The Chink in Cole’s Armor

The Chink in Cole’s Armor




No horse is perfect. Every one of them has a chink in their armor. You can work with them and improve them, but deep down, it never goes away. Starry D just hates bugs. Cruiser hates motorcycles. Ranger can’t deal with rain on the roof. (He’s the biggest sissy of them all.)



Cole Train is afraid of horses. He has been like this since I got him. I remember the first few weeks when I had a horrible time getting him to walk through one of the doors in our barn. He didn’t mind being inside and he wasn’t afraid of doors, since he would go through the other door, but refused on this door. Turns out, he was afraid of the mare in the first stall when she laid her ears back at him.



That was just the beginning. He was afraid to pass other horses, afraid of them walking behind him in the river and gets startled when they make the slightest aggressive mood—like swishing a tail. He likes Starry, but if he is next to him and Starry does one of his little bucks, Cole will either come to a sudden stop or shoot off sideways. If Starry briskly swishes his tail at the dreaded bugs, Cole will throw his head up in the air.



He has gotten used to Ranger snarling at him, and he will now cautiously pass another horse instead of refusing to pass or leaping forward to avoid getting bitten (even if they aren’t threatening him.)



I don’t know why he is like this, but he is.



The other day, I was riding him in the arena with a bunch of horses. He has gotten used to doing that, and we can pass horses and they can pass us. There was a woman who was standing on the end of the arena holding her horse on a lead line. Her horse got startled by something—she didn’t know what happened. He flew backwards very quickly—right into Cole’s path.



Cole took off and started bucking. After a few seconds, he stopped and was fine. I told everyone it gave me a chance to practice my “Velcro seat.” I didn’t think much more of the incident, but a few minutes later another horse spooked when we were fairly close and it caused Cole to erupt, again. This time wasn’t as bad, and I thought no more of it.



The next day, I was riding with Ellen and Ranger in the arena. I forgot all about the experiences from the day before, but Cole didn’t. We were walking along the wall of the indoor arena and Ranger approached on the inside. Cole bolted. Even though he is very good friends with Ranger, he didn’t want to be trapped between Ranger and the wall. A few minutes later, it happened again; proving that the first time wasn’t a strange fluke. I now had a problem.



Ellen stopped Ranger, and I tried to ride Cole to him. Cole refused to get within 10 feet of him. He was definitely scared. We had some serious Ranger desensitization to do. I was glad it was Ranger that I was going to work with since Ellen is the greatest and most understanding rider.



Of course, I used clicker training. I have found clicker to be the best for desensitization. I took Cole away from Ranger and asked him to approach. As he stepped toward him, I clicked, he stopped and I gave him a treat. Ellen was clicking Ranger for standing very still. I kept repeating this—getting a little closer each time. In about 5 minutes, he was close enough so Ellen could give him a treat. At that point, we started riding together with Cole following Ranger. He became more confident, and their friendship was restored.



A short time later, Kevin came out to lead Starry, and Cole seemed fine with him. When Kevin then came out to lead the evil mare, Cole was uncomfortable with her—for good reason. She has kicked at him in the past. We just stayed away from them.



Hopefully, Cole will take what he learned from Ranger and generalize it with other horses. If not, it will be a long winter of riding with other horses in the indoor arena.



No horse is perfect, and if this is the worst for Cole, I can live with it—as long as I have understanding people to ride with and help me out, we will be fine. Oh, and a Velcro seat helps, too.

Way too much nip

My sister's cat, Stormy, has a subsance abuse problem.

Sammy

Isn't he handsome?

My sister and I went to our favorite cat shelter, Stay A While, yesterday. We wanted to pick cats out to sponsor for the year. I picked Sammy. Actually, I can't imagine why he hasn't been adopted. He is gorgeous and friendly. He is also huge--the size of a panther. He has to be at least part Maine Coon. Big cats purr loud.



He just sat in the tower, looking over his kingdom as it pet him and talked to him. He was definitely in charge of the place.



If I didn't have Thunder, I would have taken him home. I think he would make a person a good companion. Though, he would have probably scared Maggie.

Hopefully, someone will adopt him, and I could go back and pick out another cat to sponsor.



