When Horse Worlds Collide!

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part.

2010-02-22T05:39:00.005-05:00

So, Quattro has been back in work after his winter vaycay for about 2 weeks. And if I say so myself, he's really looking rather good:

For those who may be unfamiliar with the H/J circuit, I'll just point out that for THAT discipline, this canter is very nearly spot on: he's got the nice easy pace, he's powering off his quarters, but he's RELAXED up front too, not tensely stood back off his front end. He's light enough up front that you feel he could get over a jump without ever changing the pace. And that's exactly what you want. His stride (or "step" as we call it) does need to be longer, but he's young and out of shape and simply doesn't have the motor for that yet. You can see how it *should* be when he canters along the top of the hill at the very end of the video.

Right now is the point that it is CRUCIAL not to rush with this nice young horse. If you think back to last year, there's a wonderful change between this and "Mr. Go Mo' Faster" rushing around all tensed up with his nose in the air! Heck, back then he didn't even know which foot was supposed to come down first (causing me many a *headdesk* moment).

Unfortunately, we humans are competitive by nature, and we want it all RIGHT NOW. Especially when show season's upon us and it's all this close to being within our sights. I get excited about how well he's doing, and I battle the temptation to rush things EVERY day. More than once.

Good jumping stems from good flatwork. We all know this. If I had started him over jumps last year, I'd have ended up with a panicky rusher - the scary kind we've all seen, that buck through the changes because they can't do it any other way, and try to hurtle headlong at the jumps fighting the rider at every step. If we rush it with Quattro, it could still all go in that very direction - south. Sure, he LOOKS like he could canter around a crossrails course with no harm done - but it's an illusion. He's really only playing a hunter horse on TV; he just happens to be doing it rather well.

You watch that canter, and it's just sooooooo tempting to push too hard. My daily internal monologue goes like this:

"Just ONE jump from a canter would be so great to see..." "NO!"

"Maybe we should start him with ground pole gymnastics..." "NO!"

"I wonder what would happen if we tried to start him on autochanges..." "NO!"

"Maybe we should stick him in crossrails at the Rivermont (H/J) series..." "NO!"

And so on. You get the picture. When cantering, he might give every impression that he's ready to go on, but he's NOT yet, and here is why:

See how inconsistent he still is at the trot? He's trying his little Saddlebred heart out, but he's still tense and upright in the front end and has to be coaxed to drop his head and drive from behind. It's all uneven; there's no consistency of pace and no consistency of impulsion. These are all indicators of insufficient strength in the hindquarters.

You know how YOU felt (or feel) in high school gym class when the teacher asked you to do something you knew you couldn't physically do. It doesn't make for happy students, and it doesn't make for a positive learning experience. It's SCARY. And it sets you up to fail.

Quattro still simply lacks the balance, hind end power, and confidence to be doing anything much more than what he's doing right now. Sure, we pop him over a jump every so often - a teensy-tiny vertical, leisurely thrown into a trot set, just to show him that's what's coming, and encourage the concept of "forward OVER something" with a nice, relaxed pop. But it would be a betrayal of a lovely and willing young horse to ask for more than that right now, because it's all he CAN do.

He's still only three. There is plenty of time. Time which we will use to work on lengthening, building up strength behind, and building up the impulsion he needs to have to carry him CALMLY and SAFELY over a course of small jumps.

But boy, Tom Petty is right: "The waiting is the hardest part!"

The adventure continues.

Time to scrape the mud off!

2010-02-03T20:41:00.000-05:00

Okayyyyy, it's time to scrape the mud off and get this show back on the road!

I've been a good girl and have been out to the barn every night this week to work Quattro. He was great up until tonight, when the combination of it being feeding time and there being a Shetland pony mare in the adjacent pasture were enough to get him alllll aired up and rowdy. You know what that's like - the "Look at MEEEE, I'm the Coolest Saddlebred in the World and I ROCK!" thing. He finally irked me so much with the rearing and bucking (I lie: it was the striking at me that ticked me off!) that I forcibly reminded him that until he has "CH" in front of his name, he's just another Saddlebred cull. (I'm kidding of course.) :-)))))

The thing about Q is that he is BATSH*T crazy for the first 5 minutes, and then after that he settles down and is ready to be reasonable. I keep trying to explain to him that cutting to the chase and just doing it right the first time would make his schooling sessions a lot shorter and get him his dinner quicker - but oh no, we have to get the stupids out first. We did end on a good note when after yet another stern talking-to he finally dropped his head and relaxed.

Probably going to trot him out at some ASHAG shows early this spring. Fear nothing, ASHAG'ers - he's a work in progress! :-P

The adventure recommences.

Why we need to NOT "win ugly".

2010-01-21T09:35:00.004-05:00

Read this excellent article by Matthew Syed, which is LESS about a soccer team I happen to support than it is about the aesthetics of sport - ANY sport, including ours.

So, so much of it can be applied to equestrian sport in general and dressage in particular, where "winning ugly" has become the international zeitgeist.

This article illustrates exactly why we need to NOT do it, and why there will always be hope for those who CHOOSE not to do it.

How did we lose sight of this? How did we go so horribly wrong?

This is a beautiful and inspiring article, which I resolve to re-read EVERY day before I walk out to train a horse.

The article is tough going and may require a re-read or several to get your head around it. But yes - a great dressage horse coming down the center line, or a great Fine Harness horse, or a great equine athlete of ANY discipline - should indeed live up to the goals set out in this article....

..."All experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades for ever and for ever when I move."

NOT "win ugly".

The adventure continues!

What's YOUR Horse's T-Shirt Slogan?

2009-12-13T12:04:00.002-05:00

Just a silly for the holidays. What's YOUR horse's t-shirt slogan?

HRH Avery's was "You want control? Get a remote."

Quattro's is "What's your name? Mine's 'Whoa, Dammit'."

He was feeling extremely... "perky" shall we say - when I lined him yesterday, and we had to argue about "Whoa, Stand" on the lines for at least half an hour. Honestly I ran out of ideas for outwitting him. He's pretty good about what I call "applied halting", meaning that if he thinks there's a good reason to whoa, he'll be a good boy and stand there for as long as it takes. But "whoa" just because the trainer said so? Not so much...

I'm going to have to resort to a header with a lunge whip, and sooner rather than later. For carriage driving, a horse MUST have a good whoa/stand - it's the most important thing. This Twinkletoes routine ain't cutting it. And I have a feeling it's going to be the hardest thing to teach him!

The adventure continues.

Anniversary.

2009-12-04T12:33:00.004-05:00

AVENELL ROAD, a/k/a "HRH Avery"
June 13, 1986 - December 5, 2008.

Gallop free, my brave TB. I love you and miss you so much. You truly were "The Mostest Hoss." I daresay we'll meet again soon enough...

EDIT:

Me: "Sorry, Avery. Me being me, I got the date wrong."

HRH Avery: "I told you, ya stupid fool Twolegs, you really should NOT be let loose without a Smart TB at the other end of the leash!"

Hanging Up My Boots.

2009-11-29T21:40:00.002-05:00

The good news: I rode Quattro myself today for the very first time!
The better news: He was a little rockstar. WHAT a nice young horse he is; I'm so lucky to have him.

But now, for the bad news: I'm hanging my riding boots up. It's time.

For those who don't know me, the backstory is that twenty years ago, I had the Big H/J Wreck: pulled a rather large paint mare down on top of me and broke my hip in 2 places, my pelvis, and two vertebrae. HRH Avery broke two more for me spooking at a Mini about five years ago, so that makes a total of four vertebrae (L1 through L4, if you're into keeping track of that kind of thing) that are fused and don't work at all, as well as the fact that the hip and pelvis healed all funny and I'm 37% range of motion disabled laterally, meaning my hip (usually) works fine going forward and back, as when walking, but I can't stretch my right leg to the side for more than a couple of inches. But enough of my medical problems; I can't stand old people who go on about their medical problems. I'd rather tell you briefly, if I may, about a couple of very special horses...

There's a saying that goes "There is no secret so deep as that between a man and his horse." HRH Avery, my late and sketchily-sound Thoroughbred, and I shared that secret. In public, he'd do his best to pretend he was still a Good Horse and I'd do my best to pretend I was still a Good Rider - but we were FAKING IT, and the unspoken secret between us was "Yeah, this hurts like blazes, but don't tell anybody!" He understood totally that it was his job to Take Care Of Me, the same way I did him: Thoroughbreds have an exceptional sense of quid pro quo; it's their best trait. We pottered on for years doing what little we could do; sometimes once around W-T-C in the ring on good footing, sometimes an hour's trail ride; other times I'd scramble aboard and grit my teeth with the pain and he'd take four lurching steps and we'd stop and look at each other and say "Uhhhhh... NO." and I'd scramble off, stick his halter and "lunch line" on him, and lead him out to eat grass while I lay under an apple tree.

The one-year anniversary of HRH Avery's death is this coming Wednesday. He was my Mostest Hoss, who guarded my secrets well, and I miss him deeply.

When I was sixteen and a hotshot Big Eq. rider who could and would get up on absolutely anything and probably manage to squeeze a decent trip out of it (like Catch Rider Hannah is now!), I used to wonder how people could STAND to "just" be The Owner. How could anybody STAND to have a super-nice horse and never ride it? It just didn't compute in my head.

Now, at the age of 51, I understand completely. The answer is simple: You give up riding when (a) it's no longer fun, and (b) when it's the best thing for the horse. Not necessarily in that order.

For me, both (a) and (b) are now true.

I got away with riding a lot longer than I should have because HRH Avery was so wise, as well as being a mature horse who was 17.2 hands and built like a tank so he could more easily tolerate, in the physical sense, any unevenness from his rider.

For Quattro, this is NOT the case. He's a narrow 15.1 and he is green, green, green. He's still trying to find his own balance let alone help me with mine. He was quiet and perfectly well-behaved when I rode him today, but I swear I could *feel* his left stifle popping out when we trotted. And then came the calamity that really drove it home that I do NOT need to be riding any more: I couldn't dismount. My bad right hip had absolutely turned to water and I couldn't move my right leg at all. Marisa had to actually leave me on him and go for help! It took two people and an exceptionally kind Saddlebred to get me off him, and it very nearly took a truck!

I got off him and said to myself "Yep - time to hang the boots up." And I gave my little Q a huge hug and a bunch of cookies for being, in all likelihood, the last horse I'll ever ride, and being SUCH a good boy about it!

No sympathy, please. I'm blessed. As regular readers will recall, I saw this coming at least a year ago, and took Quattro in with the express intent that whatever he ended up doing under saddle, he would also cross-train into carriage driving for me. I just want to make sure he gets some good under-saddle mileage first, and finishes growing both physically and mentally. He is a LOVELY little horse, and I'm so lucky that in what is really a pretty NON-huntery-jumpery part of the USA, I've found such great trainers and catch riders who can ride and show him for me.

And you know what? It's not really all that BAD being "just the owner". I'm still pretty hands-on with the boy, and will be for quite some time, since his driving training will be done by me and all his show prep and whatnot still is, too. It's not like I'm going to be sitting in some foreign country just writing the checks. I'm also a big believer that everything you ever do to/around a young horse teaches that horse something; every handwalk or ground drive he goes on with me will make him a lot easier and more reliable for Hannah and Marisa. Just today, for example, Quattro met FIRE for the first time - there was a cookout at the barn, and he nearly had a meltdown at the smoke and crackling wood, but I managed to talk him out of it, and taught him to walk past it quietly and calmly. That's one MORE future potential carriage driving wreck averted!

So that's it really - I'm hanging the boots up, and will watch with great pride and excitement as Amy, Hannah and Marisa take my little Tony the Pony to the next level.

The adventure continues!

Quattro's First Horse Show!

2009-11-22T08:48:00.002-05:00

I am now more than halfway convinced that Saddlebreds have "horse show" embedded deep in their collective unconscious the same way other horses have "snakes are predators" collectively embedded in theirs. At his very first horse show, Quattro had his game face on the WHOLE time. He was an absolute pro, and tried his very best for us. I'm so proud!!

Our barn took (if memory serves) 8 horses, ranging from baby greenies at first show to seasoned professionals. The horse stabled next to Q had never even been in a stall before - THAT's how green we're talking. Quattro has already long since given me to understand that pasture board in the rain is NOT his idea of a good time, so he marched right into a strange new stall in a strange new barn with a look on his face that said, "Well, THIS is more like it!" He tested the bed by having a nice roll and calmly settled down to eat hay and spent most of the rest of the two days attempting to look sufficiently cute to cadge edibles off any passing human:

For those of you who are Saddlebred people and may not be familiar with this scenario, I'll just point out that H-J shows at Wills Park are busy. And I mean BIZ-ZY!! You really haven't had the full-on Wills Park Experience until you've seen all five rings going at once, with people trying to mow each other down in the warmup rings while trying NOT to crash into the infamous TREE in the lower one; until you've had to school at close on midnight and again before six a.m. just so you can work the young ones quietly and safely; until you've had to share the warmup rings w/ the maintenance crew on tractors trying to drag the footing (who were, actually, really, REALLY nice and gave us every opportunity they could to move from ring to ring while they dragged the ones we'd just left - THANK YOU GUYS, you are such a huge part of what makes these shows work!).

This is only one pic but it should give you the general idea: almost every square foot of space anywhere on the grounds has a horse parked on it!

Why are they all standing around doing nothing, you Saddlebred people might ask? Because here is the key difference between H-J shows and Saddlebred shows. H-J shows do NOT run on time. Not ever. Not even close. Trainers have conflicts from ring to ring, so Ring A will be on hold while Trainer A coaches students in Ring B, then Trainer A rushes to Ring A and Ring B is on hold. And so on. And so forth. World without end, amen!

So the one CRUCIAL thing that a young H-J horse can learn at its first show really isn't to perform well in the ring: that, believe it or not, is almost beside the point. The most crucial skill for a putative hunter horse is learning to Hurry Up And Wait. Because that break listed in the prize list as absolutely positively GOING to happen at 9:00 a.m. so you better be ready really isn't going to happen until around noon... As indeed proved to be the case.

If there was one thing I would have expected Q to have problems with, it would have been the Hurry Up And Wait. He's a Twinkletoes at the best of times and really can't keep his feet still; I really thought asking the lad to hang around for hours between four scary rings in a crowd of peeps and heese might stretch his baby greenie brain to the breaking point.

Ummmm, NOT:

I honestly was more pleased with that than almost anything else he did at the whole show! It bodes well: sooner or later he'll learn to be like HRH Avery, who upon arrival at any in-gate anywhere in America would simply happily settle down for a snooze.

Quattro also got to learn about that other staple of Planet H-J, The Last-Minute Add. You Saddlebred folks are lucky - you go to a show, you enter your division, it runs when you think it's going to run, you show in it, you're done. On Planet H-J, not so much. We had intended to show Q only in Green Horse Walk-Trot (ideal place to school a baby greenie). But he kept his wits about him and was so well-behaved that his talented young catch-rider Hannah (brave girl!) and I decided, and convinced Trainer Amy, to put him in for another flat class where he had to canter! So horsie thinks he's done but he's really not; instead he gets another x minutes/hours of Hurry Up And Wait practice while Owner races to Show Office to do The Last Minute Add and get the add slip back to Ring B. Then he goes in again.

Quattro would have been completely forgiven, in my opinion, for concluding that this Horse Show Stuff Is Nucking Futs and simply going on strike.

Ummmm, NOT:

Like I said: He tried his brave little Saddlebred heart out. The thing that tickled me the most was that my twinkletoed little greenie who really CAN'T stand still at home not to save his life marched right into the lineup in both of his (huge) classes and did the most perfect dressage halt there has ever been (Anky, you listening?) and the feet did NOT move!!

See? I can prove it! Even Trainer Amy was laughing at him at this point; he was just TOO perfect:

OK, so his classes were huge (about 20) and he made a baby greenie mistake in each one - a teenytiny buck in the first class and a teenytiny wheelie in the second, so we were out of the running, but you know what? He stayed sane, he stayed safe, he obeyed orders, and nobody got hurt, maimed or killed. And that is truly the result you want for a young horse at its first show.

I have, at this point, to give a shoutout to the other members of Team Quattro, who made all this possible:

Trainer Amy (seen here watching a student while doing the Hurry Up And Wait for her own class):

I am so very lucky to have found a trainer who likes Saddlebreds, understands the mentality, and is willing to take the time to work with the rather unusual set of issues the breed presents. THANK YOU AMY!!

Catch-rider Hannah, an exceptionally talented junior, who gave Quattro a superbly intelligent, tactical ride with the goal of just keeping him forward, light and consistent and staying safe, and who managed to fool a whole show ground into thinking the little horse actually has canter leads, when the reality was he'd been cantering all of three weeks, really didn't, and had never cantered in a group, let alone in a group of 20! Hannah is a young lady who is smart enough to realize that giving a baby greenie the perfect ride at its first show is way more important than winning ribbons. I'd go on and on about her graciousness and good sportsmanship, but I think the smile of accomplishment says it all. THANK YOU, HANNAH!

Last but not least - let us not forget the Horse Show Parents. Not just Hannah's - although I think they are pretty special folks for allowing their daughter to catch-ride a baby greenie of a breed that has the rep on Planet H-J of being "psycho"! - but ALL the horse show moms and dads out there who devote so much time and effort to all these wonderful kids and pretty much keep this sport going. This pic kinda says it all too:

In summary, I think we'd have to call this horse show a raging, roaring success.

Quattro, like all good Saddlebreds, is now on winter vacation and will be back in training in the spring.

The adventure continues!

Quattro's off to his first show! Did I forget anything??

2009-11-11T19:54:00.002-05:00

Long time, no blog! Been a bit busy, since Quattro has been away getting started under saddle and it's a bit of a hike there. But I'm pleased to announce Trainer Amy has determined he is ready for his very first HORSE SHOW!! It's at Wills Park, which will be familiar to the ASB peeps as the home of the superb Olde Milton ASB show series, so excellently run by ASHAG peeps John Goda and Paula Yeska.

Sadly, however, Quattro is not quite ready for THAT much prime time yet (he has never hand-galloped in a group, for openers, and that is one experiment we will not be trying for the first time with Mr. Go Mo' Faster in the show ring with a bunch of horses and riders we don't know!). Thus, we are doing the Rolling Hills Saddle Club show the day before Olde Milton.

As of right now, Quattro is scheduled to do the Green Horse Division, which is an awesome way to start a baby greenie. It consists of 3 back-to-back flat classes in the Hunter Ring: the first class is walk-trot; then if he seems sane, he'll flat at all 3 gaits in the second, and if he is REALLY worked in and REALLY behaving himself, one of Trainer Amy's team of exceptionally talented Interscholastic Equestrian Association juniors will ride him in the third class, which is a Hunter Seat Equitation class. I just love being at an eventing barn, where Da Kidz are up for crazy escapades like this!

If I seem unreasonably overexcited about Q's first show for someone my age, have mercy upon me: remember that for the last 12 years I haven't had a showable horse. HRH Avery, my late Thoroughbred, was the best horse I have ever had or ever will have, and I don't begrudge him one single millisecond of that twelve years of retirement - he earned every bit of it and more. I could never repay that horse for what he gave me in a million years. But the bottom line is that he was so expensive to maintain that I simply couldn't afford another horse who was showable, and I've been sidelined for WAY too long! I'm over the moon that Quattro will round out his three months of under saddle training with his first-ever horse show. After that, he goes to my friend Marisa's boarding barn to take the winter more or less off, start learning to trail ride, and finish growing; he'll go back to Trainer Amy in the spring.

We leave for Wills on Friday (thank you to my wonderful attorneys for giving me the day off, in case they're reading this, which I bet they are), but as always when this many heese are shipping out (it was 10, last I heard), it will be a mad rush, so I've already started packing.

Here's what I've got so far:

Buckets: feed, water & grooming

Tack: Halter, leather lead, Q's saddle, pad, and every girth and bridle I have in the house (lots) b/c some of the students are low on tack, and we may be shifting stuff around.

Blankets: Lightweight waterproof turnout, show scrim, Irish knit, fleece dress sheet, waterproof quarter sheet.

Protective: head bumper, pillow wraps (thank you Lori from Sunkissed Acres!), standing wraps, tail wrap.

Feed: Way too much, since I'm bringing feed for him at his new place as well.

Meds/Show/Grooming Supplies: Brush box, Braiding box (I've changed my mind and am not planning to braid him, but someone else in the barn may want to braid their horse and I've got both bay & chestnut stuff in there I can share), Vetrolin (legal here, it's nonrated), baby wipes, Vetrolin Shine, WISK detergent (great for white feet and silver tails), creme rinse, Cowboy Magic Mane/Tail Conditioner, hair spray, and - in case of emergencies - Bute, wound cream, a few gauze pads, a Vetwrap roll and a roll of Elastikon.

Stable Supplies: rub rags, cross ties, portable tack racks, bucket heater, clippers, extra halter & lead, lunge line; notebook w/ copies of class list, his Coggins & his papers.

Still need to get a baby thermometer, a big sponge and an outdoor power cord; forgot 'em last trip!

If you notice anything glaringly missing from the list, feel free to chip in! Tomorrow night I do laundry, gas the truck up, and pack ME, and then we're off to Baby's First Horse Show!

The adventure continues (and how). If you see a chestnut Saddlebred careening down Georgia 400, Tweet me; it's mine! :-P

This Little Pony Ain't Playin'.

2009-10-22T22:14:00.002-04:00

Well... So much for that dressage career. Quattro will, as planned, compete at Intro A/B next year while he trains for other things. He will then go and DO those other things.

The reason for this can be found here. If you can't stomach watching the video (I've tried several times and can't finish watching it), then read the accompanying article.

Sorry, but I have no intention of playing on the same playing field as anyone who thinks the video I linked to does not constitute horse abuse of the first magnitude.

