Snickers has come a long way!

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted, and there's so much to write about!  I'm going to separate this into a few posts, since they're different subjects and whatnot over what has happened.

Snickers has come a really long way in the last month and is almost like a whole new horse.  He's excited to see me when I come to get him and willing to go to work, though, of course, he still whinnies but only on occasion.  I don't think that will ever go away haha.  We've been going out on the trails quite a bit (check the miles log!), but that doesn't even come close to reflecting the miles we're ALSO covering in the arena and round pen.  His entire attitude and obedience has changed, and he seems to enjoy our down time together when we're brushing rather than being preoccupied about getting back to the pasture.

On the trails, we've been really watching our speed and I started taking his pulse, then waiting for him to come down.  I've gotten decent with the stethoscope, at least on his body (sometimes other horses take a bit to figure out).  The only trouble is that he has a hard time standing still, though we've been working on that a lot and he's doing much better.  I've gotten a little aggressive with him :( but not bad, and it seems to have gotten my point across.  Plus, when he does stand still long enough for me to get a good read on his pulse, he gets a treat.  I've started carrying apples and carrots on me, which never fail to make him happy (as Trevor recently helped me discover, he actually drops for carrots lol).

It's been raining a lot, which is why we have a lot of miles we've covered in the arena and round pen, but it's helped us get a some good discipline work done.  I've been working on his head, neck, and topline (with many questions to and suggestions from the English riders at the barn! Horse people are - generally - so nice), and the other day I set up the poles, a cavaletti, and a low jump to go over.  He had to take a look at them first, but after that he worked over all of them quite willingly.  I did raise the jump up little by little and was working on jumping a tad at the end (Trevor wasn't too happy about that when I told him....) and Lou took a look and said we were looking good - I just need to sit a little more forward in the seat.  Overall, I was really proud of him and have been in general.

Last night the paths had dried up, so we finally got to go out for a trail ride.  The trails were good, but there were still a few muddy spots and puddles so we put those to good use.  We worked on just powering right on through them without having to stop and sniff every one.  He caught on pretty quick and is trusting me more and more, so by the end we were doing pretty good, though he still wanted to dodge around the ones he could of course.  On the bigger puddles, we're pretty successful as long as we slow down to a walk just before it, which is safer anyway so he doesn't slip.  On the biggest one, he did stop and sniff it, then took a few steps and sniffed it again, then proceeded to get a good drink!  I guess he's fine with the water then haha.  It'll be interesting to see how he does with actual running water now...

I finally got all of Snicker's papers back and my registration card for AHA.  They have the Frequent Rider Program (FRP) and Distance Riders programs, and so I signed us up for both!  I need to log my hours and I'm excited to get credit for our competition miles, though I'm tempted to also sign up for the other distance program that requires a competition membership.  For the first two, you get certain prizes when you reach the milestones, but this other one sends you a plaque and then little plates for every 500 miles you complete to add to your plaque.  That's pretty cool!  But it seems pretty expensive - I'll have to check it out later.

Snickers' stall hasn't had any covering on it, and it went from 90 degrees last week to lows in the 30's this week with rain and even some snow and hail, so it's been a tough week.  Yesterday, I noticed they've got the first tarp up over the stalls where he is at, so hopefully they'll finish that up soon.  It'll be nice for him to have some shade :)

I think that's about it!  I'll have to post more often, but we'll see.  Life is just so busy!

Poor Flash waiting patiently...

Still waiting....

All decked out in our endurance gear :)

Another Update

From Horseforum.com

Just a quick update - today I turned both of my horses out into the arena as soon as I got there, greeting Snickers with treats and giving him one when I left him in the arena. I went and took care of some things, then went back to the arena calling them. Guess who came to meet me! Snickers actually beat my colt to me, which resulted in much treating haha. I walked away, and Snickers kept his attention in me and followed me, even though my colt took his time. Snickers was the first to me every time! After walking away, having him come up to me, treating, catching, and treating him again a few times, I left them alone for a while. When I came back, he came to me again! This time, I didn't treat him until after he was haltered. He backed up a few steps, but I he was trying to keep his attention on me, I think, rather than get away. I just had to move around to his side and tell him woah. He didn't walk away from me at all! After all this, we called it a day, especially because it was quite windy. While I was waiting in between sessions, a new boarder came that the owner of the property asked me to watch out for, and she moved her GORGEOUS friesian into the stall next to Snickers to stay in for the first few days before he gets turned out with the other horses. I got along with the lady quite well and we're both going out there, so we're going to turn her horse out with Snickers and Flash tomorrow morning while I practice catching and releasing Snickers. I'm excited to see how it goes with another horse tomorrow and am very happy about the bond we are forming!

