13 Days and Counting

This past week Louie was put to the test in many area's with a full (really full!) schedule!

Thursday began by taking Louie to Willow Creek stables. I board my own horse here, and our friends from the barn were heading out to the GVRDC (Genesee Valley Riding and Driving Club) Trail Challenge this weekend. To make things easier, Louie stayed over for a few nights before we shipped to the event. On top of making trailering easier the morning of the trail challenge I knew this would be great practice before heading away from home to Harrisburg for a few days. Of course the smart little guy he is, he could care less about hopping on the trailer and heading to a new barn. We rode Thursday night and did a practice run of our freestyle. He did everything excellent. I need to work on trimming our freestyle down to 3 mins! (3 mins sounds like enough time until you time yourself and realize your at about 8 mins..... oops :p)

Friday we decided to pull out the English saddle and give that a go. No surprises awaited us with a new saddle and girth. Originally I didn't think Louie would make a very nice English horse although its very hard to tell when their this green. After Friday nights ride I have a very different opinion. We jumped a small cross rail much better than I anticipated and worked on the flat like a hunter. He is proving himself in every area and discipline I can think of. I hope to get some video of us riding English this upcoming week!

Saturday was Louie's starring debut with the Lollypop Humane Society interview. He worked in front of the camera like it wasn't there and fell asleep without his bridle on while I answered a few questions.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to Scottsville for the Trail Challenge. Louie was excited to be in a new place with so many new horses and trailers around. After a few minuets of ground work he was back to his normal relaxed attitude. It was great for me to see the improvement hes made on how quickly he relaxed in the new environment. Louie stood tied to the trailer for the first time while I tacked him up and off we went. Even with trucks starting up, trailers coming in, whinnying horses, and others warming up, he took everything in stride.

A few of Louie's friends!

Louie completed all 12 of the obstacles with flying colors! There was nothing he said no to and even the never before seen obstacles were a breeze to him! After almost 3 hours he spent a lot of time bending on the trails and learning to stand while we waited for the other horses to complete the obstacles. After this event I truly feel like Louie and I are no longer a "smart horse, paired with a good rider". I feel like we have become a team built on trust and the confidence we have gained together.

Monday Louie headed back home. After our long ride the day before we were both a bit tired and did some light work. I decided to work on one of Louie's freestyle tricks and ended with a bareback ride. In the beginning Louie wasn't too sure about the lack of saddle and my boney butt! A few minuets later he figured it was alright and we did some work at the walk.  Here is a short video of our bareback ride.

 

Last but not least, Monday we were given the results of the Trail challenge on the weekend. Louie and I placed 10th out of 37 riders! I could not be any more proud of him! This upcoming week I hope to put some of the final touches on our freestyle and make it as if we could ride it in our sleep! (And try to ride it in 3 mins! lol) 

13 days and the clock is ticking. LETS DO THIS LOUIE!!! 

Love............................................ Courtney and Louie

Week 9 Update

I can't believe it has already been 9 weeks since I met Little Louie and I began retraining this guy. Man has he come a long way! When you think about the limited knowledge he had only a few weeks ago it truly shows how smart these animals are.

Louie spent week 9 at home working hard. I feel as though I have hit the wall this week although his happy greeting in the pasture makes me forget how tired I am and off to work we go. This week Louie spent a lot of time walking and trotting. Under saddle, long lining, on the rope, free, walking and trotting everywhere! Walking is one of the most important gaits that we all either take advantage of or overlook. If our horses won't do certain things at the walk, they won't at the trot, and the certainly wont at the canter. After we establish a good walk then comes trotting. Trotting is where we begin to build muscle. Many horses after returning from injuries will trot for months if not years before they pick up a canter again. In my opinion none of us spend enough time teaching our horses to walk and trot properly. My main emphasis this week was to establish a better walk, to give us a better quality of a trot. Some days Louie wants to walk off faster than he should, and trot like he's heading to the next town, so we spent a lot of time bending, and becoming softer in my hands. No pulling just giving to the bit. This takes repetition, repetition, repetition. Louie is a very fast learner and wants to please you. He comes out every day trying harder than the last and this makes my job much easier and more enjoyable!

We also took some time to set up a trail course of our own at home. I was very pleased with how well he flowed from each obstacle completing our homemade course with a lot less errors than I had expected. This week Louie will be traveling to another farm where I board my own horse and spending a few days there before we head to the trail challenge this weekend. I would like to set up another trail course there and see how well he does everything in a new place. He like to get excited off property and doesn't like to stand as nicely as he does at home. We will see what this week brings and try to work through those new place wiggles.

Here is a video I took of our trail course. I had to get creative seeings how I don't always have an extra set of hands around the barn, so enjoy a "ride" on Louie!

With less than 3 weeks to go I'm starting to get excited! We still have things to work on (who doesn't!) but I couldn't be happier with where he's at.

Upward and onward we look to week 10! :)





Love............................... Courtney and Louie

Little Louie Week 8 Update

Hello all, I hope you are enjoying the fall weather that has decided to grace us with its presence much earlier than expected! Yay for wild horses and cold hands and toes! Okay I'm being a bit extreme, but I am happy to report although all of my other horses seem to be kicking up their heels in this cooler weather, our superstar Louie could care less!

