Look who showed up in my back yard! My good friend Christina has just bought a beautiful Clydesdale Thoroughbred cross. A bay gelding, he stands at a mere 17.3 hands and is 9 years old. A Fast Purchase (Because She's an Experienced Horsewoman) Last Sunday she was on her way to try him out, and a week later he arrived on my doorstep. A group of us went out to lunch the Thursday after she'd tried him out, Over our meal we discussed the video of Christina riding the horse. He looked sweet and calm, the perfect complement to her 18 year old Percheron stallion. In the truck on the way back from our get together, Christina got a phone call from the horse’s owner, accepting her offer. A quick back and forth ensued about when would be a good time for him to come to my place to live until Christina finds a house of her own with more pasture. Within five minutes she was the owner of a new horse which would arrive in three days. Note: I must point out that my friend is a very experienced horse person. This is not the way a beginner rider should approach buying a horse, as my upcoming book will explain. All These Feelings.... On Friday I asked her how she was feeling about her current status. “You should write a blog about the ten emotional stages of horse purchasing,” she replied. “At the moment I’m really nervous!” I, of course, happily volunteered for the task! The Ten Emotional Stages of Horse Purchase Once her horse arrived the purchase cycle was complete and we identified the following ten stages: 1. Excitement about the decision to buy a new horse It’s a big deal, planning the major purchase of such a large animal. This is not a snap decision, and involves a lot of budgeting and planning. 2. Anticipation about finding one’s potential equine soul mate Now comes the long search for suitable equine candidates: you make a list of horses to try out, eager to discover The One among their number. 3. Nervous thrill of trying him out You experience an element of worry mixed in with thrill at going to ride a new horse with the thought that he might be the equine buddy you’re looking for. When you do find The One, you make an offer (contingent on his passing the vet). 4. Hope that the owner will accept your offer The first hurdle is having the owner agree to the amount you’re prepared to pay. You’ve made a reasonable offer, either at the top of your budget or leaving you with a bit of wiggle room. But either way, you’re not certain that you’ll both agree on the final price of this horse. And that makes you want him even more. 5. Happiness when your offer is accepted There’s a sweet delirium when the owner says “Yes” to your offer. It’s almost as wonderful as getting your offer on a house accepted. You and your friends can now drink a toast to new ownership, providing the horse makes it through the next and final step. 6. Praying the horse passes the vet By now you’re so deeply in love with the horse that you’re in danger of ignoring the vet’s opinion if it’s a bust. Even though you know that a bad horse costs as much to keep as a good one, you’re prepared to make an exception for this one. But thankfully you have smart friends who are telling you that there are other horses out there and if this one doesn’t pass the vet, he’s not The One after all. 7. Hysterical excitement when he does pass the vet Now you can really, really celebrate! 8. Eager desire to get the horse home as soon as possible Enjoy this phase while you can, because it soon turns into #9. 9. Anxiety before he arrives: “What on earth am I doing?” This is the toughest phase of them all: you’ve gone through the depths of anxiety followed by the heights of euphoria, so it's inevitable you’ll crash again. What on earth am I doing? What if he’s the wrong horse after all? Supposing we don’t get on? What am I going to do – I’ve already spent the money! But fear not, it quickly lead to #10! 10. Delight when he arrives Once you get your new horse home, and start going through the business of settling him in, you’ll have less time to worry about your decision. The next morning you’ll wake up with a happy feeling and forget what's causing it. Then you’ll remember: Yay! I’ve got a new horse! And off you’ll go to begin years of fun adventures with your new equine soul-mate-in-the-making. Have you ever bought a horse? What emotional steps did you go through during the purchase period? Can you relate to the above stages or would you add/delete some? Go to my Contact Page and let me know! Now comes the hard task of integrating him into my tiny herd. There is already much to tell, but all will be revealed in my next post!
