Mocha Goes Home Today

and I am really going to miss her. Mocha is a four year old AQHA filly raised by Eric and Doats Norby at Broken Wheel Ranch, in Sioux City, IA. If you follow my blog, they raised my beloved Slippin and Knosie, a pair of fillies I put time on as two and three year olds. Mocha is by the Two Eyed Red Buck stud that they have and I think that stud must put an incredible mind on every baby he throws, if these three are any indication. Mocha started out with an issue or two, but what horse that comes to training doesn't?



Mocha had an injury when she was two that resulted in surgery on an infected tendon and quite a bit of time spent in a cast. Norby's brought her to my place to start, last Fall, just shortly before I fell victim to the plague and had to send all my training horses, jiggedy jig back home again. Throughout my barn misadventures when we moved to Omaha this winter, they have patiently waited for me to get myself settled, then they and a friend of theirs hauled all the way down to Plattsmouth so I could finish the job I had promised.



Mocha had been handled plenty, of course, during her rehabilitation, but there was no way she could be asked to move her feet, much and she really liked that status. When she did move them, she thought nothing at all of putting them wherever she wanted them to go, and if that was on top of you, well then, it made perfect sense to her that you should just get the heck out of the way.



Not having had to do much she didn't want to, as was necessary to not upset her during that delicate healing time, it came as quite a shock to Mocha when so many things changed, and quickly at that. When I walked away and took the slack out of the lead, I expected her to step right up and follow, not pull the slack out and tow along behind like a barge stuck on sandbar. Being tied up didn't bother her one bit, but having to wear a saddle? THAT was seriously out of the question.



I did most of the warm up I normally do when I saddle for the first time. I make sure the young horse is as relaxed in their body as they can possibly be, teach them to disengage their hips over, bring their shoulders back through so I know I have at least a little control over them when I go to saddle. I desensitize around the girth and back cinch areas, hold the end of the lead around them. I release and present pressure with feel and timing to help the young horse not get troubled. I throw the rop over their backs, let them feel the saddle pad all over and see it on both sides. Mocha handled all of this okay, and setting the saddle up was not a big deal. It was not until she left and the pesky thing insisted on going with her that things got dusty.



She really didn't buck much, and not that hard either. I probably would have even stood a decent chance of riding it out, had it happened when I was on board though I am awfully glad I wasn't. Derek, who owns Log Barn Stable, and his hired hand, Jim, were watching, and their eyes were even bigger than the filly's. They thought she might present quite a handful. I laughed, and said, nope, she'll be fine. Seen a LOT worse than this!!



That idea of theirs was compounded a few days later when Mocha and I had a showdown about where the feet go. When I said, don't run into pressure, she said, okay, how about I run THROUGH it instead? I said, what a bad idea that is. She said, get out of my way, you silly insignificant human, I want to be somewhere else right now!



We went round and round. She'd run through her halter pressure, over and over again. I escalated to meet her resistance, and she escalated to meet mine. I turned her into the round pen panels and asked her to yield back a step or two. When she couldn't blow past me, she reared up, trying to swing her body over the top of me. That ran her into my stick pretty sharp, as my arm wasn't tall enough to reach that high but no way was she going to succeed in that manuever!



The hired guy had brought in some round bales and was watching this altercation with considerable interest. I am thinking to myself, holy cow, he is going to be thinking I am the meanest most abusive horse trainer ever (whack, do NOT try to run over me, WHACK do NOT rear up over the top of me, BACK UP!!). We were at this for awhile, and I am seriously questioning what I can do to help this filly figure things out. We are in the thick of it, and no way can I release pressure here, as where the release comes, so does the teaching and if you release in the middle of something that isn't going well, you'll teach that just as effectively as when you release at that perfect and proper moment.



Which . . . finally came. Almost by accident, Mocha suddenly threw her head down after running into my stick several times, and backed herself up. She is breathing heavily, eyes big and on me, ears straight forward. I throw down the rope (reminiscent of when I was working Jessica's Wildfire filly), spin around and walk away, releasing pressure in as large a picture as I possibly can. YES! THIS is the RIGHT answer!!



