Playtime!

The cold finally let up, although it will only be briefly! Timing didn't really work out for me to get a big ride in like I had hoped to so I at least took the chance to put the horses into the front pasture for some playtime. Below, my son's Paint, Cookie is finally standing up to Linus. He is the big boss and was mighty jealous when she came along so I am glad to see Cookie doing this. Even if in play. There was no contact and they were not actually as close as they look. I just thought it was a good catch for using a camera phone!

It started to snow lightly while the horses were out. 

Linus is a nice mover. He has a lot of power to his movement whereas I find the girls are more pretty and dainty movers. Especially the Arab, Allie. She is a prancy showoff!

I love riding his trot. It is so smooth.

He is a typical Curly and always has to have his nose in the camera!

I ran to my house to get Owen off of the bus and then when we were back he helped me to bring the horses back to their paddock. He loves Cookie and they are so cute together. 

I love this picture below of Linus looking on at them. Like he is checking up on them.

I did not have any tack out, but our trailer is parked right beside the horses and we keep the halters, brushes and my buggy in it. So, I decided to be lazy and grabbed a rope halter and 2 lead ropes and rode Linus down to get the mail. I climb up on a round bale or those gates you see in the background to slide onto him... I am no vaulter, but it sure looks cool when someone can vault on!! 

Linus was a little bit thrown off by being ridden in this halter. It is a rope halter with 2 rings on it for reins so reacts quite similar to a sidepull. For never being ridden like this though, I was very happy with him! Tomorrow is supposed to be a beautiful day here. I think around -4C and some light snow. So I am really, really hoping for a light day at work so I can get a good ride in!! Gotta put some miles on that new saddle!! : )

Donna and Linus

Lunenburg, ON

You put your left leg in, you put your left leg out...

You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around... Well at least that's what it sounds like when I watch the video of my lesson on Jane from Wednesday.

Here is a video of us "getting it" in our lesson...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QSTVwexyKQ

It's terrible quality for some reason but you can see the point.

I didn't get a chance to do the ride with me, the joys of owning your own place.  We had to get ready for the snow storm that came the next day.

I'd like to do a more detailed introduction of each of my horses so you get to know them like I do.
So I'l try to do one post a month of more details about one horse.  First up is OYY Queen Jane Approximately.   Her and I started out our riding career pretty rocky (floats off to dream flash back like an 80's sitcom).....

......The day I met Jane I was still recovering from a chipped bone in my foot thanks to my last eventing prospect's reenactment of a bronc's first time out of the chute.  I still didn't feel comfortable riding being just out of my boot cast,  she seemed to like me though (cause that's a great way to decide to buy a horse) she wanted to cuddle and was drawn to me.  So I had a friend ride her for me to see how she went about.  Other then wanting to go out the door and rushy at the canter she was just like the videos and I LOVED her in the videos.
You know the rest, she fit in our trailer perfectly and home she came.

My first ride on her started off great.  We walked down my friends driveway and around the yard, so I decided to see what she knew...  I apparently like to push my limits...  I asked her to back up one step!  Up she went in the air with her front legs and I thought for sure we were going over backwards on pavement.  As I was in the air I said "You got to me kidding me"!  All I needed was another crazy bay horse trying to kill me.  I give all horses the benefit of the doubt though and know enough to have their teeth checked anytime they rear up.  Teeth floated, check, no rearing, check!

Second and maybe third ride were also great.  We had some work in the canter and bending to do but she was just what I thought she would be, fun!

Then...like a mare, she flipped a switch...I've never been bucked off a horse from a standstill before I was even all the way in the saddle.  I was alone so I decided to lunge her and not get back on...remember I just had a nice accident.

So the next time I get on she is doing great.  We walk, trot, canter then switch directions and canter left...NOPE.  Horses that can buck on a circle with their head up are just showing off how talented they are.  This time I landed on my feet.

At this point I'm doubting ever buying her.  I'm thinking she has always been a dirty bucker but something tells me to keep trying to figure her out.

Well after treating her for ulcers and a nice Chiropractor visit I'd like to say she hasn't bucked since, but I'm not going too cause that would jinx it. :-)



But really now she is Ms. Trustworthy and takes me over, under, around anything I ask.  She might give an opinion about it but I know it's her just learning the boundaries and figuring things out.















We competed in our first schooling event at the end of last year and she carried me through the course with such confidence.  I can't wait to event with her this year.





Back to reality.... We have a lot of work to do.


