Monday Not as Planned

Well Monday was not as planned. The heat index was over 105 degrees and I'm not fighting with Bogey and trying to bring him back in that heat, so he got another day off. On Sunday I did take him out and hand walk him and lunge him a little and I saw some improvement so hopefully it is noticeable and not just me being "Bogey blind".

Today we are going to start riding again, there were thunderstorms this morning and more planned for the evening so hopefully it will cool off a little and I can get out and ride.

At this mornings feeding Bogey did have a little fill in his legs, which I'm thinking might be due to the humidity and weather so I'll walk him out this afternoon and see if it goes away.

That's all on the Bogey front, hopefully riding time today, but I'm not going to push it if the fill does not go away.

Hocks Are A Go!

Bogey got his hocks done this morning. Dr. Kittleson said that his right hind was very dry and it needed it badly. The left wasn't as dry but she said there might be arthritis starting in the fetlock joint so he's not on a joint supplement as well.

All in all, it wasn't too expensive, only $90 for both of the hocks done. I also had her do shots and float his teeth. He has the softest teeth around, hooks and sharp edges every year to file down. He was fairly well behaved, balked a little at going into the examining room but after that is was fine. She didn't even sedate him for the injections, he just stood there like a champ.

He'll get the rest of today, Saturday and Sunday off to rest and I'll slowly start him back up on Monday.

I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched, but he looked like he was moving better already - just walking back to the barn! I'm excited to see how great he'll move after this!

Skys the Limit

Tonight I had another video consultation session with Jamie Novak. We only did a half session because we both could see from the video that Bogey was hurting and decided we are taking a short break until his hocks are done on Friday.

Well for some background information on the video. My sister and I shot the video on Sunday late afternoon, it was hot out and Bogey was hurting. I didn't realize/acknowledge the fact until half way through the ride. On Saturday, I took Bogey over to a friend's house to ride and she just had new sand put into her arena, needless to say it was deep and not good for Bogey's already sore hocks.

The ride on Sunday was filled with refusals to go forward, me nit-picking and picking fights, and Bogey not doing his best. For the video it catches a segment in the middle that doesn't look so bad.



Jamie wanted me to go even further and do more of what we are doing, the serpentine and donut shapes at an increased level of headset. She explained what she'd like to see in a super low dressage headset to have him learn to break at his shoulder point and not 12 inches from his poll which he is doing now. This will help him create lift from the shoulders and the rock back.

For me she wanted me to roll my shoulders back and open my rib cage. This has been a problem of mine for years and since I've always ridden young green horses I hunch over just waiting for something to happen - not good. So we'll have to work on that one!

I asked her about his talent level and what caliber horse he is. Now mind you this is the horse I bought off of videos and spent pennies on. She said he was most definitely an amateur breed show level horse and if she got her hands on him for a while she's thinking and open caliber horse! Isn't that exciting! She said he has a lot of talent and she loves his look and his movement. Now I asked her if she was just saying that and she wasn't, she was being totally honest! I think that is amazing - so the sky's the limit where Bogey and I are concerned!

Video Training

For a Christmas present my mother bought a video consultation training series from a trainer I admire, Jamie Novak from Brainerd Minnesota. We have just now gotten started on the consultation series and are doing our second session tomorrow. I will be posting what she says and my videos here to remind myself as well as see what you all think.

For our first session she asked to see him walk, jog and lope both directions and just do a normal training session on him. Here's the video.



Jamie stated that I have wonderful hands and seat. What do you think? Bogey takes a lot of leg to ride so sometimes you can see my legs doing strange things.

On the Bogey front, she feels that he is in need of hock injections. She felt he looked sore and his mouth gaping/refusals were a direct link to the soreness. This makes complete sense, he was campaigned as a lunge liner and futurity horse, so it seems he is just asking for the injections.

She liked his "throughness" and how bridled up he was. She thought he had hollowness issues and his back needed to be lifted as well as taking the neck line down lower.

