It's the face

Over the weekend I went to visit the farm where Hampton was bred and born. There was several half-brothers of him out in one field. It was interesting to note the extreme differences in the horses, depending on what mare they were out of. Hampton's mother is a Jockey Club Thoroughbred mare, so he is lighter-boned than some of these horses - who are mostly out of draft cross mares.

Here are four of them (all same sire as Hampton):

The chestnut is also out of a TB mare, but the others are out of draft cross mares. The grey is much too heavy for my taste, but I bet he'd be a handsome fox hunter.

While I may be biased, I do think Hampton has a far prettier face than any of his brothers I saw. Perhaps he got that from his mom.

And as far as I know, there have been no other siblings of Hampton's started under saddle (or any kind of work, really) so I can't compare them in that respect. The oldest of the Fletcher (Hampton's sire) babies are 3, I think. (Coming 4 in 2010).

And in other news, since it's been raining, cold and gross, the 2 year old hasn't done much of anything. Today I tied him up out in the hallway - there are single ties on a wall where most of the lesson horses stand to be groomed and tacked. Up to this point, I've tied and crosstied Hampton in his stall - and today decided to see how he would do "out in the open." He was ... fine. Not a problem at all.

The answer

Riding the 2-year-old

So, I read a lot about how wrong it is to ride 2-year-olds on the various dressage discussion boards I visit. A lot of people say it's too early; some say it's ok to do some light work and riding. T-Bone was started under saddle in February of his 3 year old year (so he was technically still 2). I decided to go ahead and very lightly start Hampton under saddle because 1) He has the mental ability to handle the work. He has never once gotten "brain fried" or shown any signs of becoming afraid or irritated at work. That's not to say he hasn't been confused at times, but he has been so easy-going and willing to learn that I felt it might do him some good to "have a job." And 2) I really wanted to get all the lying over his back, jumping up and down next to him, etc. stuff over with before he was too big for me to do so safely. and 3) He is a strong 2 year old. If were really gangling, boney or ribby I would not have sat on him. But his topline is nice and he is capable of balancing with me on him. And I have been working him VERY sporadically. I have maybe been on his back 10-12 times total. Currently, we can walk and do very little trotting. And it's a pokey trot at that. He never works more than 2 days in a row. Lunging is kept at a minimum. I really don't think that this work load is harmful to him. Plus, look at me, I weigh next to nothing. I am capable of staying quiet and balanced on a horse's back, so I don't interfere. I don't ride with a loose rein techinally, but as you can see I don't restrict his head at all. Steering still needs a little more work, but he understands whoa quite well. When I rode him the other day, he has his ears forward with a relaxed expression. No tension. Will I continue to ride him over the winter? Probably not. I don't have an indoor and it will be good for him to keep growing up. I think starting him now will give me a good leg up for the spring/summer when we get going to more training level work - including introducing the canter. And if he's not ready, I won't do it.

In other news, he is fat and furry. Had his teeth done and his mouth was basically a mess. I was VERY glad I have not done much with the bridle (although he has been wearing the bit, but never acted like it hurt him). He had 2 wolf teeth pulled, teeth floated, 1 cap removed from a front tooth and 1 retained premolar yanked. Ouch! I'm sure he's much more comfortable now. I've also switched his food over to Purina Omolene 100. He LOVES it. I realize it might make some horses "hot," so I'll be watching for that but so far, so good. I just want to make sure he stays reasonably plump throughout the winter. May reconsider feed again in the spring.

He's due for a trim later this week.

Hey he hasn't forgotten

Hampton has had a couple of weeks off from serious work. But since the weather is suddenly gorgeous again, I decided today, tomorrow and Monday he can do something with his fat, furry butt. Today I merely lunged him with just a saddle on. He's actually starting to go more forward with less "requests" from me. While I don't make him canter but just a few strides, I do ask for canter departs just so that he knows what it is and that cantering is OK. He's sort of snotty about the departs, although I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that he is unbalanced and can't organize his legs.

He's really cute when he does this. I just send him on and the second time I ask, he canters right off. Guess he just has to give me the finger once as a protest. I'm not worried about this at all, as by the time I even attempt to canter him under saddle, he will have learned to canter more appropriately on the lunge and this sort of stuff goes away (we hope). 

He is starting to fall into a nice tempo when trotting. When I first started him out, I basically let him pick his own pace - which was a slow, Western like jog. These days I request that he move forward and soft and it is starting to pay off. his over-reach is starting to develop and there are moments where he really swings. He still looks so gangly and awkward, and his goose-rump butt does not improve the picture, but I think as he matures he will be really nice.

