All about my horses!

Country Frank’s Lucky Star

Lucky Star changed my life. He improved my life while giving me the most frustrating experience in my horse life. Lucky Star is an extreme “Horse of No.” I’ve experienced “Mares Who Argue”, but never a battle of “No”. Lucky is very dominant. He ignores pain. He has a less than desirable work ethic. Instead, Lucky’s feet might be bolted to the ground when asked to move.
Lucky and I were never going to make show horse. We came to an understanding. I understood that I would never get a consistent solid gait for long periods of time. I understood that we would always argue. We both learned the rules of arguing.
Lucky is now owned by one of my best friends, Hope. Hope is a trail rider. She and the people who ride with her have learned about how to get Lucky going when he balks. Lucky is a fantastic safe and smooth trail horse. He has found his perfect home!

Life in the Herd

Four Horse Herd is:

Sweetie-Paint mare with nearly no pigment on her face to block sunburn. Sweetie has become best friends with Delta……. Sweetie is low horse in the herd in domination in the herd. Number 4, Sweetie does not let on that she likes or trusts humans until you walk up and pet her. Then she may or may not trust you. I believe she has been a brood mare all her life and has not experienced any close bonds with a human. She did not have any friends in the large herd of horses that she had been pastured with prior to moving to my pasture.

Delta – Fox Trotter bay mare with two back white socks. Delta had been a professional trainer damaged horse in her first life. She came to be owned by a student of Tony and Jenny and over a period of years, brought back to a happy life with people involved. Her trust in humans has to be earned. Delta is #2 dominant horse in the herd

Since moving to my house, Delta and Sweetie have become best friends.

Lucky Star -#1 Lucky Star is the dominant horse in the herd. He runs everyone’s life. Lucky Star is a liver chestnut horse. He loves Delta since they are almost the same color. He usually can be found very near Delta.

Cisco is the #3 horse in the herd. It took him a while to be dominate over Sweetie, but now he wins that challenge every day. He is not allowed to be too near Delta. Lucky does not share his mare.

Now that summer is here, Sweetie has learned to avoid the horrible pain of sunburn by staying in the run-in stalls during the high sun part of the day. Flies are not as bad during the day plus Sweetie’s face remains pain free. She loves that. We have three stalls. Delta and Lucky share the same stall. Cisco and Sweetie stand in their own stall. Everything works. I give them all a little hay during the day so Sweetie will not starve and be forced out into the sun.

Cisco has been boarded elsewhere all winter and has just returned home to stay. Lately, I’ve noticed Cisco and Lucky out in the pasture during the day, eating grass and standing close together. They are swishing flies off each other when close together. Sweetie and Delta remain in the stalls. I believe Cisco and Lucky get tired of the stalls, want to eat more than the little hay I give them and have become a gelding grazing family. Sweetie doesn’t come out and her best friend Delta stays with her. Delta is a loyal friend.

Life is ever changing in the herd.

Enter the Horse of No Again

Because I have such and wonderful horse of Yes in Cisco, it is difficult to work up much incentive to ride the Horse of No, Lucky Star.  Lucky might be near full recovery from his accidental leap over the fence and ripping up his foot in September 2015.

I had incentive today. It was feet trimming day with Tony Vaught.   I took him to the arena in which I ride.  He and Cisco trailered over together.  Cisco was first out of the trailer.  I tied him up.  Lucky Star got to wear the saddle, so I tied him up next to the tack room door.  I opened the tack room door and Lucky Star’s head dove into the tack room and picked up the horse feed bag.  He picked it up and swung it out of the trailer in one swoop.  I got it away from him and moved it to the side.  Then Lucky Star’s head dove into the trailer and ripped  the alfalfa pellets bag. He tried to pick it up, but failed and ripped a chunk out of the sack.  I then managed to tie Lucky’s head closer to the trailer so he couldn’t reach inside the trailer.  I whipped the saddle blanket and saddle on the big mouth horse, moved the feed sack back into the trailer and took off with Cisco and Lucky to the arena.  Whew.  It was a humid day and sweat was running down my nose.