Jamie doesn't like forehand turns at all, and feels that they are only good for a horsemanship pattern. She stated that they push a horse down onto their forehand too much. I was doing the forehand turns to have him gain awareness of his hindquarters (they are so far away from his brain) and reach. I like to be able to have my horse be very handy and be able to do it all. I'm going to lay off the turns but still keep them in my back pocket, just because I'd like my horse to have the knowledge and abilities.

Some suggestions on tack Jamie gave were to use draw reins on him and a medium twist bit. For the exercises she wanted us to do serpentines, donut shapes and piaffes like movements as well as using walking pivots and some stop pivots.

Well what do you think? What should we work on? Any recommendations, tips or tricks?

Summer

Well I've been home for college for two and a half months and this past summer so far has been nothing like I'd expect.

The weather's been crazy - rain, rain and more rain. And when you have no access to an indoor arena and simply a grass pasture to ride in - well you get what I'm saying. It just doesn't happen.

After the weather dried up a little, my brother got sick with E. Coli - so then I'm stuck staying at home babysitting my sisters and not able to ride once again.

Now we've just started riding again and the goals for the summer have completely changed. I was planning on hitting the local shows, but now I'm just planning on conditioning, training and working with my horse.

Hopefully now things will slow down and I'll be able to ride my horse!

Exams & Finals

Almost done with school for the year! I'm very excited. Just a few more exams and finals left and then it's home with Bogey. This weekend I am going home as he's getting his shoes on. I'm definitely planning some quality time with him, I haven't been home to see him in 5 weeks now. I'm hoping to take pictures of his feet/shoe job and see what you guys think.

Prayers please for my final exams, I've been catching up and working ahead on a lot of projects so hopefully my hard work will pay off.

MN Horse Expo

Sorry for the picture quality - it was off my cell phone.

Last weekend I attended the MN Horse Expo. I could only go on Saturday so I did not get to see the full clinic schedules but the bits I did see were great. On Saturday night I also went to the rodeo - it was awesome!

A friend of ours is in a wheel-chair so we all sat in the handicapped section with him. This section was the first row, in front of where the bucking chutes opened up and the return gate was directly in front of us. It was so much fun to watch. We were so close that we actually had fur fly up at us and some of the arena dirt.

The bucking stock were great too, quite a few of them had been to the World Finals Rodeo and most had some kind of record. All of the bulls bucked off the cowboys before the 8 seconds were up. Not one cowboy had an 8 second ride. It was amazing the quality of the stock.

The place was packed and the crowd roared. It was so awesome to watch a great rodeo!

I'll post more about the clinics, I mostly watched Lynn Palm and talked with her a little after wards about some of her theories on straightness. Also, she said some interesting things about Clinton Anderson's one-rein-stop, none of them in support.

All I ever need to know... I learned from YouTube.

Oh that old adage, "all I ever need to know I learned from kindergarten". Well kindergarten, you have been replaced - welcome YouTube.

YouTube is a culmination of videos from all around the world. Are all of them beneficial? Maybe not, but can you learn something? Probably. Sometimes all that you learn is what not to do, but that's something. I adore YouTube for the simple reason as it helps in my never ending quest for equine knowledge. Right on my computer screen I can see the world champion trainers giving me lessons - for free! Yep, you heard it right, all free. Now, no they do not address me by name, and sure maybe they are trying to sell something, whether a product or a horse. But, each time I click that little red triangle to hit play, I learn something.

Case in point: I just subscribed to a very famous pleasure horse trainer's channel recently. On his channel he shows the beginning stages, 30, 60, 75 day marks of two of his two year olds he's preparing for futurities. With these short videos, upon close examination, one can learn what a two year old should be doing in the timeframe, as well as training tips, tricks, or hints. Now, mind you, this is no replacement for getting out and actually riding your horse and practicing on your own - but it sure is great for a college student stuck in the middle of the city.

I currently subscribe to around 75 YouTube channels - maybe I should go study now instead....

