no to wheels

Shyloh has been doing fantasically well in her open bridle line driving. Seriously, it has been awesome. I have even taught her to side pass from the long lines, not that it would ever be useful in a cart, but we like doing things like that. 

We also like taking braids out and having curly hair-do's!

The first couple attempts warranted evil glares back at me. She knew what I was asking, but she also knew her dinner was waiting. Shy gave me some very sad excuses for stepping sideways, which included a lot of forward motion.  Eventually, I was able to get some good side stepping out of her and Shy got her dinner. It is so hard to move both the front and back legs sideways at the same time (according to Shy)!

The next few tries went much, much better. I'll have to get some video. But there you have it for another useless skill!

Since she has been doing really great with the line drive again, we decided to give it a try while Terry was driving Reba. We figured, with the open bridle Shy should be much more relaxed.

Well. . .when I pulled her out of the pasture and she saw the cart, from a distance, she locked in on it and wouldn't move. I got her moving again, but she was doing her best to impersonate an Arab with her flared nostrils and short, quick breathing. We didn't even have to walk by the cart to get to our spot!

I helped get Terry and Reba hooked, then tacked Shy in her gear and away we went. Reba and Terry went out ahead of us and we waited for them to pass us near an opening. And Shy tried to turn around and get the hell out of dodge. Fail. 

She was able to look at it without spinning around by the fifth attempt.

I started walking behind Terry and Reba, Shy could handle that. But when I had them trot a lap and come up behind us at a walk, Shy wanted to take off again. This was not the light, easy, one handed line driving I had grown accustomed to. . .this was a two hand-er, pulling back to keep my horse from taking off. Fail again.

I tried having Terry and Reba stand on one spot while we passed them. Again, this was a two handed operation while also not letting Shy circle out 20 feet from the cart. Fail.

This was the only acceptable way to be around the cart, even so, she still had one ear on it and one ear on me.

My conclusion is that Shy hates carts and things with wheels. Beth told me not to give up quite yet, so I might give it a few more tries to see if she relaxes at all. I also plan on trying a sled again, since I had much better luck with that the one year. Sleds do not have wheels, so they must be okay, right?

I admit, I was a little disappointed. With as great as Shy had been doing, I thought she should have been able to handle the cart better, especially since she could see it and it was not attached to her. It wasn't totally terrible, but I really thought it could have been much better. Am I expecting too much? Ponies. . .

rituals

I am realizing that the weather seems to be affecting my moods more and more every year. For the past two weeks, it has been cloudy, damp, rainy, and just crappy out. I have had to drag myself to the barn. Once I am there, I feel better, but getting there is a struggle. I thought I was having a rough September, but it spilled into October and I foresee November not being any better. But such is life. 

I went to the barn over the weekend and as soon as I grabbed all my stuff, it started to rain. So I put it all away and went to chill with Shyloh under the trees. Once again, she was covered in burrs, so I de-burred her. She had some on her ears, which she was not happy about. I actually had to put her in a hold to get them out, which resulted in a pissed off pony and me being shook about. 

But yesterday, the sun came out! And it was glorious. It was just what I needed. I love the ritual of being with my pony. Pulling up to the barn, getting my grooming supplies out of my locker, putting them in our area, then going to get Shy is so simple, yet so comforting. Once I get her, we walk side by side to our area where I give Shy her food and start the grooming process. I de-burr, brush brush brush, and pick feet. By this time, I have forgotten all my troubles and I feel like a new person. And Shy is just so perfect for me. 

Then I tack Shy up. I love that she makes everything so easy for me. She never fights tack and stands beautifully. Yesterday, since it was so nice out, I decided to line drive her through the woods. Maybe we would run into some turkeys to chase. 

It was the most wonderful line drive ever. We shuffled through the woods, crunching the leaves under our feet and walking over branches. 

Shy had a beautiful forward walk. She was not bothered by the noises of the leaves or the branches touching her. Sometimes, we didn't even see the sticks on the ground until they were stepped on, snapped, or rolled upward to touch legs or belly. Shy didn't bat an eye at this. I think we may have unlocked the key with an open bridle. 

I was thinking while we were line driving how awesome it would be if Shy (and myself) were this calm and collected with a cart and how much fun we would have. Maybe one day we can revisit this. 

I hope the sun can stay out. It doesn't have to be warm, just not cloudy. Also, my pony is incredibly fat. Ugh!She doesn't even eat that much! I think we need to add more work to our ritual. I like a chunky horse going into winter, but this is getting out of control. 

finally friday

This week seemed to have an extra day added in for some reason. It just drug on and on. So it was quite the treat to have an amazingly well behaved pony when we worked today.  

