Ruger at 2015 Nationals!!!

2015 Nationals has come and gone. We had a blast, spent time with old friends and new friends. Our horses won 2 Reserve National Champions (Rivenburghs Lets Roll SE and I AM Rhythms Cameo), 5 top fives and 5 top tens. The classes were HUGE, and our horses drove well. We were super pleased. This was the first year that we drove our own home bred babies in classes. Ruger (I AM a Secret Weapon LR) and Thunder (I AM The Last Roll of Thunder) were our 3 year olds and they handled everything very well. Both of these boys were for sale,  and we had prayed asking God's hand over them. Thunder sold into a wonderful home, and the Lord must intend for us to keep on driving Ruger, for he came home with us. I put together a montage of his various classes into a video. He stayed soft on the bit, willing, rounded and collected and amazingly consistent......I was thrilled with him. He is amazing for a horse that just turned 3 in June of 2015. We will continue to train and drive him until he is sold. Here is the video of him.

Tips...tail socks and cart lights!

We had a visit from one of our favorite ladies this morning and she asked me to show her how to tail a sock. So, here it is for anyone else who is interested.

It is hot here in Phoenix, so we do a lot of driving at night. When we are in the arena, lighting up our carts is no big deal....but when we are out and about the neighborhood, being seen is essential. Here are some cheap nifty little lights.

Love my "nightlights!" Easy, cheap, no hubby required, and no damage to the cart!
Posted by Beth Dales on Wednesday, August 27, 2014

You are a trainer...like it or not!

"But, I don't want to train, I just want to have fun!" That was the moan I would hear out of one of my daughters when they were little and we all were riding big horses. Yes, there is time for relaxing, and we go on many a trail ride....but my response was, "Every time you interact with a horse, you are training!" Parents, this is true with your children too. Every moment you are around them, and even when you are not around them, you are teaching them about life and relationships. Our children learn from what we do, rather than from what we say. More is caught, than taught!!!  So, in essence, every one who drives a mini is a trainer, either for good or for bad.  You are giving your horse a message every time you drive.

That being said, I don't want to set myself up as an expert, or as an authority in any way. I am just a verbal lady, excited about horses, fairly transparent and handy with a camera. There are many out there much wiser than I am. Wish they had the time to be busy with a camera :)   We are all in this together. I love when Angela or Kim or Jaci or Julianna or Tim or.....fill in the blank, asks me why did I just do that? Or, would it be better to do it this way or that?? We are all in this together; striving to get the best from our horses. I welcome ideas....

I also know that when I started driving minis, it puzzled me. With big horses, there was help everywhere. I live in a horsey area and a man who trains with Al Dunning and Brad Barkenmeyer is down the way. He always could redirect me. There were World Champions in many homes that were enthusiastic and shared with me. There are many videos. But, I struggled to find accessible help with collection in the cart. How to get that mini body moving correctly without my legs and weight???? That was my question. I rode a lot of Western Pleasure horses too. You touch the rein, they drop the head and get off your hands completely. Minis, on the other hand, are driven with contact. When was it hard? How did you drive on the bit, but still have your mini light? These questions stayed on my mind as we worked with horse after horse. I'd see fancy movers at shows who look scared and hyped up on sugar to move the way they did. Then, I'd see some who were trained to move, and yet were calm. I had so many questions. I have been thankful for those experienced drivers who would talk to me. On a whole, there are many nice people in this miniature horse world.

I can't wait for Nationals. Not because I want to show my own horses, but because I learn. I love watching the talent in the warm up arena. I have heard many complaints about trainers. and some are justified in my mind, but there are some real experts out there too. Some of the trainers amaze me in what they accomplish with the number of horses they work, the varying temperaments involved with each horse and how well they do.

Even though we take horses in and train for others. I still call myself an ammy. With how old I am, I will always be an ammy. But, I love learning. It was Muffy Seaton's video on "Bending the Driving Horse" that first got me thinking. I watch videos like I cook. Glean quickly over the recipe, close the book up and start playing. But, Muffy's ideas of bending began making sense.

