Thanks to Karla Bonoff for her song "Daddy's Girl"

Getting Better...

Feel somewhat successful this morning. I went out determined to back straight and actually accomplished a bit more.

I always try to go through the steps.. desensitize with the stick and string, then move on to backing up, etc. This morning I jumped right to flexing thinking that would be a quick successful place to start. Wrong... Vaskur started to act like he wanted to bite the rope, then even seemed to act like he wanted to bite me.. I could be wrong, but since he had never done anything like that before I knew I needed to nip it in the bud. I knew I needed to move his feet, so I started to lunge him to the left, which he went off pretty nicely. His yielding was sloppy, and when trying to lunge to the right, he kept leaving to the right. About that time, I guess I got irritated enough to stop being a nagging mother and went back to YHQ stage one. He did that better than he has and moved quickly on to YHQ II. I really got after his butt on that one and got his two eyes much better. Then we went back to lunging until I got him going in both directions.

Finally I got back to what I wanted to start with which, was backing up. I had planned to back him down the driveway in case he kept going crooked, but lo and behold, he backed straight. We even did all 4 methods. Now... he is not leaving with enthusiasm, but he is backing... Yeah!

Then to see if all that effort changed his attitude about flexing... and yes... he did that without offering to bite the rope.... or me!

Tomorrow I think I will try to do all of the above things better and then add YFQ. I know that won't be much fun. Maybe Vaskur will surprise me.

I did work with Vaskur two days in a row. We'll see how many I can get in before the family reunion next weekend.

I still didn't get up as early as I intended, but I got going a little earlier. As you can see by the picture I tried to solve the "two eyes" problem by getting his bangs out of the way. He did seem to do better...

I mostly did the same exercises as yesterday.. he did a little bit better in all areas. I forgot to retry yield the FQs. but I will get to that tomorrow. One of these days I may just work on backing up and nothing else.

Vaskur, my new project...

Well, it has been awhile. I have not added anything since the last of the clinic in 2009. That is starting to be awhile ago. Since then we have had a clinic here with Jennie Wentworth in the fall of 2010. She discovered quickly that we were a group that took things seriously... but we did like to laugh a lot. We learned a lot.. Reba realized that she needed a new horse (and got one...) Kelly was frustrated with her lack of balance and concern about loping (she has overcome both) and I realized that I needed to work on my confidence.

Since then we have done a lot of trail riding with new converts to CA. We are preparing for another clinic in late September... We have 7 ladies that would like to participate, but room for 6.. we'll see how that works out. I had hoped to ride Vaskur in the clinic, but we have a long way to go.

From this point on this blog will be mostly about my trials and tribulations with my Icelandic Horse, Vaskur. Vaskur is a 7 year old gelding who has only been gelded a year ago. He is very mellow, but very lazy. He has spent about 2 1/2 months with Fausto, who has done a good job riding him and intuitively finding his gaits. He is fun to ride. However, I got him home about 2 weeks before I went to NY and only rode once briefly. I did start groundwork with him, but he knows absolutely none of it. I stayed in NY two weeks reconnecting with family on my Dad's side then spent yesterday recovering.. . This morning I intended to hit the ground running, but I ended up sleeping in. I did get in about 45 minutes with him before it got too hot. My goal was to work through the first 4 or 5 groundwork exercises. I did this with varying success.

• Desensitizing with rope, stick and string... no problems.
• Backing up is better... however, he continues to look at me with one eye not matter how much I bump.
• Flexing - we no longer go round in circles, so that is better. He holds his head very vertical which is different than how Gray flexes..
• Yielding the HQ is better than when we started before NY. He kept wanting to go in circles. I backed up today to just asking for one step. We finally got that on both sides. He wants to step towards me crossing over his front legs as he shuffles his back feet. I tried to block that motion and finally get a crossover step with his back feet. I quit while we were ahead .. and will continue tomorrow. I have the next two weeks wide open and plan to work every day.
  
