A Gentle Broke Mount

"Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here." Luke 19:30
     I am training up a young mare that has never been ridden. I have spent a few months working with her on the ground and am just now getting brave enough to even think about hopping on her back. She has a foal by her side so it has been a little slower process than I had hoped. When I read this account in Luke, the fact that this colt had never been ridden impressed me. I can imagine Jesus as the perfect horse whisperer. He requests a young colt, still beside his mother, one that has never been ridden.
     "They brought it to Jesus, threw cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As He went along, people spread their cloaks on the road." Luke 19:35-36
     Have you ever watched The Road to the Horse.? The top trainers in the country each take an unbroke, never before ridden young horse and train them the best they can in one day while we watch. The first time those horses get a blanket thrown over their back they go off bucking and trying to get that thing off before it eats them. These are horses that have never been touched. It takes several hours to desensitize them to touch and having blankets thrown on them before even these top professional trainers think about hopping on.
    Donkeys are no different, they buck, they kick, they bite, they need to be slowly and gently desensitized. So visualizing that these men just went up and threw their cloaks on an unbroke, never before ridden colt and Jesus got right up and on it. That is impressive. Jesus mounts up, he goes along as people spread their cloaks on the road. Have you ever tried to get your horses to walk over a tarp or any unnatural object on the ground. Get a little resistance? Maybe even a spook or refusal? Here Jesus just walks his donkey over all these cloaks thrown on the road on this colt's very first ride.
 "Tell the people of Israel, See your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey." Matthew 21:5
     To horses and donkeys, we are predators. It takes a lot of bonding time to get them to trust us and allow us to be the leader. Even more to let us climb on their backs and ride them. I love the fact that even the young donkey that had never been ridden trust our gentle and humble King so much he just let himself have a cloak thrown on his back and let Jesus climb on and ride off without a fit. It testifies, it screams out from the pages of Luke 19: 29-35 and Mark 11:1-7, that if the animals that don't in their nature trust humans do trust Jesus at first touch how much more can we trust him
.     Our King comes to us, gentle and riding on a donkey, even a colt who has never been ridden before!!

Bey Dazzled!

R-C Bey Dazzler

The lovely Bey Dazzler. I never get tired of looking at this filly. 

I am Bey Dazzled!

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Phil 4:8

Short Training Sessions for Momma and Baby

   Today's lesson plan: Lady is working on groundwork fundamentals as well as learning to leave baby to work with me. So I am trying to have more frequent but shorter training sessions with Lady outside the round pen without baby. Eventually, I will be taking baby out on her own for short lessons. My goal for Lady today is to improve upon "Lungeing for Respect Stage One."
    Our goal for Baby Dazz today was just wearing the halter and getting her legs sprayed. I started with her in the roundpen with momma. She accepts the halter without a blink. So before that I played a little approach and retreat and teaching her to back up off my hand pressure on her nose. That went very well and after I put the halter on I repeated the lesson and taught her take three steps back when I applied pressure on the halter. In addition, I introduced direction. I did get her leg sprayed but it did not go as pretty as I had hoped. We ended the lesson with some desensitizing. I know there is a lot of controversy over desensitizing Arabians before their halter class training because they loose sensitivity and don't move out well.  I confirmed with Lady after her lesson that she can still do some very nice at Liberty after I gain her respect on the halter. Both she and Dazz were moving beautifully together around the round pen to my cues. I have a trainer coming in this month to teach us all how to do Halter classes.
    I took Lady to the arena today while baby stayed in the round pen. She was not very happy about it but I made our lesson short so she would get the idea that we are going to come out and work everyday and then she will go back to her baby. My intention is to make each lesson a little longer each day until we are working in full sessions. Actually Lady was fine until Baby Dazz decided to throw a fit and start screaming at her. We were able to work in a short session of lungeing for respect and for the most part it went well. She was a little hot and tugging at the end of the lead line when Baby Dazz starting yelling for her. Since Beau was a little bit the same way, although without the my baby is crying mania, I reviewed the Clinton Anderson DVD on Lunging for Respect Stage 1 and we now have tools for tomorrow's lesson. We'll work on that and hopefully get a little more slack in the lead rope.
   At the end of Lady's lesson, I let her graze outside the roundpen to give Dazz more time alone and to settle down before I put them back together. That went really well until the chickens showed up. Apparently, roosters really spook Lady and she ran off backwards like a cartoon bullet. I just watched her and thought, "Hmmm... if she doesn't come back I can use the chicken method for weaning," but she came right back even with the chickens hanging out by the roundpen. Her attention quickly turned to attempts to get the treats out of her training bag and didn't bother with trying to get back in the roundpen with Dazz.
  Other than the neighbor shooting his gun off like a maniac, it was a pretty great session. If it doesn't rain, we will try to squeeze in a second short training session tonight.