My sister picked our a small, orange long-haired female named Honey O. She is a real sweetheart, that doesn't believe in using litter boxes. They keep the cats there for life. They don't live in cages, but can roam about freely in rooms and patios. Honey is 13, now, and at least she has a home.



This is the shelter where I got Thunder, and his predecessor, Trickee. I owe them a lot for rescuing both my boys and bringing so much joy into my life. Sponsoring is the least I could do.

New Convert?

New Convert?




Last night, towards the end of my ride with Cole, the new boarder came out. Her husband started leading her horse around the arena. It was the first time I saw him out of the stall. He looked like a Thoroughbred and walked like a gentleman.



I thought I would explain what I was doing with the clicks and treats that they saw me doing with Cole. I gave her a brief explanation, dismounted and told Cole to do his Cole walk. it is something he invented and I encouraged that looks like a low-stepping Spanish walk. The boarder was in awe. Actually, I never got such an enthusiastic response to his silly walk, before. I explained that I have found it useful when leading him on the street when a scary vehicle approaches. I just ask him to put his head down and do his walk. He ignores the scary vehicle and only pays attention to me.



After my ride, I went to clean stalls. The new boarder came into our barn and asked me how she could teach her horse clicker training. I didn’t know it, but he has braces on both her legs. Though her horse is well mannered, he walks too fast for her. She wants to teach him to walk slower. Right now, she is unable to handle her horse without assistance.



I showed her what a clicker looks like and how to get started with targetting. Cole was willing, and showed her how he could target a Kleenex box. I showed her how he puts his head down on command—a very useful thing. I also explained how good it would be to teach her horse to stand still on command like Cole. Walking slow, head down and stand should make it easier for her to handle her horse. I thought of this later—immediate halt to the word “whoa.” I taught that early on with Cole, and it is a wonderful thing.



She was so excited. I have tried to convert others at our barn in the past with no success, yet no one had bigger incentive than this young lady. She said she is going to do it, and she wanted to know what evenings I would be out at the barn.



I hope she follows through. I’m sure she must be very frustrated to have such a nice horse and be so limited in what she could do. I will keep you updated.

Quick Update

I haven’t been feeling much like blogging. Cruiser’s cough is really getting me down. The steroids are helping, but not enough. We are hoping that when the temps get down below freezing there will be an improvement because it seems that his best days are the colder ones. I have only been riding him on the weekends. The rest of the time, I am just hand walking. He is gaining weight, and that is a good thing. With the cough came weight loss, and that had me worried, too.




Cole is doing well. His bowing is amazing, but he still will only do it in his stall. I have spent so much time teaching him to stand still outside the stall, that he doesn’t want to move. I guess I would rather have a horse that will stand motionless than one that wants to bow all the time. He does get carried away in his stall. He will do it over and over. I have to work in the arena during the week due to darkness, but he has been doing pretty well. That beautiful trot of his is tough to ride, and I have to work on building my endurance. He is getting much more consistent with it.



I have been able to trail ride on the weekends, but I don’t think it will last much longer. Once it gets cold enough for the ground to be frozen and ice forms on the river, we are limited. I won’t trot on frozen ground or cross on ice. The mild temperatures won’t last. This is Cleveland, after all. Then again, the cold might improve Cruiser. I would be glad to sacrifice the trail rides for his health.



There is good news. Ranger is currently lame free. My sister has been working him in the arena during the week and taking him on easy trail rides on the weekend—only walking and trotting. She will try a canter soon and see how he does. It was looking so bleak for him, but things appear to be on the right track. My sister still thinks she will get a second horse next spring to lighten Ranger’s work load.



Life away from the barn is improving. I am getting used to living alone. Well, if I’m at home, I am never really alone. Thunder and Maggie are always close by. My brother has been helpful with the things I’m not sure how to handle. I am cooking smaller portions and trying to have at least half of my meals healthy. I bought a bunch of seeds for my veggie garden next year. My brother cut down the annoying mulberry tree growing on the edge of the garden, so I have much more sunshine. Maybe next year will be a good garden year.

Cole Keeps Thinks Interesting

Kevin and I had the opportunity to take our horses on a long ride on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Ellen had to work, so we went without her. I took Cole Train, and of course, Kevin took Starry.



