Days 54 & 55: Russell Beatty Clinic

For the last 2 days I have been participating in a Russell Beatty clinic. Russell Beatty is an endorsed Dennis Reis instructor who has a passion for horses and teaching others how to work with them in a way beneficial to both the horse and the owner. When we first arrived at the clinic which was 2hrs away from home Reece was a bit excited and did not want to pay very good attention to my instruction but in the next 10min. She settled down and began paying acute attention to me and she was very responsive. Russell helped point out some things I was doing that were causing Reece to get confused and may cause problems in the future when I begin to ride her or do more complex or delicate work with her. By the end of the two days Reece was being very respectful of my space and I could sit up on a fence and send her hind quarters around to make her parallel with the fence then back her off all the way to the end of the 14ft lead line. Russell also taught me how to collect have Reece give me lateral and vertical flections from the ground. She also began giving me vertical flections with a left and right shape.
While we were there I kept getting comments like ‘There is no way that is a Mustang!’ and ’Is that really a yearling? She is so well mannered.’ She made me very proud and I am really happy with the work I was able to get done with her.
For anyone in 4-H Russell Beatty is only charging $100 a day instead of $150. I highly recommend him and some of his clinics coming up in this area are:
Roy Wash on Tues, Weds & Thurs Sept 20, 21, & 22
Rainier on Tues, Weds, & Thurs Sept 27, 28, & 29
Renton which is for a weekend on Sat & Sun Oct 22 & 23rd.

Day 52: Niece and Nephew Come To Play

My sister came from Montana to visit and she brought her 2 kids with her as well. My niece, Tassin, is 8 and has an undersized cerebellum that makes it so she can not walk without a walker and my nephew, Riley, is a 7 year old ball of energy. Tassin and Riley had not yet met Reece and were very excited to see her for the 1^st time. When we went out there at first I had to push Tassin in the walker because it is hard for her to get it to move out in the field and Reece fallowed us down the hill and showed no sign of being scared of the walker. When we got down to the arena I put Reece’s halter on her and did a bit of warm up work to make sure she was paying attention before I let the kids play with her. I then had Riley come in and send her over poles in the round pen and he also sent her hind quarters away from him and also her forehand. Then he led her out of the round pen and handed her off to Tassin. I had to push Tassin in the deep sand but she had total control of Reece while she led her over our ‘bridge’ and around the arena a few times. Reece was totally calm and that was the first time I have noticed how much she love kids and how gentle she is around them.

Day 48: Farrier Comes Out

This morning I woke up to a car pulling into my driveway and immediately looked at my clock and sighed. I had slept in and my Aunt was here to watch as the horses feet got done. I jumped out of bed and got dressed as quick as I could then went down to greet my guest. She had brought 2 more people I did not expect as well. Kendal was eleven and loved horse and with her was her mom who also liked horses but was not as interested as her daughter. We went almost immediately down to catch horses and I showed them how to tie the halters and lead the horses correctly. I put Kendal in charge of our pony Spud and I mainly looked after Reece but I also had my aunt hold and brush her some. Another family friend, Sandy, showed up right after we caught the horses with her nice and they also got a chance to brush the horses and lead them around. The Farrier was late so my aunt Becky, who would be staying with me for the next 3 days, stayed with me and when the farrier showed up helped me hold the horses and put them away when we were done. Reece did very well and her front feet were handled with no problem at all but when he got to her back feet she did move away some at first then stood still just fine. The work I did with her paid off and Greg was surprised to see how well Reece did when I had only had her for 48 days. She did great and I am very proud of her.

Day 43: The Family Goes to Canada

For the next eight days my family will be fishing in Canada while I stay home and take care of the house. As you can imagine, while staying home ‘alone’ for more than a week, not doing anything stupid is the primary focus. Although I wasn’t worried about getting hurt or having any problems with Reece finding new things to do with her was a bit of a problem since Hilary is the creative one when it comes to doing new things with Reece, and she would be gone. So, for the first 4 days while I was totally home alone with basically nothing but a phone call every now and then I did my best to get Reece solid in review stuff. I knew that the farrier would be coming on the 11^th to trim all of the horses feet so I decided a good focus would be Reece’s feet and having her really solid in moving away from me instead of running me over so even if she decided to be a boog about getting her feet done at least Greg would not turn into a sandwich. In those 5 days I was able to look at her from a little bit of a distance and she would turn her rear away from me and she would pick her front feet right up although she would still jerk her back feet once or twice before holding them still. Although we didn‘t do anything new she got better at what she had already learned and did great.

