Starry Becomes Barn Sour

Starry Becomes Barn Sour

Yes, it is true!  Starry, one of the most reliable horses, decided he no longer wanted to work.

In early May, Kevin had a terribly unfortunate accident with Starry where he fell off, broke multiple ribs and punctured his lung.  That meant he wasn't able to ride for quite a while.  Starry decided he liked his retirement.

By the time that Kevin was able to ride again, we were right in the middle of one the the buggiest summers ever.  The mosquitoes were atrocious--and Starry hates bugs.  Kevin took him on his initial ride, and all Starry did was fuss about the bugs.  It was right about the time I started riding Cole after his terrible colic, so we decided to keep it short and go back home early.

After that, was the Fourth of July weekend and so much rain, that Kevin didn't have another ride for a few weeks. This one was longer, and Starry was totally bug crazy.  This happens most years, but after a few weeks, he settles down.  Kevin was a wreck.

Now honestly, Kevin was having some problems with his confidence.  Who wouldn't under the circumstances.  I think that played into what happened next.

The next time Kevin tried to ride, he couldn't even get Starry out of the driveway.  The following ride was worse.  Starry wouldn't leave the barn.  We did get him to go out the back door, but once he got outside, he refused to go anywhere.

A few days later, he tried again by joining me on a ride with Cole.  Once again, we had to take him out the back door, and he got stuck.  Instead of quitting, Kevin got off to lead him to the trail.  That worked, so Kevin just led him down the hill.  There is a mounting block at the bottom.  Kevin got on and walked Starry down to the river--and he wouldn't cross.  You can just imagine how Kevin was feeling at this point--he was just shattered.  He led Starry home, and I went on my ride by myself.

Though Kevin was crushed, he was still determined.  We told him to spend time walking Starry around the barn; going in and out of the door and walking down the driveway.  When Starry was good, we wanted him to click and treat him to show Starry what he wanted and to make it a fun project for him.  Kevin followed our advice, and they started to get better.  One day, he was able to lead him partially down the street.  He was ready to try the trail again.

One morning, Ellen and I were going to take Trifecta down the hill.  Ellen was on foot.  The river was too high to cross.  Kevin decided to join us.  He led Starry to the trail and mounted at the mounting block at the beginning of the trail.  Trifecta, always enthusiastic about trail riding, marched down the trail.  Starry decided he wasn't going to follow.  Kevin got off and tried leading him down, but Starry was reluctant and troubled by the bugs.  Kevin's nerves were frazzled, so Ellen took over.

Ellen is awesome.  She used her clicker training skills to get Starry focused and working.  He was getting clicked for walking well and then she added in "head down and walk."  We find that to be a wonderful cue and have taught it to all of our horses--including Starry years ago.  Starry settled down, Kevin got a break from him and Trifecta just marched on with great enthusiasm.  We did one trip on the hill and when we got back, we had Kevin ride Starry around in the arena.

The next day, the river was still too high to cross.  This time, I was taking Cole down to the river.  Ellen was on foot, and Kevin decided to lead Starry down himself.  We told him to put the saddle on, even though he wasn't going to use it.  That way, Starry wouldn't know what was going to happen.

Starry was so much better this time!  When they got to the bottom, Ellen offered to take over just to give Kevin a break.  She continued working on Starry's training, and Kevin was able to walk up the hill at his own pace.  When we got back, Kevin rode him in the arena again.

The next day, the river was low enough to cross, so we were going to give it a try with Starry, Dante and Cole.  While all this was going on, Dante went through a spell where he didn't want to cross the river, too.  Ellen failed 2 days in a row with him, and she was also very upset.  She was able to get him to cross the next couple times--and he actually crossed really well, but we weren't that confident that he would cross this time.  All we needed was for Starry and Dante to start playing off each other.

Kevin led Starry to the mounting block at the bottom of the hill.  I brought Cole down, and he was having a drink.  Dante followed and Starry followed Dante.  Starry loves following Dante-they are great buddies.  Ellen was nervous.  Kevin was nervous.  I was nervous, too, but in a way, it was the worst for me because I couldn't do anything but watch.  Dante crossed first with little hesitation.  I followed and then Starry stepped right in.  We made it!!!!

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We repeated it the next day, and it went just as well.  Kevin's confidence was coming back.  The following day, he rode with a friend and Starry was great.  After 2 more successful rides, Kevin decided to mount at the mounting block on top of the hill, and everything went fine.  Starry is back!

More Trail Rides

More Trail Rides

We had 2 more trail rides.  Though I wanted to do a bunch of consecutive trail rides--the weather just didn't want to cooperate.  After each ride, we would get a lot of rain, and I would have to wait for the river to go back down before we could do it again.  Also, we are only doing them when Ellen doesn't have to go to work, so that limits us, too.

The river crossing on our second trail ride went better than the first.  Trifecta was happy to walk along, slowly, with Ellen when we crossed the river.  Everything was going so well that Ellen and I had the same thought--we would try a little trotting.  This was way ahead of the schedule I had in my head, but I wanted to see where he was at.  We got to a great spot for trotting, so I mentioned it to Ellen--and she said she was just thinking of it herself.  If we both think of it, it has to be a good idea.

We both thought we would do it the same way we originally started trotting Cole on the trail--which is the same way that we worked on slowing Trifecta on the steep slopes on the hill.  I made him stand and wait while Ellen went up the trail, and I then asked him to trot to her.

I didn't know what to expect.  When we did it with Cole, he was rather scary.  He went fast and big and Ellen had to be very brave to stand her ground.  (That is how we taught him hand signals to stop.)  I asked Trifecta to trot, and he acted just like he was in the arena.  He gave me a moderate, smooth trot and readily stopped right in front of Ellen.  It wasn't scary at all.  We only did it once.  My real goal was to ride all the way to the next river crossing.  He had never gone that far before, and it would make the ride about 3 miles round trip.  

Once we get past Willow Bend, the trail is well away from the street and very easy to ride.  It went great except for all the mosquitoes.  In fact, the whole ride went great.  We made it home with no problems.

Ride #3

We had a new plan for our third ride.  Based on our success trotting, we decided that that would be our goal.

We got back to the good section of trail, and I told Ellen to walk up ahead.  We waited until she turned around and trotted to her.  Trifecta stopped when I asked him to, and we clicked and treated him-and then we repeated it a number of times until we got to Willow Bend.  We then turned around and went back to the beginning of the stretch of trail.  Each time, she went further away from us.  Each time, he traveled a little faster.  

We repeated the exercise.  This time, he got measurably faster and once he even broke into a canter!  I didn't make a big deal about it, but since I didn't ask him for it, he didn't get clicked.  (This is also the way we introduced cantering on trail with Cole--so it will probably be in his future.)  We were getting towards Willow Bend, so I told Ellen I wanted to go on my own.  At first, Trifecta didn't want to leave her, but once he got going, he was wonderful.  I asked him to stop and clicked him for it.  We then turned and walked towards Ellen.  

I told her I wanted to do a much longer stretch on my own, so we went back to the mud puddle, turned around and trotted away from her.  Once again, he was great, but as we neared the spot where we previously stopped, he surged to get there.  Since that wasn't the lesson I wanted him to learn, I kept him going past that spot and told him to stop in a different spot.  You have to be careful with clicker training that you don't teach them the wrong thing.  It is such a powerful tool.  I didn't want him to learn to rush to a certain spot to get a treat.  I wanted him to learn to keep going and stop when I tell him.

It was all such a total success!  Instead of continuing on to the second river crossing, I told Ellen that we did enough for the day and we went home.  The rest of the ride was wonderfully uneventful.  I believe I have a terrific horse!

Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

Real Trail Ride on Trifecta

One day last month, I met Ellen at the barn and she asked me what I wanted to do that morning.  I told her that I wanted to take Trifecta across the river.  It caught her totally be surprise--which was a good thing.  She didn't have to worry all the night before about taking him on a real trail ride.  

