Working on the lunge line and some recaps

     One of my favorite things about Jellybean is when she nickers at me when I drive up. She sees my little green car and calls at me. She also calls for me if I call out her name to bring her in from the pasture. Then she usually runs towards me. This is incredibly fulfilling.

Hey mom! Look over here!

    One a more focused note, Jellybean and I are sticking to the schedule. On Friday we completed a round pen session. Robert helped me lunge Jellybean and I rode her. We are still working very hard at understanding what it means when I kick/nudge her with my foot. She isn't learning this one too quickly. I'm hoping that repeated rides will help make the cue clear.

     Saturday was the Halloween playday, which I have already written about. Sunday we had another serious ride through the rainy farm land. The round pen was very wet, so I moved a little bit of dirt to encourage draining and got Jellybean dressed for our workout. We practiced what we already knew in the arena, then Robert stood on the ground and helped move Jellybean when she started trying to bite my foot instead of moving forward. We only did a little bit of trotting, since she was trying to cut the arena up to avoid the standing water.

     Monday was another work day for Jellybean. I put on her lunging clothes and we sloshed out to the large arena with the line and got ready to do some more work with the side reins. I am a little worried about over adjusting them and Jellybean revolting, so I have moved slowly with my adjustments. Turns out I have been worrying for nothing. The side reins only adjust so tight, and Jellybean is too small to feel any pressure from the tightest adjustment. Looks like I will be punching holes.

     I am going to ride her on Thursday I hope, unless the Halloween festivities take too long. Otherwise we will ride on Friday. Next week I hope to do some lunging over the trot poles and a couple of cross rails.

     In other news, we have been plagued by several obnoxious events which may have stolen Jellybean's breakfast a couple of days in a row. First we noticed that Jellybean's breakfast was being turned over in the aisle. Then a morning or two later, her grain was completely eaten! The next day she had no grain and minimal hay! This was getting obnoxious... then we saw her feed bin. WHICH WAS CHEWED THROUGH!

     We decided that the evil raccoons were trying to steal Jellybean's food, and then we found out some horses were not tucked in for the night and spent their evening eating everyone else's breakfast. We almost bought a game camera to see what was up, but it turns out we are going to instead catch the culprits. More on this story as it develops.

lunging a pony and taking showers

Hi All!  Amanda is gone for one more day so I thought I would help you pass the time with some more photos and an update!

Jellybean and I have developed a real horse to human relationship.  over the course of Amanda's abandonment of her two favorite animals we have really bonded well.   Jellybean no longer kicks or bites at me.  She also has learned that while I may not be the alpha of her herd I am certainly higher than she is.   We have had lots of fun experiences while Amanda was out.  Here is another pic of her in her saddle getting ready to work in the round pen.

Hey dad!  There is grass over here

However, I am never satisfied that she earned her dinner until we do something new.   So, Jellybean got a shower yesterday too!   Now mind you, she does NOT like water so this is a big step for her.  

have you no decency?

I even managed to convince her a spray in the face was not going to be the death of her.  I did not press my luck though.  She got squeeged dry and put back in a nice clean stall with copious hay, grain and, water.  Very pleased pony.

Also, she got weight taped on Sunday.  In the past two weeks she has put on some poundage!  she gained 40 pounds since we upped her feed and she now unofficially stands between 15.1 and 15.2 hands high.  I think she has a few more inches in her as she is still a bit taller in the back end than the front.

Happy Wednesday and I hope you are enjoying the antics while Amanda is out.

Jellybean is missing mom!

I think Jellybean is really missing Amanda.  I am going to be the slave driver apparently. I have been making her work for her dinner.

Today Jellybean and I played a little dress up game.

                                        Look at my pretty clothes!

She waited and didn't fidget at all while I put the saddle pad and saddle on her.  Such a good pony.  One thing she did NOT like was cinching the girth.  while I was trying to cinch it she got very wiggly but still did nothing bad, no biting, no ear pinning, and most important no stomping or kicking.

