[drivingpairs] Re: drivingpairs Digest V1 #23

     
Hi Kathy!  
  
> We are also in Michigan, near Lansing. 

Thanks for the offer! I'll ask Diane to bring her pair harness over ... I'm 
about an hour+ from you, in Belleville, right near 275/94.  I'm no longer at 
work after the 12th, so maybe I'll wander up ... then I'm gone from Dec 21 to 
the 29th.

> Taking him for rides as the leadline pony horse, is a great way to muscle him 
> up, give him things to look at.

I see myself going twang and thump!  Ponying scares me, and I'm an eventer!  
When we bring him along, he does a lot of canter and buck and squeal :) ... and 
he's very, very strong.  His first trailer loading took 2 men and me. Second 
time, it was just me, and loosely with the lead!  When he doesn't want to do 
something, it's all fours, and NOTHING is going to move him, other than a good 
butt whack.  And that's hard to do on horseback!  

> Turns into a game, bite, chew, dodge correction. 
He's getting a lot better about that, and if he has part of the lead in his 
mouth, he's very happy.  After a full day of turnout at the neighbor's, he 
actually leads like a normal horse :).  I taught him that he could chew on 
anything BUT humans, and he's decided that that's fair.  He's already tried to 
be helpful with hoses and pitchforks, lifting them a foot off of the ground.  
Humans can be consistent on the no-human rule 24/7 :).

> I do use vocal cues so both horses know what we are going to do, at the same 
> time.

I agree that that's invaluable. Holsteiners (bred to be a carthorse :) ) are 
very verbal.  In show jumping I talk my mare around the jumps, and she 
automatically positions herself and changes stride the second she knows which 
jump I want.  If it's a triple I actually tell her jump-jump-jump, so she knows 
to prepare for a combination.  She's never gotten "stuck" in a combination :) 
...    

>  I know the Warmblood horses are traditionally tested
at three.  However on other lists of Sporthorses, some
stallion owners are waiting until four or five. 

Some wait until 7, and they kick royal butt (my baby's dad Contigo M did just 
that -- he got penalized for age and still kicked butt -- 1st in jumping and 
2nd in dressage).  Anyone over age 3 gets a penalty, and it's the same penalty 
at any age above 3.  You certainly can't compete in jumping with a 7 yr old.  
Their joints are finally totally done.  They just kept raising the jumps for 
Contigo under saddle, and the crowd was cheering.  I have VCR footage.  The 
other riders gave up at much earlier heights.

The problem with waiting is that you aren't fully licensed, but the AHHA just 
changed the rules.  You can now get a provisional license at 3, and all of your 
existing foals get to keep their pedigree if you don't get full approval later. 
 But if you don't have a 100 day test score yet, people generally don't breed 
to you.

Obviously it simply isn't fair to the 3 yr olds to compare them to the 7 year 
olds.  I don't know where that will go.

> No muscles on young animal.

You haven't seen my young animal :).  Not only was he born all muscles (poor 
mom would stop and think, then slowly decide to follow the girls to the back 
field, that last day before she delivered, so he got lots of exercise inside 
:)), he's more muscular than most adult horses I know that are stabled.  Riding 
his mom, while he walked alongside, was an awakening.  He's got to be well over 
400 lbs now.  Not fat at all -- just the mildest outward bulge to his belly.  
But if you look at him from above, there's a LOT of horse there, esp above the 
legs.  He's already the dimensions of a lightweight pony.  Like I said, I'm 
overdue to put him in an Arab blanket -- he's literally pulling out of the 
front of his yearling blanket, and his butt is exposed.  There's not much more 
velcro left to expand to.  I'll let you know when he reaches 14 hands.  Won't 
be long now.

> We just start our young horses as three year olds then turn them back out.  
> We have one ready to begin lessons again after sitting
all summer.  They just can't pay attention long
enough.  Five minutes is a good LONG piece of their
attention!

That's one thing I adore about Holsteiners.  If you make it fun, they'll follow 
you around for 10 straight minutes :).  He's been game for quite long (on foot) 
leading sessions with friends.  When his mom was 3, I'd set up 3 or 4 jumps 
around a smaller indoor arena, and she'd free jump for me.  I taught her that 
cutting corners was fine at 2 ft, but not 4 ft, and I'd place a chair or barrel 
in a good spot and tell her "around."  After sitting there sideways at a couple 
jumps, thinking oops, can't make it, she finally agreed with me ;).  Invaluable 
time spent, without me on top fighting her :).  Andd she still knows the 
command Around.  Wonderful on a XC course.  She also knows to-the-left and 
to-the-right (I didn't know what gee and haw was :) ).  And when I'd run out of 
1 inch carrot pieces, and walk over to collect her lead line, I hear her take 
the jumps one more time, just in case I still had one.  It was adorable.  If I 
rode her around an obstacle course (think Sanford and Son -- I got creative) 
one day, then put everything away, she'd follow the exact same path the next 
day, even with all of the old path obliterated by other horses.  

At 3 months of age my little monster ran around the entire hour that I was in a 
dressage lesson with my mare, including trying once to interact with Diane, my 
instructor.  I thought he'd take a break and get a nap or something.  Not once. 
 He was moving non stop the entire time.  He would wander off to say hi to the 
other mares, run around the trees, say hi to the spectators, even run in front 
of me, but walked or trotted or cantered the entire hour.  He needs something 
easy to do, like pulling a harrow, but I don't have an arena to drag.  I have 
grass (now under snow ;) ).... he's more than ready to pull a tire :) .

Anya in Belleville :)

 
 





________________________________________________________________
Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today
Only $9.95 per month!
Visit www.juno.com
_________________________________________________________
To Unsubscribe, change to Digest or Vacation mode go to: 
http://www.drivingpairs.com/dpmem.html
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

Other related posts: