Picking out great music for your horse

From Ruth Hogan Poulsen
http://www.ruthhoganpoulsen.com/news/6-tips-9-8-09.html

Know your horses ideal BPM (beats per minute)

The average horse has BPM as follows.
Walk 90-106 BPM
Trot 138-160 BPM
Canter 96-108 BPM

Pick music that matches your horses BPM within 4-6 BPM range. (For example if your horse has a canter of 104 BPM, choose music that is between 100 BPM and 108 BPM)

Choose music that has a very clear down beat. (The down beat is the beat that you would tap your toe to.)

If you CAN'T tap you toe to the music or clap your hands easily to the beat of the music… it's not great riding music!!

Choose music that will help you achieve your horse's ideal tempo. For example: if your horse is a bit on the lazy side, choose an upbeat and energetic piece of music that will help YOU continue to strive for more energy. If your horse is more on hot or nervous side, choose music that will feel calmer, steadier and will help you with rhythm and relaxation.

Choose music that has dynamic changes. Dynamic changes are audible changes within the music (either volume or intensity) where you can make transitions. (for example, the music should FEEL or SOUND like there is a transition to an extended trot) When you are riding a freestyle for competition, the dynamic changes of the music need to match your transitions both within the gait and from gait to gait. Meaning, when you begin and end a half-pass, the observer should see and hear the transition and hear the change in the music occurring together. When riding a transition from gait to gait, such as the canter to walk for example, the observer should hear and see the transition to the walk occur with the change in the music.

Choose music that has appropriate back ground music. Even when a selection of music has the correct BPM for a trot; for example, the music that is in the back ground has an impact on the FEEL of the music. If you have a hot nervous horse, a high pitched frantic violin in the back ground will NOT help you or your horse maintain rhythm and relaxation. On the other hand, if your horse is always lacking impulsion or is lazy, more upbeat and forward moving back ground music will help you increase his energy level. For example, a soft and slower piece of jazz music might be appropriate for a nervous horse, but would allow the quiet or lazy horse to have even less energy.

Choose music that tells a story. Pick a piece of music that has a clear melody. Music that does not have a clear melody is sometimes described as "back ground" or "elevator" music. Music that has a great melody also helps the listener predict and feel what is coming next.

Choose music that has clear phrases. A phrase in music is like a sentence. It has a clear beginning and ending. The beginning and ending of phrases are instinctive places to begin and end movements within a gait. For example, if you are a first Level rider, at the beginning of a phrase you might start a 10 meter circle or leg yield. At the end of the phrase, you would be ending that same movement. The length of a phrase should match the length of a movement. If one phrase is not long enough to complete a movement, then you can ride a complete movement to 2 or 3 phrases together as long as you begin and end at the end of any given phrase.

Polish your boots to a brilliant shine

By Ruth Holgan Poulson
Equiman link: http://www.equiman.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=198759#Post198759
Her website: http://www.ruthhoganpoulsen.com/poulsendressagellc.html

1. Start with a clean and DRY boot. (Use a salt remover type product, or water, NEVER EVER a SOAP product. SOAP or oiled products will leave a residue and no matter how hard you try, they will never shine!)
2. Only use the old-fashioned boot polish made by KIWI. Use the type that says “PARADE GLOSS”. It has silicone in it shines like crazy and helps shed water.
3. Get some sheet cotton. ONLY COTTON… and wad up a palm size amount in your hand and get it slightly damp with water. Only a few drops of water should come out of your cotton when you start applying the polish.
4. Make sure you polish is warm, or has been sitting in the sun. If it’s raining, or no sun, use a bic lighter to heat the polish for a few seconds.
5. Rub some polish on the damp cotton and rub into your boot. Circles are best for the first few layers. Do NOT apply polish to the inside of the boot!
6. Reapply polish when the cotton looks grey or bluish. Don’t over apply… you are going to put 6 layers on so don’t put it on all at once!
7. Let the boot DRY. Put the boot in the sun in on a heat great, or use a blow dryer. You must not buff the layer until the polish is dry.
8. Buff boot with long, straight, and fast strokes with a soft COTTON cloth or buff brush. Buffing also heats the polish, that’s why you need to do it with elbow grease!
9. Repeat these steps 6 more times, and you will have boots that you can see your smile in … and they won’t be patent leather… just look like it.

