Ground Driving Part Trois

Or part three in case you aren't up on your french, lol. (believe me I am not, had to google that one!)

So first off, Tuff hasn't been ground drove since March of this year, and if you all remember (post here: A Tough Tuff Day) it didn't go as well as I would have liked! Although in his defense, it was only his second time.

So Saturday morning I drug my surcingle and lines out to the pasture with me. I had a little bit before we had to go get hay and wanted to get out there and work with him. (D-day is tomorrow!! Farrier part trois as well)

He did SO good. I was very proud. First of all I lunged him around a bit, just to make sure he was listening and acknowledging who was in charge, and that would be moi. Gosh, what is it with the french words today?? So sorry. By then the little BIL had showed up on his four-wheeler. I was thinking, oh good! Then if I need help for any reason I have an extra set of hands. I thought about having him stand at Tuffs head to begin with and then gradually go off, but I have never done that with him, and he's always been pretty good. I also didn't want Tuff watching/listening to the BIL and not me...sooo, I just had him stand close in case I needed him. And then I asked him to video for me, thats why its on the ground at first, and then up, lol.

Turns out I didn't need him! That little grey fuzzy butt went out there and waltzed around like he had done it thirty times instead of three.

Of course he wasn't perfect. We still need to work on:

• Stopping on cue better
• Backing up better
• Not moving forward after backing
• Turns could be better
• A little 'pluggy'
  

Now for things he did good!

• Walking off on cue, very well!
• Yielding to the halter fairly well most times
• 'Parking' nicely most times
• Staying steady, not speeding up
• Staying calm and unconcerned
• I saw him licking and chewing a few times, very good!
• Totally unconcerned with the surcingle, only his second time in it!
  
• Also very unconcerned about the long lines

So all in all a very good lesson. I have never tried backing him on the lines before, so that was a first. He did pretty good! Except for always wanting to step forward again right afterward. I'm not sure what that was about! You'll see it in the video. Next time we might try a bit of trotting! We'll see!

I worked him in the halter that day mostly because I forgot my bitless bridle. He had no problem in it. The first few turns were a little sticky but after that he went pretty well! I'm halfway thinking of measuring his mouth and getting him a full-cheek. See what he thinks. He still has such a small mouth though, that it will have to replaced sooner or later when he gets bigger...

So we practiced the farrier routine a few times after that. He did pull away from the BIL once -_- I just told him to quickly pick it up again and he tried a few more times but didn't get away and he quit. I wanted the BIL to do it because he is bigger, more like what the farrier will be, and I knew it would be harder for him to keep his balance. Thats why he pulls away, he thinks he is falling and has to get his balance. So after that he was good, and did well when I did the rounds.

I'm gonna try to get out there again today one last time before tomorrow. Not sure if I'll make it, depends on what is going on. It is my birthday today, so not sure what they might have planned. :)

Backing...

I will try to get the video uploaded tomorrow and posted. Its LONG, I think I need to go through and cut it again, lol.

Have a great week everyone!

A Tough Tuff Day

Tuff says, "Who me? Whatd I do??"

So I know its been awhile since I've blogged last! Its been raining nearly every day the past few weeks. SO ANNOYING! Finally got a clear day that I had nothing else to do on, so I went out to brush Tuff and work with him a bit. I knew he'd be a hairy shedding beast because I haven't brushed him since they started shedding.

I was right! I got all my gear together and tied him to the hitching post and got to work. The little BIL came out and he got on one side with a curry comb and I got on the other and away we went for about 10-15 mins straight, and still was getting a lot off! But we did get most of it...for now, lol. I can't wait till he's all slicked out. I think hes going to be just as white as he was last summer if not whiter. (thats a weird looking word...)

So he was okay for most of that, more fidgety then I'd like, and wanting to get into everything. He has gotten a little annoying with his feet too, well mostly just fronts, but he's always had a hard time balancing himself. He was pretty good though.

So I had brought out the surcingle because I was wanting to ground drive him for the second time. As I was putting his pad and that on, and then his bitless bridle, I was thinking, maybe I should be getting him hooked up to the lunge line instead and letting him get some of this energy out. Because I could tell he just was in one of those fidgety "I'm not listening!!!" moods. But I decided to just see how things went first.

So I walked him around a bit just to make sure the surcingle wasn't going to bother him, then back to the post. Hooked up his lines and then drove him back up the slight hill over towards the main part of the yard (where I was driving him in the video I have of it) and he was going at a pretty good clip. Which meant our stops were very slow in coming (like last time). But the thing that most annoyed me was he wouldn't be STILL. I'd ask him to woah, he would woah and IMMEDIATELY take off walking again. We did this dozens of times. I was getting so frustrated. I thought eventually, hes going to get that I want him to wait on my cue. He's gonna get it!! But finally I just took the lines off, unbuckled the reins from the surcingle and made his butt work around in a little circle around me. And I mean WORK IT. He was loping a few strides sometimes I had him going so good.