Not much going on here - I'm going to be uploading some old videos of Bogey soon, as well as patterns, show check-lists, and more! I just have to get through my Human Anatomy exam and do some serious studying. The picture above is from the same series of 4H show photos. Wish me luck and send prayers for my exams this week.

Western Pleasure Photo

Sorry for the lack of posts - life has been busy. I had two exams this week that had to take priority. In the meantime I asked my sister to put the pictures of my last 4H show on Photobucket. There will most likely be a multitude of pictures from that event on here in the future.

While looking through the pictures I came across this one. It had me very happily surprised. In it you can see Bogey's naturally sour look. I don't think we can ever get rid of that - but we'll try. As well as the sour look, you can see him lifting and collection. Take a glance at his nice round frame of his neck and the elevated shoulders. Also, you can see the drive from his back hock. Now, mind you, Bogey has a very long back so this is doing pretty darn good.


My equitation on the other hand, is better, but not where I would like it. I'm not hunching as badly and am only looking down with my eyes. Feel free to critique the picture - I'd love to find other areas where Bogey and I can improve.

Tightening Up a Gait

Please excuse my "hunch". I will definitely be working on my EQ this summer, that's for sure!

When I was going through the images of Bogey and I at the 4H show in July, I was noticing that he drags his hocks out behind him in both the walk and the jog. I haven't been able to find a lope picture yet, but I'll look into that.

Goal for the summer is tightening up his gaits and getting him underneath himself.

There was an article in Horse & Rider I believe on this very subject a couple months ago. I'll have to look for it and let you all know what I find.

If anyone has any exercises, or suggestions on this very topic, I'm all ears! I would love to have more things to do with Bogey this summer.

Revisiting Ideas/Posts

Please ignore the helmet - they are 4H mandatory.

I was looking back over some of my posts for summer goals and the post about the trailer issues made me smile. In that post I stated that the only goal for the summer was to get him into the trailer, haul around to shows/places/anywhere that would take us, and do some showmanship at the local shows.

We not only succeeded in all three of those goals, but we excelled in others. I was simply wanted to bond with my horse and get both of our feet wet. Bogey and I did that and then some!

To the shows we went, not bringing home any ribbons or placings, but looking good and having fun. We participated in not only Showmanship but also Western Pleasure and Horsemanship. We successfully participated in our local 4H show and was the first runner up to go on to the state fair. This was a marvelous feat since we had only competed in 3 of the 6 qualifying classes! We beat out quite a few participants that did all 6!

Bogey was awesome - I'm going to have to go through some of the memorable shows, but I just wanted to throw a little cheer out for my big guy. We definitely were "over par"!

Industry: Expectations, Disapointments, Redemption?

The horse industry has its many good points, but it also has its flaws. One flaw that is especially seen in the Western Pleasure horse industry, in regards to futurity horses, is the problem of taking short-cuts. This issue was clearly seen in the abuse of the Quarter Horse Slow Lopin Scotch, under the care of Cleve Wells Quarter Horses. I am not here to lay the finger of blame or make any aqusations. A quick Google search will lend a myriad of information regarding the case as well as the inserted link. I'll let you make your own decisions.

Why I mention this is that my own opinions of Cleve Wells was definitely marred by the case. I had no desire to condone him and was supportive of the America Quarter Horse's one year ban ruling.

On March 6, 2010 I attended an online Pleasure Horse clinic put on by horsetrainingchannel.com. I was questioning attending because Cleve Wells was a primary clinician, but I chose to attend because I wanted to hear and learn from the other two clinicians Rusty Green and Shane Dowdy.

After watching and reviewing the clinic multiple times, I have to say that Cleve Wells did not win all of his world championships for nothing and I saw no abusive practices what-so-ever, from which I was pleasantly surprised. Shane Dowdy, on the other hand, was actually harder on his horse and pushed the limits than the other clinicians and some of the techniques he implemented I would not use on my horse.

