Thursday, September 20, 2012

hobby horse blog hop #29

Here are the rules:
Answer one or all of the prompts. Link back to Living a Dream's post. Visit other blogs. And don't forget to ask a question of everyone else! 

1. How do you deal with a shaggy winter coat (on your horses!)? Do you blanket? Do you clip? Do you have a special clip you prefer? Do you let the coat grow to keep the horse warm on its own?
We go au natural. No blanket. Last year, we had a pretty mild winter, but Shyloh grew a coat so thick I would snuggle up to her to stay warm! Her body was always warm. I plan on doing the same this year. As for riding. . .uh. . .we are sporadic to say the least, so that is a non issue at this point. 

2. What's the most recent sign of fall that you have seen at your place?
The weather is changing, the nights are cooler, the days are shorter. Everyone I know has been or is getting sick. 

3. Do you change decorations for the seasons? If so, has fall come out in your home?
Not really. We do put up Halloween decorations, but it is too soon for that. After Halloween, we sometimes have the straw bale, cornstalk thing going on. 

4. Does your community have any special fall activities that you enjoy?
Yes! We have an AppleFest the first weekend in October that we love. It is like a fall street fair, but has kettle corn, apple bread, and just all kinds of fall goodies. 

My question: Sorry, it is not fall related, but goes with the ongoing rear end issue of Shy. . .What lunge line exercises do you find helpful in driving a horse forward and getting him to step under himself?

4 comments:

  1. I'm not sure if I've commented here before, so hi! I am currently on a lunging-only program working through a lateral muscle imbalance that I caused while under saddle with my Welsh Cob pony, and also a lack of forward as we've progressed to on-the-bit work. I'm detailing my exercises over at www.cobjockey.com if you're interested. Though we are really not a gadgety-barn, he goes in side reins and a Horse Hugger on the lunge, which is really teaching him to step under himself and is developing the muscles that will make it easier to do so without the Horse Hugger in the long run. She also has me use the lunge line as the inside rein and the whip as the leg, so I am performing half halts as effectively on the ground as I am in the saddle (so no rein correction without "leg" to keep him forward). The other thing my trainer has me do is keep him moving at the top end of each gait while on the lunge, with lots of transitions, which also teaches him to reach into the bridle and carry himself properly through the topline. It's helped us quite a bit.

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    1. Hi! Thanks for the comment! I am very interested and I will be checking out the website. I am not into gadgets either, and I use the side reins rather reluctantly, but I realize that they help her use those muscles more than if she is not using them. Shy really is doing whatever she can to get out of using that rear end and stepping under herself, it is so frustrating!

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  2. I'm not sure if any of the following would help, but I felt it was important when working my guys, especially to keep lunging fresh. I would change the places I lunged. I would change the length of e line, and even do spirals, with e smaller circles requiring more bending and more work on the horse's part. I also did "spirographs" where I'd have the hors perform a circle, then gomfurer along the fenceline before beginning the next circle. Then, we would mover further down the fence line before circling. I would work down the long side of the arena in both sirections this way. I also lungedmthem on a small,hill. I would work em so sometimes they had a flat section on top, or on the bottom, as well as working the entire circle on a hill. And then, I would use poles - sometimes one here and ther, sometimes several in sequence.

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  3. Soooooo I keep my horses from being shaggy mostly by blanketing right now. It is so wet there that they need to be blanketed. When Bre was in AK she had two blankets and a fleece snuggy that when down to her nose. I never had to clip here. Here I am sure I will end up having to clip the monster boy but not til next winter since we aren't doing much this year.

    As far as longing I really like having ground poles set up so they are longer on one long side, then shorter on the other. Put them on the quarter line so you can chose if you want to go over them. Then you have options for when you want to really send them into a big stride or have them go shorter.

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