Of children and horses!

Our first riding lesson of the year happened on Saturday January 28th! It was a beautiful 9am lesson! I love giving lessons to children who are so thirsty for horse knowledge! And not just the typical, show up and ride kind of children. This little gal in particular is just yearning for some learning! At just 7 years old, she is fearless, but not in the sense where she would put herself in danger. She is fearless, but cautious! Something many riders, especially that age never achieve! It took me years to actually realize that "Hey, that horse your aboard can potentially kill you!" I think I was 18 when I actually started to develop more of a respect for horses. I was the person that everyone would call when they needed a horse "bucked-out," "first rides" all the stuff no one of there right mind wanted to do! They knew I would jump at the opportunity to get on a new horse. Now, I'm not the one to call! Sure, I do first rides very often! But now I actually do it correctly! No one wants to get tossed off a horse, I sure don't! And don't for a second think that I'm "scared." Far from it! Everyone who rides will hit the ground. Your not a true rider unless you've received wings from your trusty steed, or a mouthful of dirt from your clients "dog-gentle" gelding. LOL

Your not scared, your smart! You know what this horse can do to you, but you love what you do so much that you want to get that horse where anyone can ride it. Where you don't have to worry about it bucking someone off, or flipping over back-wards. Lets not get started on that! Rearing horses! Oh boy, I've had my share of pain caused by a horse going backwards. I deal with a lot of problem horses. Animals that people have cause to now have "people problems." So they were brought to me to be fixed.
I think the worst one was actually a young colt of my own. Actually it was my sisters colt. A young 3 year old. He had maybe 5 rides on him, but had a tendency (that I was in-aware about) and he was quite light in the front end. He figured that when he didn't want to do something, he would go upward. Boy was that fun! (NOT!) Did I mention that he was a Shetland/welsh pony that mirrored the image of a gorgeous Friesian! He was beautiful, his mind was not. He was spoiled from day 1. So when she bought him (we were 11 and 12 years old) we new we had a project. I had my own project pony so I didn't pay much attention to hers. But I decided to jump on him one day! Boy was he acting like a fresh stud!
So there we were, 11 year old girl, 3 year old pony trotting around the pasture when all of a sudden BOLT! He was done, and headed for home. I one rein him to stop, nope not working, pull back on both reins, Hey, he does a sliding stop! Cool! As we're standing there, he gets light in the front end, wanting to go back to the bar. So I pull his head around and go in circles. Trying to calm him down. He's not having it. Anxiety kicks in and up he goes. Ok naughty. More circles, I'll wear you out. Nope! Up again, this time all the way and over!
As we're going over backwards, I didn't think to try to escape. I just took this colt down with me. A large pasture water pipe just happened to be between my spine and the ground. Lovely!
So, ground, pipe, my spine, saddle horse in the gut and 12.3hh pony on top of me. It was fabulous. My dad had to rescue me. I laid on the living room floor for a few days. A friend of ours who is a massage therapist came over once a day and did some work on my back. Soon after I was feeling well enough to ride again! I got back on that pony and boy, we had some great rides after that. Apparently because he flipped over, he didn't want to rear anymore. Great! So we fixed a problem, even though I had a bit of an injury! But that's ok, because we fixed the problem! Right?!

I laugh at that memory now. I was so young and didn't know a lot. I definitely didn't know what I do now. We all have those learning moments!

Thank you for sticking around to read my boring memory! ;)
Now a picture of Miss Maddison during her first lesson!

Puppy Palace!

Amongst many hobbies I like to do besides horse training, dog sitting is one of them! I get to meet some beautiful animals! Some not so much, like my own pup, (we sware he's part hyena!)
Today I get to spend the day with some beautiful Weimaraner's! Meet Angus and Sophia! Angus is the tan long hair, and Sophia is the brown short hair! Both pups belong to Estrella Farms. (Where I train.) You gotta love these big pooches! Angus is a big old cuddly fluffy bear, who is currently breathing on my laptop as I type this. Sophia is laying across my legs. Needs pet sitting? Give me a call ;)

And this would be my dorky Hyena! His name is Spartacus :)

Stephanie, JD and Mariel getting readu for our trail ride!

Your not riding unless your trail riding! (and news on Snickers)

Today was a fun day on the trails! I rode Lil Red (love this mare), my husband rode Parker (gelding owned by Mary Beddeson) and my client Mariel (Smoochies Owner) rode her other horse Shade. It was a fabulous day for both horse and rider. We all had a great time, fun conversations and Lil Red even got a nice canter in!

My husband couldn't resist and just had to toss his lariat around on Parker. ;)

Mister Snickers also wore a saddle for the first time today. We was a bit unsure of the saddle, but I worked him through it and by the end of the session he was back to his playful, craving-all-the-love-in-the-world self ;)

Snickers long over-due pedicure!!

Sorry guys I forgot to take pics!! But on Wednesday, January 25th Snickers got a pedicure! Snickers was a little nervous since he didn't know the farrier, but our farrier Brian Venables from Swift Water Farrier Services was very gentle and handed out a bunch of scratches. We assume that Snickers may not have had the best experience from his past farrier(s?). Poor guy! But hey, he's doing a lot better now!

