Cody Needs a New Partner

My friend is looking to place her RMH gelding "Cody" free to a good home - preferably practicing some variation of natural horsemanship.  She is in her mid 60s with health issues and is motivated to find Cody a partner that will do fun things with him.  He would love to do mounted search & rescue and competitive trail.  I'm hoping that you guys might know someone who needs this fellow!!

Cody is around 12 years old (no papers since he came to my friend through a rescue group - he was found abandoned with other exotic animals).  She has had him 6 or so years.  Cody is a classic left-brain horse with a bit of a cynical "what's in it for me" attitude.  If make things fun for him, he will relax and respond with enthusiasm!  He loves any variation on clicker training and really enjoys performing tricks and working obstacles, and of course hitting the trail.

Cody's issue is that he has two club front hooves and very upright conformation in his front legs.  He has been diagnosed with high ringbone which is believed to have fused.  (He is now 100% sound according to his vet.) He has mostly been ridden in a halter at a fast walk, but lately has been in training with a dressage rider who has taught him to collect himself using a snaffle bit.  He gaits in the field, but not yet reliably under saddle. He is barefooted.

Cody loads easily onto a trailer & backs off quietly, bathes, stands for farrier (see photo below), ties well, and respects electric fence.  He loves other geldings - will play all day long with his buddies - but distrusts mares and is likely to kick at them.

Here is a link to the post where I describe Cody's success at our local fair horse show a couple of years ago.

(There are lots of other details and photos about Cody throughout this blog site too!)

http://happytrailsnaturalhorse.blogspot.com/2009/08/newport-fair.html#links

If you know of anyone, please feel free to share my blog.  To contact me, please comment on this blog with your email address and I will see it but not post.  Cody resides in SW Virginia.

Thank you!

Clare

 

Advancements

I had a very interesting week this week..  Lost electrical power at home for 7 days due to a "derecho" storm!  Somehow between hauling water and sweating, I managed to find time to play with my critters.

While playing with Guinness (asking him to change direction from side to side, and then to back rapidly) he began to offer a small rear.  I treated him for it and then refined it to having him do it when I crouch and then "rear up" myself.  This is something that I've always wanted him to learn, but I've been afraid of creating a monster.  I'm trying keep very clear the difference between when I want him to back and when to rear, and to keep him a safe distance away from me..  Reminds me very much of the perils of teaching a horse to move sideways toward the handler.  One must always be sure that a counter cue is firmly in place first.  ;-)

Rode Guinness for an hour and a half this morning at our local recreation area. We rode out alone for the first time in ages and he did great.  Used his new EasyBoot Glove hoof boots.  They seem to fit well, and are MUCH easier to get on then other boots I've used.  However, I didn't get one gaiter tight enough and he wound up with a gravel and small stick on one boot. Also, they held creek water so I will need to drill some small holes in them.  Lucky for me he didn't freak at the squelching sounds coming from his feet.

I'm still riding him in the Abetta Endurance saddle.  It is a cheap saddle, but light weight and with the Theraflex pad, he has a perfectly even sweat pattern with no rumpled hairs.  Yippee!

Speaking of saddles, I need a second one for use when both horses are being ridden.  Have been planning to buy a second Abetta, but am balking at paying $550 for the style that I want.  Today, I ran across a 17" Derby Originals synthetic dressage saddle for around $100.  It is very light and was comfy to sit in - at least on a saddle stand.  I have NO idea how these saddles are sized or how they are supposed to fit, but it seems ok when placed on Guinness' back..?  I may try riding in it tomorrow to see how it goes.  I would love to have this saddle as an alternate for ring work and in case I ever get into the sport of Working Equitation.

PS - I decided against purchasing this saddle.
Just too small for both of us.. However, I am now looking to purchase a Wintec Pro dressage. Anyone have a used 18-19 inch for sale?!

Home Again

Hi folks,

Just wanted to let you know that Guinness (now 5 years old) and I are doing great.  Re-married (yup) my ex-husband this spring - 6 months after our divorce - and moved back home!  It is a long story..

In the process, I purchased a horse for my husband to play with!! (Any excuse, huh?) Stormy is a 3 year old, black, Rocky Mountain Horse filly. Like Guinness, she was bred by Coop's Rockies in KY, but she isn't closely related to him.

 Paul meets Stormy for the first time.

Coop's Ebony Storm, two year old Rocky Mountain Horse mare.

Life Changes

Hi folks. It has been a really long time since my last post. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive and kicking - and so is Guinness.

First, I took a full-time job last summer which dramatically impacted my free time. Then, in January, my spouse and I decided to separate. About three weeks ago Guinness and Cody moved to a friend's boarding barn in town, and I was blessed to rehome Smokey to "horse heaven" (80 acres, a mare for company, and owners that don't want to ride him)! My son & I will be moving to a place in town - hopefully next weekend..