KNOWING that your abusive training tactics have turned your horse's tongue BLUE with tissue hypoxia, SHOVING IT BACK IN HIS MOUTH and carrying on with your torture for TWO MORE HOURS does not make you a Great Rider, a Great Trainer, or a Champion. It makes you a loser, an a*shole, and an embarrassment to the sport. It brings your sport into such disrepute that, frankly, I want no part of it.

After watching the video, I felt a compelling need to go hug my horse. So after work, I drove 100 miles out of my way up to the trainer's and did exactly that. On the way there, I reminded myself of one of the best pieces of advice I ever got, which came from a fellow COTHer: "The horse doesn't care if he moves up the levels."

It's very true. And I don't think I do either, any more. All I really want out of my equestrian life, at this late date, is to have Quattro stay EXACTLY as he is right now: a happy, healthy little horse who enjoys life and likes his work, and hears my beat-up old car rattling into the driveway, trots up to the fence rail, and stands up happily nickering and making "Saddlebred ears".

So USDF, you're not getting my money. GMOs, you're not getting it either. USEF - Tony the Pony won't be competing at rated dressage events. It's time for the FEI to grow a set and put a stop to this. It's time for USEF and the USDF to take a stand. It may, indeed, even be time to start thinking about and planning a massive protest at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky next summer. But that's another story for another blog. If you want to be in on the planning stages of the campaign, ultimatedressage.com is where you want to be.

The adventure continues.

Quattro now has a YouTube channel.

2009-09-17T20:33:00.004-04:00

I just thought it would be interesting to kind of collate all of his videos in one place, so I created Quattro his own video channel. They're not in the right order, but you're all horse people, you'll figure it out! The commentary kinda tells you what was going on at the time each video was shot. Sadly I doubt if I'll be able to add any more this week b/c trainer will be off at a show, but I'll post some more under saddle as soon as I get it.

After I was done loading all the vids, I kind of wished that I had some BAD Quattro video. Watching the vids makes it look as if the training process was easy and effortless, which it most definitely was NOT: remember the 3 months of "Me Want Go Mo' FASTER" and him belting around with his nose in the air Looky-Lou'ing at everything, while I gritted my teeth and kept trying to get him to RELAX, slow DOWN, and use his back and neck? I sure do! :-P

Unfortunately, on days when he was in "Go Mo' Faster!" mode, the absolute LAST thing I felt like doing was trying to free up a hand to try to shoot video of it.

But for first-time visitors or those who need reminding, when you think that we've managed to go from HERE... (TOTALLY inverted - and he was actually way worse than that on occasion, trust me!)

...to HERE... which is far more acceptable...

...it's clear we're on the right track.

The adventure continues.

Quattro's Second Ride!

2009-09-05T22:10:00.004-04:00

I missed the first one but today I got to see Quattro's second ride. I was thrilled. He was awesome.

I got there early and had a few extra minutes so I got him out and groomed him and then took him for a hand-walk. One of the main reasons I picked this place to send him is that it's awesome for despooking. There is plenty for a young horse to gawk and gape at, and I figure if he can keep his wits about him and stay focused when there are packs of dogs and herds of miniature goats under his feet and free-range chickens flying up in his face and tractors and skid-steers and sawing and hammering (they're building a barn and working on arena footing), then the relatively tranquil confines of Wills Park and Tri-State will hold no fears for the lad! :-P So I just led him around, let him spook at all the jumps and see the other heese and check whether the flowers in the flower box were edible (they're not) and introduced him to the skid-steer and tractor and by that time his Boss Lady was ready.

I've never had to pick a colt-started before so that was kind of scary, and I'm vastly relieved I picked the right one! Her background goes Western to Eventing to Dressage, which is perfect. I love the fact that she's not rushing him: she took a good 2-3 weeks doing ground work (and, whisper it, has got him cantering in the round pen with all his legs coming down in the right order!) She's working him in a bosal so he doesn't get backed off the bit. She has done Saddlebred sport horses before, so she knows that's an issue. I also like that she keeps the sessions short: there are plenty of reasons not to rush it with Quattro, some physical and some mental. The calmer we all keep it, the better off he will be in the long run.

I'm going to scoot off and do some surfing now - Q's Boss Lady has had some weekends open up so we're looking for schooling shows and I told her I'd see what's around. For your further entertainment, however - here's the vid. Check the soundtrack if you thought I was kidding about the chickens and the tractors. :-) Don't you just LOVE the relaxed walk? After 6 months with me at the other end of the rope, Quattro's pretty accustomed to being thrown in at the deep end of Scary Situations and being expected to be a grownup about it, and right here is where it pays off.

The adventure continues. Under saddle!

Empty Nest Syndrome!

2009-09-02T19:36:00.003-04:00

As some already know, Quattro shipped out to Madame Trainer 2 weeks ago to be started under saddle. Those who've been following this blog from the beginning and recall how he and one of his girlfriends took TWO DAYS to load coming down here may be as impressed as I was by how professionally he stepped RIGHT on up! I didn't even have time for a pre-load pic, so you'll just have to trust me that he looked adorably professional and sporty with his royal blue leg wraps and his "hat" (i.e. leather head bumper - I'm paranoid and always use one) - the latter of which he had only learned to wear a couple days before!

I was really lucky to find a sport horse trainer who has worked with Saddlebreds before AND likes them. Likes them so much, in fact, that during the week between my telling her Quattro was coming and her picking him up, she bought ANOTHER one to use in her lesson program! :-) The initial idea was to turn the two new ASBs out together, but that was a train wreck. They pretty much hated each other on sight, and Quattro, who has been, let's recall, a thoroughly indulged "only" horse for several months now, was determined to gain the upper hand, so he kept running the poor aged ASB gelding up and down the fence. That ended that. Q is now turned out with one single mare, is doing well, and should be backed this week.

Me, I'm suffering a little bit of empty nest syndrome. When I got Quattro, I went from 0 to 60 in about 2.2 milliseconds; now I find I've gone from 60 to 0 in 2.2 milliseconds. :-P I luuuuuuuuurrrrrrve sleeping "in" on Sunday mornings, but getting home from work at night is a bit of a drag.

Hence the blog update with nothing to blog!

As soon as he's backed I'll get some pics.

The adventure continues!

Interesting ASB props from a non-ASB farrier. And Question.

2009-08-17T20:05:00.003-04:00

As some of you know, Q leaves for the trainer this coming Friday, so I've been busy organizing, cleaning, packing, figuring out what stuff needs to go with and what does not (HOW can a young horse I've only owned since the end of January have SO MANY blankets already?? And why do I feel like he still needs more? It's the hunter princess in me...) He's going to an eventing barn for 3 months, but she doesn't have her barn built yet, so he'll be living out (which makes me nervous) - hopefully it'll be OK while the weather is mild, but depending on how he's shaping up after that and what the barn status is, he'll either stay there, come back to his warm howse to grow, ground drive and trail ride for the winter, or go to a dressage or H/J barn for further evaluation and training. (I know: THAT narrows it down!)

Which isn't really the point of this blog. I do tend to rattle on a bit.

The thing I did want to pass on was this: my excellent farrier, who mainly does the Western breeds and the 2 small H/J barns in the area with the usual array of TBs, warmbloods and ponies, came out to trim Q one last time before we move (unfortunately) out of his service area. As we were taking our leave, he paid Q a very nice compliment.

He said: "You know, I wish EVERY hoss I worked on had as good feet as this one. This li'l hoss has the best feet I've seen in 20 years."

I said: "When was the last time you did a Saddlebred who had never seen the show ring?

He laughed. "Twenty years."

And Quattro really does have good feet! Remember, I'm coming off a lifetime of TBs - long toe, short heel, thin wall, thin sole, flat-footed, prone to infection/cracking/chipping, MUST be shod if you even want one to cross a gravel driveway at a decorous walk with a rider on its back. So Quattro kind of spoils me. These feet just don't wear out and they don't wear down! He's been on gravel and blacktop and hard ground all summer; I expected to be putting shoes on the front long before now. He had ONE trim where it had been rainy and he was standing in mud a lot and got a little mushy and I thought "Mayyyybe time for shoes..." But I discussed it with my farrier, who convinced me to wait a month and sure enough, Q's been fine ever since.

Please note that I am NOT what the COTHers like to call a "Barefoot Nazi" ("Horses weren't MEANT to wear shoes! They should run wild and free and BAREFOOT! Anything else is ABUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE!!!"), but neither do I see any sense in putting shoes on a horse unless the horse presents a valid reason for it. Given my TB background, this is the longest I've ever had a horse in training that was still barefoot and not giving me any real reason to think he might need shoes.

Hence The Question: In YOUR discipline (whatever it may be), how far up the competition levels have you actually seen a barefoot horse compete? In the hunters, I don't think I've ever seen one at 3'6" but I've seen plenty at 2'6". (I also THINK I have a recollection of a huge, plate-footed Perch mare doing the Level 5 jumpers barefoot at Conyers one year, but I may be projecting.) What I'm wondering is, where is the sensible cutoff point?

Just curious. Reports from your discipline would be most appreciated!

Back to tack cleaning. The adventure continues!

He's GROWINNNNGGG!!!! :-)

2009-07-29T22:00:00.002-04:00

HE'S GROWINNNNNG. (ThankyouJesusThankyouJesusThankyouJesus!) As of right this minute, Quattro is still a Small Junior (in the making!) at 15.3. But possibly not for long... Just in the last couple of weeks since that last pic and video were taken, he's gotten all leggy and gangly and butt-high again! I finally remembered to buy a measuring tape and yep, he's grown an INCH and looks like he might keep doing it for a little while longer.

So I probably get to kiss the notion of that luxury townhouse in Florida goodbye, but the up side is I probably get to keep him for ME to ride. :-)))

Keep it coming, Q!

Still auditioning trainers to start him under saddle in the fall and still having "interesting" discussions with the lad about boots. The adventure continues.

These boots were made for...

2009-07-26T10:38:00.003-04:00

...killing Saddlebreds. Apparently.

It has been a wild, woolly and adventurous couple of weeks on Planet Quattro. Trainer that Q is probably heading to in the fall wanted me to make sure he wears boots/bandages calmly on all 4 legs. Well, silly me; I didn't THINK that was going to be a problem...!! He wears boots on his front legs without any issues at all, other than garden-variety Twinkletoes "let's just GO!" stuff. And I know perfectly well that horses can get a little weird about hind boots, but Godalmighty! Can you say "screaming plunging kicking bucking UTTER hysteria"?? I sure can.

I've always started horses in hind boots by putting them on in the stall at feeding time (and then bailing the heck out of there). But Quattro's stall has concrete walls, so I didn't feel comfortable creating a scenario where he might want to kick the walls hard. Good thing I took that into account, because the first time he had them on, if I had done it in the stall, he would for SURE have pulled a Barbaro, probably on BOTH hind legs...

With the stall out of the question, and no safe place to handgraze a horse who might get loose (another method of introducing hind boots I've used successfully in the past), I ended up, after much ponderance, putting them on him for the first time in the indoor. NOT ideal, but it was the safest option of those available: strongest fences, least stuff for a horse to get hung up on. He was fine for about 3 turns on the lunge line but then, after he realized the hind boots were on and were NOT coming off, he just stopped dead and kicked and reared and fly-bucked and sunfished and then tried to bolt. I reeled him in, took the lunge line off and decided to let him "run it off". Boy, did he! He was so wired and pissed off he actually started to CHARGE me a couple of times! Twenty minutes later, dripping with sweat, he finally condescended to let me catch him, but was still kicking back and cow-kicking.

I consoled him, turned him back loose and went to get a HELMET before attempting to remove them. I didn't get to be this old by being stupid with a baby greenie.

So we've been doing boots on all fours every other night. I've been doing my little variation of clicker training: you stand while I put the boot on, you get a cookie. Hoof moves, you get a spank with the crop. One cookie per boot, including the fronts just so he gets the correct behavior reinforced.

He's been such a wreck that there really hasn't been any option of advancing his training. Right now, it's more a question of "Let's see if we can get all 4 boots on, lunge you for a couple minutes each way, and get them OFF again without anybody getting hurt, maimed or killed."

I'm pleased to report success in this regard. :-) This morning he was actually pretty good, with only ONE violent kick per hind leg putting them on, and another getting them off. He lunged quietly and obediently with them on, and that was a first. But I'm still wearing the helmet.

Next step - shipping boots. Won't THAT be fun!

The adventure continues.

Pics and Vid

2009-07-19T20:47:00.003-04:00

Most recent pic:

And a prospective trainer wanted to see Quattro moving au naturel with just a halter on, so here it is. Please note that the ground there is pretty hard and uneven; he's just trying to avoid rough spots because he's barefoot.

Sporty Spice Gets a New "Do"!

2009-07-11T21:29:00.006-04:00

Now that we have (FINALLY!) attained that elusive goal, Relaxation, and Quattro is balancing himself well on a circle in a nice relaxed hunter frame... As he is here...

...It is time to think about giving the Q a new "do" which is more appropriate to his new station in life.

I've got to admit: I have had THE. WORST. TIME. trying to bring myself to pull that Saddlebred mane! It's the weirdest psychological hangup ever. Anyone who knows me knows that when I get a new Thoroughbred in off the track or off the layup farm, the VERY first thing I do is pull the mane! So why on earth have I been standing next to Quattro in the cross-ties for several nights in a row, scissors/pulling comb/clippers in hand, then putting them back in my pocket and thinking "Uhhhhhh, maybe tomorrow night"????

Bee-zarre.

But I conducted a strict psychological inventory on myself and finally decided the reason I haven't been able to bring myself to pull the mane is that I have wanted a nice Saddlebred for sooooooooooooooo long (decades in fact!), and now that I have one, he really does look awfully cute and perky racing around in his paddock with his My Little Pony mane flowing in the breeze.

Nevertheless, he is going off to be backed this fall; he will be in a sport horse environment, where it will be expected that he already know how to stand for pulling, thinning and braiding and that his mane already be properly done; so it is definitely time to start teaching him about the Mane Thang!

I bit the bullet and did it tonight.

Now, STANDING is not Quattro's favorite thing to do. One of his countless nicknames is "Twinkletoes". That should tell you a lot. But I intentionally picked the hottest part of the day to tackle this project, and he did stand long enough for me to get a "BEFORE" shot:

As you can see, that's really NOT how you want to send your horse off to a pro hunter barn!

So away we went. Q is still more than a bit head-shy, so I did it kind of backwards, pulling and thinning from the withers UP the neck. Much to my relief, he really didn't seem to mind the pulling and thinning at all. I've had Sensitive TeeeBees before who just couldn't tolerate it, and you had to rub Anbesol on the roots or spray Chloraseptic on them, which is truly gross and a real hassle - I've even heard of horses you had to tranq to pull their manes, but I've never owned one. Pleased to report I don't own one now, either!

I got maybe one-third of the way up the neck and Q decided enough of this STANDING stuff was ENOUGH. A lot of pros will just "let be" at that point and let the young horse go with one third shortened and thinned and two thirds still straggly. Unfortunately I am not that patient. So I decided to persevere with a short cut by using scissors and those wonderful Wahl Pocket Pro clippers (I'm addicted to those things, and yes please, we WOULD like a product endorsement!).

NOT the world's best idea with a head-shy Twinkletoes. True to form, he promptly proceeded to spook at a barn cat, jerking his head up right when I was starting to trim. Whoopsie! :-P

This, chilluns, is why you NEVER decide to pull the mane the week before a horse show. You always give yourself lots of extra time for it to grow out so you can fix these types of mistakes and finish the thinning - which you don't want to do a lot of at once, or horsie will end up with a Mohawk as the underhairs grow out.

So, anyway, he's got a chunk missing, which will grow out enough to be invisible by fall; but in the meantime, I must admit he does look much more civilized in his "AFTER" shot:

Plan for tomorrow is to finish the thinning; then he should look moderately stylee! Except for the chunk, of course; but that'll grow.

The adventure continues.

When your Smart ASB thinks he can learn to use TOOLS...

2009-07-08T22:03:00.002-04:00

When your Smart ASB thinks he can learn to use TOOLS... things can go to You-Know-Where in a You-Know-What real quick.

Honestly, the stuff they can think of to get into that you never imagined!!

*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*

I was in a little bit of a rush to feed Quattro this morning because I was late for work. He's on night turnout, so he is stalled during the day. He gets breakfast and then a "dessert" of soaked alfalfa cubes. I kind of halfway thought the alfalfa cubes were insufficiently soaked, but didn't do anything about it; heck, they splashed when they hit the feed bucket - close enough - so I dumped 'em and left for a full day's work.

Well, apparently Quattro agreed with me that the alfalfa cubes were insufficiently soaked. When I got home this evening and was cleaning his stall, I checked the auto-waterer as usual, and nearly dropped dead from sheer horror.

Q apparently took a couple of dry-ish alfalfa cubes in his mouth, carried them over to the auto-waterer, and dropped them into it to soak them some more.

Anyone who has ever fed soaked alfalfa cubes knows exactly what happened. For those who've never fed them, suffice to know they expand to at least four times their dry size...

They expanded all right. So much so that they soaked up all the water in the auto waterer and jammed the paddle so he couldn't push it down to get any more. Poor little Tony the Pony must not have had ANY water from about 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.!!

*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*

The good news is, he's fine. Eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, no colic. But I don't want to run the risk of THAT kind of luck holding. Everybody hates hauling water and cleaning buckets; I hate it too, but he is going to have to have a water bucket in his stall. And a less slack Human who CHECKS the dadgum 'falfy cubes!!

The adventure continues... hopefully WITH aqua vitae this time.

Do Saddlebreds Have Consciences? :-)

2009-07-07T21:05:00.003-04:00

Sometimes you could ALMOST swear that Saddlebreds have consciences. As in, guilty ones that make them overcompensate later. Of course I know they don't; of course I know I'm madly anthropomorphizing. But as wretchedly naughty as Quattro was the other night, that's how PERFECT he was tonight. It was pretty funny.

I think the other night he was just overtired and his nerves were shot. I also think they're so hypersensitive to our moods that they pick it up when We Are Not Amused, and they want to please us so much that they try all the harder next time. I admit I kinda reinforce that thought with Quattro a little bit by withholding the extra specials when he's been a scheisskopf! If he does what he's supposed to do and tries his best, he gets heaps of praise and petting and extra cookies and a good long hand graze in the hay field where the grass is nice and long. If not - not. I'm also trying to teach him something a little more subtle which the late HRH Avery unquestionably knew: If you aim for, and attain, absolute perfection, and don't give the human one single thing to nitpick at, the human will cut the lesson short. HRH Avery knew this so well that it was like a big game to him: "I'll be BETTER than you, I will, I will!" He liked me to mess up so that he could be perfect and feel all superior. :-P Which is good: I *want* Quattro to be better than me. And Quattro is a sharp kid; it really hasn't taken him long to add all this up.

The piece of REALLY good news this evening falls, I suppose, into the "I think he's got it - by George, I think he's got it!" category. Houston, we have - RELAXATION. FINALLY. He is FINALLY going around nicely in the long lines at a pleasant medium trot, long and low, reaching for contact, and not acting like he wants to win the Road Horse To Wagon class at Lexington. He's done it five times in a row now, and even at three times I was still wondering if it was a coincidence. It's not. He's got it. And now we can move his training along.

He also has given himself a new job around the place: Chief Cat Herder. When I think back to how terrified he was of the barn cats when he first got here, and watch him in the paddock now chasing them calmly but firmly OUT of his paddock, I get a good giggle out of it. He actually did it at my request tonight, twice; we were out for a hand-graze and one of the barn cats was tangling in between my feet trying to play with the longe line, and I kept tripping. So I jokingly moved aside and said "Quattro, could you chase the kitty off, please?" He did. I said my biggest hugest "Gooooooood boooooy!" and when the cat came back (of course), I said again "Quattro, get rid of the cat for me, please" and he did it again! Now, THAT may have been a coincidence. Remind me to test this theory again some time.

The adventure continues.

WHO's yer Boss Mare, Quattro? WHAT's My Name? Repeat That.

2009-07-05T19:59:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm sorry to report that poor Quattro is SO deep in the doghouse, he's not sure if he's EVER getting out. He even got threatened with the Fall Sale (not that I meant it, but HE doesn't have to know that!).

Most of the time Quattro is so well-behaved that you forget he's still young and only half-broke. You do this, frankly, at your peril, because that's exactly the day he's going to wake up on the wrong side of the bed and start a riot.

Which is pretty much what happened this morning when I went to bring him up off night turnout. He was probably sleep-deprived/stressed from the fireworks, as well as hungry and wet owing to an early morning rain, which doesn't put him in the most charming mood.

Well, he came out of that paddock in a sulky mood, wanting to go where HE wanted to go, and raging when I wouldn't let him. First he wanted to go graze in the hay field, which he knows perfectly well he's only permitted to do when he's on his way out at night; then he spotted something going on in the yearling paddock that he wanted to go investigate, when he knows perfectly well he's NEVER allowed to hang out at the yearling paddock. (I even work him outside it once a week or so, and expect him to keep 100% of his attention on ME; THAT's how much he's NOT allowed to even express interest in, let alone go near, the yearling paddock.) There are things I have thinner boundaries about than I should, but neither of these two are on that list. They are firmly, consistently non-negotiable.

So basically we had a spinning, rearing, striking war all the way up the driveway. I didn't have a whip but, thank God, did have him on a longe line with a stud chain, so essentially we longed in spirals all the way up the drive, with lots of halts and backing up as well. Every time he refused to walk quietly, he got sent out to work again and then halted and backed. He. Was. Livid. Then he'd try it again. And so on.

I finally got him up and into his stall and fed him breakfast. I went back in to get his hay net to fill, spoke to him to let him know it was me (his feed bucket is in a position where his butt is toward the door), and here is what he did: he turned around and looked at the sound of my voice; SAW that it was me; then pinned his ears and let fly at me with a back hoof when I asked him to move over. He connected, too; caught me in the rib cage, albeit not hard enough to do any damage.