Last year, I led him across the river and on the trail a number of times before I started riding him.  Once I was riding, we did the hill a lot and finally one real trail ride before the weather got bad, so this wasn't completely new for him, and the ride last year was very successful.  Where Ellen was nervous, I was like Trifecta--very excited.

Ellen was going to walk with us.  Talk about having a wonderful sister--she was going to cross the river on foot.

Going down the hill was uneventful.  We passed up the exit ramp for the river, turned around and went to the bank.  My thinking on this was to prevent him from refusing to pass the river ramp when I just wanted to ride on the hill.  I had a lot of problems with him last summer doing just that, and I didn't want to lose all the progress I made with him.

He was so excited when I told him to go down to the river.  He didn't want to wait for Ellen to roll up her jeans--he just wanted to cross.  I made him wait.  Ellen hooked up the lead rope, and we stepped in.  It only took a couple steps to know that she wouldn't be able to safely walk as fast as he wanted to walk, so she unhooked him.  He did walk faster than I wanted him, but I was able to get a "whoa" which helped slow him down.  He walked up the bank on the other side, and we waited for Ellen to catch up.

She hooked the lead rope back up.  I didn't think we really needed it, so she made the rope very slack as a compromise.  She would just be an emergency brake.  We walked quickly and uneventfully down the trail.  I decided to turn at Willow Bend--which would make it a 2 mile ride.  The bugs were ferocious, and they really aggravated him.  Is there any good bug sprays out there?  

On the way home, there were 3 joggers that came towards us.  They walked to pass us and then started jogging--and that spooked him.  I am just not used to him spooking!  It was just a little spook--he shot forward a few strides, and I was able to stop him easily.  He settled back down very quickly, and that is so important.

When it came time to cross the river on the way home, he tried a whole new method.  Instead of walking fast to get across, he wanted to stay next to Ellen.  Since Ellen had to go slow by necessity, he did the same thing--matching her step by step.  It made us laugh. Trifecta often makes us laugh.

What a wonderful first ride!  If this is his starting point, I really don't foresee many problems.

Trifecta on Trail

Trifecta on Trail

As I have mentioned, the weather has not been cooperative for trail riding--any horses--let alone a new horse.  I don't want to cross the river with Trifecta unless it is low enough that I can see the bottom.  I also wanted to be able to ride him a few days in a row on the trail.  Things just weren't working.

So, I decided to just do the hill.  A lot can be accomplished riding up and down the hill.  Our hill is about a quarter mile long, and the trail goes just a little past the exit ramp to the river.  There are 2 very steep but short sections, 3 level sections and one longer moderately sloped section.

We have been doing 2 trips at a time with Trifecta.  Ellen walks along with a lead rope, which she will attach to Trifecta whenever there is a problem or she just gets nervous.  

It also helps her to keep up with us.  It is the strangest phenomenon that we both experience.  If we are leading a fast-walking horse, we can keep up.  If we are just walking next to a fast-walking horse, it is hard to keep up.  It is just the oddest thing.

And Trifecta goes fast when he is on the trail.  It is because he just gets so excited.  He really enjoys himself.  The speed does give us a problem, though.  He goes too fast down the steep sections and wants to trot, which is unacceptable.  We came up with a solution.  With the help of clicker training, Ellen walks ahead of us, stops and Trifecta walks to her and stops.  Of course, he gets clicked and treated.  In the beginning, it took 3 clicks to get down the slopes, but now we can do it in 1 or 2.

This actually teaches him a lot.  First, he has to stop and stand while his best buddy is leaving him.  That is his biggest challenge.  He must wait until I tell him to walk.  He then has to walk like a gentleman and stop in front of Ellen.  He gets clicked, and then we repeat it.

It has worked marvelously, and sometimes we just do it without Ellen's help at all.  Most of the time he does pretty well.

We started to do the hill 3-4 times a week.  Sometimes he gets to see other horses and that is challenging for him.  We practice our "whoas" and "stands."

He is still not entirely consistent on the road.  Every now and then, a vehicle will startle him.  We only have to go a few hundred feet on the street to get to the trail, fortunately.  I lead him to the trail.

