freezing cold parade

Well. . .I think I got my parade fix in for the rest of my life. There is a ton of work to put into a parade. Getting the horses ready, buying the stuff, getting to the parade, going through the parade. Waiting, being behind bands and monster trucks, kids screaming and running, bells and whistles (literally). And the rewards for going to the parade are non existent. Also, it was freezing! I'm talking 15 degrees F freezing. 

Shy being an Arab. . .She was wondering why Clutch was all worked up.

The parade we went to was a huge one. We took Clutch, Dexter, Shyloh, and one of Kyle's friends and his horse Sniper. Jaime helped me deck Shy out with a red mane roll, tail bow, and red polo wraps. I also put red and silver garland around her neck, with silver bells, and strung battery operated lights around the garland, up her mane roll, and around a red halter. And she had reindeer antlers with lights.

Missing that pretty tail, but it is going back up in a wrap soon.

We wrapped empty boxes to fill up Dexter's cart. Kyle put green tube lights underneath and battery powered lights all around the cart and wheels. Dexter even had his own antlers.

Calmest pony there!

Clutch didn't have many decorations, mostly some garland for his reins and red polo wraps on the front. 

Then the waiting began. . .we warmed up in the truck while the horses ate hay. Did I mention it was freezing? At some point, I went to check on Shy only to discover she had broke the red halter and it was hanging off her face. Ugh. Good thing I had her regular halter that I just washed. It is blue, but it had to do, so I wrapped the lights around that halter. 

Our little group: Jaime, Jenna, me, Kyle, and Brandon

The first part of the parade is a fireworks show. They did a few test fireworks about a half hour before the show. Shy shot her head up at the first bang, but she had hay, so happily went back to eating. When the actual fireworks show was going on, I had Shy watch. And she did not care one bit about all the noise. 

Hay makes nothing else matter

Then it came time to line up. Good thing they put the horse group directly behind a band and two entries after the monster trucks. Yay. Parade officials are so horse friendly. . .

Cart lights!

Shy was not down with the band. I really didn't blame her, they were not very good. Each person was just playing their own thing, not together or anything. I walked Shy away to a quieter spot to calm her because she kept wanting to move. I let her move in circles. She started to get a little pushy and the halter I had had a fleece nose and crown piece, which did nothing for controlling her. Luckily, Jaime had a lead with a chain and that worked wonders. At least Shy was not trying to run me over anymore. I kept walking her around and going to spots with less commotion and noise to keep her calm. She wasn't being crazy, she just wanted to keep moving. 

The flash is so bright!

I did almost pull us out of the parade. I did not want this to be super overwhelming for her and I did not want this to end up as a bad experience for us. But we started moving shortly after and Shy was doing much better.

Me and Shy

I was really happy with the way she handled herself during the actual parade. She was curious about all the people, she was looking around with ears forward but listening to me. She took in the whistles, the truck horns, bells, people every where, lights, motion, loud speakers, trailers, and other floats with a questioning glance, but not a overly worried look. 

Dexter with his cart of awesome

If there was something she was unsure of, she stopped. A couple times Jaime's sister threw candy up towards Shy, which caused her to scoot a few steps. And I did discover one thing Shy does not like. . .fire. People had fires out in their yards and Shy was not a fan. She would speed up when walking by the fires and give them a wide berth. 

More noms

But we finished. We survived. We did not freeze. We did not have any major spooks or bad behaviors. I was really proud of my pony,

Dexter was amazing. It was his very first parade and he walked through it with that wagon like a champ. He was not bothered by anything. And of course Clutch was great. 

Jenna, Jaime, and me freezing

It may take me a couple days to unthaw now, but it is good to know that Shy can deal with a lot going on. I talked to her a lot during the parade and I think she trusted me to get her through. I think the key was to let her keep a controlled movement when she is nervous. But I still think our freezing cold parade days are over. Unless I get talked into the parade next weekend. . .

trees

At our last show, Shyloh had decided for herself that trees may be the home to horse eating monsters. When I reached up to grab at a leaf, she had herself a little hissy fit and threw a temper tantrum, pony style. 

And because I am going through and extreme tired/lazy spell (or perhaps I just do not want to put her harness on her and feel more disappointment), I decided to walk Shy around, under, and through the trees on the property. I feel that I should be harnessing her up and working her, but we are having fun being lazy right now. 

I got a lot of wide eyes from Shy. It was as if she thought the tree was going to fall on her, crush her, then the horse eating monster would come and devour her. Totally irrational. 

