It's a football... on a schtick!

As I was saying in a previous post, I started working on clicker training with Reily.  He actually seems to be really enjoying it.  It stimulates his little neurons and it gives him plenty of extra attention each day.  For the first week we worked twice each day on the most basic principle: "Stand patiently in your own space and though shalt receive a click and a handful of food as a reward".  Now that he's got this basic step down packed we've moved on to working with the "target".  Well I'm slowly but surely deciding that Shawna Karrash is a genius, because this is such a brilliant idea, but as a sane human being I cannot bring myself to pay her company $35, $45, or even $50+ for the necessary "supplies" to move on to this next step.  I mean come on, their targets are just pieces of oblong, plain, white plastic.  So being the cheap resourceful horse owner that I am, I devised a plan... raid the Dollar Tree of makeshift items!  When I shared said plan with my boyfriend he suggested that I try to find a mock-up of Jeff Dunham's character, Jose the Jalapeno, since, after all, he is just a vegetable... "on a schtick".  I laughed but he had a good point, I really just needed something of my own, "on a schtick".  That's really all the official targets on the website are anyways.  So off I went to the Dollar Tree, and after about 35 minutes of cruising every aisle I was happily standing at the register with four foam footballs (one for the hand held target, one for a stationary target in their stall and one for each side of the trailer eventually) and a piece of bamboo for the "stick".  I was so excited when I got home to show my boyfriend how trifty and imaginative I'd been!  The only thing I was missing at this point was the "side bucket" which you strap on like a fanny pack and it holds the food you use to reinforce them while their learning each new task.  As I lamented over not finding anything to jerry-rig for this, my aggravatingly smart boyfriend casually states, "well why don't you just use one of those extra lunch boxes?"... well why do you have to be so ingenius?!  Of course, this turned out to be the perfect solution because the strap on the bag is just large enough to slip over my head and arms and hang around my waist.

So, now we were fully prepared to move on to principle number two: "Bump thy nose against foam football on a schtick and thou shalt receive a click, a handful of food and the verbal cue of 'target' as a reward".  The first time I brought it out Reily was curious but slightly baffled by it.  He was perplexed at first and I'm sure he was thinking, "this was NOT what we have been practicing all last week and what in the heck does she want me to do with this mulit colored squishy thing?!".  But he picked up on it in no time and now I swear to you, he's so attached to that football that I have to throw it over the electric fence to get him to leave it alone!  Even after I do that he'll stand there and stare it down like, "bring that thing back here, I'll put my nose on it as many times as you want, it makes food magically appear!!"

Since this is new to us both I figured I'd try it first with Reily and see how it went before starting with the other horses.  But this morning I was using his breakfast to work with him and we were out in the field with all the other boys.  Well Boo finished his breakfast before I was done playing with Reily and he was adorably interested in what it was we were doing.  But Reily, of course, was NOT happy to share the food or the attention.  So poor Boo just stood there and stared at me like, "No fair Mom, why's he always getting all the attention!"  I guess I'll have to start working on it with Boo earlier than I was expecting!

Ohhh, food!

Reily seems bored lately and I think it's partially because, thanks to extra tax season hours at work and the general lack of daylight, we can usually only ride 2 maybe 3 days a week right now and during the week he doesn't get as much one-on-one time as he's used to from the track.  So since it seems fun, entertaining and useful too me, I decided to give clicker training a shot.  This way I can ensure that he's getting some one-on-one time at least twice a day and hopefully it will eventually lead to me being able to simply point at the trailer and he'll load himself.  He's not awful about the trailer but he definitely has some anxiety about it.  Mainly it seems that he still thinks getting on the trailer means going to another race track to run, and since he wasn't very good at that he somewhat resents the idea of going on trips.  He always gets on but it'd be nice if it didn't take 15 minutes to coax him on each time.

So tonight was his first night.  From now until the forseeable future he'll be earning his morning and evening feed through clicker training.  He picked up on it pretty well for his first time.  It only takes about 5 or 10 minutes each session but he was starting to put the peices together by the end of it.  I think this will be very good mental stimulation for him.  We'll just have to wait and see how things go!

