Backing Off on Buddy Work

 

We did more of that buddy sour work today and tried out some new ideas. It didn’t make much of a difference. The fact remains: Tweed doesn’t like his girls leaving him. 

He can leave them, work fine in the arena away from them, and work fine away from them when they’re either tied, working, or confined in the round pen. Also, when they’re out of sight long enough, he seems to forget them. 

It’s just that walking away business. 

Katie asked me, afterward, how much I want to work on that, and I said I think I’m done. 

And by that, I mean done obsessing about it and devoting whole lessons. 

I’ll continue to work on it myself, as part of a bigger picture. For example, walking away from each other on trail rides, then back together. Or, here at home. But I think I’d rather have Katie continue trail work and exposure. 

I think he just needs to mature and get used to horses having “jobs.” Maybe when he sees his mares working, too, he will see that it’s the human’s responsibility to direct their movement, not his. 

I am still curious about the chasteberry. We have a couple weeks to go to see if that makes any difference. 

In the meantime, it is really fun to ride Tweed while Katie rides Epona. I rode him away from her a lot, and he did great. At one point, I let her ride Epona away from him, and when he even thought about getting emotional, I put him around trees and did circles and figure 8’s through them. It was enough to keep his mind on me. So, I’m thinking LOTS more of that. 

Epona is like watching a baby do “first” things. She’s so scared, but then does it and is so proud of herself. She really trusts Tumbleweed and likes to follow him through things. If she sees him do something, she will 8/10 do it, too. That’s already coming in handy for her training.

Tumbleweed has always liked to lead on the trail, and it makes sense, considering how he doesn’t like being left. So, he is really enjoying being the head horse with Epona. They did so well together that we will probably introduce her to a little trail ride next time. 

Here’s when I let them get ahead of us and even on the other side of the trailer where he couldn’t see her.

The video stops when I needed both hands to circle him away in trees, but he did well and only got to a 5 on a 1-10 emotional scale.

Teresa was sharing about the different levels of emotional stress in horses and how it is wise to avoid working them in that highly charged state. I think both Katie and I were on the same page that it’s probably best for Tweed to do this work in smaller steps. 

My Non-Horsey Post

Who, me?

It’s raining today, so I thought it would be a good time to do a non-horsey photo dump post. Except for the photo above where Leah is acting as “bait” for Tweed’s training as I rode her bareback around the park. 

The 2021 babies: Pilot, Epona, and Lucy 

We’ve had a schedule change around here and after next week, when Pilot’s dad will be gone all week for work, I will have most Mondays-Saturdays free to ride Tweed during the day. At least until Pilot gets out of school for summer break. But even then, it will be much better than my old schedule of no days off. 

Phlox growing wild on our property. 

My husband is scheduled to have knee replacement surgery May 1st. It will certainly slow him down for awhile, and probably me, too, but hopefully not for too long. 

Killdeer mating and nesting in our pastures. 

The general rule of thumb is not to plant before Mother’s Day, or near that time. We are excited to get the overwintered plants that survived out of the garage, but it’s too early. 

In the meantime, some of the perennials, like this blue vinca, have taken off. 

Daffodils. 

Our flowering plums. 

Flowers for the tea, store bought

We hosted a tea for special guest last Sunday. My mom brought up her Royal Albert tea set for me to use, and then she gave it to me to keep forever. 

She also shared her recipes for scones and cucumber sandwiches. 

Scone, clotted cream, and strawberry preserves 

They were yummy. We had lots of leftovers. I’ve really got to stop eating those leftovers!

Oops, another horse photo. A little mutual grooming. 

Time to talk chasteberry. Or chaste tree. Or monk’s pepper. 

Apparently, it comes from this tree that is native to the Mediterranean and western/Central Asia. It helps regulate menstrual cycles, pms, and the sexual desires of monks. 

In horses, it balances hormones, calms geldings / mares, and even helps manage symptoms of Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID or Cushing’s). It helps regulate the pituitary gland, aiding in shedding, reducing cresty necks, and improving overall metabolic function. 

Everyone I know who has used it, and that list is growing, says it worked. But, so far, all those people used it for mares and not geldings. At any rate, they say it takes at least 3 weeks before you can see a change and we are at about 10 days. 

I purchased two different types of chasteberry, one for humans and one specifically pelleted for equines. (Photos above) I don’t think there’s any difference, except in price. Tumbleweed has tolerated eating both, but I started him slowly to make sure he didn’t have an adverse reaction.  

It will be interesting to see if it changes him at all. We are doing so much training work on buddy issues that it might be hard to decipher what helped and how much. 

One of my friends said her horse built up a tolerance to it, so she would discontinue it for awhile and then start again. 

Looks like I’ve worked this post right back to horses, so I lied about it being non-horsey. 

I started this post out with Leah, and she is my old trail horse that I raised from a 2 year old and trained myself. She is from Quincy Dan lines and a super sweetie. She’s 21 this year. We put her on Equioxx a few weeks ago and it has made a huge difference and improvement in her arthritis. 