Day 40: More Trail Equipment

My sister and I were wondering what kind of things Reece would do when it came to trail equipment and other things such as saddle pads and harnesses so we dug through our tack room and got out lots of new toys to play with. We brought out am English saddle pad that I rubbed her down with from head to toe, an old water bottle that made loud crinkling noises when you moved it around, a piece of a harness that I set on her back but did not cinch up, and other such things. Reece did very well with all of them and was very brave when I pulled a pole behind her. She was even curious of it and walked over it while it was moving many times. She is very smart and even though she still dose not like the tarp she is fine with everything else. She is very smart and we learn something new each day.

Day 38: Playing At The Park

Lately we have been thinking about taking Reece on an outing and yesterday was a beautiful day so we brought her to Taylor landing (a boat launch).  We were right next to a highway with cars going 55 and even though this boat launch is normally empty there were a surprising amount of people there. On our little adventure we saw a few curious dogs, cars coming and going, and a few boats going in and out but she did amazing. While we were swimming (and actually swimming not just wading) there was a man testing out his 'thingy-ma-bopper' to see if it would float and Reece barely even noticed him, she was far to busy following Lewis around as we swam.  She LOVES to swim!  It was so cute, we would go out and all you could see was her head as I guided her back to the shallower areas! She did terrific and never got pushy or panicky while in the water. We even played some on the playground, weaving between swings and I sent her around the slide while I was at the top of it way above her. And we even practiced jumping with a handy split tree that I sent and lead her through. She was so calm and remained responsive throughout the entire time at the park! At the end, she loaded right back up and quietly stood in the trailer for the ride home!

Days 33-37 more review

For a few days we decided to do some review again to work on things like picking up all four feet, trotting, round penning (moving forward, giving and coming to pressure, etc.), and working with the obstacles we have around the arena.  I can now pick up all four of her feet  and pound on them, even though she is not always consistent about her hind legs. We can also trot consistently at both a fast and slower trots, transitioning smoothly to and from a stop or walk.  She is also getting really good with the tarp and is walking over it with confidence although she dose not like it being put over her back. She also comes running up to the gate when I call her, even thought she is an a larger area and sometimes in with all five of our horses and three of our bull calves. Also, she is now  dropping her head when I put my hand on the bridge of her nose and I can get her to drop her head all the way to the ground so I know that if a kid were to halter her they can just touch her nose and they would have no problem reaching her. She is doing amazing and is tackling things with much more confidence then she used to as our mutual trust and understanding grows. I am very proud of her and I am continuing to have a lot of fun with her!

day 32 trail equipment

I have been planning to bring some trail equipment down to the arena for a while so I decided that today was as good a day as any. My sister and I brought down cones, a plywood board, and a white pipe then got to work. We set up the cones next to the fence and, about three feet away from them, we laid down the pipe. For that obstacle you have to send your horse around the cones while staying on the far side of the pipe so it works on sending and drawing your horse. After that we laid out the board as a bridge and had her walk over it, pause on it, back over it, and do pivots around it with her front feet staying on the board. She is also getting much better with the tarp and even though she is a bit hesitant I can usually get her to walk over it fine. She is doing well, improving quickly and we are both learning a lot.

day 30 playing in the creek

Today I decided to take Reece out to the creek to cool off and play some with Spud. It was her first time being in the ‘big pasture’ that covers a whole 63 acres. She stayed really calm even with the cows also near the creek and she had a lot of fun splashing around and dunking her head. Although the water isn’t very deep, barely up to her belly, she had a blast and by the time we were done she had herself totally, utterly, and completely soaked.

Day 29- First Official Bath

Day 29- First Official Bath Today was a nice day so I decided to cool Reece off by doing something new, a bath. You may remember that we have sprayed her with a hose before but I have never actually gotten soap on her. Reece is not very fond of the water from the hose but she is getting much better then she was. My sister brought her pony, Spud, up as well to be hosed off some and maybe also get a full bath.
          I started from the basics again since it had been a few days since I had sprayed her with the hose. First I sprayed her feet and when she stopped moving, or if she didn’t move at all, I would take the pressure off by taking away the water. She only moved a few times before she would consistently stand still while being sprayed with the hose. Once I had both sides of her all wet me and my sister got to work scrubbing her down. She loved the giant massage! We got both sides of her all clean without a problem all up her neck, in her main, and down her legs, and in her tail, then we got back to her least favorite part of the bath, the water. She did fairly well and for the most part did not move away from the water although she was clearly annoyed by it.
           After we got done with the bath we needed to waste time while the horses dried off so we decided to take them for a walk up the road. She did really well at first but after a few min. she realized she wasn’t in Kansas anymore, and Toto (Spud) was walking to slow. We got about half way up the road and decided to turn around because Spud’s feet did not like the gravel road to much. Over all I think that today was a pretty successful day and although she wasn’t too excited about the hose she did very well.