"I'm all alone, there's no one here beside me..."

Trotting around the neighbor's field

This is the extended trot that he volunteers when he gets
nervous. It feels MASSIVE under saddle, but once we
can harness it, we'll rock some dressage test!

Up to this point Reily has had a baby sitter of some kind on each of his rides off the property.  But since we can't build a riding ring yet and there's no real flat places on the property to do "ring work" I usually ride Boo about a half mile down the road to a neighbor's property where he has a nice flat, large, unused field and is kind enough to allow me to use it as a riding ring.  So my boyfriend has helped me out by riding Boo with me so we could take Reily down there to see it and ride around in it a few times with company.  Well today was the big day, his first ride off the property all by his lonesome.  He was just a little nervous, had his head up and was just a little bit quicker than usual, but never offered any truely bad behavior.  Never bolted, never bucked, in fact he never even yelled for the other horses, which is typical of young horses new to showing and/or new to being seperated from all other horses.  So I was very proud of him.  He did bulge through his shoulder some, especially if we were headed in the direction of home, but nothing awful.  Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfA4Ehwnq9Q&context=C3de2787ADOEgsToPDskLZ7Rss25kqW3FoEnbL-UuO) of his first time riding alone.  Sorry the image quality is so poor, my old camera might take decent photos but it's real low quality when it comes to video capture.  All in all very proud of him :)

Just cantering along, he's got a big, ground covering stride!

Ringing in a New Year

So I know that people are sort of split over the issue of this year... either the world will end or there will just be excessive hype like in 2000 ("Holy Christ, the Y2K bug will infect us all!") but Dec. 23, 2012 will dawn and it will turn out to have been just another yesterday.  But here in VA it's been strangely mild for a majority of the time thus far this winter.  Blame global warming, blame the upcoming apocolypse, blame whoever you want, but I'm thanking Mother Nature or God, whoever's taking care of the temperature these days because I got to ride my horses on New Years Eve and it was almost 60 degrees!

Chatting and warming up

We decided to go ahead and take Boo and Reily over to the equestrian park again since we really don't know how many more of these nice days we're going to get.  I invited one of my old 4-H friends to come ride Boo so we could exercise them in the ring together at the same time and see how Reily would take it.  He always wanted to drift towards wherever Boo was in the ring but if I put my leg on him he listened and kept straight like an old pro.

Just going for a trot

Of course, it was nice when we got there but shortly after we had warmed up the wind started to pick up and the sun disappeard behind the clouds so it started to get a little more chilly.  We were lucky because we were riding but my poor boyfriend definitely got cold standing there playing camera man.   Up to this point I'd only done about 90% walking and hill climbing with Reily and about 10% trot work, but he stayed perfectly calm and listening to me even when the wind really picked up.  What a good baby!  He wasn't rushing at all so just for kicks I asked him for a canter to see how he'd respond.  He picked up his right lead right off the bat, he was fast, but not running away just fast.  That doesn't bother me one bit though, it was just his first time, he's got no substantial top line, and he's not totally balanced in his new job, so going a little fast probably helped him feel more stablized at first.  Lucky me, my boyfriend got a video of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7cz2DAfeXA&context=C329ad3bADOEgsToPDskKIhWJOPIZWjgVv6EZm-lrw. I just love his trot, it's big and forward, and one of these days I'll think to take a picture of his hoof prints, because his over reach (hence why he's only wearing 1 bell boot, he ripped the other one right off and we were waiting to receive the replacement still) is at least a whole hoof length in front of his front foot fall!  I can't wait to start building his top line and teaching him to go on contact.  He has great extension when you ask for it!