Guinness turned FOUR last week! It is hard to believe how time flies. It was just yesterday that I brought him home at 18 months of age. He is so smart and steady that I feel as though I could ride him anywhere. It was only a year ago I was just really starting to ride him at all.. I don't think that he will get much taller (now around 14.3), but I'm sure that he will fill out some more. (I'll post a photo of him in his new digs as soon as I take one.)

He is now in a pasture with 7 other horses, including 2 mares that he is fascinated with. Happily, he isn't herd bound and I can easily bring him out to play with. His pasture features a wooded grove with 2 large run-ins, plus a grassy hill with a view to several other stables, and a huge "back pasture" that runs down a steep slope and then 1/2 way up a mountain! Just by being there he is getting himself into riding condition, which is a blessing since my time is so short.

I console myself that I'll have Guinness for the next 26 years, so having him lounge out in the pasture most of the time right now is ok. He seems very happy (like a kid on a playground with his buddies). I miss seeing him every day. But, he is starting to really value it when I come to visit. He ran over to see me twice while I was with him today.

It is all good.

Guinness at four years old.

Farewell, Bandit

On December 31st, my pony-friend Bandit lost his battle with cancer. This isn't a sad story though. We estimate that Bandit was probably close to 30 years old! (He was rumored to have come from the Tennessee mountains, and had been owned by at least three others before me. He had battle scars to prove it.)

My relationship with Bandit (aka, "Frito Bandito") began in late 2002. One day, a year or so after my low back surgery, I announced to the universe (and to my husband) that therapy and a gym membership just weren't cutting it - I needed a horse back in my life! (My previous horse having been given away in 1989.)

The next day, I was on a totally unrelated errand when I was killing time talking with a stranger and spied a field full of horses. I said to him, "I'm looking to buy a horse." He asked, "What are you looking for?" and I replied, "A middle-aged gaited gelding." He looked over at the field and said, "Well, my neighbor is selling one of those two" and pointed out Smokey & Bandit. Within days, we had negotiated to purchase both Smokey and Bandit. (I never was one to shop around for a horse..) Bandit was the first gaited horse that I'd ever ridden.

I had fallen in love with Smokey's studly attitude and looks, but multiple folks kept telling me, "That is the pony you need" while pointing at Bandit, so he became my "husband's horse." After fencing in our back yard, we brought them home early in 2003.

By late spring, I had allowed Bandit to founder - probably not for the first time in his life. A local vet advised me to sell him at auction or to give him away as a pasture ornament. Fortunately, I refused to listen to him, changed vets and found a good farrier (and eventually an even better farrier using Natural Balance methods). With ongoing attention to diet and hoofcare, he recovered completely.

By late in 2003, due to my fear and frustration with Smokey (who I've since learned is an extreme RBI with baggage), I had discovered Parelli Natural Horsemanship and attended two "tour stops." By early 2004, I had started riding Bandit to get my confidence back up, and even took him to our local fair to compete in a trail class. Here is a video of him with friends from 2004.



In 2005, I won my first blue ribbon ever while competing him at the fair! See the photo at the top of this post. According to a local gaited horse trainer, he had "an incredible overstride." Knowing virtually nothing about "gaited" horses, I had never appreciated this! Over the next two years, we went on to participate in all sorts of events including parades, fairs, play dates, jousting, and best of all, trail rides.

Turns out that this pony was a die-hard trail horse. When I got the courage to take him on our first gaited group ride, I was shocked and amazed! These folks were hard-core, fast-riding, and totally on adrenaline. Many of them recognized Bandit from before I owned him and weren't surprised when HE TOOK OVER THE LEAD HORSE POSITION for about 15 miles. I was pretty much out of control of the situation, but he knew exactly what to do. Apparently, his job was to show everyone the trails and how to take each obstacle. I gave him his head and kept calling back to the group to figure out where to allow him to turn. He became locally known as my "go-go" pony.

I have more stories to tell about Bandit than any other horse that I've owned. (Guinness may be catching up, but not quite yet..) Here are just a few:

• When I purchased him, I was warned that he had a tendency to lay down while crossing water on trail rides. I wasn't concerned since he wouldn't dare do that with me. Hah! I learned the hard way during our first hunter pace (where he was the only pinto, not to mention the only gaited horse). Our task was to walk a short distance down the creek bed, and when the water reached his knees, down he went. I was wet and embarrassed. After that, I made a deal with him that he seemed to take to heart: If he crossed water politely during our rides, I would untack him later and allow him to wallow to his heart's content.
  
  
• Bandit *loved* watermelon and would become obsessed when he detected it nearby. I once had to struggle to keep him from walking through a campfire to get some.
  