• Lunging Stage One went so much better than before NY. I had to get very assertive to get him to leave... today it was not a problem to get him to move off at all. He wants to stop and pulls on the halter, but this is the first day he got the concept at all, so I am encouraged.
  
• I started Yielding the FQ, but as you can imagine that wasn't pretty. Got a step in each direction...
  
• At that point.... I desensitized and gave him some time tied up.
  

It was just too hot to do much else. Tomorrow I will start earlier in the day.

Last night Kelly, Reba, and I went to help our neighbor Deb start working with reactive mare... fun! We go help Eska tonight....

#18

#17 Final Day

These photographs should be reversed, but I am in a hotel working on Joseph's little laptop and don't know how to do that without losing a photo.

Our last morning started at 5:30 when Reba picked me up in Jim's truck. She opted to drive which was fine with me. In fact, the only driving I did was hauling the trailer. Reba and Kelly were my helpers all weekend, and they were the biggest help. They fed, watered, groomed, cleaned stalls, encouraged me, and even offered a nip of VO when necessary..... Reba drove us all over when we went out to eat or wander. Anyhow, we got back there in time for me to get a little one on one help. I worked again on yielding the front end and the back end since I knew we would be lunging, and sending again this morning. We started with all of that and then we kind of combined the two. We were to send the horse and then step in front of the horse while changing hands on the stick and rope, and then immediately send them the other direction. In the second photo I am getting some help from Clinton, in the first photo I am getting the hang of it.

Another exercise we did was walking in a circle with our horse walking with us... we would rest our stick on their shoulder. We would walk in about 10 feet circles for awhile and then we would change directions. We also did an exercise that teaches the horse to stay by our shoulder while leading them. As the horse got the hang of that, we worked on changing directions to the inside, and also to the outside. The object being that the horse would learn when to hustle and catch up.

We ate our last lunch at the Subway again. It was close, and menu predictable.

#16 Merry Christmas.... and the rest of day two.

After the break, Clinton told us that we would be loping on a loose rein. You could hold on to the saddle horn... but you were not to steer or otherwise touch the reins. He had 3 people go at a time. I was in the second batch that went. I was really nervous because my horse is an old roping horse and likes to go fast. Clinton asked if anyone wanted one of his assistants to ride their horse for them first. I nearly went for it, but I didn't chicken out... However, once we got going our horses had to negotiate around 17 other horses. It was pretty scary and I think I said that out loud, because he asked me again if I wanted someone to ride my horse. I really started thinking about it then, but hung on. Just when he was going to ask us to stop the Gray really started moving. I knew from experience if I just yanked him into a one rein stop that he would stop on a dime. I was afraid I might get launched. You know that about "an object in motion stays in motion...." So since I was on the other side of the arena, I cheated a little, slowed him down first and then stopped him. I did it!! Faced another fear. It was interesting to watch all the other folks lope on theirs. Some did opt out, but most didn't.

We took a short ten minute break when all had had a chance to ride. When we got back, they had made a line about 15 feet away from the fence all the way around the arena. We were to trot or lope, but this time we were aloud to use one hand on the rein. What they wanted us to do was to teach the horse to ride the fence. We were to keep them between the line and the fence. If they strayed over the line we were to over correct and steer them straight to the fence and then let them go on. We were to wait until they committed to the mistake and then correct them. That is a good part of his philosophy. He doesn't want us to nag the horse, or not allow them to err... He feels they learn better and faster. This was a more comfortable exercise for me because we could choose to trot or lope... and we could slow them down if they would go too fast...

Quite a day... horses and humans were exhausted.. We were supposed to know feed or water for awhile, but we were trying to get home so I could attend the Mayfield Christmas. The gal in the stall next to us, overheard our dilemma and offered to feed and water later for us. That was great, so we hopped into the truck and took off. The Mayfield gathering was wonderful... great attendance. I had another whole generation to teach "Who's got a beard that's long and white.... " to. Definitely worth driving two hours to get to. I kind of slipped out early because Reba was picking me up at 5:30 in the morning!

#15 Day Two

Well, I did make it to the arena by 8 am. In fact, I was the first one there. I got one of the gals to help me with yielding his hindquarters and we did much better.

The morning was once again devoted to ground work. We learned how to "send" a horse. You stand facing the fence and send your horse from left to right and have them spin and face you. I felt really uncoordinated, because you have to point the direction you want the horse to go, swing the stick and then pull the rope to your middle, step towards the horse and swing to the stick again to have the horse turn and face you. I knew the steps, but I just couldn't get them straight. Reba and Kelly assured I was far from the worst one there.

We went to Subway's for lunch and then dashed back to the arena. We were to show up with our horses saddled!! We spent a long time learning how to do a one rein stop. Then we walked and trotted on a loose rein... If you needed to slow or stop, you would do that with the one rein. All was well until Clinton wanted us to lope...... more later.

#14 Day One.... but more to come!

Well, I survived my first day. We only did groundwork, so I wasn't nervous. It was a long day and I learned a ton. I had tried all the techniques before attending the clinic, but there is nothing like having someone able to point out what you are doing right, or not so right. The first thing we did was to back him out of our "personal" space. Well, I had backed him up a lot, but I had always moved with him. I was now supposed to move him out to the end of the lead rope and not move my feet. If the horse doesn't back up, you are to whack the rope with your stick. Apparently I wasn't whacking hard enough, because next thing I know Clinton is right behind me. I know Reba was having fits because of the personal attention that I was getting..... (Alas, he is young enough for me to be his mother!) Throughout the day I got help from his 3 assistants also. Grady is really good in the desensitizing area so we had no problems with that. Then we moved on to yielding the hindquarters, and with some pointers we finally got that going. I was getting some help on the yielding and giving "two eyes" but we ran out of time. The gal said that she would help me in the morning. They are having a session at 8 in the morning for those who want some extra help. It also made a difference later when we had to lunge the horses. Grady lunges all right, but he does not stop and yield his hindquarters well at all. I know that tomorrow we will be "sending" them. You send them between you and a fence and then have them yield and turn and go back the other way. So.... I will be there bright and early. Later in the day when we were to start the yielding the "forequarters" I told the nearest assistant to not go far because I could not get that at all at home. She stuck with me, which was good, because we did have a bit of trouble. Grady keeps going backwards when I try to move his forequarters. We finally got it to where he would cross one of his front legs just one step. She told me that was good enough until he got consistent when I asked. The last thing was flexing their neck. They would not let us leave until we had it good on both sides. I thought I was doing it pretty well, but then Clinton decided I wasn't doing it quite right and helped me.... and then so did two of the assistants. I finally got it. It took a bit of coordination, which is hard when someone is watching you. The final thing they have you do that day is to back your horse all the way out of the arena... The theory is that the more you back a horse, the softer and more compliant they get. I guess partly because they are really dependent on you not to run them into anybody.

We then headed back to the hotel where we asked for a good steak place. After we got there, we all ordered Mexican. Doesn't that figure..... Here in a little bit I will write about day two.

#13 We are here!

Reba met me at 2:45 and we made it to the vet by 3:15, just barely. Got health papers, Kelly met us and we were on the road. We had no problems, enjoyed the ride and got to the Young County Arena around 5:30. Got Gray settled into his stall, asked a guy to help us with getting the goose neck off the truck, and we were on our way to our hotel.

When we got to the hotel, our room with the 2 queen beds had been given away. It was either two queen beds and smoking, or a king with a roll away. We decided to try our luck at a Holiday Inn Express that was just down the road from the arena. Kelly and I waited in the truck while Reba checked in. Who should go in right behind her but no other than Clinton Anderson himself. He was obviously headed to a men's room, cause he walked right by Reba... and kept going. We honked, but she ignored us. He came back out and got on line behind her. Kelly called her on the phone and told her that he was behind her. She finally turned around and spoke to him. As she headed toward the truck, she looked as if she would swoon. It was hilarious. So.... quite accidentally we are staying at the same hotel as he and his crew.