Lessons with Brad and then some more lessons with Brad should do the trick.

some new tack

Well, I know some of you have raised a young horse so probably know the frustration of ever changing tack sizes!! At least halters are fairly easy to replace but saddles?! Oh my!! I won't tell you how many Linus has had. Last year I had tried so hard to get him in shaoe and he just didn't seem to be losing. Except for his girth. So I finally broke down and got him a draft saddle. It worked perfect for us...til he decided to start losing the weight I had tried to get off him...really?? Wait til I buy you a draft saddle?? Thanks! 

So funny enough, I post his draft saddle online. It sells within a few days and I agree to meet the buyer, a truck driver, before my Karate class. In the meantime, a friend picked up what was supposed to be my new saddle but was way too small for Linus. Turns out the girl who bought my saddle for her wide Haffie actually owns a Curly!! I have directed her to the blog and Curly Horse Country so maybe she'll join us : )

A neighbour deals saddles and so after trying 7 of them, I liked this one best for fit. The top photo is the before..which already included a good wipe down!! The bottom pic is after I gave it a good cleaning! I hate seeing leather neglected. 

So, hopefully if the weather warms up a tad, we will have a lot of new miles to report! We did have a great ride testing this saddle the other day but it was too cold for pictures. We went through some of our now closed cow pastures and up a trail bordering our farm. Ditches, deep snow and crust were part of the ride but then we enjoyed a nice canter on a smoother trail!! : )

Better late than never! (Julia)

"Better late than never!

Let me introduce our little team. There is "the owner" and there is me! I'm Julia (though my real name is Missouri's Golden Star), and I'm a five and a half (weirdly, people say I'm six.. hmm!) year old mare of good breeding (or so they say). I've been with my owner for almost two years now and she's pretty friendly to me. At least unless I'm trying to play mare games with her (I just love to play bite!). She doesn't seem to find that fun at all and I'm not allowed to.

Yesterday, we were out for a ride in the forest with a group of normally furred horses. It was snowy and I had been outside early playing with the others in the snow, but then my owner came and brought me to the stable, brushed me and ran around speedily. She looked pretty stressed. Eventually, all the other horses had left the stable and there I was, all alone! I got a bit insecure, but soon after, I was out too and us started on the tour through the forest. It was really nice walking up and down hill through snow and over icy patches and I didn't slide once! Somewhere close to the end, the horse in front of me got scared and started jumping around. At first i thought I had to join and jumped too, but I have no idea what caused it anyway, so I just stopped and looked around. Darn imaginary squirrels! Nothing dangerous was in sight! Rude mare making the whole group jump for nothing! Such a waste of energy with that steep hill ahead of us! Back at the stable, I was very very tired and I got some tasty mash for all the effort of carrying the owner around. It was fun!

Today I was all alone though, the owner didn't appear and I only had the herd to play with."

Sadly I (the owner) caught a cold and probably won't be at the stable the next few days. So far, the RAC hasn't really been what I expected. I started out with a hell lot of enthusiasm having followed it the past years and always wished I had a curly horse to take part in it and now that I finally got a horse and am able to join, I spend more time at work than normal, fighting with bad weather (ice, lots of rain and mud etc., having only a round pen and an open riding area, but no place to ride in which actually got a roof and the outdoor riding ring is basically unusable during winter/mud times), and having caught a cold now. Hopefully, my 'horse time' will improve during the year and I get to ride more often. Currently, I spend around 3 days riding through the forest mostly and 2 days lunging (groundwork) and have started on playing the seven games with my curly as we really need to work out some issues she has (she's a very dominant horse, or a left-brain introvert, if you believe in Parelli).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to all the exciting horse-times ahead of us!!!

Here is a picture of me from last autumn:

31 january, we do it !!!

Well done
Even with so cold weather and snow we done it, we ride our curlies yesterday (31 january)
Camille and Sugar have their horse riding leson, Misty and I, Vitiaz and my son Théo have our jumping lesson. Thank's to the RAC we do it  and we have a lot of fun and not so much cold (just after and befor being on horse). It was a nice day with our curlies.

Ride with Me or Freeze with Me?

I fully intended to ride today and the recent snowfall was making the nearby snowmobile trail seem like the perfect destination. However, Mother Nature did not agree. Now I love winter, I have a hard time keeping warm so I really layer up, but it is my favourite riding season. Funny thing is, Linus seems to prefer it too. But, in -22C weather, I don't ride! 

So, we did some ground play instead. More work on refining our bow and preparations for the "knee down" we will do next. 

We did ride earlier in the week several times while I tried out some different saddles on Linus. He is a hard horse to fit because of his width. But, his shape is still changing because he's still a young horse. Above is the saddle I have chosen (for now! Haha) it had the nicest fit and feel for us both. He is also modeling the set I got for Christmas from my hubby. Black, barb wire tooled bridle and breastcollar. I was trying to get a black saddle too but fit is more important than colour. Next will be to clean and oil it and put on my new stirrups (also a Christmas gift!) 

I highly doubt we will ride tomorrow....unless it unexpectedly warms up!! but, chores must be done and I'll be out there all bundled up again anyway so i'll probably do some more ground games!! : )

Donna & Linus

Antarctica....i mean Ontario...

Ride With Me

My ride today didn't quite go as planned.  Earlier this week Ms Willow has decided that she is not going to stay inside the fence if I'm with any other horse.  I'm not quite sure what changed.  This video shows her pacing as I'm sitting on Corky.  Previous to this she had played with the gate chain pulling on it, she had grabbed a piece of wire that is used to hook the gate over a pole and pulled.  She had run all over as I had saddled up, checking up on her.  I took about 20 minutes to saddle because of her antics.



So Cork and I rode around the barn and that was it.  :(  I was bummed because it was one of the nicest days we're supposed to have for a while, but sometimes you have to go with the horse or showed up....or in this case the pasture mate that showed up!



Janeen, Willow and Cork in Michigan

It's Freezing!

Happily munching hay 

Well so much for any riding this weekend or next week. We had temperatures of -25 here last night and tonight is supposed to be colder! Horses aren't too happy to be in but it's much too cold to leave them out, oh well.  I  managed to snap a pic of Honey snacking outside yesterday morning and she look so good :) Also got one of her last night with her mouth full of grain looking like a chipmunk!  Hopefully temps here will start to warm up but only time will tell.

Chipmunk :)

xoxo- Honey & Bethany

Another Intro

Thanks Janeen!  You are right, better late than not at all!

I'm Cyndi from (near) Ottawa, Canada.  Stay at home Mom of two young children.  We breed Portuguese Water Dogs and have 2 horses.  One Arab and One Curly.  Both Geldings.
My Curly 'Sunny' is my main squeeze!  He is my main riding horse and equine partner extrodinaire!

I got him 'by accident' from a lovely family that had bought him and his brother thinking they would train them for riding.  The lady ended up pregnant with their third child and then their fourth!  Well, you can imagine that there wasn't a lot of time for horse training.
I found Sunny listed for 'trade' as they wanted a pony for their eldest daughter.  I contacted them and asked if they would just sell him (as I didn't have a pony to trade).  I had NO CLUE what a Curly horse was!  NO idea!  I had looked it up after seeing the ad.  Just went to Wikipedia!  LOL  It sounded intriguing!  The breed sounded like my beloved Water Dogs!  Just like when I first heard about Portuguese Water dogs.. I had no clue what they were! and once I did - I fell in love and haven't looked back since.  I feel the SAME WAY ABOUT CURLIES!
Sunny is not an extreme.  I don't really know what you call his type...  he keeps his curly mane all year and keeps his tail but gets body curls in the winter and goes straight hair in the summer.

my two kids playing in the summer

Below is Donna and Linus!  We live fairly close to each other and have attended the same event for 2 years in row.  Pink Ribbon Ride to support Breast Cancer.  

He's pretty straight in the summer

He loves the water!  And we dug a pond for dogs, horses and kids to play in!

We have taught him to drive...  

I am a Parelli Student.  Graduated Level 3 this past fall.  I have a Parelli Playground where I can play!

In the playground, horses, dogs and kids!  All enjoying time together.

I have done some Ex. Cowboy clinics with him and done very well.  But we are not quite ready for such precision yet.  I haven't really transitioned him to a bit yet.  I will this season so we can have more precision and refined communicaiton.

I ride mostly Western but I can ride english too.  

I am lucky to keep him at home with me so I can enjoy lots of time with him. 

We have started building our Trick repetoire too and he knows several tricks now.  

Bow, Lay down, Pick things up (unmounted and mounted), Spin, and our most recent Rear up.  

Anyhow, that's my intro.  I may not post too much but I will certainly be enjoying reading all of your adventures!!!  

Thanks Denise, for having this great Blog!