Well, he got read the Riot Act at that point; because that was deliberate. It would be one thing if I had walked in unexpectedly and startled him, but no: I did exactly what I do every single morning; brought him in, gave him his feed, went back out to put the bucket down, went back in, spoke to him, and asked him to move so I could take his hay bag. And he LOOKED right at me and then took AIM.

I keep a whip next to his stall door for a very good reason. That is simply not acceptable behavior, and he has to learn that it's not. The training axiom is that you have 3 seconds to administer punishment. So I admit it, he got a couple of good ones. Then I left him to his breakfast and to contemplate the error of his ways. After breakfast I lunged him for a few more minutes in the indoor and worked him respecting my space, just to be REAL clear on who Boss Mare is. By that point (he really DOES have a good brain) he understood he had truly Gone Too Far, and was most apologetic. When he was licking and chewing, I gave him a cookie and a pat and put him back to bed with his hay and his alfalfa cubes.

Sometimes he stays in a snit all day; there have been times when my groom turned him out in the morning and he gave trouble, and then gave me trouble again at the other end of the day. So when I went up to feed him this evening, I did so with whip in hand. Luckily for both of us, he remembered the result of the morning's riot act and moved ALL the way over at the first request, for which he received much praise and patting. Fair's fair, after all.

I guess I'm racking this one up to a 3 y/o "headdesk moment" - at least for now - but the pure deliberate *nastiness* of it really ticked me off.

The adventure continues. With prejudice!

Quattro's Fourth of July Redux.

2009-07-04T23:38:00.003-04:00

Well, gentle readers, Quattro's reaction to the Scary Fireworks tonight can be summed up thus:

Looks terrified, doesn't he? Very worrying. I think I'd better try some Ace next time! :-)

I'm actually grateful - as it turns out - for the pregame show last night. It wasn't nearly as severe as tonight's, when it seemed like the whole valley had everything short of M80s and let them off for hours. It's kind of winding down now, and Q doesn't even seem to need my company any more; he's off the other side of the paddock, hangin' with his friends the cows.

I'm SO glad he's such a smart pony. And remember, kidz, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure when it comes to horse training.

The adventure continues tomorrow, but for tonight I get to sleep in my own bed!

I Slept With A Horse. :-)

2009-07-04T09:54:00.004-04:00

Y'all know how the Fourth of July is in the South, right? There are, as someone posted on COTH, states near me where it's legal to buy just about anything short of an ICBM - and boy, do they! And then they let them off. Near me.

I've always had OTTBs, and they tend to be remarkably sanguine about stuff like this, particularly if they are coming off the claiming/fairs circuits, where fireworks are entirely likely to figure already in their world view as "stupid humans doing stupid human stuff which need not concern me".

A 3 y/o Saddlebred, on the other hand...!

In my neighborhood, the Fourth of July pre-game show started last night at dusk. I'd had a long day driving to/from Knoxville to look at a horse trailer (didn't buy it) and was pretty worn out, sitting in the living room quietly reading.

Quattro's paddock is right up next to my house. My general rule of thumb is that if I can *hear* him galloping, it's time to go investigate. There were 2 sets of fireworks going off on opposite sides of the valley we live in. And yep, galloping and screaming.

Quattro has a good brain. He really does. He was sweaty and nervous and wild-eyed, but when he saw me come out, he came galloping over to the gate and stood with me - not quietly, but at least not frenzied to the point of saying "No" to the horse cookies!

I am blessed with a fairly relaxed and phlegmatic personality which is very useful in circumstances where a young horse is convinced it's having a crisis. It took 20 minutes or so, but I was able to talk him down off the ledge; he relaxed enough to have a sip of water and graze a little bit - but only near me.

I went up and sat on my back porch, one side of which constitutes the fence line of his paddock. He was fine with that, but stayed grazing very close by. Every time I went back in the house for any reason, even for a couple of seconds, the screaming hysteria would start right back up again.

I thought about putting him away in the barn, but decided that might actually be worse, since he'd be the only horse inside, and I bet the noise actually echoes a good bit more inside the concrete. I didn't have any Ace; that was ruled out.

Well... Sigh... Whatcha gonna do. I slept with my horse. Brought the spare air mattress out, fired it up, used HRH Avery's old wool dress sheet and a turnout for blankets, and camped out for the night.

I'm not complaining. It was actually rather nice. Full moon, nice and cool, no bugs after I turned the porch light off. My mostly-feral cat, Liam - who does have friendly moods, but not often - decided it would be nice to join me, so he got under the covers and found a comfy spot. Quattro was fine so long as his Boss Mare was present - though, interestingly, he would NOT stray very far away from me at all, and hugged the rail right near me until the fireworks stopped. I dozed off here and there but made sure to call to him quietly every time I woke back up.

When the fireworks did finally stop, around 1:00 a.m., frankly I was enjoying the whole thing so much that I decided to hang out. Pretty much every horse I have ever owned has, at some point, given me the necessity of sleeping out with them overnight, usually due to colic. If the causative event is sufficiently low-key, it can actually provide a lot of insight into your horse's routine and what s/he gets up to when your back is turned. I find this informative.

What I learned about Quattro's routine was:

* He grazes his paddock in big, sweeping, clockwise circles. This gives him the opportunity to visit the cows on the Cow Side; stop and have a poop in the Poop Corner; stop and have a drink at the trough; stop and have a doze in the Sleeping Corner; stop and have a pee in the Pee Corner; and repeat. As you can see, Quattro is meticulously organized!

* The reason he insists on having his "Night Light" (back porch light) on - which my fellow Twitterers will know I've been puzzling over for the last couple of weeks - is this: He likes to doze off on his feet with his back toward the Night Light, which is affixed to the wall of the house where it abuts into his paddock. Positioning himself thus means that (a) no predators (real or imagined!) can attack him from behind, because of the house wall; and (b) The circle of light at his head gives him better sight of any perceived predators that might approach from the other three sides. This makes a HECK of a lot of sense for a horse who is turned out alone without benefit of a herd.

Clever boy.

And so we passed a peaceful night. I slept with my horse and gained some useful information!

More of the same tonight, I would imagine. The adventure continues.

Broadening Quattro's Horizons.

2009-06-14T21:09:00.002-04:00

Well, it's kind of hard to teach a young horse not to run with the herd if the herd don' run! Silly mares wouldn't budge. Too hot. Too lazy. So much for that plan. Another time...

Quattro did, however, get his horizons broadened quite considerably today - and took it all so calmly that, to be honest, I was pretty shocked. The 70-acre pasture we explored today has plenty of scary sights and things to get a young horse all excited. Cows; two herds of horses in adjacent pastures; the Scary Ditch with the bridge to be crossed; the outdoor arena which is used for barrel racing and has, um, barrels in it, as well as a judge's booth and bleachers. And of course ALL those wide open spaces, which surely must tempt a keen young horse whose motto is "Go. Mo'. Faster!"

Luckily we were able to take one of his girlfrens along for the first few minutes and Quattro was focused on that. It was his first up-close-and-personal with a horse who has a rider on his back, and apparently he is now over his terror of same; he stood right by while the rider mounted, and didn't even flinch!

I took the precaution of leading him down to the outdoor rather than ground driving (I'm only rash, not stupid!) and led him around to explore in there while his girlfren waited patiently. Once he was calm and focused (at least, calm and focused for Quattro) I put the long lines on him and away we went. It was a total non-event. He worked REALLY well out there. We did some circle work at the trot and canter and then his girlfren had to leave. He got a little worried at that point but not so much that a Dumor was insufficient consolation prize.

I then ground-drove him next to the barren mare herd. They came over to visit but absolutely would NOT run, darn it. I had spent an hour beforehand mentally Preparing For War and was SO loaded for bear. But there warn't no bear there. So I ground drove him up and down the dividing fence between us and the mares, and even worked him in circles at a trot and canter right next to them. They STILL wouldn't run! The upside of which was that Quattro was absolutely letter perfect.

I also worked to make sure that he will turn away from home. That's an important skill for any horse who is ever going to see the trails; you don't want them to think that they can head on home any time they want. So I would drive him toward home, make him stop, make him turn, and head back out into the Wild Blue Yonder. We did this several times without incident.

He crossed the scary bridge four times and only blinked once. This is going to be a good horse some day, honest.

He was doing so well that I thought I might as well introduce him to ground driving way out in the field and go visit the cows. So we went back across the scary bridge and climbed the hill until the cattle were in sight. We didn't go too close, because the one time I drove Avery out there, they came to visit, and I don't think Quattro is quite THAT sanguine yet. But he saw them, he knows they're there, and it was no big deal.

Came back, gave him his first Vetrolin bath, let him have a hand graze, and put him to bed with his fan and his alfalfa cubes. Then I came home and fell asleep!!!

The adventure continues. In the wide open spaces.

Road Test! To Do List and Lessons Learned.

2009-06-13T16:30:00.003-04:00

Today was the day for Quattro's first ground drive on the road. Wasn't perfect but wasn't horrendous; I'd give it an 80, and the 20% that went wrong was about half his fault and half mine. Here is what we learned:

Quattro is a VERY forward horse in comparison to the last 4 I've ground driven on the roads: 2 were much older and well-trained under saddle prior to becoming driving horses; the other 2 were ponies. Because I'm old, fat, crippled and out of shape, it's very difficult for me to keep up with him at the pace he prefers to go. On the other hand, though, it's his job to learn to be rated to MY pace, not the other way round. While he's learning that, I think I need to give him a good brisk work in the indoor before heading out. That will take the edge off and make him more amenable to going a bit slower. Seriously, if I have to keep dragging on him every 5 strides, I run a huge risk of accidentally turning him into a jigger or a rearer, and we don't want that!

Another thing that will help is for me to switch to a different set of long lines. I have three, in three different lengths: the extra-long, 40-foot set that I use for circle work; a shorter pair of nice Walsh lines someone gave me ages ago that are about 12 feet; and a set of tandem leader lines I bought at auction which are about 20 feet. Heretofore I've always used the 12-footers for road work because, realistically, 80 feet of long line is way too much junk to potentially get tangled up in, especially if you have an antsy 3-year-old at the end of it. Also, for road work, you want to be just about at the point of your horse's hip, give or take. The problem with using the 12-footers with Quattro is twofold: one, it puts the Terrifying Whip a little too close to him, and that makes him antsy; and two, it doesn't give me any line to let OUT to him when he gets a little ahead of me so that I don't end up dragging on his face. Time to dig out the old 20' tandem lines and we'll try those tomorrow after I clean them and check them over.

So: the good news is, he's really very brave, obedient and curious as well as forward. He's respectful of cars but not scared of them; not bothered by the white lines on the road or changes in footing; took a look or two at the scary plastic sign and the mailboxes but was quickly talked out of it. All of this stuff bodes very well for future work.

The bad news: confession time - he did get clean away from me once. Could have been disastrous but luckily wasn't. What happened was that the mares and foals along one side of the road were trotting along with us and then started cantering; despite my best efforts, he yanked away and went with. Luckily they stopped about 15 feet away and so did he, so it was a simple matter to re-catch him (and oddly enough, he has a GREAT "whoa-stand" when the chips are down, and didn't move a hoof while I untangled him, even when the herd moved off again), but this one is my fault completely for not having prepared him adequately. He needs to learn that he IS. NOT. permitted to follow the herd. He obeyed me three times and then said "F.U." on the fourth; I should have turned him around, probably, when I felt him getting antsy. Tomorrow we'll stay on the home farm and practice this again alongside the barren mare herd in a controlled space so that we can really have it out and make sure this is solidly understood before we hit the road again.

Lastly, some friendly reminders to self and any other greenie trainers out there about stuff you NEVER leave home without when you're schooling a young horse on the road:

* Orange safety vest. You're more visible with it on and you have a LOT more authority standing in the middle of the road waving traffic to a halt if you're wearing orange. I very nearly did leave home without it but grabbed it at the last minute, and was glad I did. If I had needed to stop traffic to catch him, it would have been a lot easier with it on.

* Your cell phone. Yep, I've gotten slack about not carrying it the last couple of years, but let's just say you had an epic disaster and your horse decided to "Drive HIMSELF home"! It'd be nice to be able to give the home crew a heads-up to catch the sucker. I forgot it today; turned out I didn't need it, but I got enough of a heads-up that I won't forget it again.

* Some kind of protective boots for the horse - galloping boots or whatever. Horses who spook big can often grab themselves. Quattro didn't, but could have easily, so I was glad he had them on.

* Boots, helmet and gloves for the human. A body protector would actually be good too, if I had one, so that'll be the next purchase. Until one is sure one's young horse isn't going to rear or run backwards or kick - which Quattro didn't but that doesn't mean I'm SURE he won't - you need all the help you can get!

* The Dumors. Never know when you're going to have to catch a loose horse. :-P

So I'm feeling slightly sheepish about the escape act, but grateful it wasn't worse, and grateful that I know exactly how to fix it. We'll get started on that tomorrow.

The adventure continues.

A Roan Saddlebred??!!

2009-06-09T21:34:00.002-04:00

Meet Quattro, a/k/a "Tony the ROANY Pony":

Apres evening workout and "bath".

Like they used to say on The OC: "Ew."

The adventure continues. Stiff brush and rub rag in hand!

"Started Late": Some Thoughts from Planet Sport Horse.

2009-06-06T22:22:00.002-04:00

Surfing around today, I was amused to note a Saddlebred for sale on one of the larger sales sites who was described as having been "started late"; it was already walking, trotting and cantering under saddle with show shoes on at the age of just-turned-three.

This is one of the bigger areas of difference between Planet Saddlebred and Planet Sport Horse. On Planet Saddlebred - as on Planet Quarter Horse and Planet Thoroughbred Racing - the philosophy is that the quicker you get them in the ring/on the track, the quicker they can get into the breeding shed. Not to mention there's a whole lot of ca$h available via futuritie$ for horses started very young.

On Planet Sport Horse, though, we USE our horses a lot longer. We expect them to not only stay sound longer, but to really PEAK, performance-wise, between the ages of 10 and 14. That means we bring them along a lot more slowly. On my planet, I want Quattro to still be (God willing) hale, healthy, sound and even competitive up to at least age 20.

So I guess you could say that in Saddlebred terms, Quattro is very definitely being "started late". But for a sport horse, his training is progressing right on schedule: long-lining at three, driving and lightly started under saddle at four, doesn't start doing anything even remotely serious under saddle until five, and the refinements don't start coming until six. As you can see - totally different game plans.

I'm not making any big value judgments either way here; I like a good Triple Crown (how awesome was the Belmont today, BTW - what a race!) and a hot young five-gaited prospect as much as the next person. I'm just trying to 'splain, for those who only work to the Saddlebred timetable, why Quattro is being brought along differently.

It's especially important in his case to take the extra time because he was bred to be hot and game, and he IS hot and game. But to really succeed as a sport horse, he's got to learn to relax. (Relaxation is the bottom rung of the Dressage Pyramid, GoonrGrrl style, remember?) Until he's swinging along with a low head and relaxed back muscles, this young horse is not ready to do anything else. He doesn't need to learn to rev the engine until later, because we don't want him to automatically "air himself up" when he sees a show ring the way the show Saddlebreds do: we only want him to put the pedal down WHEN ASKED, and NOT before.

For a couple of weeks now, he's been giving me indications that he was ready to move on from the indoor arena/round pen work. He has steering, he has brakes, he's already getting uncomfortably close to memorizing the patterns of figure eight and serpentine (in long lines, at a walk). So a few nights ago, I decided to venture outdoors with him in the lines and walked him down the driveway and back.

Someone here asked me whether it wouldn't be smarter and safer for his first outdoor adventure in the long lines to be somewhere with a fence around it, like a pasture. It's a good thought, from the human perspective; but sometimes the trainer has to think like a horse.

So let's examine it from Quattro's perspective. The driveway is someplace he knows like the back of his hoof; he has been hand-grazed up and down it EVERY evening since he arrived here at the end of January - at least, when it wasn't raining. There's nothing to see there that he isn't already deeply familiar with: he's friendly with the broodmares and foals who live on "his" side of the driveway; he's friendly - well, at least polite - with the herd of cattle who live on the "other" side of the driveway; he knows there's a big red hay barn with a tin roof that rattles when it's windy; he knows which bushes the bunny rabbits live in and are prone to jump out of. It's all familiar, and nothing is a big deal.

Compare and contrast to putting him out in a 50-acre pasture that he's never really SEEN before. Different herd of horses, different herd of cattle, OMG what's THAT, it's an outdoor arena with (gasp) a Judge's Stand, THAT might eat me... And are those DEER?

Which do YOU think is going to lead to the calmer, and more relaxing experience for this particular horse?

Hope you picked this one!

He maintained that same nice low, relaxed headset all the way to the end of the drive and around the "V" at the end. I was really pleased, because it means we can really get the Summer Games well underway - which consist of hoofing it all over the county, so he gets to see more of the world and learn how to react appropriately to it.

At the end of the drive, Quattro was given his "Drive Me Home!" command - which is exclusively a GoonrGrrl thing, and is by way of being an experiment. You see, his predecessor HRH Avery learned "Drive me home!" by accident - I used to say it to him as a joke, but you always have to be careful what you inadvertently teach Smart Heese. I found this out the hard way when, out for a drive, I said conversationally to him "Ya know, Avery, I think it might be time for you to Drive Me Home." Whereupon he calmly and neatly executed a 180 and started doing exactly that! :-) A few years later, this SAVED MY BACON in a huge way, when we were out for a Sunday drive right after lunch, and I was taken by a severe case of food poisoning. I was dizzy and vomiting and could not even sit on the bench seat of the cart - I slid down onto the floor and slumped sideways. Between bouts I kept croaking "Drive Me Home, Ave-Man" and God bless him, he did - at a decorous walk.

The more I work with Quattro, the more convinced I am that if brought along slowly and carefully, he actually will be that kind of horse some day. So I'm starting in with the "Drive Me Home!" command early, hoping he will learn that it means he should proceed homeward at a walk, park himself (and later the cart) neatly in the barn aisle outside his stall, and wait for the humans to unhitch him. We'll see if it works; it may or may not, but it's entertaining and Does No Harm.

The adventure continues! At a low, relaxed walk. ;-)

Sometimes skiving off work is the best thing you can do.

2009-05-31T20:57:00.002-04:00

The AC in my house isn't working at the moment and I was already broiling by 10 this morning, so I skived off working Quattro in favor of a leisurely afternoon in the pool. To assuage my guilt, I brought along Heike Bean's wonderful book, Carriage Driving: A Logical Approach Thru Dressage Training as light reading.

If you're interested in training horses for carriage driving, this book is the BIBLE. If you don't have a copy, get one; if you do have a copy, make it a point to browse through it every so often. I had not actually done so lately, and I'm glad I did. It's not that I learned anything NEW (on what was probably my 100th re-read), but I did notice the things she emphasizes.

Once the evening started to cool, I went up and worked Quattro. I made two slight changes to how I was handling him, based on attempting to emphasize the same things I'd been reading about earlier today. And voila - Quattro was TEN KINDS OF AWESOME.

This time yesterday I was ready to pack the lad off to Saddlebred school, put the big shoes on him and make him a park horse (which he could in fact do pretty well at, IMO). Today, not so much! :-) Thanks, Heike!!

Oh and BTW: have I mentioned he's getting better about baths? The first time I gave him one, he broke a NYLON halter and just about pulled a big thick iron rail out of the massive concrete block it was fixed in. I haven't been "schooling" him on this per se, because I sorta figured that working hard in the Southern heat and humidity would make him change his mind real quick once summer came. I was right about that. Tonight he even learned how to drink from the hose.

Progress is being made, and the adventure continues!

Some thoughts on the state of carriage driving.

2009-05-30T06:46:00.003-04:00

I took an evening off from debating pace and rateability with Quattro last night and went to spectate at the Liberty Classic United Horse Show in Cleveland, Tennessee. I was diplomatic in my report to CD-L but don't feel that I need to be quite so diplomatic here (my blog, my rules! heehee).

This is a GREAT little show. Lovely venue, SUCH nice folks, and a really good idea, combining all the English breeds/disciplines in one local show, with the opportunity to compete before (and learn from) nationally-known judges, but keeping the price as low as possible.

They were kind enough to offer a really FULL schedule of carriage driving classes, open to all breeds. Debbie Banfield was the excellent judge for the carriage driving, and Brooke Jacobs (who was a heroine of mine in her eq. days and before whom I *dream* of showing some day!) was the under saddle judge.

Unfortunately, however, they only had 3 entries for the carriage driving this year. That's right - I said THREE.

Now, this is in an area where there are three carriage driving clubs within 100 miles of the venue. NOBODY showed up, NOBODY sponsored classes, NOBODY volunteered, and one of the 3 organizations didn't even have the courtesy to put it on their damn calendar.

WTF, people? COME ON. Carriage pleasure divisions are really difficult for a show to put on (they're manpower-intensive, with all the obstacle/cones setting, and require hiring and payment of a separate judge). I feel that as players in an emerging sport, we should be grateful for every single one we have, and that the hard-working volunteers who put shows together for OUR benefit deserve our support.

Driving home, I got to thinking about the back story on carriage pleasure driving versus combined driving. Once upon a time, when driving was first getting started here, it was a given that there would be reciprocity among the adherents of each: i.e., if you were a combined driver, you'd show up and volunteer at the pleasure shows to support the efforts of the volunteers/competitors on that side of the fence, and vice versa. I'm a carriage pleasure driver, and God knows in the past I've put in plenty of time volunteering for local CDEs b/c I wanted to help grow the sport even though I have no real interest in that side of it. It used to be that we carriage pleasure drivers could count on the same from the CDE people.

Somewhere around 10 years ago, the reciprocity seems to have just faded away. I look, for example, at the calendar for my local carriage driving organization: it lists CDE's as far away as Florida, but can't be bothered to list Liberty Classic or even (big, USEF-rated) Germantown?

Like I said: WTF.

Ever since this disconnect arose between the combined drivers and the carriage pleasure show drivers, I've started thinking that perhaps it MIGHT be time for the American Driving Society to 'fess up to what it really is: the feeder organization for IHP combined driving and that is ALL.

