Trailer training Maddie

Again, as I have already stated, we don't know what Maddie has been trained to do. We know what she wasn't as it was evident when Kirstin started training her. Maddie was ponied to our house so we weren't sure how she would react to a trailer. The first time Kirstin tried trailering her was a couple of weeks after Maddie arrived at our house. She would not go anywhere near the back of the trailer. So, Kirstin figured that trailering was something that Maddie has not done a lot of. Fast forward a month later, trust has been built between Maddie and Kirstin and look what Maddie did without hesitation...


Maddie followed Kirstin right onto the trailer. That was the easy part. Maddie is getting really good at backing on the ground, but in the trailer was a completely new concept to her. I thought there for a while that she wasn't going to get off the trailer.


Kirstin was really having to cue her to get her to back. Maddie would take a couple of steps and then stop and think about what she was doing.

Looks like Maddie is thinking to herself, "You want me to do what???"

Like this????

Maddie finally made it off the trailer. I was afraid when she got her hind hooves on the ground that she might explode out of the trailer, but she didn't . She finished backing out very quietly. Kirstin loaded her up again, Maddie didn't go on right away, but she decided that Kirstin got her through the first time, so why not.

On another note, we are down to 5 horses of our own. My other daugther was able to find a good home for Summer. Summer never really quite fit in with all of our horses. She was the low man on the totem pole so to speak. We didn't use her much and really needed to decrease our herd size. Summer is going to a fantastic home, where she will be spoiled rotten. We fortunately know the person taking Summer as she graduated with one of our older daugthers. She was looking for a horse that an inexperienced rider could ride and that is Summer.

Maddie

Maddie is really coming along quite nicely. She has her off days as do we, but Kirstin has no problem working her through those days.

At a trot. Maddie goes into a trot quite easily now. She didn't always though. She would be the happiest horse in the world if she could walk everywhere she went.

At a canter. Kirstin has been working up to this. She doesn't stay in a canter for long, but Kirstin has been able to increase the time-we made half a round pen, know let's go a full round pen, etc... Maddie is definitely one of those horses that can not be pushed, she doesn't do anything dangerous, she just gets confused easily. The canter has been slow to come, but Kirstin wants to make sure that Maddie is confident in what she is doing because one of these days Maddie is going to be carrying 2 young girls.

The back. Maddie had no clue how to back in the beginning. Now she backs softly on cue.

Another thing Maddie didn't do real well before Kirstin got a hold of her-picking up her hooves. Maddie now lets Kirstin pick up her hooves. She hasn't perfected it yet, but she is standing more quietly with each day. Maddie is a very sweet horse, who loves to be with people. She will make a wonderful horse for the 2 little girls who are waiting for Kirstin to finish her out.

TAZ-Sunday 3/28

Big boy TAZ gets a spin also. Kirstin has a lot of fun working all of the horses in one day. She does opt to ride some bareback. TAZ is her favorite to ride bareback. He has such a broad back that he is actually very comfortable to ride bareback, even for a guy! Here is the friend of the family on TAZ.

He was amazed that he could ride TAZ with just his legs-no reins needed to steer him around. He has never ridden a horse using leg reining.

Kirstin can't resist the opportunity to ride TAZ. He is so much fun to ride.

Kirstin showing Andy that you can ride TAZ with no hands.

Kryptonite-Sunday 3/28

Kirstin & Kryptonite. Kirstin would love to start using Kryptonite for some of her playday events so she has been practicing barrels with him.



Kirstin & her nephew cowboy Daniel. It won't be long before this little guy is riding on his own.

Rounding barrel one.

Knocked over barrel 2 and toooo lazy to get off of Kryptonite. But as usual Kryptonite is willing to tolerate Kirstin's antics.

Barrel 2 uprighted.

Friend of the family riding his first Mustang.

Kryptonite has really grown a lot since bringing him home. He is looking real pretty, grown a little and packed on a few pounds.

Dynamite-Sunday 3/28

This is Jamie working Dyno on barrels. Jamie has taken claim to Dyno & he to her.

Dyno has been doing pretty good. He is still so young and at times it comes through-he likes to play. He neighs as if he is talking to us. Sometimes, I think he should be called Mr. Ed. We can

be right beside him, talking to him and he will quietly neigh at us as if in answer. Of course, if we aren't paying him any attention, he is loudly neighing at us.

Playday season begins 3/27/10

First playday of the season, Kirstin & Trigger are lead for the drill.

Trigger loves to perform in front of a crowd.

Flag drill.

Kirstin & Trigger taking off running the Poles event.

They didn't get a time on this event, Trigger broke pattern. He gets so excited at the last pole, he thinks he is suppose to keeping running straight, and Kirstin couldn't get him turned before they broke the timer barrier. They had a fantastic run other than that. Kirstin & Trigger also competed in Cloverleaf barrels and straight away barrels. They came in 5th out of 19 in each event. Not too shabby for a horse with no formal speed event training. Trigger has sooooo much heart, I have never seen a horse quite like him. His only desire in life is to please his rider. We were truly blessed when we bought him. He wasn't always like this though. I have seen this horse do a 180 since Kirstin started using him for drill.

Meet Maddie

Kirstin has had Maddie a little over a month now. When she first came to Kirstin, Maddie had no problem being saddled or someone sitting in the saddle, but she didn't seem to have the go forward cue down. Kirstin felt bad because she had to kick so hard to get her going. So Kirstin decided to start from the beginning as if Maddie had no training what so ever. Ground work-Maddie led great, but that was about it. Kirstin began round pen work with her and things started changing, Maddie started to trust Kirstin and really wanted to please her. Here a some pics from the last few days of training.

Last night Kirstin was feeling a little lazy, she didn't want to drag all of the tack out, so she decided to see how Maddie would do bareback. To the best of our knowledge Maddie has never been ridden bareback. She wasn't too sure at first, Maddie knew something felt different when Kirstin got on, but it only took her a little while to get used to it and appreciate the fact that she didn't have to wear that heavy saddle.

Without the saddle, Maddie almost seemed to understand the cues better.

She went straight into a trot and maintained the trot for a long time.

Obstacles are no big deal for Maddie.

Watching Maddie back while Kirstin was riding bareback was the most amazing thing. Maddie is just learning to back, but without the saddle on, Kirstin barely had to cue her to get the back. Kirstin would raise the reins slightly, wiggle her butt and Maddie would back right away-not just one step either multiple steps, softly backing. By the time she was finished, Kirstin barely had to lift up on the reins to get the back. I think she might do a lot more training bareback.

Some round pen work. Maddie really needs this every time before she is ridden. She definitely listens better when she begins with the round pen.

Changing directions.

At a lope.

Job well done, Maddie coming in for her reward!

A good scratching from Kirstin. Maddie loves to be scratched.

In the saddle.

Kirstin has only taken Maddie out of the pen a couple of times. Still working on directional cues, but she is starting to venture out more and more. Maddie has made a lot of improvement since she has been here. She is a sweet natured horse and her age sometimes I think works against her(she's 7yr old) but she is responding well to Kirstin.