I eased Shy into the first tree. I reached up, let her rest. Reached back up, shook a branch, let her rest. Reached up, shook a branch, lowered a branch, let her rest. Reached up, took off a leaf, let her rest. And repeat in different locations. 

Eventually Shy realized that she could eat the tree leaves, instead of the tree eating her. Progress. While she wasn't totally at ease, she was trusting me and that meant a lot. 

After we exhausted the deciduous trees in the side yard, we tackled the big conifer. This tree had branches that hang down and we could go under. Fun, right? I thought so. . .

I walked Shy up to the tree and went under. Shy refused to come under. I have experienced this before with her. I walked out, positioned myself next to Shy, told her we would walk under together, she came with me, no questions asked. I think that this is often part of our issues. Shy relies on me so much at her side that when I am behind her or on her, she feels lost. Maybe? Just a thought. . .

Anyway, we walked all under the tree and I had the branches hang all over Shy. We will probably have to do a few more sessions like this and then repeat with the harness and driving bridle on, but I think we will get there. 

The main point of this exercise was to desensitize Shy to branches or leaves touching or rubbing on her and sound of branches rustling and twigs snapping so when we ride or drive it is a non issue. Sometimes in a drive we might come close or swipe bushes, low or wide hanging branches, or drive over twigs. So, I guess we are doing some sort of work towards the goal. Just livin' the motto: slowly but surely. 

bag of scare

I do not know what has gotten into Shyloh lately, but she is being hard to catch again. And to top it off, Shy is being super sassy about it with that head toss!

Once I finally caught her (peppermints are less and less effective), I put her to work. I had a plan.  I had a bag. 

bag of scares

In my bag, I had items that make lots of noises. 

Items of doom : 1. tub of candy from the movies 2. horn 3. paper bag of taffy 4. jingle bell 5. plastic bag 6. chain

I want Shy to be comfortable with noises coming out of nowhere that she cannot see. So I hooked her up in the indoor arena (did I ever mention is she amazingly still when being hooked?) and I took her around the arena. Her commands where spot on. 

Then I started with my noise makers. First I crinkled the paper bag with the salt water taffy in it. Shy acted like she didn't even hear it. So I shook the bag. Still nothing.

Next I took out the horn. I gave it a gentle honk, I really didn't want to flat out scare her. But the biggest reaction I got was a flick of the ears back on the noise. 

I took out the tub of candy and shook it. It was loud. Shy kept moving so I kept shaking. She finally stopped. She was probably wondering what the crazy person behind her was doing. With a "walk on", she continued on. 

I got the jingle bells out. I knew Shy wasn't afraid of these, she had worn them before. And I was right, jingle bells jingling behind her were not a problem. But then I got an idea. . .I remembered what had happened with a barn cat ran out in front of Shy one day when we were line driving. Shy got startled. So I tossed the jingle bell in front of Shy.

I knew she was going to be startled, but I was not expecting her reaction. . .let's just say that she stopped so hard that if I would have been riding in the cart I would have been launched forward, probably onto Shy's back and landed on one of those silver things (technical term) on her harness saddle. I don't want that. Sounds painful.

Instead, I was walking behind the cart and I ran into it. I wish I would have got that on video.

That was a big reaction, but not the worst reaction that I can think of. So what was the most logical thing to do next? Yup, get Shy moving and do it all over again. Hey, I had four jingle bells! Each time I tossed one (I threw them on both sides of her, too), her reaction was better and better. Plus, she was not scared of the actual bells and had no problem walking up to them as I steered her to pick them up and do it all over again. Just the sudden appearance of the bells in her line of vision was startling. I wouldn't even call it scary. 

To continue my session with Shy, I got out the chain and tapped it on the wood and metal parts of the cart. She didn't care. Plastic bag flapping? No worries. Jingle bells tossed ahead of her again? Super stop! I tossed all the jingle bells again and when Shy showed the slightest reaction, I ended the lesson. Each time she did stop, but the stop was less and less abrupt. So, now I know what we need to work on, mainly objects coming into her range of vision when she is not expecting it. I am thankful that she never tried to bolt!

beer for my horses

I found the secret to a calm horse. . .beers!

A healthy variety. . .

Just kidding. Shyloh didn't get any beers. We didn't get to do our horse sledding either. Instead, I went to the barn with the plan to just hang out with Shy and work on non driving stuff. . .maybe.

