I spent a lot of time riding him and refreshing his memory in the arena on being supple.  I used all the natural riding aids as in, legs, seat, hands and voice.  I also occasionally had to tickle him on the rump with the crop.  When I say tickle, I actually mean tickle, not hit, strike, beat or anything else.  Just the thought of the whip often times gets the horse motivated.  This particular horse was already well trained.   I found he became stuck occasionally when asked to move forward on the trail or going past his buddies.    This is where arena work comes in handy for the horse.

The main point I want to come to in this post is teaching the rider.   His owner had raised him and taught him herself.  But she was a little intimidated by  his attitude when he left his buddies or got stuck on the trail not wanting to go forward for her.  I worked with her for a few hours when she came to pick him up, teaching her to sit properly and use her natural aids.  Once she kept her legs on him, learned to bend her horse (which is a form of getting your horse supple) and learned to sit properly and securely, her whole riding experience changed for the better.  So techinically I helped her improve the way she rode which fixed the horse.

The moral here is to improve the way you ride to improve the performance of your horse.  The more you learn about riding, the more you convey that to your horse when you ride and before you know what is happening, the two of you are working together for a safe and happy ride.

For more on training the perfect trail horse check out our website at www.baymountacres.com or contact me at sherry@baymountacres.com   704-902-7345.

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Learning the Obstacles

This is my quarter horse, Lakota. Not much to look at, but he is a very good trail horse. Not much in the arena, but then I rarely ride him in the arena. He is just a good dependable trail buddy. Goes through anything and over anything. Although, he is always hungry and does like to snatch a leaf now and again.

I have recently started building a trail obstacle course to teach the horses and my students more about trail riding. We have a lot of fun learning to walk the horses through the obstacles and then to ride them through. This is a great way to get over fears for both and to have fun with your horse.

Fall is a great time for riding with the days cooler and a lot fewer biting bugs. It is also a great time to have your horse in training as well as through the winter months when you won’t be riding quite as much. Here at Baymount Farm we train the horses from ages two years and up. We start them out in the round pen and continue through until they have plenty of saddle time to understand what is wanted of them for the basics of riding. More on our training at Baymount Acres Training.     We take our time in making sure the horse understands the lessons from the ground up before we get in the saddle. Then we build on each task or skill being sure to repeat as often as necessary until they have a good foundation before we move forward.  After we have established a routine for the horse that is safe, we invite the owner to take as many lessons as time allows for them to learn everything we have taught the horse.    This ensures safety, knowledge and an immediate fix to any problems that may arise when we are not there.  Training both the horse and the rider is high on our list of priorities when we are in the process of training the perfect trail horse. 

Contact me at sherry@baymountacres.com or  704-902-7345.

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It was a long process, and at times I became very frustrated trying to juggle that with my own riding business and lessons for myself, but I made it.  I just came back from 4 wonderful days in Ocala, FL at the Marion Therapuetic Riding Association where I attended a four day workshop and certification program.  Two and half days of classroom and hands on experience learning about disabilities, adaptive equipment, safety in teaching, plus a day and half certification in riding skills and teaching a 20 minute class to students with disabilities was enough to wear my nerves to a frazzle.   I was second in line for my evaluation to see if I had passed.   I have never seen 15 minutes pass so slowly while waiting for them to call me in next.  I just new I had blown the riding test, because I got so nervous I forgot the riding pattern.   But the test wasn’t about the pattern, but about my riding abilities.   So I passed!  

Then on top of that a biggie, and I mean a very biggie is remembering to close the gate after the riders enter the ring.  On the role playing part where I taught, I FORGOT to close the gate.   In a real situation that could have been disasterous.  And had I done that during my certification while teaching actual students I would have failed.  But I remembered to close the gate, however, in reverse, while they were bringing the horse up to the ramp for mounting, I FORGOT to have them OPEN the gate during the actual evaluation.  But this did not count against me because I remembered before I have the student mount, so all was safe.  Anyway, you had to be there to understand how important this is in the certification process. 

The important thing it, I PASSED!   And I am very proud to be a Registered Riding Instructor for NARHA.    Now this simply means that I can work at a center teaching people with disabilites to ride.  Eventually, I may open my own center, but that is a long way down the road.  My next step is to work toward my Advanced Certification.   This is a lot harder, requires more teaching hours, 120, and a lot more knowlege of disabilites and their relationship to riding.   This may take me a couple of years to achieve. 

Thankfully, I had three wonderful, and I mean really wonderful evaluators.   One was the Advanced Riding Instructor at the MTRA center in Ocala, FL, Kate Robbins.   She did an excellent job as host of the workshop and was extremely helpful in telling us the things we needed to know about the center while we were there and provided breakfast and lunch for us everyday.  Thank you again, Kate.  The other two were Lily Kellogg and Gail Pace from Texas.   They were just as wonderful at putting us at ease, answered all our questions, made sure we did not miss anything and were very forthcoming on constructive criticism and how to do things properly, safely and professionally.   Wonderful ladies, I really enjoyed them.  They all are great teachers full of compassion for people.   