Is it time to spin off a NEW national organization to support carriage pleasure driving? I'd sure be up for it, if someone wants to help get the ball rolling. Because the bottom line is this: The ADS does not support carriage pleasure driving with anywhere near as much effort/time/money as it does combined driving; the local ADS affiliates don't either; the CDE drivers patently and blatantly don't give a sh*t; and I *know* that there are other drivers out there besides me who would like to see carriage pleasure driving shows/divisions get really well organized and supported. I'm SO tired of watching potentially GREAT venues for MY side of the sport get kicked aside, underpromoted and unsupported. The show in question is NOT the only one; I've been in touch w/ a couple of others in my area which are also considering dropping carriage pleasure driving COMPLETELY.

Like I said: WTF. We're just going to let these venues DIE b/c everybody has to do Gayla and Black Prong? Not if I have anything to say about it.

So if you're interested, comment here, and let's kick some ideas around. In the meantime, if you're a carriage driver, PLEASE support your local pleasure shows. It's SO important.

The adventure continues.

Catch-all, catch-up post!

2009-05-28T21:17:00.002-04:00

Wheeeeeeeeeeew! It's 9:30 p.m., I just got in from the barn, I'm rehydrating with one hand and typing this with the other, and I ain't et yet. That, in a nutshell, has been my life for the last couple of weeks! So, a bunch of quick random updates while dinner microwaves.

I got a TRUCK!!! My first truck. My very OWN truck. It isn't new, and it isn't pretty, but it's a honkin' V8 longbed w/ a hitch and brakes and it even has an engine. I named it "Birdie" after dear li'l Mine That Bird, a plucky TB to catch the imagination of every TB lover. So... Introducing The Bird!!

It doesn't have any Saddlebred bling on it yet, but that's coming. I pretty much want one or two of eeeeeeverything World Champion's got. NO MORE switching the AC off and *praying* I make it up the big hill by Tractor Supply w/ 600 lbs of bedding in the back of my 4-cylinder car. NO MORE 3 trips to the feed store every Saturday.

Mind you, now, the first time I drove it to work, the exhaust DID fall out in the middle of a 6-lane artery, but what the hey. It runs - kind of - and it's MINE!

Oh yeah, about that Saddlebred colt I've got. Quattro. You remember him. He's doing awesomely well. My plan of working him in the lines on straightaways has worked really well; he has slowed down a LOT! He is also now ground driving outside the arena - just up and down the driveway and in figure eights and serpentines, so far: I still don't trust the brakes. We'll head down the driveway next week and see what happens.

Q is also VERY nearly ready to be backed. I made this sort of happen "by accident". A couple times a week, I've been slinging a saddle on him and making him stand at the mounting block while I hang off him from each side in turn and pat him and wave my arms and legs around. This past week we got brave and put full weight on him and led him a few steps each way. He was perfectly calm. He could probably be safely backed right now, except for the detail that he's 15.3 and 800 lbs, I'm 6' and 225 (sadly) at the moment, and I just don't think he needs that much weight on him. I need to find somebody light for him; I don't want him to start having sacroiliac problems at three. So the hunt is on: if you're reading this and you're near Chattanooga, get in touch - please!

He's getting there on the parking out; and - TADAAAAHHHH - has FINALLY learned to trot in-hand. He was the hardest horse to teach to trot on the line I have EVER trained: it usually only takes me ten minutes, but he had a case of the stubborns about it, for some odd reason, and made ugly faces and planted his feet when asked, and if "gotten after", ran backwards and kicked and then ran right over me! I tried every trick I knew: do it on the fence line; do it toward the barn at dinner time; do it in the barn aisle; do it with someone with a lunge whip behind. To NO freaking avail. But the penny finally seems to have dropped that if he trots he gets cookies, and he likes that. Whew. Problem solved. Wish he would have made it in time for the Liberty Classic, but they do stuff on their own time schedule, I guess...

That's it. I'm starving and I'm outta here. Liberty Classic showgoers, if you see The Bird steaming on the shoulder of the road between Cleveland and the Georgia line, stop and help a girl out, K?

The adventure continues!

Ever Rollkur Your ASB by Mistake? headdesk

2009-05-18T21:14:00.002-04:00

I intend to be as honest about my mistakes in this blog as I am about any successes I may have. So it's confession time: Without intending to, I accidentally put Quattro in rollkur more times than once this evening. :-( It was NOT intentional, and I think I've figured out a tactic so that it won't happen again.

For those who don't know what rollkur is, the video below provides a good explanation:

So how did we accidentally end up there?

Well, it started because I decided I've kinda had it with Quattro not wanting to be rated at the trot. I have tried every trick I know to try and get him to stop speeding around like a road horse - short of getting in his mouth.

In fairness to myself, you have to remember I've spent my whole 50 years with OTTBs. The hardest thing about transitioning from OTTBs to an ASB is that man, it's so terrifyingly easy to back a Saddlebred off the bit! OTTBs are notoriously stiff-necked; when you first start trying to explain flexion to them they are genuinely lost, and tend to look at you with amazement going "You want me to do WHAT??? Whyyyyyyy?" Saddlebreds, of course, are bred to be much more flexible and "hingier", and God knows Quattro can do "Saddlebred neck" with the best.

So: I started by long-lining him in smallish circles at a walk, just asking him to drop his head and relax. Once he was doing that well, I put my whip DOWN (he's getting better about whip-shyness, but will still try to run away from one) and quietly asked for a trot. I'd get three strides of relaxed, even trot and would give to his mouth as a reward - whereupon he'd decide "Oh yippee, I can go FASTER now" and off he would go, full bore. So... yeah... I did it... I committed the cardinal sin of hauling on his face. Go ahead, shoot me.

We did this experiment about 3 times each direction, with the old War Admiral collecting a massive "FAIL" every time. It REALLY didn't solve much. If you think about it, you know exactly what it got me: a horse on his forehand in a tight, incorrect little frame, champing to be let free so he can GO MO' FASTER!

I finally decided to try it another way, and I think if I stick with this, I may solve the problem. My next gambit in the "Slow the bleep DOWN" wars is going to be working him in the lines, but in a straight line, along the rail. Ask for a few strides of trot, then nice easy whoa. Then a nice walk into trot transition, then whoa. Repeat ad nauseam.

I tried it a couple of times at the end of the session and it seemed to yield the desired result, although Q gave me a rather quizzical look and I'm not sure he has figured out the "why" here yet. We'll see how it goes. Anything is better than another rollkur trainwreck!

The adventure continues.

The Green Monster!!

2009-05-13T20:33:00.003-04:00

As some of you may have heard, it's been storming and raining like crazy here in the South for a while. On the days when there are thunderstorms in the area, our barn gets invaded by a truly terrifying crayture. Looking this creature in the eye is NOT for the squeamish or the faint of heart.

We call it...

THE GREEN MONSTER.

It steals the soaked alfalfa cubes from this handsome young colt!!!

They couldn't POSSIBLY be the same horse, could they?

Or could they?

Over to you, Gentle Readers.

The adventure only continues when it's not raining.

Sometimes you train the horse... :-P

2009-05-12T20:55:00.003-04:00

Sometimes you train the horse, and sometimes the horse trains you. Even if it's a greenie.

Worked Quattro in the round pen tonight. Tracking left, he was BEYOND awesome, really light and fabulous, genuinely using himself, struck off correctly at the canter when asked - with all the feet in the right order, too, which is still an issue for him, albeit he gets better every day.

Second way, tracking right, we were momentarily distracted by a MONSTER appearing on a fence post in the form of The Human Who Feeds Him Lunch (terrifying creatures, these Humans Who Feed You Lunch!), who had popped over to ask me about feed supplements. MELTDOWN!

After we got that sorted, which took a while and involved some rather quick cantering, several dead halts, and some unnamed maneuvers that ended up with us looking not AT ALL dissimilar to these excellent t-shirts on Ebay, I started to wonder: OK, what's the deal here? Tracking right is definitely his weak side, but he's not usually this untogether and avoidant and rushy and above-the-bit... Hmmmm...

The only thing I could think of was that, because I wasn't quite trusting him, I was positioning my body a little bit more forward than usual. I took three steps back, towards his quarters where I'm *supposed* to be, and voila. Started getting better results.

So I probably learned a lot more tonight than he did: Even if you're trying to get them to be less forward, you STILL have to drive from "behind", back by the quarters.

Like I said: Sometimes you train the horse... :-P

The adventure continues.

OK, it's official, Quattro is learning English now!

2009-05-10T09:12:00.003-04:00

It's official, Quattro is learning English now. The language, I mean.

It always fascinates me how horses pick it up. The more intelligent the horse, the more of it they can learn. HRH Avery's entire vocabulary of English was about 89 words, but he also "knew" entire sentences. When we were out driving and came to a particularly steep hill that he might have trouble getting us up, I would often say "You can canter if you want to." Now, I'm not pretending he knew every word; I think it was more like the old dog joke about "Blah blah blah Rover blah blah blah"; but he sure the heck understood that "Blah blah blah Canter blah blah blah", said in that particular tone, meant cantering was an option he could exercise if he chose, as opposed to "Canter!" which meant "right now or I'll have a boot up your butt."

Quattro, I think, now understands the tone of voice of an interrogatory. Why do I think so? I varied the routine this morning (overslept/overtired, to be honest!), fed him late, and decided to catch a couple more z's in the car outside the barn while he ate, and wait for him to be ready to be turned out, so I wouldn't have to walk back down the hill. I was dozing peacefully in my car and I heard a couple of good, loud, Quattro-sized snorts. I poked my head out and said "Are you ready, Q?"
He answered with a neigh. "You sure?" He neighed again.

OK, *maybe* he just heard my voice and said "Let me OUT, b*tch!" but I doubt it. The naysayers may snork, but think about it: we expect horses to learn *commands*, don't we? If you spend a lot of time with your horse, which I do, and natter on to them a lot, which I also do, there's no reason to expect they couldn't learn other words too. C.W. Anderson said that. Pretty good horseman, if memory serves.

The adventure continues.

Bravery Training 101

2009-05-07T21:52:00.003-04:00

Q and I were both in the mood for something different tonight, so I decided to introduce Bravery Training 101.

Whuzzat? It's what most people would call "de-spooking". I prefer to call it "Bravery Training" to get rid of the negative context and emphasize the positive one: you're not teaching a horse NOT to spook; you're teaching a horse TO BE brave. Subtle difference, but it alters your thinking.

I wasn't feeling terrifically ambitious, so we started with three simple objects: a mounting block; a zigzag pattern of narrowly spaced rails for him to walk BETWEEN (not over; you'll see why in a sec); and that scariest of scary things... a tarp.

Plenty of people will tell you this type of stuff is a waste of time. For me, and ESPECIALLY for Quattro, it's not at all. Remember that Quattro's main purpose in my life is to be a driving horse. So sure, Bravery Training builds mutual trust and confidence for any horse and rider, but it also: is a great way to practice his steering and brakes in the long lines; is a great way to keep his brain engaged on things other than how much MO'FUNNER it is to go MO'FASTER; gives him math problems to solve; keeps him going forward in a nice relaxed frame; keeps him attentive and listening, because he's never sure which obstacle he'll be asked to do next, from which direction; and - this is important with a clever young horse - purely and simply keeps him entertained.

I always start this exercise in hand; they need their Fearless Leader to go first and show them there is nothing to fear. Eventually, Quattro will get to the point where he will calmly and confidently ground drive all these obstacles and many, many more besides; first at a walk, then a combination of walk and trot, and eventually at all 3 gaits. Yes, ALL in hand, and ALL ground driving in an open bridle! The carriage drivers will see where I'm going with this: Quattro doesn't know it yet, but in the calmest, most relaxed, low-key way, he is being introduced to the concept of ARENA HAZARDS.

At the very highest level of the sport, arena hazards look like this:

Obviously, it takes years to get to that level, and quite honestly I have no ambitions to do so. But pretty much every local carriage driving association offers arena hazards for Single Horse/Pony, so it's a skill he needs to acquire, and starting early, in hand, at a relaxed walk, with lots of breaks for pats and cookies, is the best way I've found to ensure a listening and attentive horse all the way through the training process.

Quattro's a riot. He spotted the obstacles the second he was halfway through the in-gate. I felt him tense up, and knew he was severely tempted to exit stage left. I just closed the gate, sent him around me in a small circle at a walk, and spoke encouragingly: Take a chill pill, Quattro, we'll get to those in a minute, they don't bite.

I led him around between all the obstacles in both directions, letting him get a good look, on a loose lead; if he wanted to stop and look, I let him stop and look, all the while calmly chatting to encourage him.

When I felt he was thoroughly relaxed I brought him back to the mounting block. Good one to start with, since he has done the mounting block routine before; I just haven't done it lately. A refresher never hurts, and with a timid horse (which, to be honest, Quattro is), it's good to start with something they already know, so that they can gain confidence and "win" by answering the first question correctly.

Our mounting block routine is: he's allowed to sniff it, then he's expected to stand while I put it beside him - on EACH side - and climb on it. He's expected to stand while I lean across his back and say "Hiya, Q!" and pat his tummy, loins, and butt on the far side. He's expected to whoa if he tries to move off and I pull on the reins. Then I get off, move it around to his other side, and repeat.

Easy PASS for Quattro on Hazard One, then. So on to Hazard Two, the zigzag rail alley. He stopped dead at the entrance, but I was pleased to note he wasn't especially tense; he just kind of cocked his head with a "Hmmm, WTF am I supposed to do with THIS?" look on his face. Quick pat, kind word: "I'll show you what to do, Q, you're all right. All you have to do is walk forward. Now whoa. Good boy. Now left. Now whoa. Now right. Good boy!"

PASS on first attempt, Hazard Two!

Now for the Scary Stuff: Hazard Three, the OMG TARP! Led him quietly forward and stopped when he asked. Patted, encouraged, talked calmly. Asked for another step. Got it. Patted, complimented him on being such a VERY brave coltie. Asked for another couple steps. Got 'em. Cookie. Want another one? You have to step on it, then. Want to put your head down, take a closer look and sniff it? No problem, take as much rein as you need. Want to think about it for a few? Fine. Here, let me walk on it. See? Doesn't eat me. It's nice on here, no big deal. Come get a cookie. Two more steps - front feet are on it. GOOD BOY. Cookie. Now come on, let's finish it, two more steps - back feet are on it. Cookie. Pats. Praise. Walked back and forth over it a couple more times.

PASS on Hazard Three. Go Quattro! Bravery Badge No. 1 OWNED!

After that, I took the riding reins off his bridle and put the long lines on. We worked on steering and brakes. The mounting block became something to stop and stand beside; the zigzag was a drive-through. I did try to get him to ground drive over the tarp, but he wasn't quite ready to be that brave on his own yet. He'll get there.

I was very pleased with how relaxed he stayed throughout all of this. We have Quarter Horses at this barn who can't even SEE that tarp without melting down. So I think this is a good work item to add into the mix. I'm off to Wally World on Saturday to pick up some cones, some balloons, some blowup kids toys, and whatever else I can find.

The adventure continues!

Hay, blog peeps, it's me, Quattro.

2009-05-04T21:08:00.003-04:00

Hay there y'all (see? I said "y'all". I'm getting good at this!). It's me, Quattro. I just had to come on and brag about how handsome HANDSOME I am! My posse took pictures of me today in my bling, practicing for the show ring. I didn't know what it was all about at first. Usually when they take me out in the evening, it's either to eat grass or do that thing they call WORK, where I run around in circles looking handsome-handsome and then they give me cookies. So I kept trying to DANCE, like I'm supposed to. But they just kept yelling "whoa" and "stannap" and "Out!" and " Quit, you silly wiggleworm" at me.

Finally I figured it all out and stood pretty and even "used my ears well". But it was getting dark by then. Still, I think my people take some pretty good pics. They can go in my portfolio. I'm going to be a star, you know. So having a good portfolio is very important.

Not as important as dessert though. It's in front of me now, my dessert of yummy alfalfa cubes, so I gotta go.

Take care. Send cookies.

Loff,
Quattro

I SADDLEBRED!! I CAN HAZ BLING!!

The right is definitely my good side.

Handsome-handsome, even in the dark!!

There IS an up side to thunder and lightning!

2009-05-03T11:58:00.002-04:00

We are doomed to thunderstorms for the next ten DAYS here. So I've decided to live with that fact and use it to Quattro's and my advantage by leaving him up for a few days (to rest his paddock and try to get the grass coming up) and working him in the indoor.

I've discovered, over the last couple of weeks, a couple of things about how Quattro prefers to be trained. As mentioned previously, he does a lot better if you give him a chance to blow off some steam and get the 3 y/o out before you tack up and settle down to work, so I've been turning him out in the indoor to goof around and be stoopid while I clean his stall. That seems to work especially well, b/c as "scary" as our indoor is, there's only SO much a rowdy colt can pretend to be scared of, and after that, well, it's kinda boring in there 'cause there's nothing to eat!

So this puts him in a frame of mind where he's delighted to see me coming with all his tack. I like that. Putting modesty aside for a minute, if there is ONE thing that a life misspent with smart OTTBs has taught me, it's how to keep a smart horse sweet and happy in his work. Keep your instructions clear; vary the routine as much as they can handle and still stay in their comfort zone; praise much; when they REALLY get it right, praise much and give 'em a cookie; and Take. Your. Time.

Which leads me to the other thing I've discovered about how Quattro likes to work: he actually does better when NOT worked every day. Compared to a TB, Quattro's brain is (NO offense intended here) a rather fragile thing. As mentioned in prior posts, he tries so hard to please that he gets overwrought VERY easily. But it's also because he's simply inexperienced and hot and a worrier by nature (to the point that we have a new catch phrase around the barn whenever anything unexpected happens, no matter how comically minor: "SPOOK, Quattro!" You kinda have to be here: it's only funny when occasioned by a burst of rain on the roof or a barn cat walking into the barn or somebody dropping a pitchfork.)

All these things taken into account, I've found Quattro just plain does better if you work him, then give him a couple days off to THINK about it. He's been really, really great the last few works. The lazy life of an AOT horse clearly seems to be the way to progress him forward in a calm, relaxed way.

We've been working, and will work for the next ten days, on steering and brakes in the long lines and on the "short lines" I use when ground driving. He's getting much better at all of the above. This time two weeks ago, I would NOT have trusted him outside the round pen with long lines on. He's now working well indoors in both! I decided not to "bit up" to get the brakes; I decided to simply quietly persevere and keep asking with half-halt and voice; ask again; ask again; ask again; and give a cookie when he finally gets it. He's REALLY doing well with his "whoa" now, and his steering too, and I rather think that by the time the t-storms leave the area, he'll be ready for his next big step: taking the ground driving OUTSIDE.

If he works ahead of schedule (and he might) then another plan for working him in the indoor MAY be to start him in shaft training. It's a thought I'm keeping in reserve.

The adventure continues!

Spring Cleaning!

2009-04-26T19:45:00.002-04:00

Quattro got the day off today while Chris and I did the dread spring-cleaning of the tack room. Everybody hates spring cleaning, I know, but this was a particularly bitter-sweet project, since it involved getting rid of so much stuff that belonged to my late, much-beloved Thoroughbred HRH Avery - who was truly a Giant among TBs in so many ways, not the least of which was physical, which means none of his stuff fits Tony the Pony at all! I've been kinda trying to steel myself to do this for MONTHS, so I managed not to bawl, but I nearly did (and definitely whined!) when one trunk revealed HRH Avery's first-EVER turnout blanket, which I bought in 1999. HRH Avery was a fashion maven who really thought an ideal career for a retired jumper would be modeling for Dover Saddlery, and he always took such immaculate care of his clothes that that 10-year-old turnout looks brand-new. The only thing I couldn't quite bring myself to put in the Ebay pile was his custom close contact saddle. It wouldn't bring that much anyway, because it's Argentine, so it's staying because it was HIS. I'm keeping that, his wool dress sheet (which I use at home as an afghan), and I intended to keep his halter, but Quattro does fit in that and seems to have adopted it.

So if you're in need of any Biggie-Sized "stuff", blankets, turnouts, scrims, road cart (50" wood wheels), harness, bridlery, bits, martingales, or a nice old Kieffer Munchen AP/D saddle with 17.5" seat, leave me a comment! Next weekend when I get around to doing my closets I'll have some hunt seat show attire going as well - I know I have a pair of rust TS breeches and a brown jacket among other things.

So here's a pic of Quattro enjoying a vacation day!

The adventure continues.

The Great Inversion Conversion Caper.

2009-04-25T21:45:00.005-04:00

Now that I'm finally over the 'flu and it has FINALLY stopped raining, Quattro and I are getting back on track.

I think I've mentioned before Quattro's penchant for wanting to see what's going on outside the round pen. I managed to snag some pics today so that you can see where this actually leads to: NOWHERE GOOD.

Can you say "inverted"??

See the bulging muscle on the underside of his neck? That's inversion.

He does it at the canter, too:

So how do you fix this?

NO, not side reins; if you think that's the right answer then you are on the wrong blog.

The right answer? The Great Inversion Conversion Caper. Slow, patient, steady, relaxed work on the long lines.

Of course, with Quattro, getting the "relaxed" part is the hardest. He's a hot, speedy little guy by nature, and moreover, he tries SO hard to please that he can all too easily tie himself in mental, emotional and physical knots fretting over what's the right thing to do.

Our schooling sessions generally have three phases. During the first one, I send him out at liberty to let him get the looky-lous out, and trot and canter as seen above. I completely ignore him during this phase, except maybe to ask for a change of direction. While he goofs off, I'm almost invariably to be found in the center, faffing around getting my long-lines organized. Ask anyone who knows me: I can tangle up a longe or long-lines worse than anybody who ever drew breath!

Phase One ends when Quattro starts licking and chewing and asks to come back in. Except on one amusing occasion last week when I had the long-lines SO tangled that he was like "Hey LADY! I'm licking! I'm chewing! I'm ready to come in now!" and I didn't even notice, until he came up and grabbed the long-lines in his teeth as if to say "O.K., I did Phase One, now you're supposed to put those things on me and we're supposed to work!" Quattro is a giggle, he really is.

