Happy 2016 and Goodbye Applejack

I say that with a heavy heart today but it can only get better from here. This morning we said goodbye to Outback Jack (aka Applejack). Jack crossed the Rainbow Bridge after a mild bout of colic on Sunday, that actually corrected itself; however he still refused to eat. On Monday, the vet could find no physical reason for his lack of appetite and by Tuesday night we felt it best for him to be put down before the next cold snap set in. Jack would have been 24 in March.

It was wonderful hanging in the barn alone with him this morning; reminiscing over the 20 years Jack was in our lives. I bought Jack from a horse dealer when he was just turning 4, back in 1996. Initially I wasn't going to meet him at all because I had not heard very favourable comments about Appaloosas. Luckily the  young fellow who worked for Kevin Pole had been riding Jack at the dealers place. I`ll never forget Trent telling me that Jack was one of the nicest Appys he had ever ridden and that he was 4 going on 12. I trusted that Trent knew the horse and my level of inability and so I went to meet Jack. When I arrived, he was in a large pasture with about 30 other horses and when the gate rattled, his head came up as if to say ``people`` and he ran over to greet us at the gate. In the moment I didn`t realize this was the horse I came to meet but needless to say - I bought him on the spot.

According to his registration papers, Jack was born in Yorkton, SK where he was sold at auction and purchased by the dealer I bought him from. I remember being wary about buying this horse from a dealer and waiting for something horrible to be wrong with him - but he was awesome. I wrote a letter to the folks listed on his papers to let them know I now owned Outback Jack and acknowledging how lovely his manners were. A couple weeks later I received a phone call from the lady who bred him saying she was visiting the Calgary area and would love to come see us. Apparently Jack was a darling from the moment he was born and her elderly father had a real soft spot for him. They were delighted to receive my letter and learn he would be loved and cared for. During our visit, she took video of me and Jack and gave me a very special gift - baby photos of him with his mama.

For several years Jack was my learning partner - always patient while I practiced TTouch, Clicker Training, Carriage Driving, Extreme Cowboy Challenge and Natural Horsemanship. There is no question I made my share of mistakes with Jack; including a carriage driving wreck and a trailer wreck but neither caused him resentment or resistance. However, my biggest mistake was trusting his teeth to Grant McKinnon whom my vet sincerely believes, greatly shortened Jack's life by taking off far more tooth than he should have. For nearly 3 years, Jack thrived on mash twice per day. He made looking after him so easy by meeting us at the gate, following us to the barn without a halter and when he was done eating, following us back to the gate. I knew something was seriously wrong when Jack was no longer waiting at the gate.

He was always the steady, reliable boy we could trust to get the job done safely. I took Jack to our bi-annual cattle drive up at Water Valley for 16 years. Unfortunately, that was the only time we got to play with cows so it took us 16 years to get it right; but he was so fantastic the last year I took him, it was definitely worth the wait. While Jack was too laid back to be competitive, I was always proud to have him as my partner.

When I started teaching beginners about horses, Jack was my first choice because he would stand patiently during lessons and help folks learn and practice the basic ground skills.

One of those students was a young woman named Lisa Schmidt who fell in love with Jack and ended up becoming his guardian angle for nearly 3 years; right to the end. Lisa, Sherri and I shared many memories and tears last night as we celebrated a wonderful horse. As sad as it is to lose him, there is comfort in knowing how much Jack was loved by many throughout his life.

Tovie, Lisa and her Doodlebug (aka Jack)

Great Teachers

One of my goals on the horsemanship journey was to find a great riding coach that could help improve my technical riding ability. Last summer one of my former students/now friend, invited me to watch her lesson with Ruth Ratcliffe, at Moose Hill Ranch in Bragg Creek.

My friend Dar bought Echo as a 2 year old - Echo is a big, beautiful black mare who, as a youngster, was quite strong willed. There were times when Dar doubted that she was the right person for Echo. Seeing their harmonious riding partnership was truly magical and Dar attributed much of her success with Echo to her riding coach Ruth.

Just last week I started taking lessons with Ruth and have already acquired a better understanding of western riding after only two lessons. I've been fortunate to have many wonderful horse and human teachers along my journey and Ruth will be right up there for me. Ruth Ratcliffe is a truly gifted coach; compassionate, funny, knowledgeable and very accomplished. It came as no surprise to learn that Ruth has also been awarded Coach of Year.