How To Treat Thrust in Horses

Cherry Hill

http://www.horsekeeping.com/hoof_care_and_lameness/treating_thrush.htm

Although thrush most commonly affects the grooves on either side of the frog (collateral sulci) and in the center of the frog (central sulcus), it can invade the white line and even areas of the sole. Here are a few facts to help you prevent and get rid of thrush:

The bad new is, thrush bacteria are almost always present in the soil, just waiting for the opportunity to move into the warm, dark, moist environment found in the bottom of your horse's hoof.

The good new is, thrush is anaerobic, the bacteria don't survive in the presence of air. So, the best way to avoid thrush is to keep your horse's feet clean and dry so air can reach the tissues. But, as every horseowner knows, this is easier said than done. Horses, especially those in confinement, often don’t have a dry place to stand, and even if they do, they often choose to stand in wet bedding, manure, or mud at least part of the time. One of the consequences of wet footing is thrush.

DO NOT apply bleach or hydrogen peroxide to a horse’s feet. These so-called “treatments” will burn the healthy tissues of the frog and actually retard healing.

Commercial thrush remedies vary in effectiveness, and ease of use, and can cost up to $12 per ounce! Many products in squirt bottles are very messy to apply. Some contain fungicides and bactericides (like gentian violet and copper naphthenate) which are also staining agents. The purple or green color of the liquid lets you see without a doubt where the product is being applied but also stains everything it touches, including your clothes and hands and your horse’s hair - and it is difficult, if not impossible, to remove. Other products smell worse than the thrush itself (which is pretty bad!).

Sugardine is a home-made thrush remedy that’s effective, easy to use, doesn’t stain, and has no bad odor. Plus, it only costs around $0.34/oz to make. Sugardine has been used for years in human medicine to treat wounds and burns. It reduces edema (swelling), nourishes surface cells and speeds healing.

To make sugardine, mix a povidone-iodine product - such as Betadine scrub, solution, or ointment - with white table sugar to form a thin paste. Generic povidone-iodine is often half the price of Betadine and is basically the same product.

To treat thrush, first trim loose and overgrown flaps of frog so air and medication can reached the affected tissues. If you’re not comfortable doing this, ask your farrier or vet for help. Wash the hoof thoroughly with mild soap, such as Betadine scrub, and plenty of warm water. Pat the hoof dry with a cloth and apply sugardine deep into the clefts of the frog using a small brush, such as an acid brush. An acid brush has short flat black bristles and a tubular metal handle 6" long and is available at hardware stores for about 25 cents. The sugar will settle to the bottom of the container, so you’ll need to stir sugardine thoroughly before each use.

Apply sugardine daily until the thrush is gone and keep the horse’s feet as clean and dry as you can to prevent reoccurrence.

How to make and use a syringe to milk a mare

From Breeders Corner
http://www.breederscorner.com/syringe.shtml

If you need to milk your mare, there is more than one way to do it. Until this spring, I did it the old fashioned way - as if I were milking a cow. With a mare, that is very inefficient and very, very messy! I always finished with sticky colostrum on my arms, in my hair, all over my clothes. A close friend of mine was visiting when I had to milk and made a simple "udder pump" for me from a 60 ml syringe. I can now get five times the milk with a tenth of the effort and no mess! Here is how to do it:

Equipment List:
- 60mL syringe
- Sharp knife or fine-tooth handsaw
- Cooking spray
- Plastic baby bottle

Place the syringe on a hard surface and cut the end with the tip off as close to the tip as you can while completely opening the tube. Any fine tooth saw or sharp knife that can cut the plastic syringe will do. Since the cut edge will not touch the mare, absolute smoothness is not necessary. Scrape and wipe away any residual crumbles of plastic.


Wash throughly, spray the rubber plunger cap with cooking spray so it slides easily, then put the plunger into the syringe body backwards. Slide it in and out a couple of times to lubricate, grab your clean baby bottle and its off to see the mare!


You will probably have to tie the mare or have someone hold her the first few times you milk her. Have a clean baby bottle in hand to pour the milk into.

Place the syringe over a teat, press gently but firmly against the udder to create a seal, then pull the plunger back slowly. The milk will flow easily into the syringe. If the mare's milk is not down yet, you may only get a few milliliters at time, but every drop counts! As the milk comes down, you will be able to fill the syringe, often several times. Be sure to milk each teat equally as neglecting one side could provoke mastitis.

Whoa!

In my world when I say “Whoa” I want my horse to sit down and slide, laying down some perfect little elevens for thirty feet or so. Not like I can always make that happen. But I want the word Whoa to mean put it down and run with those front feet until we’re out of arena.
I also want my horse to stop moving forward when I need it to.

In my mind this creates two vastly different approaches to “Stop moving.”

So I teach “Stop moving” as two different maneuvers.

