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Tony and Sally For
now, Tony and Sally will share a page. For now they are linked as they
follow the same path in their early lives at Cedar Lodge. I do not
think it will be long, before they separate and have separate pages,
probably as early as Summer of 2010, as they are both progressing so
quickly and have now identified themselves as individuals, but for now,
we will keep them together. It was May 2009 when I got the call. It came in on my cell phone in the evening as I was thinking of going to bed. I remember looking out the door at the rain coming down in torrents as I encouraged a cat to go outside for the evening. Hardly anyone calls me on my cell phone in the evening, so I was immediately wary. I was no more comforted when I heard the voice. It was Connie Pass. I greeted Connie with a warm "hi". Connie was among other things, a horse dealer, and Chris and I and her had been friends for years. As with many of our old friends, we never seem to see enough of her, but over the last 2 years we had seen our share. Chris and I had bought three young horses from Connie in the last 18 months; Auntie Em, Joe and Hal. We were happy with all three, but young horses are a huge time commitment for us and we had our share of babies in the barn. We were not looking for more. "I'm not interested." I started the conversation. Connie only called me when she had horses for sale. Sometimes, I thought she called me because she thought she would have more luck with me than Chris. "Now wait, Amy. You haven't heard what I have. Maybe you know someone......" That was always how these conversations went. I listened on, as one does when they know they have no control of their actions. It took only a few moments for me to realize that Connie had struck on some of the only horses that I might be interested in hearing about. Chris and I had been keeping our eye out for some larger young horses.  Not
thoroughbreds, but perhaps Warmblood, thoroughbred crosses. Something
quiet and big enough to carry older campers or adults. Talented enough
to win, quiet enough to tolerate mistakes. Connie had somehow done her
magic again, and managed on a deal on two American
Warmblood/thoroughbred youngsters out of a breeding stable in Indiana.
4 year olds, big, attractive and of course not even halter broke. I
groaned. Breaking young horses from scratch was the long road to
creating usable camp horses. It took years from start to finished
product. We only did it these days with horses we planned on making
show horses of, or horses that had the potential to suit many purposes and
be here for years. Even so, it was bad enough to break 2 year olds, but
unhalter broken 4 year olds was another matter. By 4, horses are almost
to their physical maturity. Breaking them can be very hard, even
dangerous, if they decide differently. Of course, the pay off, was that
once you have them broke, they are old enough to go right into work as
they are almost adults. Connie went on to explain that the breeding
farm just had too many young horses and had not been able to get to
break all of them. She had picked up three of them. They were up on
weight, but had been neglected in foot care and handling, basically,
wild. The price was right. What could I say? I had to go look. Some
women buy shoes........Kali and Kendra went with me for the trip, and Kali brought a camera. Of the three, we were only interested in two, but it was obvious to me that not only was I interested in either of the two, but I couldn't decide which I liked better. They were not broke. I watched their wide eyes as I approached them. I petted the gray on the neck and she backed away in fear."Lots of gentling to do on these two." I thought to myself. But they were big, good moving, attractive and had kind eyes. I made a deal with Connie to let me have them for a week. I promised that if I returned them, they would be better broke when she got them back then what they were now, so it was a win, win deal. I intended to spend the week handling them and teaching them to lunge so I could properly see how they moved. I also wanted Chris to have a good look at them. I still couldn't decide on which one I favored. I was hoping Chris would have a preference. Connie agreed hesitantly to one week. She brought them over a couple days later.  A
week is a short time to get anything done with young horses, as they
really dictate how quickly you can progress. I started right away day
one, tyeing them up, grooming and picking up their feet. Their feet
hadn't been trimmed in close to a year, and both of them walked like
saddle breds to make up for their long toes. Both had thrush and
flaking soles, but they stood quietly and tried to behave with what I
was asking. I took them both out and started the process of teaching
them to lunge and lead. By the end of the week both stood quietly for
grooming. Both were lunging both directions and leading willingly where
ever we chose with little encouragement. We still hadn't decided which
we preferred. We had named the 16.0 gray and white mare, "Sally" and
the 16.2 hand brown and white gelding, "Tony". Sally was spookier when
you worked with her. Easier to frighten in the stall. She came out to
ring more nervous and forward in her movement, but she seemed to catch
on quicker and didn't fight about what was being asked. Tony was a
better mover. He was quieter and kinder to move around in the barn,
like a big kid he wanted to nuzzle and bound with you every minute you
were with him. Out in the ring however, he spooked easy to things
around his environment. He fought learning his lessons. What more, he
was strong and
he knew it. Tony and I fought about lunging. I usually did my share of
getting dragged, rather than lunged. My guess is that someone
had worked with him before, either on lunging or haltering. Tony knew
how big he was. He knew how to use his weight against you and when he
decided he did not want to be somewhere, he left. There was little you
could do to stop him. At his age and size, he would be difficult to
break. His training sessions usually took longer than Sally's and ended
not as well. Still, it was not enough to make up my mind for me. I took
in to account their handling and back ground. We still couldn't make up
our minds.  The blacksmith was due at the end of the week.
Connie had been calling. She wanted an answer. Daily, we seemed to
change our minds from one to the other. I had hoped with help from
Kali, Kendra and Chris the choice would be easier. It wasn't. We
decided to let Bob, Blake and Brad our blacksmiths trim their feet. For
lack of any better reason, we decide that we would let them take a look
at their feet, and see if they had a preference. We were stumped. Both
young horses came down the middle aisle warily to be trimmed. They had
only been routinely picking up their feet for a week. All this motion
and noise, strange men, strange stuff, it was allot for a young horse
to manage. Again, however, both tried. They tried to be good and stood
for their long feet to be trimmed and for the men to look them over. We
asked their opinions. The answer? "We like them both equally for
different reasons." Was the answer. That was no help what so ever. In the end, we bought them both. It seemed the only thing to do. If you can't decide between two pair of shoes, what do you do? But them both. I'm sure you'll wear them equally in the end........We bought them and threw them back out in pasture. After all, it was almost June. We were readying camp, already showing other horses, wayyyyyy too busy to worry about babies. They would be fall projects, but for now, they would just be something to look at in the barn.  It was in the middle
of July, 2009 that I started looking at them again. Camp was in full
swing and going great. I had been lucky enough to have all three
nieces, Kali, Kendra AND Allison on staff. They had taken over many of
my duties and for once in a long time, I was starting to find myself
with a couple of free hours in the afternoons. I had started to
calculate. The way I break young horses, with all the ground work,
lunging, ground driving, stall work, slow work........it's usually 2
months of intensive work before they are walking and trotting in a ring
by themselves with me on their backs. Another month of cantering before they would be far
enough to start over cross rails, and months of that before they were
cantering courses. If I waited to start Tony and Sally after camp, I
would have to wait until after our Labor Day horse show. That would
give me basically three months before winter........and everyone knows
I don't ride in the winter.......I would be lucky to barely get them
going over cross rails before the snow flew. Then, the way springs can
go around here, it may be the NEXT fall before I was able to give them
intense work again....they could be here another two years before I
could even consider getting them in the show ring. However. If I
started them during summer camp. If I worked one during rest hour, and
one after, I might be on them by the end of camp. I might be able to
keep them going until Labor Day, they might be able to start jumping by
September and by the end of fall, who knows? I flew the plan past
Chris. It had it's advantages. Chris was down in the barn daily during
the summer and there would be a couple of weeks at least that I needed
her help on each baby when I first started riding them. It would fit in
well to her schedule. We decided to go ahead with it. This is when the
stories splits.  Sally:Sally started her training nervous. Before camp started, we had moved her stall to the middle of the barn. She hadn't taken well to the change. She got nervous with all the camp activity and took to rearing to look over the wall at the horse in the next stall. She quickly lost the privilege of a front gate on her stall, when she caught a leg over the top. She spent a few weeks with kicking chains on her front legs-that stopped her pawing and banging. Silly as it sounds however, when I started work with Sally, she got better. Her first couple of days out of the barn during lesson times were nervous and forward, but then it was like she said, "Oh, this is where you have all been going." and Sally settled. After that, she learned quickly. We were able to remove the kicking changes from her daily routine within the first week of work. With in that week she was lunging with full tack on. Another 10 days of ground driving around camp getting use to everything that was going on. Besides not liking going down trail by herself, she was quiet and responsive around kids on the play ground, the music program, the soccer games, the riding lessons and anything else that might be going on. Another week with Chris's help in the stall with me on her back, and  Sally