But let's back up a little. . .

Last weekend, Whitney Houston was brutally murdered by a raccoon. She went missing in the morning and was found after work. Not going to lie, I am still a little sad about this. She was just getting to be super friendly, laying eggs every day, and being such a talker! Terry decided to give her chicken away so she wouldn't meet the same fate, but overnight she was unfortunately taken as well. We have decided to not get new chickens with winter coming, but to start anew in spring. And work on redesigning the chicken coop. 

Oh, then my car broke down on the way home from Ohio and I had to get that fixed, after being stranded on the side of the freeway for hours. 

One of the most frustrating things about the place where I board is feeding time. They like to feed right when I get there from work. I have two options, either wait until Shyloh is done eating with the herd before we do any work or take her food, work her, then wait for her to eat it on her own before turning her back out with the herd. Either way, I am waiting. 

So, today I waited patiently, while picking burrs off of her. I did these amazing braids earlier in the week. . .

And they actually work!  Even if they look worse as each day goes by they still keep the burrs out! I can hold off on the roaching for now (evil grin).

Shy did have a couple burrs on her forelock, but nothing like the previous mess. The hard part is finding and picking the burrs out of her ever growing body hair. And her ears. Shy hates her ears touched. This caused a bit of commotion when I was trying to maximize my time with her as I tried to pick them off her swinging head as she ran and tried to eat at the same time.  (And I have the nerve to call others crazy!)

After that fiasco, I tacked Shy up in her line driving gear and went for a spin around the barn. I could not have asked for a better horse (except that she ever be that good with a cart attached!). I was able to line driving using only one hand and a loose line. She responded to the slightest movement. Nothing bothered her today as we went around the property and through the woods. And we even worked on minute movements, stepping "gee" and "haw" one step at a time. It was wondrous! Stopping and standing was great and she did not give me any trouble going past the tack/untack spot, where we usually have a fight. 

That was some much needed work time spent with the pony and she got some carrots for her good work. I say this a lot, but maybe there is hope for Shy yet!

Or not. . .

obstacles for shyloh and me

After a few more sessions of line driving with Shyloh and she was ready for the kids to try with her. 

Mustache tail

Some obstacles Shy encountered:

Shy met Stella, a Jeep with a plow attached, and was instantly suspicious of her. Where did she come from and why was she there? Shy's reaction was to stop and stare, but I eventually got her moving toward Stella and around her in both directions. Shy kept giving her the hairy eyeball but listened to me and kept a slow, steady forward motion. 

Oh Stella, why u so scary?

The next obstacle we faced was walking through the barns. There are shadows and horses in stalls and other things that were going to "get" Shy. Again, her response was to stop and look. I let her think about it and decide what she wanted to do before asking her to walk on. She would walk a couple steps, stop, then walk a couple more. But after a few times going through in each direction and Shy was able to walk through without stopping. Shy really seems more calm and comfortable in the open bridle. 

So much to look at!

An obstacle I encountered:

I have been doing our line driving after work. It is always a rush to get to the barn, tack up, and get to working before feeding time. With Shy being in a pasture and herd situation, she can't miss feeding time or she won't eat. Normally, this is not an issue. If the feeders see me working with her, they will feed last to give me time. There is also the option of leaving Shy's feed out for her so I can give it to her on her own.

Always a hungry pony

However. . .there is this one lady who feeds who still harbors resentment at Shy and me from the last time we boarded there. Shy kicked her horse square in the vagina and the lady was pissed at us and anyone who thought it was kinda funny. It's not like I can control my horse's actions in the pasture or that I told Shy to do that. And it was over a year ago! Get over it! Anyway, she was us working and fed the pasture horses first and didn't leave Shy's hay out, so we had to cut our session short. Pretty crappy, right?

Totally okay with short work sessions

But, since I am disinclined to participate in barn drama, I just ended our session and put Shy back with the herd. One, it is not like Shy is starving by any means, and two, they have pasture to graze upon all day.  Oh boarding again. . .any one else have any silly/dramatic boarding situations?

It's not the lushest grass (which is good for us) but Shy has access to it 24/7.

back at it

Yesterday I started line driving Shyloh again. I want to get her really solid at it so the kids can line drive her at the Plow Days event in November. 

Given our past experiences (line driving has never been an issue, just things with wheels), I opted for an open bridle. I had also discussed this with Beth in the past as a possible option for Shy. 

So, I grabbed a bridle, a surcingle, and a pair of long lines and got to work. I wanted to use her French link snaffle bit instead of the driving bit to start and I didn't want to change bits out on the bridles I currently use. I had a hunt bridle that I picked up at a tack swap a while ago for no particular reason, so I cleaned it up (I had a spray bottle of Absorbine One Step Spray Leather Cleaner and Conditioner, which I do not recommend, by the way) and used that. 

