Turning Sibling Rivalry Into Harmony?

The Major General, Don Pecos du Cheval and Chevals Topp Mentor are half brothers.  I have wanted to put together a show pair for almost a decade and just can't find a fit with these three.  This is my dilemma:

Major
Confirmation: Round
Way of Going: More Hock than Knee Action
Height: 14.2HH
Color: Black

Ace
Confirmation: Angular
Way of Going: More Float than Bounce
Height: 14.3HH
Color: Brown

Don Pecos
Confirmation: Very Round
Way of Going: Supercharged on all Four
Height: 14 & 1/2HH [the half is important!]
Color: Applevale Orange

Maybe I'm splitting hairs.  They all look pretty round in the above photos.  But I know them.  They don't look, move or match each other.  But, this is what I have and I want a pair.

Major and Ace match the best in size and color.  Major is a stud.  Ace hates him.  Ace kicks and bites and generally beats the snot out of Major.  Major just wants to be friends.  Ace does not.  Oh, well, color is the last determination for a pair.

Major and Don Pecos grew up in adjoining paddocks.  They sort of get along.  Don Pecos tolerates Major. Just.  Pecos clocks Major with both hind feet when Major pushes his buttons too far.  They match in conformation.  Sort of.  Pecos is just so bloody short.  But we don't tell him that.  Ever.  Major has a longer stride because of his extreme hock action.  Pecos can keep up, though.  They just don't match.

I've been working Major and Don Pecos together, free lounging in the indoor arena.  This works out well about three quarters of the time.  Until Major's AD/HD clicks in and he leaves the tandem formation they have assumed and runs off to the far corner of the arena to sniff some sweet smelling something.  I run after him and Don Pecos stops, rolls his eyes and waits for me to herd Major back behind him.  

We get the whole thing going again and I study them.  I watch them move.  I do a lot of observing horses movement to determine how I can adjust the conditioning regime to get the best performance from the horse's potential.  After about 20 minutes, I see their cadence beginning to match.  After some sprinting, I can see their strides balancing.

Maybe.  Just maybe...

When we finished today, they decided to groom each other.  Major got a little too enthusiastic and Don Pecos wheeled and plowed him in the gut.

Brothers.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Whipping the Horse Into Shape

Don Pecos, I am happy to report, is only leaping out of his skin when I touch his sides with the whip about 15% of the time now. Usually this only occurs at the start of our sessions. I can get him to lengthen his stride and guide him almost exclusively with the whip after the initial freak out in each gait. Because it feels different when I touch his sides at the walk, jog and trot. Apparently.

To regular readers and those who know and love Don Pecos it will come as no surprise that he is a conspiracy theorist. "Human! Alert! That bridge in the middle of the grassy park has no reason at all to be there! It is a trap! Abort! I will run for our lives 90 degrees in the other direction!" Don Pecos doesn't have a problem with bridges that go over water. "What clever humans they are. I don't like to get my feet wet, so they build a bridge. Sweet of them, really."

"Human! Alert! There is a nefarious pile of ground poles at letter C that wasn't there yesterday! It's an Ambush! Activate Hyperspace!" When I assure him it is only pile of ground poles, he eyes it, still suspicious, and after a great deal of snorting, walks off remotely resembling quietly. But every time we pass "C", he picks his feet up very high, just in case the bandits hiding in the pile of ground poles shoot laser beams that can cut off his legs.

Thus, I amused myself trying to stay in the gig today with Don Pecos's 0-40mph shape shifting avoidance tactics. Oh, how I love that little lunatic, but it really helps that he is outstandingly beautiful, athletic and sweet.

I hope you had time to enjoy this gorgeous late summer day, too.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Freaky Ferrari: Don Pecos

Don Pecos du Cheval and Bob Nervig will help me demonstrate Body Awareness in Driving at the Iowa Horse Fair on Saturday, April 10 at 4 pm.

I had to give Don Pecos a break from whip training yesterday because half the arena was a swamp from the storm the night before. I didn't want a repeat of the injury he is just now recovered from, so I turned him loose wearing the bridle and surrcingle while I fetched a shovel and moved some sand over the rail portion of the mess. While I labored, Don Pecos warmed up. He decided to do a little trotting in his favorite small circle at the arena's center. After that, with no cues from me, he worked on his canter. I was shoveling sand, he was working on cadence. Nobody can say he doesn't have a good work ethic.

When I had moved enough sand to feel confident that he wouldn't slip in the muck if he stayed on the rail, I moved to the center of the arena and asked Don Pecos to take the rail. He was immediately nervous about having to adhere to my curriculum instead of his own [which was working very nicely, thank you] the muddy portion of the arena and the rail, where we have been practicing with the whip aides. Mind you, he was at liberty, thus could still voice his opinions.

His first opinion involved the corners. I've been using the corners to enhance the bending training. Instead of associating the procedure with whip aides, Don Pecos walks into the corner with his whole body and stops looking like he is glued into the corner. He turns his blinkered head to look at me, "This is correct, yes, Boss?" Well, yes, sort of. I guess. Working with a smart horse makes you smarter. We have a way to go with the whip aides.

Not the answer Don Pecos was looking for and he was further upset that his own training program wasn't good enough, and now his interpretation of bending was also incorrect. So he tried harder. "It must be the touching my sides thing," so when a clump of sand came out of his hoof and touched him on his side he climbed into the wall, shaking. When a gust of breeze touched his side, he took off trotting, before remembering to miter himself into the corner. I am pretty sure the same resulted when a fly lit on his side.

I was helplessly standing in the center of the arena witnessing this. The lunge whip was at my feet, as was my mouth. This horse was trying so hard to apply himself to the new training: "Look, Boss, I can do it WITHOUT the whip! Please Boss, don't touch me with the whip anymore." My freaky Ferrari is tactile defensive. I need to find a deep pressure driving whip. I guess.

We will be at the Iowa State Fairgrounds this weekend for the Iowa Horse Fair, come see us. Forget about all the gardening you want to do: it is Iowa folks, it is April. You know the snow is not done. Even though it is 70 degrees, come to the Horse Fair.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

To Ace and Pecos, With Love

Yesterday was a really tough day in the life of this blogger. I was fighting so many battles at once and being repeatedly wounded. I retreated to the barn and found more problems. It all seemed too much to bear. I thought of Belle Beach and her teaching and tried to 'ride' above the problems.

My adorable little lesson girls arrived and we got Ace and Pecos ready for the task at hand. Somehow the channeling of Belle Beach gave me the power to make it work. Ace settled back into routine and was being his brilliant babysitter self. I told his rider to ask him to get up on the bit by shortening her reins, moving her legs back and squeezing him up to his elegant self. Pecos was going clockwise with his head off to the left. I told his little rider to bring her right leg back and tap him on his side to move his body to the left and his head over to the right. Both girls worked hard with these new concepts and both horses responded beautifully.

My third poppet [5 years old] rode Ace [who returned to default babysitter] with the beginning of form of a great rider. I could see her processing multiple step directives: eyes up, legs back, hands quiet, rhythm, and making adjustments to each without being prompted. Pecos recovered from the terrifying hoodie malfunction of his winter duds to be a rock steady therapy mount.

The difficulties of the day still permeated and dogged my life, but when I finally gave up for the day, my last thought before falling asleep was of my two beautiful boys: Ace with his reassuring cuddles, Pecos with his constant struggle between duty and fear. They are a constant example to me about why it is necessary to keep on fighting. They are the best reason to do so. Accidental sagacity for yesterday: look for answers in your own reflection mirrored in the eyes of the horses.

Thank you Ace. Thank you Pecos. With All My Love.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.

Creating a Show Horse

As a trainer of carriage driving show horses, I am often asked, "How do you get that horse's coat so shiny?" "How do you get that horse to extend like that?" "How do you get that horse to bend like that?" I have a stock of answers, mostly involving variations of "Hard work." Usually the long answer is accidental sagacity.

Show horses are born that way. You can take the most beautifully bred horse with near perfect confirmation and put them in a show ring, but if they don't want to be a show horse, they won't. Conversely, a horse that falls a little short of perfection can be an unusually good show horse. It is a state of mind. Saying that, the trainer must be able to recognize the horse's potential and predisposition and then work to polish it.

Whitmorr Topaz is an excellent example. The dam of my finest show horses: The Major General, Don Pecos du Cheval and Chevals Topp Mentor [Ace], she was a very reluctant beauty queen. She did the job I prepared her to do, she did it well. But she didn't like it. She liked working with little kids, especially working on their self esteem. She didn't care to demonstrate her own in a show ring.

Major and Don Pecos are true examples of horses that were born to show. They thrive on it. They work hard at home to prepare. They never say, "Not Today." Their coats shed off all extra hair and they shine like burnished ebony and bronze. They walk with an air of superiority. The minute they get off the trailer, they are 'on'.

Ace is the created show horse. Like his half brothers, he works very hard. Unlike them, he doesn't believe it's all about him. He is a team player. As a horse trainer and not a soccer coach, this is a challenge for me. I have to make him believe it is all about him. I have to help him discover the superiority complex of the show horse.

"How do I do that?" Hard work. The accidental sagacity answer is: I tell him. Everything I do to train and condition him must revolve around convincing him he is a show horse, that he was born for this, too. When I start to see the elasticity show in his gait, I cheer. When he begins to float, I stand in awe and make sure he knows: "That's my Boy!"

Ace needs to know that he can be a 'good boy' in lessons and 'that's my boy' in the show ring. It is a different attitude, and not every horse can do both. Don Pecos struggles with this: But I am a Show Horse, not a Lesson Horse, he pouts at me, with the exception of his therapy role. Ace is looking at me saying: I am a lesson horse, do you really think I can be a show horse, too? All my skills as a trainer must respond, "Yes, Precious."

That is how I create a show horse.

Kind Regards,

Michelle Blackler

Serendipity

www.hossbiz.com

Serendipity is an Accidental Sagacity Corporation company.