I admire the "real trainers" for they also have to have people skills. Much of their skill is also in handling the multitudes of personalities that come with miniature horses, and to do it kindly!

VIDEO....Balancing the Driving Miniature horse

Before you begin to ask of your horse what I am asking of Beamer, you need to do lots of preliminary work. First ask for just soft lateral bending. Once my mini understands that , I ask for lateral bending that involves breaking the poll and moving the shoulder. Finally I ask for lift. But, this exercise is not one that I begin with! I can only ask this of a horse that is soft on the bit and understands lateral movement.

Remember that collection starts from the hind end. Thus, you will hear me clucking while I play with positioning his head. This is to keep him driving from the hind and to keep impulsion happening. Beamer is so much "go" that a cluck is all that is needed. If you have a horse that is dead to the cluck.....you are going to have to get them moving when you ask for impulsion. That can be accomplished in the round pen most easily.

Is it trained movement or is it bred into them?? I will tell you it is both. There are certain qualities I look for! Those are listed on my website.  http://iamranch.com/minidrivingprospect.htm  But, in a nutshell, if I don't see it in the pasture every once in a while, it is going to be very hard to get it in the cart. If I see it in the pasture, I will work and work until the horse can express that movement in the cart. Here is a tidbit of what I like to see in the pasture!

I AM a Secret Agent LR! "Colson" is a fun one to watch in the front yard! Love the weanlings! This is Ruger's full brother. AMHA and AMHR. He moves very high and very slow legged. Love his hang time! Hit the HD button on your movie toolbar.

Collection....what is it? I had one person say to me that it was just forcing a horse's head into a position. SO WRONG. I know another mini driver who said to me that a collected mini was only for the show ring. She just wanted to go down the road and not worry about any training. Again, SO WRONG. 

First off, what are the benefits? When a miniature horse pulls a cart in a collected manner, the horse uses muscling that is not normally used if he is not collected. He will be using his stomach and back muscles to support himself. You can see a change in the mini's body if he is moving consistently in a collected manner. The mini gets a more rounded look. When they don't move in a collected manner, structural issues will arise sooner and at a younger age. Below is a photo of the same horse. In the top photo, he had not had any consistent driving work. In the bottom photo, he had been driven for 1.5 years. 

Yesterday, I was watching Lisa drive Ruger and he was skipping as he trotted. This inconsistency was coming from him not working off of his hind end. I yelled over to her to concentrate on his hind end and get him to drop it, and to do this mostly at the walk, until he got the feel. I slept in this morning and came to the barn to catch the tail end of her work with him. HUGE change in him. She was glowing and saying she was not sure what exactly she was doing differently, but she was focusing on getting that rear to drop and the withers to rise.

I had used an analogy with her. I grabbed hold of my long driving whip and said think of collection as if you were pushing on both ends of this whip; compressing it by pushing each end towards the other. What happens to the whip? It bends upward and rounds. The bit in your horse's mouth needs to be soft and light, but you need to be able to push your driving mini towards it with your verbal cues and light use of the whip. All of our minis must accept a tapping of the whip as communication, just like a riding horse would accept your calves and leg pressure.I always being my request with verbal cues or light rein cues, but the tapping whip has to be there to back it up. But, it is important to ask verbally a few times first, so you can drop the use of the whip as the horse understands. As your horse compresses, his back will lift and round, just like the whip.

All collection starts from the hind end. The head set is not the big deal. Folks often ask about the head, because they are not butt watchers. I tell everyone to watch the hind ends and the hocks. The horse must be  driving from his hindquarters, rounded in his back, soft throughout his neck and shoulders, and the head is the balance to counteract that energy. BUT, if you are holding the face tightly with lots of pressure on the bit. you will lose all fluidity in your horse. So, the amount you can urge the hind end forward is limited by the horse's ability to stay soft and light on the bit.

There has to be lateral softness in a horse where you can ask him to bend either way while driving. This goes back to my lateral bending emphasis which is somewhat described in the video below.