Assuming we manage to get to the end of Phase One at the same time, Phase Two is where the long-lines get attached. Phase Two is not necessarily very attractive to watch; it's where Quattro and I start our negotiating process, wherein he's figuring out what I want and I'm figuring out how he wants to be asked. Sometimes he's still a little bit over-revved, so there might be a long, messy canter either or both ways; I'm fine with messy during Phase Two so long as it's neither inverted nor disunited - and he's getting a lot better about each with every passing day.

Phase Three, then, is where we work on refining the Inversion Conversion. By "refining" I need to emphasize I do NOT mean "collecting" him up. It's absolutely crucial that he not get overbent and acquire that "fake frame" you see so much of. So NO pulling and hauling, if he wants to go-go-go, he can go-go-go, so long as his nose isn't in the air. I don't care much whether he's going fast or slow, so long as he is genuinely trying to reach for the bit and use his back.

As we all know, I stink at video, and my Achenbach-style long-lining skills leave much to be desired as well, but here is a short snippet I managed to catch when he was at the end of Phase Two moving into Phase Three:

As you can see, there's a lot of work to be done yet - but he's starting to look like he's going to be a horse when he grows up! Rushing this nice young horse would be fatal; I really think his brain would fry. I would far rather take more time and have him nice and relaxed and cadenced. So I'm sticking to my original plan - he will stay in the long lines throughout the summer and I'll send him off to be backed in the fall.

The adventure continues!

The $1200 Name Change.

2009-04-25T02:42:00.002-04:00

Y'know... Let's get one thing straight right here at the top of this blog. I'm a big believer in USEF. I'm a big believer in the rules, and in following them. I'm also a big believer in breed registries (I won't buy an unpapered horse - never have, never will), and so far, my dealings with ASHA have been nothing but pleasant. And I totally understand the "pay to play" concept, and for the most part, it seems fair. I get that these organizations have overhead, and I get that it's only fair we contribute to that. I also get that from a breed registry perspective, horse name changes are really nothing but a big fat pain in the asp which divert manpower and resources away from the principal mission of getting/keeping those registration numbers up.

HOWEVER. I just got around to actually running the numbers on what it's going to cost me to change Quattro's name with all the various organizations he will need it changed with, if and when he decides to compete at recognized shows. And you know what? To get the name that I want, and record it correctly with all of the organizations I want, it is going to cost me - are you ready for this? TWELVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

For real.

Let's run those numbers again, shall we? That can't possibly be right; or can it?

The breakdown goes like this.

ASHA charges $200.00 for a name change.
ASHA also charges $500.00 to register a farm name, and it MUST be registered to use it as part of the horse's name. So that's $700.00.

USHJA charges $30.00 for recording him.

USDF charges $25.00 for recording him.

ADS, thankfully, does not track horses and does not charge. (You use your USEF number. We're getting to that.)

USEF charges $200.00 for a lifetime recording.
USEF also charges $200.00 for the farm registration.

So there you have it - changing Quattro's name to the name I want will cost me $1155.00.

You know, the great thing about America is freedom of choice. USEF and ASHA are perfectly within their rights to charge us these fees. We're perfectly within our rights to suggest some imaginative things they might want to do with those fees, and equally within our rights not to compete the horse as a Saddlebred at all...

It remains to be seen which way I'll jump. I'm currently pondering the options, and I do have several here: Forego the prefix I had in mind; keep his registered name and show under it; keep his registered name but record him with USEF as something else and not show him as a Saddlebred (which frankly is the way I'm leaning); etc. etc. etc.

Reckon I can convince my bank manager I'm building a garage? :-)

The adventure is certainly fraught with some interesting forks in the road, but it continues!

In Which Q Starts Learning to Play a "Real" ASB on TV. :-P

2009-04-03T20:41:00.002-04:00

So I've been debating with myself, ever since Q got here, whether or not to teach him to park out.

It is, of course, absolute anathema in any division in which I might remotely consider campaigning him. Dressage? No parky. Carriage Driving? No parky. Hunters, ASB or Otherwise? No parky.

Thus, a certain linear logic would dictate NOT.

But on the other hand...

There are, as Morgan carriage driving trainer Jeff Morse has opined on his excellent website, certain inherent advantages to the parked out position. Especially with a greenie. Chief among them being that, as Jeff points out, the parked out horse is less likely to break its stance and move. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a situation in training a green horse where this would NOT be a plus.

So I've arrived at what I believe is an acceptable middle ground: do as Jeff recommends, and teach Quattro to park out ONLY when specifically asked.

We got started on that tonight. It was a riot. He was starting to get it by the end, but he also pulled a total HRH Avery and hurled some 'tude at me for the usual reason: "Who CARES where my freakin' FEET go? I'm STANDING aren't I? What's the BIG DEAL about where I put my FEET?" So I got a couple of timid little cow kicks and a couple of tentative little strikes and a disgusted snort or two, all of which were dealt with either by the delivery of a smack or a cookie as the situation might dictate. And by the end he really WAS sort of getting it.

So I guess you'd say he's learning to portray a real Saddlebred on TV!

It'll be interesting to see how this particular part of the adventure turns out. Pictures tomorrow maybe.

Houston, we have - STEERING!!

2009-04-01T20:46:00.002-04:00

Just a quickie brag. Quattro now has TOTAL steering when ground-driving. God, I love smart horses soooooooooo much; they learn SO fast. We haven't ground-driven since my last post; I've been alternating between that and lungeing with full tack. So this was basically ground-driving lesson No. 2, and he has got it going ON! The Western folks have got poles up in the indoor for pole-bending, and as our piece de resistance at the end of the session, we ground drove the whole pole bending pattern.

Next thing we have to work on is brakes. :-P He is far less good at "whoa/stand" (wants to run backwards and face me... baby greenie stuff...), but for right now, I care more about emphasizing the forward motion. I may have to use a stronger bit to get a good "whoa"; he's still in his Happy Mouth baby bit. I want to keep him in that until the steering is totally trustworthy, which probably is going to take a few more lessons.

AND I think I've solved the whip problem, at least temporarily: instead of a long driving whip, tonight I carried a plain old short crop. That worked; if he loses forward momentum and wants to back up, all I really have to do is shake it at him and he heads right on forward again. I'm thinking I'll have to gradually lengthen the whips I use as the summer progresses; but he should be fine eventually.

AND he let me play with his ears over dinner, AND he let me pick up all four feet and hold them over dessert. Many cookies were given, and the old War Admiral is doing the victory dance tonight!

The adventure continues.

They're Weird. :-P

2009-03-28T19:25:00.002-04:00

One of the best old-time horsemen I ever knew, who had a lovely dry sense of humor, used to ponder lengthily and respond to "Why do horses do this?" questions that he didn't know the answer to by drawling: "They're weird."

Sorry people, but tonight I'm thinking Quattro is Weird.

I've been hearing from the barn folks for quite some time that he pretty much loses his mind when he sees a horse with a rider on his back. Tonight I actually got to see him do it, and holy moley, they are NOT kidding! I had him out for his evening hand-graze when he spotted a ridden horse a couple of pastures away, and it was like INSTANT meltdown... plunging around in circles and then just planting and snorting in terror and totally ready to bolt.

If a horse doesn't want to eat GRASS, it's got an issue with something.

It took me a good 20 minutes to get him back to normal ...and thank you, kind neighbor-I-haven't-met-yet, for stopping your horse and standing it in the corner until you saw Quattro drop his head... I owe ya one!

But, now here's the punch line: twice this week, he has let ME stand on the mounting block and hang all over him - lie across him kicking my legs, waving my arms, patting his tummy on the far side - and he stays perfectly relaxed. Not a foot moves. And I did it again tonight, not 20 minutes after the meltdown episode, with the same result.

Like the man said: They're weird! :-P

I think what really needs to happen is that Quattro needs to go off to a saddle seat barn and stand in a stall all day while people ride up and down the aisle past him until he just plain gets over himself... (You can tell I'm exasperated here, right?) Of course, whatever trainer ends up with him won't thank me for that, because for the first few days, he's guaranteed to rush around his stall screaming in terror and trying to climb the walls... So perhaps an academy barn is not the best idea, because you don't need a stalled horse who's a nervous wreck scaring the lesson kids' horses... I'm still mulling this problem over.

Anyway....

We also had our first ground-driving lesson tonight, and it went a lot better than I expected. I must say, it's a lot easier to teach a horse to ground drive who is very, very forward by nature (which Quattro is) than it is a lazy balker who'd far prefer to plant all fours and eat grass (which Avery was). We got some nice forward movement, practiced our turns (which need work!), and I was very pleased.

The big problem we're going to have with ground-driving is that he is SO remedially whip-shy. It goes against the grain with me to try to teach a horse to ground drive without a whip in my hand, but he's so much more relaxed without it and resists so much less, I'm leaving it on the ground for now while we're still in restricted space.

Lastly, this blog is going to have to go part time for the next couple of months and just get updates at the weekend. My favorite band the Manic Street Preachers have a new CD coming out, and since they NEVER come to the USA, I'll be following all the activities online. But unless you hear otherwise, assume that...

...the adventure continues!

First Saddle Pic!!

2009-03-22T20:30:00.002-04:00

OK, so I cut his poor earses off b/c I s*ck at photography, but here as promised is a saddle pic.

It was his first time with it on outside in the round pen, where, as you can see, he really LIKES to look around and see what's going on outside. Our arrival outdoors was exactly the cue for all heck to break loose... One neighbor using a power saw, another neighbor's donkey braying, another neighbor's kid playing guitar. Loudly. ;-) So he was very looky and up-headed, but he DID work, and by now is no longer phased at all by that thing on his back. Just another Stupid BORING Human Trick.

The adventure continues!

We have... SADDDDDLLLLLE!!!!

2009-03-17T20:26:00.002-04:00

Colts. They're schizophrenic. :-)

Quattro's mood when I got home tonight was a complete 180 from last night. Calm, happy, relaxed, cantered over to say howdy when he heard my car (that's SOOO nice - it's been years since I had a horse who did that. HRH Avery would not have so condescended in a MILLION YEARS - in my experience it's a rare TB who will, though I did have one who would!).

Q behaved himself admirably on his evening hand-graze - which is, though he is only vaguely aware of it, a schooling opportunity: grazing next to Scary Cows is always good; but tonight, taking advantage of recent rains, we worked on walking through puddles (Why? To get to the grass on the other side, of course!). Everything is less scary when they're eating.

...Which is why, once I had him in his stall, I decided the time was right to move the agenda up a hair.

Trying to decide when it's time to take the next step in a young horse's training is, I think, the hardest thing to try to explain to folks who haven't done it. (We've all seen the NH types who can't.) You just have to rely on observation of the horse's behavior, judging his mood accurately, knowing what he will do, won't do, might try, and might scare him.

I don't know how other AOTs do it, but the way I approach training is that I kinda-sorta have an agenda for the week of stuff I would *like* to get through - even if it's only endless repeats, like the last month of bridle-work inside the stall - but I'm totally willing to back up, throw the plan out, move forward ahead of schedule, all depending on WHETHER THE HORSE AND I ARE COMMUNICATING WELL OR NOT. I freely admit, sometimes we're not. If I'd tried this last night, it would have been a train wreck. He was antsy and my nerves were shot after the fall. That's when you leave it alone.

Tonight - different story. He was calm and relaxed, I was calm and relaxed; I had already done my usual routine of cleaning the stall around him while he ate his grain, knocking the mud off, picking up feet, messing with ears, dragging muck buckets in and out, filling hay bags, blah blah blah. So he was happily slobbering his way through his soaked alfalfa cube dessert and I thought, "You know what? Perfect night for the saddle."

I had planned to have a saddle on him by the END of the week. I've been longeing him with the side reins attached to the surcingle (to flap around miming stirrups and saddle skirts, NOT to be applied to the bit!) for a couple of weeks now, and he has no issue with that. There were some other things I wanted to work on first, but when opportunity bites you in the... NOSE... you go for it.

I didn't happen to have the training saddle I bought for him handy, so I went next door and grabbed my old Passier, which I was fairly sure would be his hunt seat saddle (and it will be - fits him fine. Gotta loff those old Kraut saddles, they fit almost everything!).

He barely even looked up when I brought it in - he's so used to me coming in and out of his stall with "stuff". Then he realized "Oh, wait, that's NEW stuff" and wandered over to check it out. I let him sniff it (and slobber green slime all over it, ewww). When it was no longer interesting, he went back to his food. I brought it over, showed it to him again - more slobber - rubbed it all over him, then set it gently down on his back. He took ONE sideways step and that was that. You could just see him thinking "Oh, OK, more Stupid Human Tricks. Well, it's not eating me... and I'm still hungry... Meh. Whatevs." Back to the food.

Because I'm an extra-careful sort, I had it on and off him several times, wiggled it, slid it around, then slid it partway off his back and let it drop to the ground (sooner or later, Dumb-Butt here is going to drop it; he may as well find that out now!). Lather, rinse, and repeat from the other side. By the end, he wasn't even lifting his head out of the bucket.

I intentionally didn't girth it up - that's not something I care to do with my horse at liberty in the stall. I just wanted to make sure he knows it's OK for the saddle to go on his back and get wiggled around and come off. He's got that now.

So there you have it. WE HAVE SADDLE! I'll try to get a pic of him in fully-decked out hunter finery this coming weekend.

The adventure continues!

When Horse and Human Collide. Literally.

2009-03-16T20:18:00.008-04:00

OK, so I'm taking tonight off from schooling. I like to think that when there is writing on the wall, I can in fact read it, albeit I need bifocals to do so... There are days when Stupid Old Fat Human and Smart Young Horse are NOT a good combination. This was one.

Q was totally in Psycho Freak mode when I got home, having knocked his gate off the hinges (thank God there was baling twine on the closed end as a backup!) by skidding into it in the mud. He gets like this every so often, partly b/c he IS only three, but also - I've noticed the pattern - when his tummy hurts (his ulcer meds are late getting here) or the routine changes or he's ticked off about something.

Mind you, even when he's in Psycho Freak mode, he's not THAT bad, and if the chips are down, he can still accurately assess a problem.

Thank God.

'Cause when I brought him up to his stall, I went to bring in his dinner, and somehow I managed to trip over something - my own feet, probably - and fell right underneath his forelegs, and absolutely SLAMMED my head into the concrete stall wall. It was dark in there anyway, I lost my glasses in the fall (without which I truly cannot see beyond my nose), and honestly I hit the concrete with my head so hard that dark or not, I couldn't see a thing for a couple of seconds.

...So I'm part-sitting, part-lying, part-crawling, only vaguely conscious, thinking to myself "GREAT, here I am on the ground in the stall in the dark under the feet of a three year old I really don't know all that well yet, I can't see, and I'm in between him and his food..."

Like I say: When the chips are down, Quattro has a brain and uses it. He spooked when I fell; I have no idea HOW he got us all untangled, but I heard a swish, so he may have actually jumped backwards over me, or something like that! He certainly didn't lay a hoof to me, but how he managed it I don't know. I think in between cusses I managed to croak out "Whoa, Quattro" a couple of times, and, sensible colt that he is, he simply withdrew to the farthest back wall and waited patiently for me to get myself sorted out.

This little guy is going to be a good one; he really is.

So now my crippled hip hurts and my nearly-healed broken rib hurts and my head isn't feeling too special either, so I'm taking the rest of the night off for ibuprofen and TEEEVEEEE, to celebrate the fact I'm not actually dead! But not without a quiet prayer of thanks that Q is such a good pony. Thanks, Little Man. You're alright.

The adventure will continue when next I am upright. :-P

I've said it before, I'll say it again...

2009-03-15T14:00:00.006-04:00

I've said it before, I'll say it again, and everyone reading this can laugh and snork and call me a clueless, old-fashioned moron.

I.

DO.

NOT.

LIKE.

SIDE.

REINS.

But then again, bear in mind I'm also so completely old-school that I think the so-called dressage pyramid is incorrect, because the fundamental (lowest) step should not be "Rhythm", it should be "Relaxation" - you can't have true Rhythm without true Relaxation FIRST.

So take this post with as much salt as you may prefer. :-P

Be the trainer for a second.

Why would you want THIS...

or THIS...

When you could have THIS?

See what I'm saying? Sure, he's on the forehand and dragging behind a little bit, but his whole body is relaxed, he's happy in his mouth, so he's using his head and neck egg-freaking-zackly the way I want a young horse to do, and he's sure the heck a lot less stressed. Once he's unstressed and happily reaching forward, the rhythm will come.

What do side reins actually teach a horse?? That it can't move its head beyond a certain point. To back off the bit. To put its head down and bore, or to hollow its back. That all those jiggles of the bit in his sensitive mouth are to be completely IGNORED, because they don't actually MEAN anything, other than that he has hit the end of the side rein and it's time to either back off the bit or put his head down and bore.

Sounds great!! Sign me up!!! Not.

The configuration I'm using in the last pic is his usual Happy Mouth with the end of a chain longe line run through the bit under his chin and clipped back onto itself. Ignore the riding reins, I just clipped those up out of the way. The advantage of this configuration, assuming you have made your horse well bridle-wise beforehand, which we now have, is that a light tug on the mouth from the longeing hand (a/k/a a half-halt, in hunter speak, though the dressage half-halt is NOT the same thing) really DOES mean something: hey, relax, dude, give to me a little bit. If so inclined, you can also step a little back behind the horse and drive him INTO the lunging hand with the whip hand. We're not there yet, but we messed with it a little at the end of today's lesson.

My opinion: if you go from this to long-lining, you are teaching the fundamentals of relaxed communication with the bit and hand before you ever step up on them.

There. I've said it!

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends... (OT)

2009-03-12T09:53:00.005-04:00

Shades of the 80s, it's a missing GP showjumper... And boy, is there a back story to this one. But please pass the flyer on anyway. Can't hurt, might help.

EDIT: Horse has been found. Pretty much where one might expect it to be found, if one were familiar with the players and the back story. Happy birthday, Patrick, glad you found your horse. But you might want to be WAY more careful about the company you keep. WAY more.

Adding a new job possibility to the mix.

2009-03-08T12:43:00.003-04:00

The thing that's really fun about a new young horse is that you just don't KNOW what they are going to be good at.

I was watching the juniors and low hunters at RMI (an "A" H/J show series) yesterday. I worked Quattro when I got home, and realized... wait for it... He really, truly MIGHT have the step to do that gig. There were a lot of horses at that show who didn't have nearly as long a stride at the canter and were struggling to get down the lines. When Q is balanced and relaxed, he really does have the long-striding, low, lopey thing going on. He did the same thing when I turned him out this morning, and I found myself thinking, "Man, that is a LONG stride for 15.3!"

So I'm kind of cautiously putting "real" hunters back into the mix as a job possibility. In our ground work, we've been emphasizing relaxation and balance and letting him find the frame that comes naturally. Being an ASB, he CAN of course hinge his neck bolt upright - if there's something outside the round pen he wants to look at, heehee - but the way he naturally wants to go is long, low and relaxed. Which is FINE by me!

I really am blessed to have exactly the right horse for my range of interests. I really don't care which of "A" hunters, ASB hunters, and carriage driving he ends up doing... He may do all three to some extent or another... But for now, I think I'm going to change the training plan slightly to emphasize low, slow, pace, balance. And see how far we get.

Happy Belated Birthday, Little Q Man!

2009-03-07T07:27:00.002-05:00

OK, OK, I'm a bad horse mom. I missed Quattro's birthday - for some reason I had it in my head that it was March 11 but it was the 3rd. So this is just to apologize and wish him a happy one!

He did get presents - actually we both did; he got new feeties from my fabu farrier and I got his papers. Which makes this an opportune time to give a huge shoutout to Kiersten and to all at Hallston Manor for helping this little guy find me! We're going to have some fun, and hopefully we'll make you proud.

Happy birthday, Quattro. You're a good pony, I'm very pleased with you. You have many more birthdays to look forward to, and it's a funny thing about horse birthdays: the older you horses get, the better the birthday parties get! By the time you're about 12, you'll be getting the ragin' full-on, invite everybody in the neigh-borhood, stuff your face with carrot cake, lick frosting off your whiskers, wear a crown (thank you, Burger King!) while all the Twolegs have to wear stupid birthday hats and sing to you kind of party. But I've got to be honest with ya, Q - you kind of have to EARN that kind of party. You're only just getting the idea that there is such a thing as work - even if your Twolegs is sorta good at making it seem like more dumb human games. Sometimes, because you're the horse, you DO have to do stuff you don't really want to, or aren't really sure about. But if you do all these things cheerfully and do them all well, then come one birthday in the future, you WILL get to wear the crown and eat the carrot cake and get nice pressies like 'spensive blankies imported from England in your favorite colors with your name on them. (Yes, I admit, I was scoping them out last night!)

You keep doing as well as you're doing, and you can look forward to lots of rockin' birthday parties in the future.

Loff,
Your Human

I think Q might be growing... a little!

2009-03-05T20:33:00.002-05:00

I think Quattro *might* be growing... at least a little.

I take him out for a hand graze every night when I get home, so I get a lot of time just standing and looking at him. He seems, this last couple of days, to be a bit more uphill-looking than usual, even when he has his head down eating grass. So maybe we'll get that couple more inches I'm praying for. Instead of "Go, TB, go!" it's "Grow, Quattro, grow!"

Not much else to report. I figure nobody who has been kind enough to subscribe to this blog is absolutely perishing to read 6 posts a week that all say "Yes, we did bridle work in his stall, yes, he was a good boy, yes, I'm very pleased with him!" But that's what we've been doing every night, and yes he was and yes I am! The bridle slides on quite easily now, and he's such a fast learner that I find he's learning to anticipate. This doesn't necessarily bode well for future driven dressage tests!

