Hay!

On this post I'm going to talk about hay. "A whole blog post on hay?" You might be thinking. Yes, a whole post on hay. Something so simple, yet so important for the horses.

Back in the day (i.e. the Crusades), people would keep their horses in pasture and let them eat all day, as is natural for horses. They are, after all, grazing animals that are meant to eat and walk constantly. Well if your horses our outside the city walls, they are prone to getting stolen in battle or by thieves, especially prized horses. Hence, people brought them inside, made them live in stalls, and nailed shoes to their feet to keep their now rotting feet "sound." The best thing for horses is grass (surprise surprise ;), but since grass doesn't grow year round here, people use hay.

There are many varieties of hay, for horses, these consist mainly of two categories: grass and legumes. Legumes are alfalfa and clover, with grass hays being timothy, orchard, and burmuda.  I read endurance blogs where these people ride 50-100 miles, so they know a thing or two about horse health. After all, an unhealthy or unsound horse can't make it 100 miles and pass a mandatory vet check. On these blogs, they mentioned their horses' nutritional intake, typically grass hays. Alfalfa can give excess energy and is very high in calcium, but has a high nutrient profile. Alfalfa hay is good for young horses or lactating mares, so I don't mind that it's a primary feed for Calvin. However, I wish he could get a nice mix, as it's being shown that having a variety of hay is actually what's best, no surprise there.

 People today still view stalls and horseshoes as "norm," but many people are catching on that it's more natural and horses stay healthier in pasture eating grass all day. Research has started to show that 80% of horses have ulcers, much of which can be prevented by free-feeding as nature intended. Ideally, I'd like Calvin to have a large grass pasture where he can snack all day. My second choice would be to leave hay-nets (see picture below) or a slow-feeder out to where he can eat whatever hay he wants all day. However, reality is that Calvin stays in pasture with 2 other mares and they all get fed alfalfa cubes 2x per day.  I can't put extra food up because the mares won't let him near it, not to mention that I doubt the owners would want their fat girls fed extra. I've tried to switch him into a pasture by himself or one where they free-feed horses, but it's not possible currently as there isn't space. The only other option is to free feed him in a stall, but I don't want to take him out of pasture. So I hope something opens up soon.

So blog readers, here is my plight. I try to do what's best for my boy, but it's so difficult when you don't have control over where to keep him. Where I'm located, there aren't any options to keep him in a large space with ample food unless you own your own horse-property, or are willing to pay a huge premium in board. While there are insanely expensive horses where I live, their owners still believe that keeping a horse confined to a 12x12 is the best option to protect their "investment."

Since there aren't any other options, what I'm doing now is feeding him grass hay and beet pulp where I tie him for grooming and tacking up. I'm hoping that this extra feeding a few times a week makes a difference...at least he enjoys it. Hoping for greener pastures in the future! ;)

Calvin trying to figure out how to get the hay out of this hay net. This is burmuda hay; he was a happy boy!

For more reading on hay, this is a great article.

Growing Up!

Calvin is loosing his bottom baby teeth!  I found out because I was bridling him and noticed that he had 2 sets of teeth on the bottom; he's is growing up!

Hard to see, but the new teeth are on top pushing the old ones out on the bottom (new ones are more opaque). I couldn't get a great picture as he kept moving.

Calvin has finally lost his shaggy winter coat and is looking very spiffy with his summer coat! I decided today would be a good before/after day!

 Before

Before shot. This was the day I picked him up in the beginning of March.

 After

After! Taken today, soo shiny! By the way doesn't he look like a Thoroughbred racehorse? I think he has Secretariat in him ;)

The top "before" picture is deceiving as his winter coat makes him look scruffier, but you can see that he has gained both weight and muscle! His tail has also grown...but barely.

"Stop taking pictures and feed me!"

You can see his muscling better in this "after" picture too. He has a great topline (back muscle), shoulder, and hindquarter muscling now. He still has some growing to do as his croup is higher than his withers, he's going to be a tall boy! I'd like to see him fatter, but at least you can't see ribs anymore.

Gain weight Calvin!