After we had a good laugh in the hotel room, we headed to Subway for a quick lunch.

Tomorrow is the day!!

#13 Our Great Adventure starts tomorrow....

Well, I went to Jim's tonight and picked up his truck and Nicholas' rodeo trailer. It is a two horse goose neck, which will be easier to pull than my bumper pull trailer. It also has a changing room, place for saddles, hay and feed. We are all set.

Tomorrow Reba will meet me at the house, and Kelly will meet us at the vet to get the final health papers. Then we will be on the road. I decided not to stress about not doing anything since Sunday. Trying to finish up school, decorate a little, then Joseph got in last night. I am meeting myself coming and going. My plan now is to just relax and learn. Wish I had a laptop so I could write nightly, but I am taking a notebook, so I will transcribe all Sunday night.

I am packed and ready to go!!

#12 Kelly came by....

Kelly cut the bridle path on "Grady" (trying out different names...). She also trimmed his ears, face and fetlocks. He looks very nice... I showed her how much better he backs up and flexes. We still struggle a little with the yielding the hindquarters, but she was impressed with how much better he is doing. I got him to lunge a bit for her.. We visited a bit too long, and I gave up the idea of taking him to Jim's arena. I will try to do that Tuesday, and tomorrow I will ride around here. Today I just picked out his feet and turned him back out.

#11 Made a bit of progress yesterday..

Yesterday morning was drippy and cool, but I got outside anyway. I was all prepared to get my horse to yield his hindquarters. I had studied up and reread part of the book. The other thing I did was watch Clinton's first episode. I had downloaded it to my computer. It was on round penning. He does suggest to do that with all horses, not just beginners. His initial step is to get them to move out and not change direction. Then he gets them to turn, but to the inside. Very quickly he goes from there to getting them stop and turn to face him. If the horse does not face him, he sends them off getting their feet moving. Well.. I fed the horses a little oats early on and shut the trap gate while they were eating. In the meantime, the dogs and I went after hay and caked the goats. We also discovered the paint goat had had a beautiful paint nanny. Quite large. I expect Curled Back Horn to kid any day. Thank heavens the weather is a little better. Anyhow, when I got back and entered the trap with the halter.... both horses ran off towards the gate that was shut. So... once they realized they could not escape, I sent both of them off swinging the halter rope. Very shortly, Major stops and walks up to me. You do have a good horse... just needs the ground work. So... I let him out the gate. I sent Gray off a few times.... he never really faced me, just kind of gave up. We really need a 50 foot round pen. We may have to cut down a tree to keep it where it is, but even Ricky is too big now for the little round pen. I really think I will be ready to work with him.

Back to my horse..... I go through all the things we have learned..... desensitized with the lead rope, desensitized with the stick and string, flexed his neck on both sides, backed him up 3 different ways, and then we tried moving the hindquarters. Well.... we made progress. He can do it pretty well on one side, and is halfway there on his stiffer side. Somewhere in the middle of all of this I realized that his feet were solid with mud. I didn't want him lame, so I picked out his feet. He is so good about that. I pretty much just tap his leg, and he lifts it up for me. Good thing we stopped, all kind of rocks and mud. After that I lunged him... somewhere in there I was pretty frustrated and tied him up and cleaned off the porch to get ready to hang Christmas decorations. It calmed me and I went back to it. I don't remember if it was before or after I tried to lunge him. But.... we got that going again. Wasn't real pretty on our stops where he should turn and face me, but at least we can get it going. I am hoping to get the advice I need to make better progress this weekend.