Boy was he surprised! He was defenitely paying attention to me NOW! We did that both sides for a bit and I also made him hustle backwards a few times, and then I let him rest, adjusted his pad and such, like nothing had happend. Then I got the lines and put them back on. We had moved away from them a bit and I told him to woah, went and got one, then the other, and guess what?? HE DIDN'T MOVE. Eureka! ;)

So lets just say after his come to Jesus moment, we had a much better go of it. He was stopping quite well, and was STANDING until I told him to go off again, which I did very clearly with loud clicks and WALLLKKK and a wave of the reins on one side. So he knows exactly what means go. Of course he wasn't perfect he would take a step or act like he was going to move a few times, but the thing is when I said woah and pulled on the reins he STOPPED. And stood. A lot of times when I would halt him he would stop and cock a foot, I liked that, that meant he was relaxed and going to wait. Thank youuuuu. Why couldn't he have done that to begin with, geesh.

I think that at first he was thinking "oh, I'm out here by myself and I can just waltz around and do whatever I want, no one is controlling me! Ladee da.....mmm, grass, ohhh, I want to go here, or here, not there. Why do I need to stand still?? Thats no fun! Whats this over here??" Sigh. Terrible 2 year olds!!! (Tuff turns 2 in less then a month! April 29th!)

Sooo, I was a little dissapointed, but he did work out of his stupid moment, so thats good. But I don't want to have to whip his butt around every time just to get him to listen and respect me. Maybe he will get it soon and that wont be necessary.

The surcingle was a lot of help, kept the reins out of the way and also kept my lines up out of the way of his hooves! I think it also helped with the turning cues being more precise. Its not snug on him yet, but it tightens enough to stay in place good enough. He did well with it, thats the first time I've had that on him and done any work in it. No issues at all with that.

So after he did a few good stops and walked around calmly I was happy with that and took him back to the tie post. He stood like a good boy there, better then he has in a long time, and I untied him and put him back in the pasture before he decided to do otherwise! lol

So in conclusion: not a bad session, but not a 'good' one either. Just a learning experience I guess. I feel a little worried I got a little harsh with him a few times, I have a hard time controlling my temper at times, but I did my best and I think he was okay. I tried to be my best impession of mugwump, lol, I love her training methods and whenever I work with horses now I strive to emulate her. Go read her blog if you don't already! Mugwump Chronicles

I wanted to go ride Daisy but I was kind of tired and down about the session with Tuff, so didn't want to bring my bad attitude out there. Besides I think we will be moving them into their spring pasture soon (the one where there is a nice area to ride in! Thats where we did our lope last year) so I might wait till then. I found plans yesterday for jump making! Can't wait to get one put together and pop her over it! (pop will probably be the key word, a pop from the crop! haha) That over there will be a much better place to do jumping. I hope she (the owner) doesn't mind if I have one set up there, I don't know why she would though...she seems like a nice older lady.

I think I will have the hubby put jump cups at the 1ft and 2ft marks. Lord knows neither of us needs to go any higher then that!! I'm not going to spend the money on actual jump cups so I found a design they use for dog agility jumps that I will prolly use. Or something similar. Its out of pvc pipe. I will def have to adjust the design, but its a good idea to start with.

Anybody have ideas for homemade jump cups?? I've heard of the detergent/bottle type...little ugly though, lol.

Anyway, no pics of our session! I had my camera but I was definitely not in the mood to document! So theres one at top, and heres another, of him the other day. Still very fuzzy!




Oh, ps! I went on another ride with the mother the Sat before last. Had fun! It was a lot less windy and a lot less cold! The horses were still raring to go though! Even Cisco, he usually poops out about 10 mins in, but not that day! We had fun though and went a bit farther then before. And spent a lot less time in the round pen, haha. Heres a few pics:


Dixies mane I braided! Hers is the perfect length and thickness for it. I did Tuffs like this yesterday but his isnt as thick so it didn't look near as good.

And heres us, my meme took the picture for us :)



And here is Ditzy dog cooling off in the pond afterwards, hehe, she followed us.

Ta ta!

Finally! Tuff Ground Driving Video

Well, it only took me nearly all week, but here it is! lol, I had to finally download a whole new program to trim the video with and then it wouldn't let me put it in the format I wanted without looking like JUNK, so I finally just uploaded it!

Here it is! Be gentle with us! ;) Its kinda long, sorry, you might need to fast forward a spot where we get stuck by the lawn mower out of frame, lol.


Tuff Ground Driving


Next Blog: Daisys Show Day!

Tuffs First Ground Driving Lesson

<--Tuff says, whatchu doin back there??