If you only focus on getting that head set and if you use the overcheck to force the head up, you will lose all softness in the neck and shoulders. A horse being forced will not look rounded, it will break at the poll to get away from the bit, have a hollow back and not be engaging its hind end. 

Now, all of this is theory....getting each horse there is an art that I don't have perfected. Each horse comes with their own set of problems. I was working lil Cameo with Jess. She is much like Beamer above where there is so much "go" in them. Thunder is all about the "whoa" and not into the "go". Thus, there is not a set way to go about this. With Cameo, our focus was on just getting her to walk collected and high in the bridle while staying soft. We could take her to a slow trot and she stayed soft, but if I had to tap her with a whip to get her to bend her body a certain direction, she way overreacts and bolts a bit. So, Jess needs to talk a lot with that whip. GENTLY, teaching Cameo to move away from the pressure and not to bolt and go fast. Ruger and Thunder are the opposite. I can ask for more speed and impulsion with my voice and they are happy to ignore me. I have to a bit sterner with the whip and teach them that my voice means more energy. BUT, that energy needs to go up and not forward. How do I keep them soft? With all the lateral bending....

Proper Carriage diagram

Here is another example. It is CRITICAL to understand that this is not just about head position, it is about the entire body function. Look at the photos below. In the top one, Beamer is overbridled. I want to see the poll at the highest point. He is closer to that ideal in the bottom photo.

If you want to see more examples, look at the post from 7/22/15

Christ commands us to repay evil with good.....He commands, He does not ask, He does not say to do this only when I feel like it is the right thing to do. He commands me to do this, even when my pride is blowing up in my face. If I fail to overlook evil, if I react to an evil act in like manner, I am just a reflector of the circumstances around me. It reduces me to a thermometer.....this thermometer gauges the "niceness" of those around me and my reaction is the same. But, that is me in my natural state......The Holy Sprits empowers us to live beyond that natural state and react in love, no matter what temperature is thrown at me. so, what evil will come my way tomorrow and will I choose to walk with the Spirit or walk in the natural flesh? Help me to not lean on my own understanding!!

Lisa took this picture looking off the Mogollon Rim the day we cut down our Christmas tree!

Quick clean up!

So how do we quickly get all the dirt off of a horse before a photo shoot?? Ruger is so tolerant of us!

This video shows Ruger trotting with no overcheck at all. Everyone asks if checking a horse up is the way to get his head up? I say "NO" emphatically. Teach the horse how to carry himself. Read our previous posts to see how we do it.
 

VIDEO...how bending a shoulder transfers weight...featuring Ruger!

So why all of this bending and shoulder work? What are some of the benefits? Hopefully, you can see how it helps a horse shift his weight to his hind end in this video.

 

Proper Carriage

VIDEO Training tip about the stop and back up featuring Mojo!!

Focus on balance and not on fancy movement....that idea runs strong in our barn. I see many people use the flip flops, or chains, or bungees, or some other gimmick to get their horse moving a fancy manner, and I think they are focusing on the wrong thing. The focus should be on getting the horses to move in a fluid, supple way, with his weight on his hind end, and the movement will come if it is in the horse.I am not completely against the gimmicks, but I do believe there is a time and place and that not every horse requires the same formula to be successful.

So, how to get the horse's weight on his back end?  The stop/back up is just one drill used to help the horse develop a balanced carriage. When a horse stops well, he rounds his back. IF a horse stops correctly, he is in the ideal position for backing. When he backs up, his carriage should not change.

You do not want to pull a horse back using your hands and force. Miniatures especially are often forced back by pulling merely because we can do this to them.....but don't! Your goal it to get your miniature to back up using his own effort and not you pulling him back.

We want a miniature to travel with his hind legs pulling well underneath him; reaching towards his front feet. When a horse rounds his back, he engages that hind end,  his legs are underneath him and his balance is improved.