Tomorrow I will ride him. And if steering and stopping goes well in the round pen, perhaps we will venture to the big arena? Depends how brave I am, too. Monday will be another riding day. Then ... more time off. He gets his teeth floated on Thursday (and hopefully his wolf teeth yanked, too). Friday he gets his feet trimmed. What a week for the giant 2-year-old. And my checkbook.

Road trip

I'll be taking a little road trip this weekend.

To here:

And by little road trip, I mean a 30-hour drive across the country.

Will return with photos.

Peace.

Back in the Day ... Part 1, "Star"

I'm going to write a "mini-series" on the horses who have influenced me and taught me the most. 


KE Flight of a Star

After riding at Kaufman Stables (Westfield, Ind.) for a number of years, I got the opportunity to lease a small chestnut mare named Star. She was sired by Waskeeka's Nocture ... a decent line in the Morgan world. She was young, and cranky. She was not a horse you could go into the stall and brush or mess with. She would pin her ears and was not friendly. She also was a show horse - never turned out, locked up in a stall for 23 hours a day. At the time, I didn't know any better. I began my show career with her - showing all over the Midwest at Morgan "A" breed shows (including Dayton, Ohio, where this photo was taken) The ugly brown saddlesuit in this photo came as the recommendation of my instructor. It was even custom made. Geez. 

Even at the time when Morgan Jr. Exhibitor English Pleasure horses were still english pleasure horses, instead of park horses, Star was still very average. In today's Classic English Pleasure division, she still would not hold up. Not much movement and sort of a dumpy headset. (The dressage queen in me cringes at this word, but just work with me here) Of course, I didn't know any better at the time. My instructor filled my head with great things. How she looked fabulous and we would do great things. Star was really good at spinning and rearing. I fell off numerous times due to this antic. She was never one to rear so high that she was in danger of flipping over, but I think now she would have made a good reining horse. She also dumped me twice at the Dayton Horse Show in the warm-up ring. In the name of saving the very expensive, very ugly brown saddlesuit - I did land on my feet ... both times.

With Star I learned some hard lessons about showing. Smiling throughout the entire class won't win you ribbons. Neither will pleasantly trotting along on the rail. People are going to cut you off. During one class in Michigan, Star decided to throw in a lovely buck during the canter. Startled ... I didn't know what else to do but just keep going. One of the more valuable lessons ... ever. We never won a blue ribbon ... in fact I was more than thrilled to get ANY ribbon at all, as most of the time we were last or close to it. I could never figure out know why we always did so badly - even when we did not make any mistakes. Now I know ... obviously ... there were better horses and better riders.

As far as I know, Star is a school horse now for a Morgan stable in central Indiana (actually, last I checked, it was Sheryl Woosley's barn ... poor mare). When I took T-Bone to his first show as a 4-year old, I saw Star there ... trucking another junior rider around the ring. She had some grey hairs on her face, but still looked the same. As much as the mare dumped me, I still liked her. She was fun to show, and really for the most part safe. She set the stage for many, many years with Morgans.

... to be continued ...

Misc. stuff on the baby horse

Rope halters


I've always bought my horses leather halters. Nylon halters to me are not only unsafe, but look tacky. It sounds snobbish but I guess it was just the environment I grew up in. While I will always refuse to use nylon halters, I have recently discovered the convenience of rope halters. While they do appear "western-y," they are fantastic for starting a young horse. The bridle slips right over the halter with no problems - whereas with my leather halter I have to adjust some straps to make sure everything fits and it always looks like the horse has 10 tons of leather on his face. Rope halters also have a little bit of "bite" for when you need it. Not quite as much as a chain, but more than just a regular halter. I also like this. Rope halters are so adjustable, it's ridiculous. One size can fit a wide variety of horses. So while I do not like the current pink one I'm using with Hampton, convenience has trumped the little fashion police voice in my head ... for the moment.

Lunging
Of all the tricks to teach a horse, I have always been pretty good at teaching them to lunge. I know how to deal with just about any problem they can throw at me, and in most cases in the beginning when a horse does not cooperate on the lunge, it is because they don't understand. Hampton, however, is a large 2 year old and is VERY good at moving sideways. I mean, if there was a Kentucky Derby for a really messy, unbalanced, frantic leg yield/side pass - he would win. So while I am capable of handling and correcting a horse that "bulges" out on one side of the lunging circle, Hampton merely runs sidways - sometimes so fast that I just let go of the lunge line because I don't feel like face-planting. There's hardly anything I can do when he does this ... so instead we've gone back to lunging in the roundpen (where this does not happen) ... and in the open ring, I stick with smaller circles and slower speeds. I hope he eventually comes around with more work. Part of working babies ... sometimes it just takes time.