conversations with shyloh

Sometimes I wish everyone (anyone?) who reads this could meet Shyloh. She really is quite the character. Her face is quite expressive and it is easy to anthropomorphize how she is feeling by the looks she gives.

Excuse her lack of a forelock. . .burrs are ripping it out.

I have mentioned before how she has thought of certain classes that she shows in, either by giving the judges nasty looks (and them commenting on it) or by outright falling asleep. If she is bored, she yawns, over and over again. If she is annoyed, she has a super irritated side eye look. If she is scared, her eyes get big. If I am having a conversation where I am laughing, she smiles. I do not ask her to do any of this.  You can totally tell when she is concentrating on a task. And when she refuses to do something, you can tell the second she decided that if she is asked one more time, she will do it.

She is not herd bound, but when out and she sees her "buddies", she will give them a greeting nicker. She doesn't "talk" much, but the babies did have her calling out at the last show. She is a very independent horse and she is not afraid to let me know it. But at the same time, I can tell when she looks to me for leadership in a scary situation or a new situation that she is unsure of. She is not the horse that will come up to a stranger willingly, she keeps her distance. Or she might flat out run away if a person she didn't know or like approached her, tossing her head the whole time.

Anyway, earlier this week I was told that Shy wasn't going into the front pen for her grain. My stance on grain is that Shy doesn't need it. However, in this pasture situation, there is nothing I can do because they feed the horses as a group. I was told that Shy runs from the feeders and they have to try and catch her to get in her with the other horses. And I guess there was one time when she ran into the Gator, knocked the grain bucket over, and had herself a feast. I let the feeders know that if this is the case, don't try and force her into the front pen for grain. She is clearly not starving and if they leave her alone, she will either figure it out for herself or not. No big deal. The hay is given in the big pasture, so she wold still be getting hay.

So, like any completely sane person, I asked Shy about her behaviors. This was her response:

I asked her about the Gator incident. This was her response:

I mean, really? She has no idea what I am saying, but she does this. How can you not laugh when she gives such silly responses, almost like she knows and is laughing about it? There were no treats present, there was no food, and there was no ask for the smile. She does it all on her own. She is just so funny and exactly what I need after a long day at work. I am very grateful to have her in my life.

Also. . .I did ask the feeding lady to leave Shy's food out if we were working. She agreed. So that piece of drama is cut out, hopefully.

Anyone else have a horse with a lot of expressions?

monday musings by shyloh #127

Hmmm. . .What do we have here?

Hee hee, it's my bag, which usually has really good treats in it!

 Let me dig around and see if I can find anything good. . .

 Let's give this bag a little shake. . .

 What did I get out of it?

 Just my hair brush, booo!!

No treats this time. Maybe Allie has learned not to keep treats in my bag, where this nosy Haflinger is bound to dig at every chance she gets?

~Shyloh

why the smiles?

Why is Shyloh smiling so? Well. . . one, because she is always smiling. Really, I am starting to think she has some disorder over the excessive smiling. She does it all the time. I will look away and turn back, there is Shy smiling in my face. When she eats something new, when she smells something, when I am laughing, and when she wants something. . . its all smiles. If she wasn't so darn funny looking when she does it, it might be an issue. 

But today, I think she was smiling because she knew that even though I only gave her a couple treats, she could go back into her pasture which is a literal smorgasbord of treats. 

All the apples off the apple tree that are within horse reach are gone. But there are some on the ground. Shy was scooping the little apples up. She was picky as to what apples she would eat though. I am not entirely sure what her criteria for an edible apple was, but they did have to be whole apples. No smashed or part apples for Shy. 

Or Shy could be smiling because she knew that after she got her spray down, she could have a nice dirty roll in the sand. It's fun to watch her roll, because rolling is serious business in the horse world. First, the most perfect spot must be found. Then, the back legs have to kick up underneath you for some unknown reason.  Next, it's down the the ground as quick as you can! You must thrown your head into the sand, stretch your neck, and dig it in to ensure that every mane strand gets thoroughly coated with the sand. Repeat on both sides while flailing your legs in the air. Finally, it is time to get up!

Perhaps Shy was smiling because she new she had a nice, full, clean tank of water. Nothing is quite as good as a cool drink of water on a hot summer day!

Or maybe, just maybe Shy was smiling because we had an early celebration today. You tell me why she is a smiley pony!

product review: standlee hay products

Standlee Hay makes mostly different types of hay pellets and cubes. I have used their products such as the Timothy pellets, Alfalfa pellets, and the Timothy/Alfalfa mix pellets many times in the past since they are so easy to get at Tractor Supply. Usually, I used them as a treat for clicker training because they are small and easy to carry in my pockets. I have never used the actual hay products they carry, such as Timothy Hay, just because the barns I have boarded at always provided hay. 