What I am getting at is that we all do not know the whole story, we never will, and I feel that we should take each person with a grain of salt. I do not support or condone the harm that was implemented on Slow Lopin Scotch, but I feel there may be a time for redemption possibly in the future, and forgiveness. I learned quite a bit from the clinic and was extremely glad I participated. And really, you can learn something from everyone, including the village idiot - even if it's what not to do.

Trailering & Bogey

Above is a picture of Bogey's sire, Tee Totalin Fred.

Double J Quarter Horses

I forgot that I have not finished up the posts on Bogey's old trailering issues. That's right I said OLD! :D

Bogey had issues going into the trailer when I first bought him. The trainer that hauled him from Indiana to Minnesota said that she had to bribe him with grain to get him into her 4 horse goose-neck slant load trailer. When I went to the trainers house twenty minutes away - he would not load into our former 2 horse straight load trailer. Mind you, this trailer was not your average 2 horse. It was a very tall trailer, white and very roomy.

We tried lunging him around, pulling him, pushing him and bribing him. He would not go. Since it was December and very cold and slightly icy and I did not want a hurt horse, we quit for the day and the trainer said she would haul him over in her slant load goose-neck. He went in, with bribery.

I do not like using bribery, and expect my horses to load easily and practically by themselves. Point and shoot. This was something we would definitely have to work on. Bogey was then at the boarding stable for the winter and we did not address this issue of loading until spring time, when I took him to my house. When I would try to load Bogey, it would become a battle with him and he would back quickly away and lunge the rope out of my hands - he was flat out scared to go into the trailer at first, but then it became a respect issue and a stubborn issue. Bogey is extremely stubborn and if he does not want to do it - he won't without making a fuss. This has been interesting to deal with to say the least, but with his stubbornness comes the added bonus of when he gets something, he's stubborn about retaining his knowledge, he'll remember it. But the trailering issue was almost becoming dangerous, he would rear and pull back - not cool and not fun to deal with, when you just bought a new horse and don't even know what to think of him.

We also bought a new trailer, it was time for an upgrade anyways, a 3 horse slant that can be converted to a stock trailer and used that instead. A dear friend of my came over and helped me load him. She is wonderful with horses and can break things down for them to grasp. Also, she does a lot of Clinton Anderson techniques, and whatever one says or feels about Clinton - he sure can get a horse loaded in a trailer. I do like his methods and they are a common sense approach.

Stacy, my friend, lunged him near the trailer and circled and made him work away from the trailer but then let him rest near the trailer. The rest became closer and closer and finally he was in the trailer. Bogey now can load, no more issues. All summer we were loading and traveling to all sorts of places. All I would do is point him at the trailer and throw the lead over his back - it was that simple. The problem that I had was getting over that initial fight.

Mind you, I did have to repeat Stacy's methods and do the lunging for myself and would have to refresh it ever now and then, but it never became the problem that it was previously. Many thanks to Stacy, for getting that initial stubbornness out.

Long Time No Post

Wow - it has been such a long time since I've posted here. I need to finish up all of my loose ends and start writing.

School is good, very busy, but good. I'm not a fan of organic chemistry, but you'll have that. I love my professors though, they are great!

Onto Bogey news: Bogey had a break all winter long hanging out at my house with my pony Nancy. Hopefully he'll be mentally refreshed for the next season - I have lots of plans! A great friend of mine is building an indoor so we'll be over there a lot, and I have some awesome friends to ride with and motivate each other.

When I'm home next I'll put the images from my shows last summer onto Photobucket and get them onto here, and see what I can write about them, it might be a little too late to remember everything!

Also, this winter I've been watching a lot of training DVD's and quite a few youtube videos and trying to learn so I may have some reviews to put up. I also have some plans for this summer involving Showmanship, one of my favorite clases, and blogger.

Do not fear, I am addicted to blogger and do read everyone's blogs faithfully - I just can't seem to update my own.

The photo above is an old one of Bogey, I believe it was one of the images the old owner sent me when I was looking to buy him.