The big thing I wanted to accomplish this weekend was to get more confident loping. I was a little more apprehensive yesterday because we were trying the new snaffle bit. I know he is way more used to the severe roping bits that they have used on him in the past, so I decided to only ride down the driveway and around the house until I felt comfortable. I am supposed to be able to do a one rein stop on both sides. I tried that as soon as I got on the horse. He didn't like it worth a darn, but he started to understand on his good side. The stiff side wasn't as good, he wanted to keep going in a circle, but finally he would stop. If I reined him like he was used to, we did just fine... So I know I can stop him, we just have to work on other methods. He sure wanted to go yesterday, even broke into a lope heading down the driveway. So.... I took another break... Tied him to a tree and worked on the house some more. The porch looks great!

About 30 minutes later I tried again. This time I lunged him with the saddle on... then we headed out the gate. He is doing better about not moving off when I mount, I keep his head tilted towards the saddle. That happens to be his good flexing side. I did a lot of stopping when he would break into a faster gait without me asking. I am also trying to get him to chill when we stop. He wants to always go. We headed towards the alfalfa field, I didn't want to tear up what Mike had plowed. When we got to the field, I let him lope the entire length... that is a pretty long field. We did a slow trot across the width... I was tempted to say good enough, but about 2/3 the way back up the field I cut across and did another bit of loping. Can't say I did it on a loose rein, but then again I wasn't in an arena where there are boundaries. When I tried to do a loose rein, I could feel him getting faster and faster. However, he would always slow down when I asked. On the way back, I made him walk the entire way. He didn't want to, but we did a lot of one rein stopping and backing up, and he finally decided that walking and relaxing was much more productive. When we got back, I tied him up... I didn't leave him too long. I had decided to catch the end of the boy's basketball tournament. They were in the championship round. So, I turned him loose. I started to brush him and he was soaked all over, so I even got an old towel and dried him off, then turned him loose. I meant to pick the mud out of his feet, but I forgot. I originally was going to try to ride again later in the day, but I decided that he and I both needed an evening to think it all over.

Kelly is going to meet me this afternoon to cut a bridle path and make him look good. Reba is going to come also so we can make final plans. Then I am going to haul him to Jim's and ride him in the arena. Then.... if I have time after school this week I will ride, but I won't worry about it. At least I have accomplished a few things, and am not going to this clinic clueless.

#10 Been a few days.....

I got to work with Smokey (Bev's great suggestion) one day after that last post. That must have been on December 4th. Here it is 5 days later, and the weather or obligations have kept me from being able to work outside. I did lunge Smokey the next day and he picked up on it very quickly. However, it was pretty muddy and he slipped one time, and I thought he was going down, but he caught himself. I didn't want to cause a problem, so we didn't stay out very long. I also realized that he still doesn't give me "two eyes" like he should when we change directions, so I have reviewed that on the DVD I have as well as one of the episodes I have downloaded from Clinton's TV shows that is of a clinic he held in Waco. I think I understand better how to communicate that concept now. The horseshoer finally came on Sunday, so we are really ready to go. Now maybe a break in the weather will help.

#9 Alas, the weather continues to not cooperate....

Since no go on outdoor activities, I watched the section on the DVD that shows how to lunge the horse first stage. I think I get it. This morning in the tub I reread half of Clinton Anderson's book, paying special attention to yielding the hindquarters and giving two eyes, yielding the forequarters and the part on lunging. Sometimes reading the information helps me solidify it in my brain. So.... maybe tomorrow. 25 degrees right now.

#8 Cold and rainy

Well... no way to work outside today!! It was bad enough getting hay and feeding everyone. A day to stay in by the fire if I had one..

So... I watched the part of the DVD that spoke to moving the forequarters... watched the section on potential mistakes and problem solving. I guess I was just giving up too soon. As soon as the weather clears we will cross that hurdle. That's all for today.

#7 Sometimes it can be discouraging....

