Blogging and my Internship

So I'm really bad at keeping up with a blog. Obviously. Anyway it's not like anyone reads this anyway, it's mostly just to help me. If I regurgitate the information I have learned, in my own words by writing it up somehow, it is an amazing help in learning. Maybe this upcoming fall semester I will keep up with it. Maybe. 

Anyway the rest of this post is about the amazing internship I get to do with a really good friend who is like my Logan mother. Diane and her husband own two horses, two pastures and their own outdoor arena with working lights and a fake cow to train horses to cut hooked up to their own intricate pulley system. She has been teaching local kids how to ride and train for years. I first started working with her last year. She isn't like most horsemen and women. We utilize patience with the horses we train. Just because a horse is acting up when you ask them to do something does not mean that they are purposely being a brat, they probably just don't understand yet what you are asking from them. If you are patient with them they will learn. We are also big on using vocalizations. When I ride D's horses, i hardly ever have to kick. Especially on Peppy. To trot all you have to do is kiss. To canter/gallop you say up or gallop and off he goes. JJ is little harder because she is younger and D has only had her for 3 years, so she has had less vocalization training than Peppy has. They both come to their names, you just gotta give them a minute sometimes. Peppy runs barrels, cuts cows, and runs poles like a dream. He is very sensitive to every touch you give because you use less physical and more vocals. This makes is much nicer when you do have to use physical touch with them. 

One horse I worked with this summer is Miss K. She has been trained in the past but hadn't been worked with in a long time. A 12 year olds parents bought Miss K for her but the girl was actually pretty scared of her at first and wouldn't even walk her. Now she rides around on her pretty fantastically. I did have one little accident with Miss K where I ended up with a slight concussion and was bruised up pretty badly but other than that I was fine. It wasn't her fault but the fault of stupid and ignorant people. She really is a sweetheart. She will try to push your boundaries until you tell her who is boss but what horse doesn't do that? 

We have been teaching our girls barrels, cutting, poles, driving, control, balance, introducing new objects to a horse (especially our fake cutting cow), and vocalizations. There is one little girl who is an amazing little horsemen. She will be pretty fantastic if she keeps going at the rate she is. 

Anyway, I don't want this summer to be over because I love working with these kids and the horses. They have all been amazing. One day I hope to do what Diane does and pass along my education to more and more kids. She has an amazing talent and I hope I can be half as good as she is one day. 

For now (if anyone actually reads this) I'm signing off! 

God Bless!

Andi

Breeds, Breeds, and More Breeds!

Stock Types

-The American Quarter Horse

  Uses: Plowing, pulling, racing, herding, roping, and cutting

  Sometimes crossed with Thoroughbreds for English style riding

  The shorter horses used with cattle

-The American Paint Horse

   Variety of colors and markings

         Tobiano: flanks covered in dark markings, all 4 legs are white, splotches

         Overo: White typically does not cross over the back between withers and tail, all legs dark and face white, tail usually one color

         Tovero: one or both eyes are blue, color on mouth, chest spot, flank spot, other small spots

-Appaloosa

  Uses: used by natives for war and hunting (first people to breed for specific traits, markings thought to be mystical)

  Eyes show more white, hoof vertical stripes, distinguished coat pattern, skin around lips, eyes and genitals have highlights

Light Type

-The Arabian

  Developed for stamina and endurance

  Distinguishing features: Dip in the face below eyes, ears dip in, high arched neck, arched tail, one less rib, one less lumbar vertebrae, shorter tail bone

   Foundation breed for development of other breeds

   Not as animated in Western and Hunter seat

   Saddleseat: head held higher

-The American Morgan

  Founder of the Breed: Justin Morgan

  Similar to QH but has higher/more crest

  Calvary and pulling horses

  Crossed with Saddlebred today

  Typical stretched out stance

  Flat croup, higher held tail, elevated neck, thickness in neck

  Judging (Highest degree of perfection)

     -basic conformation

     -strong moving, eagerness

     -slightly dished face, eyes and ears set far apart

     -14.1-15.2 avg.