The grey fuzzy butt had his first real lesson today and it went pretty well!! I tried it last year once and it did not go as well, (he was TOTALLY confused) so I gave up until I had someone around to kind of help him at his head.

Well today I got him out early and brushed him, etc. I had brought out the surcingle (sp??) with me to see if he was big enough for it yet. Alas, no. :( But he's not far! It just won't adjust up enough around his belly. It's at the tightness of say a back cinch right now.

So I took it off (he did very well with it btw!) and we walked around the yard looking at scary stuff, lol. The inlaws have tons of stuff to look at in their yard. He's funny, if something looks scary he doesn't run away from it, he wants to go see it! Thank goodness. So we had to nose a few things, and he jumped back a few times when they moved/made sound, lol. But then decided finding something to eat on the ground was way more important. He was a bit 'up' today with the breeze and coolness. But still a good boy. We walked over a few things and even a LOG, I mean, this was a big piece of wood, and he did it like it was nothing, sucha good boy. It was really short too, but he didn't try to avoid it, yeah.

After that I tried the bitless bridle on him again. Last time I tried it his head was still too small. But today it was a-okay! The noseband still won't tighten like it should, he has a itty bitty nose. But it was doable.

So we walked around with that, yielding to the side, stopping, etc. Then we worked on some trotting in hand, pivots. I saw on a QH world show video the halter people trotting their horses at a slow jog and they would just walk beside them. For some reason I thought that was really cool, lol, so I did that a few times. It was fun! I am easily amused sorry! Then I worked on him picking up the trot faster (yes, I jogged with him this time, ;) ) and worked on setting up, etc. One time we stopped from a jog and he was square already! I watched a vid of in2paints where she did a pattern and her horse basically did that. Was neat! He's still pretty slow on setting up. But getting there! Our pivots, eh, well I'm really quite clueless on how to teach that, so we mainly worked on him crossing over his front feet. He did pretty good!

Then went over to the shed to drag out the long lines. It was a bit of a struggle to get the things going like I wanted, they were not the type of material where it is easy to coil them up, so after a little while I just let them drag behind me.

So first I rubbed him with them a bit, but I knew he would be okay with them. He was. I tried to lunge him in a circle around me with them on first, but that was a disaster. He didn't have a clue what I wanted and I couldn't get him going out onto the circle. So I finally just stepped behind him. Aha! Much better! (that was supposed to be step 2 after step 1 was good!) Anyway, he took a bit to figure out when I tap him with the reins he is supposed to move, but he got it! (that was our big prob last time) and pretty soon he was walking all over like he had been doing it at least half a dozen times.

It was so fun!! He responded pretty good to turning, not so good in the beginning, but got a lot better. And he did very well with the 'go' cue. Woah? NOT so good. Really quite bad actually. But he has plenty of time to improve! He did so good when I walk at his head, but if I get behind him and ask for it, I have to REALLY put some serious pressure on the lines to get him to stop. And then he doesn't stick there. He will try to move off again. Frustrating, but we will work on it! He did one really good one and I quit on that. Lots of pats!
Look how cute he is in this picture to the left!!


Anyway, I tied him back up to the hitching post and there he lost some 'good boy' points. I swear he was trying to try my patience. I could see it in his eyes!! lol, anyway, he has gotten on this kick where he does NOT want to stand quietly when tied if your not messing with him. And sometimes when you are! So that went on for quite a while, me trying to keep my patience, and I think I did a pretty good job! Anyway, finally he was still for a bit and I decided to not push my luck. I wish he would just realize when he's tied he is TIED. So just stand there until your UNTIED. *sigh* Yeah, he LOOKS like an angel in the picture above, but don't be fooled! ;)

Oh well, I need to remember he's still young! But he still has a long way to go on giving to preassure. At one point he stepped on the long line and kept yanking until part of the leather crown broke. Thankfully it was a part where I could just put it on a higher hole. -_- And he still tests the lead while he is tied up. One of the scariest things is to see a horse pulling back with all his might. Gives me butterflies just thinking about it. I should have worked on this more when he was younger. *sigh!*

So thats about it! I put him back in his pasture and he stood at the gate like, "well, we're done? Aw!" then walked off, lol. The whole time the other horses had been getting their breakfast and eating, so he behaved like a good boy even with that going on.

I'll keep yall updated on our next sessions! I'm not going to drive him 'naked' again though, he got his leg over the line too many times (won't keep his head up the heifer!!) so I'll have to either use the surcingle or a saddle. I also want to get his 'daddy' out to drive him after he's going pretty good :).

Check back tomarrow, I'll have a video of us ground driving up! (hopefully! windows movie maker is being a pain in the you know what as usual)

Next Blog!
My Weekend Ride With The Mother :)