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!

snowy line driving

Today I took the plunge. . .

I attached the tire to Shyloh and then I did some line driving. Who replaced my jumpy horse with this calm tire pulling champion? I even got some video!

Did you see that first step off? Total calmness. No quick steps, no anxiety. Just step off and pull the tire. The video didn't capture the little bit of trotting we did or the little spook Shy did. It was just a small jump, but it had a quick recovery. 

I think the snow helps a lot. It has this aspect to it that does not make a gravel noise. But this is a good thing because I can get a lot of line driving under Shy's belt and build her confidence and mine. 

After our session, Shy got a hay snack from Dancer's owner. She deserved it!

Dancer

snowplow

I am thinking I can make some extra money with Shyloh as a snowplow. 

Back up. . .I haven't been to the barn in a week. A week! Christmas and family things then sickness have kept me away. Shy must have thought she was wild and free pony. I let her finish eating with her herd, then tried to wrangle her in.

See the difference in these Haflingers!

nom nom nom

Sharing!

She sure gave me a hard time catching her today. That was the first in a long time. And she was doing her head toss. I haven't seen that since we moved to this barn.

But I did finally catch her, with the help of a candy cane. Once I brought Shy over to the grooming area, she kept trying to leave. And when she saw her harness, she tried to walk away again. Then she saw the tire I brought out. . . .If you remember the rules of the tire, I was not supposed to use it without a header. But I got permission earlier in the week to hook it up to Shy and I would head her. No line driving. And because she has been a line driving super star, I wanted to take the next step. But Shy's initial reaction was not promising. Great, I thought. . .my plans with the tire are going to fail. Shy was a little jumpy and acted like she had never seen a tire in her life!

Say what?

Just great, I thought again. The tire, which Shy has seen a million times gets wide eyes and thinking noises, but parades are no big deal. I considered scratching my plans. I had a pony out of any kind of work for a week who thought she was wild. And she was jumpy. But I figured, I'll take the safe route and ask someone to hold her while I attach the tire. I really wanted to take this next step!

What is this monstrosity?

I don't think I like it. . .

Brenda agreed to hold her head and Shy stood still like a champ. Did I ever mention standing still is one of her strong suits? Except that one time. . .and I didn't need another bad experience with the tire! I admit, I was nervous when I took hold of the lead line. I took a few deep breaths and off we went.

Shock! Shy stepped off with that tire like she always walked with a tire. No scoots. No trying to run off. Nothing. Naturally, I stopped her then asked her to walk on again. Perfect. What is this pony? Shy pulled that tire all through the snow. Hence. . .my snowplow! 

In motion photo. . .

What a good pony!

There was one moment where Shy did her unusual scoot thing. I have noticed this and mentioned it a few times and I would like to see it on video or from a different point of view. Her legs move fast and it is like she is taking off, but she doesn't go anywhere. There is no tightening of the lines or lead rope. Strange. Shy did this once when we were walking over some hay. I am not sure if the tire got caught and bounced maybe, but she recovered quickly. I made her walk back around it and it was not a problem. 

I am so proud of my little snowplow! She is always doing the most unexpected things. We are one step closer to cart time!!

shafted

I have completed homework assignment #4. I stopped at the Home Depot and got some PVC pipes to make shafts. I think the guy thought I was nuts when I asked for two 70 inch pieces and one 32 inch piece. Then he thought I was more nuts when he asked what I was building and I told him shafts for a horse. He was puzzled and I did not feel like explaining. 

I got to the barn, put my shafts together, and let Shyloh play around with them. I had to use the clicker to get her to touch them, but after a few clicks and treats, Shy was walking in and out of them and biting them. She was totally fine. 

Jaime and Kyle came up to the barn to help me head Shy. I out her harness on and started line driving. I had Jaime at the head and Kyle behind us, just dragging the tire. After I felt Shy was comfortable, we hooked the tire up and got to work.

After a few rough starts, Shy was awesome! After really analyzing her step offs, I realized they are the same when she is being ridden. . .they are scoots! She tucks her butt and scoots forward. We worked on stopping and walking on, until we got zero reaction from Shy. I think it took about four times for her to get comfortable and step off without issue. Even when we changed from sand to gravel to grass, there was no issue. I kept Becky's words in my mind the whole time and praised Shy a ton to let her know she was doing good. Kyle even stepped on branches and made other noises, which startled Shy, but she regained her composure quickly and just kept walking. 