I've never been delusional about my riding ability - while adequate I'm not a great rider. However, now that I am doing more rehabilitation work with horses that I want to re-home, I want to be able to bring them to another level under saddle. Not to mention I would like to bring my own personal horses, Dexter and Nevar to another level.

Leopold has also been a great teacher for me. Riding Leopold has been rewarding but his fidgety, nervous behavior in the barn was frustratingly irritating. I tried hard to stick to more traditional training methods with Leopold knowing it would likely be more in line with his future when he finds his perfect person. However, after one extremely annoying evening in the barn with him, I heard Linda Tellington-Jones in my head saying he doesn't know how to be any other way - so show him another way to be. Even trying to do TTouch on Leopold was irritating because the bugger simply wouldn't stand still so the other day I reverted to clicker training. The change in our interaction was profound. Instead of dreading another barn session with Leopold, I now happily anticipate playing with him and thinking of new things to teach him. When I read articles or hear folks saying that clicker training is a bad thing, I can only think they don't understand the power of operant conditioning and they haven't seen it done well, if at all. Just like any training method or tool, used badly, it can get ugly. Leopold is now standing quietly in the barn with his head relaxed and giving me each foot nicely without falling out of position. This may not seem like a big deal to some folks, but I do my own trimming and when a horse doesn't stand still and balanced, it makes the job so much harder.

Leopold's bravery is beginning to emerge now that he is relaxed and thinking rather than being fidgety and reactive. Anyone who has handled many horses knows that training a relaxed, curious horse is much more effective than training a tense, worried horse; as well as being much safer for the rider/handler.

Ruth is teaching me to be a more effective rider and Leopold is teaching me to trust what I know to help him be a calm, happy horse.

Tovie and Leopold

Is there a Difference Between a Horseperson and a Rider?

A horseperson has time, knowledge, and skill; or the desire to learn, to help a horse through an issue or prevent undesirable behavior before it becomes habitual.

A rider is somebody with a very busy life that simply wants to ride once a week on a safe, uncomplicated horse.

Determining which of the above realistically applies to you is important to know before buying a horse. Horses that do everything we want in any weather or circumstance; and can handle our mistakes are rare - if they exist at all. They are typically the older experienced horse that has been there done that; or they can be a younger horse that someone has put hours and hours of time into.

My experience with folks buying horses is they don't want to buy an older horse because of the potential for health issues, such as worn out joints and teeth, that can accompany them; and they don't want to pay the amount of money required for a really well trained younger horse that someone has put hours and hours of time and experience on. Although, even a young horse that has received hours of good training and consistent use can easily develop behavioural issues when mistakes are made by an inexperienced horse owner or they are neglected due to busy lives.

It is my belief that once we become horse owners, it is incumbent on us to become the best horseperson possible, for the horse's sake.

I went to see Fonzi and his new owner last Sunday after learning that things had gone from bad to worse over the past couple of weeks, due to an ill fitting saddle. Fonzi tried to tell her by not standing still for saddling and mounting; and when he wasn't heard, things escalated into him bucking her and the property owner off. When I saddled him with a saddle I knew was comfortable for him, he didn't disappoint and I was happy to discover that he hadn't learned to buck from this small incident.

However his new owner doesn't feel she can overcome her jitters; and then seeing how well Fonzi did for me, she is now convinced she isn't the right person for Fonzi after all. Fixing horses that are mistrustful of people is a far easier task than fixing people that mistrust their horse.

Since my mission in life is to help folks get started well with horses, taking Fonzi back was never a question. If I don't take him back, what would become of him. How can his new owner sell him if she isn't comfortable demonstrating him and he is way too good of a horse to become a pasture ornament.

Tovie & Fonzi

Life is Good

Since my last post I have managed to ride Leopold every day without incident. After the one episode of crow hopping with the saddle, he has never offered to do anything remotely silly again. Saturday morning we even progressed to a canter without incident. During the first few rides, I prefer to use the halter or side pull (bitless) but I found it difficult to soften Leopold at the poll for vertical flexion. Yesterday I decided to see how he goes in the mylar bit. Once again Leopold didn't disappoint. He responds nicely to the bit and flexed beautiful through the poll.