Mocha watches me intently to see what I will do next. As she relaxes and straightens her body position, I slowly approach. I make myself as friendly and non threatening in every aspect of my body language that I p0ssibly can. When I reach her, I hold out my hand, palm down in a cup shape I have heard called the "horseman's handshake." I let her reach out and touch me first, then I rub and rub her. She's sweaty and enjoys the contact and the reassurance.



We turned a corner that day. Still had things to work out, but she no longer dragged her feet on the halter rope, was no longer pushy and disregarding of my space. Jim said he was watching not to see if I was going to hurt the filly but if he needed to call 911 for me!! Aw heck, Jim, it wasn't all THAT bad, LOL! It's been fun, having those guys watch this filly progress into the nice horse I was very sure she would be, from the start, knowing her breeding and all.



The first time I got on her, she was very unsure and tense. I let her move around until she relaxed, didn't ask much of her and got down. I fixed some more things from the ground. Another colt starter might have just ridden her through and been fine. I do what I do, and it seems to turn out okay. Rode her again, a few days later with MUCH better result. In the meantime, I have been working on keeping her balanced in her movement, watching for all four corners to be reaching equally, walk, trot and canter on the 12 foot line. We work circles (I never lunge, hate seeing horses run around in mindless circles that are not teaching them anything), and I bump her if she pulls on me, continuing to reinforce the idea of being light and responsive on the line, just like I am soon going to want her to be light and responsive on the rein. I send her over the bridge, help her gain confidence by using my plastic sacks on the end of a stick. I bring them from the ground, straight up the shoulder, a tip I got from my good friend, Colleen Hamer. I run it over the side of the saddle so she can see it from the eye on the side I am not on. I run it over her rump, down her legs, as if something is falling off the saddle. She gets calm and good with all of this. Time to ride.



A young gal is also training out at Log Barn, Miss Jesse James, from out the wild west, Broken Bow, NE way. I enlist her aid, and ask her if she wouldn't mind being a passenger for me while I send the filly around and get all three gaits. She says sure (oh for the courage of youth!!), I get on Mocha first (oh wait, maybe I don't that night, but had been on her before, and was very sure we'd not run into problems.) I give Jesse a line from the halter, we make a game plan in case things don't go well, and I send them off at a walk. We pick up the trot, and eventually get the canter, going that way. I think we got Mocha tired, in the deep sand, as we got the trot the other way, but she was straining pretty hard when I asked for the lope and I didn't push it. I really like having someone to passenger while I am the gas pedal. It makes things easier all the way around.



After that, it's just been a matter of getting the rides on and the teaching commenced. We've ridden in the arena, rode over the bridge, which of course she had no problem with, been down the road a little and she got hauled over to Chance Ridge Event Center when I rode a group lesson with Brenda Messick who is introducing some really cool concepts with Centered Riding.



The Event Center is a wonderful place to ride. The arena is huge, nicely footed, there are roping boxes, bucking chutes and always something going on in the back alley where the livestock lives, oh yeah, and a tarp covered mechanical bull in another corner! My broke mare, Ginger, looked askance at a couple of things. Not Mocha. First, I ponied her around to give her a good look at her surroundings, and when I got on, I dropped the reins and let her go see whatever she needed a second take on. She makes a beeline for the alley that goes in back to the cattle pens. Not one bit afraid, Mocha drinks in the sights and sounds of cattle. Wow, she's neat!



Riding there went well, and I love how solid and confident this horse feels under me. She's not a spook, has her brain firmly between her ears at all times, and just does not seem to get rattled by much of anything. The other night, Jesse rode Mocha and I rode Two Sox, a gelding I have in training, and we just played around in my big dry lot. It was about riding up and down steep little hills, stopping, turning, backing, going where WE wanted to go, even though it was their home and the other horses were happily munching at the round bale while they had to work. Neither colt got at all worried or troubled, which was nice to see.



