The Sun Is On My Side

Finally, daylight savings time has reversed (or however that works) and I have time to spend with Gambler. The sun doesn't set until 5:20ish, which gives me at least half an hour on school nights.

Gambler in his stall tonight. 

I went out to see Gambler again on Sunday and today. Both days we had really good sessions. Right now I'm leading him primarily from the right (off) side because he prefers the left. He's catching on fast. I'm discovering just how in tune to my emotions he is. If I watch him to see how he's reacting to me or am unsure of myself he puts up a fuss, but if I just do my thing and expect him to be okay with it, he complies.

In the cross-ties on Sunday.

He's continuing to improve with regard to picking out his feet. I can pick them all out without anyone holding him again, but he kicks out and moves around a lot. He's the worst with his front right foot, but I'll say more about that later.

Playing around with the bridle. 

He's been quite energetic. I can't say I'm surprised, since he's coming back into work after a month or so off. There has been much kicking up of the heels when I longe him, but I don't mind. He's been respectful of my space and listens to my commands, so he can throw in the aerobics if he wants to.

I've continued to put the bareback pad on every day and right now he isn't reacting to the cinch much if at all.

I've also done a good bit of mounting prep with him. I'm trying to find the balance between moving slow enough for him to be comfortable, but fast enough that he can't get bored. So far, so good, but it's only been two days.

There is one issue which I need to address. When I ask Gambler to yeild his forequarters - something dominant horses are notoriously bad at - he flips his head, pins his ears, strikes with a front foot, and if I keep pushing, rears. He is worst when I am on his right side, which is the foot he doesn't like me to pick up. He is also more rude during mounting prep when I am near that part of his body. That one issue is a roadblock in most of the areas I've been working on. It's definitely my next subject of focus.

Joke's on Me

So in my last post I talked about how Gambler is a young horse who needs consistent work in order to remember anything I teach him. That's an exaggeration, but you get the point. Well, apparently he's reading my blog and he thought it would be fun to prove me wrong. I was surprised, but I'm certainly not complaining!

It was 25 degrees at the barn yesterday, warmer than it's been for weeks. The wind, however, was blowing at about 13 mph. As I walked toward the barn, I said to myself (yes I talk to myself - a sign of genius or insanity or both), "The horses are gonna be spookified monsters today." Then Kezi whinnied at me from the gate, almost like she was replying to me. She whinnied again when I got to the fence. Apparently she was very glad to see the food-bringer.

We brought the horses in and dished out the grain, same as usual. Gambler was surprisingly calm. Instead of ignoring his hay and pacing the stall, he stood and munched away. Once he was done with his grain, I brought him out into the cross-ties. For the first time in the last few weeks, he acted as if he really had seen cross-ties before. Imagine that!

I brushed him and then addressed the picking up of the feet. I took it pretty slow, like I did when I first started focusing on his feet. First I just asked him to lift the foot calmly. It took some time, but in the end I picked out all four feet without any hopping, kicking, mini-rearing, or attempted biting. I didn't even have to ask Mom to hold him.

Then I put on the bareback pad. I haven't even brought the pad into the barn in weeks, so I expected the usual "I have never seen that object in my entire life" response. I was happily surprised when he allowed me to tighten the girth without a single complaint. Is this the same baby horse I wrote about yesterday?

On top of it all, I brought out the bridle again, to check the fit. He let me put it on first try without any problem. I felt horrible because I forgot to warm up the bit. I specifically prepared a hand warmer for that very purpose, but forgot anyway. I don't think he'll hold it against me.

He played with the bit a little, but not much. The bridle fits perfectly, except for the browband, which is definitely too tight. I guess he has the forehead of a quarter horse. The noseband was attached to the wrong part of the headstall, so I couldn't tighten all the straps. You'll notice in the pictures it looks a little awkward. The best part is, he was totally relaxed and accepting of the bridle, even though I haven't put it on him since . . . October? November? I don't even remember.

I guess my baby is growing up!