Like every other person with horses at home, I'm just marking time, waiting for the time change. I dread getting up at "5:00" next week and I dread getting up in the dark again, but with that extra hour of daylight, I should be able to get him working outside AND make sure he gets his grass. Since it's now shedding season in earnest, I'm putting him on corn oil temporarily, too; let's see if we can put a shine on that coat!

I'm taking Saturday "off" to go visit my old stomping grounds, an "A" humper-yumper show up in Tennessee. A friend of mine from Middle Tennessee will be showing her new hunter, a loffly big TB, whom I haven't "met" yet! I'm looking forward to it.

The adventure continues.

Ho-lyyyyyy Bleeep!!!!

2009-03-02T06:25:00.003-05:00

Someone posted this on CD-L, the carriage driving e-mail list, this morning:

This is why I am TOTALLY serious when I say I don't see Quattro getting into the show ring much short of 2011, maybe even 2012, depending on how he develops. As an AOT, it's my responsibility to make sure my horse is thoroughly broke and thoroughly prepped.

Not that that would have stopped this train wreck from occurring, but your chances of keeping horse and self safe are much greater if your horse has a good "WHOA-STAND".

I'd love to hear from others what they think could have prevented this.

Hay everyone, it's ME, Quattro!

2009-02-28T13:48:00.002-05:00

Hay everyone, it's ME, Quattro! I just thought I'd check in with some advice for my fellow horses.

Do your humans ever make you wear turnout sheets? I don't get it, I really don't. It's been raining for days here, and my paddock is so niiiice and muddy. Just perfect for a spa day. Don't the humans get it about mud baths? I thought I heard humans pay a lot of money for those!

This morning my new human decided today was the day for me to wear my new turnout sheet. I hate NEW turnout sheets even more than I hate turnout sheets in general. They smell all funny and horrid and plastic-y, not like a horse at ALL. If I have to wear one, I want it to smell like ME. And anyway, this one doesn't fit. She bought it before I got here, and I know she thought she was doing the right thing, but come on - it makes me look all Gangsta.

I try to be a good young horse, honest I do, but really - sometimes if the humans aren't getting the message, one must take matters into one's own hooves. I vote JUST SAY NO to new, plastic-y smelling turnout sheets!!

If you feel like I do, let's tell 'em how we feel. Take those nasty things and roll like crazy!!!

I did a pretty good job with mine in just under three hours, don't ya think??

The other side is even better:

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my morning's work. I've been busy. Now it's time for my lunch.

Later!

Loff
Quattro

P.S. I just heard my human telling another human that if it doesn't stop raining soon, our road is going to flood. I sure am glad she got out to buy my FOOD if we're going to be housebound! My new human isn't really all that bad. She has her priorities right.

I wonder what color he is...REALLY.

2009-02-28T11:44:00.002-05:00

I've been musing over this. I wonder what color Quattro will really turn out to be?

With the full winter coat that he arrived in, he was a pretty bright fire-engine-red chestnut, which is one of my favorite colors. But I once had a QH rescue mare that arrived fire-engine-red in her winter coat and shed out to liver in the summer. (I didn't even know they "made" QH in liver chestnut - she was the only truly liver chestnut QH I've ever seen!)

Quattro has now shed about half of his State of New York-issue winter coat and has one that's more "Georgia size". But it seems to be lighter in color as it sheds. So I wonder - is he going to be light chestnut or liver chestnut??

If you know, please DON'T tell me! I like surprises! :-)

The adventure continues!

"Education is wasted on the young." Humans, that is!

2009-02-26T20:25:00.002-05:00

My mom used to have this saying: "Education is wasted on the young." What she meant was that we don't, as youngsters, have the wisdom and maturity to really value what we are being taught, and sometimes we don't even know which questions to ask.

This evening I was working with Quattro in the stall with his bridle and reins, flexing him each way with little half halts, teaching him to turn, "whoa" and "back" with a bit in his mouth; to relax his jaw and give with his neck and back - making him "light" as we say. He's doing really well, I'm very pleased. But I realized - I'm doing the right thing, and I'm getting the right result, but I don't know WHY I'm doing it this way. It's a classic case of "Because my trainer told me to and I don't know anything else!" :-P

I learned how to make a young horse bridle-wise by watching my first instructor do it. Early on in my riding career - late 50s, early 60s - I was trained by a fine old gentleman who was an ex-cavalry drill sergeant. He'd competed in Eventing (back in the days when it was still the Prix Militaire) in the U.S. and Europe, but could also turn out one heck of a hunter or Saddlebred. I've never met a better horseman. He modeled himself after Gen. Patton (which military man didn't, in those days?) and taught with a parade-ground bellow that withered the bravest heart of horse or human if he was on your case! He was 77 when I first rode with him and 87 when the crazy old buzzard decided to step up on my Psycho Greenie TB of the moment, who was in the midst of a major meltdown. I was horrified: I thought I was going to go down in history as the kid whose horse killed D___ O___. That horse was so livid he was grinding his teeth on the bit with his ears pinned flat back and - I've never seen this before or since - his eyes really WERE "shooting flames". And Mr. O. got on that horse, captured him between hand and leg, walked him once down the fence line, trotted him back, trotted down again, and came back in an absolutely technically correct passage. He did it twice, trotting down in an extended trot and passaging back, then clapped the horse on the neck, dismounted, and bellowed "Now: don't you EVER tell me again that THIS HOSS CAN'T." He was an absolutely amazing horseman.

So what I'm sitting here regretting is all the times I could have asked "Why" we do a particular thing the way we do it, and was too shy, or didn't have the nerve. (D___ O____ was so terrifying even George Morris Himself, had they met, would have been saluting and gulping "Yes, sir, anything you say, SIR.") What an education I could have had. It's so sad to think of all that knowledge being gone forever. I'm deeply grateful for what I did learn, but there could have been so much more, so much more.

My mom was right: education really is wasted on the young!

Quattro and I have a VERY special friend.

2009-02-25T20:08:00.002-05:00

Grief can hit you in so many weird ways. I'm over the worst of it, honest I am, but I'm now at that phase where you think you're fine, but then it blind-sides you unexpectedly.

That happened to me this morning before work. I signed on to the carriage driving e-mail list with every intention of listing HRH Avery's old road cart and harness for sale. You see, unlike the light jog carts used in ASB show ring style driving, larger, heavier carriages must be fitted to the horse very precisely - here's the table - otherwise they are unbalanced and make it extremely difficult for the horse to pull them. You can put a horse permanently out of action by using ill-fitting harness and carts! If you look at the table, you can see right away that a cart and harness made for a 17.2h, 1350-pound TB are not ever going to fit a 15.3h, 850-pound ASB! Granted, Quattro won't need new stuff for a while yet, but I still haven't decided if I'm moving yet and if I am, I'd like to have this stuff gone and not have to stress about it any more.

So I went to start typing up the listing, and I found I just could NOT do it. I got sick to my stomach thinking of actually packing up that harness, in which HRH Avery and I had so many wonderful adventures, and sending it off to a stranger, and the next thing I knew, I was sobbing with my head on my desk. I still kind of am, to be honest! I've been kind of tearful and weepy all day - good thing I have a door to close at work and had LOTS to do today!

But then my day was made. I got a wonderful, WONDERFUL, sweet e-mail from Kiersten, Quattro's New York "auntie", who knew I was feeling very down. I won't quote it b/c I didn't think to ask her if I could, but I just want to say a big huge THANK YOU, Kiersten, for your thoughts, kind words and compassion. They really mean a lot. Quattro was a very lucky boy to have you in his corner, and he and I are very blessed indeed by your generous friendship.

As we say on COTH, "we LOFF you"!!!

Seriously, thanks.

Love,
Liz and Quattro

Playing the Bridle Game.

2009-02-23T19:48:00.003-05:00

So guess who's wearing a bridle? The Q-man, that's who!

What can I say. We were bored. I had a few extra minutes to kill while waiting for his alfalfa cubes to cook, so I grabbed my old training bridle, wiped the cobwebs off it with baby wipes, grabbed a handful of my trusty Dumor NutriSource Horse Cookies (TSC oughta give me a product endorsement at this point - I bet I sell about 150 bags a year for them!), put my favorite training bit on it - the one I bought used before he got here and really hoped would fit, though I suspected it was too large - and went into his stall just to see what would happen.

I have an unconventional technique for stuff like haltering and bridling, and you can diss it as much as you want to, but it works every time. I have never known it to fail. Even the most headshy horse in the world (this means you, HRH Avery - who, when I first got him, rather famously needed to be bridled by 3 people in his stall, one of them wielding a pitchfork! People who later watched me bridle Avery while I was sitting on the floor, which I used to do for bets and to annoy the neighborhood Parelli people, never believe this - but it's totally true, and I'll give you the names of a couple of pro trainers who wielded the pitchfork...) but really, ANY headshy horse - comes round to seeing it my way inside three days and most get it within a couple of tries.

Put simply, it's snackmail. And it goes like this. Hold the halter or the bridle down low (with the bottom of it about where you would want Horsie's nose to be, in the most ideal world you can possibly imagine) in your right hand. Hold a Dumor in your left hand below the halter or bridle. Make sure horsie knows it's there.

Then shrug your shoulders, stand completely still, and leave it up to the horse.

Don't move, don't chase him, don't go forward when he goes back, don't go up when he goes up or down when he comes down. Just. Stand there. The most you're allowed to do, if the horse backs up, is remind him there's a nice Dumor over here and show it to him; but after you show it to him, it goes right back underneath the halter or bridle. And you stand there some more.

And here is what horsie will do: he'll sniff around the thing, say "No, thank you" and fling his head in the air or back up. Fine. You don't care. But there really is this nice delicious Dumor over here, remember? "Oh yeah, forgot about that." Horsie will creep forward, maybe nose around the thing, maybe even put his nose partway in to see what will happen. Maybe horsie will run backwards again. Fine. You don't care. No want cookie? You sure? "Oh, well, wait a minute..." Horsie will creep forward again.

The objective is - and it usually works this way - that every time the horse comes up, he puts his nose a little farther into the thing. You make NO effort whatsoever to put it on his head - NONE. You Just. Stand there. You might have to play this fun game for 10-15 minutes. I think it took Quattro about 3, but remember two things: one, he has had a bridle on before, just not in several months, and two, we already went through this routine playing The Halter Game, so he's read the playbook.

The most important thing is that Horsie does NOT get the Dumor until the halter or bridle is ON. That's crucial, and it is absolutely non-negotiable; otherwise you're just teaching them how to duck through the halter or bridle, grab the Dumor and run!

But if you do it this way, I absolutely guarantee you that sooner or later, Horsie will put his nose down, open his mouth for the Dumor, and you can slide the bit right in, and the bridle right over his nice, LOW head, no fuss no mess no fights. Done. Horsie gets cookie. Lucky Quattro!

Lucky me, too: his mouth is a lot bigger than it looks like it is, and my beloved Happy Mouth fits him perfectly. I really like this bit for greenies, because it doesn't pinch, it lies flat in their mouths, it doesn't poke the tongue or the roof of the mouth like a regular snaffle does, and it goes in and comes out without clanking metal on their teeth. Quattro seemed perfectly content to leave it on - even more so after I got it adjusted correctly and he figured out he could chew Dumors with it on. :-)

So I left it on him for about 5 minutes and just let him play with it - it's chewy, and they like that - then took it off. We'll do the same again tomorrow night, and the night after that it gets reins put on and we start bridle work!

Oh and BTW: looks like ulcers may have been the right call. He's putting on weight like crazy after 4 days of Gastrogard. He has actual flesh over the ribs now, and I bet he'll be fat by the end of the week!

The adventure continues!

Vet visit report!

2009-02-16T13:34:00.002-05:00

Well, Q's vet visit went pretty much as I expected it would go. I was fortunate enough to be able to get the senior vet in the practice (which is usually difficult for us one-horse owners - I'm thinking my luck may be down to the economy) and I totally trust his judgment. He ranked Quattro as 4/9 on the body scale, and said "don't change a thing, I'm very happy with that" in terms of his diet. Teeth are fine. We're putting him on GastroGuard for a week to see if there is a difference in his behavior and weight gain - which I suspect there will be, sigghh... Also pulled some blood to check kidneys and make sure he's not anemic; results on that tomorrow.

Special to Kiersten - Quattro was a CHAMP about the needle, he didn't even flinch. The only bad thing he did was at one point when the vet and I were talking, Quattro decided he just HAD to play with the handle of the nearby (empty) muck bucket and then spooked up a storm when, gasp, it MOVED! Goofy kid. :-)

I doubt there will be much to report on the blood tests, but in these early stages it never hurts to rule stuff like that out.

I remembered to get Banamine. I'd rather have it than not have it!

Now to see if I can resist the lure of a COTH OT day long enough to do my taxes. ;-)

The adventure continues...

Don't try this at home!

2009-02-15T19:56:00.003-05:00

Ever try to lunge a green 2 y/o on a skidpan while videoing him? This is as good as it gets:

You really DON'T wanna try this at home! :-P

This is one ASB who is NEVER going to spook at a cow!!

2009-02-15T09:17:00.003-05:00

Hahaha, ohhhhhhhhhh how I wish I had that camera working.

Quattro has a new neighbor in the adjacent paddock: a cow and her newborn calf. They've been separated from the herd b/c the cow isn't producing enough milk and they want to keep an eye on her and make sure she's getting enough food.

So I poke my nose out the window and WHAT do I see?

The cow and calf lying down snoozing right next to the fence on one side...

...and Quattro lying down snoozing right next to the fence on the other.

Priceless!!!

All's Well on Planet Q!

2009-02-14T13:15:00.002-05:00

The Q-man is fine this morning. I really do think he just plain stuffed his face too fast and got a little crampy. I'm toying with moving his feed bucket and putting a salt lick in it so he can't guzzle like that. I did take the precaution of shorting his grain a bit this a.m. and making sure his alf. cube lunch was REALLY mushy (he's so odd: he digs a "hole" in his alf. cube lunch and drinks the water first, then eats the cubes, so I have no idea whether it STAYS mushy after I MAKE it mushy, I suspect not!), but apart from that all's well that ends well.

Have spent the entire morning making the rounds of all the feed stores collecting supplies for the week. :-P My fantasy feed store would stock Nutrena, Triple Crown AND Pennfields, would always have an ample supply of good quality alfalfa cubes and beet pulp on hand, would always have an ample supply of pelleted bedding, would be open ALL DAY Saturday, half a day Sunday, and until 9 p.m. one night a week for us commuters, and would be able and willing to special order absolutely anything so long as you paid cash up front. (How do I miss thee, Bar G Horse and Cattle Supply of Watkinsville, Georgia? Let me count the ways!)

The feed stores around here only have about one of those things apiece, and none of them are open during the week at times I can get there, and none are open more than 2-3 hours on Saturday morning. So for a commuter with one horse on self-care, Saturday mornings are a mad scramble to rush and get your bedding at This Place and your alfalfa cubes at That Place and your feed at The Other Place, totaling 56 miles in 3 hours. And heaven help you if (as this morning) This Place doesn't have your alfalfa cubes, then you're driving in a panic to Yet Another Place trying to get there before they close and still make The Other Place to get your feed before THEY close. I've got so many dadgum store credits for out-of-stock items at so many feed stores I can't keep up any more!

Fun. Not.

But, at least it's all done. Q is freshly bedded and has feed and alfalfa cubes and has eaten his lunch, so now it's time for me to go eat mine!

The adventure continues.

It is SO hard to tell what's "normal"!!

2009-02-13T19:39:00.002-05:00

Wouldn't you know, the one night I get home late... The Q-Man is NQR. At least I think he's NQR. It is SO hard to tell what's "normal" behavior for a new horse!! I've tricked myself into thinking he's NQR before and he's been fine, so I'll check back with him in an hour. He just didn't seem his usual bright-eyed bushy-tailed little self when I got home, and he hasn't cleaned up all his alfalfa cubes, and I can't hear any gut sounds, so I'm suspecting colic. Temp, P&R all normal, no other wounds or injuries that might account for listlessness, turning and walking fine, not sweating, not biting his tummy, not down or thrashing or anything like that - just seems listless and unenthused. The lack of gut sounds MAY mean nothing: I've noticed before that you can't really hear his gut sounds even when he's fine... (certainly not like HRH Avery's grumbly old tummy, which you could literally hear from 5 feet away without remotely straining for it!) And I did get home late enough (it was Stop At TSC To Buy Bedding Night) that he may just be in "snooze" mode, and there was one fresh poop in the stall, so he may in fact BE fine... It's just so darn hard to tell with a horse you don't know all that well yet.

So I gave him two good glugs of mineral oil (and BTW I have to give this little guy a huge thumbs-up: he takes meds like a CHAMP - even wormer, which you nearly had to hog-tie HRH Avery for) and cleaned his stall so I'll be able to tell if he poops again... I have no banamine at the moment (a situation to be rectified, ironically enough, on Monday when the vet comes out to do a workup!), so I figured I'd just turn the lights out and let him rest and check back in an hour to see if we have any poop action... I think we probably will, but I'm a little nervous. Will edit this later.

The adventure continues...

Edit, 9:05: Back from barn. Yay, a big fat poop! And he seems more cheerful. I note some unchewed oats in the poop, which is NOT normal for him (trust me, I check twice a day!), so I'm wondering if he just plain guzzled his dinner too fast. I had an old QH mare who would do that and then go OOH OOH MY TUMMY HURTS OOH, complete with down and thrashing, and you'd dose her with mineral oil and she'd be fine in an hour. She was a bit of a drama queen though. This is probably totally a false alarm, but I'm gonna watch a movie and go back up to the barn in a couple of hours just to be absolutely positively sure. And don't worry, you don't need to comment on this blog, I'm only typing it 'cause I'm home alone and bored!

Edit, 11:31: Yay, two more. I'm going to bed.

Honeymoon's back on again! :-)

2009-02-11T19:45:00.003-05:00

Quattro really is SO clever. I really enjoy having a horse with a brain, and honestly I don't think Kiersten (or anyone for that matter) could have picked out a youngster who is going to be SUCH a worthy successor to HRH Avery.

Quattro already knows the sound of my car (when he can't see it) and the sight of my car (when he can), and comes trotting up to the gate ready to be collected and tucked in with his dinner! He has even figured out that some nights I have to go into the house first to change clothes, and when I do that, he knows I come out the back door instead of the front one, and is waiting for me on the rear side of the house instead of the front! I haven't had a horse who trotted to the gate for me in decades; I'd forgotten how nice it is!

I finally got to watch him get his Dumor cookies out of the plastic jug hanging in the stall. It takes him 2.2 milliseconds - he doesn't even bother swinging it or playing with it; he just cuts to the chase, tosses the jar upside down with his nose, then lets it sliiiiide down the stall wall with his mouth wide open until his mouth is poised over the opening. Chomp! Finished. Done. Got mo' Dumo'?? He's rapidly roaring through his salt block, too (note to Self: get another one this weekend).

Since we can't use the indoor, we've mostly been working on ground manners. I'm a real *stickler* for ground manners. I don't *care* if you're two: nothing short of perfection will do. But perfection will invariably get you "Good boy" and lots of petting, and a Dumor is administered for truly spectacular feats of perfection. He has the haltering thing *completely* down now; it's no longer an issue. We're still working on ears and we're still working on poll. They both continue to improve, but there's that ONE annoying piece of Mohawk mane up by his poll that I would dearly love to braid down, but can't quite get him to drop his head long enough for me to braid it yet! He'll stay down long enough for me to brush it and separate it now, which is an improvement; we'll get there eventually. I think he's afraid I'll get water in his ears. ;-)

He is now wearing his training surcingle, his galloping boots, sheets/blankets/coolers, a tail bandage (preparatory to using the crupper) and a saddle pad (haven't bothered with the saddle yet). I sling this stuff allllllllll over him, drag it around, drop it, pick it up. He now lets me, too, hang all over him, including across his back. We're still working on feet. He now picks them up readily, but he's so base-narrow that he loses his balance easily and then he panics. I pick each foot up and count the seconds by counting "woodchuck" out loud, and the goal at the moment is four woodchucks. Tomorrow we go for five woodchucks!

Tonight since it's still quite warm I decided to try him with a spray bottle for the first time. I figured I might as well start now, so it's not an issue come bug-spray time. He about fainted when he first saw it, but it seemed like more of a brain fart than an actual "OMG, what's THAT, it's gonna KILL me" thing. Actually spraying him was pretty uneventful: he flinched a bit, but Feet Didn't Move, so he got praise and a cookie, and the same again on the other side.

I've also started handwalking him down the driveway toward the road and letting him graze on the bits of grass that are starting to come up. I'm thrilled to discover he is NOT a car spooker. That should make life much, much easier when it comes time for me to actually take him out on the road. The other night we were grazing right out by the road when cars were buzzing by en route home from work, and he didn't flinch. This bodes VERY well. We'll spend a lot of time this spring and summer going walkies on a lead rope while he acquires - and then hopefully perfects - his ground-driving skills in the round pen and the arena. He's innately curious, and that's a huge plus, too - he likes to go 'sploring, and I think he'll like it even more once there's enough light to really get out and about.

He's also starting to put some weight on finally. That second deworming seems to have done the trick - though we still have one more to do, the Ivermectin, which I'll do this coming weekend. I'm in the process of slowly switching him over to Triple Crown Complete. I really, REALLY would have preferred to try him on Ultium, but it turns out the Purina dealer near me isn't certified for Ultium (dealers have to take a test and pay a fee in order to carry it - I did actually know that, b/c the Purina dealer back home in Athens didn't stock it for the same reason - I'm guessing the fee must be hefty!), and the nearest place I could get it is in Cleveland, Tennessee, 67 miles away! So, uh, NO to the Ultium; you play the hand you're dealt, and in this area really the only high-end feed you can get is Triple Crown. (Not to be construed as a "dis" on Triple Crown, which I have fed for years and I'm grateful we have it; I just thought a pelleted feed would be better for a horse with tummy issues.)

This weekend I *might* try bridling him in the stall. I'd kind of rather have the ear issues sorted out first, though, so stay tuned!

The adventure continues.