Read more: http://www.horseforum.com/horse-training/cant-catch-my-horse-118092/page4/#ixzz1tRMXnznH

Update on Snickers situation:

From Horseforum.com:

Today was drizzley, so we stuck to the indoor arena, where, unfortunately, I can't turn him loose. However, it was quite productive! I pulled out all the stops with treats for rewards, coming with a bucket of grain, peppermint AND apple biscuits, and 5 lbs of carrots! Since he seems to get bored with treats after a while, I figured I'd mix it up and surprise him by pulling out different treats throughout our lesson, but I didn't use the grain at all because I don't think he really likes it all that much.

Other than personality, I think a major reason for my colt being so bonded with me is because I never caught him intending to really WORK him because I can't ride him anyway. Istead, we began immediately working on clicker training and have used that since, and I now have a super-eager treat earner. So why not start over there with Snickers? We did clicker training to get him to touch my hand - offer my hand, wait for him to come touch it, click, and treat! He caught on very quickly (of course, it helps when you start off with a treat hidden in that hand lol). We broke it up into short, quick sessions to avoid him getting bored, with brushing in between. We went from holding onto the lead rope, to letting the lead rope drag, and then letting the lunge line drag (so I could walk farther away and let him come to me), and it went very well. Then we braved the outdoors (it was only lightly raining off and on) and did it with him turned loose in the round pen, continuing to make progress. 

Finally, I turned him loose in the arena to chill, then went and got my colt and turned him out with Snickers as well to just have some buddy time. After about a half hour, I went back in armed with the halter, clicker, and more treats. Of course, Flash (my colt) came right up to me looking for treats, but Snickers was still stand-off ish. I did try to approach him, but he moved away and so I immediately went back to Flash. Snickers walked around for a few minutes, never going more than 20-30 feet way and acting like he wasn't interested, but sure enough, he eventually came and stood looking right at me about 5 feet away. I approached him, let him touch my hand, clicked, treated, and then went right back to Flash. And guess who followed me a moment or two later! This time I clicked, treated, then went around to his neck and petted him, and walked away. Flash followed me, and Snickers came behind him. When I stopped, he came all the way up and touched my hand for a treat, for which I clicked and treated of course, then moved around to his neck, petted him, then slipped the rope around his neck and haltered him, treated him again, then took the halter off. We did this routine 2-3 more times all the way back to my stuff in the arena, except now Flash was the one lagging behind Snickers! It was great having Snickers follow me without any regard to the fact that he was leaving Flash behind :) he got some extra treats - especially his favorite carrots - and we called it a day  

I'm not sure if he really gets or cares about the clicker (though he does when he puts up a fight for bridling, since that's what I initially introduced the clicker to him for), but he's definitely interested in me and coming to me! As for enjoying the down time, I know someone mentioned he may be a horse that just likes to move. In his case, the reason I didn't feel like he enjoyed the down time is because he was so concernd about where his buddies were, constantly moving around to see them and whinnying. He's been calmer about everything it seems since our back-to-back round penning and roping incidents, but I think he's at least starting to relax when I'm brushing him as we start bonding more (though he starts whinnying ans stressing out as soon as I'm out of sight like he always has, but there's less whinnying and movement when I'm there now at least)

Read more: http://www.horseforum.com/horse-training/cant-catch-my-horse-118092/page3/#ixzz1tRLQKXr7

Success!

Well, today was ENcouraging finally rather than DIScouraging! I took one of the approaches suggested on horseforum.com of just hanging out with Flash with Snickers loose in the round pen, and pretty much ignored him until he wanted to come to me. I chose to go with the round pen so he had enough room to have his own space, while at the same time not letting him get far away enough from me and Flash to forget we were there. I was brushing Flash and giving him treats, and I initially gave Snickers a treat so he knew I had them. He was decently interested and followed me once he noticed Flash following me, then figured out that if he followed me, whether or not Flash followed me, he'd get a treat. I did approach him a few times, too, when he seemed to lose interest, just to get him used to me walking up, and gave him treats and brushed him as a reward for letting me approach him.