Horses vs. Mountain Goats

Yep, it's official my Thoroughbreds are actually mountain goats disguised as horses.  One of my very good friends, who coincidentally owned Scotty back when he was a young'en, was in town for the holidays and I was lucky enough to have the day off of work because of the holidays, so she came over to meet Reily and go for a trail ride.  Now I've always really admired that she's gotten out there and done a lot of really cool things in her life, one of which includes being a TB exercise rider at tracks both here in the States and over in France for a time.  So she was looking forward to meeting Reily and I was really excited to get her opinion of him in person.  We chatted while we groomed and tacked up Boo and Reily then we headed out for a nice long trail ride.  We didn't want to take Reily on the road yet and we had her dog with us too and it was her pup's first time around horses in general and therefore her very first time running along on a trail ride so we didn't want her near the road either.  So instead of heading down the driveway we headed up the back of the property to the mountains that our farm butts up against.  There are plenty of old logging trails up there and they range from nearly flat to VERY steep.  The longest trail you can follow goes over the mountain and comes out the other side at a house owned by an old family friend who has always allowed me to come out at her house and then zig zag back down the side of the mountain on her driveway which eventually comes back out on the road that leads to our driveway.  However to get across the very top of the mountain there's only one choice of trail... and you guessed it, that trail is about a quarter mile climb up a 60 or so degree incline, then a nice resting spot before another slightly shorter, less steep climb. No joke.  Boo and I use this mountain on a somewhat regular basis to keep him fit and do conditioning for Horse Trials but I was pessimistic about whether Reily was going to be able to handle this, or if it was fair to ask it of him.  In the end we decided we'd just make as many stops as we needed to on the way up and concluded that it would be good for his butt muscles to make the climb, so up we went!

And wouldn't you know it, those two scrambled right up that path like they'd been doing it all their lives.  Well, Boo has for a long time, but I was impressed that Reily only needed one short breather on the first climb and went right through the second just fine.  He was a total champ about the experience all together!  There are a few tight paths where you have to squeeze through single file, including one spot where a vine hangs down right at the horses' chest level and you have to walk them up far enough to grab hold of it and hold it up out of the way for them while you walk under it.  Now that's something he's definitely never done before but it was all just no big deal with him.  He's so laid back and he thinks things through before tackling the issue.  I love him and I love his very good brain!

We got over the mountain and started down the driveway.  When we were still a little ways off the road we cut off into the woods again, avoiding the road as mentioned, coming out on our driveway and walked them back home that way.  We had a great time and when we got home my friend and I played musical horses so she could ride Reily for a minute and feel how me moved.  I was glad to hear that she felt he has a lot of potential.  Afterwards we finished cooling them out, untacked and groomed them down.  The boys were happy to get end of ride treats, and we were happy to hand them out liberally after such a good ride!

Road trip anyone?!

Two things: 1) I bought a new horse trailer... one dubbed "Reily sized" by my hysterical boyfriend, 2) It's a new toy so I had to play with it!



At the horse park for the first time, acting like an old pro



So Boo and Reily went for their first (mini) road trip today.  Here in VA it was an unseasonal, but splendid 55 degrees in December, no better way to spend such a beautiful day then take your fellas over to play at the horse park, so that's exactly what we did!  There was only one other person there taking a lesson so we walked the boys all around the park first so Reily could check it all out.  Boo was bored and tried to eat as much free grass as he could possibly consume because this place was all old news to him.  Once we'd sniffed everything just for kicks we headed back to the trailer and I tacked up and rode Boo first.  He was a very good boy and I switched his saddle but left him partially tacked, then we walked them both down to a ring to play lead Reily over some poles on the ground and over some tiny, tiny, tiny cross rails to see how he'd react.  Unfazed, he trotted right over everything, picking up his feet and licking and chewing (a sign that horses display when they're thinking and processing information, so a good sign!) after each "question".  We went back and tacked him up and I rode him a bit in the ring where he was a super star!  When we were done we put a bridle on Boo and my boyfriend rode Boo and I rode Reily and we took them for a mini trail ride through the cross country jump field at the equestrian park.  They were both absolute dolls, walking through creeks, up and down hills, and sniffing all kinds of cross country fences.  I have to say, I really think I hit the jackpot with this horse.  What a champ and at only 3 years old he's got so much more to give!