We decided to put on the shafts. The point of the shafts is to get Shy used to cart shafts and not have her bend when turning. I let Shy know what we were doing and she had no problem with us putting the shafts through the tugs, duct taking the corners, and using bungee cord to hold the back end up. Hey. . .only the best for Shy! Haha!

The best part of the day. . .after attaching the shafts and asking Shy to step off, it was perfect! No scooting, no freaking out, just a nice smooth step off. Yay! We worked on sharp turns, having Shy turn by stepping her legs over each other instead of bending. She did good! We parked her having ended on good note. No, a great note! Jaime gave Shy some tasty treats called Stud Muffins. Shy loved them!

Kyle said "No texting and driving!"

I think my next step will be having the header stand away from Shy because I think she gets comfort from that person right next to her head. Kyle says we should attach a radio to her that plays that spooky, creaky Halloween music. . .I am not sure about that!

Next, we went to Jaime's barn to introduce her newly gelded 2 year old Percheron to Clutch. I guess Notch looks too much like a Percheron the Isaac (the baby) mated with. 

Aside from some squealing and striking, a few kicks, and a couple rears, the first meeting went really well.

Clutch striking out with both feet. He is the boss!

Isaac doing some sort of defensive rear.

It feels good to be making progress all around!

we're hooked!

What gives a Haflinger a foamy mouth like this?

Foam, a rare sight

Partial credit goes to the new-ish O-ring french link snaffle.

The main credit goes toward pulling a cart!! Yup. I said it. Shyloh pulled a cart!

My friends from the shows we did over the summer came up from Ohio to help me and Shy today. Did I ever mention how awesome, nice, and helpful everyone is at those show? 'Cause they are!!

Becky and her nephew Cody drove up with their tire set up and practice cart. Becky helped me get Shy's harness put on right. . .it was a little far back. Then I did some practice line driving around the property. 

We practiced with the tire pull first. Becky let Shy see and touch the tire and chains before she was hooked. And of course Shy freaked a little bit when the tire hit the gravel, but with two headers (me and Becky), we were able to keep her under control and calm her down. After a few initial bouts of Shy wanting to run forward and get away from the fire breathing, horse eating tire, she relaxed. Becky kept the gravel to a minimum until Shy was comfortable pulling the tire, then we added the gravel part. One of the best pieces of advice that Becky said was to really stroke Shy's ego. She said make a big deal with the smallest of things because Haflinger's love praise. So as Shy was walking (at the pokiest of paces) and licking and chewing and had her head down, we praised her and let her know she was doing a good job. When Shy was asked to whoa, more praises and pets. 

Cart time! I love how Becky was so calm and relaxed. She had Shy see the cart, touch the cart, walk around the cart, but she wanted Shy to do it when Shy was ready for it. Next, we asked Shy to walk forward in the shafts of the cart. Shy did good and was not bothered by the shafts touching her at all. I backed her out and we hooked up the cart. Shy stood really good for this. Better than I thought she would.

Then Becky asked Cody to get in the cart. Gotta love little kids, right? But seriously, Cody is a pro, he has done this before. Becky and I were at Shy's head. I could tell Shy was a little nervous, especially when she takes those initial steps. She wants to run. But we held her, talked to her, calmed her down, and Shy was great. Just every time we stopped, when we started again, we had an issue with the first few steps. Then Shy was fine. . .licking, chewing, foamy, and head down. 

My turn in the cart! I had one moment of panic when Shy wanted to take off when she took her first step, but Becky and Cody had Shy. We walked a little. I probably had the dopiest smile on my face! I was so happy! Then Becky told me to back her up. She backed pretty good, but when asked to walk on, same stuff. So we did it again. Much better. 

That was it for the day. It was a lot for a Haflinger to take in. But little Shy did much better than I thought! Becky said that Shy was real smart and she likes to work. She could tell by Shy's eyes. They were bright. And Becky said Shy knew what she was doing, perhaps she had a cart accident that scared her? 

The next best piece of advice that Becky gave was to let Shy think all of this is her idea. Right now, it is something that I am asking her to do. But the goal is for Shy to want to pull a cart. Or ride. Or whatever.

I am so proud of Shy! And so thankful to Becky and Cody! Becky let me borrow her wooden tree and tire to practice with Shy over the winter, but with the promise I will always have someone head Shy when using it. And I got some homework:

1. Keep practicing the line driving.
2. Work on keeping contact. I tend to be very light in the reins so I need to work on that.
3. Get some cones or other obstacles to practice with.
4. Get some PVC pipes to put together and act as shafts.
5. Find a cart!