Sherri came out to ride Magnum while I was riding Leopold in the round pen. The weather was a balmy 20 above and Leopold was super calm and responsive and so we decided to see how he would do out on the trails and in the back hay field - FANTASTIC! Leopold was relaxed and confident and actually took the lead away from good ole' Magnum who got stuck and didn't want to go into the trees. Nothing is perfect and my only complaint is that the trees on the trails seem much lower when riding taller horses. We did some walk/trot transitions out in the field and we practiced our leg yields while riding down the road.

Hopefully this dry footing continues so we can get a few more rides in before the snow flies.

Tovie and Leopold the Great!

So Much to Be Thankful For

After The Fonz moved along, I hesitated to bring another horse in so soon; primarily because I wanted to spend some time with Dexter and Nevar while the weather is still good.

I am so grateful that I changed my mind about taking beautiful Leo after all. He has been an absolute joy to play with. Even though I sound like a broken record because I feel that about every horse I play with - it is so true. It could be the somewhat unconventional variety of training methods I employ to help horses overcome their issues that makes it all so much fun.

It is hard to know what groundwork exercises Leopold was exposed to before he came to me as the only videos I saw showed traditional lunge work and chute jumping him. Yet, his focus and relaxation make everything I ask of him seem like he has done it a million times before. Yesterday, I put a saddle on him and he stood quietly throughout the process and then quietly walked out to the arena. However, as soon as I sent him out onto the circle - he started to crow hop. His behavior was strangely odd in the sense that he didn't seem scared or mad - just crow hopped a few times and then we carried on with our business without further incident. The TTouch body exploration work indicated no apparent back pain and he wasn't cinchy at all as I gradually tightened the girth. Will be interesting to see how he responds to the saddle today.

Gord took video of Leopold yesterday showing how well he is coming along with the ground work; lateral flexion, parking at the mounting block, and w/t/c transitions up and down. He doesn't mind when I bounce the giant equine ball off his back and around him, nor does he mind my slapping the ground with the stick and string. He actually seems to become more confident every day. Once the video is ready, Gord will download it on You Tube.

Tovie, Gord, and Leopold

Big Mistake...

All my friends at our barn decided that Leo's name wasn't sophisticated enough for such a gorgeous animal and so we now call him Leopold.

Typically when a new horse arrives, I spend several days introducing the new horse to one or two of our geldings at a time. Occasionally we meet a horse that causes nary a ripple amongst our herd and we turn them out sooner. That was Leopold - clearly not challenging any of our "boys" over the fence and so I made the decision, early Saturday morning, to turn Leopold out to the large field with our "boys". Erika had told me that Leopold had been turned out to pasture with wire fencing so I mistakenly assumed he would be OK.

Naturally, Leopold was excited to run. Our 4 laid back "boys" didn't even bother to run with him; and Dexter, Skeeter and Navar ran with him for a short while before giving up. Leopold however, just kept running all by himself - looking like he was having the time of his life. It was glorious to behold until suddenly Leopold started running straight at the 3 strand barb wire fence. As I stood watching in horror, thinking he was going to jump it, he ran straight through it. It didn't even slow him down and now he was running through our hay field where the gates are wide open to our neighbour's field. I stayed calm and tried to call Leopold to me and just when I thought he was heading my way, doesn't he go through the barb wire fence again to get back into the field with the other horses.

Thankfully, our boys come to a call so I quickly put out several piles of hay and Leopold came in with them. I was sickened by the thought of what I would see when he finally came in as I have seen wire fence injuries and they are, more often than not, horrific. I quickly put Leopold back in the rail paddock with a hay bag and was shocked by what I saw. Aside from a couple of minor scrapes of hair missing on his chest, one superficial scrape on a hind leg, and one tiny little drop of blood on his front leg - he was absolutely fine. First I cried with relief and then I pondered how to tell Gord he would be fixing fence that day.

I had so much to be grateful for that morning, including the fact that our lazy stock horses had given up following Leopold because with all that wire down, it could have been catastrophic.

In hindsight, it may have helped to put hay piles out in the field first and then taken Leopold in hand around the perimeter of the entire field so he had an awareness of the fence line.

Needless to say, Leopold will be staying in the rail paddock for the time being. Not sure if I will ever be comfortable putting him out to the pasture again. It is a lot more work to have him in but he is definitely worth the extra effort.