I then made her work for dinner and lunged her on the line for about 20 minutes.   She is doing very well at listening for voice commands to walk, trot and, canter for transitions up and down.

Just to show we did actual work today:

                             Dad!!!!!  No pictures!   I am SOOO  sweaty!

I felt kind of bad making her work so hard so I gave her 3 flakes of hay, a full scoop of normal grain and a half scoop of alfalfa pellets.   I scrubbed her water bucket and gave her nice cool clean water.  When I left she was a very content little pony.

While the cat is away....

The mice will play!

Amanda is out of town on vacation and left me in charge of Jellybean again.

When I got to the barn yesterday Jellybean was so happy to see me.  She even pinned her ears at me to show how much she missed me.   We have been working on getting her to respect me as a human so I haltered her and took her out to the wash pit for some grooming.

This is where she did really well.  She allowed me to brush her down and pick her hooves with not a single kick or ear pinning.  I think we are on our way to a mutual understanding of who is in charge and who is the horse.

Next I took her out to the round pen to work on her voice command transitions.  She did well considering she was in the stall all day.  After some trotting and cantering she finally remembered that quarter horses are supposed to be lazy and she would walk on command.  We worked both sides, circle left and circle right and by the end of our 20 minute session she was just starting to sweat.  We walked for awhile to cool down and then she got grain, hay and, water.   She was a very happy pony.

Back to training!

     Since I am now free of my pressing obligations, its back to training for Jellybean! No good  pictures of training from today, just some early morning napping. When we came back for the afternoon, I worked with Jellybean on the lunge line while Robert rode Ginger, Last time I put Jellybean on the line, she just galloped around and didn't pay attention to me. So today, we just walked into the arena and went back to the basics. If she ran off, I told her to whoa as I pulled her circles smaller. Then when she walked, I let her have her space and relax. By the end of the lesson, she was walking and trotting on the lunge line with good transitions. Next time we will build on this. 
     
     We had another lesson as well, with some evil water puddles! Once again, I tried to walk her through a (much shallower) puddle and she was very uninterested. So we stood there for a long time, waiting on her to decide it was ok. After a long time, we eventually stopped when she stood with her front feet in the water. I think walking through a puddle every few days would be a useful exercise. Hopefully she can chill out.

     In any case, enjoy some pictures of napping ponies:

I love napping in my food!

You caught me napping!

What are you looking at?

More Saddle Training, and some patience!

     Jellybean has been excellent this week, especially patient with Ginger as she gets settled into the farm! Thursday night she got some attention of her own! I brought her into the round pen and saddled her up, then lunged her. She did try a very half-hearted buck/jump, but other than that she was resigned to her lot in life! She is such a cutie, and seems excited about doing something.

Bleh. Saddle work isn't fun!

   
  After our round pen work, we walked over to the arena and hung out for awhile. Jellybean was a perfect lady!

Is this my good side?

This one is better, obviously

Bored. Can we do something else now?

Round Penning with Someone New

     Jellybean got to work with Robert in the round pen. Robert was practicing getting her respect and she was practicing listening to another person. They both did great! Jellybean was relaxed and listened; Robert had a plan and executed. 

She still hates the puddles.

So relaxed :)

What's next?

Dinner time!

Vaccines are no good!

     I went out to see Jellybean again today, hoping she would be feeling better. Unfortunately, she was still feeling awful. She let me clip her and stretch out all of her legs without any annoyance. She just stood there with her head down. 

So sad :(

     I thought she might not feel well because of muscle soreness, so I worked her in the round pen and tried to warm up her muscles and get her to move. She moved out, but she didn't perk up much. She did eat all her food though, so that was some improvement. :(

Some more games in the round pen

     What a beautiful day!! About 65 today and nice and clear. We worked in the round pen trying to establish respect. I wanted her to walk consistently around the pen without giving in to the ADD. She didn't really understand, so we will work more on Monday.