I received another homework assignment from Becky. I have completed all of my previous tasks, with the arrival of my driving whip today! The new assignment was: get a bag of cans to introduce to Shy. Have them make some noise and work to putting them in the tire. So I got the only type of cans we have at our house (not my beer, I swear, yuck!) and took them out to the barn. I brought them up to Shy and she sniffed the bag and stuck her nose right in it. This horse is not afraid of plastic bags, plastic bags usually contain food. I was really surprised at her reaction. There was none. No thinking noise, no backing up, nothing. I shook the bag, crinkled it, tapped her up and down both side. Nothing. And I was clicking and treating her as well. 

Cans on Shy's can

After that, I did some more clicker work on trying to refine her front foot picking up skills. I met a new friend at the barn while doing this who was interested in what I was doing. While I was chatting away, Shy took the opportunity to try and pry loose hay out of the snow.

Then I figured, I'll work on some showmanship stuff, specifically setting up. I found my show stick in my tack box on wheels (car) and tried it out.

This photo was taken at an angle

What do you think? We have a ways to go. . .

I was having a ton of fun with Shy, just hanging out. On a whim, I asked her if she wanted to do some work. She actually smiled when I said this, so I took it as a yes. I grabbed the tire and her harness and hooked her up. Away we went. Like it was nothing. 

I can tell she is getting very comfortable pulling stuff now because she is starting to give me a hard time. I asked her to whoa and she did, but she would not stand. Every time I asked for whoa she did, then proceeded to do a complete 180 and end up in a tangled mess. But she didn't care. She had the traces between her hind legs, both on one side or the other, and somehow crossed once. Didn't bother her, she kept on walking. 

See the trace. . .how my horse prefers to pull tires. . .

One time, she had one trace between her legs and I told her to fix herself and she did. The cool part of this is that she did this in front of two people who I don't even know and they thought it was awesome. It was pretty cool. 

She was so relaxed, I decided to go ahead and add the cans into the mix. I held them and rattled them randomly when we were line driving. She started the first time, but from then on there was zero reaction. I took it a step further. . .I tossed the cans in the center of the tire while we were walking along. Nothing. She kept going. It was loud! Here is a small sample. . .

Cans in the tire

Eventually the bag kind of ripped and the cans came out from under the tire, crinkling the whole way. Shy just kept trucking. I made her stop and turn around so we could pick the cans up, then attached the bag to her side. Every once in a while, I had the lines hit the bag to make it crinkle. 

Bag on the side

Wow. It was just another day for Shy. I cannot believe how she just took everything in stride. This is so different from the horse I had a year ago, shoot, even a couple months ago. I gave her a ton of praise, a few treats, some loving, then put her back with her herd. 

I'm glad I took Shy's smile as a yes. We had a great session. Any suggestions on how to deal with the 180 turn when I ask her to whoa? Happy pony! Happy me!

ooh la la

Shyloh sure has these geldings under her love spell! Except for Caesar . . .she does not like him and he does not really like her. They continue to stand in separate parts of the shelter and every time I put her back in the paddock, he bites her!  On the plus side, he is going inside very soon, although that leaves Shy without a buddy. And she likes to have a buddy.

Shy got a new halter! 

It is really odd that her and Caesar do not get along, she gets along with every other horse that she has met so far. Ryleigh has been bitten by the love bug with her and he has been bitten hard! Today Ryleigh and Sandy's horse, Forseti were in the arena together. It has been raining so much lately that the horses have not been going outside. And since Shy lives outside, I wanted to bring her in to clean her up and get her out of the mud for a bit. I asked if it would be okay for Shy to join Ryleigh and Forseti and it was. We already know that Shyloh and Ryleigh get along, so Shyloh and Forseti were introduced. All was well. . .

But then Ryleigh began to act like a stallion! He was strutting his stuff and he did not want Forseti anywhere near Shyloh! All I will say is that Ryleigh has a fantastic spin on his hind quarters. . .whoa. . .Shy did not seem to mind all the male attention. She just laid down and rolled in the middle of it all. She is so comfortable with other horses. 

Ryleigh was put back in his stall and Shy and Forseti got to hang out for a bit. Shy just followed him around the arena. She did get a kick when she sniffed Forseti's butt and he did not like it. But besides that they were great!  Shy did yawn a few times. . .it must be boring when there is only one gelding in the arena and no other geldings to fight over her. I swear she loves the attention!

There was a saddle fitter at the barn tonight. A few horses were getting fitted and Baby Bob was one of them. He is still gaga for Shy, too! Every time he would walk by her, he would slow down and just stare at her! I do not know why she has this effect on the boys!