My new barn mixed the Standlee Hay products in grain during the winter for extra calories to help keep the horses warmer. Shyloh and all the pasture horses had no problem gobbling down the hay pellets. There was never any left behind.

And I have discovered that Standlee Hay products makes Whinny Nicker Horse treats, as well. They come in a 4 oz bad, a 3 lb bag, or an 8 lb bag. 

Featured here is the 3 lb bag

For my product review, since I could not guarantee that Shy would have exclusive access to the pellets or cubes, I opted to go the treat route. And while the pellets and cubes are easy to find and stocked by every Tractor Supply, the treats are another story. I could not find them anywhere in my area and TSC was not able to order them into the store.

So I contacted Standlee customer service via email. I am not joking when two minutes after I sent the email I got a reply! Wow, talk about fast service! The reply acknowledged that TSC did not carry the treats, but offered a couple websites which did offer them.

I ordered the treats from Amazon and waited for their arrival. Amazon was a little pricier, but with the free shipping it was totally worth it. The treats from the other site were cheaper, but the shipping was outrageous! I think over all, compared to other horse treats of the same type and size, these treats cost a tad more. But the only ingredients in these treats are "sun cured timothy grass forage and sun cured alfalfa hay forages, cranberries infused with apple juice, and bentonite." (taken from ingredient list)  Bentonite is a clay that supposedly has detoxification properties, but I think it is used as a natural binding agent in this case. 

After our work one day, I gave Shy a broken cube. I think she liked them!

Tasting. . .

Singing the praises of the Whinny Nicker treats!

Then I went around the barn giving treats out to all the horses. The reviews were outstanding! I also shared with the pasture horses. . .

Dancer likes the treats!

Traveller likes the treats, with Rainy Day looking in and waiting for her turn

Even donkeys like the treats!

They were begging for more! Mobbing me is more like it. . .

I would definitely buy the Whinny Nicker treats again. I like that they are not super processed with a ton of artificial ingredients and sugars. And best of all, Shy loved them! They got many smiles of approval!

Big smiles for the treats!

pony time

I finally got to see my pony this week!

Shyloh was super excited to see me. . .

Is that a horse than can barely contain her excitement or what?

I was super excited to see that she was not in heat anymore and her lady parts have returned to normal. I think the rain helped wash her legs off and Shy was not a nasty mess.

I tacked her up in her harness and decided to work on some stuff that gave us trouble at the show, mainly our ameoba shaped circles. I am not sure we made much progress on this, I think we both kinda suck at circles. For some reason, I can never end up at my starting point and Shy does not help. Going to the left was much better than the right. She seemed a little stiff going right. I am not too concerned by this, as she picks different sides to be stiff on as it pleases her. We will just work on stretches and what not. 

Then we went for a little line drive. We encountered some scary things. . .

Scary.

Stuff for digging a new well

Shy wanted to go this way, then decided it was scary once we were underneath.

Guess she thought she might not fit?

Scary.

This picnic table has never been here before!

Not scary. 

Could have cared less about the barrel. 

Cutting new stall floors and banging them on the ground. Scary.

The good thing about all these scary things was that Shy just did not want to go near them. But I worked with her and we got her to go around the picnic table or up to the well materials or keep going under the roof.  She did scoot when the wood floor banged on the ground, but it was a quick recovery. 

We ended on a good note, until it came time to put Swat in her ears. And found a tick under her chin. Ugh. But back to those ears, I am not sure how the gnats are getting to her ears since they are so hairy, but they are. This was pretty much all I could do. . .

Glob of Swat in the ear. Hope it keeps those gnats away.

Then I got this look. . .

Pissy pony

But a few delicious treats took that look away real quick.

Hurrrr! Treats!

Crazy horse. Glad I'll get to spend the weekend at the barn with this goof!

monday musings by shyloh #72

I have to say. . .I am pretty proud of Allie. She has come so far in her human training. And she has trained with the best. . .me!

Chillin with my homies

Allie now knows not to take my crap. She knows that I am pretending or trying to get out of work 99% of the time. And for the 1% of stuff that is actually really scary, Allie knows to take it slow. 

Allie knows that I am a horse and sometimes I don't think about work stuff all the time. There is much more important things to think about, like food. So I sometimes forget. But more often than not, I am just testing. I need to know Allie means it when she says something. And when I do really forget, Allies doesn't get mad, she just takes a step back and practices whatever it is with me until I get it.

Let's take the other day. . .we had worked and worked on standing. Sometimes, I just don't want to stand still, I want to keep going and explore. But Allie practiced on saying stand and meaning it, so I finally thought she meant business. Then she hooked the tire on me. I hadn't had the tire on since there was snow on the ground. So I pretended to be scared and moved my legs real fast. But I guess that doesn't fool Allie anymore. So I just did my work. Even when we went over straw or gravel, I didn't care. See?