  
• Although he was small, sweet-natured, and willing, he a wasn't a "push-button" pony. Once when a nine year old girl came to visit, Bandit was happy to let her sit on him. But when she tried to make him do what she wanted, he had other ideas. Despite her years of lessons at a local stable, Bandit would "get stuck" in the corners of our pasture! She would patiently dismount, lead him back to the center of the field, and then start over..

Bandit was my perfect partner except for one thing - his age. He was so easy to play with that I neglected to deal with my other two troubled critters (Smokey & Parlay -a young rescue). I decided that if I were to place Bandit, I'd be forced to progress with others. It was a no-brainer whom I wanted Bandit to be with. My farrier's wife, a veterinarian, was feeling a bit unconfident with horses. She was/is small, athletic and sensitive, and would become Bandit's new perfect partner! In 2007 (?), Bandit went to live with Deb and Dave. They had many more adventures together, before retiring him from riding last year when his age really began to show.

Here are just a few photos of Bandit and his new family, in his later years:










Thanks for the memories, Fritos. I hope to someday meet you in Horseman's Heaven.

Christmas Eve Update

I'm shocked at how much time has passed since my last post. At least I'm spending (slightly) more time with my horse than I am blogging. :-)

I was just outside removing blankets (sunny & 25 degrees) and feeding. While waiting for Smokey to finish eating, Guinness & Cody instigated a clicker training (CT) session with me. Cody has finally learned his first behavior taught entirely through CT. He can now "smile" on cue and is very proud of it!! He is well on his way to "shaking hands" (lifting his front leg) and next will be picking up a glove.

Guinness had two triumphs this morning:

1. I can now stand on the other side of a fence, tip my head in the direction that I want him to turn, then raise my opposite hand and make a spinning motion with my hand and he will spin in that direction and return to facing me. It works in both directions!

2. I can gesture at his front foot and tap his hind leg and he will lift his left forefoot high and right hind at the SAME TIME. This is the beginning of a piaffe on cue at liberty!

He will alternate lifting his forefeet depending on which side of his withers I tap. (I need to remember to play with asking him to lift alternate hind feet with a hip tap.) I think that I'm going to expand my cue for the forefeet into snapping my fingers and reaching with the arm that I want him to mimic, while facing him. Then I'll turn and teach it to him while facing the same direction that he is. This should allow us to morph it into a "stick to me" game with extension and/or elevation of the forelegs. How fun!!

While Guinness was smiling at me, I noticed that he has lost one of his lateral incisor baby teeth and another one is very loose. I think that he was showing them to me.

For more information on young horse dentition, visit this website: http://www.rrrhorseranch.com/howtoageahorse.htm

I've heard that it is supposed to warm up to near 50 degrees next Thursday, so I'm going to plan to spend the day playing horsey!!

Slo-Mo Passenger Lesson

This morning, Guinness and I went for a walk away from the other horses down to my septic field - where the grass is still green. He was overjoyed. There I spent a half-hour or so closely observing his halt-walk-halt transitions, shutting my eyes, and trying to work out where his feet were and how things felt. It was really educational. This is the second time that we've done this and I figured that I'd better blog about it while I can remember what I was thinking..

- It seems that when a hind foot is loaded with weight, that hip rises - and when it is unloaded, it drops. This is totally counter-intuitive to me!

- However, when a front foot is unloaded, the shoulder rises.

- If the rider's weight is back and we are trying to encourage the horse to use his hiney more, shouldn't the rider synchronize MORE with the horse's hind end?

- It seems that the rider should avoid "falling into the dip" created when the horse unloads a hind foot, since it seems that would tend to off balance the horse?? Should the rider strive to keep her own hips even - say at the trot?

- I tend to sit more on my seat-bones, and to stay off of my crotch, while riding. To do this, I tip my hips up. This is ok, except that I had a L4 discectomy after rupturing that disc during a sit-trot lesson about 10 years ago, so I can't over-do that position. In this position, it is natural for my thighs to move somewhat forward to compensate for me shifting my cheeks under me and my weight a bit back.

- To keep my thighs aligned under me, I have to tense the muscles at the juncture of my hip and back of my thigh. This is not pleasant and makes me feel stiff. Thus, my "chair-seat." (I admit that I have chunky thighs and short legs, and this may be a factor!) I can allow my lower leg to hang straight from my knees without having to tense any other muscles..

- If I squeeze my upper thighs a little, it tends to roll my legs from a pidgeon-toed position and my toes will point a bit more straight forward. Is this good? I probably do this without knowing it.

- To cue a HQ yield, I can easily bring my inside lower leg back behind the girth and point my toe downward. To cue sideways, I could use a neutral leg with pressure at the girth. To cue a FH yield, I could squeeze my inside thigh/knee and allow my toe to point a bit in toward the horse which results in pressure a little in front of the girth. Is there any reason not to do this?

I would greatly appreciate your feedback.

It is snowing here.