Week 8 brought another exciting adventure for the little man. We took a field trip over to Fat Chance Farm where they have held trail challenge events in the past. I was able to ride Louie around the arena and then take him out on the trails. There were a few obstacles that we could ride over and I was excited to see how he would do with the combination of being on the trails and seeing the obstacles. Eager to please, he gladly went over anything I asked and happily led the other two horses on our trail ride. Earlier on in the week was the first time we had ventured out on a real "trail ride" at home. He took a look at a few things like the monsters in the hedgerow but other than that he was happy to be outside. So As this was only his second time out on a real trail ride, I was impressed. I have entered Louie in the Genesee Valley Trail Trial event this following Sunday. We will put to test the things we've already accomplished and hopefully conquer some new obstacles. Here is the video of our adventures at Fat Chance Farm:

As for our work at home Louie and I decided on what we will be doing for the freestyle event in Harrisburg. I'm going to keep you all in suspense as our freestyle is going to be top secret until the event. :) We continued working on the basics. Walking from point to point teaching him to stay between my hands and legs. Louie's trot has improved TREMENDOUSLY. With the muscle that he has put on and the new skills he's learned he is becoming much more pleasurable to ride at the trot. We continued our canter work on the rope. I'm not to worried about cantering him under saddle at this point seeings how his trot still has room for improvement. One step at a time. 

This week I hope to set up a trail course similar to what we will see in Harrisburg. With all the pieces of the puzzle that we have I believe its time we put the puzzle together and see what area's still need the most work. Louie also struggled with two or three other horses going around the ring when we were off property. At home he is mostly worked alone with only him and I in the ring. I hope to find a few people willing to ride around him this week.

I think that's all the news for week 8! If any of you are planning on riding in the trail challenge Louie and I would love to meet you and answer any questions you might have. Enjoy your week and happy riding!

Love...............................Courtney and Louie 

7 Weeks down 5 To go

Week 7 was a lighter week of work for Little Louie. Happy as a clam to have a few extra days off he did put in his hard work when it came down to it. We worked more on long lining at the trot. I was happy to see him improve a lot by the end of the week. I know I've talked about my love for long lining but this week was proof again. The work we put in on the ground was evident when we went under saddle. We also worked on cantering. Surprisingly cantering seems to come naturally to Louie. Although he is weak under saddle his canter is quite comfortable. In the upcoming weeks it will be exciting to watch both his trot and canter transform into a stronger gates.

Other than that there's not much new to report. A lot of repetition, and consistency to make Little Louie into a better horse. This week I hope to get him off on another adventure, hopefully with more people, confusion, and horses. There are also a few obstacle clinics and events in our area in the next few weeks, hopefully Louie will be visiting a few. If you will be attending any of the trail trials or horse shows in our area please let me know. Louie and I would love to meet you!

 

Louie thinks all this work is too hard! I can't get enough of this cutie! Such a handsome Little man and a pleasure to work with :) I wouldn't want to be going into this with any other partner. I'm excited to see what the future holds for this guy! 

Until next week, enjoy your horses and the beautiful weather were having!

Love.............. Courtney and Louie

Half Way There!

Little Louie has survived the intense life change and has reached the 6th week! He is exactly half way until The Pennsylvania National Horse show Finals. I feel confident in the things Louie has learned and has yet to learn before we make our trek to the Pennsylvania finals.

This week I taught Louie to long line. I have another (very out of date) personal blog that I started about training my own off the track Thoroughbred. In this post.................. :http://livetoridethroughbreds.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-pony-update.html
I talk about teaching my own horse to long line, and what long lining is.

 (if you chose to read through my other blog, I will preface you and say that I don't agree with some of my previous training suggestions. I was starting out training my own horse, and have changed some of my method's since then. Ex: I don't agree with lunging with side reins although my horse spent some time using them. As trainers I'm sure you have all done things unknowingly and learn better method's, later on. This is one of those situations. So please know this if you choose to read my other blog. And if you wonder why I no longer use side reins or other training devices, please ask! I would love to explain my take on these methods that are so commonly used in our sport today.) 

If you are one to get sick watching shaky video's I warn you don't watch this one! Taking your own long lining video proved to be more difficult than I intended. Although its rough I think you get a good idea of what's happening. This was the only training that Louie, may have had before he was seized and taken to Lollypop Humane Society.  As a harness horse hopeful, this is how they break horses to be driven in a cart. Louie acted as if this was foreign to him so I assume he was never broke to long line. Although this was new to him the smart guy picked up on it very quickly. This has really helped teach him where to put his feet at the trot and how to keep his outside shoulder, hip and neck in line. With this his trot has also improved under saddle. There are many other benefits to long lining other than the ones I have listed in both of my blogs. I encourage you to look up long lining and maybe give it a go with your own horse!



Louie also took his second outing to Wild Side Ranch again. We rode through most of the obstacles we will see at the finals as well as a few new ones. He is very willing to explore new obstacles and take on the challenge.

This upcoming week I hope to work more on Louie's walk and trot. He prefers to walk out at a faster pace than normal and his trot is the same. I will continue long lining him to help him figure out his feet! Other than that we will be logging more hours in the saddle in hopes to make a special guy to show off at finals! (He already is special and in his eyes he already shows off but we won't tell him he still has work to do ;))



Love................ Courtney and Louie