Cyndi and Sunny in Eastern Ontario, Canada

Introduction

Hey there!  Better late than never; right?  I'm Janeen and live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not too far from Denise Conroy.  It's all her fault that I have two Curlies!  One is a 11 year old gelding by the name of Corky and my picture on here is of him and I in our first year of running speed.  I always said I wouldn't do barrels, but at the age of 52 years young I decided to get it off my bucket list.  On Corky I can do anything is my motto!  We haven't broke any speed records, but he likes it and we have fun!  Him and I have done a couple of parades as of this last summer and then we trail ride all the time!  I hope to continue all that with Cork this year!

My second Curly is a mare named Willow.  She's approximately 6 years old and came from a rescue.  She's quite the card!  She came to the rescue with 30 other horses, which about 12 were identifiable Curlies.  She was maybe a year, two years old and scored a one for weight.  All were extremely thin.  She evidently wasn't mistreated, just not trained and fed at the time.  We adopted her about 18 months ago.

I took some video of her so you can see how inquisitive she is.  

http://youtu.be/KjhbpvS0rJA

Human error

We all know we do it..human error when it comes to handling horses....none of us are perfect, and even if we were perfect with one particular horse,  another one would come along and challenge our perfection!  Here is a fine example of "not perfect"   Last weekend I had a friend come over to take some photos of Lady and I as we worked in harness and hitched. Alice snapped a few photos while I warmed up Lady in harness.....and...gave me a perfect example of "human error."  I thought it might be interesting for folks to see such a fine example of "wrong" ...lol...and perhaps learn from my mistakes.  In this photo you can see we are working quietly and willingly,  but...my hands have dropped down, and my horse's head has aimed for the sky.  This is a classic example of wrong.

Lady looks a bit stressed here,  and why not!  her human is making a big mistake.  We went on to drive and I have a photo of "wrong" regarding fitting of her cart and harness.

This picture shows the result I get when my hands are correct!  a forward, willing walk, with Lady working in the frame she should ;-0  the "wrong" thing about this photo is,  my traces and not in true line of draught (draft) .....instead of following the line of the shaft, the traces go high at the single tree and make an uncomfortable connection from pony to cart.  THIS is why I need photos...lol....so, in my next post, I will show the revised version of the pony to cart connection. Proper harnessing is complex. There are many, many adjustments on the harness and learning your ponies "sweet spot/best fit" can be a challenge. It takes a lot of experimenting and alot of learning and thought process. I know my adjustments worked, as I drove the next day I could hear that pony sigh for a mile ;-0 a..yes, my human finally got it right.

Jump Around

Stadium jumping is my least favorite part about eventing.  Most riders will tell you cross country and stadium are at the top of the list and then dressage.  I'm just odd.  I'd rather do two dressage tests and just never do stadium if I could.

I used to think the hardest part about stadium was remembering the course...boy was I wrong.  Last year Theo and I struggled with stadium and we always had two rails down by the end.  Those two rails were generally verticals, simple one jump verticals.  Really?  

So many things were wrong in this photo, but trust me Theo was trying win the Kentucky Derby around this stadium course so my position started to get compromised at the end.  All I want this year is one clear stadium round.  After this weekend I think that can be possible.  Not only did I FINALLY see my distances, I learned to ride through the jump not just up and over it.  Now hopefully I can retain that and not over think it.

The jumps are only going to get bigger so I need to get this stadium down now.  We have another lesson tomorrow but it will be on dressage (Yay).

Dressage to me is fun.  I love learning to control different parts of my body and communicate with my horse.  This weekend we worked on sitting trot and my bum/core is a little sore now but it's all worth it.  Theo takes to dressage really well and tells on me all the time if I'm not truly riding.

Here is a little video of me "getting it".  I was pretty excited at the end.

The great thing about going to clinics in the winter is everybody comments on Theo's hair!  I get everything from "man is he sweaty" to "what kind of horse is that!"  It's a great opportunity to educate horse people about Curly's and to show them what they can do!

With everybody driving I've been inspired to work with Abby again.  I have my cart back from my friends house and just need to find a missing trace and readjust the harness before I hook her up.  Until then I'll be working from the ground refreshing her Whoa and turning commands.  She really is a great driving horse and seems to really enjoy it.

Her tail is disgusting...can't really wash it this time of year though.   Believe it or not it gets white :-)  When I first got her she had itched all her tail off and just had enough covering the tail bone.  With Dermal-Aid and keeping it tied up in the winter it's down to the ground.  I decided not to tie it up this winter and a huge chunk got broken off by her hocks so it's thinner at the bottom then normal.