Proverbs 22:6 

Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Training Sessions

     When my first horse came home to the stable, my sister backed her off the trailer and handed me the reins. I stood there, reins in hand, for a few seconds and asked, "What do I do now?"
      My sister replied, "Whatever you want."
      Twelve years later I have learned to never take the reins of the horse until I have planned what to do with them. It's good to have a plan A and a plan B.
     If training is the goal, have a lesson plan. What is the goal of the session? What tack or training tools will you need? Is your lesson area prepared? Is your horse ready?
     It's also good idea to make your lesson plan flexible. I always include more exercises than I intend to cover in case she zooms past them. I also include exercises she is good at in case we have difficulty with a new exercise we can go back to a successful place.
      If you follow the Fundamentals, which I highly recommend, Here are some tips from Clinton Anderson. Training Tips: Approach Training Sessions Smartly 

1. Begin and End each session with Desensitizing 
2. If he is fresh coming out to play, start with roundpenning or lungeing to gain his respect. 
3. Desensitize between sensitizing exercises.

     Today, we had a great session with momma and baby. My plan was to run Lady through more of

the Fundamentals. Conveniently, Clinton Anderson has made lesson planning easy. With Lady, I just work through each exercise in the order that Clinton has laid out. I use review exercises to warm up, teach her a few new ones each day, and repeat successful exercises if things aren't going well. Baby Dazz is getting desensitized to halter pressure and learning to move off my cues. 

     Lady's lessons went well. Refined our Yielding the Forequarters and Lungeing for Respect. Baby Dazz seemed to accept momma working outside her pen much better than previous. She is accepting the halter and moving off pressure. Lady started trying to cut us off and herd baby away from me. I didn't anticipate that because she has in past not been concerned.  

    After our lesson, I made some notes and planned some revisions. Tomorrow I am definitely going to work with Baby Dazz while momma is outside the pen.  It will be nice to have baby all to myself for a change. 

Proverbs 22:6 

Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift or bent], and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Baby Dazz Blooming Bey Dazzler!

  Our baby Dazz is growing like a weed, She'll be 5 months old September 9th and won't be long and it will be time to wean. She is such a sweetie and when you come up to see her you can't help but be Bey Dazzled! She moves like a charm and is growing into quite the beauty with lean lines, graceful movements, and a personality to match.
   Bey Dazzler loves human attention and enjoys her lessons. Not real happy when mommy leaves for her lessons but is getting used to the idea of having her own grain bucket (one of the perks of growing up) while mommy works with us.
   Lady, momma mare, seems to love the time on her own. The good news is she is not as worried about leaving baby as much as she used to be so we are able to take her out and work with her. She's completing a comprehensive review of the fundamental ground work, Next week we start Lady under saddle while Baby Dazz continues her halter training.

R-C Bey Dazzler

It's Official!!!

Horses are good for you!

 

   Horses are good for your health and I'm not just saying that cause I love horses.
     Cortisol, known as the stress hormone, is increased as our flight or fight response to stimuli. Designed for short bursts to help us out of jam, chronic stress occurs when those levels do not return to normal after stimulation. As our busy lives increase stress stimuli into our daily routines, the short bursts of cortisol become higher and prolonged. When they remain elevated, our mental and physical health suffers.
     Higher and prolonged cortisol levels have been shown to have negative affects on your health such as impaired cognition, suppressed thyroid function, blood sugar imbalances, decreased bone density, drecreased muscle tissue, high blood pressure, lowered immunity and inflammatory responses, and has been linked to increased abdominal fat which is associated with heart attacks and strokes. Several relaxation methods have been shown to lower the baseline cortisol levels and the most exciting of these is equine facilitated learning. A study conducted by Washington State University in Spokane found significantly lower daily averages and afternoon cortisol levels of students who participated in a weekly equine facilitated activity than their pretest levels and the post test of their peers who were on the waitlist.
      Those of us who hang out with horses, know how much better we feel around horses. We know it only takes the touch of a muzzle to recover from an otherwise stressful day. We have witnessed over and over again the smiles on the faces of kids of all ages when they watch a herd of horses from the road or get an opportunity to offer a horse a treat through the fence. I've seen shy kids learn assertive skills leading a horse and scared kids gain confidence on their first ride.
      Intuitively we have always know that horses are good for our health but thanks to the Washington State University at Spokane study, if by chance you needed scientific proof, now you have it!

