I don't have a lot there to begin with, I don't need to be flattened any more. I guess I shouldn't complain. I was actually scheduled to have this done last Wednesday, but I had to postpone it due to the stomach flu. Can you imagine being cranked into that thing and then being over come by nausea? Ughh.
You would think, with all of the technology out there today, that someone would have figured out a way to take a mammogram without squashing you into a pancake. But no, the tech I saw today told me that in her 25 years of experience, the only thing that has changed is that they've gone digital.
I don't have a lot there to begin with, I don't need to be flattened any more. I guess I shouldn't complain. I was actually scheduled to have this done last Wednesday, but I had to postpone it due to the stomach flu. Can you imagine being cranked into that thing and then being over come by nausea? Ughh.
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We must have had at least a foot of snow the last two days. Kid 3's school bus got rear ended before she got on and got stuck in a snow bank after she was picked up.
I had to comb the icicles out of Ranger's coat before I could put the saddle on. On the plus side, the temperatures are bearable--no single digits or negative numbers! I was actually able to drag myself out of bed and spend 30 minutes exercising this morning. The conversation at the breakfast table went something like this: Me (smiling): I feel much better today! Stable Boy: That's good. You made a dead person look happy the last few weeks. Niiice, huh. Unfortunately, that's probably true! It started with a few painful days of the body-aching flu that morphed into a nasty, energy-draining cough and culminated this week with a bout of the stomach flu (spending the night on the bathroom floor is NOT PLEASANT!) The only thing I've managed to accomplish recently is play with Ranger and lay around the house. It was kind of a downward spiral. I had no energy, so nothing got done. Things piled up and very quickly became overwhelming in my exhausted state. Sound familiar to anyone? I still haven't fully shaken the cough, but at least it doesn't keep me up all night anymore. With the temperature being 33 deg. this morning (35-45 deg. higher than recent morning highs), I was tempted to go outside to jog, but I thought I should give my lungs a few more days to recover. Those of you in the Rexburg area may be wondering how I would stay on my feet jogging outside right now--it's pretty icy out there. Here is my secret weapon. Yaktrax. Slip them on over your shoe and you instantly go from slip and slide to secure footing. They're grrrrreat! Ranger UpdateI reintroduced the saddle and bridle to Ranger yesterday. I had backed off on that because I really felt like he needed more emphasis on learning to give to pressure instead of trying to escape or brace against it. That has been the focus of everything I've done with him over the last week+. He still needs work on that, but he is doing much better. I ground drove him again yesterday and there was a significant improvement in his being willing to soften to the bit and respond to changes in direction.
We played tourist in Jackson last fall with my parents. Stable Boy really liked the D.A.D.D. t-shirt pictured above, so my mom bought it for him. D.A.D.D., of course, stands for Dads Against Daughters Dating. This gives you a hint into Stable Boy's mind frame about his girls growing up. Stable Boy took all of the kids swimming at BYU-I yesterday and left me home alone. I went out to play with Ranger and ate pizza while watching most of Knight and Day all by myself--funny movie!. As they were leaving, a guy came up to Kid 1 and gave her a hug. Kid 2 (laughing): You should have seen the look on Dad's face! Everyone assumed it was a friend of Kid 1's until the guy admitted that he hugged her as part of a scavenger hunt and asked if he could take a picture. The guy was lucky Stable Boy was a little slow on the uptake last night; he was still keeping himself under control from "allowing" the hug to occur in the first place-when he thought the guy was a friend. I'm not sure what he would have done if he'd known immediately that some stranger had his hands on Stable Boy's little girl! On the other hand, I don't know if the guy realized how old Kid 1 really is. Kid 1 may look like she could be a college student, but she just turned Sweet Sixteen this month. I wonder if he would have chosen her as his "victim" had he realized she was still jail bait! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lexi as a puppy. I think the dog just broke my big toe. Lexi loves to fetch tennis balls. Actually, love is not a strong enough word. Lexi is psychotic about tennis balls. She would gladly spend all day chasing them. I was kicking the ball for her across the family room a few minutes ago. I went to give it a little harder kick than normal right as Lexi dove forward to grab it. My foot connected with the back part of her lower jaw bone. She did not care. She just kept chasing the ball. Me, on the other hand? I was hopping around on one foot, gasping in pain and trying not to cuss in front of the kids. Lexi just kept nosing the ball toward me and wagging her tail. I think her new name will be Iron Jaw. I haven't posted anything but Ranger training stuff lately. Between having the flu and a lingering cough and everything else that's been going on, that's all I could keep up with!