-The Thoroughbred

  Originated in England

  Typically English (Jumping, racing, dressage)

  Bred for long distance

  longer, smoother muscling

  Man-O-War was a thoroughbred racer and had a 28ft stride. Watch this video to see it! You can jump to about 1:27 to see him actually racing  ------------>https://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=tScwlWdpep8&feature=fvwp

Basic Terminology To Know

These are some basic terms to know when it comes down to working with horses:

Mare: A fully mature female horse.

Filly: a young female horse under the age of four that has yet to foal.

Colt: a young male horse under the age of four

Foal: young horse especially under 1 year of age or still nursing mare. This can apply to either a filly or colt.

Suckling: foal that is still nursing

Weanling: a young horse under 1 year of age that has been removed or weaned from it mother (dam)

Covered by a stallion: A term that means a mare was bred by a stallion.

To foal: to give birth

Stallion: an intact adult male horse, esp. one used for breeding

Gelding: a castrated male horse

Dam: the mother of a foal

Sire: the father of a foal.

Short yearling/Long yearling: short yearling is a yearling horse that is just turned a year old. A long yearling is a horse that is closer to two than one year of age. Note: registered horses change age with new calendar year, not on their birth date. For example, a foal born in January and a foal born in August will be considered the same age in January when they are called yearlings.

Maiden: this term is used with race horses and is a horse that has never won a race

Maiden Mare: female equine over 2 years of age that has not been covered by a stallion. The term filly could also be used with the female that is 2 or three years of age.

Open Mare: a mare that has had foals previously but is not pregnant now

"In foal": pregnant female

Castration: to remove the testicles of a male

Intact: a male horse that has it testicles and has not been castrated.

Cryptorchid: failure of one testicle (unilateral) or both testicles (bilateral) to descend into the scrotum.

Equine Flehmen Response: This horse is exhibiting the flehmen response, which horses do in response to several stimuli. Most frequently this response can be seen in stallions when they smell the urine of a mare in heat. This response can also be seen in response to other smells as it allows the horse to clearly smell, analyze and process the scent. The lifting of the upper lip helps a horse more clearly smell, analyze, and process a scent in their environment.

High Flanker: a male in which the testis descend into the inquinal canal but not into the scrotum.

Estrus/in heat: time during the estrous cycle when the mare is receptive to the stallion

Diestrus: the time during the estrous cycle when the mare is not receptive to the stallion

Estrous Cycle: the entire cycle including estrus and diestrus.

Anestrus: a phase where the mare is not showing an estrous cycle. Typically associated with the winter season.

Barren: bred several cycles in a season without pregnancy or lost pregnancy

Halter and lead rope: made of rope, nylon or leather. Used to catch and lead horse

Horse: typically considered to be an equine over 14.2 hands

Pony: Typically considered to be an equine equal to or shorter than 14.2 hands

Hand: measurement used to calculate horse height. Equal to 4 inches. Measured vertically from withers to ground.

Cribbing: An obsessive-compulsive behavior horses exhibit by grabbing a stationary object (fence rail) with the top teeth, extending the neck by pulling backwards, while swallowing air and grunting. It is thought this activity releases brain chemicals that make the horse feel better.

Flake/leaf of hay: one section of hay

Horse Behavior and Safety

To understand and be safe around horses you need to understand their behavior
Reactive Behavior: anything a horse does to interact with its environment

• Find shelter, "socialize"
• Body Language
• Ears, eyes, nose, mouth, tail set, legs, headset

Ingestive Behavior: natural, eating, drinking, all day grazers

Eliminative Behavior: act of defecating (2-3 hrs) and urinating (4-6 hrs)

Sexual Behavior: courtship, mating, maternal behavior, mares in heat, mares more dominant in herds

Epimeletic Behavior: care-seeking and care-giving behavior, grooming each other, vocalization after separation

Agnoistic Behavior: Dominance, Flight or Fight, horses view humans as predators
Herd Behavior: like being in groups, dilike being separated from others, (herd bound)
Pecking Order: Where do you stand in the herd?
Mimicry Behavior: Copycat behavior (colts with mares)
Investigative Behavior: Curiosity, learning
Grooming Behavior: Self grooming, grooming each other (socialization)
Sleeping and Rest Behavior: Horses sleep standing and lying down
WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT IS NORMAL SO WE KNOW WHEN IT ISN'T NORMAL
Anatomy Influences Behavior
Vision and Hearing: Blindspots are directly in front of them, directly above them (their back), and directly behind them. Their eye placement is for grazing and because of their prey animal behavior, alarm noise= high pitch and loud noise, Calming Effect= lower pitch

Understanding these and using them to understand how to move around a horse will keep you and the horse safe. Getting kicked, knocked over, bitten, etc. can be avoided. Another thing to understand is reading the body language of the horse which I will go over in a later post.

Thanks for reading! Hope you find this helpful!
God Bless and have a good day!
Andrea

Teaching girls to ride

Having never taught girls how to horseback ride before, this summer was definitely a learning experience for me. Every week we had different groups of girls come in starting on Monday and they would leave on Saturday. They would come up to the stables for the first time on Tuesday. Most of the groups were 1st -3rd graders and 4th- 5th graders. We would split their group into three separate smaller groups. These groups were given a section they were going to start with that day: Mucking, Ground School, and Riding Time. For those who do not know: mucking is were you clean up after the horses. The girls would clean the stalls, this taught the them responsibility and that horses aren't just all fun and games. Ground School is where they would learn the parts of the horse, parts of the saddle, what types of things you can do in the horse industry other than riding, colors and breeds. During riding time, we firstly taught the girls how to mount the horse properly. Next it was proper steering and walking your horse. We had the girls turn around barrels to teach them about looking where you are trying to go. After we made sure the girls were competent enough in steering and walking the horse around, we had the girls, one at a time, trot down the line. Some of our horses were so lazy and the girls wouldn't kick the horse hard enough, that we would stand along the side where they were trotting and encouraging the horses and the girls. On the third and fourth day, we would allow girls to canter if they were in the older and more advanced groups. We would "not' encourage younger girls but if they happened to canter we would check that off of their achievement list. We would also play games such as: barrel "racing", pole bending, keyhole, team switch, and "jump" and weave. On our last day with the girls we would take them on a trail ride just up to the local national park. With the two week programs we would do a little more with them. We had them do what we call a showdeo, took them on longer trail rides, the high schoolers in the advanced program got to do an overnight pack out trip, and more. This summer teaching really helped me in my riding and developing the skills to teach girls who had never ridden in their lives all the way up to girls who showed horses for several years. I'm hoping I get a chance to teach girls again (not necessarily at camps).

Bareback Riding

So I rode my uncle's horse bareback about a week and a half ago and it was the first time I had even riddin bareback before. It was an awesome experience and I'm glad I got to try it. However, his horse is quite old and very stubborn so that made for a painful rest of the week. I had to keep cantering her around to get her to chill out because every time she is away from his other horse, Misty, she freaks out and thinks Misty is leaving her behind or something. I also hadn't riddin since spring break when we had our regional show at school so it's been awhile. Starting next week though I get to ride and teach girls about horses for the rest of the summer :) Can't wait!

Welcome!

Hello readers! I am Andrea and this is my way of sharing and even helping myself to understand better what I learn as I go along through my program at Utah State. I am a member of the USU Equestrian team, an Equine Management and Science Major, and I have been around horses since the age of 2 :) I ride both English and Western and I am a Horseback Riding counselor for Trefoil Ranch this summer. Again welcome and I hope to share as much as I can about what I learn to help you learn more about the equine industry!