I was tired today, so I decided to have an easy day just hanging out with Calvin. I rode him bareback with a halter/leadrope and just wandered around. I let him eat grass and talked to some people at the barn. It's kind of crazy because I went on some trails with him and I can basically point him in any direction on the trail (paved or brush) and he'll climb it. I pointed him up a hill and he just went right up, no problem! The bad thing about this is that he's getting too good at off-roading so when he's naughty, i.e. "I want to go home and eat, not walk the way you're directing!" he'll kind of veer off course. I then try to persuade him by letting him eat when he listens to me, seems to work. 

Heidi is not quite sure how to be a country dog. Here she is eying the creek bed, but unwilling to go down that hill. She was very cautious about balancing on that hill!

I love easy days like this, it reinforces to Calvin that a person on his back can be fun. Instead of always "going to work" or training.

New Arena Exposure & Crazy Trainer Experience

This post is going to focus on what happened this last Saturday. I was going to post then, but I had too much work to do, so I'll recap today.

When I work Calvin in the arena, I normally just use the larger pen in our stables. However, for cantering and trotting, it's really pretty small and I can't accomplish many circles and serpentine. So the only larger arena is the public one down the street. I knew that Calvin needed more arena work so I figured we'd head down there. On the weekend, it's usually pretty crowded, and this last Sat. was no exception.

I thought "Great! he's never been in an arena with horses so this should be a new learning experience!" Needless to say, it went about as well as I thought it would. For some background, we've been in this arena before (without other horses) and Calvin was very nervous. This is understandable, it's a new surrounding far away from his barn and he's all alone in this massive space next to the loud road. This time, there were 4 horses in the arena doing different things, walking, trotting, turning, cantering, etc. So we got in the arena and he was pretty amped up from both being in a new place and seeing other horses. We walked around and he very alert and confused as to why all these horses are doing separate things. I could see the thought process happening in his brain, "This horse is cantering, I should canter too and run after him!" Normal horse herd behavior. Anyway, for me (the rider) this was not such a wonderful experience. He did a 180 and RAN to the horse at the other end of the arena. I pull on the reins and he's ignoring me completely, so I'm just trying to stay on and keep his head up so he doesn't buck. This picture is pretty accurate to my experience. Needless to say we put on quite the show for everyone watching! We even scared some little kids out of the arena unintentionally haha, guess they don't want to be around a wild mustang ;) I did my best to circle and distract Calvin while he did his best to catch up with other horses and try to buck me off! By some miracle I did not fall off and managed to end on a positive note with Calvin listening to the bit and being less scared, so I cooled him off and called it a day!

So while I'm cooling down in the arena this random "trainer" comes up to me with a bit in her hands. She goes, "when you ride him your bit goes through his mouth so you need a bit like this." She must have seen my horrified expression, because she added "I don't necessarily mean the bit part, just the cheek piece (sides)." That's funny because that bit is probably the harshest bit on the planet as it nutcrackers in two different places on the horses tongue, not something I'd ever even purchase. This type of bit is a "full cheek twisted wire snaffle," meaning that the extended sides help turn the horse's head easier as there is more surface area pressure (the twisted wire part is self explanatory). I actually have a full cheek from my very first horse, but it's still harsher than what I want to use for Calvin (mine is a slow twist, less harsh than the one above but still strong, I used it when I was 9). I explained to her that "yes, normally he doesn't have the bit slide through his mouth but he is just too afraid and ignoring me. It doesn't matter the harshness of the bit, if a horse is afraid then no amount of metal can stop them." She went on about how she only uses bits that are "show legal" and rubber bits aren't allowed (then why show in these events??? No one is forcing you to use a harsh bit!) I said, "thanks but I don't want to ruin his mouth since he's a 3 year old." To which she replies "I've never found a difference between metal and rubber snaffles with young horses." Um....really? How about we put a metal bit in your mouth and yank on it to see which you prefer? I finally ended it saying "thanks I've been doing this a long time and trained many young horses, you have your training methods and I have mine, but thanks anyway for the advice." She had to butt in saying "I've been a professional trainer for 15 years!" I just laughed and let it drop...okay lady. Then she went to her horse posse and I could overhear her talking about what was wrong with my riding and such, which is really what pissed me off. It's fine if you disagree with my riding, but now she is brainwashing other people to think that bits like the one above are normal. Not to mention she was about 200lbs overweight (not exaggerating), clearly not someone I would want to ride my horse!