Growing Up

R-C Bey Dazzler
2 months and 3 weeks old

     Baby Dazz is so busy learning and growing and exploring and like any mother can attest these precious moments of firsts fly by in the blink of an eye! Today was Baby Dazz's first clipping. She accepted the halter without an issue however she wasn't too sure about the clippers at first. I was impressed though as she came to accept them rather quickly and stood quietly for most of her clipping.
     With her new bridle path and clean lines, she looks so grown up! We left the halter on while she got a shower with mom. Using a loose halter was intentional, so we had room to work around her face. Works best if you use two people, one to hold the halter in front of her and one on the side using the clippers. We always started in the middle of the stall and then let her move up against mom or the wall if she felt like she had to move. Eventually she just stood still in the middle of the stall and accepted everything being done to her.
     I was most impressed when, after we were done and just talking in the stall, she came over to hang out with us. She actually went up and nuzzled the clippers! I think it was a successful training session and we got done what we wanted to accomplish. Good girl, Dazzler!
     

The Dazzling R-C Bey Dazzler

R-C Bey Dazzler
2014 Filly
No Alarm X KA Odysseus

   Baby Dazz grows more stunning every day. I have pics to share but we have had some technical difficulties (called rural internet and a laptop failure) getting everything posted I wanted to share. She is now 2 1/2 months old and what a sweet, sweet little girl she is!
  There is something Dazzling about Bey Dazzler. You can see a moment of it captured in this photo. Her movements are playful and lighter than air. You can't help but be captured by her grace.
     Even after our distress over the new fence we are building, that is another disaster story I am sure you will hear about, just watching this girl and her momma is good medicine. It seemed like everything was against us getting them home. I was in a funk and just wanted to crawl in bed and hide but I had to get up and take grain out to the ranch where they currently reside. Standing by the stall door watching them, I caught myself grinning ear to ear. And that was before I stepped inside the stall, and Baby Dazz pushed her momma out of the way to come and see me.
   If you ever need a pick me up, just go let a baby horse nuzzle you. It's magical.
   So other than getting our place ready to bring Bey Dazzler home, there is not a whole lot to be done but watch her grow right now.  There are a couple schools of thought on how much handling she should get. One thought is to not touch her at all until after she is weaned and the other extreme is to sack her out the day she is born. I have chosen kind of the middle ground. For the most part, I have left her alone. However, I have spent enough time in the stall with her to know I can touch her anywhere on her body and she is not worried about me at all. I love how she is so curious and loves the attention of people in her stall. I used that curiousity during our first few sessions of approach and retreat during the first few weeks in the stall with her and her momma. Now she just approaches and seems to enjoy the attention and a full body rub down.
   What's next on this Dazzling Journey?
   Baby Dazz and her momma, Lady should be home this weekend. They have a couple months left together as Baby begins eating more and more out of momma's grain bucket. We have delayed baby's first trimming in order to let her natural hooves form as she grows over the next several months.  Beginning at four months, which will be around the first week of August we will be considering the optimal conditions for weaning. In the meantime, we will be giving baby and momma some short times of separation (although not out of sight), as momma reenters her training schedule. Shortly after weaning baby will begin halter training in preparation for her 2015 Yearling debut in the Scottsdale futurities.
   
 

The Ride Of Your Life

     "Think harder. Think about a time in your life when you felt really special, a time when you knew you were really and truly, unconditionally loved."
     "I can't. I can't remember a time I was unconditionally loved. There's always conditions. Be this, be that, do this or else. You know."
     "Think back. There must be a time. You have to remember."
     "Why must I remember? Where are you taking me?"
     "We have seen it, we have smelled it, we have touched it. Do not be daunted by setbacks. We must find it again. We can't give up our quest to find our promised land."
     "I thought about it but I can't think of one time there were not any conditions on love."
     "Think again. What about a special birthday, a special Christmas? Do you remember anything? What about when you learned to ride a bike or went on a family vacation? Oh what about that camping trip you went on with your dad. Getting close?"