After a while, I picked up the halter. In the week or two before our roping incident, Snickers would let me approach him, but keep me in front of him and then move away when I moved to his neck (I dealt with this by holding the food in such a way that he had to stretch his neck across in front of me, then moved in to wrap the rope around his neck, though that wasn't the greatest approach from a training perspective - obviously). As soon as I picked up the halter, he did the same thing today, not letting me get to his neck and moving away from me when he realized what I was trying to do. When this happened, I turned and walked away from him, as someone suggested on here, and went back to petting, brushing and treating Flash. Eventually, I was able to walk directly up to his side when he was standing against the fence, and he responded by looking at me and I gave him a treat as I rubbed the halter and lead rope on his neck, then brushed him for a while and gave him a few more treats, then went back to Flash (who was quite an [adorable] pest during this whole exercise, not wanting to be ignored since he knew how to earn the treats! He also figured out that they were in the bucket, and that if he knocked the bucket over he could reach them... But I managed to keep his attention enough not to let it detract from my lesson with Snickers). Eventually, he had no problem with me approaching and rubbing the halter and lead rope on him, then putting the rope around his neck, and finally haltering him, brushing him, then releasing him and starting over. He didn't really want to follow me much, though - at least not until I started using carrots instead of biscuits. Then he was VERY interested - I think I found his favorite treat! He would follow me, and then let me move around to his right side - the halter was in my right hand, so with me directly in front of him, I had to reach around with my empty left hand to rub his neck. If I move to his left side, with the halter in the hand reaching toward his neck, he moves to keep me in front of him, but he was fine with me moving to his right side, putting the rope around his neck, then moving back around to his left side to put the halter on. Awkward, yes, but successful! We can work out the details later.

After a few really good "catches", I turned them both out in the full size arena to give them a break, especially since Snickers needs turn out time from his stall. I went and did my own thing for 20-30 minutes, then went back to get them. Flash came as soon as he saw me, and Snickers followed behind. He seemed a little interested, but was still stand-off ish since I had the halter in my hand. He didn't wander too far away, though, just walking up and down the fence near where we were and occasionally looking at us. I just pet and treated Flash, attempted to approach Snickers when he stopped moving, and walked away when he walked away from me. Soon enough, I was able to walk up to Snickers, gave him a treat, and walked away. It only took a few tries before he followed me back to Flash, to which I walked up to him, haltered him, treated him, pet him, let him go, and then walked away. He followed me both times that I walked away, which I think was helped by Flash following me as well, but he also seemed to be doing it also because he wanted to follow me. The third time he followed me, I caught him, gave him a couple of extra treats, caught Flash, and called it a day.

Finally, rather than chasing Snickers away, he's letting me come up to him, catch him, and even following me sometimes - especially when I have carrots (though I ran out in the round pen, so the time he came in the arena was without them!) His overall demeanor seems timid and stand-off ish, but seems like he would like to participate if it would be a positive experience for him. I think we'll do this again tomorrow, and hopefully we just keep getting better.

Rodeo Time

It rained a lot last week so I got to go see my boys (since I got to cancel horse lessons!), but not ride on the trails as they were really muddy.  I did manage to get two trail rides in, about 4.5 miles each, but the first one was really muddy and quite nerve racking since we were slipping everywhere and the second was really choppy and a little stressful since I couldn't get Snickers into a good extended trot and to pay much attention.  On top of that, on the sloppy and slippery day, just as we were getting back, another guy was just starting down the trail towards us.  Snickers had been watching him and his little grey horse come down the road to start on the trail, but after watching them move toward us on the trail for a minute or two, he completely lost it.  He was ready to take off back down the trail again, AWAY from the barn that was right there!  And they were still a good 50 feet or so away!  Thank goodness for clip-on rope reins and his halter on underneath - with how slippery it was and how may badger holes there are, I got off and clipped the reins to his halter like a lead rope so that he could dance around me in an area I knew was safe while they passed us.  They only went a little way down the trail and then came back, so I waited and let them pass us to make sure Snickers could get his head on straight and let them walk by while still staying calm.

Speaking of spooking, Snickers also busted the new light blue rope I bought for him.  Flash and Snickers were tied up side by side, and Flash knocked down a rake.  Of course, Flash stood there like "oops" but Snickers lost it and didn't stop pulling back until the rope broke out of the metal clasp.  Since then, I got him a royal blue one that matches the rest of our stuff better, but I'm being super cautious about it, especially since our halter/bridle combo finally came in and I do NOT want to bust that halter!  Snickers also broke my phone, but that was kind of my fault.  On one of the days he was pretty tired, I decided it was as good of a day as any to try bareback - he'd been collecting VERY nicely for me, and has been quite a bit now.  Still foaming like crazy though :(.  Anyway, I left him tied and brought the stool up - BIG mistake!  He was fine for me getting on, though I was quite cautious about it.  But then he tried to move forward, found he was tied, and braced back against the post again.  I gracefully slid off, but my phone slid out of my pocket and not-so-gracefully busted the screen.  A few hours and $20 later, the phone was as good as new, but still!  I'll be more careful about that - this is at least the second phone I've lost because if fell out of my pocket on a horse.  Of course, I think Rocket stepped on the last one.

Anyway, so now for the "rodeo" part (which I am reposting from a horseforum.com post cuz I'm lazy)...