0 Comments
If you’re a beginner horse rider, I need your help!! The popularity of my blog series on the Top Ten Horse Breeds for Beginner Riders suggests that many beginner riders would like to own a horse. But it needs to be the right horse. I'm writing a book for first time horse buyers who are also beginner riders, looking for that special equine buddy who’ll take care of them while they’re in the early stages of learning to ride. The horse must also be able to take them further. Horse Buying for the Beginner Rider: A Stress-Free Strategy for Finding Your Ideal Horse will be available as an ebook in many different formats, not just Kindle, and also in hard copy. The success of my book for first-time dressage competitors gives me confidence - in fact I'm almost sure - that I’m up to the task. :) But, as I mentioned earlier, I need your help, please! First, see what you think about the following details I'm including in the book. While you're going through, would you jot down anything you feel is missing? Thanks! I'll catch up with you after you're done reading. Contents Part One: The Easy Section No one wants to open a book and immediately be told about how much money this whole enterprise is going to cost. That's why we're gonna start with the Fun Stuff. This talks about you, and how certain breeds could be a good fit for you. It goes into stuff like:
The Fun Stuff helps narrow down the type and breed of horse which will work the best for you. As you read the next section, you'll be carrying a more definite image of your ideal horse in your head and your dream of owning a suitable equine partner will now become more real to you. :) Part Two: The Slightly Harder Section
Now comes the Serious Stuff. This includes budgeting for your horse - how to determine the amount of money you’ll need to spend on him. It also covers the nuts and bolts of finding and buying your ideal horse. After reading the Serious Stuff you’ll be able to refine your short list of horse breeds to look which you first wrote based on the Fun Stuff. The Serious Stuff will talk about:
Finally, so as not to leave you hanging once you’ve made up your mind which horse you’re going to buy, the last chapter will discuss bringing your new equine buddy home and how to acclimatize him to his new surroundings while you both get to know each other. This Is Where You Come In aka This Author Needs You! Now that you’ve perused the intended contents of Horse Buying for the Beginner Rider: A Stress-Free Strategy for Finding Your Ideal Horse - do you have a topic which I haven’t addressed? If so, I'd love to hear from you! If you're a beginner rider and looking to buy a new horse, what else do you want to know about? What do you need or what kind of equine buddy would you love to have? Have you had good experiences with a breed which you want me to be sure and include? Do you have certain horse or riding details that you’d like to see addressed in my book? Things like what is the quietest breed of horse? Or what horse should you get if you have a disability? Send me an email via the Contact Page and ask me anything: I’ll do my best to accommodate you by putting it in my book. What’s in it for You? :) If you email the details of what you’d like included in the book, I will do two things for you. 1. I'll send you the publish date of the book which means that you’ll be able to get the ebook version FREE FOR THE FIRST FIVE DAYS. 2. If you like, I’ll include your name and a link to your website in the acknowledgements. Just give me the information :) If that sounds like a good deal (and I hope it does!) please go to the Contact Page and email me your requests. Thank you! Training is tricky when the weather doesn't co-operate! Usually I panic when spring is late in coming, as it has been this year. (See above photo!) I make up for lost time by sticking to a regimented Back Into Work Program, after Cruz’s unavoidable winter lay-off due to the bad weather and no indoor arena. No time for frivolity and games: I hear the Siren Call of the New Show Calendar and have to get my horse fit in time for that first dressage competition. It’s flatwork, flatwork all the way. But this year, I decided to introduce fun stuff right from the beginning. If we’re ready for the first show – great. If not, who cares as long as we’re enjoying life?! :) “Steady On!” Doesn’t Mean “Creeping Forwards” I still need to protect Cruz’s tendons by building his fitness gradually. But there is such a thing as going too slowly. I’ve noticed that my friends don’t crawl at the same excruciating pace as me and their horses survive just fine. :) My guy has been roaming the great outdoors throughout the appalling weather months, with the occasional trot and canter. It’s not as though he’s been stuck in his stall for four months, doing nothing. These poles were on dry land when I was trotting through them last week! Poles on the Ground When I trot Cruz over poles on the ground, he leaps over the whole lot in one bound. The last time I trotted him over cross-poles, he bucked. A lot. I then put him on the lunge and asked him to pop over them without me on him. This time his buck after the obstacle was so huge that when he took off I was pulled face down into the dirt. I let go and watched him roar back up to the barn. That was two years ago, and I’d not had the nerve to try again. I wanted to have fun with my horse instead of just doing dressage drills, but didn’t want to end up in the dirt! So I decided to take advantage of the fact that Cruz is currently unfit. Right on day one of our return to work, I lay a single pole down on the ground, and in a separate place put down two poles with the correct distance for walk between them. I use Ingrid Klimke’s brilliant book Cavaletti: The Schooling of Horse and Rider over Ground Poles to help with the distances and gymnastic jumping ideas. I rode him long and low in walk, giving him extra rein as we approached the single ground pole. He walked over it quietly so we went back and forth over it between shoulder-in, leg yield and haunches in, only riding for about 15 minutes. On day two, I rode him over the two walking poles with a light rein contact, not tensing my seat as we approached them. He was happy to walk over the two poles, not even thinking of rushing over them. :) I added a third pole the next day, with the same calm response. I then put them at trot distances. He sped up a little, but was easily persuaded to slow down. Building on this success the next day, I placed a pole over two upturned plastic feed containers (see photo) to raise it a couple of inches. Our walk warm-up included moseying over it from both direction and then I approached it in sitting trot, as Ingrid Klimke recommends. This