My setup: includes halter under bridle. You can see how if I pull hard enough on the other side, that ring can slip into his mouth.

There's a saying in the horse world that goes something like "the best advice in the horse world is don't listen to anyone's advice." I've known the horse world was very opinionated, but this time it really rustled my jimmies because in my mind, Calvin's behavior was normal for a 3 year old and nothing that really needed training, just more time and experience. In fact, I explained to the "trainer" that "look how soft and supple he is now in this bit, he was just afraid." The fact that this woman would use a harsh bit on a baby horse just makes me so sad. Oh and did I mention she had her 3 year old tied up to a trailer with a nose chain? Not something a "trainer" would do in my book.

Her original point was valid, I needed something to stop the bit sliding in his mouth. However, if she knew methods that weren't cruel (that required about 10 seconds of me googling out of curiosity) she would have found something called a "snaffle hobble." As you can see in the picture, it's a leather strap that hangs low under the chin and doesn't do anything other than prevent the bit from being pulled through his mouth. Needless to say, I'll purchase one of these instead of a new (cruel) bit.

This was a good lesson though, if you or your child are riders and don't agree with someone's training methods, go find someone else! There are much better trainers out there that won't want to hurt your horse for profit. If you've come this far, thanks for reading my rant! I'm sure I'll have more "crazy trainer" stories in the future as horse people are a nosy bunch.

Developing a Soft Feel

Today was more arena work and training for both of us. I've been puzzled as to how I could get Calvin to have a soft feel to where I pick up on the reins and he collects himself instead of pushing back on the bit. Whenever I would pull on the reins to stop, he would sort of brace against the bit like this horse. He was still very responsive to stopping and turning, but I was wondering how I would be able to collect him (notice this horse has his head tucked in closer to his chest and is giving to the pressure on his nose).

Many times when horses don't collect, people think they need a gag bit, elevator, harsh bits, or draw reins to get a horse to drop it's head and give to bit pressure. These bits (minus the draw reins) are designed to put pressure on the horse's poll. As you can see in this picture, the bit pulls on the side of the bridle putting pressure on the horse's poll encouraging forcing them down. As Buck says in the video below, horses go "soft" in these bits because it hurts them. It's not actually being soft, it's avoiding the pain, which is a huge difference. Keep in mind I've used almost all of these (minus the harsh bit) at one point in my life before I knew better. This time, I wanted to avoid the shortcuts and practice horsemanship as it should be practiced. Did these shortcuts work to keep their head down? Yes. But when the bit or gadgets came off, the horse didn't keep his head down, imagine that...
These are all just shortcuts for proper training. As you can see below (both with my video and Buck's), all you need is a regular snaffle or hackamore for your horse to collect.

I then watched this Buck Brannaman video (this video is 12 minutes, if you have time I'd highly recommend watching it as it would make the rest of this post easier to understand and the topic is interesting) and had an "ah ha" moment! Calvin's mouth isn't "dead" like this one in his video, but rather Calvin is inexperienced or "green". I did exactly what Buck did in this video, I started on the ground and then practiced these techniques riding. I would pull on the reins (called contact), and when he'd "soften" or back off the pressure (closing his mouth and dipping his nose back), I would immediately release.

This is a video of the end of our ride. Basically, whenever Calvin stopped resisting or pushing on the bit, I would release his mouth. You'll see at the end that I didn't release right away when he softened because he had advanced to where if I kept that contact, he would give even more and start backing up. Once he took a step back, I would then release. Calvin picked up on this really quickly and it wasn't very difficult, but the timing has to be perfect. He also managed to do all of this in a soft rubber snaffle. It may not look like much to the non-horse person, but this is a really important exercise. The point of this is to develop a horse that can back up properly, with his haunches under him, and also be able to stay balanced with only slight rein pressure.

I really do value much of what Buck does, he makes this easy for the horse to understand. It's "little" exercises like these that add up to make a very responsive and advanced horse. Slowly but surely I'll be able to advance the time I keep contact with his mouth to where he learns that the minute I pull back he softens and then backs up nicely.

I had to cut this video down, this is the end of our exercise, but I still think you can see the progress if you look closely.