was ready to go outside. One day spooky outside,
and she was soon quietly being led around the small ring with me on her
back. A week in the small ring, and she was ready to move into the
jumper ring. At that point, Sally was ready with in days to participate
in Chris's Horse Lovers classes. That was how it went with Sally;
quick. I am a firm believer in letting the horse dictate how quickly
they are ready to move on. Sally put up few walls. There were certainly
things we needed to work more on (the canter, circling at the canter)
that took more time to progress, but Sally was always quiet and
willing, no matter what the task at hand. I often over the last 5
months have found myself calling her "Sweet Sally" and wondering what
her show name would end up being between that, and "Sexy Sally" or the
original thought of "Mustang Sally". By the end of summer I was comfortable enough with Sally's progress to allow Kendra and Kali to ride her. Though they both commented that she was "allot of work" (being a bit on the poky side), Sally took her new riders in stride and was as well behaved with both of them, as she was with me. I couldn't have been happier with her progress. Right after camp, we got in a very busy time, preparing for the LMHJA Labor Day horse show that we host on these grounds. I rarely have time to ride, and if I do, I keep my rides to a minimum. As I already had committed to two client horses during that time, and was planning on showing my Pre Green show horse, Hal at Labor Day, I had little time for babies. I sadly put Tony on the shelf for two weeks and asked Kendra and Kali if they would like to keep Sally going for me. Luckily, they agreed. Their extra time paid off, as by Labor Day I felt comfortable enough with the way Sally was going in groups of horses to offer Kendra the ride on her in a couple of hack classes. Surprised, Kendra readily agreed. Sally was scheduled for two flat classes on Saturday, and one on Sunday. There was no divisions that she qualified for running on Saturday, so we scheduled her into two classes as "not to be judged", meaning she enters the classes and hacks legally, but the judge does not look at her as competing. We do this often just to get young horses in and experience at the level at which they're comfortable with. Sally was a trooper, though she found the turning and cantering at the same time things a bit of a challenge. On Sunday she was slated to go in one class. This class was one that she could legally compete in, so she was listed as such. At the beginning of the class, the judged radioed back to the announcers booth. "Can I starting pinning that gray horse (Sally) yet?" She asked with just a hint of annoyance. Lisa, from the entry booth confirmed that she could. Sally pinned second out of the class of 10. Not a bad placing for her first outing!.  Since
that first weekend in September, Sally has made steady progress. She
started jumping crossrails the week after Labor Day and moved quickly
to gates, trotting in and cantering out, brush boxes, to the Regular
ring jumps and finally cantering in and cantering out of lines. Sally
went away to other horse show grounds twice. First, to Huntington's schooling show. We got there
too late for her classes (besides, it was too muddy), but Sally hacked
around all four rings, and though she was looky and amazed by the new
environment, she was quiet and well behaved. Her second outing was the
following weekend to Alpine where we were participating in a clinic.
Again, though excited and looky, Sally behaved well for a baby. By
November 2009, Sally was cantering full courses of fences between 2'0
and 2'3". She has been working on her flying lead changes and
understands them in "theory", even though she doesn't always understand
the need:). Sally is in a good place to be "put to bed" for the winter.
With in weeks, Sally will stop her training for the winter, and have
time to finish growing up and go back to being "just a horse".