He's standing a little awkwardly, because he's so focused on the thing on his head. I have his halter - still attached to one cross-tie - around his neck, but he really wasn't tied. Thankfully, he didn't realize it. He just stood there thinking about what was on his head. 

When he saw me take out the phone he stopped messing with the bit, looked at me, and perked up his ears. I swear he poses for the camera. 

Eleven-Fourteen

Today is the fourteenth day of the eleventh month. For those of you who don't know, that is my special number. There isn't much logic behind it, it's just a number that shows up all the time in my life. I used to live in the 1114th house on my old street, at the place where I used to work there wasn't a 12th or 13th stall, and often I'll just happen to glance at the clock when it turns to 11:14. Someone must have told Gambler that today was a special day, because he was wonderful today.

When we got to the barn, I set up the arena and walked out into the pasture to get Gambler. He let me walk most of the way and then walked the last few feet to meet me. Once we were in the arena I began the session with a review of Thursday: the bit. This time I left the browband on the bridle, but took the noseband off. The bad news is the browband doesn't fit Gambler anymore. The good news is that means he is growing!

No head-tossing going on here!

He has more of a problem with putting on the bridle than taking the bit I think.

Awwww look at my Gamble being all grown up.

He looks so grumpy here. In retrospect, I should see if I can loosen the cheek pieces a little more. If the brown band is too small now, the bit is probably pulling too much on the corners of his lips.

We played the circling game walk/trot with the bridle before I took it off.

Next I worked with Gambler on his feet. I've mentioned this a few times, but I kept putting off an in-depth explanation, so I'll try to explain the process now. Gambler has always been bad about his feet, but recently he has gotten even worse about it and it is getting to the point where finding a farrier is difficult. So I'm spending a little time every day just picking up his feet. One thing that really helps is using the method Parelli uses to get horses to pick up their own feet. I ask Gambler to pick up his foot by saying "Give" and either squeezing the chestnut (front hooves) or the cap of the hock (bad hooves). To start I just squeeze until he picks his foot off of the ground and then I reward him. After I've done that once or twice I grab the foot when he picks it up and hold it for a while. If he kicks free or kicks at me any time during the process I back him up several steps as fast as I can. Right now Gambler will let me pick out his front feet, but still threatens to kick in the back.

After that, I tried a new approach to mounting preparation. It didn't work. So I amended my approach on the fly and stumbled upon the answer. I decided to try the approach and retreat method that I used with the bit since that worked so well. It worked! I asked Mom to hold Gambler loosely then I walked over, jumped up on the mounting block, and rubbed Gambler's back (not even pressing down, just rubbing). Of course, he moved all over the placed. So I hopped off of the mounting block but kept rubbing his back until he stopped moving. Then I brought the mounting block over and did it again. If he held still while I rubbed his back I stepped off of the mounting block to praise him and scratch an itchy spot. Once I could rub his back I started pushing on his back. When I could push his back without a problem I started leaning on him. By the end he figured out that he could get me to leave him alone by standing still better than he could by moving around. As soon as I knew he understood, I moved on to something else. 

So I brought out the saddle, the saddle pad, and the bareback pad. I started by playing the friendly game with the saddle pad before putting the saddle on twice (once on each side). Then I put the bareback pad on a few times. I didn't cinch up the saddle or the bareback pad, because right now my goal is for him to just relax during the saddling process. 

Somebody's neck was itchy.

Gambler was just about to attempt to bite the saddle. I will let him sniff, lick, and lip the saddle, but he knows that as soon as the teeth are involved I'll bump him in the mouth. That is exactly what happened a few seconds after this picture was taken.

Then I went back to the mounting preparation. I went through the exact same process, but it went a lot faster. In the end I jumped over his back sideways and he stood still. I call that success. The best part is, through the whole thing (mounting prep and saddling) he only grunted once. 

I Am So Proud of Him

There is something about Thursdays. I don't know what it is, but almost every Thursday for several weeks in a row has been rainy. Why Thursdays? It is inconvenient since that is one of the two week days I get to see Gambler. A day in the cross-ties, however, can be just as productive as a day in the arena. Today proved that fact.