When I first work with a horse on the ground (on the longe or in a round pen) I create forward movement by moving toward their hip. I create a turn by moving towards their shoulder. This is all forward movement from me, facing the horse ( to appear larger) with a lot of energy.

I stop them by backing up, turning sideways (to be smaller) and releasing the horse from my forward energy. It sometimes takes awhile, but they learn to stop when I back off. I stay silent.

I cluck to them to increase their speed. Usually from a walk to a trot, but if I cluck I want an increase in speed at any gait.

I kiss to get them to lope. I’m very specific here and work hard to get my young horse to understand the kiss to lope cue.

When I cue to speed him up I cluck once, then send him forward with a step, a swing of the rope, or the longe whip. As long as my horse increases his speed I accept it. It can be from a slow walk to a fast walk, or a trot to a lope, whatever, he just has to increase his speed.

When I cue to lope I kiss once, then send him forward with energy until he’s loping.

I am silent when I ask for my stop. I want the colt to understand a stop comes with a simple release of pressure. Normally I work them good enough to make him grateful for a chance to stop. Then I let him air up. If he moves, at all, he gets sent forward again, after two or three times around I ask for the stop again. I’ve never had one not figure this out pretty quick.

When I start riding them around I teach them to stop by relaxing in my seat, taking my legs off and waiting for them to stop. Yes, sometimes I’m moving around for quite a while before my horse stops. I try to wait to ask for a stop until he is wishing he could quit carrying me around. After he stops I pick up my reins, lead rope, whatever I’m riding with, exhale and pull back. Just enough for him to feel the pull. Then I get down. For the first two or three rides the colt doesn’t really get it, but I don’t worry about it.
I just relax my legs, sink my weight and wait. When he stops I exhale, pull on my reins relax and get down.

Once he gets it, it stays. I don’t ask for a stop until I plan to quit for the day for several rides. This gets my colt thinking about how much he likes to stop.

As time goes on I add a “Whoa” before I pull back. Once I do that I pull back until my colt backs a step. (Backing-another story, another day).

I don’t get off right away either. I want more from a Whoa. I want Whoa to mean stop and back up a step. So I’ll repeat this maneuver until my colt stops and begins to step back before I pull. He doesn't have to actually back, just rock his weight back and be ready. Then I hop off and am done for the day.

What happens is my horses will simply stop when I release them with my legs, but they will get their butts under them and begin to rock back when I say Whoa. So that’s where my slide begins to come in.

The down side to how I stop? I tend to get two-year-old's who are powering into their stops. The eager little over-achievers slam into the stop when I simply relax my legs.Which I really don’t want. I don’t want my horses burying themselves when they have those sticky little legs and rubbery tendons.

If I have my druthers, I’d rather my horses didn’t start to slide hard until waaaaaay into their three-year-old year. Which is why I perked my ears when Laura talked about a shuffle stop she teaches her rope horses. It sounded like a great way to ease the pressure on a young horse’s legs. I asked her to explain it, liked it and asked her if I could post it. I’d love to get some input from the WP folk, the dressage riders (who have complained mightily about my rocked back horses), trail riders and halter folks. How do we train for our stops? What do we expect? Let’s have some fun with this.


Stuff That Works
(With Apologies to Guy Clark)

Not too long ago mugwump posted one of her great Sonita stories in which she referred to Sonita at one point as doing a short hard stop “like a roper”. I commented that I taught my rope horses to do a shuffle stop, and mugwump emailed me to ask what that was and how I taught them. In the end, she decided it would make a good post, so here I am, trying to write a training piece.

Those of you who have read my previous posts, or my novels, know that though I did train horses for awhile, I have been for many years an author of horse related mysteries…I have never tried to write about how I trained horses. Mugwump is a genius at this sort of writing, so I feel a little intimidated. But here goes.

In order to understand this “stopping story”, you need to understand the background. I spent my twenties working for reined cowhorse and cutting horse trainers and showing my horse, Gunner, in reined cowhorse events as a three-year-old and cutting events when he was four through eight. About the time I turned thirty I got really burned out on the political element involved in any sort of judged event and took up team roping (a timed event). At nine years old, Gunner became a team roping horse. I both headed and heeled on him. As a beginning team roper, I was no instant success in competition, but my horse looked pretty good to the ropers. Because he was well broke I was able to teach him how to work as was needed for this event, even though I couldn’t always throw the rope accurately. To make a long story short, I was asked to train a few rope horse prospects.