I’m taking her with Tweed to the park most days and working on her walk and whoa, besides being bait for his buddy issues. I have really enjoyed riding her again. 

I will usually work Tweed around her and rest him away. But Katie was working him away as I worked with her elsewhere. That made Tweed get upset when I’d leave the area and he couldn’t see her anymore. It also seemed to be setting Katie and Tweed against each other—in his mind. 

Sooooo, I’m going to help them out next time she rides by keeping her in the arena during his warmup. She’s going to let him make the choice to go to her, then do all his warmup work around her, and rest him way far away, like I do. He needs to see that as the undesirable place. 

He rode out on the trail alone very well Monday with Katie. They went on a great adventure along the river. Turns out, he’s more of “it’s okay to leave them, but not be left” kind of guy. 

Epona and Tumbleweed, Off to School

Watching Epona’s session from Tweed’s back.

Yesterday was the first day of Epona’s training, so she accompanied us to the park and went first. It gave me time to work with, then ride, Tumbleweed. 

Epona looks so small here. The photo was taken from atop Tweed looking down. 

Epona did great for her first time, but she needs lots and lots of exposure. All the new horses, and things to see, hear, and smell, had her very distracted. No surprise there. She’s just a young horse who needs adventures and trail miles. 

It was the first time my daughter had met Katie, and she was impressed with her. They have almost exactly the same riding/working with horses styles. Since my daughter works full time and is a mama when she’s off, there isn’t enough time to bring Epona along on her own. She sent Epona off for 90 days training the last couple of years, but it’s time to do the trails here now, and Katie, like with me and Tweed, will supplement her work and keep things going. 

The big question was how would Tumbleweed do with Epona there, and well, he did great. Quite a bit better than when Leah came. There was a small hiccup when he got back to the equestrian park. Epona saw him at a distance and started to whinny out. That got him emotional and wanting to rush back. 

Poor Tweed. It’s like the goofy kid in class who gets the other, studious kid, laughing, and then when the teacher looks, it’s the hard-working kid who gets in trouble. 

Off to the arena they went. Tweed was not happy and began swinging his head around at the gate, but he went back to work for just a little bit and ended on a good note. 

When he finally got back to the trailer, he wanted nothing to do with Epona and wouldn’t even look at her. 

Back home, I put them in their stalls for their supplements, but when I went out later to release them, Epona came out, but Tweed refused and wanted to stay in. 

It appears he is developing an independence. 

Speechless Wordless Stunned

 

Trail Training Videos by Ryan Rose

I am a big fan of Ryan Rose and have subscribed to his Patreon channel for almost as long as it has been available. I love the way he explains things. 

He has made some trail training videos, which I’m sharing here today and are free to watch on YouTube. A lot of what we already do, but some new stuff, too. And some very good points that I appreciate him making. 

For example, those first training rides should be with people who understand to stop and wait for you when you need to school your horse. 

I had one ride last summer where my friend got bored and asked if she could ride off while I schooled the hill that we had all the trouble on. I was like NO, please. I have enough to deal with without adding herd bound, too. A horse who’s already emotional doesn’t need to see his trail buddy ride off. 

Another thing he brings up is that it’s okay to dismount if the issue gets too big for you to handle in the circumstances. (Something I have done and written about on this blog.) You can always get to safety, then get back on. I don’t think it should be your standard practice, and whatever the issue is, it needs to be addressed, afterward, by you or a trainer or both. 

Tweed’s misbehaviors were in places that I couldn’t safely put him in a circle, steep hills, and they required more than I was willing to risk with my abilities. I did try to do it by myself for a long time, but had to cry uncle. 

When I could bushwhack down a hill it was always much better, for him, than riding the trail straight down. (Katie has discovered the same thing.) It puts his mind to work. Unfortunately, bushwhacking is not always possible. It’s maybe 50/50 in the terrain where we ride. Where he can’t bushwhack, Katie is backing him back up the hill (I did that, too) when he rushes it, or repeating the hill until he starts paying attention to his feet. (He can get upset about repeating hills, and that’s where I felt it was better to have Katie school it. She agrees that rushing hills is unsafe to ride, and that it needs to be addressed and she had quite the long lesson doing just that last week, plus putting him to work when he got back to the trailhead and buddy.)

The last video I’ve shared of Ryan’s is specifically about buddy sour training. I’ve done a lot of it with Tumbleweed and we will continue to do a lot more. He is so much better than he was two years ago and continues to improve. One day, he will be a brave, independent lead horse. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

There’s also a video on riding out alone, something I do a lot of since it’s so hard to find someone with a solid horse that has the time, same crazy schedule, and patience to let us school. 

I’m sharing them all here for personal reference and for others who are trail training a horse and need extra tips.

I hope he puts out more. 

 

Happy Trails!