Snickers started to get less interested in being caught since I moved him out to Dusty Acres, due in part to me working him so hard every time but also I think contributed to by the fact that he's king of the herd (while Flash, ironically, is the bottom), but it was not really an issue until last Friday, when he flat out refused to let me approach him and I had to have the help of a trainer to corner him. During this event, she recognized he needed to have some serious respect and obedience training, so we went immediately to the round pen and worked with him for 2 hours until he stopped when we said "woah" - he stops immediately when I'm on him, but isn't as responsive when you're on the ground and especially when he's not "caught". Before this lesson, he was way too busy whinnying for the other horses to pay much attention. However, since this lesson, he stops VERY well in the round pen and even now if I work him free in the arena.

Unfortunately, the lesson didn't stick as the next day, he wouldn't even let us corner him and I ended up having Al rope him. It was quite an ordeal (he's very spooky) in which Snickers then proceeded to stampede (it looked like a wild horse herd!) until he finally ran himself into a corner huffing and puffing and Al grabbed the rope, and afterward Al did quite a bit of desensitization in the round pen with the lasso. He was so sweaty and exhausted after all of that, I didn't have the heart to make him work anymore. Rather than returning him to the pasture, he went to his new stall and has been there since. I've worked with him on stopping with "woah" and coming to me afterward in the round pen and even the arena now, but he really doesn't seem all that interested in me and kind of does things on his own time and how/when he feels like it. Worst of all, as soon as I introduce another horse (which I did by bringing Flash into the arena and turning him loose), all the progress we've made simply disappears. It's like he's never even heard the word "woah" before.  I've been riding him, but only 30 minute short ones that don't work him into a sweat, mostly working on collecting in the arena. My ideas are to keep doing what we're doing, as well as trying to turn him out in the arena with other horses and catch-treat-release over and over. If that goes well, I think I'll turn him loose in the pasture with a lunge line attached (yes, the 30 feet of line really is necessary in this case) and do the same thing. Hopefully, since I truly think I am part of the issue here, I can teach him to want to be with me. But right now, I just feel so discouraged!!


From this post, I've gotten a few good replies and more encouragement, so I'm going to stick with it.  It was pretty tempting on Saturday, after our "rodeo" to just sell him and go buy the mare at Belesemo Arabians, but after all the advice I've gotten and talking to them about the conditions with the mare, I think it's best to just work through this.  Thank goodness Trevor was taking me out to dinner that night (finally we got to go to Texas Roadhouse), and he really supports me and thinks this will just make me (and Snickers!) all that much better to have worked through this issue.  Snickers has been quite a bit more sensible since the whole ordeal, including letting me put the bridle on without issues, but I really just want to be able to catch him, but I also feel like I'm missing out on that wonderful bond that Arabians are supposed to have (and the bond Flash has with me!).  Hopefully this will improve soon.  I guess it's  just going to take time and work.

I'm still planning on volunteering at the Tough Sucker II, btw, and am hoping that the Owyhee Fandango will be our first race.  I was tempted to try and make it to the Tough Sucker, but especially with this setback, I'm not going to worry about it at all.  Plus, I really do need to volunteer first and get my bearings a little more.  Snickers has unfortunately dropped a lot of weight after all this too :(  Oh well, that gives us about 2 months to get where we need to be.  I sent an email to see if anyone will be able to drive us there....

I also talked to Doc Washington yesterday about Snickers's fitness and I got a lot more awesome advice than I was asking for!  We also talked about our current issue with the catching, and he said it sounded like I really recognized what we needed to work on before we move into more endurance.  Here are some of the key points from our conversation about endurance, though:

• I need to condition faster than I plan to ride
• We need to be getting above that 20 mile mark each week, but not go over 30 miles
• For an Arabian or half-Arabian, any conditioning will have them ready for a 25-miler,
• Especially for the first year of endurance conditioning, you need to take care not to get your horse sour (like I'm running into) - take some easy rides and put a lot of emphasis on bonding and enjoying each other as well
• As a personal preference, we should be loping rather than extending our trot (good news for me!) if we're working at 13mph speeds.  He was saying something about it being less taxing on their joints and whatnot.
• I had originally called about whether I should have him do a once-over before I race him since I never had a PPE, but he said that'd be overkill since I know that horse's background and he's never really DONE anything, so there's no reason he should have issues since he's been good so far
• As for a stethoscope, I should look for something in the $15-$25 range - between $25 and $100 there's not a whole lot of difference and the $100+ would be overkill for me

Anyway, so that's about it.  I have more videos, so I'll see if I can get some of the highlights uploaded.  Hopefully, things improve with Snickers :(  I feel so bad with him in a stall all alone!  Not to mention that the reason he's in there is because he wants nothing to do with me.  *sigh*

Here's a few videos related to this post:

Snickers after Al's rodeo, which involved roping Snickers to catch him and then desensitization in the round pen.



This is what we're currently working on with Snickers and demonstrates pretty well his behavior: