buddy for me."

I have lots of pics of us doing this with a couple of our guys and girls (tarp work) - if you'd like to see.

For cows - can either of you borrow a few to pen up near/next to/1 field over/ from your horse(s) to get them used to them - moving, mooing, lowing, coming and going? Sometimes that helps, sometimes it makes little to no difference...

Marsha - thanks for sharing what you are doing with your "new" guy. I think you said his name is "Ranger"? Can't remember for sure... Right now, it sounds like you are doing every thing right and that you just need to keep plugging along with him. Love that you are considering him your "long term investment"!!

If it helps - since our move - even our "steady eddy" type ponies have been jumpy and flighty - just about regular handling. I don't have harness unpacked/hung up where it's easy to get to yet and haven't started working them yet - maybe that's part of the reason why??

If you have photos of your tarp work, I would love to see them.

 

[paintponylvr]

Best will be to send you out to the links of particular ponies' photo albums, I have a couple hundred of various pics of tarp work.

What they don't show is how far away and exactly how you introduce a tarp... Usually we start w/ the tarp folded up - like it's just come out of a package. Show it to the horse from both sides, touch him with it, rub him with it etc. Then it gets dropped to the ground as we start opening it up. I've done both intro from the ground at that point (I usually have bags/tarps on the ground in the round pen or around their feed spots when I'm working them). I've even filled their holes when they dig while eating w/ boxes and plastic bottles - figure if they are gonna' dig, then they better get used to things around their legs (it doesn't prevent the digging

).

Here's a couple where the tarp is on the ground and they are being worked over it. This tarp stayed on the ground for months - just got moved around and every time I took ponies out of their pasture and brought them into the barn they either had to lead over it or lounge over it... Sometimes we'd "ridge it up" so that it looked like it had logs under it - if a pony didn't pick up their hooves, the ridges would "fall" against their legs - took a while for them to get used to that before it got to be "ho-hum"...

Cupid's reaction (O - I can JUMP!)...

and Vicki's pony's "resting spot" became the tarp w/ the water on it. That worked great!! (once she got the pony on it) and yes, her leg is over the left side driving line. During these sessions, if the pony was stopped and given a break, she had to drive on/into that tarp/water and stand there - otherwise she went back out to walk, trot and canter on the lines (this is in a pseudo round pen - kinda oblong w/ 2 fences being their regular fence line).

Different angle showing more of that set up.

And ground driving thru the walk thru gate w/ the tarp next to the gate (it's covering equipment and when harnessed she acted like she'd never seen the tarp)...

here's links to actual "tarp work"...

I put the most current pics at the beginning. For Cupid's 1st day of "real" tarp work - go down to the tab that says "Pampered Pets Pharm - Broadway, NC - 1 March 2013" - you can't miss it - the tarp itself is bright blue! Or you can go all the way to the bottom of the album, and start from when he was born (hehehehe) there are about 500 photos total in this album. As you can see, there is a lot of time between some of the photos - but we were lucky - from 2009 to 2013 - Vicki and I swapped out doing photos at each others' properties. AND sometimes we took pictures w/ each others' cameras...

CUPID

FLOWER - Most of her work photos taken by Vicki's grand daughter and in one of Vicki's albums. I've been given permission to share! Again, it's about 1/2 way down - w/ the blue tarps. Flower is the pony here. looks chestnut minimal tobiano (she's silver bay). Vicki has lots of pics of our other ponies in this album and they aren't all in date order...

GG shows umbrella work - again down a little ways. Umbrella is pink.

AMI - shows tarp AND umbrella work.

We've also both done "bag work" with our ponies - but seems I have mostly no pictures of that with any of them. To do "bag work" - put a shopping bag (we both have mostly Wal-Mart ones) in your hand all scrunched down and intro it to the the horse - let him sniff your hand and touch the scrunched up bag. Then let more of it out of your hand as you use it as a grooming tool (like a curry comb). Work on opening it up until you can "scrub" them with it fully open and waving around while you are grooming them. Then step away and start waving it around until they stand still and ignore it. Then go to putting it on a stick (carrot stick, wand, whip etc) - and wave it around until they ignore it and you can walk right up and touch them with it. Then lead them walking around with it waving back and forth and also drag it towards them (careful - that's a real attention getter!!). We've done this with the bag on a rope and here's some pics of that... This time, I'm the one in blue and the bag is a "burlap" plastic bag from oats or wheat bran. Sami has actually been saddled and ridden a handful of times by one of our farriers' sons... But it's now been long enough that if you went out and put a saddle on him and lounged him, you'd probably have a real rodeo!! Sami is a very reactive pony and is one who "forgets" things. With our new location and all the low helicopter and plane work lately (we are in line with several of Ft Bragg's Drop Zones and runways), he's been real jumpy. He's also the colt that "got silly" in January and smashed my arm against the trailer while loading... I SWEAR you'd never know that this pony is 7, soon to be 8, yrs old now (Bday is Oct 17, 2008). He needs a regular job!

SAMI

If these albums don't load for you (too many pics), let me know and I'll do another thread w/ pics in various posts...

 

[paintponylvr]

Here's some pics that show the tarp in relation to the barn/two of the pastures. Three if you include the pasture right behind the barn thru the open doors. That funny looking "mushroom" is a black feed tub turned over a 5 gallon bucket that I often use as a seat when I'm grooming/harnessing ponies. I can also sit on that and hold them for the farrier or trim their hooves myself (alternating between sitting and standing).

These pics taken the same day... For the next one, Sierra (youngest daughter) is standing in that open door of the barn and has caught the edge of the tarp in the photo while I ground drive "Kechi" between the barn and the house.

She's still standing in the doorway... Sorry - trying my hand at trying to be "creative" with a shot (I don't like it...)...

If I kept her going in a straight line, she'd run into the gate for the boys' pasture. Just past the tarp on the photographer side is a gate into the area between the barn and the girls' pasture...

and I was wrong - this pic shows that the gate between the barn and the girls' pasture hasn't been put up yet... Hmmm... Sierra is working with a weanling here - same week that she took the pics above. These pics were all taken in September 2011.

The driving lines are not hooked to the bridle/bit that this 5 1/2 month old 1/2 shetland colt is wearing. This was his 3rd time wearing a harness. You can also see the tree limb w/ leaves "decorating" the edge of the tarp (above) - that caused "problems" for some of the ponies as well! Too funny.

 

[paintponylvr]

GG's photo album is attached wrong above.

Here's her's - GG

 

[paintponylvr]

and Sami, the medium sized 1/2 arab pony w/o a job at this time, is 6 yrs going on 7...

At least once he is started, he will be sound thru the rest of his life!! He's now mature and has a nicely rounded barrel like his dam (he's a bit shorter and more refined than her), so I think Madira could ride him now as an adult. I may try harder to get him under saddle this winter and have him saddled for her one day when she comes home from Meredith College over Christmas break...

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Hard for me to get pictures as I am almost always alone when working with my horses. I might be able to get a picture later today of Ranger and me under the tarp. He has been on the tarp, over the tarp, dragging the tarp, and under the tarp.

This was day 3 of the plastic bag on the whip. He is getting better and better. Today I rubbed it all over his face and body. I even brought it up behind him and swished his back legs. He tucked his tail, but didn't move. It is scariest skittering on the ground in front of him. Up high doesn't seem to bother him. It's been fun to do these desensitizing exercises with him. I think I will substitute something else for the white plastic bag on the whip; maybe a larger black bag, or maybe streamers.

 

[paintponylvr]

He'll probably act differently with the different colors and textures - ours have/do.

The main thing is teaching them that if "we" say it's OK and "WHOA, stand" then it is OK and he needs to understand that he's to stay put. That "spook in place" feature is wonderful once it's permanent!!

 

[paintponylvr]

Hard for me to get pictures as I am almost always alone when working with my horses. I might be able to get a picture later today of Ranger and me under the tarp. He has been on the tarp, over the tarp, dragging the tarp, and under the tarp.

Trust me - I KNOW! That's why Vicki and I would try to get together and take pics. It started w/ her coming to my place in 2009 - I was giving riding lessons to all 4 of her grandchildren. Then in 2010, we went to driving lessons together - first w/o our ponies and then with the ponies. When we'd get separate lesson parts, we'd snap pics of each other working ponies. Or of our instructor working our ponies. Same when we went to our draft horse events w/ the NCWHMC. Sometimes, we'd ask others to use our cameras to take pics (she went to some functions alone and so did I).

Later, I took ponies over to her place (she had stuff I simply didn't have). And I sometimes had the girls' take pics and a couple of times (LITERALLY) my hubby actually took some pics.

NOW, it's much more difficult. I'm further away (about 13 miles) and the opposite direction if we are going anywhere. In 2013 - it became much more difficult to do as well - Vicki can't get away as she provides full time care for her dad in his trailer home on the same property. Seems like she's just finished cleaning up from taking him breakfast (from her house) and wrapping his injured leg and she's having to make lunch... LONG STORY there... I might have to start going over there and dragging her out this fall when it cools off - she's seemed depressed lately.

I am also working on building an obstacle course that she (& others) can bring horses and ponies over here to use.

 

[paintponylvr]

A friend used to use those short fiberglass step in posts and put them in two lines opposite each other (3 or 4 in each row). Then she'd attach the bags to those and the pony/horse was led, ground driven or ridden between the two lines. Got interesting when the breeze blew the bags!

Can also put balloons or whirly gigs on those posts...

 

[Marsha Cassada]

My husband helped me today, taking some pictures. I wanted to get pictures of the tarp but remembered it is covering my hay bales. I have put Ranger on the sale board. Hard decision, but he is a little too much horse for my needs.

 

[Rocklone Miniature Horses]

Im sad to hear that, but sometimes its the bravest move.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I have enjoyed following your adventures with Ranger. I'm sorry to hear you have come to the conclusion that he is not the horse for you. But as Rocklone says it is often the bravest (and most difficult) decision. You have certainly given it a fair try and it is wise to know when you don't have any more 'try' left and you are no longer enjoying the time you spend with the horse.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

If I only had to think about myself I would keep working with him. But I will need to take grand children and therapy folk in the cart. I think he is just too "hot" for that kind of work. The desensitizing suggestions Pat Elder gave me are working really well. I think he will eventually be just fine for someone who likes a lively ride. I will continue to work with him; it's all a learning journey.