would not normally have water on one side! In Cruz’s mind this had now ‘become a jump’ and he wanted to rush it. I kept my seat calm and maintained very light rein contact to stop me pulling back on his mouth. He popped over it a little hastily, so I brought him back to walk before trotting him again. To my amazement, at our second attempt he reacted to my seat cues by slowing down to a walk in front of the ‘fence’! Cross Poles With Ingrid Klimke's book to guide me with the distances, I set up cross-poles and a trot take-off pole. The approach included the same three trot poles Cruz had been trotting through, several strides before the take-off pole. To ensure that I stayed calm when asking for my horse to pop over the line (remember how badly he’d bucked the last few times!) I had a friend join me. Cruz loves Kelli’s mare, Pippi. He goes almost limp with calmness when she walks into my arena. Kelli calms me down, too, so they are a great combination for us Pippi went first over the three trot poles and the cross-poles. I couldn’t believe how she simply glided over everything in a trot stride. She didn’t even attempt to jump the cross-pole, but fitted it into her regular trot rhythm. If only Cruz would do the same! However still I tried to sit, his ears shot forward towards the upcoming cross-pole when we trotted over the ground poles. But he jumped quietly over the cross-pole and halted after a few strides in a straight line. This was massive progress! Then he actually transitioned into walk in front of the cross-pole!! And no bucking. ;) I kept the session really short, suppling him with walk exercises for ten minutes before popping over the cross-pole. But Cruz was enjoying the change in routine. The added interest in his work (plus his being unfit) were keeping him sane. The plan was working! Cantering It was time to add canter work over small jumps. Again, I would begin with walk work and keep the sessions really short. But I did want to build on my success with the trot exercises. I invited Christina over, who has a gray Percheron stallion. Cruz used to be deadly scared of this big guy’s huge presence. But after a weekend show where they were stabled close to each other and chatted over their stall doors, Cruz decided that Peanut is a good guy. Our first time together, Peanut and Cruz alternated going over the same combination of trot poles and the cross-poles as before with Pippi. Peanut was also just coming back into work, and that was enough for him. A few days later, Peanut returned to join us for The Canter Exercises. We began with the previous trot work, then took turns cantering over my raised ground pole, once in each direction. Peanut was very calm in his approach and popped over the pole in stride. Cruz was more animated, and needed a quick correction to shorten his stride in front of the ‘fence.’ Although he listened, our first two attempts were a bit discombobulated. But I stayed calm and had faith in my ability to positively impact my horse. Peanut is a big 17 hands high Percheron stallion with a lot of presence. But he's actually a real sweetheart! Once Peanut had gone over a second time and Cruz had his breath back, we tried again. This time our stride was flawless, in both directions. Flushed with success, we moved onto a tiny upright. I’d placed this across the width of the arena, so our horses couldn’t gather speed before or after the obstacle. The previous canter exercise now paid off. Both our horses popped over the upright calmly and in stride, on a circle in both directions. The Grand Finale With Cruz behaving so well, I decided to see if he was ready for one final exercise. This one didn’t involve jumping: it meant facing his fear of horses coming towards him in trot and especially canter. I need to use every occasion which presents itself to work on the issue. I positioned Cruz by the little fence he’d just jumped, where he would be facing the oncoming horse, and asked Christina to bring Peanut over it again in canter. This meant Peanut would momentarily be cantering towards Cruz before turning to pop the jump right next to us. This was the moment of truth. I held the reins on the buckle and told myself: “If Cruz goes crazy, I’ll deal with it then. I’m not going to worry about it until it happens.” Peanut was now rounding the arc of his circle and cantering directly towards Cruz. My bay pricked the one ear nearest to Peanut, and I felt a quick quiver go through his neck – not even his whole body. Then he relaxed as Peanut came round and finished the fence. I was on cloud nine. “Do it again, would you, please?” I asked Christina. I had to make sure this was for real – that no one was pinching me! This time Cruz didn’t even register the 17 hand stallion as he came towards him. This was unbelievable progress for my horse and for me. He usually does a half rear and spin. I aim to build Cruz’s confidence in me in these quiet yet playful ways and continue doing fun stuff which involves other horses. As an example, next Saturday Christina and Peanut will accompany Cruz and me to a local cross-country venue. We'll splash about in the water jump which is open to the public for the day. There will be a lot of other horses milling around, and with Peanut’s help Cruz will stay relaxed. Soon it will be time to focus more on preparing for dressage shows. And really, we’re already doing that, aren’t we? P.S. Yesterday I splashed Cruz over the watery obstacles in readiness for Saturday. He LOVED it!
Update: I went to that cross-country water training. Christina couldn't get off work, so I joined a lesson instead at the same venue. Cruz absolutely loved the Appaloosa-donkey in the group! He was very hesitant about getting in the water (which has a swimming-pool blue base) even though the other horses were milling around happily in it. But the instructor talked me through it, telling me to look ahead at one of the riders standing in the water and nudge Cruz forwards at his elbows with my foot. I was proud of him for not rearing or spinning round. He just kept backing up, then taking a few steps forward, then backing up again, etc. I could feel he was about to lunge in and held my bucking strap for security. But I was told that this changes my position in the saddle. So I had to stop being a wimp and let go! Eventually Cruz closed his eyes, held his nose and jumped in. It was not a huge launch as I'd anticipated. I patted him like crazy with a big grin on my face. After that he was happy to trot and canter in. What a great day! |
AuthorHorses are my big obsession, and I'm constantly striving to get better, smarter and more in harmony with my equine buddy, Cruz Bay. Horse Blogs & Sites I Like
Archives
September 2017
Categories
All
|