After she was done being fawned over, we worked on poles again, but added the tarp. We went over on the lead at the walk and trot. We were going to try jumping again, but I could not put the splint boots on because her legs were too muddy. I did wash them, but then they were wet and I still did not want to put the boots on. Anyway, she did awesome! Shy did not even second guess walking on the tarp! We also worked on getting a bigger walk out of her and it was pretty successful. To wrap up our night, we worked on the mounting block. Shyloh is doing so good! 

The pole setup

Now I need some ideas about more ground work exercises to do. Any suggestions?

monday musings by shyloh #4

Ouch. . .Caesar is beating me up. But that is because I am trying to get his grain. Have I ever mentioned that I love grain? Why don't I get any? It is so good! But, what the lady doesn't know is that I get Caesar back! Ha!

You should see the other guy!

I must be turning into a sea horse! My paddock is flooded! It is raining, raining, raining! So much mud! But I don't mind. The lady comes and takes me inside, cleans me off, then puts me on dry land inside. And then I roll! Hey, a girl can't stay clean for too long, right? 

The lady does the craziest things! I don't get the purpose and she probably does not have one. Today, on the wall, there was a blue tarp. Never seen that before. I went up to it and sniffed it. But then the crazy lady wrapped it around herself and tried to walk toward me. Well, I was having none of that, so I ran away. But then the lady held out a treat. Food! How could I resist! So, I stopped and let the lady come up to me. I was a little scared, but that blue thing didn't do much except make funny noises. So in response, I made my thinking noise. 

The lady started touch me all over with the blue thing. I let her. It was not too bad, I guess.  She put it on my back, like a cape so I was Super Shyloh!! 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super Shyloh!!

And she put it over my head.

Why does she do this to me?

Crazy even put it over her own head! Notice how she did not add the picture of that. . .hmmm?

Gotta check it out

After I felt comfortable that the blue tarp was not a mountain lion in disguise, the lady put it on the ground. We circled around it a few times each way. Before I knew it, she was asking me to walk on it! What? I did my best to try and walk around it. I was getting the same result, right, getting closer to the lady. But that was not good enough. She wanted me to walk ON it. I had to make a thinking noise over this. . .Okay, I put my front foot on the blue thing. Nothing terribly bad happened. So, I walked over it. And I did it again. And again. And then we trotted over it a bunch of times. It was actually kind of fun! I got lots of praise and treats and pets for doing such a simple thing.

It's all good

Look! I conquered the tarp!

The lady decided to take a break and let me roam around the inside. It seems that when she trots, she gets tired. It must be that only having two legs thing. Much harder to move around. While I was doing some exploring, I came across the cones. I seem to remember Ryleigh (sigh, <3) playing with these. I never thought to play with them before! I checked these cones out. Pretty interesting. Then the lady moved some out of the corner for me. Fun! Then she put a scary whip in the cones, just like when Ryleigh was playing with the other day! The whip is not so scary when I have control over it! See what I can do!

I got some granola and apple for being such a good and brave girl today. And I did not bite! On the way back to my paddock, I saw some flakes of hay just sitting there, not being eaten. What's a girl to do but to grab a whole flake as we walked by? Like I said, I am a hungry girl! I did get that hay taken from me, but later learned that it was my dinner hay, anyway! When I got back outside, I was given my dinner. What difference does it make if I eat it on the go or in my shelter? None, I say!

I think I had a good day with the lady today. Now only if the rain would stop. . .

~Shyloh

day seven and sexy shyloh

I am exhausted from my day at the barn!! Me, Robin, and Sandy spent most of the day feeding horses, giving them grain, mucking stalls, filling water buckets, and turning out horses. Whew! My feet are killing me!

Catch me of you can!

After all that hard work, I asked Robin to catch Shyloh. I thought just a peppermint would work, but Robin brought a granola bar out, too. Shyloh must have known that, because she would not come to her for the peppermint. Robin ended up catching her with with the granola bar and walked her around the paddock, then let her go. I am asking others to catch Shy now so she can learn that other people can be trusted, as well. My own personal catch and release program. A few hours later, I asked Sandy to catch Shy. Shy gave her a little bit more grief, but Sandy was able to catch her, too!  

A little later, I went back in and got Shyloh. She came right up to me (yay!), so I think her trust in me is growing. I worked with her on ground tying and some more desensitizing. I think the trust plays a part in the ground tying, because the ultimate goal is me being able to circle around her, without her moving. As of now, I can back away while looking at her, walk away without looking at her, and move side to side in front of her. If I try to circle, Shy follows. So we will continue to work on this and trust.

Hula hoop desensitizing

Our barn is home to the horses of a local equestrian team. They have an event tomorrow, so those horses were loaded up and taken to the fairgrounds. That meant that there was a free pasture! I put Shy out there to graze for a bit and wowzaa!