Seriously cute!

Shy was ready to go! It was like we never even stopped any driving practice for a year. She remembered gee and haw, she responded nicely to my cues, and she was calm. I think the open bridle concept may have been a part of the calmness. I did have the ever present issue of her not wanted to stand still, but she had improved on that. 

Butt butt

There was one spook, but it was a justified spook. We were going down a pathway between a barn and a pasture. Someone just turned a hose on and Shy was right on top of it when it sputtered with water. She did a small jump. Then it sputtered again and she completely turned around. Not my favorite reaction, but better than bolting. The lady apologized and turned it off, but I told her to keep it on. We would get over this. Once Shy realized it was just water coming out of a hose and not a cobra on the attack, we kept moving and Shy never gave it another thought. 

Pony likes this bit, we got a foamy mouth!

We had one more sticky situation, and that is when we walked past the tacking area and Shy wanted to be done because they were feeding. I had to tell her, "If you put one hoof on that cement. . ." Luckily she didn't and we were able to walk past that area a few times without a fight. 

Overall, I am very pleased with my pony! I plan on getting a couple more good lines drives with her then having the kids practice. Maybe I will be able to drive her. . .maybe. 

ice cream

The Good Old Days Show was put on this weekend. It is a long show that has English and Western riding classes, Pleasure and Draft driving classes, and in hand classes. I have went the past two years, once without Shyloh and once with Shyloh. This was going to be another year without Shy, but I am sure she was totally fine with that.

Since Shy was unable to get down to Ohio, Beth graciously offered me the use of her ponies for in-hand classes. Those classes would be trail in hand and ground driving obstacle. She would be taking Art and Rambo to the show. I accepted, then Beth made a friendly bet. . .loser would buy ice cream! And since they were in hand classes and the horses went one at a time, we could both use both horses. Challenge accepted. 

I told Beth that I would have to come down a day early to practice if I wanted a chance against her. So down to Ohio I went. We spent a little time practicing and more time killing horse flies. Those suckers were ruthless! They attacked in waves of two. Two horse flies came in, we (and by we I mean Beth) either killed them or they flew away after several attempts at killing them, then another set of two would swoop in  and we would have to start over. Ugh!

Ponies!

We decided to wash ponies and get them ready for the show the next day. The horse flies were relentless and continues their two at a time attack. But ponies got washed and clipped and sleezed up. Then Art and Rambo got put in the grassy round pen so they wouldn't roll in the dirt. Art decided to be an evil villain in his "costume" and was beating poor Rambo up in the round pen! So after a while the sleezies came off and the horses got put all back together. 

Super ponies. Purple Art was the evil villain and red Rambo was the super hero

Of course, when we got at at dark still for the show, Rambo had a line of dirt along his mane.  Rambo is such a funny horse. He is very busy and very mouthy and wants all the attention. He is so damn cute about it!

He sucks his tongue and holds on to the trailer. 

Once we got to the show, we braided horses tails and manes and got to showing. 

Donkey!

A Fjord!

Mule

Beth riding Rambo

Flo on Mick, Chelsea on Tom in the back

Farrier's daughter was at the show, too

Steve and Sally Sue in Pleasure driving class

Regina driving Art, they got reserve champion for the draft driving class!

Flo and her sweet new wagon!

The trail classes run most of the day so people can do them in between their other classes. So after Beth did her classes and the cart class with Regina (her youth driver), we waited for the trail results. And waited. And waited. Finally they made the announcement. . .

Beth took first with Rambo in trail in hand and I took second with him! I also took fifth with Art. Beth also took first with Rambo in ground driving obstacle and I took second with him. I took sixth with Art in this class. Looks like I owe Beth some ice cream!

Our selfie with Rambo

My ribbons with Art

It was such a fun day and very low key. Ponies were good and Rambo was a blast to line drive. I am so glad I got a chance to use Art and Rambo at the show. Thanks Beth!

Beth got Reserve Champion for the draft division!

amish breakdown

We had quite an eventful and long weekend. And pretty much none of it has been spent doing things with Shyloh. I feel I should rename this blog adventures with other people's horses. . . but more on that at another time.

Jaime and Kyle went on a much needed vacation out of town so me and Terry were in charge of the barn. We felt like little kids who's parents went away for the weekend! We had a bunch of chores to do and we also had some fun.

After our chores, which was mainly scooping poop, lots and lots of poop, we decided to take Reba for a drive around the block. The "block" is a little over four miles all the way around, which includes mostly fields of corn and wheat. 