Training will commence in April of 2010. The hope will be that she will
be ready to compete in the 2'3"-2'6" division by June. Sally seems well
on her way. Stay tuned!Tony  Tony started his training
with attitude. I don't quite know why, but it seemed like everything I
tried to teach him, Tony was ready to fight about. I could theorize
that perhaps it was his age, he was lazy, he had had bad experiences
before he came to Cedar Lodge, he knew he was big, he was scared, he hadn't truly bonded with
humans, we got off on a bad foot with lunging arguments, etc. but in
the end, I couldn't be sure which it was. My guess is it's probably a
combination of all of the above. I can tell you that I got a "women's
intuition" that Tony was not the kind to be pushed fast. That Tony was
not going to be a "black and white" training horse, and if I wasn't
willing to embrace "gray" while dealing with him, I was not going to
get what I wanted out of the deal. Tony is the kind of horse that you
are relieved you are not breaking for someone else. That you can take
whatever time is needed and not worry about seeing results until he is
ready. My first hint that Tony was going to be difficult came in the first week of work with him, way back before we committed to buy him. Tony argued no more than a usual horse about lunging at a walk, trot and canter in both directions, but because of his size, we got into quite a huff about his right lead canter. It should have been easier than it was. Tony has a easy, attractive, well balanced (for a baby) canter, but things got ugly fast, and the result by the end of the week was that, despite all my best efforts and different methods, when I asked for the right lead canter, Tony ran straight past me, hard and fast, locked his neck with his back turned towards me, kicked out at me on the way by and dragged the lunge line out of my hand. He didn't do this once. He did it EVERY time. I bought him regardless of this fight, but I did so with a wary suspicion that training Tony was not going to be by the text book. In July, when I started up with Tony for real, I spent the couple of weeks working on that lunging issue. Not that it was all that important in the greater scheme of things, but I had a nervous feeling that if Tony won this argument, I was going to be in real trouble down the line. For almost 2 weeks I worked on lunging in many different ways, with many different methods. I won the right lead, eventually, but it was precarious at best. I had many drop down drag out fights with Tony that had us both in a lather and me running afterwards to my chiropractor. I lost much more than I won. When I finally chanced upon a combinations of tools that allowed me the right lead canter on the lunge, I got it for two days in a row......and moved on quickly. I would work on perfecting that skill someday later, but for now, it was time to move on. Spending two weeks on lunging had already put Tony a week behind Sally in training, but as I said before, horses dictate how quickly they can learn a lesson and my job is to hopefully listen and be patient. To my relief, and the end to much of my apprehension about Tony, Tony took to ground driving like a trooper. Better than Sally, in fact, he didn't mind going down trail, or to new environments. He didn't like the drama or music programs at camp, and we did an extra couple of days going by camp activities until he would walk by quietly. He did NOT drag me running towards the barn, which is what I had feared, so I was much relieved. The same happened with backing him in the stall. Dead quiet. Except for a cocked eye at me on his back, my weight on him and my walking him around the stall was not an issue. Even venturing outside into the small ring while being led, turned out to be no problem. We were golden until we let Tony go with me on his back. Again, we hit a wall. Fortunately, not as big a wall as we hit with lunging or I probably would have been on the ground, but I could tell that it was time to slow down, and once again, I listened to that inner voice and took it slow. That right lead had made a definite impression on me. It took Tony over a month to adjust to me being on his back, giving directions to what he should do. Walking, turning and heaven forbid, trotting were major challenges. Changing rings took weeks to over come. Tony spent most of this time, turning and glaring at me on his back. He bonded with anyone at his head leading me, but wanted nothing to do with me as I rode him. During this time, camp ended and I sadly put Tony away for two weeks while we busied with the preparations for our horse show. It was frustrating, but a needed sacrifice. When I picked up the reins again at the beginning of September, Tony had forgotten much of what he had learned. We went back to the stall for a couple of days to remind him what humans on his back meant. It took a week to resume to where we had left all. I worked for several weeks with Tony in the front ring. We decided that he was much better with another horse in the ring, so we always brought someone else along, even if it was just old Max to stand in the middle and baby sit. I knew what was looming in from of me, and I just didn't think Tony was prepared for the challenge. We had not tried the canter. The reason I was hesitant was an unusual one. Tony was lazy off my leg-not unusual. Most young horses are and you usually spend your first couple of weeks at the walk and trot teaching them that legs mean to go forward. You do this by using voice commands (that they have learned on the lunge line) and reinforcing them with a tap with a crop behind your leg when they don't respond. Sally had learned this lesson quickly and it had been