2013 is starting off to be the year of contributing to all of the local medical people's kid's college funds. Kid 3 was complaining of back pain. The physical therapist diagnosed a tipped pelvis (likely from some unknown fall--maybe when she jumps off the haystack into the sand in the barn?) causing one leg to be longer than the other. A couple of adjustments and she seems as good as new. Kid 1 has had chronic stomach pains for some time. The treatments and medications from her regular doctor have not helped much, so we went to a specialist, who will be sticking a camera down her throat tomorrow afternoon to see what's happening. They want her stomach inflamed for the procedure, so she spent the weekend on the sofa moaning and groaning in pain, since we can't give her anything to try to settle her tummy. Shout out a thanks to her friend A., who came over Saturday with a bag full of DVDs to help distract her, as well as makings for a smoothie. For some reason, Kid 1 really hasn't wanted to eat anything all weekend. Stable Boy has been having intense, migraine type headaches for over a year now. He's been blowing it off as a pinched nerve in his neck, but last week his neck froze up and he finally condescended to get a MRI. The report came back showing several bulging discs. We are still waiting to find out what comes next. Sigh. To try to end on a positive note, here's a quick update on Ranger-he showed a lot of improvement today in not charging ahead when practicing walking leading along the fence. Hopefully we can do a jog tomorrow; he wasn't quite ready today. Ranger and I spent the last few days working on him softening to pressure and learning that it is ok to lead beside me. This has been the most difficult thing for him to grasp, but he finally started to "get it".
Because of the weather, I have spent a lot of time in the barn with Ranger. I was able to teach him a bunch of things in the barn, but it was time to get outside. The afternoon weather this week was not bad, so we did more out in the pasture. Without the confines of the barn to contain him while being lunged, I found Ranger preferred to go sideways, dragging me around the pasture, rather than going forward on cue. I backtracked in his training a little and did a lot of yo-yo, sending and squeeze game, etc., anything to help him grasp the concept of softening to pressure rather than bracing or fighting against it. I also spent time addressing his inability to lead next to me or to be "driven" from the side. He is pretty comfortable following along behind; I believe he has been ponied in the past. If I tried to get him to lead next to me, though, he would either try to duck behind me or he would charge forward into a lunge and/or try to drag me along. He hasn't gotten away from me, but I don't dare train him outside of a fenced pasture until I get this fixed. It took him three days to start to relax about circle driving, especially circling to the left. There are some things I've taught him where he got it really quickly. This was not one of them. He was just not comfortable having me walk 4 feet from his shoulder while he circled me. This is important to take care of now because the act of riding a horse is really like you are "driving" him from his middle. If I am able to "drive" him from his middle while on the ground, he will feel more confident and (hopefully) better understand when I "drive" him while in the saddle. I also need him to lead beside me so we can work on ground transitions (stop, walk, trot, back) in preparation for under saddle work. It's difficult to do that if he freaks every time I ask him to walk next to me. He is doing so much better, but I think this will be something I will have to continue working on a little bit each day. Sorry for the delay, but better late than never! Below is a listing of the ground work exercises I utilize. I'm not going to go into an explanation of all of them in this post, so if there are questions about what a particular exercise is, please contact me. Many of them will be explained in future training posts or can be seen on video clips. All of the exercises are designed to develop a calm, thinking, responsive mount. I do these exercises with all of the horses that come to me for starting. Horses that come to me for a tune-up will learn many of them. How much time I spend on each exercise or how quickly I go through the list depends on the horse. If a horse seems comfortable with an exercise, I check it off and move on. No sense drilling something they already know! For instance, Ranger is fairly comfortable having his feet handled, so I haven't had to spend too much time on that. I could move on to the next thing. On the flip side, Ranger is always wanting to invade my space, so I'm constantly reinforcing to him to be respectful and stay out of my "circle" unless I invite him in. For convenience, I listed all Desensitizing and Sensitizing Exercises separately. In practice, I usually alternate a sensitizing exercise with a desensitizing one. I don't have a hard and set rule about the order I follow either. Again, it depends on the horse. Training a horse takes time and patience, followed by consistent maintenance. There are gadgets out there that appear to help a horse overcome a problem, but I've found those gadgets usually mask the problem without overcoming the underlying cause. I would rather take the time to train a horse correctly from the start, than end up with more problems latter on. Did I mention that horse training takes a time and patience?
Weatherbug is currently reporting -3 deg. F with a -12 deg. wind chill. I'm typing this to warm up my fingertips after going out to play with Ranger just now. I think I'm starting to get feeling back in my toes. I knew I should have broken out the little hand warmer thingees!