Added later because I forgot. . .

1. Get a driving whip.
2. Sing to relax both me and Shy

So, we have some work ahead of us, but Becky thinks we should be driving by summer! Any volunteers for my header?

Go pony!!

monday musings by shyloh #45

Why is Allie intent on scaring the living daylights out of me? I had to show her (again) why she should not do that!

Ima scared!

Allie brought out the tire again. Didn't I tell her last time (in a not so subtle way) that I did not like that tire at all? I guess she does not care about my poor Haflinger feelings. I made my thinking noise at the tire to show my disgust with it. It is kinda like a grunting sound. But then I realized that this tire is not going away. Also, it was not moving, so it might be okay. . .I bent down to sniff it, grunting at it the whole time. I had to show it I was boss!

Please don't hurt me tire!

Then. . .Allie moved it! Whoa! Maybe I am NOT the boss! Tire on gravel sounds suspiciously like mountain lions. . .I think. I have never met a mountain lion in real life, I am just hard wired to be afraid of them!  I took off running and found my herd. 

Help!! There is safely in numbers.

They all came up to the gate to protect me. Once I realized I was safe, I did my acrobatic moves to graze, 'cause my overcheck was on.

I'm the most flexible Haflinger there is! 

Allie got me back and took me through the barn, but I was on to her game. So I refused to walk out the barn doors. Ha! That will get her! But then she got my "best friend," aka the whip. After a few taps of that and some tugs, I burst through the door. I guess that was not acceptable and we did it again. And again, I refused to walk through the door. I just knew that tire was out there, getting ready to eat me! Or creep towards me, mountain lion-style.

We did this a few times and I just kept getting more nervous and tense. I was jumpy. I tried to run back into the barn and almost ran Maryann (Dulce's mom) over. Oops, sorry! But I was scared! I have heard that Haflingers are quite meaty and tasty treats to those mountain lions!

Allie then made me walk through the door until I stopped pushing into her (hey, I was trying to save her from the tire! It might like people as much as it likes Haflingers!) and walked nicely. Then I was done. Back to the safety and security of my stall.

Or so I thought. . .A short while later, Allie brought the big guns out. . .Beth! I knew this was serious now. Beth made me keep going out the barn door until I stopped refusing. I realized my stopping was futile and I think Beth is way more stubborn than me, so eventually I stopped stopping. At least I got to stop something, right?

Going out the door

Beth made me go by the tire and around the tire. Each way and lots of times.  I tried to tell her how scary it was and run away from it, but she would not let me. We did this a ton and I realized that maybe the tire is not so scary. I still don't want it chasing me, but right now I am okay with just going around it.

Had to do lots of circles around and around the tire!

Then Beth made me walk in the barn. Yeah! This is what I was all excited about, so I hurried up. Well, this was a mistake and I had to walk right back out again. This time Beth walked too close to the tire, so I tried to push her out of the way. I guess Beth thinks she can take the tire in a fight and made me do it all over again and again until I stopped pushing her. 

Being pushy, but really  I am trying to protect Beth! I promise!

After my turn with Beth, I had to do it all over again with Allie! But I was real good and it did not take long. 

I'm perdy

Whew. What a stressful day! I grunted a whole lot with my disapproval at this exercise. But we all made it through and no one was eaten by the tire, so maybe it is not so bad. . . maybe.

Finally done!

~Shyloh

climbing a mountain

Well. . .maybe not a mountain, but Shyloh made it up a giant pile of asphalt, pulling a tire.

With the heat wave that we have been having, I decided to work Shy outside. I hooked her harness up and worked on some line driving. Shy was doing great! She was responsive, forward, and just plain awesome. We even did some trotting.

So, I decided to grab the tire and hook it up to Shy to see how she would do dragging it outside. Here is where things went south. . . 

I had been using a regular bridle to work with Shy (as opposed to the driving bridle with blinders). She seemed more comfortable being able to see behind her and my goal right now is to get her comfortable pulling stuff. But since I wanted to work outside, on grass, I knew I needed the overcheck or I would have to fight the good fight against the grass. Clever Shy, never one to be denied grass, figured out that if she bent way over to the left and leaned down, she could grab the grass. 

