Perry's first week

I've been outside playing with Perry a bunch this afternoon, she's been a star. I brushed her all over, picked up her feet, (loose in the round pen) and she'll come over to see me now for rubs. She steps over her hindquarters on both sides and moves her forehand away pretty nicely to. She follows me around like a puppy and if I make her trot off she won't go more than one time around before for asking to stop and come to me. I even put a bridle on her, which she doesn't like but that's okay. Oh and she loves to follow "scary things": pompoms, pool toys, but the tarp is the best.(All of this without a halter or anything).

Stuey and Perry's first night at summer camp was spent under the stars in their own "cabins." They could see each other, but were separated in their new environment (because they have lived and grown up together, they are pretty much bonded at the hip). Poor Perry went into our roundpen that is located in the center of our Hafinger turnout. She must have felt like a fish in a fishbowl with our five Haflinger sharks circling her pen. As we suspected from our previous and brief meetings with these two (when they were youngsters at BriarCroft), Perry is the bolder of the two and the leader of the duo. Stuey spent his first hour (understandably) calling for Perry in his own wooden paddock. He's really just a big baby and will have to learn to think for himself. She spent her hour trotting around the pen, shaking her head and batting her eyes at our boys.

When I came home late on Monday night I was not surprised to find Perry responding to Kelsy much like a big, obedient Golden Retriever. She was quite content showing me all of her new learned behaviors with Kelsy while free in her roundpen. Kelsy had the rope around her middle (like a girth) and feet, had her yielding and following, had her bridle on, had her over the tarp, and more. I went in with Stuey for a bit. He instantly hooked on and followed me around the paddock, no round-penning necessary. They are both out of their element and needy, so are eager for direction and companionship. They are in the ideal frame of mind for learning and trusting. I worked what Kelsy had done with him earlier (familiarizing ourselves to each other). We fed him his dinner on a tray (a large tarp spread out) so that he could practice bravery. In true Haflinger fashion it didn't take him long to start eating. Perry (as the pictures show) has no trepidation about the tarp.

When I got home from work I went out to play with Ms. Perry. She, like Stuey, met an old saddle pad that I first rubbed her with and then tossed on her back. All of this she stood perfectly still for and blinked at me like I was crazy, because this was no big deal. I had her trot around with the blanket on her butt so that it would fall off behind her, but that didn’t bother her at all. So I grabbed the silver tarp off the ground in the paddock and put that up on her. At first it was folded in half but when it became clear that she wasn’t upset by it I unfolded the trap like a blanket, and had her trot around wearing it. After a few laps the tarp fell off and she just walked over to me like, “why did you make me trot?”

After playing with the trap I decided that it was a good temperature (not too hot) to trim feet. Plus the ground was wet because it’s Washington and had rained in the last 24 hours, so the horses’ feet are soft. All this adds up to less work on my part. I was just going to trim her front feet, as I didn’t want to tie her and no one was there to hold her. She got to go out in one of the big paddocks instead of the small wooden one (different scenery). I started with her right front which she only tried to take away from me a few times, mostly because she was trying to eat grass or got distracted by her brother in the roundpen. Each time she did I would ask her to move her feet, practicing hindquarters forequarters once on each side. Then I’d go back to trimming her foot like nothing happened. After about three times of this she was perfect for the rest of the time I spent on that foot. When I started on the left front it was the same thing over again. Horses don’t transfer things from left to right well. If you teach a horse to bend left you will have to start from the beginning on the right side. She was so good that I was able to trim her back feet to. I just did the same thing anytime she got distracted by grass or her brother: I’d ask her to move around again and then go back to her feet.