Quite a bit colder than we are used to... didn't get home from school till late, and only had 30 minutes of daylight by the time I got outside. Determined to get some ground work in. He really does back up well now, and the flexing seems to be better... also yielding the hindquarters. However, I can't seem to differentiate between that and the exercise to have the horse yield and give you two eyes. And..... I can't seem to get Gray to understand what yielding the forequarters is all about. That probably was the most discouraging.... I guess that is one of the reasons I am going to this clinic. Hopefully, I will be shown what I am doing wrong and what I could do better.

So.... to make the evening productive, I did get the snaffle bit on the bridle, and managed to attach the mecate reins. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be worse, so I think I will just try to get that bridle adjusted to fit Gray and also adjust the reins. I guess I need to look for one baby step at a time.

#6 Temperature muust have dropped 30 degrees....

It sure got cold today. I had to convince myself to at least do some ground work with the Gray. Turns out I am really glad that I did. He, for the first time, backed up when I tapped the stick in the direction of his nose... I was elated. Maybe we are starting to get the hang of it. He flexed better than ever, yielded his hindquarters pretty well, and then I tried just backing him up holding just below his halter. He knows how to do that, so no problem there.

You would think I would know when to quit while I am ahead. Of course not.... I had watched one of the clinic dvds and knew the next step would be to yield his forequarters. We are back to Gray not having a clue as to what I am trying to get him to do. However, I didn't get too discouraged. That seems to be our pattern. I'll study a bit more, and we'll get it tomorrow or the next day. I went back and repeated the things he had done well and turned him loose. The weather is supposed to be very cold over the next few days, so I expect that ground work is all we will get done. I'll take advantage of the bad weather and study the next steps in the ground work. Sending and lunging....

#5 Worked with Major, too.

I didn't ride today, but after I got Gray to back up, yield his hindquarters, almost got the face me with "two eyes" thing... and kind of stiffly flexed.... I decided that there was a little daylight left and that I would try the ground work with Mike's horse, Major. (Was that a run on sentence, or what?)

I started with desensitizing him with the lead rope. He didn't flinch a bit as I flung it over his back, his withers, his neck and his legs. I did the same with the stick and string.... still the same unconcerned attitude. Then I did what I call the whackity whackity thing (which really amuses Kelly and Reba) and Major could have cared less. This is when you are doing figure eights with the stick and string over the horse's head and whacking it on the ground. He even flexed his neck to the point that he almost touched his side. If he didn't scare me a little when I ride him, I would take him to the clinic. Gray is 10 years older and much more set in his ways. However, if I can get him to do what I want, I guess I really will have learned something. Neither horse likes to back... and Clinton says that is one of the keys to getting good control of your horse.

Hopefully the weather won't keep me indoors tomorrow. I plan to do the sending lesson and try lunging the Gray.

#4 He can back up!

Well, I took some encouragement from a DVD and with handy stick in hand set out to get the Gray to back up. We tried and tried..... first you are to move the stick rhythmically in front of his nose for 4 beats, then tap his lead rope lightly for 4 beats, whack the stick hard, then whack the metal clip on his halter. It took whacking the clip before he would move. At least he moved, that was a first. I persisted and tried to go lighter.... but it wasn't happening. I moved to another exercise of moving his hindquarters, which the Gray does pretty well. Then I tried another back up technique of wiggling the rope and then swinging the stick from left to right. Lo and behold, that one worked. I went back to the first method, and he went to backing up without so much force. Progress indeed. I tied him to a tree, and was going to go get Major, when I noticed that my sister, Elizabeth had called. I called her back and we did some Thanksgiving catching up. Since the days are short, I decided not to mess with Major... sent a text to Reba seeing if she was going to ride, then tried the flexing exercise with the Gray, and he was much better. I haven't heard from Reba, but I intend to ride here in a little bit either way.

(Later....) Well, Reba got home too late, so I rode off by myself. My arms are sore from swinging the stick and string. At least I am getting a workout! Gray did fine. We just rode down to the next county road. I had him stop several times because he doesn't like to. He always wants to keep moving. He relaxed more as time went on. I also bypassed our gate because he was so sure I was going to turn in. It went pretty well.