Since I am only one person, I could only concentrate on one thing at a time. . .grass or hooking up the tire. I chose tire. I got the right side hooked, when Shy took a step to the side. I tried to tap her back over and she took a step forward. Now, I know she saw the tire and she knew what was going on. She is far from a dumb horse. When she took that step forward, she must have felt the weight of the tire on one side of her body. 

And that is when she shot off like a cannon! Down to the end of the outdoor area, back again, through the cars. . .all the while with the tire bouncing behind her and lines flinging away. I called out "Loose horse!" because I knew someone was in the barn with their horse out. She had all the horses looking out their windows on that side of the barn, cheering her on. I wasn't worried about Shy going anywhere, but I was concerned about her hurting herself with all the lines flying behind her. I didn't panic, because panicking would have only made the situation worse.  Then, I came out from between the cars and I saw Shy. . .

My extremely accurate drawing on the actual piles of asphalt.

. . .standing on top of the second pile of asphalt. Shy drug herself and that tire over one pile and onto the top of the second pile. I have to admit, it was kinda cute. I tried to get a photo, but when I got close enough, down the hill she went. She went back and forth a few more times, then tore into the barn. At this point, the rope that tied the tire onto her harness broke. As Shy rounded the corner at top speed, upending wheelbarrows, she ran into the fan on Dannon's stall, knocking it down. 

Broken clip

Finally, she stopped, dead center in the aisle way. Poor Shy was scared and tense. She knew she did something wrong and was not sure how I would react. I untangled all of the lines and checked Shy over. Just a minuscule scrape on her nose from all of that.

I made her go back outside and worked her some more. We did not drag anything, but we did line driving. She was a little jumpy at first, but settled down and was able to get back to good. She was a little hard on the right rein, but we worked through it. I just wanted her to know that freaking out will not get her out of work, she still has to do it. After the holidays, I will go back out and have her drag that tire outside. I am thinking I will have someone hold her head so she can't eat grass. As funny as that was (after the fact) I do not want a repeat!

Oh yeah. . .and Shy had a mouthful of grass throughout this whole ordeal! Kept it and tried to eat it once she calmed down. 

tire tracks

For as sensitive Shyloh can be sometime, there are times when she is able to block everything out. Every urge to move forward, every, tap of the lunge whip, every scream, every, curse word, every push, and every smack (I don't like to hit, but as a last resort it is sometimes necessary). Shy is able to be a statue, but just when she wants to do so. It is very frustrating.

I don't wanna work, Allie!

I rigged up a tire for Shy to pull. Luckily for me, Beth's dad has an abundance of tires in all sizes. I picked a smallish one to start with.

Checking out the tire

I went through our "getting Shy more comfortable with me being behind her " exercise and then did some line driving. So far, so good. I even did the dreaded trail obstacle and it only took Shy one refusal before she just went over the tarp and board. Yay!

I really could not have asked for a better Shy when I attached the tire. It was probably not the safest way to do this, but it worked for us and no one was hurt. Shy was moving forward, not backwards! She did not balk at the weight of the tire and we did a lap each way around the arena and a serpentine each way. . .with no stopping! This is so much improvement for us. 

But then I made a mistake. I asked for a whoa near the arena door. It was a perfect whoa. But when I asked Shy to walk on, she walked backwards. And backwards. And backwards. No matter what I did, she moved backwards. And eventually ended up like this. . .

What is wrong with this picture?

This horse, who practically has each hoof lifted in turn for me to pick them absolutely refused to pick her feet up. I pulled. I prodded. I tapped. I tugged. Nothing. I had to unhook my tire contraption and fix it before we attempted again. I was all set and I asked Shy to walk on. Statue Shy. I told Shy to walk on. Statue Shy. I pushed her. I taped with the whip. I yelled. I swore. I smacked. Nothing! I finally had to turn her at her head to get her to move. Then I made her trot the arena three times before stopped. I figured make her work harder when she does not listen, but I was the one sweating!

Aside from that little hiccup, I am really happy with Shy's progress! I figure we will pull this size tire a few more times and increase the length of time, then move to a bigger tire. And work on a safer tire set up!

I took Shy to do what she loves best for a few minutes. It is so funny to watch her leave the barn when she knows she gets to graze. As we approach the barn door, Shy stretches her head and lowers it, then stretches her lips out as far as they go moving them up and down in anticipation of the grass she will get to eat. She does not even get all of her legs outside of the barn before she starts grazing! It is quite a site!

Pretty girl 

So good!

Whachu lookin at?