Tovie, Leopold and Leopold's Angels

Leopold the Great

July 10th I received the following message from Page Campbell of Westwood Warmbloods up at Spruce Grove, AB.:

I have been asked to help rehome a very special horse. (And this is an essay, so I apologize):
Leo is a 2008 Chestnut Warmblood Gelding, 16.2 (and we think he's still growing), with a ridiculously nice pedigree; by Der Lord (Hanoverian), out of a Hanoverian-Approved, Lord Vancouver (Thoroughbred) daughter. He is one of the last breedings by Rudiger Dupierry before he retired.
He is a friendly boy, first to greet you in the field. Reasonably easy keeper, he’s lived both inside and out, always kept on a regular farrier schedule, and has had regular handling. He loads and trailers well.
He is extremely athletic and talented, with very nice movement, free jumps four feet with ease.
That said, he is not an easy horse, and circumstances have not been in his favour.
He was born here at Westwood Warmbloods, but as I mentioned, is not of our breeding program - his mother (who is lovely) was purchased in foal. As a five year old, he was sent out to be started, and they had no issues with him. When he came back, he was added to a very long list of horses in training - and unfortunately, as it so often is in this business, triage is the name of the game - client horses first, maintenance on school horses, prospects with interested buyers, not to mention teaching ground manners to younger stock, and our trainer's personal horses. Leo tends to need more persuasion than most, and a steadier, consistent hand, so even among his very small group of age-mates, he was not the first in line.
Then he bucked under saddle a couple of times, and moved even further down the list - our trainer no longer felt comfortable letting assistant trainers ride him, and he had never progressed to being ridden by advanced students. Then, he was cut from the list altogether last winter due to lack of time.
He had a chiropractor look at him, had his saddle adjusted, and a new girth, but honestly, we think it was just high spirits. He has come back into work again this spring, and he hasn't bucked since, but his work has been very limited - he's been lunged in tack at all three gaits and over poles, but so far just walking under saddle working on promoting relaxation. The trainer who started him suggested we move him back into a western saddle because that is how he was started, but our trainer doesn't ride western. From what we've done, he seems to be much more mature than he was at five, or even six.
Here at Westwood, we practice Classical Dressage in the style of Legerete, which means we have not used side reins, draw reins, or a flash noseband on Leo. We focus on getting the horse to soften, move lightly and forward. We try to reward even the smallest amount of try, so that next time the horse tries harder. Leo tends to approach all sessions the same way;
1) OMG you want me to do what?
2) Yeah, I don't think so.
3) Okay, fine, if you insist, that's really not that awful.
Leo would very much benefit from someone who had time to earn his trust; he's naturally suspicious and takes care of himself.
Sitting in a field at the bottom of the training list is no good for Leo. Our priority still has to be our clients and their horses, fiscally, we can't afford to invest in Leo as much time as he needs. However, we've found it very difficult to market Leo; he may have ten thousand dollars of breeding, and ten thousand dollars of talent, but he needs five thousand dollars of training. And not only that, he needs to sell soon; being green at seven is acceptable, being green at ten is totally unmarketable. We've priced him ridiculously low, and have spent a long time weeding out homes that are just well, inappropriate. We're willing to keep him forever if the alternative is the meat truck, but Leo deserves better.
We've also done the worst thing you can do when selling a horse - we've been completely honest about him to everyone who has contacted us.
Let's be totally honest; we are willing give Leo away to a quality home. I would love to do a Dollar, or Fonzi deal with you; but would also appreciate any help, advice, suggestions or recommendations you can provide.
Anyone reading Page's message can feel how much Westwood cares about the horses in their care and while I was completely ignorant about Leo's breeding and warmbloods in general, I felt compelled to help. At the time I explained to Page that I couldn't take Leo until I had found Fonzi's perfect person. However, once Fonzi left, I decided to spend more time with Dexter and Navar and so I sent Page a message saying I couldn't take Leo after all. Only thing is, I forgot to hit send. The following week, Page emailed asking if it was still OK to bring Leo the end of September. After discussing with Gord (who has been as neglected as Dexter and Navar), we made the decision to take him to give him a chance. Leo was delivered by the owner of Westwood Warmbloods, Erika and her brother Colin, Thursday, October 1st.