Reba is a good horse, but she can be a picklehead (Terry's word). Reba won't do anything stupid, but she does require her rider/driver to pay a good deal of attention to her. And, let's not forget the fact that our horses are pretty heard bound and love being with each other.

Reba is so shiny!

So, we harnessed Reba and hooked her to the cart and off we went.  Reba actually left the property and went down the road much better than Terry anticipated for Reba going out alone. I was just enjoying the ride.  We were laughing and joking that we should dress up in bonnets and dresses like Amish for our drives down the road. Then I said that we should moon the drivers as they pass by. . .they totally would not expect that from the Amish!

At the first corner, Terry handed me the lines, just as Reba spooked at a bird flying out from the ditch. I immediately gave the lines back and Terry said this was Reba's trouble spot. . .Thanks Terry. . .

We trotted on because Reba was incredible looky and just waiting for an excuse to spook again. The trotting kept her mind focused on that. We also worked on the different trots Reba will have to do for showing; park gait, which is slower and more collected and road gait which is faster and extended. 

Big butt!

Once we turned the next corner I did drive Reba for a little bit. She was still a bit looky but I think it was just because she was alone. She still listened, but the minute she got some slack in the lines, she was weaving or trying to turn down a driveway in the direction of the barn. 

We turned the third corner and Terry commented on the contract of the wheat and the sky and the green, so I hopped out to get a photo of her and Reba. 

Wheat photo

When I got back on, I said, Uh Terry, something is wrong, stop her, I am getting off.  Reba could tell something was not quite right, as well, and began to be a handful. I hopped down and saw that the welds on the cart at the bottom had broke. I said, Terry, get off the cart, now. I was calm, but I had visions of the weld completely breaking, Reba spooking and running down the road and in the ditches and fields with half a cart attached and Terry getting lost somewhere along the way. 

Broke down at the X, had to go to the O

As Terry was trying to get Reba to whoa and the cart was bending forward more and Reba kept backing up, a van pulled up and asked if we needed help. No thanks, we got this, we said as Reba just about backed the whole cart into the van. Oops. Terry finally got off and we noticed that the welds on both sides were broke. Crap. We had no choice but to walk back to the barn, all mile and a half of it. . .with a Shire attached to a cart. 

Right where the dash touches the floor is where the welds broke.

The cart was fine to stay attached to Reba for the sake of walking back, but not safe for passengers. I bet we looked super cool. First, Terry tried to walk next to Reba, but Reba was having none of that. So we took turns line driving her home. We made up a new rule. . .always bring halters and lead ropes when leaving the barn with horses!

Reba's long leg strides were too much for Terry's little legs, haha.

And that is the story of our Amish breakdown and accidental exercise with Reba. Always a fun time!

mental work

Shyloh got a mental workout the other day. It was also a good day for me to work on my corrections with her. I totally under correct her. Not that I so much let her get away with things, but it's that I don't let her know she is doing wrong. 

I warmed Shy up with some line driving. She had a couple quick steps when we first started, but she got that out of her real fast and did a great job. We went under the pine tree and had some nice stop and stands. I decided to take her somewhere we have never been yet. I thought it was going to be an easy jaunt around the pastures (Jaime and Kyle left space when planning the pastures to drive around them). But. . . there was an area where we got hung up on. 

At first, I was just going to turn around because I didn't think we could fit, but on closer inspection I decided to give it a try. Shy was not so sure either. But after a few time circling around and me talking to her and telling her she could do it, Shy got brave enough to go on through!

Picture doesn't do it justice.

I was so proud of her! She did it without me at her head and the little dead tree things brushed up against her. It was perfect! I took her through the other way, having to talk her through it again, but the third time, Shy walked right on through, no problems! Then we took a break.

After our break, I enlisted Terry to help me. She was to drag the deer sled, first in front of Shy, then we were going to pass her and have Terry drag it next to and behind us. 

Shy was a bit jumpy, but did not pull back on the lead rope. We followed the sled for a while then I asked Terry to stop so we could pass her.

Shy decided to throw a wrench in my plans. Shy would not go past the sled! Boy can that horse spin fast. . .I think reining may be in her future! After what seemed like forever-ness (that's a word) I finally got Shy to trot past the sled, giving it a wide berth. We worked some more, both of us. Me, with not letting her get away with too much spinning nor overly babying her; Shy was getting the bravery to get past the sled. 

Scary sled.

We were finally able to make a couple passes, then we stopped. I did not want to stress her out anymore. But then something odd happened. I took her blinders off to walk her back to the barn and she had no issue with the sled. Shy walked right up to it and would have stepped in it if Terry had let me have her do it. 

***We have made a huge stride, stay tuned tomorrow to see what we did!***