Please look up the NARHA website    www.narha.org.   You will be amazed at how detailed and involved is this organization.

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It always amazes me how being with a horse opens up a person’s awareness of who they are and what they can do.  I have found a new niche in life after changing careers and re-opening Baymount Farm to the public again for lessons and training.  I have also found a new direction in riding that earlier I did not know existed to strongly in our society.  That is using horses for therapy for people with disabilities.   I volunteered last year with a NARHA (North American Riding for the Handicapped Association) Center in Concord, NC called Wings of Eagles.  That was a life changing experience for me literally.  Since then I have been working on getting certified as a registered riding instructor for NARHA.  

I will be leaving soon for a four day on-site workshop and certification program for NARHA.    I am a little nervous and have been studying a lot for this OSWC program.  I have two and half days of workshop with role playing, then a riding test (which should be a peice of cake?), then actually teach a 20 minute class to people with disabilities.  That I am really looking forward to doing.  Hopefully, after all this is over, I will be able to volunteer more time to NARHA centers in our area when I am not busy teaching my own lessons.   The great thing about NARHA certification is that is does not limit an instructor to people with physical disabilities.   We are trained to teach people of all levels; mental, emotional and physical disabilities and people without disabilites.   It has really opened my eyes in learning how to communitcate my instructions about riding to my students. 

There are many certification programs out there for riding instructors and I have looked into quite a few of them.  But the NARHA training is the only one that I have found that offers me what I wanted in training.   I have had to hone up on my horsemanship skills, riding skills, people skills, communication skills, barn management skills, training skills, and get CPR and First Aid certified before I could go to the  OSWC program.  I also had to take tests about NARHA standards and accredidations, learn about many disabilities, get 25 hours of teaching people with disabilities and learn to look at teaching in a whole new light.  In preparation for this I started taking more riding lessons myself in different disciplines just to make sure I was well rounded in my teaching practices.  There has been a lot of preparation for this as I said, but it has been well worth the process and I am excited to be going to the workshop finally.  Hopefully, my next blog will be about my actuall certification.  Wish me luck.

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This is part of what we do here at Baymount Farm.  Not only do we teach people to ride hunt seat, equitation, western or just to trail ride, we also train the horses for the trails in order to have save and fun all day rides.  I am lucky enough to have a wooded area in my back property for training.   We cross creeks, mount and dismount on stumps, go over gravel areas, learn to back uphill, walk over or jump small logs, accomodate hanging vines, trot over poles, open and close gates, walk calmly by scary objects, but much, much more.  We often have running and barking dogs, turkeys flying by when spooked, large equipment next door, or horses in nearby pastures wanting to play.   All these distractions just help in our training efforts to get a horse ready for the trail, so they can be ridden anywhere.    We also have a large pond for training them to go into a lake or cross a river.  The more exposure the quicker the horse becomes accustomed to different areas and the safer they are to ride. 

Take your horse out and have fun, but be safe.  Spring is here, they days are warmer and longer.  It’s the best time of year for training.

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Click on the enclosed file above and read a very special paper written by a young lady who came to me to improve her riding.  She had been taking group lessons at a neighboring barn, but felt individual lessons would benefit her best.  She has been with me for several months now and has improved her confidence tremendously.  She was already an excellent rider.   However, she wanted to have a more secure seat and be able to ride outside the ring without the fear. 

She has accomplished this being able to take local trail rides on the farm with me and other students.  We are having lots of fun inside and outside the ring.

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More information can be found on the website about the camp.  www.Baymountacres.com.

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Do you pull or yank on your reins to get results from your horse?  If so, you are shouting at him as if you were screaming into those highly sensitve ears that can hear a bird fly away before we even see it.  Will you get results?  Of course you will.  A horse will either turn into pressure or turn away from pressure.  Their first inclination will be to turn away from pressure and if that doesn’t work they will go with it – for a while.  Ever had your horse pull on the bit, toss his head, tighten his jaw, grab the bit and keep going?  That’s because you taught him to do that by pulling or yanking on the reins.  Remember, if you keep pressure on, the horse will find a way to escape that pressure or worse, learn to ignore you. 

So, here is the fix.  Learn to ask, yes, I say ask,    your horse to respond to your hands on the reins.  Next time you ride, use very light pressure on one rein by squeezing that rein like a sponge until your horse does something.  Something like move his ear, move his body, head or anything that lets you know he is getting the message.   As soon as he responds, no matter how small the response, stop squeezing!  You just taught your horse to respond to your question.  Then make a game of it until you have taught your horse to direct rein left, right, back and gain speed control with as little pressure on the reins as you can possibly use.  Don’t get frustrated if your horse does not respond right away.  Don’t force the issue, stop if you find yourself getting frustrated and wanting to pull or yank. Walk away and try again latter. 

THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT AT YOUR HORSE TO GET HIM TO RESPOND!  Let me say that again.  There is no need to shout at your horse to get him to respond.  ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ASK!  All you have to do is ask and wait for the right answer.  It is like teaching a kindergartner to write his ABC’s.  Start with little steps, a soft voice, lots of praise and be patient while he is learning.  Before long, like your child, your horse will be wrting in cursive.

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We saddle up first thing after the kids get there and go to the ring.  Most of the children have no idea how to ride, some think they know and a few have had lessons from friends and family.  Their hands, arms and legs are everywhere.  Thank goodness I have a group of slow, forgiving horses who don’t mind all the pulling, yanking, kicking and thrashing around done by these kids.  By the end of the first day the kids are in love with the horse they have ridden.   They have tacked, groomed, washed, picked hooves, grazed and loved on their horse and want to stay for more.  

The rest of the week is spend working on using their hands, voice and legs to ride.  They learn through coloring pictures of horses and tack the different parts of the horse and the difference in english and western tack.  They learn the parts of the hoof and how to take care of it.  And they have cleaned and oiled tack, cleaned a stall, learned how to feed and what to feed, learned about wormers and parasite control as well as washed their horse.   I think the most fun they have on the ground with their horse is braiding manes and tails. 

At the end of the week, they have a horse show where they present their horse all braided and ride a pattern they have learned over the week.  They are so proud of themselves for riding their horse all alone and stand quite proudly for pictures taken by family and friends. 

I am glad I have done this for these children.  It has been fun for me and fun for them.  I think the parents appreciate their children getting to do something for an entire week they they would not normally have had the chance to do.  I so look forward to doing this next year.

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Eclipse was born here, on our farm, on April 17, 2001. She was a tiny little thing, and when she was born she terrified me! I swear, I thought she wasn’t breathing. But, as she is now, Eclipse was stubborn and took her first breath and was up in less than half an hour. Since then, I’ve played and worked with her though not as much as I have recently.

In the first year of her life, I was more of a pasture buddy to Eclipse than anything. There were not very firm boundaries that I set, so she literally started to walk all over me, push me, nip me, and run from me. It continued this way through the years, and it was never a realization for me until I went off to college full time in 2008. The thing is that I never worked with Eclipse on solid ground manners, and that goes a long way in every type of training you do with your horse. I’m a firm believer in making the horse behave on the ground, which makes it easier to deal with them in the saddle.

Eclipse has transformed wonderfully since I started working with Jennifer Dipple, a great trainer and instructor over at Full Circle Farm. It was close to impossible to get Eclipse to listen to me over two weeks ago, and now she is not only listening but trying to do it before I even ask her to! Something that I have discovered since I’ve started working with her consistently, and something I have been semi-aware of the entirety of her life, is that Eclipse can read my body language before I even ask with the aids.

It’s frustrating a lot of the time, because I am still learning myself and am not completely solid with my aids. So when Eclipse tries to take these “shortcuts” it doesn’t really help me to understand fully. Nonetheless, she is an incredibly smart horse with an appytude which makes a frustrating combination.

As you can see in the video posted previously, she transformed from the beginning of the lesson into the end. It is an 8 minute long video, and you can hear my instructor, Jennie, in the background but it shows the change she went through in only that hour long lesson. Incredible how quickly she learns. The video was on Friday, and on the Monday before I could not get Eclipse to listen or even pay attention! She was throwing a fit around the entire arena, trying her hardest to find anything else to look at, or just ignoring me altogether!

Consistent work with her in just a week has done wonders. It takes quite a bit of patience, which is something I am still in the process of learning. I have no patience, and I frequently get angry with Eclipse. The trick is finding a way to channel that anger and frustration instead of taking it out on your horse. Your horse doesn’t know why your angry at them. Why should they? Think of your horse as a toddler, they have the same attention span and the same way of learning. I know for a fact that Eclipse is intelligent and learns quickly, but she constantly finds way to test me. As if to ask,”Okay, are you letting me get away with this today? Are you sure you remember?” As soon as I have finished reminding her of what we worked on previously, and as soon as she has done testing me, it is an almost smooth ride. I say almost, because she is still not one hundred percent with the aids or reactions and it will be a while before she is.

I have found that working with her on Bending and Suppling has really helped her and myself. I’ve learned to work with my horse, instead of against her or trying to force her to do what I want. Before, I never really understood what I was asking or why I was asking these things. I did not understand, really understand, how to ask the horse something. Since working with Eclipse, my relationship with he has also grown. We are a lot closer than we were before and I understand her better. I’ve found that both Patience and Consistence are very important to working with a horse, and although I have always known this it is different knowing it and understanding it.

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