She had all the geldings in the adjacent pastures up in a tizzy! Red was running around like crazy. For a short time they stopped to sniff and graze near the fence with each other. Dante would not stop strutting his stuff up and down the fence line. Ryleigh could not stop staring at her beautiful butt. When he did break his gaze, it was to try and run Dante off! But the best was Bob, her first love. They leaned over the fence at each other and gave each other "kisses." They groomed necks. I would give anything for a picture of that, but I was afraid to move and have them stop and run off. It was a remarkable sight!

Shy seemed unfazed by all this male attention. She just grazed, like this was a common occurrence in her world. But I did notice that she was pickier with her grass and did not shove mouthfuls in at a time. . .could she be a self-conscious eater? She would take a few blades here, a few blades there, like a little lady.  Shy must be hot stuff in the horse world, haha!

Meet Bob!

Shy and Red

I like big butts and I cannot lie - says Ryleigh

After I put her back in her paddock, I hid pieces of apple, carrot, peppermint, and SweetTarts all around for her to find.  And I forgot to mention yesterday, that Shy was being a beast! She bit my feet, though my boots. . . twice! Once while I was standing on the mounting block, and another time on the ground! How does that even happen? Oh, yeah, me letting her sniff then her deciding to take a bite. Then, Terry brought Addie, her dog to the barn. Shy loves dogs! She was trying to get Addie's tail and she tried to groom Addie's back! 

I will be relaxing the rest of day!

Looking for treats in the shelter

Four Books. So, hard! I love reading!

Book 1 - Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.  It counts as one book because a) it was actually written as one book, but broken into three because it was so long, and b) I own a copy that is a single book.

Book 2 - The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I had a hard time getting into this book, but after I read it, I was like wow.

Book 3 - The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. Not a single book, but a very interesting series.

Book 4 - Harry Potter by JK Rowling. Again, not a single book, but so enchanting and fun to read.

day six and bonding

I think I may be back on track with Shyloh! Having a plan really improves my outlook on things! Today, I went to the barn right after work. This is what I walked in to. . .

What's wrong with this picture?

She usually does not wear the halter in the paddock, but she has been trouble to catch and she needed to be caught yesterday.

I took the wheelbarrow and went into Shy's paddock to scoop poop out of her shelter. She was very curious about the poop removal. . .

After making sure that there was only poop and no hay in the wheelbarrow, Shy went to hang out with some of her neighbors over the fence. . .

Moo!

Whatcha doin ova there?

Then, I took her inside. I groomed her and put on her Fung-a-way. We went into the arena and worked on a bunch of small tasks. I worked with Shy on ground tying and she did well. We still have a ways to go, but it was a start. Then I did some desensitizing work with a dressage crop until she was totally comfortable with it. She even put the crop in her mouth! Then we did some walk/trot on the lead line over poles. Shy did everything I asked of her! Next, I put a pole on the lowest setting of the upright poles, added some poles to lead Shy to the jump (or hop) and walked her through each way. She was amazing again! Although the closest we came to a jump was when Shy walked two legs over the pole, stopped, then hopped her back legs over together, she still never balked at anything I sent her way!

And finally, we worked on the mounting block. Shyloh is terrified of people on the mounting block! I have been walking her by it, standing up on it while she was loose in the arena, and jumping off of it for the past few weeks. Today, I lined her up to the mounting block and stood on the top. She stood there!

View from the top of the mounting block!

I stepped her up and she swung her back end out, so we repeated this a few time. Eventually, I was able to put my hands on her back and apply pressure! We stopped there. Shy had done a lot this evening and we really bonded tonight! 

I want to take a moment of silence and send my thoughts and prayers to Kathy and her horse, Captain Morgan. He passed on this morning after coming down with colic. I love this picture of Captain! 

Captain Morgan

It encompasses everything about him; his handsomeness, his goofy personality, and his fun attitude! Captain Morgan will truly be missed!

Five foods. I love food! My mother in law owns a restaurant and I get to eat good on a regular basis.


Food 1 - Pickles. I love pickles. I always have loved pickles. Seriously. . .I can eat a whole jar in a day. For Christmas every year, my dad gets me a giant jar of pickles. Yum!


Food 2 - Ice Cream. Dark chocolate ice cream with peanut butter is my favorite.


Food 3 - Mashed potatoes and gravy. Pure comfort food and deliciousness.


Food 4 - Crab legs. Ah. . .buttery goodness. You really have to work for these!


Food 5 - Chicken Paprikash. My grandma used to make this and it was the best!