My plan for Day Three was to get one of our soft cotton ropes around her girth and flank area, and if all went well then I’d get a saddle on. Staying true to her style (being fairly bold) she took everything in stride. The first time I put the long rope about her girth area she turned the wrong way in the round pen so the rope was coming from her off side around her back legs. I let go of the rope (not wanting to cause a wreck) and she just trotted off like nothing happened. Once she stopped and I got everything sorted out with the rope, off she went just like a lady. I had the rope around her girth and flanks at the walk, trot and canter. When I first had her canter with the rope around her flanks she bucked a little, but not rodeo stock bucking, just “that feels weird” bucking. Putting ropes on like this free in the roundpen lets the horses get used the feel of something around their middle without putting your saddle, roundpen, and horse in too much danger. You can always release the rope so it’s no longer snug around them (unlike a saddle girth that you have no control of, and they can’t get a release from).

After all the ropes I put a bareback pad on her. The bareback pads aren’t as intimating to the horse and are more comfortable. Plus, who cares if they fall in the dirt and get stepped on. Now my saddle getting beat up would be a different story! Perry followed me around the roundpen not even bothering to care about the bareback pad. We had a large orange traffic cone in the roundpen, so I put it on her bareback pad like a rider (hopefully getting her used to having something sitting on her and above her). Again she just followed me about the pen until the cone fell off. No big deal, she didn’t even take a second look at it.

Now last year we had a gelding that was sure people shouldn’t be riding him and had bucked Chesna off dramatically a couple of times. For some reason she was working him in the roundpen one evening and I was riding a two year old that had about five rides on him around the outside of the roundpen. Ches had the bareback pad on the bucking horse and then put it on him backwards (so the girth was where a Western back cinch would go). The horse went nuts, kicking and bucking and grunting around the pen (thankfully the two year old just looked at the other horse like he was insane). After that we’ve put bareback pads backwards on all the summer campers (so far it has only bothered that one horse). So I put it backwards on Perry. It slipped back into her flanks, which was fine, but then it somehow ended up on her rump and slipped down her back legs and off. This sounds like one of those gory details Ches said we’d share, right? Well, Emily you should be proud because Perry didn’t notice it at all. She didn’t even flick an ear! And as a last thing with the bareback pad I put it on loosely so it would slip down under her belly, which it did again and again. She couldn’t care less. Seeing as she passed the bareback pad training it was time to move on.

Now for a real saddle I got one of our dressage saddles, and because she was being good I was planning to lie across her back and stand in one stirrup like I was going to get on. The saddle, like the bareback pad, was no big deal. I don’t think she even noticed it besides the fact that I did put a halter on her because I didn’t think she should walk off with the saddle on if it didn’t have a girth. J We like to flag the horses from above before getting on them for two reasons: 1) It gets them used to having something above them moving around, and 2) Some horses struggle with objects going from one side of their body to the other (i.e. it scares them). This is called “changing eyes,” and when people are riding they are in sight of both the horses eyes. Working from above like this gives me a good idea if that is going to be an issue (more importantly, helps me to not get bucked off).

In the beginning Perry was worried about the flag (she doesn’t like things by her ears or poll) but in a minute she was standing there resting a foot. Mom (Cheryl) held her and I got up in one stirrup and lay across her (from both sides) and jumped up and down. Perry just looked at me like I was the craziest person ever, but she wasn’t bothered by anything. After that Mom was going to ride out in our hay field so I put a western saddle on Arron (my dressage horse) and ponied Perry with me. She even got to go in our creek, which I’m sure she’s never seen one before. But she pretty much dragged Arron and I into it and then splashed around. Arron in 23 years old, and I could just see what he was thinking, “Oh no, more youngins.” (If Arron were a person he would be an old, wise German man, very set in his ways and traditional). So that sums up Day Three for Perry.

Today was the big day: Perry gets ridden for the first time. I started off again with the ropes around her middle and flanks just to make sure that she remembered from the day before. After about five minutes of that I put her bareback pad on and again did some flagging from up on the fence, which she slept through. Then came the riding and falling cone again (it’s kind of nice to know that if you hit the ground your horse isn’t going to kick you on the way down). One last thing to work on before I got on her, and that was bending in the halter (Perry is not fond of bits so she just gets the wear them for the time being as a passenger). She got the bending thing in about five minutes, so then I bent her and bumped her with my hand at the girth (like my leg would ask her to step over her hindquarters if I were riding), again this took only five minutes max.