One of my first projects was a hot, mostly TB colt named Rebby. Rebby had tons of speed, tons of go, a tendency to throw his head up (I didn’t start him), and an inclination to bull through the bridle unless you really parked him, at which point he would bury up, stiffen his front end, and prop you. Not good. But he was a willing, kind colt who could really pick you up and carry you, he had lots of cow and he was really, really fast. I liked him and was determined to get him trained for the guy who owned him, who was a friend.

The problem with Reb was the stop. If you pulled on Rebby while he was chasing a cow, his inclination was to stick his nose out, run through the bridle, and defy you. If you pulled harder he buried up and bounced. I cast back through my training to think what I knew about stopping that would help here. I didn’t want Rebby to learn a sliding stop like a reiner (to quote mugwump, quoting Sonita, “Waste of time.”) The sliding stop has no real purpose, other than it is beautiful. Ropers need to be quick, can’t waste time sliding along. Cutters don’t slide for the same reason; they’d waste time, get behind, and lose the cow. Cutters sort of melt into the ground; even when they’re moving forward, they’re thinking back. But a rope horse has to run flat out down the arena chasing a steer; he can’t be in half-crouch-ready-to-stop mode like a cutter. Traditionally, rope horses are taught to bury up—using a tie down and a good hard pull on the reins. But Rebby already wanted to stop too hard. I needed him just to melt into the ground, soft and easy, but not wasting any time.

I thought and thought and came up with an idea. It must have come from something one of the many trainers I worked for or took lessons from taught me, but I don’t know who to credit. In any case, I began teaching Rebby two things. I taught him to give his nose (lower it and bring it back) at my first touch on the reins, and I taught him to come down to the stop by breaking down to the trot for a stride. I worked on this at the walk and trot endlessly until he had it, and then at the lope. It took awhile, but eventually the tendency to prop was gone. Rebby would insert the little shuffle step (the one stride break down to the trot) as he came to a stop. Everything was smooth and soft, like I wanted. His head was down, he was giving to the bit. Now he had to execute this at a dead run, while chasing a steer.

As you can imagine, this was a challenge for a hot horse. The time honored roper’s way to get a horse to rate off is to steer stop and ask the horse to bury up, or to throw the rope early and teach the horse to back out. But I wanted Rebby to answer the bridle like Gunner did; I wanted him to stay broke, even when running down a hard running steer. Over and over again, starting with slower steers, I ran Rebby after a steer, and when we got to the position to throw, I took hold of him gently, asking him to give his head and back off. Over and over, when he failed to do this, I asked for his “shuffle stop”. I did not allow him to park it. If he tried to bury up, I kicked him forward and we tried our stop again. When he melted into the ground softly, shuffling his feet to a stop, I backed him up (gently) and sat there until he sighed and mouthed the bit and gave the signs that he’d taken in the point (this can take awhile…Greg Ward used to say you should sit there and relax and smoke a cigarette. I don’t smoke, but I used to try to pretend I was, to get the desired relaxed effect).

Eventually it sunk in. I could check Reb off a steer and he’d yield to the bridle and back off, calm and collected, ready to stop. When I did stop him, he melted into the ground smoothly, doing his little shuffle. He still ran the steers down like a damn streak of lightning. I’d never ridden a horse that could run so fast. This whole process took about a year. When I returned him to his owner, the guy decided I was a genius as a rope horse trainer, and had me train a couple more colts for him. I used my shuffle stop technique on all of them to good effect. It was something that really worked for me.

Now I’m not sure if any of you are training rope horses, or doing any discipline in which this technique would be very helpful. The point of the story (for me) is that its an illustration of something mugwump says all the time. Think for yourself. Evaluate the situation, consider what you know and have learned and come up with a plan. Sometimes you need someone to tell you what to do and sometimes you don’t. My shuffle stop technique was quite contrary to the way my cowboy friends trained rope horses, and I got a lot of grief about it to begin with. But I could see it was working on the horse, and I persisted (though sometimes it looked ugly), and in the end Rebby was regarded as a real success by all the guys who talked bad behind my back while I was training him. So, don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas, or your own techniques. Just look for the “stuff that works.”

Herd Aggression

From mugwump chronicles
http://mugwumpchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/01/herd-aggression.html

Jonas said>> I have a question about my mare. She doesn't go into heat often, though people do say she is “mareish”. She has a terrible attitude towards other horses.
She likes having a herd, but she hates other horses. She charges through the fence at them and throws up a ruckus if I give other horses attention.
She acts bossy with people, too. She struck at me once, I backed her down the driveway, which is quite long and she is respectful with me. But she still is crazy when it comes to other horses. She also seems to have an influence on other horses, after they are kept with her they lose all their manners and are aggressive toward other horses.
She never used to be like this. I don't understand why she is so "mareish" now. It's all the time and she has no respect for anyone but me.
So if you have any suggestions on how to deal with her behavioral/jealousy issues, I'd love to hear them.<<

And people think studs are tough! In a natural herd situation there is always the “boss” mare. Sometimes they’re called the “alpha” mare or the “bell” mare.