Just Q'ing around!

2009-02-04T19:24:00.003-05:00

I've invented a new phrase: "Just Q'ing around". It means... just messin'. It's what we do on nights like this, when the South has been hurled back into the deep freeze and we can't work in the indoor arena (early foal born yesterday, and mare and newborn baby are turned out in there 24/7... God forbid the BM should, like, bed down a stall or anything! Oh well, not my job... I really do need to be looking for a place to move, though.)

So we've been hanging out together in the stall, hanging out together in the cross-ties, working on grooming and working on feet and eating lots and lots of cookies. We can use the bonding time. We're still getting used to each other.

In short, nothing to report!

Honeymoon's over! :-)

2009-02-01T16:23:00.002-05:00

Note 1 to AOTs who may be new to breaking greenies: Always keep a crop hanging *right* to hand in your barn workspace, so you can grab it in 2 milliseconds if you need to.

I needed to.

Quattro has been a really uneventful horse up until now, so we were due for one. I kind of wondered how long the honeymoon period was going to last! It ended today.

Plan was to catch him and bring him up to the barn, crosstie, groom and clip him, then see which set of galloping boots fit him, do some round pen work, and give him a bath.

Note 2 to AOTs new to this game: Your plan cannot be graven in stone. Sometimes you have to play the hand you're dealt.

It was a warm, windy day today and I found out two things: (1) Quattro is a wind-spooker, and (2) he is very, very herdbound. Now, both of these could be down to iffy tummy and New Horse Syndrome - so he may work out of them: he hasn't had a whole LOT of time to get settled yet, and I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt - but either way, he was a handful and a half today. He refused to stand in the crossties - kept screaming for his pals and dashing this way and that and running backwards and forwards and generally being an hysterical pony. I tried the nice way and he ran right over me - which is NOT permissible, so we went to the crop. He was still monstrous - I didn't dare to let go of him even to reach for a brush. He finally actually STRUCK at me and that got him a sharp snap with the crop; he then bared his teeth and snapped at me, which got him another one in the shoulder.

This was clearly getting us nowhere good, and that's when you have to change the plan and play the hand you're dealt. This means - the heck w/ fitting the galloping boots, your asp is going in the round pen, sonny boy!

When they're not listening, you give them a job to do. So, rearing and plunging, we made our way in spirals to the round pen... :-P

Quattro was actually pretty darn good once he got out there. He yelled for his friends but only about twice around. He walked, trotted, cantered, stopped and backed on command both ways. I have my own version of what I *think* PP calls the Yoyo Game?? where I ask the horse to halt facing me and STAND. When I beckon, the horse is to come forward toward me, but stop if I hold up my hand, and back up if I take a step forward. He did this nicely several times, licking and chewing.

When I thought he'd reconnected with his brain, I took him back in the barn where he was out of sight and smell of the other horses for another shot at the cross-ties.

No dice. Same thing again - whirling dervish SCREAMING for his friends!!

Now, I don't want him to learn that cross-ties are BAD and Scary Things Happen There, so as soon as it became apparent nothing good was going to happen, I changed the plan again, and took him out to the back of the barn where there is an outdoor wash rack. Luckily, it's close to his paddock-pal Mr. Bay, who came up to console him.

Credit where it's due - this IS a nice place to break greenies. The iron hitching rail you tie to in the outdoor wash rack is set deep in cement and is pretty in-de-freaking-structible. And he sure tested it. (Luckily, his new halter is also pretty darn indestructible - he sure tested that, too!) He was a real ratbag for a further five minutes - leaping and pulling. My instinct said to put the whip down and just go on about the business at hand - new day, new game - so I did. He had worked up enough of a sweat in the round pen for at least a half-bath to be entirely in order. Got that done, and by this time he was starting to settle. Soothing talk now, pats and cookies whenever he stood. Eventually he settled down to where I could get his mane and tail washed and conditioned. He was standing pretty well by the time we were done.

Brought him back up the barn aisle and decided, OK, we need a breather and he needs to remember I'm not the enemy. So we didn't even bother with the ties; I just took him straight out for a hand-graze in the sun. He was high as a kite for about 10 minutes, spooking at eeeeverything; but we stayed out there for about an hour, and half an hour into it, he was quiet enough that I could hold the lead and make a start at picking his tail.

After about an hour, the other horses were starting to be brought up for dinner, so I decided to try the cross-ties one mo' time.

Jackpot. He stood like a prince! Got him groomed, got him trimmed (just fetlocks and jawline for now!), got his tail picked and conditioned. Because the other horses were around.

And so, with praise and cookies, off to his dinner and his nice warm bed.

Oh BTW: he wore his stable sheet just fine last night, which is just as well, since it's going to rain tomorrow and I'll be putting him outside in a turnout sheet. AND he ate some of his hay in turnout today, AND he let me unhalter and rehalter him in the paddock, twice.

So all is not lost by any means. One always hits holes in the road; but the smart people shrug it off, step around them and move on. If it turns out he really is herdbound and not just anxious owing to the regime change, well, I've fixed herdbound horses before and can do so again, but it'll take a bit longer than planned.

Last note: You take the time it takes - no matter how long or short that may be.

The adventure continues...

Oh and P.S. I got the digicam/videocam, but the set was supposed to contain a USB cable and didn't. It has a funky end that isn't standard USB, so I've had to have them send it. Pics next week??

First Day Out!

2009-01-31T12:45:00.002-05:00

Yayyyy, Quattro is OUT! It's a nice bright sunny day, and he's in his large paddock next to my house, with the BO's aging stallion, Mr. Bay, in the next one for company. Q needs to stay in this paddock for 30 days, partly for quarantine purposes but also to be sure I can catch the little brat, tee hee. I don't *think* it's going to be a problem; I keep scooting out to feed him a carrot here and there and he invariably comes up and lets me grab his halter, so I think he should be OK.

Quattro & Bay got the gigglies and galloped themselves stupid for about 15 minutes, but they have now settled. Q has wisely decided to let Mr. Bay be the Boss, and Bay's so relaxed that Q is pretty much fine. He's had a couple of nice rolls and a big drink and is now signally ignoring the bale of nice hay I put out in favor of nibbling the dead dry grass. Go figure...

Worming schedule starts today. Vet's recommendation in view of the iffy tummy was to do fenbendazole twice, a week apart, then ivermectin the week after that, see what that does, and go from there.

Not much to report - I warned you this blog is going to be boring! We've been working on:

* Haltering, which he seems to pretty much have down now;

* Blanketing - I've had him in one in the crossties and in the stall but not overnight yet - I reckon I'll try that tonight.

* Cross-tieing. He's getting it. It is nice that he is now so good at leading from the right; if I'm working on his right and he tries to run backwards, he steps up forward nicely when asked! He settles down eventually and stands quite well, but the first 5 minutes can be interesting!

* Me hanging all over him and kind of "sacking him out" from the right. He's spooky on the right for some reason and he needs to get over it.

* Feet picking up. Still having some issues here. He's got the memo that he gets a cookie for picking up the foot, but sees no reason he shouldn't get the cookie FIRST!

Tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny and 60, so it's going to be Quattro Beautification Day: clipping and tail washing!

In theory my new (el cheapo) digicam/videocam should get delivered some time today- it's on the FedEx truck at any rate - so perhaps pics/vid tomorrow? Here's hoping!

LOTS of firsts tonight. And some good news/bad news.

2009-01-27T19:55:00.003-05:00

In case nobody has figured it out yet, I'm "working" Quattro (so to speak) in two short bursts every day of 15-20 minutes, once before I leave for work and once again after work. Mostly b/c he's still in quarantine and it breaks his day up a little bit more.

So the "firsts" this evening were:

First time in the outdoor round pen. Kiersten, have you round penned him before? He certainly seemed familiar with the routine. He has all his voice commands down including "whoa"! I am making a point to be sure I can catch him every time I ask for "whoa", and so far, so good. It's actually pretty hot here tonight (if you can imagine!), 65-ish, so we kept it short and just worked until it was too dark to see.

First time over the "scary" concrete patio. One thing I do love about this barn is that there is a big, wide, tall covered patio at the end w/ a picnic table and chairs. You have to step up onto it - and there's enough room for a clever horse to step up, turn and come back down. I'm a pretty big believer in what I call "bravery training" and other people call "despooking/desensitizing", and he was grazing in the vicinity of the patio and seemed quite relaxed; so I led him forward and asked him to hop up; he hopped up. "Now right" (we're working on carriage driving voice commands too) and he went right. "Down y'go!" And down he went, without a moment's hesitation!

First time being outside in the dark when the place is chaos! And wow, he did well. A neighbor is leaving for a rodeo up in Michigan and needed a horse shod, so that horse was out being hand-grazed waiting for the trailer; one of the staff had visitors coming and going; and then the BIG HUGE NOISY aluminum stock trailer rolled up at top speed, rattling and banging. You really would have thought little Q. was a veteran of every horse show in the South. He looked up from the grass, evaluated the situation for risk, found none, and went back to grazing. I *love* this horse!!!

First tummy hug!! Quattro has been, up until today, a little bit standoffish about ME respecting HIS space. We've been working on it and he has gotten better, but hestill seems to Not Like me slinging my arm over his back; he usually dances away. As part of his ground work, I want to be able to hang all over this horse, because it'll make life easier come backing time... And tonight he finally let me stand really close and sling my arm across his back giving him a "tummy hug" from each side. Doesn't sound like it, but it's a major breakthrough.

First time he nickered at me! OK, OK, he was nickering for his dinner, but still - first time I've heard his "voice". Means he is learning the routine and knows what's going to happen next. When he was done w/ dinner he nickered for his alfalfa cube "dessert", too! :-)

Now, Kiersten - I saved the best "first" for last and this one is for you. I know you won't believe it, I didn't either, but guess what - when I got home from work Quattro had kept his stall neat!!! I swear to you!!! His leftover hay was all still in its corner and the poops were neatly piled along the far back wall!! (This may be the first time in his LIFE: Kiersten had warned me he was a stall pig, and up to now he has been - though not as bad as HRH Avery, who was truly legendary in this regard, especially if you tried to feed him anything he didn't like.) I wonder if it's just because of the way I have the stall organized - which was dictated to me in NO uncertain terms by HRH Avery, who kept *moving things* until I got the message that he wanted his hay HERE and his water bucket THERE and his feed over HERE and it's NOT open for discussion... Maybe horses just like things to be oriented a certain direction for reasons we don't know... ??? I do remember UGA did a study that found horses are happiest in 12' x 14' stalls because they like to stand diagonally the "long way" and look out, so perhaps there is an element of truth here, but it's pure speculation on my part.

Anyhoo: now for the bad news. Guess what, y'all? I really did break a rib. :-( And it's not even horse-related; I fell in the house last weekend in a funny kind of way while trying to put up a picture, and have hurt ever since, so finally I broke down and got it checked and sure enough... I'm busted. Luckily I had the presence of mind to take my custom back brace with me when I went to the hospital and they checked it out and said I could wear it, so that saves me some $$. But still, this stinks. :-P On the upside, though, at least I have a horse who is VERY well-behaved and needs lots of low-key ground work!!

The adventure continues, ribless...

I REAAAALLLY hate to admit this, but...

2009-01-27T13:20:00.003-05:00

I hate to admit this. You have NO IDEA HOW MUCH I really, really, REALLY hate to admit this. But the bottom line is....

Early predawn schooling sessions are so much more productive, especially with a young or difficult or "hot" or ADD horse. Of those four, Quattro is only young and *somewhat* ADD , but even he just pays so much more attention at (sighhhhh) 5:00 a.m.....

Think about it. Horsie wakes up, he's all nice and relaxed. There is nothing else going on. Here, the other horses at the barn have long since learned that they get fed on a different schedule from mine (I do self-care at a private facility), so when the lights come on they just go "Oh, it's only you, I'm not getting any food yet" and go back to sleep. Not a creature is stirring, and it's so quiet in the indoor that if you whispered to me from one short end, I'd hear you at the other.

There is nothing else for the young horse to look at or think about except paying attention to YOU.

So I've been dragging myself out of bed, and dang, we've gotten a lot done the last couple of days! The main thing we've been working on is leading from the right. If Quattro is going to be a carriage driving horse (and I'm pretty sure he is, now; he certainly has the brains and physical ability for it), then he'll need to get used to the fact that, unlike ridden horses, driven horses (in ADS-style carriage driving) more often handled from the right. The driver mounts from the right, sits on the right, the cavessons buckle on the right, and if ever I had to get out of the carriage, open a gate and lead a hitched horse through (DO NOT try this at home, but it can be done), I'd do it all from the right just to save time. I think he had been led from the right before, but he wasn't sufficiently fluent in it for carriage driving purposes, and had forgotten a lot, so there was a lot of confusion and several false starts. But Q is very quick on the uptake and is now leading fluidly in circles in both directions from the right. I'm very pleased!

Now, on to what I'm not so pleased about: Having observed him now for several days, I'm pretty sure - as in 98% - that Quattro has ulcers. You can't really blame him - he has had as rough a week as a young horse can have, poor little guy. Being separated from his friends for the first time in their brief lives, surrounded by strange people trying to push him onto trailers, then drivinganddrivinganddriving, lather, rinse, repeat, then FINALLY arrival at his new home where he has to be stalled up in a box for 2 weeks while some Weird Old Lady he doesn't know asks him to actually Do Work and Behave Himself.

You bet his tummy's upset.

If I hadn't owned an ulcer-prone TB for ten years, I might not have even detected it; but for those interested, here are the symptoms:

1. Remember when I posted that he still seemed hungry after a large feed of grain? (Of course he did; it's sweet feed and it's irritating his tummy.)

2. I've noticed he is significantly calmer after his soaked alfalfa cube meals. (Alfalfa contains calcium, which settles upset stomachs; it's what's in Tums!)

3. Last night he put in a Really Big Spook at something that shouldn't have phased him much by now. He hadn't had dinner yet and his tummy hurt.

So yeah, I'm 98% on the ulcers. We'll be ditching the sweet feed, slowly swapping in Ultium (for now, until I find something better that's actually available here), adding beet pulp and upping the alfalfa cubes, and when the vet comes out next week I'll get some Gastrogard. I bet he'll feel a lot better after that! I think I'll table the whole worming thing until I talk to the vet, too.

The adventure continues!

First Look Outside!

2009-01-25T10:35:00.002-05:00

Report on Day Two activities so far:

Got up and fed. (I kind of wish that I had thought to get a bag of pellets to slowly cut in with Quattro's sweet feed. He is acting "still hungry" after his grain feeds, but I really hesitate to give him more sweet feed at this point, especially while he is still stalled. I may pick some pellets up on the way home tomorrow night.) He's still eating and drinking well, and barn staff report they saw him using the auto-waterer last night, so that's good - he understands that if the bucket runs out he can get water from that, and vice versa.

Then I mucked out and turned him out in the indoor to get the stupids out. Interesting Quattro Fact: if people are around watching, he much prefers to hang out at the gate and socialize; he won't explore or exercise until everybody leaves and goes on about their business. Again, a good sign. Had no problem catching him and letting him go several times, which is just as well: his halter is starting to bother him (itchy!) and it's time to get the thing off his face every so often. We'll have a haltering refresher lesson in the stall later today.

After Q stretched his legs a bit, I gathered up an extra-long stud chain, a crop, and my helmet preparatory to letting him go outside and explore on the lead for the very first time. Anyone who is wondering "why the helmet" - it's a TB-retrainer thang... You haven't found out how much fun a green horse at the end of a lead shank can be until you've had 17.2 hands and 1300 pounds of frantic OTTB try to land on your head. (Yes, HRH Avery, this means you.) You WEAR the helmet!

I put the chain over his nose as an extra precaution (We Did Not Loff That) and off we went.

When a horse is accustomed to a small group of known horse pals in civilized little paddocks on a horse facility, this place is pretty bizarre: goats, longhorn cattle, stallions (one nice, one Evil), a donkey, buildings, machinery, and tons and tons of horses in all kinds of different pastures, some of them running around being goofbags because it's that kind of day.

He really did very, very well. He was "high" to be sure, but I just LOFF the fact that the feet don't move. When he sees something new he's not sure about, he stops, arches his neck, does "Saddlebred ears" and just... thinks about it. I scratch his neck and pat him and talk to him, and in the end (so far anyway!) he decides he's going to listen.

The big lessons I wanted to be sure he knew were that (1) he stays off me no MATTER what and (2) I decide where the feet go. Hence the crop. I barely needed it and really only had to lift it in his general direction a couple of times. (Kiersten, you've done a great job with this boy!) Whenever things looked like a meltdown might be imminent I just sent him around me in small circles at a walk; when his walk was regular and relaxed, then we'd go forward again and I'd let him look at the Next New Scary Thing.

After about 40 minutes we had a minor breakthrough: when he saw a New Scary Thing, he started looking at me for reassurance. Of course this was quickly given, with a stroke on the neck and "You're all right, it's just a scary old [fill in the blank]."

Then Quattro met his First Cow.

The owner of this facility, being unusual among AQHA breeders in that since the economy has tanked he has NOT bred back this year (at least not much), has decided to get into Corriente (sp?) cattle. So there are lots of them around, and engineering a smooth introduction between Quattro and The Cows is pretty mission critical to continued success with him around here, because those suckers are EVERYWHERE, and he'll be surrounded by them whether he likes it or not.

I walked him down the driveway in the general direction of one herd of them (there are 3 herds, I think, but I lose track). He had spotted them before and examined them by sight and smell at a standstill from a safe distance. So now he was curious, but edgy. I walked him in kind of a spiral, around me, but edging closer to the cow pasture each time, and letting him stop and look if he felt the need.

By a stroke of sheer luck, most of the herd was a good ways off, but one cow was nibbling right by the fence line. So we edged ever closer, me being sure to do it completely on Quattro's time schedule rather than mine. The cow spotted us and was looking just as warily at Quattro as Quattro was at the cow. Ultimately Quattro put his nose down and took two steps forward until they were about three feet apart; the cow looked alarmed and took two steps backward. Quattro was pleased with that; you could just see the "Oh, OK, they're scared of me!" look cross his face. I complimented him highly for being a brave young ASB, and 'splained to him that cows are slower than Christmas and have an I.Q. somewhere in the negative numbers, and that any self-respecting American Saddlebred can get the better of a cow twice a week and six times on Sundays. He cogitated on this data and calmly put his head down to eat grass.

Thank God we got a quiet cow, because really this was a huge BIGTIME WIN!!!! It was one of the Training Issues I was dreading the most, and it went more smoothly than I could have dreamed.

Wait 'til he finds out he can herd them! :-)

More later.

Day One Redux

2009-01-24T17:55:00.005-05:00

Well, the best-laid plans of mice and men... Poor Quattro looks as if he'll be stuck indoors for a couple of days. We live at a Quarter Horse breeding facility, and a very nice broodmare choked badly in the barren broodmare pasture down the street. She will need the quarantine paddock (which was meant for Quattro) until the barn manager is sure she isn't going to choke again.

But we had a nice day anyway. He's definitely starting to get to know me, and his personality is starting to come out. He is for sure a horse with a vivid sense of humor - I just hope I can channel that into positive directions rather than negative ones! :-P

I'm tremendously pleased with how well he is settling in. I turned him out in the indoor this morning with some trepidation, thinking "Gee, I hope it doesn't scare him to death" and "Gee, I sure hope I can catch him!" No worries on either count.

We happen to have a fairly scary indoor. In the first place, a lot of roping stuff goes on here, so it smells of cows. Then there is a lot of stuff to spook at: the cattle chutes, the tractor, the forklift, the roping dummy which looks like a bull, barrels and jump standards and tarps stacked up and/or slung between the outer and inner wall. Honestly I've seen young Quarter Horses who were born on this place lose their minds in there the first time. But not Quattro. I led him around it once for a look and then turned him loose to explore at will. He went right up to everything and examined it and then took the opportunity to stretch his legs in that gorgeous trot! He came up several times to be petted, so I went off and cleaned his stall and just let him get on with it.

After I was done mucking out, I came back with a longe line and short whip. First we worked on leg-yielding and respecting space in hand. Then we worked on being led in hand at a walk and a trot. He had clearly never done the latter before, but caught on pretty quickly. Then I longed him both ways and he was GREAT!! I was ever so pleased.

Then it was back in the stall for his lunch - for the time being he is getting 4 small feeds a day, 2 of grain and 2 of soaked alfalfa cubes - and some chillax time. Later on I groomed him for the first time. He was antsy and didn't loff it but his feet stayed quite still, all things considered, and he moved aside politely when asked, if anyone needed to pass by. We do need to work on picking up his feet - he wasn't horrendous but wasn't great, either.

I had been told he likes toys, so prior to his arrival I had hung up a plastic Dumor Horse Cookie jar with a couple of holes in it and a small handful of grain inside to assuage potential stall boredom. He discovered that during the afternoon. Not only did he discover it, but somehow or other he actually managed to UNSCREW the screw-on lid (!!!), dump the grain neatly along the stall ledge, and devour the lot! I found the lid on the stall floor (thank God) and confiscated that. But he definitely likes his toy and bats it all over the place.

Things were just too busy at the barn for me to get him outside today, unfortunately - we had an unusual number of people and horses coming and going, and I didn't feel as if a handwalk under these circs was advisable. I'll let him out in the indoor again when I go back to feed him his midnight snack in a couple of hours.

He's pooping, peeing and drinking well, and really seems to be settling in quite nicely all things considered. What a brave boy. I'm very pleased!

EDIT: Thanks to Leah for the help! At the top is a pic of him snarfing his alfalfa cubes in the Ridiculous Arena "Penthouse Suite".

He's HERE!!! And I loff him!

2009-01-24T10:40:00.003-05:00

Quattro arrived about 1:30 this morning, and I'm very pleased. He's a real "right thinker" and learns VERY quickly. Provided that Yours Truly doesn't get a terminal attack of the stupids at a bad moment, he should be a relatively easy train.

He unloaded in the dark and drizzle slowly and carefully, like an old pro. I led him into the barn and walked him once up and down the aisle so he could know there are other horses in there. He did "Saddlebred ears" a couple of times (heehee) but remained in his skin. He ate several carrot pieces, stopped at the stall door immediately when asked and stepped carefully in.

He found the hay, test-drove that; found the water, drank lots; found the auto-waterer in the other corner (I keep both a bucket and the waterer on - I don't trust auto-waterers AT. ALL.) and played with that. Then he had a nice roll. I cooked him up some warm, slurpy alfalfa cubes (for extra hydration) which he gleefully snarfed up. After one false start, he let me pet him as he munched. Last night he was a little reluctant to be caught in the stall, but he seems to be over that as of this morning.

He has had his first Dumor Horse Cookie and liked it. :-)

I REALLY like his attitude when he sees new things - he's very curious and wants to go cautiously toward them, rather than run away. This shows a talent for risk assessment, and is definitely an excellent attribute for a potential carriage driving horse.

FWIW, the pro hauler we used is a German WB breeder and dressage trainer and really likes Quattro a lot. He watched the vid and sees the same flaws in him that I do ("Hiss canterrr ve vill not discuss!" - to which my comeback was, "Hey, at least he has one!"). When I mentioned that if all goes well, I plan to use Q. for carriage driving, his eyes lit up and he said "Ja, ja, very gut for driving, VERY gut driving horse, ja!"

I'm letting Quattro chill for a couple of hours this morning, since he got a little up-headed when we opened the barn doors. He wants to go out and explore, and I understand that, but I want to get him in the indoor a little bit later first and make sure he leads, listens and respects space. Then he can go out and we'll explore a bit in hand.

Special thanks to Kiersten for coordinating my acquisition of this wonderful horse; Michael and Zorana for taking SUPERB care of these horses on the trip; and to Chris for staying up half the night with me!

The adventure begins!!

Transitions.

2009-01-22T22:01:00.002-05:00

The new adventure is about to begin - Quattro should be here tomorrow night.

Naturally, therefore, I'm sitting here tonight bawling my eyes out.

Transitions between old horse and new horse are always - always - hard. It's not like I haven't made them before; I have, many a time. But the hardest ones of all are between a trusted, treasured, wise old horse and a new young greenie... And that's what I'm up against.

The last time I had to make this particular type of transition was actually back in the mid-1960s, and - I hate to scare you, but - I still remember how hard it was. Ironically, that one was from a Saddlebred to a Thoroughbred, so go figure! Crebilly's King Fortune (called "Beau" after his sire, the great Beau Fortune, to whom he was said by my elders to bear much resemblance, though I can't be sure about that) was my first-ever horse, given to me by my instructor when I was about six. He was the perfect kid's first horse - wise, kind, and tolerant. He very carefully taught me all the things a young stupid kid needs to know - like why you don't kneel in back of a horse to clip its fetlocks. He didn't run me down or anything, he'd just... kind of... cock the leg, and maybe if I didn't get the message right away, he might lift the hoof a half inch off the ground. The only time he ever dumped me was once when I was out hacking down a quiet country road and three fire trucks came by with sirens and lights blazing. He understandably bolted and I got swept off. He was such a great-hearted old horse that when the trucks were gone and he had regained his wits, he came back for me and stood over me, gently nuzzling, trying to be sure I was O.K. I worshipped him. (And I still need to get him that brick on the Walk of Fame...)

So I went from Beau to my first-ever off-the-track Thoroughbred, a wily, opinionated old trickster who was a grandson of War Admiral, and who really would have preferred to be still on the racetrack if HE had anything to say about it. He sure didn't want to pack kids around for a living. He got rid of me neatly several times a week for the first two years, and quite inventively too. One night in bed I sat thinking about all the different ways he'd gotten me off his back in the last couple of weeks, and got depressed and quit counting when I got to 18.

Another day - and this is the one exercising my mind at the moment - he gleefully unloaded me three times in the course of about an hour. I wasn't really hurt, but the third time I was overwhelmed with temporary despair, and didn't get up right away. I just lay there in the grass with two dry, dusty little tears drizzling down my cheeks and cast a longing glance over to where the greatly aged Beau lay sunning himself in his favorite nap spot - up against the mulch/manure pile, taking advantage of the moist heat for his arthritics. "Oh, Beau," I whimpered, "I wish I could still ride you." And that wonderful old horse, groaning, clambered to his feet and came dutifully over to nuzzle and console his Kid. I put my arms around his dear familiar neck and sobbed.

Cut to the present. Now I have to make the transition from HRH Avery - the Rhodes Scholar of Thoroughbreds, a true genius of a horse who never knew the meaning of the words "I can't" and rarely said "I won't" (but who did have a firm grasp on alternative meanings of the letters "FU", of course, being a TB!), who saved my life (quite literally) at least three times I can think of - and who knew me so well that I could speak to him in entire English sentences, or simply just raise an eyebrow, and either way, he would get it - to a reallyREALLY greenie that hasn't even been backed yet.

And I'm not going to have Avery there to put my arms around and cry. He won't be there to restore my confidence when Quattro and I have a sh*t day (let's face it, we all have them!). At this particular moment in time, I'm rather dreading that.

The excitement of getting my first ASB in 45 years has worked well to sort of mitigate the grief of losing HRH Avery. But I have this feeling, somewhere in a dark corner of my soul, that the worst of the grieving is yet to come. I'll miss him the most on days I need him the most. And it's going to take so long, so very long, to get Quattro to the point HRH Avery was at.

Don't worry, I'll get over this. As I said, I've made this type of transition before, and I'm acutely aware that "Thou shalt not resent Quattro for not being Avery" is the Eleventh Commandment. And there are a lot of upsides to this new adventure - not the least of which is that Quattro's actually sound...

But I hope you'll forgive me if, on the eve of Quattro's arrival, I confess my nerves are quailing just a bit.

Ah well, roll on tomorrow with whatever it may bring!

On the Way!!!

2009-01-21T19:51:00.002-05:00

Woo-hoo, they got them loaded around 12:30 Eastern and are on their way. Quattro is getting good "reviews" from his hauler, which is always nice to hear when you've never laid eyes on the beastie.

They will overnight tonight at the hauler's home farm and be here tomorrow night late. You probably won't hear from me again until Friday.

The adventure continues!

BAAAAAAAAAD ponies! BAD! :-P

2009-01-21T11:32:00.002-05:00

OK, so the latest word from the Great White North is - Quattro and his girlfriend Roxie have decided in NO uncertain terms that they are NOT getting on the trailer. Seller and hauler tried last night and failed; tried for a couple hours this morning and failed; and now are waiting for Mr. Vet with the happy juice.

Ironically enough, Quattro is supposed to be "the brave one" who ALWAYS gets on. Not this time apparently.

BAD ponies! :-)

I've sort of never had this happen before with a long-distance haul, so who knows what's going to happen next... The adventures continue!

Under The Bus!!! (Somewhat OT)

2009-01-18T10:25:00.003-05:00

Somewhat OT, insofar as not related to either ASBs or the actual process of training a horse... but I just haaaaaaaaave to vent for a sec, b/c I can't post this on the forums. Bear with me.

People in the ASB industry often wonder why my watchword is "NEVER trust a pro." It's because the hunter-jumper industry is so rife with greedy, corrupt and vicious scumbags that there are some huge shows I won't even go to spectate at because I don't want my name associated with them, their organizers, or their customers, in any way, shape or form.

We now have another bunch of H/J trainers on the Ugly List. If you hop over to a certain sport horse forum, there's a thread about an Australian OTTB who retrained as a show jumper and made it all the way to the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Rome. He was 64th individually and the team was 16th. He then packed a bunch of juniors and ammies around in the A/O for many years. His show record is absolutely unbelieeeeevable.

And he was just rescued by a kind COTHer for $500. Underweight, looking rough and living out.

So I'd just like to take a moment to address the so-called "Big Name Trainers" and so-called "Top Junior Rider" and rider's mom who put him in this sorry state. Don't think for a minute we don't know how he got there. Don't think for a minute we don't know who's responsible.

You OWED this horse a decent retirement. You had an OBLIGATION to take care of the horse who kept your business going and saved your and your students' sorry asses over the jumps for all those years.

YOU BLEW IT. And sooner or later, it's going to come back on you bigtime.

I don't give a rat's ass what your credentials are. I don't give a rat's ass how much money you have. I don't give a rat's ass how much "pressure" you THINK you were under, or how much good you THINK you do with your tacky little riding program.

You will never, ever, EVER have care and custody of any horse I EVER own. Not if you were the last trainers on earth.

There is no excuse good enough for this grand, brave horse to end up like this. Do you hear me? NONE. You should be thrown out of the sport.

Under the bus with you. I will gladly volunteer to drive.

Preparations.

2009-01-17T17:43:00.003-05:00

So Quattro's arrival is about a week away (darned snow permitting!) and preparations continue.

Drove down to Rome, Georgia today and stocked up on half a truckload of pelleted bedding, which is now neatly stacked in the feed room (thanks for the ride, Chris, and gracias for the unloading help, Julio!). Went back to the tack consignment shop and picked up a set of gorgeous lined leather jumping/galloping boots I'd been ooh-ing and ahh-ing over. Hey, I was a good girl and waited a week to be SURE I wanted them... but in the end I just couldn't resist!

Grain will be picked up on Monday. Hay should be in by the end of the week. I didn't want to buy those too early, since they'd just sit there and freeze/get dusty respectively. Horsie insurance policy arrived today.

Now it just has to stop snowing long enough to get this show on the road!! I'm eager to get on with it now...

Oh well: when bored, polish saddle! :-)
x
G

GG's leather rehab tips!

2009-01-12T12:59:00.006-05:00

So that old, "beat up" saddle I bought yesterday for $50 is a heck of a lot nicer than I thought at first glance when I threw it on my "Buy It Now" pile to be "the saddle he's allowed to break".

Upon closer examination, this saddle been on a horse maybe 2-3 times at most. Looks like someone's dog got onto it and left big claw scratches on the seat and on the skirt on one side. The claw marks look deeper than they are; really they just took some of the stain off, is all. Everything else about it is absolutely "as new", only the thing has to be 20 years old, or more perhaps.

I can't help wondering what happened... Did some saddle-seat equivalent of a Hunter Princess go "Ewwww! I can't show in THIS, it has dog scratches on it!" and then just let it sit for 20 years?

Be that as it may, upon detailed examination, I decided it was (after all) worth investing a little time and effort into getting it reconditioned. It's certainly a viable schooling saddle if nothing else.

I don't give my trade secrets away as a general rule, so I'm only gonna say this once. But here you have it... GG's conditioning tips for rehabbing old leather.

1. Wipe dust off with a sponge and HOT water - as hot as your little fingers can stand, to open the pores in the leather.

2. Lather saddle deeply with Kirk's Castile. Again, use as hot water as you can stand.

3. Get some Ray Holes Saddle Butter.

4. Microwave it until it's melted down to liquid.

5. Apply with fingers, again while it's as hot as you can stand. Massage in well.

6. Let saddle sit in a warm location for 2-3 days, to give the leather a chance to absorb as much as it can.

7. Repeat every 2-3 days until saddle is soft.

Voila. Perfectly useable training saddle for $50 bucks.

Woo-HOO!!! Quattro is gonna be DECKED!!!

2009-01-11T14:32:00.006-05:00

So I went downtown this afternoon intending to do the grocery shopping, but noticed that our local consignment store Hoof'n'Woof was actually open, so I hit the brakes.

Hoof'n'Woof is operated by a rescue here in town, Sunkissed Acres. People donate all kinds of great horsey stuff. They must have gotten some fresh stuff in, because I found - really - almost everything Quattro is going to need for the next year or so that I don't already have.

I have, of course, tons of riding/training stuff, but the problem is, most of it is "Biggie Sized". I'm going from a lifetime of 17+h horses (HRH Avery was 17.2 and Supersized!) to one who is, at present, 15.3. So a lot of stuff that I have won't fit: the Supersized halters, bits, bridles, blankets, boots - all the stuff that has to fit the horse. (We're not even gonna GO there on the cart and harness for the time being!)

So I got:

* One brand-spanking-never-been-on-a-horse new, heavy, channeled stable blanket! (Until we know whether the New Kid is a blanket shredder, no point spending a lot of money on expensive stuff. I can layer this w/ the turnout sheet I already have, and that will get him through the rest of the winter.)

* One used, stained, lightweight stable sheet (this is where we find out if he's ever worn a blanket before. If he decides to shred it, it will shred easily and I won't end up with a dead horse....)

* Three nice training bits w/ smaller mouthpieces - a double-jointed Happy Mouth, a dee ring snaffle and a full cheek. (I'm going to miss my bit collection - I have tons but they're all 6"...)

* One double-fleece hunt pad in the hard-to-find XL size.

* One brand-new triple-stitched leather halter.

* One used leather lead (which he can chew if so inclined) with stud chain.

* One twitch.

* One new nylon lead w/ stud chain.

* One unopened jar of Furacin.

* One girth fuzzy (smaller than my Supersized ones!).

* One grooming mitt (mine has inexplicably gone missing.)

* One pony-sized girth (not necessarily for Quattro - if it doesn't fit him it'll fit all the minuscule Quarter Heese!)

* One vintage leather Balding girth (you can't even GET these any more)

* TWO pairs of galloping boots, 1 small, 1 medium (not sure which will fit him, but I now have a pair of everything from small to XL, so something will fit...)

And, last but not least...

* A vintage 21" cutback saddle, good condition, tree and billets intact. (As stated previously, I don't intend to send him to Saddlebred School, but it did cross my mind that I needed something cheap that he can run into the rail, roll on or flip over on without breaking my piggy bank - the rest of my saddles are just too expensive to risk on a green bean).

Total price? $150.

Heck yeah. Thank you Lori and Hoof'n'Woof!

Forgot to mention: they had a gorgeous, nearly-new, Biggie Sized jumping hackamore - I spotted it and grabbed it without even thinking, and then remembered - I don't need that any more - and got a little teary-eyed in the middle of the store. But still. Heck of a deal, no?

Why an American Saddlebred?

2009-01-11T07:06:00.004-05:00

I thought some of you might be curious as to WHY a lifelong lover of Thoroughbreds would suddenly decide, at age 50, to "jump ship" to another breed - and why THIS one?

My reasoning can be summed up quite simply with what is probably going to be Quattro's eventual breed slogan: "All the TB - without the 'tude!"

The main difference between an amateur-owner trainer and a professional one is that the pro is expected to be able to train any kind of horse s/he gets. The AOT can pick and choose.

As an AOT, the horses I tend to get along with are the game, smart, trainable ones. ASBs are all that, they really are.

Breeding and type-wise, ASBs are about as close to a TB as you can get without actually having to own a TB. But as a breed, Saddlebreds do NOT have the infamous TB breed characteristic of "TB-tude". Anybody who has ever worked closely with a TB knows what I mean here: the whole "I am THE MIGHTY TB!! You are Two-Legged Incompetent Scum, and I WILL tell you EXACTLY where to get off when you rattle my cage, I will I will I WILL!" thing.

It's been fun for 45 years, but... I can lose that. In fact, when you're too old to have an emergency dismount, it's time to lose that.

Quattro's job, when he gets here, is to learn to be what the old pros call "a good usin' hoss". This means: game for anything, smart, sane, sensible, and affectionate; athletic, with good motion and a willing heart. These are all attributes that TBs and ASBs share.

The difference between the two breeds in temperamental makeup is subtle, but it is there: what you think of your TB matters not one whit to the TB. They do NOT give a flip. A TB is "The Great I Am" and that is final. ASBs tend to be far more sensitive to what you think of them, and they worry more if they sense you are not pleased with them. If the fundamental, guiding principle of training TBs is "Don't p*ss 'em off", then the fundamental, guiding principle of training ASBs is "Don't worry them."

It could, in fact, almost be said that I've spent the last 40 years retraining TBs in preparation for training my first ASB. Because everything I learned about not p*ssing them off will help me not worry them.

It should be fun.

It's all in the attitude.

2009-01-09T12:15:00.002-05:00

For me personally, the biggest risk you take when you buy a horse sight unseen over the internet is this: What is the horse's personality going to be like?

The horse's character pretty much dictates everything that you do with the horse from the moment it (hopefully!) walks off the trailer. I'm a big believer in training a horse the way it wants to be trained. Some like you to be a Big Fearless Leader. Some like to be mollycoddled. Some respond best to a short sharp shock. Some have a sign hanging around their necks that says "Will Work For Food." And every other variant you can conceive of.

Quattro is still an unknown quantity to me. I can guesstimate his tendencies, judging from what I already know of his breed, his bloodlines, what he did in the video, and what the owners told me. But when he gets here to Georgia, it will be the first time that he has ever been separated from the other young horses he grew up with. Right away that means the horse that gets off the trailer is NOT going to be the same horse who got on. He'll be on his own for the first time, with people he doesn't know, horses he doesn't know, and other types of Terrifying Critters and Scary Objects he has never seen before. He'll get off that trailer either scared or p*ssed off - or possibly both!

So the first 30 days here are crucial. It's my job as the trainer to make it clear to him that (1) he is safe here, (2) he will have everything he needs, and (3) I'm in his corner.

Whether I have to be Big Mean Boss Mare or Consoling Friend or some combination of the two remains to be seen.

As I work with him and around him, I will be watching everything he does. When I turn him out, I'll be hanging around in the vicinity watching to see how he deals with new data: what interests him, what scares him, what he likes to do when he's off-duty, how he relates to other horses, and so on. Every new piece of information I gain will help dictate how I approach moving along with his training.

It'll be fun getting to know the guy. I can't wait!

Product Review: Awesome! Thanks, World Champion!

2009-01-08T19:09:00.003-05:00

Product Review: Custom Vinyl Stall Door Nameplates from World Champion.

I admit it: I got Quattro the least expensive stall door nameplate I could find.

Not because I'm cheap, but because at this barn, the lower half of the stall walls is concrete and the upper half is heavy-gauge wire mesh reinforced with round iron pipes. (Can you tell these are stallion stalls?)

I have yet to find a way to attach a stall plate successfully at this barn, short of drilling holes in the concrete, which I don't think the BO would appreciate - or resorting to baling twine, which I wouldn't appreciate. So I've just been propping the stall plate up on the concrete, against the mesh. Every so often they fall off, of course, and as soon as they hit the concrete floor, someone is guaranteed to run over them with a four-wheeler or step on them or something, so they end up all scratched. That being the case, I've long since given up on the fancy brass ones; I just wanted something cheap and easily replaceable.

Quattro's new stall plate arrived today, and I'm absolutely delighted with it. The last time I ordered a plate from World Champion was probably at least ten years ago, and that one, I wasn't pleased with at all: overly generic colors and really BO-RING typeface.

This new one ROCKS. The color is an interesting kind of cadet blue, and the typeface is an absolutely gorgeous Roman-style one that even Dover Saddlery and SmartPak don't have. Honestly, it looks like I spent way, WAY more money than I did. I've spent $25 and up elsewhere in the past and not been as pleased.

I shopped around a good bit before I decided on buying this one, so I can say with some authority that World Champion is the clear market leader on stall plates at the moment. And for $5.25!!

Thanks, World Champion. I'll be ordering some spares.

Onward,
GG

Quattro, would you like one of these?

2009-01-07T13:32:00.003-05:00

Yo, Quattro!!!

I spotted these things on COTH yesterday, and to me, they look like something a rowdy young gelding such as yourself might enjoy.

Horse Buddy Bopper.

You like?

Let me know.

Loff,
Your New Human

Welcome!

2009-01-04T13:14:00.003-05:00

Hello there, and welcome!

This blog will cover the new adventures I'm about to have with my first American Saddlebred horse in 45 years. He isn't here yet, and probably won't be here for another couple of weeks. But to me, even the preparation for his arrival is fun, and I hope to share some of that excitement with you. Meanwhile, here's a little background on both of us.

I'm a former hunter-jumper rider and lifelong Thoroughbred trainer, who had The Big H/J Wreck in the late 1980s (pulled a horse over on top of me, if you MUST know!), crunched a bunch of bones, and can't really jump any more. But I started out many decades ago riding saddle seat on American Saddlebred horses, and even though I adored that feeling of flying through the air on a good Thoroughbred (at least, I did when it was intentional...), I always sort of hoped that when I was ready to retire from the H/J scene, my LAST horse would be an American Saddlebred.

This lifelong dream is about to come true.

The fates aligned themselves so that right when I needed a special new friend, a beautiful American Saddlebred came my way. As of right now, his name is Happy Days Are Here Again (which I hope to change, subject to approval of the breed registry). For purposes of this blog, we'll call him "Quattro" because that will be his new barn name. His old one, "Tiger", kind of seems like pushing one's luck! Having retrained off-track Thoroughbreds my whole life long, I must confess I am pretty darn good at turning Tigers into Tiggers, but nevertheless... why start out that way if we don't have to?

Anyway: Quattro is a coming 3 year old ASB gelding who is presently in upstate New York waiting for his ride home. From all accounts, he is a real character, and from his video he pretty much looks like a classic Saddlebred sport horse type.

What Quattro will end up doing "for a living" remains to be seen. Unlike a lot of today's trainers, I prefer to suit the work to the horse - NOT the other way around. Let's face it: if you're good at math and science, you'll be a creeping misery in a job that requires high verbal skills. It's the same with horses. Some like to run the fastest; some like to jump the highest; some like to dance; some like to show off; others don't much care what they do so long as there is FOOD involved.

So be prepared for this blog to make haste slowly. Quattro and I will first need to spent a lot of time making friends, doing ground work, and just hanging out. During that "getting to know you" phase, his likes, dislikes, and athletic abilities will slowly reveal themselves, and we'll arrive at a job or jobs for him from there.

Like Thoroughbreds, American Saddlebreds tend to be animated and expressive. Based on that, I'm pretty sure Mr. Quattro himself will have some things to say, so I've invited him to drop in and post from time to time. Stay tuned.

Onward!
GG