Life hasn’t been very cooperative, so this was only the third long ride of the year. Cole is faster than Starry over the long run, so just like in the past, we lost them a few times as we trotted along. Kevin warned me this might happen, so that I wouldn’t be alarmed when I noticed he wasn’t behind us.



The weather was unseasonably warm, so there were a lot of hikers and dog walkers on the trail. There is plenty of room to pass people on our trails, so if it is safe, I will keep going. I make sure that I never surprise or scare anyone.



We approached a dog walker who was standing off on the side of the trail. As Cole approached, he transformed and did his big, showy trot. (It is very passage-like and really something to see.) The dog walker was awed, and I laughed, clicked and treated him. That’s all it took. Cole put on a show for nearly every person we passed. Most people liked it, though some didn’t know what they were looking at. Cole thought it was fun. I thought it was funny.



We did have one problem situation. We were on our own, and there was a large group of people—half of them children—up ahead on the trail. We had been cantering, though we were trotting when we saw them. I don’t know what went through Cole’s head when he saw them, but he took off running--straight for them. I felt like I was on a bowling ball—heading down the alley—and we were going to topple some people over.



It took a bit, but I got him back down to a trot in time. He slowed enough, but wouldn’t stop. I ended up spinning him right in front of the group. They didn’t slow down, move to the side or stop—they just kept going. I had to ride through them. Cole didn’t want to walk, but did with a mixture of prancing and a few more spins. Children were running loose to the right and left. A kid asked his name. Next thing I knew, they were all screaming, “Cole Train. Cole Train.” That only added to the prancing and dancing. He put on quite a show.



Towards the end of the group, a parent reined the last of the kids in, much to my relief. Cole settled down, and the rest of the ride was uneventful. We met Kevin on the way home. He also went though the big group of people, but of course, Starry behaved perfectly.

Take a Bow

Take a Bow




This is all about “capturing a behavior” with clicker training. We can train a horse to do anything with the aid of a clicker. When we saw Cole stretch one morning, we thought it was so cute that we clicked and treated him for it.



I don’t know when we clicked him for it the first time, but every time we saw him do it, we clicked again. Sometimes it would be days even weeks between clicks. Last month, it seemed to be getting more frequent. We noticed he was most likely to do it when we weren’t paying attention—to get our attention. It was only in the morning when we were cleaning the stalls. We would just watch through the corner of our eyes. Anything that looked like a stretch got clicked.



Then, it happened—multiple stretches in the same morning. The stretches were morphing into a definite bow. One morning, he did it 8 times in a row! He made the connection. Now, it was time to put it on a cue. When we thought he might do it, we would say, “Bow.”



A few sessions like this, and we had a bowing monster. What he does is he stretches his front legs forward and parks out with his back legs like a proper Morgan. Then, he shifts his weight back and bows like a dog. It is adorable, but he does it over and over. A few times I had to leave the barn to get him to stop!



I have decided to only click him for mostly for doing it on command. When he does a really good one voluntarily, I can’t resist clicking that, too. The rest of the time, I am just saying “good boy.” He only does it in his stall at this time. I would like him to be able to do it out of his stall, too. I will not teach him to do it when I am in the saddle. No way.



When I get home from the barn, my little black dog, Maggie, also bows and bows and bows. I taught her without treats or clicks. She would do it occasionally when I would come home. She would stand on the top of the stairs and wag her tail. I started to say, “Bow” over and over. When she would, I would proceed up the stairs—just what she wanted. After about 10 times, she was doing it whenever I asked her—just to get me to come to her. Now, she does it all the time. I just praise her for it—better than her jumping on me or running down the cat in her excitement.



Now, all my black animals are bowing.



Oh, back to capturing a behavior. That’s what we did. Cole did something on his own, we liked it and caught it with a clicker. Then, by anticipating when he would do it, we taught him a connection between a cue, a behavior and a reward. It is like magic.



Cole is one step closer to being a circus horse.

Ranger and the River

Seems like I have written about this, before. If it sounds familiar, it probably is because it is.



Ranger was sound enough to go on his first trail ride in a couple of months. Hurray! We decided that he should go with Cruiser. Wow, was he excited. He pranced and danced and looked like he was a whole hand taller as Ellen led him down the driveway and down the hill to the mounting block by the river crossing.