In Loving Memory of "Opie"
HL Open Throttle! 1991-2013

     "Oh I know it! It was the first time I galloped up a hill with my horse. At the bottom of the hill we made a sharp turn and went straight up the hill. It was kind of a surprise because we were running so fast but I held on. We turned directly into the sun and I was blinded. It was thrilling and exciting; like galloping with your eyes closed. I could only feel my way. I leaned forward to compensate for the incline and just tried to enjoy the ride.
    Then I remembered at the very top of the hill was a fence and I got scared. I didn't know what my horse would do but I didn't want to stop. I couldn't see anything because of the sun in my eyes and we were going so fast, faster than I was normally comfortable going when I could see where I was going."
     "So what happened? Did you fall off? Did she jump the fence?"
     "Neither. Thank goodness cause I had never jumped a horse. We came barreling up the hill and then without warning she suddenly stopped. I fell forward into her neck and grabbed on. The sun was going down over the trees and I could see again. She had stopped right at the gate. I let out a sigh of relief... pushing myself up off her neck I let out all the breath I had been holding in. I reached back over to hug her around her neck and took in a big breath of her sweaty, horsey smell. Oh I just fell in love with that horse all over again."
     "She knew what she was doing. She took care of you."
     "I had to put all my trust in her and she didn't let me get hurt. It made me feel very special, like we were one. I've never felt closer to anyone. She knew where the gate was the whole time. If I had caved into my fear of that fence, I would have missed the most amazing ride of my life!"
     It's our very nature to breath intimacy and seek adventure. An atmosphere deprived of love and meaning, one lacking security and significance, will choke the life out of our souls. We must continue the search for the promised land... the place we were created for. That place where we lay down our very souls into the hands of the one who created us and fully trust Him, moving together with Him, together as one as he leads us to the place He prepared for us.
    Mount up. It's time for the ride of your life!


Foal Update: Due Date 4-4-2014 is the average foaling date putting our mare at 340 days gestation. The equine gestational range is 320-360 days. Most babies come within +/- 1 week but can be as early or as late as 3 weeks without complications.

 

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Our Lady's Baby Bump: Day 327-336

   Watching all the babies appearing this spring, chicks at the farm stores, baby birds in the yard, and new foals at our foaling barn, is getting us very excited for the arrival of our first R4C foal! We have done everything we can think of to prepare. Our Lady is well settled into her new barn where she will foal, her tail is wrapped, and she is filling out quite nicely. Now all we have to do is wait.   .... And the waiting is the hardest part!!

    If you have ever had to wait on something after all the preparations have been made, you know how hard it is to remain patient. Like a kid before Christmas, all you can think about is those wonderfully wrapped surprises under the tree. The tree calls to you and you are drawn to it watching it as if you are on guard. Watching and waiting and wandering around the tree you wonder about all the possibilities. .... And the waiting is the hardest part!!
     You don't just wait with your mind but your physical body participates in the waiting. One of my sons used to be so excited before Christmas came that he would be physically sick in school unable to concentrate on school work while thoughts of the presents under that tree captured his attention.
      Even the Psalmist reports waiting in his whole being. "I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning." Psalm 130:5-6
     Oh I wait on the Lord and while I wait I put my Hope in Him. I put my Hope in Him because sometimes the waiting is the hardest part. "Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption." Psalm 130:7
     Waiting on this baby is exciting and yet physically excruciating. Its our first foal and I have no idea what to expect, other than a baby horse. But what about all the things written in the foaling books that experts say can go wrong. How will I be prepared for anything to go wrong or even everything to go right? What will I do when the baby arrives? When will it arrive?
     Not knowing when the baby will come is a great source of anxiety. The gestational term for an equine is anywhere from 320-370 days. Since our breeding was almost a week long we are looking at any where between March 21st and May 4th. Our mare is currently at 327 to 336 days along. The good news is that she is well past the critical 320 days and now all we have to do is wait knowing we have a viable foal on the way!
.... And the waiting is the hardest part!
     There are times when we know that God has prepared us for something, something big and now all we have to do is wait on Him to bring it to fruition. Sometimes its a beginning, sometimes its an ending. Sometimes while we wait on the Lord our whole bodies are aching; maybe we are waiting in our suffering or maybe we are suffering in our waiting. However if we put our Hope in Him, we need not suffer but only wait on the Lord in anticipation of his unfailing love!

No Eye Has Seen

     "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him." But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches everything and show us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.       

                                                      - 1 Cor 2:9-12

     I wish I could know my horses thoughts. Like when she grabs my hat off my head and runs to the other side of the paddock and turns at looks at me. What is she thinking? "I got it!" or "HaHa look at your hat hair!" It is a game she likes to play that is so funny. Sometimes we just stand and we look at each other. I gaze deep into her eyes. It's almost as if our spirits connect. No words are spoken. Nothing is expected of either of us. We just hang out in each other's presence.
     I have always longed to know God's thoughts. Sometimes I just sit in his presence. Our Spirits' connected. Nothing is expected of either of us. We just hang out in each other's presence. But I rarely ever go away wondering what He is thinking. There is always some kind of spiritual download as if I can look deeply into His eyes. How I love this journey unpacking the wonderful things He has revealed and is revealing through His Spirit.