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.