Allie also knows that when we do hard work, it's nice to balance it out with some fun stuff. Like smiles and treats!

I have to say, I have a pretty good deal. . .and a very trainable two legger!

Oh, and look at the present I got from Notch and Clutch and Isaac's mom!

The cutest cooler ever! Allie says now she is going to have to work me until I sweat now. Good luck with that I say!

~Shyloh

the mat

I am so glad that I read this post from Shannon over at It's Quarters for Me. She uses clicker training for her two horses and I needed something new to do with Shyloh, since she is out of commission for now (more on that later).  Shannon discussed using a mat as a mark for her horse Gwen to stand on. I have also seen this at Equine Affaire, I believe with Double Dan Horsemanship. It was just the thing for me and Shy to work on.

Since I didn't have a mat handy, I dug up a cardboard box and flatten it. Tada! Mat! I put the "mat" on the ground, grabbed some almonds, my clicker, and Shy and got to work. 

Can I eat it?

At first Shy refused to step on it. She stepped around it and over it. Then she tried to eat the cardboard mat! With much prodding and pleading, I finally got her to put a hoof on it! Click and treat. The other hoof was proving much harder for her to put on the mat. So I went and got a dressage whip so I could tap her legs and place them where I want them.

Almost there. . .

Backfire. I had initially used the dressage whip to tap her legs to teach her to wave. So I got a waving, pawing pony and a messed up piece of cardboard. Good thing we have tons of empty SmartPak boxes. Ugh. Because of her hoof antics, the cardboard made it difficult for her to stand on it. . .sometimes she would flip the cardboard up and one hoof would be on it and one hoof under it. 

But eventually Shy got it! Every time she got both hooves on the mat, click and treat! When she finally got both hooves all the way on the mat, click and lots of treats! We have more work to do on this new behavior, but we have a start!

Fuzzy photos. . . 

It is hard to take a photo, hold a dressage whip, and click at the same time. I finally gave up on holding the lead line, she was staying put just fine!

As far as Shy being lame. . .I have no idea. Beth thought maybe it was a stifle issue (she had been reading up on it for one of her horses and thought Shy fit the bill), but she does not have any swelling. None of her legs or hooves have any heat or swelling. She is showing no pain reactions. I think she is faking. . .just kidding. I am still thinking it may be sore muscles from being asked to use her rear end for movement, but Beth thinks that would not cause lameness. She shows no lameness at the walk, so I am reluctant to bute or keep her on stall rest. She does not run in the pasture. She really shows no signs of pain and never fought going into the trot even even she was tracking up short. The chiropractor is coming out Monday, so I will see what he thinks then. Other than that, Shy is off work, once again until I have some answers. 

Smiles! Proud of herself for doing a good job! I promise I was not asking for smiles while we were working on this!

it's hot!

It is way too hot for not even being officially summer yet! Too hot to do work today. It is one of those stifling, non breezy, humid hots. 

I had really wanted to do some line driving with Shyloh. We did some practice the other day and it went really well. I am working on keeping contact with her as we walk, which is hard because Shy tends to slow down and I keep going at the same speed. When she loses the contact, she thinks she is a free pony and able to go whichever way she wants. 

The goal is to push her into the contact. . .harder to do on the ground than while riding her. Beth suggested lunging her on long lines. I did and it worked! After we did some lunging, I took Shy in some patterns around the arena, concentrating on keeping the contact on Shy. We did serpentines, figure eights, and circles in the corners in all directions. I was very satisfied with what we accomplished. 

Shy even had foamy mouth when we got done!

Today, it was over 90 degrees! So I took Shy for a little walk around the property. We checked out the napping cat. . .

Bubba loves this chair!

. . .and the pond. . .

The reeds and cat tails are so high! And tasty, according to Shy!

. . .got some grass. . .

No small bites for this dainty lady

. . .and practiced our new trick. 

Say cheese!

Word in the barn is that Shy has started "smiling" at people that walk by. . .looking for a treat!

Then I hosed Shy down to cool her off. I am not sure if she really minds the heat too much. She has a fan on her stall, but she never stands in front of it like the other horses do with their fans. Shy prefers her window. Hopefully it cools down a little bit so we can do some work this week! It is not looking too good with us going to the show if the heat keeps up. The trailer ride, no shelter, and long hours are very hard on the horses when it is so hot. 

monday musings by shyloh #42

Allie taught me another trick! I love learning tricks because it involves lots of treats. And I love treats! 
I present. . .my new trick:

Cute, right? I do the flippy lip a lot, but now I will smile whenever Allie asks. A sure way to get even more treats. Because life is all about the treats!

~Shyloh