reinforced many times quickly, so that she had progressed to cantering with in a month of me riding her. Tony was different. He was lazy and sulky about going forward. He glared at me as I rode him (I mean it, turned his head and glared) and the crop was an issue. I got a feeling that it might be, so I used it sparingly, but after a couple of weeks of riding at a walk, trot, I finally got tired of clucking like a chicken and bumping him constantly with my legs. At the trot, I tapped him with the crop when he broke down into a walk without being asked. Tony pinned his ears, balled up and glared at me. He trotted forward unwillingly, went about 6 steps across the diagonal and bucked up in the air. I don't know if I should call it a buck, technically. Tony didn't (doesn't) put his head down when he does it. He just raises both his hind legs as high as he can, and Tony can get pretty high in the air. That first time, he scared himself, probably with my shifting around trying to stay on and he went running forward. I made a quick note to self: Use crop carefully with Tony. This crop issue created a definite problem with progress, as moving forward in front of my leg is something that every horse needs to learn, especially ones that some day will be jumping. That is why after a month of walking and trotting, I still hadn't cantered Tony. I wanted him to be secure with my moving around on him and I wanted to make sure, that once I addressed the issue of cantering, I would win.The kicking up in the air resurfaced several times as we went along, never at the same time and was high enough to throw me forward unto his neck. Fortunately, Tony did not add in a buck with his head DOWN, or I would have quickly been dislodged. When I could put off the canter no longer (daily, it was all I seemed to think about), I took Tony back to the lunge line first. This time with a longer lunge whip and side reins (that Tony was now ready for), I was pleased to discover that though Tony was still a bit bugged eyed, the cantering on the right lead was no longer a big issue. I worked the canter transition several times, both directions to remind him of the voice cue. The next day, I asked while on his back. Actually, it went ok. It took Tony trotting around the ring two times really fast before he finally popped into a canter for two strides and then broke back into a trot. The next time was a bit faster and the next time a bit faster than that. Any thoughts of urging a quicker response were quickly thwarted when a tap with my crop got a kick straight up in the air, enough to throw me onto his ears. Though his head was still up, it was still rather unnerving. Though we had accomplished our first canter, I took little comfort in my accomplishment. Tony had no right lead. He would canter alright. Both directions. Just on the left lead both ways. As much as I balanced him for the right, he just waited until he was balanced back for the left and picked that up instead. Without use of my crop, I was hopelessly stuck. I embraced the "gray" of Tony and cantered around for 2 weeks on the left lead, working on my transitions, working on keeping it going and not stressing the "small stuff" of a right lead. To fix our newest problem, I went back to the lunge line. Now that we had a right lead on the lunge line, I fought the lead there, asking for it again and again when he got it wrong. On his back, I waited and worked on making sure he was willing to stay in front of my leg for the canter transition. Then one day, when Tony had memorized the routine and was willing to go forward quickly into the canter, I picked my battle and went around, and around, and around asking for the right lead and trotting as quickly as I could when he got it wrong. At one time he ran away with me on the left lead (in the right direction). I was very impressed with that, for a horse that usually won't go forward. Eventually, we stumbled on to the right lead by accident. Fortunately I felt it immediately (this is why you much work on "feeling" for your lead and not looking down to "see" your lead, class) and encouraged him on with enough praise and hoopla, you would have thought he had won the Olympics. Tony must have thought I was crazy. Those five or 10 strides that I got before he broke that day were enough for me. I put him away with my small victory. The next day we got the right lead with only a half ring of argument. The next day on the third try. After that, Tony got it the first or second time I asked. Another mission accomplished.  I
believe the right lead was the last big fight I had with Tony to the
date of this writing. Since
then, his progress has been slow, but steady. A couple of weeks ago
Kali mentioned, "You don't want to miss more than a couple of days with
Tony and Sally, they progress every day!" Tony has been working hard on
perfecting both his leads and his general flat work. He has now started
to jump and is jumping cross rails and small gates at a trot. Though he
doesn't
seem to care much, he is far from finished in his jumping. He goes down
trail happily and works in all rings with and without other horses.
Though I am happy with Tony's progress, I know he is far from complete.
I have not forgotten those first big fights and still embrace the
"gray" when dealing with him. We have decided to put him on the "2
year plan", or more over the "Not
in one year" plan. Meaning, Tony will not plan on showing in the
pre-green division, like Sally, next summer. We just don't think he
will be ready and we like Tony too much to push him too fast. After
all,
he IS only 4, and look how much he has learned in his first 6 months at
Cedar Lodge!
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