The big move

Poor Reily, he most think we're crazy.  It was dusk when we brought him home from Maryland, now it was completely DARK and we moved him again.  Truth be told it was all perfectly planned.  But as they say, the best laid plans always go to sh**.  Or at least they say something close to that.  Well we had been planning this move for a while, part of the reason I allowed myself to get Reily was because I knew we were going to be moving so I'd only have one month to have to pay extra board.

Wondering why I'm packing up all their junk. Little did they
know they were moving that day night.

The original plan was to move us humans (plus dog and cat) to the new house on Saturday, then drive back across town Sunday afternoon and meet my friends who were kindly helping me move the three big boys in their large 3 horse slant load and the little fella would ride in one stall of my very small 2 horse trailer and the other stall and the back of my truck would be used to haul all of their stuff, gear, etc.  But then something came up and we had to bump up the horse hauling to Saturday.  So at 11:30 I left the big strong men at the house to finish packing the moving fan and headed out to load up all the ponies' gear and supplies so I'd be ready to put said ponies on trailers at 1pm sharp, drive the hour to the new place and unload in the daylight, give them plenty of time to look around before setting Reily loose in the new feild because, unlike the others, he'd never experienced electric fence before and horses tend not to learn to mind it well in the dark.  Unfortunately, when my friends arrived at 1 they're trailer had a flat and the spare was at their house... trip #1: 35 mins to go get the spare, 1.5 hours looking for but can't find the spare nor any spare with the correct number of lug nuts on the rim, 35 mins back to the farm... trip #2 take flat off trailer, 35 mins back to their house to change tire and put good tire on correct rim, 35 mins back to farm with new tire, put on trailer.  That makes it almost 5pm... in December... in Virginia... the sun is well into setting and there's already very low light.  Well we had no choice but to go ahead and move them.  Sadly that means that by the time we reached the new place the horses were unloading after 6pm and it was pitch black.  We turned on all the flood lights that we could but it was pointless.

At this point it would be best if I explained that the other 3 had lived here before.  It's actually my parents old farm but they don't live there anymore so we're renting it until we can buy it, so the other 3 had all lived there for at least 8 years prior to this.  We tried letting Reily loose with the others hoping they'd guide him and keep him out of trouble... we're such optimists.  He promptly walked straight over a t-post (snapping it in half, talk about thank goodness for faulty materials!) and through the gate which wasnt' yet hooked so there was luckily no electric current, but then the other horses started running so he ran back (through mind you) the fence again, breaking it a second time, undoubtedly getting shocked and then they were all just going crazy.  So we went out and caught Reily and Napoleon (poor pony always get stuck babysitting) and banished them to the run in for the night.  After fixing the fence we had planned to leave Boo and Scotty out in the feild but then Boo, for no reason what so ever, ran through one of the gates himself so he and Scotty got banished to solitary confinement each in a dog kennel for the night.  It was outrageous.  Luckily the next morning brought a nice, sunny day with it and they were all freed into the big field together.  Reily learned the fence in no time and now their just happy little munchers!

His recovery is going well also.  He's on anitbiotics for a few more days but luckily he's not a picky eater (at least relatively speaking) so he hasn't been too irritated that there's some weird white powdery stuff covering his food and it's not confectioners sugar, he knows that much.  And lord knows I've kept every inch of him slathered in antibiotic ointment every second of the day to keep out bacteria, promote his hair to grow back, and deter any excessive scar tissue so his skins probably as soft as a baby's bottom oily enough that he could pass as an otter.  The only particularly bad thing about his injury is that because of the location of the wound he has some minor "subcutaneous hematoma" meaning that air bubbles are entering through the wound and being forced up into his body in the layer between his skin and muscles.  The body can break down some of this on it's own but the air can carry batceria so the vet wants there to be as little in there as possible, so 3-4 times a day I have to "deflate" him by pushing all the air bubbles back towards the wound and essentially forcing it back out the way it came in.  The only way I can explain it is that you can hear the bubbles moving around in there and it feels like rubbing your hand across bubble wrap.  Unfortunately every time he moves he's potentially letting more air in the cut, but locking him a stall wasn't an option yet.  Luckily since he's living right out the back door I can deflate him as many times as need be each day.