My mom and I got to the barn just after four, as the sun was beginning to set. I think it was at least, it was too cloudy to tell, but the light had a dusky quality. We pulled up to the barn and scared a little rabbit.

Sorry for the blurry quality, it was pretty dark.

We had to trek out into the pasture to bring the horses in. They came about half way up to the barn only to turn around and run back out into the far end of the pasture. Thank you for that. When we walked out to them, Gambler came right up to me to be haltered. I thought that was really sweet, especially due to how windy it was. Normally when it is windy and he is freaked out he runs away from me, so it was a nice change. And let me tell you it was windy! Windy and freezing cold. The wind was gusting up to 30mph, or that's what the weather report said, it felt even stronger than that.

Gambler enjoying his hay.

"Do you hear the wind too?"

The door was completely shut so the wind couldn't blow into the barn, but you could still hear it outside. I kept an eye on Gambler (notoriously afraid of wind) to see how he would handle it, but he was surprisingly chill. Since he wasn't too upset, I put him in the cross ties and gave him an in depth grooming session. Then I spent some time on bridling, which I will go over in more detail later.

Okay, the wind is a little bit scary . . . 

He is looking back at Kezi in her stall.

Mare mentioned that the saddle might not fit Gambler any more (he has definitely gained some fat and muscle over the last few months). So I wanted to check out the fit of the saddle without the saddle pad. I've never saddled him in the cross-ties before so I brought out the saddle pad first and "sacked him out" with it. 

"Mom you left something on my back . . . "

"But why can't I eat the camera?"

He was okay with the saddle pad, so I brought out the saddle and put it on him. It seems to fit pretty well, but it could be pinching in a couple places. I found this test where you set the saddle on the horse without a pad or a cinch and pull on the stirrup. If the saddle fits well, it shouldn't move much. Well the saddle passed that test. I think that I'll check the fit again, this time with the pad I'm using now. There is a foam pad I might check out too.

Kezi is so distracting.

I can easily get my hand under the saddle in the front, but it's not loose, which is about right. It doesn't seem to interfere with his shoulders either.  

There is plenty of clearance above the withers and an open channel all the way down his spine.

Silly goof refused to stand square, which of course meant the saddle was a little crooked.

It might be pinching a little under the stirrups, I couldn't get any fingers under there.

Same spot on the other side.

Overall it looks pretty good.

At this point I went back to work on the bridling. Gambler has never had an issue with the bit, he loves to chew on it. I could hold the bit in front of him and he would take it into his mouth. Then a few days ago I put it in his mouth without realizing how cold it was. Normally I would warm up the bit in my hands before putting it in his mouth. It just took that one bad experience to throw him into full head-tossing hard-to-bridle madness. So today, I set out to right a wrong.

I spent a while just approaching and retreating. I would put one arm around Gambler's head and hold the headstall on his nose, pressing the bit to his lips. If he tossed his head I held it there until he stopped and then I took the bridle away and praised him. I did that several times until he no longer tossed his head when I just held the bridle there. Then I stuck my thumb in the corner of his mouth and just asked him to open his mouth while I held the bit to his lips. Once he had that down. I asked him to just put the bit in his mouth for a second, then to hold the bit for a little longer, then I put the bridle on (I took off everything but the cheek strap and the throat latch so that the bit would fit nicely over a halter). I rubbed him and praised him and then took it off again. 

At that point I took a break to check the fit of the saddle. When I came back we went through the whole bridling process again, but it took less time and when he got it on, he didn't even chomp at it. He just sat there in the cross-ties, ignoring the bit like a "broke" horse. I was so proud of him.

I had to clip the cross ties to the other part of his halter so they wouldn't interfere with the bit.

Look at those ears.

S that was our wonderfully productive day, despite the wind and cold. I also did a bit of work with picking up his feet. He is improving slowly but steadily. I'll probably explain the process in detail at a later date.