Can't wait to start driving her again, especially to get the mail!   Now where could that trace be....moving problems....

I'm also helping my friend finish her Curly mare Sam I Am.  She hasn't blogged yet (pretty busy) so I won't go into to much detail but this mare is going to be a rock star!  We have already cantered and she improves so much each time I ride her.  Her gaits are amazing and she is so willing to learn.  Look out for Sam in the show ring!

Lessons tomorrow at our barn with our trainer!  Can't wait to work Jane in the indoor.

Too cold to ride

With This frigid weather it’s too cold to saddle up my youngster, however never to cold for some groundwork between chores, We have always had babies born on the farm and work hands on with each of them however most we minis and sold after weaned. I have raised a few drafts up and waiting for them to be gelded to continue their training and being able to take them out and about as with mares around. As I posted earlier i purchased my first curly in September of this past year and had him broke by a friend and have continued to bond and work with him since. Each day is a rewarding day as each day he’s is learning something new or I’m learning about him. He was checking out the fence ling the other day as the neighbor was walking by on the road so i decide what a opportunity to try and see if he would do some side passes from the ground. With my carrot stick in hand and him looking towards the fence we started it at first he questioned me but with him minutes we were going up and down the fence side passing along the way. We have also been spending a lot of time with the carrot stick desensitizing him to touch and ropes and items around him. Does anyone have any other great training ideas for the carrot stick that they would like to pass along?

Rora Ride!

Today I got to help with my Curly pony Rora's saddle training. My adult friend Emily rode her first (which was Rora's first adult rider) and then I got to ride her. Rora and I have had a special relationship since before I was born, Rora used to "share breath" with my Momma's belly while I was still inside and was quick to welcome me nose to nose soon after my arrival on the outside. I am so excited for Rora and my adventures together, we are a match made in heaven, right down to our matching locks!
I hope everyone else got to enjoy their Curlies today too!!
Happy Riding!!
~Torleif.

grooming Rora

Linus' Bow

I like to dabble with some trick training when it's too cold to ride, I'm injured and can't ride or when I don't have enough time to ride!! Sometimes it slips away from me and I forget we were doing it but luckily, Linus has proven to be not only a fast learner, but very good at his lesson retention too!! 

I started with the bow trick about a year or more ago. Then we dropped it for a long time because we were busy with other training. Today, we got back to it!! I was not only impressed by him easily remembering it but we moved on from it being a treat led action to a command led action. So rather than have him follow my hand with a treat while saying bow, I pointed where I wanted his head to go and said bow. The first few weren't perfect but I just pushed his head away if he tried to come to me and he got it!! Such a great feeling when they remember what we teach! Next, we will be working on a one knee bow...hopefully it doesn't take me a year to get to it! 

Following our refresher we took a walk down to the mailbox. We do go for a lot of in-hand walks. It is good exercise for both and I always believe the foundation of your relationship is from the ground! I stopped several times there and back as well as at the road to ask for the bow and he willingly obliged!! 

Love this guy!

Donna and Linus

Lunenburg, ON

Proper fit and a Lippizan?

Today I worked both my mares....Lady worked on the lunge line first, and then I adjusted her harness some and hitched up and drove.  With my latest adjustments I discovered Lady was telling me THIS is the fit that works for me. We drove a while, she was comfortable ....such a great feeling to achieve!  and....
Legacy and I had some fun..I worked Legacy on the lunge line. She was having a "I am going to out think you" day and performed some amazing typical Lippizan (high level dressage) task.....a piaffe, some athletic things that I am sure have no names, and a session of lead changes at the canter on the lunge line...lol...this mare is FUN !!!!  she has athletic ability to spare and always tries so hard...so, we worked until she actually listened to me and did what I told her...it was a good day. Tomorrow is farrier work and an afternoon lesson. I should have photos to share after my lesson.

My 2 new to me Curlys

I am now to this breed as an owner, however  have known about curly horses for many years.   Remy is my first.  2 years of age,  not started yet as she is too young.

                                            Svarta My 2nd

Friday I met Svarta 5 years of age , for the first time.    Cody shot a recurve bow and arrow mounted on her and Svarta at a walk.   She did awesome.  Saturday I rode her for the first time.  Think I was all smiles.  Both came from Cody Killingsworth - Oklahoma                                       *American Warrior Curly Horses*