Yesterday, Derek took some moments from his busy day and shot a few photos for me. I have a few from the very early days when Corie came over to watch Soxie, and now these. The filly has come a long way, which of course, is always the goal. I think she can go home and do a good job for my friends, whether it's trail riding, gathering cattle or maybe finding a new home in the world to please the next set of owners. She needs her continuing education, but I couldn't be happier with the start. Only 30 days, and that, a broke horse does not make, but she handles nicely, gives to her bit, and when you ask something with a rein, she understands it means for a foot to move, whether it's forward, backward or laterally.



Now for the commercial. I am accepting limited bookings for June, July and August. I am only taking on three outside horses, as I am going to concentrate on lessons and clinics. This week, I'll be traveling to Georgia and riding in a five day clinic to get an accreditation as Riding Instructor with the American Association of Horsemanship Safety. I am very excited about this new direction in my life. My first love will always be helping horses, but unless I can help the people, it truly is not as good.



Contact me for more info on this stuff if you are interested. I need five paid in advance riders to host a clinic and we can do it at Log Barn Stables wwwlogbarnstables.com or your facility if you choose!



Thanks and happy trails!!

CCHPC Clinic Recap

I have decided blog updates are what you do when your allergies are just totally kicking your butt and you are waiting for your meds to kick in, so you can head out to the barn and do your job. In the meantime, here we go. (just read an article about how pollen counts are off the charts. man, that explains a LOT!) I've been happily reflecting on the latest Anywhere From Here foundation horsemanship clinic, and here's a recap of what went on . . .



The clinic in Lincoln was just the best time. I sent out the photo link to all those hundreds of photos and figure, since that might be daunting to wade through, plus it's hard to know exactly what you are looking at, if you have not attended a clinic of mine, what you think you see may not be what's actually occurring :-)) All things are taught with a process and an end goal of softness and fluidity under the saddle, and there are steps to take along the way or you may end up somewhere, totally else!



We had seven riders, the youngest being a 13 year old girl, the oldest, well I am not saying, LOL! The 13 year old has more miles under her belt than many adults and several of the adults were either brand new to horses or just returning to their childhood roots. The seven horses ranged from chartreuse green to the bluest of true blue, a really nice bunch of horseflesh.



I teach essentially the same things in all of my clinics and lessons. The paths we take may vary, techniques might change from horse to horse but the principles of gaining the horse's respect, the promise of instant release from pressure as the horse seeks the right answer . . . those things do not change. Gaining these skills in a friendly, controlled environment can mean all the difference to whether or not your trail rides go as planned or have mishaps, disappointments and scary events added instead. (see the May issue of Saddle Up magazine for my article on Trail Safety)



We had issues of horses who didn't really want to or understand how to freely move their feet, and ones who seemed to want to move them too much. I taught the riders how to send their horse from the ground, doing exercises that might look like lunging but are very far from mindless circles, round and round. We watched for all four corners to be reaching equally. A horse with brace in his body will travel crooked and getting the brace out of the body relaxes the mind as well. Fixing that can be a major solution to many problems a rider might think totally unrelated. Getting the horses to respond lightly on the halter was another task that involved teaching the handlers how to start soft and firm up as necessary. The release needs to come as the horse STARTS to make the change, if you wait til the change is done, it's too late. That kind of timing can only come with practice and observation. I think my students picked up very quickly on what they needed to do, and the generally easy looks on the faces of the horses tell you we were on the right track.



When we did run into some stickiness, here and there, I was able to step in and show what works for me. I do not claim my timing and feel are perfect, far from it, but I was able to get the horses past their hard places and could show one horse it was okay to give and work away from his buddies, another horse carries a lot of tightness in his body which results in chronic bucking behavior, another tends to want to sleep through her days, plopping her feet roughly into the ground, and when we were able to bring the life in the body to the feet and into the mind, we created a much prettier picture than we started with!



It was really fun working with some folks who have been to a couple of my clinics and are very dedicated to taking this stuff home. For those guys, it was mostly a matter of fine tuning, and introducing a few ideas I have just learned, myself, and they were off and running. It was equally a joy introducing these concepts as brand new ideas to some of the other folks who got to find out their horses really do appreciate it when the rider is the leader and the horse doesn't have to worry about being in charge. It's a big responsibility, you know! It's not about the struggle of "showin' 'em who's boss" but rather letting the horse be assured that when you say something, you mean it and have the ability to follow through. A boss mare who pins her ears but then does nothing to rebut a challenge will quickly lose her spot. The one that has the ability to firm up will rarely ever need to use it.