Developing a good stop becomes essential to the half halt. If your horse does not position himself correctly in the stop, he won't do it in the half halt and your half halt is useless. Driving horses get ahead of themselves and you will see many "skip" to compensate. While in training, they need to be rebalanced. By that I mean that their hind end needs to be reengaged. Some horses do this because of being lazy, some because of temperament (ie they lean and are chargey), some do it because of their lack of coordination or weakness.... But, you can often feel it coming when you are driving. The half halt causes the front end to stop for a brief time and the hind end can catch up and engage. A powerful hind end engages and actually pushes that front end forward again.

Correcting the shoulders on a turn

This boy makes the first turn ok, but on the second turn, he does not listen to my inside rein asking him to keep his shoulders up....so I tap him on the inside hip with my whip. When we get to the other end of the arena, I tap too hard and he reacts...which I need to be careful of because I like him to stay relaxed. This boy has good balance. He is not as strong as he should be to carry himself and the overcheck is super loose. You will see it bouncing. I could help support him with the check, but I want him to be responsible and not to lean on the check.The video will take a bit to upload, but it will be at this link.

Starting a driving horse.

We start our miniatures to drive at about 2 or 2.5, but the starting stages are done completely in long lines and without the cart attached. There are many different starting points.

Relaxation is key. This could require different things from different horses. Desensitizing is huge for some, and not for others. If you look back on this blog, you will see some horses that needed tons of desensitizing.

One is merely to get the horse moving. Your horse must listen to your cues and when you ask for acceleration, he must be able to get up and go. And, when your horse accelerates, you want it to do this at the trot. If they break into a gallop, it is not a catastrophe, but I break it back down. I use many tools for accomplishing this. I do this training on the lunge line, in the round pen and in the cart. You have to be able to get good forward movement from your mouth cues and whip cues alone with a driving horse. In this goal is also the requirement that the horse is working in a relaxed manner. He cannot be scared of the whip. The whip is going to be your and his friend because you don’t have your legs or weight to cue. Make sure your horse is comfortable with the whip tapping his body or stroking him. You don’t want speed at the cost of fear in the horse. You want to see a relaxed horse willing to stride out. This takes time to develop and I work on this as I am working on other goals.

Another goal is suppleness. You want your horse to easily give to the right and left at the touch of your direct rein. To begin, I ask for just a lot of turning in the arena with no care where we go. As soon as the horse gives. I release the rein. Next. I start on the rail, asking for the head to turn to the outside. Sometimes this makes the body of the horse, especially the hindquarters swing to the inside. Thus, I will use my friend, the whip, as a barrier on the inside to communicate that I want them going straight down the rail while I ask for their head to turn each direction. The fence railing is also a good friend in the beginning. You want all of these exercises to be done without that aide eventually, but it helps immensely at the start.

Once, I get the horse bending left and right, I start to ask for shoulder movement. This is done in the corners of the arena. As I approach each corner, I ask the head to turn to the outside or to the rail. I then use my inside rein to ask for the shoulders to move towards the inside while the head keeps its position towards the outside. I call this counterbending. I want our horses to do this well and do it repeatedly until they will counter bend without the support of the rail and until they will do a complete circle counter bent. I work this on the ground and in the cart. Once they have this drill well accomplished at the walk, I start asking it at the trot. I do this in the cart and out of the cart. Eventually, that inside rein is key to asking the horse to raise its withers/shoulders. Some of this is shown in this video https://youtu.be/OzIYx1yowds There are a few big holes in this video. One is that I fail to explain how bending does not mean watching to see if their nose turns, but it means watching their withers/shoulder and asking for a rise in that area. I need to make another video that shows this.

Work also on softness on the bit. This is going to be crucial to developing a half halt. I start with doing a complete halt, backing up while keeping the horse in frame. I do not release, but ask for him to start again with his weight back. I don’t release until he starts with his weight on his hindquarters. This is done first in long lines, but it later is transferred to the cart. Later, while I am driving, I will ask for the horse to move forward, but the whole time, I am asking for softness on the bit. The horse having no where to go with his energy, goes up with it rather than faster.

Most driving horses are going to be at their best when their poll is the highest point as you can see in this top horse on the diagram. The stages to reach that level are down below. This is not my drawing, but has some good ideas to it.