The boss mare is vital to the survival of the herd. She will tell the herd where to go, when to eat and drink, when to run, in general tell them what to do all the time. She gets to decide when to accept a new herd member or when to run somebody off. In exchange for this privilege she gets to eat the best grass, drink the freshest water and live in the middle of the herd where it’s safest. Her babies get the privilege of her status, so they grow up safe and strong.
This is a coveted position in the herd. The way horses work is the boss mare stays in charge, her second-in-command (and favorite herd buddy) gets to help her boss the other horses around, then there’s third, fourth and so on down to the last sorry little horse that’s the bottom of the heap.

The boss mare is savvy and aggressive. She becomes boss by beating the crap out of everybody beneath her. It’s vital to the safety of the herd.

Jonas, I’m sorry, but you have a boss mare. Unfortunately she is not in a natural setting. She can’t get at the horses on the other side of the fence to prove her dominance. She feels they are a threat to her herd, even if her herd consists of you and a goat. So she lives in perpetual agitation, thinking she has to resolve the situation.

You can’t change who she is. You can change her understanding of how she should behave.
You already have made a good start by making her respect you. If I was in this situation I would want to take it a step farther. I would want my mare to understand she can’t behave aggressively towards other horses when I’m around. I would regularly go out into the pasture and drive my mare away from the rest of the herd. I’d do this by swinging a lead rope at her haunches until she skittered off. If I had to whack her a few times I would. If I had to really thump on her I would. I would do this over and over until she understood I had sent her away. Eventually she would stand away from the group, staring at me with her ears pricked. She would probably look sad and confused, but I’d stay tough and ignore her crybaby little self. I would pet the other horses. I would stand in the middle of the group and make her stay out.

Eventually my aggressive mare will begin to graze and act like she’s ignoring me. Then I would relax and let her wander back into the group.

What would happen is I would shift the dynamics of the herd. The other horses would understand I can drive the boss mare away. They would understand I was her boss. She would quit trying to attack them while I was out there.

When I had this mare out to ride or anywhere she is under my control I would discipline her for aggression towards other horses as if she was being aggressive towards me. I would be fair and consistent, but I would make sure she understood I am the one in charge.

You can’t change who your mare is, but you can change how she treats horses around you. She will still be boss mare when you aren’t there, but once a mare proves her dominance things usually settle down.
I hope this helps. Be careful, be firm.

Teaching turn on the forehand

From fhotd member galen98
http://fhotd64476.yuku.com/topic/17548?page=2


Teach her from the ground first. Have her walk actively beside you, and ask her to halt squarely. (You may have to practise this if she isn't used to it.) Stand at her shoulder, turned to face the rear. Use the butt end of a whip to touch where your leg aide will be, and while restraining her from going forward, ask her to move her HQ over. Ask only for one or two steps at first, and be careful to train both sides. She may be awkward at first, wanting to pivot in the middle rather than on her forelegs, but with practise she'll understand. When she's doing it properly, her forefeet will stay within a very small radius, while she'll have a nice clean cross-over in back.
Under saddle, ride parallel to but about 2 meters away from the rail. Halt, turn her head slightly toward the rail, and ask her to take a step over with her hindend (away from the rail, toward the centre of the ring), reinforcing your leg with a tap if necessary. Again, ask for only a step or two at first, and do both sides. Ideally, you want her forehand to stay put, but if she takes a step forward, its no big deal when you're starting. DON'T let her back up. Even though you're asking her to go sideways, this is still a "forward" movement. Backing is a resistance that can cause future problems.


From fhotd member Megsabelle
http://fhotd64476.yuku.com/topic/17548?page=1


I recently taught my runt how to turn on her forehand. I started on the ground, holding the inside rein and pushing her rear over very gently (so as not to get a big movement). When she resisted , I persisted and "turned up the volume" (increased the pressure) until she shifted her weight away from me, at which point I stopped and pet and praised her. Repeat a few times and I found that I could get her to move her butt away with the volume at a 5, then a 3, then a one. When I rode I did pretty much the same thing, just substituted my leg for my hand. Now she'll spin on her forehand like a pro!