We played with obstacles, not because we think we will find mattresses on the trail and need to be able to cross them but because that particular object provided an excellent venue to erase doubt's in our horse's minds about our ability to send and ride them over things they may not think, on their own, is the absolute best idea. Every success built confidence, horse in rider, rider in horse, and prepares the way for more success, out in the world, using these same principles, pressure, release, good sends, rewarding the try, knowing when to firm up and knowing when to sit and wait. Again, the details will change and there is no way to simulate every single type of situation a person will run into on the trail, but when you have the principles in place, you and your horse will be able to smoothly handle whatever comes your way, no leaping, balking, sticking or whirling required!



Thinking about the late Tom Dorrance's poem "To Slicker Break A Bronc" we did slicker training, and all our "broncs" came around to thinking nothing of the flapping yellow thing. Might have been a different story, had we been caught in the rain, five miles from the trailer and just tried to unfold and wear one. . . .might have been a long walk home for some of us!



I taught the class the hip over, shoulder through exercise, of which there are many variations. I like it best when I don't take the arc out of the body of the horse and I ask them to rock back on their hindquarters, lifting the front and bringing the shoulder through while yielding away from me. This has really helped my horses not be heavy in front, as they all used to be, once upon a time. We did that manuever from the ground and worked on it from the saddle. We used one of my favorite exercises, the barrel game, to see how well we had those pieces. That game also provides excellent spook therapy when you use your line or the horse's stirrup to knock one down while the horse comes around it. They get pretty used to the idea that sudden, unexpected events can take place without having to have any kind of catastrophic reaction! The tight horse learned to bend and I don't think he bucked, even once, the second day all day long. Lots of good uses for these games and exercises!



The next piece after that is lateral flexion in motion. We learned the basics for that, from the ground, looking for that straightness in the arc that shows the nose tipped in, inside hind reaching into the track of outside fore. I no longer teach just bending a horse's head and neck, back and forth. I have learned, if I want the feet to be aware of signals from the reins, it doesn't make sense to detach them by doing rein exercises that do not and are not supposed to, move the feet! I have seen many a horse run through it's outside shoulder, and most of those have been bent and bent and bent, so that when you pick up the rein, sure the head and neck come around, whilst that body, detached, continues on in the direction it was going, only now without it's head! I look for lateral flexion to take place while the inside hind is reaching up under, at first, it is at that one stride that I release, and later, I can ask the horse to hold that frame, bending, and then straight down the rail for a truly lovely picture of collection and self carriage. It's one of the neatest exercises I know, and I learned it from Missy Fladland who I cannot wait to ride with again, once her show schedule slows down.



At the end of the last afternoon, we played arena games, to help build, once again rider confidence in their ability to steer their horse not only from point to point, which encourages straightness and the very desirable goal of being able get point A to B with a minimum of direction and fuss, to group games. The group games addressed defensive trail horse issues, jiggy, speedy horse issues, pokey slowly never gonna get there issues, and gave the riders yet another set of tools to take home and build into their repetoire. Not I nor any good clinician I have seen says we can fix you or your horse in a matter of days or hours. The best we can do is show you some things that work for us, give you the pieces, the confidence and the ability to pick them up and use them. Then, it's up to you, the rider, to take it home, and THAT, my friend, is where the learning truly begins.



So, from the basics of having a horse learn to lead respectfully, taking responsibility for it's place by your side, it's willingness to stop when you stop, back up when you do, spook therapy, confidence building, obstacle training, trail safety and etiquette to some of the more advanced pieces of learning control, self carriage and collection, we covered a lot of ground over the course of a weekend! My next clinic is scheduled May 15, in Sioux City. We'll cover, in a nutshell, the basics of what we did over the weekend. I work to each rider's ability to try to give the best picture and possibilities of success for whichever piece of the puzzle is the one that fills the whole for you!