January 23rd Training

Monday, January 23, 2017

First of all on Monday (its currently 9:51pm on Friday Jan 27)

I started out by catching Smoochie, Wyatt, Snickers and Faith and tying them all up in a line down our steel arena.

Faith was the first to the round pen! Our session started and ended very nicely. He came in for training on Saturday January 21st. Faith had a rough past before his current owner Linda Wheeler rescued him. Despite already being failed by humans, he didn't loose his love for attention and affection. So Monday we started out by lightly lounging Faith. He did very well, carrying his head low and relaxed, nice and slow, not pushing him, just letting him choose his speed. He was very responsive, but in a positive way. He was playful but never took his attention off me. We decided to try the surcingle. He walked calmly around the round pen on the line with no problem. Saddle time! I started by letting him sniff the saddle pad, followed by many pets, baby talk and kisses. Its so hard not to love on this guy. He's a gem! I rubbed the saddle pad on his face, neck, legs, back, rump, No Problem! Awesome! Let's try the saddle. Same steps applied, but I did not cinch the saddle right away. I let the cinch hang and I led him around the round pen wiggling the saddle a bit, letting him get used to the little weight on his back. I then cinched up the saddle a little, letting him feel the cinch, and led him around. Good to go! A little tighter! Walk, no problem. Now the cinch is nice and snug, walking and trotting like he's been doing this for ages. Faith did fabulous! He was then untacked, blanketed, treated and returned to his paddock. Yay Faith!

Snickers

So we don't know much about Snickers past. He was rescued for a kill pen in October of 2016 by his current owner, Janet Matthews. When he arrived on Jan 12th, he was in a real need of farrier work. Again, we don't know when the last time he had any done. He also hasn't been a fan of having his legs touched, let alone his hooves being picked up and held. We've been working on that since he arrived. On Monday he got his first ride! I started by lounging him at a walk and trot both directions in the round pen. He kept his attention on me during this process. He is very in your pocket and just like his paddock buddy Faith, he would roll over for some good scratches! I started him by walking him by our mounting block, kicking it lightly, trying to make noise with it so he would realize its not a silent object, but its nothing to be afraid of. No big deal. He didn't bat an eye. I squared him up to the mounting block, tied the lead rope like a rein to the halter and stood on the mounting block above his head. I began rubbing his neck, sides and rump. No nervous twitch. Ok great! I then layed across his back, flexing his neck to the left, then to the right, then a few steps back. Boring. Fine I'll mount! Back to the mounting block we went! Lay across the back, swing a leg while he was flexed to the left. Neck scratches. "good boy" Circle right, circle left. Perfect. Back up a few steps. No big deal. While I'm doing this there was 2 people standing outside the round pen, having a fun conversation and he kept his attention on me. He did absolutely everything I asked. We walked for about 5 minutes both directions. Stopping, backing, flexing, circles. Fabulous! Mister Snickers was loving having a job. Let's end on a good note! Good Job Snick!

Wyatt!

Wyatt is a young ApHc (appaloosa) gelding who we had in training last fall for a tune-up. He has been sold to a new owner who returned him to us for training to work on confidence building and some fine tuning. He came in the first week of January. We have been working on our soft feel. He is coming along nicely! I do believe he is in need of a float(his owner agrees!) so I'm waiting on a call back from out vet to schedule his float. Currently Wyatt is being rode in a bosal.

Lil Red

This pretty lady has been in training with us for almost 2 months now. When she came in, she liked to just do her own thing. She was already started under saddle. She came to us for problem solving. Lil Red had an extremely bad and dangerous habit of when she didn't feel like working, she would half rear, throw her nose in the air and run right through the bit. That needed to stop. For 30 days, we would warm her up in draw reins. That asked her to give to pressure, lower that noggin and just relax. Guess what? It's worked! She is learning to work with the bit and not against it! We can't wait for her owner Kathy Morphis to stop by and see for herself how her lovely mare (who is a barn favorite) is progressing! I jumped on Lil Red today with the bosal to see how she would respond. Not to bad pretty lady! 

Smoochie

Smoochie is a beautiful young paint mare owned by Mariel Ouradnik! Smoochie started her training with us at the beginning of January. We have been doing ground work and building a foundation. She has been started in the past, but we found holes in her training and wanted to fix those before climbing aboard! Today was her first ride with us, and first ride in months! We started nice and slow, asking for flexing to the left and right, small circles, larger circles, halt and back. We then asked for a trot, circles, halt back. No problems! Great job Smoochie! You'll be hitting the trails soon!

Welcome!

Hello everyone and welcome to Olney Performance Horses! This is where possible clients and current clients can see updates of what were up to and the horses in training! Not every horse will receive an every day update, but we will do everything we can to ensure no owners are left out of the circle when it comes to their beloved animals!
Here is the link to our web page!
Olney Performance Horses

Thank you for stopping by and enjoy! :)