Tried out a new halter today. It was too cold to take photos today, but below is a model I found on the web. Alberto Sierra is a paso fino trainer who designed this halter. It's supposed to help horses collect and gait better. A friend of mine tried the halters on his horses and loved them so much that he brought one over for me to try. I tend to be suspicious of gimmicks and gadgets that claim to cure all problems. I find that often times they just cover up the underlying issue, which is usually that the horse needs more time and training. However, I do try to keep an open mind to new things and this seemed worth trying out. It did seem to help Ranger hold his head and neck in a more collected and tucked position, but I'm not sure that it changed his gait much in the brief time he wore it today. He was still kind of trotty. I was told the more you use the halter, the better the horse gaits. That may be true. Ranger was a pistol today after being out to pasture the last two days. It's hard for horses to gait when they are wired or tense. I'll have to experiment a little more and see how he performs in the halter when he's a little more relaxed and my fingers are a little less numb. EDIT: The fiery-eyed steed pictured below is NOT Ranger. There was some confusion about that. I was unwilling to brave the cold again to take my own picture. This photo was the first one that came up on a Google Image search for the Sierra Halter. The similar coloring of the two horses is just coincidence. One of the training methods I like to use is known as the Jefferies (or Jeffery) Method. Most people say, "What is that?" To which I respond, "It's a great way to help your horse relax and get comfortable with someone climbing on his back." As I understand it, the Jefferies Method was pioneered in Australia by a non-horseman who was able to tame and ride an "un-tamable" horse using this technique. I start by getting the horse comfortable with me jumping up and down on the ground a safe distance away from him. If the horse moves, I usually allow it it, but I keep hopping up and down until his feet are still. Then I stop and rub him all over. If he stands still while I jump, I'll usually jump for 15-20 times and then stop to release the pressure and reward him for standing. If he shows one of the 5 main signs of relaxing (licking or chewing, lowering his head, blinking, letting out a breath, or cocking his hip) when I'm hopping up and down, I will stop jumping immediately. I gradually get closer to the horse, until I am able to jump up and down right next to him. The next step is to jump up and down while resting my hands on his back. Then I start letting him feel some of my weight. The whole time I'm rubbing him all over, even back over his rump and down the back of his legs. Before I'm done, I want to be able to slide myself back off his rear and I don't want a close up of his hind feet in my face when I do. If he moves away, I will slide off and say "Whoa", while pull him around firmly to face up to me. Then I go back to what I was doing like nothing happened. In this video, there were a couple times when Ranger took a step or two and I let it pass, because I felt like he was shifting his feet to help himself be more balanced. It was similar to if I were carrying someone on my back and needed to take a step to better balance myself. Once the horse stands comfortably with me lying perpendicular on his back, I then start to swing my legs up so that I'm lying parallel . I like to let my legs swing along his side sometimes, or will sometimes rub one leg on his hindquarters as I'm lying parallel. Each time I drop down off his back, I try to do it a little closer toward the hindquarters, but still from off of the side. Finally, I take a leap of faith, and scooch my way all the way along his back until I slide straight off his rear end. The rubbing is very relaxing to the horse (think of getting a massage!). In this video, you'll see I used a step stool to facilitate climbing on Ranger's back. Most of the time I don't use a stool, but it depends on the size of the horse. Ranger is about 15 hands 3 inches. I've been under the weather this week, so I decided to take it easy on myself. It was probably also nicer for Ranger because I wasn't repeatedly slamming into him trying to hop up on him! Below is a clip of Ranger being saddled and bridled for the second time. I noticed yesterday he seemed a little nervous about the sound of the girth buckle jingling when I took off the saddle, so I took a moment today to desensitize him to the sound of the saddle before swinging it up on his back. Safety note: Normally when doing these exercises, I prefer to be in the center of the arena or round pen. It gives the horse room to move and is safer for me. In this case, I was pretty close to the wall to try to make sure I was in view of my un-manned camera. I've done a lot of desensitizing with Ranger already. If I hadn't been pretty confident of Ranger staying calm through this, though, I wouldn't have been so close to the wall, camera or no camera. There was a window of time this morning when the winter weather was perfect for training a horse. Do you think I was able to take advantage of it? No, of course not! I had to wait until the wind was blowing like crazy! I wasn't procrastinating. Honest! Ranger's owner lives about 2 hours away. She had requested video of his progress. Ranger's been here about a week now, so I thought it would be a good day to attempt to get some video. I went to get the camera. Both SDHC cards were maxed out. Since my videographers were all at school or work, I knew I would be setting the camera up on the ledge, turning it on, and crossing my fingers for some good cuts. I would need a lot of card memory. I wasted the next two hours reviewing, uploading, and deleting nearly a year's worth of footage of kids and horses. By the time I finished, the storm front was tearing through. I took a second to confirm through Google that I should have at least an hour of video memory on my now empty card and headed out the door with new batteries in my camera. The batteries lasted 17 stinking minutes. All I got were warm up exercises and a review of a few things I already taught. And even those weren't all that great. The wind was gusting 39 mph and snapping the plastic over the south door, so Ranger was a little more jumpy than I would have liked. I was bummed. We never got to the really good stuff. I put the bit and saddle on Ranger today and didn't even get footage of it! He did pretty well with the saddle. He crow hopped a couple times when he first loped, but then he went over and started munching on hay. Other than turning to bite at the saddle a few times, he seemed pretty mellow about having it on. Oh well, here's a photo. The first time I put a saddle or bridle on a horse, I typically work the horse for a while and then turn him loose in a safe area. The saddle and bridle are left on for most of the rest of the day so that the horse has plenty of time to get accustomed to them. T., here's some video footage of Ranger. I edited out most of the repetitions, blank shots and garbage. The resulting video is down to about six and a half minutes. I will post a list of all the exercises I've taught him thus far. Hopefully I can get that up tomorrow. Enjoy! |
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