There is a point in all horses ground training were you just have the bite the bullet and get on them. This was that time. With nothing left to do I jumped up and down next to her and then lay across her back a few times (both sides) and then went from laying down to sitting upright. Perry thinks that I am the weirdest human she has even met in her life for doing all this silliness. We worked on bending and moving her hindquarters around so she can see that it’s okay to move with me sitting on her. Then my Mom came in the roundpen and Perry followed her around the roundpen for a few minutes with me sitting on board as a passenger. After that Mom picked up the flag and we worked on getting her to move forward from leg cues. I would bump with my legs and Mom would help out with the flag, waving it at her to get her moving (we both would release when she moved forward). I’m not sure how long I had Mom help get her trotting in the roundpen (not too long).

From now on things get fairly boring. Do some groundwork: hindquarters, forequarters, flagging, bouncing around, getting on and off… all of this takes about five minutes. Groundwork becomes a crutch for a lot of people, we like to move away from it ASAP. Plus I’m lazy and just want to get on and ride. After that it’s just get on and work on moving forward from leg, a lot of walk to trot work and then every now and then try for some canter. I know Haflinger’s are known for bucking when asked to canter, but maybe some wouldn’t have if in the first few days under saddle work they had cantered (same goes for any breed of young horse). In this stage of their life everything is new and different, including cantering, but after a few weeks or months they KNOW how it’s done and cantering isn’t one of the things they do (hence the bucking). Our advice is to get young horses moving forward as quickly and freely as possible.

Perry is just working on going, and when she’s standing I bend her and ask for a step of back up. Saturday after working in the arena playing with the go button and just a little bit of steering, Chesna and Pippin led us on a trail out to the front field, just to get out and about. After taking in all the sights and trotting around some Ches took off on Pippin and was running in and out of the trees (very considerate of them). This caused Perry to think she needed to run back the barn and Stuey, and when I told her no she kind of half reared (Perry says people are heavy so it was only about 18’ off the ground) and started bouncing around. Once she stopped bouncing we just worked on bending, which is hard when you are bouncing and thinking about other things (all this happened in about one minute and then was done). We started walking up to the barn, and boy was she happy to see Pippin coming toward her.

Sunday, June 11 (Kelsy) Day 7

BATH DAY! I’m not so sure that Perry was that excited about it but I love clean horses and it was 75 degrees today. I had Mom hold her as we do not have a wash rack yet and as much as I like clean horses I didn’t want to spend four hours giving her a bath while she wiggled around. Perry was very good about everything, like all young horses she moved around some. Her attention span is very short (less then a minute), so you just have to keep reminding them that no, they are not done and no, they can’t eat the grass. Overall the bath went well, and I even got her tail white with the help of some laundry detergent. When bath time was over it was time to ride. Again I started in the arena for all of ten minutes at the walk/trot/canter. Then Chesna and a return summer camper (our "head boy" Truman) led the ride through our big hay field to our creek and trails. She just marched on through the creek like nothing was there and up the steep bank on the other side. She was even comfortable being left behind a ways and walking up ahead. But I must say that Perry has the slowest walk in the world. Any slower and she would be standing still (maybe even backing up). Once she gets a little more trained I can start working on a REAL walk. Until then she just trots to catch up.

Truman and Chesna led the way around our wooded trails and through another creek crossing (water jump training 101). Because we can never just be happy with that, and it’s only a short ride to the Skookumchuck River, we headed for the river. To get to the river we have to ride on a gravel road and then up and over a hill on a nicely mowed pipeline (this is Washington, so it’s a real hill). Perry was great and just walked (trotted) along like she’d been there a hundred times. One thing we’ve found with baby horses is that they will go anywhere if they think they are getting left behind alone, so just like a champ Perry followed Truman right into the rushing river. On the ride home she had to canter up one of the hills (which she thought was really hard work), but again she didn’t want to be left behind. Today was her first real outdoor ride, and she did great.