Ranger decided he was going to work the hill for his first trail ride. Ellen decided he was going to cross the river. Cruiser quietly moseyed down the river bank. Ranger danced and reluctantly bounced down. He passed up Cruiser and it looked like he was going to make it. When he got his front feet into the water, he spun and just about ran right over poor, confused Cruise. Ranger didn’t want to cross, and he said no one was going to make him.



Ellen told me to ride on. Cruise and I had a nice, but short ride with as much trotting as his cough could handle. When we got back, there was Ranger, standing by the river. When Ellen saw us, she turned Ranger around and walked up the bank. We joined her.



She said she was at the river the whole time we were gone. Every time he turned away, she brought him back to the same spot. He was way to wound up to even try to go home or work the hill. She just tried to bore him into submission.



She could have forcibly tried to get him across, but she didn’t see it as a battle she wanted to fight. We just decided Ranger was a big dummy of a horse.



The next day, we tried it again. This time, he went down the driveway and hill just like a normal horse. When she mounted, he obediently walked down the river bank. I brought Cruiser into the water, first, and Ranger was right behind us. Once he got into the water, he motored past in his typical manner. Success. That day, he brain was in the right spot. The previous day, his brain wasn’t working well, at all. Ellen felt since he wasn’t in a reasonable mood, there was no reasoning with him. When he was in a reasonable mood, it was easy.



We had a very nice ride—mostly walking and talking. We have crossed together several times since with no problems at all. We have our Ranger back.

Geriatric Horses Doing All Right

Well, I think there is good news for Cruiser. By Sunday, the cough lessened a lot, so I think that proves it is a case of bad allergies. I rode him yesterday in the arena, and when we first started trotting, he did a lot of coughing—and then he stopped. We worked for half an hour.




Ranger keeps improving, and Ellen said that today he didn’t seem lame at all. Our hopes are that the problem isn’t a permanent one and that it will go away in time. Right now, things are looking good for it, but I won’t get my hopes up, yet.



She has decided to buy another horse in the spring so that she won’t mind cutting Ranger’s workload back. She has one in mind, but we’ll keep you in suspense about it.



I did get to take Cole on a 2.5 hour ride this weekend. I went with Kevin and Starry. Once we got to the good trails, he told me that he didn’t know if he was going to ride at the speed I wanted to ride. He told me to just go on. We left them in the dust. 3 miles later, I turned around and walked until we met them. I had a great time. I haven’t been able to ride Cole like that since last spring. It was wonderful. We mostly trotted, but he really moved out like a Morab should. I think he had fun, too. Surprisingly, the trails out that way weren’t affected much by the storm. I could see where a lot of trees had fallen over the trail that the park had to cut up.



On Sunday, Ellen and I took Cole and Starry for a 1.5 hour ride. They were much quieter than the day before, but they still had enough energy to give us a lovely ride.



The season is winding down, fast. Hopefully, next year will be a better year for riding—and just a better year, period.

Time Catches Up with Us

Time Catches Up with Us




Ranger has had 2 hoof abscesses causing off and on lameness and Cruiser has a cough. It was time to call the vet.



I couldn’t be there because of work, but Ellen was. The results of the examinations—we have old horses. It seems like just yesterday, they were young. How did this happen?



With Ranger, it wasn’t a case of hoof abscesses not healing well. They did heal. It was just coincidence. The vet feels he may have an age-related problem like ringbone, or possibly he hurt himself, and it is taking a while to heal. She said that nerve blocks could possibly give a clearer definition, but she knows Ranger well enough to know he wouldn’t tolerate the process. Ellen agreed. Light riding is fine, and that is what she will do.



Cruiser’s cough is due to dust, which I thought originally, but when I gave him a round of steroids, and they didn’t help, I got worried it was something worse. She gave me stronger steroids to try. He also has developed a heart murmur. She said that light riding is fine.



We have two old horses. We will be doing a lot of geriatric rides and make the best of it. Honestly, we are just happy to have them. They are both high-mileage horses. Cruiser is 25, and we just celebrated his 23rd anniversary. We don’t know how old Ranger is, but Ellen is going to celebrate his 17th anniversary, soon. Every day is a blessing, and if we can still ride them, it’s all the more a blessing.