Taking him on the hill has actually helped his arena work.  When we go back to the arena, he is more enthusiastic about it.  I think he likes the variety.  I really feel the hill work is time well spent.

Update on Trifecta--Arena Work

Update on Trifecta--Arena Work

These last few months have been very difficult for me, but all through it, Trifecta has been the bright spot.  Though he has been challenging at times, he has never been dangerous and has always been fun.

The weather definitely didn't help us at all.  Since he had only gone on one "real" trail ride last year, I certainly wasn't going to try and cross the river on him when it was at all high.  Ideally, I wanted to be able to ride him on the other side for 2-3 days in a row.  The weather just didn't cooperate for us.  

That didn't mean that we wasted this time.  Since the weather was warmer, we moved the majority of our riding outside to our very large outdoor arena.  It has all-weather footing, so we never have to deal with mud, sloppiness or deep puddles.  We do have to deal with a closed gate that he wanted to go out of.  That was the most frustrating aspect of our outdoor adventures.  He would try to stop at the gate, get stuck at the gate and veer towards the gate as we went by it.  

This problem hasn't completely gone away, but it is vastly better than it was in the beginning.  There are 2 things that I did that really helped.  The first one was to practice "perfect corners" at a trot.  We started at the far corners where the gate wasn't even an issue.  When I say perfect, I mean perfect.  I did the first corner over and over until he got it right--and then he got clicked.  After that, he was getting it perfect most of the time in just a few minutes.  He would only get clicked for perfect.  We then went to the next corner and did the same thing.  It took less time for him to understand what I wanted, and when he was perfect, he got a click.  

The next plan was to do both corners in a row.  I wanted a definitive straightening between the corners, and that was the hardest part for him to understand, but he did after a while.  After a few practices, I didn't click him but headed down to corner number 3.  He did that one perfectly, and I clicked him.  I walked him past corner number 4 where the gate was located and headed back to corner #1.  We trotted through #1, #2 and #3.  I kept going and he did #4 perfectly!  Of course, he got a click.  We practiced some more and called it quits for the day.

The next time I rode him in there, we practiced "perfect corners" the other direction.  He became more consistent from then on when I wanted to simply trot past the gate.

The following week, I decided to teach him to go in and out of the gate.  I didn't know if this would help or hurt.  All along, I would dismount on the far end of the arena and lead him out of the gate.  Now I was going to ride out.  I decided I couldn't just ride out--I needed a way to give him permission to go.  I rode to a spot about 10 feet from the gate--facing it--stopped him and then told him to walk out.  I rode out, rode him around, went back in, rode back out--and did this a number of times.  I wanted him to learn that going out didn't mean we were going back to the barn and going in didn't necessarily mean we were going to work hard.  A few days later, I added trotting around when I was outside the arena and just walking leisurely inside the arena.  

Since then, when he gets "gate-ish" it is only half hearted.  I am still wrestling with his circles bulging towards the gate when we are near it, but that is way better than before.

I have gotten him to do some cantering.  It hasn't been easy, and it is very sporadic.  The good news is that it is a lovely, smooth and balanced canter--not racy at all.  That is so much different than Cole was in his beginning days of cantering.  Cole used to buck, too.  Tri has no inclination to buck.  The hard part is just getting him to do it.  I haven't been clicking him for it, because horses stop what they are doing immediately when they hear a click, and I don't like that sudden stop.  I think we will probably do best working on the canter when we are on the trail.

Ellen has ridden him a few times, and she really likes him.  He is very responsive to leg and weight aids.  My theory is to ride a horse like they know what you want them to do, and they will learn all the more subtle cues without you spending a lot of time actually teaching them the cues--and it really worked with Trifecta.  Ellen's told me that he actually responds to cues like the books say a horse is supposed to.  He picked up on indirect reining without me even knowing I was teaching it to him.  I have started to teach him neck reining, and he is catching on.

After riding in the indoor arena most of the winter with him, it is so great to be outside.  He is also learning to work when there are distractions like horses being turned out, ducks in the pond and people walking all about.  I wish all these rides had been on the trail, but the time has been well spent.