We proceeded to the arena.  I took Lucky into the round pen.  Suddenly, he noticed the guy in the tree line sawing a downed tree.  He snorted, blew out the big alarm noise and body was fully alert to danger of being eaten. The tree guy had filled up his truck and left the tree line. I let Lucky loose and asked him to run around the pen.   Lucky ran around the round pen in his imitation bronc posture where he puts his head way down and crow hops.  This causes the saddle to move forward to his neck. I loosened the saddle and moved it back to the correct position.  He ran around again with an even worse bronc imitation.  The saddle slipped forward.   I took off the saddle and asked him to resume our warm up.  I thought he was fine to ride, so I resaddled him.  We left the round pen without our halter.  We were walking to our bridle (at liberty) when a horse loose in the pasture decided to run at full speed.  Lucky Star decided to take off too.  Whoowe!  By the time he was done with his bronc act and appearing ferocious to the running horse, the saddle had slipped up to his neck.  OMG.  He let me catch him before the saddle swung under his neck.  We did another resaddle.  It takes a lot of human energy to whip that saddle off and on a horse.  My nose wasn’t the only thing to have sweat dripping and running.

Finally, Lucky Star was ready to ride.  He trotted around a circle without doing the bronc imitation.  I got him and told him to move.  Oh, a fly must be bothering his hind leg.  I asked him to move and he stomped his back leg.  Dratted flies.  Oh wait, stomping his back leg is an argument against moving forward.  We did our argument removing hindquarter turns and were able to move forward.  The rest of the ride was wonderful.  His gait is the smoothest flat foot walk and fox trot in the universe.  I decided against cantering today.  His feet really needed the trim that Tony Vaught was going to do today.  We played some point to point games which he loves.  He loves to stop and point to point is a stop game.

It was time to get off Lucky Star and saddle up Cisco.  Cisco warmed up with running a circle around me…at liberty.  I came upon the idea to give him the verbal canter signal with me on the ground.  What a stroke of intelligence I have.

Warmed up and mounted.  I decided to play the cow game with Lucky.  I had my stick and string.  Cisco and I drove that Horse of No around the arena, in a circle.  We changed directions.  We crossed the pole, went around the barrels.  Of it was fun to drive Lucky Star around.  Cisco was darn excited that he could drive the leader of the pack around too.  What a big day for both these horses.

Lucky Star Recovery 10-23-15

It’s been nearly two weeks since I had to worry about Lucky Star and his ripped foot.  He went over a fence, but caught his back foot and tried to rip it apart.  There were weeks of constant worry from colic to him not getting up for two days.  I’ve now enjoyed two weeks of heaven not worrying about Lucky not making it.
I came home this afternoon to see him laying down in the far pasture.  hmmmm.  I got grain and rattled the stall bars to let all the horses know that grain was coming.  All horses came except Lucky.  I saw him raise up and then flop back down again.  It appeared that he was close to the fence.
OMG!  He’s got his feet caught in the fence.  A horse owner can always tell when something is not right.  I rushed into the garage to find the wire cutters.
Note to Self…store the wire cutters somewhere in plain sight.  Put them in a place where you know they are.  What do wire cutters look like, anyway.  I finally located three tools that appeared to be wire cutters.
Lucky was across the far pasture.
Oh wait.  I need a phone in my pocket.  I know I will need to call someone to help me.
Get the phone out of the car.
I’ll take the riding mower over.  It will be faster.
Finally, I get into the pasture and got over to Lucky Star.  He was no where near the fence.  He raised his head and looked at me.  I looked at him, his legs.  No blood…Nothing wrong.  My pulse calmed down from 1140 to 140 beats per minute.
I decided to mow some weedy spots while I was there and probably Lucky Star would get up.  Nope
I got closer to him with the mower.  He hopped right up.  He turned around.
Lucky Star cantered across the dam to the barn where the other horses had eaten all the grain by now.
HE CANTERED!  It wasn’t a pretty canter, but it was a canter!
Holy Moly!

Round Pen #1 with Lucky Star

Long long ago, I discovered that a round pen was a must-have when you wanted to train a horse. I put that round pen up far away from anything that would give me shade. Being young (in my late 40’s),I was out there in 90 degree heat with Sage, Velvet and the wild hackney ponies. I don’t how I survived that heat in the summer time.

Then the round pen became a corral backing up my barn while I traveled to stables with all the facilities, plus a covered, shady round pen.

The home round pen aged, as I did, and finally was fraught with rust. It didn’t have Aleve as I do, to get rid of that rust.

The round pen was taken down and is currently in use as a cow barrier somewhere in the near world.

Two rainy days ago, I have a new 60′ round pen with trees on the west and east side. I will have shade! It’s big enough to ride horses at a canter and just do about everything I need. Yee Haw! A new world starts.

Lucky Star, the horse of no, just had his first session in our new at-home round pen. Lucky has never had the at-home round pen and always felt , well,”lucky” about that situation.

Today Lucky Star is asking for sympathy from his horse friends! Oh what fun I had today chatting with the “horse of yes”! I was chatting in the shade, sitting on my very own blue barrel in the middle. Lucky Star might be planning on a rescue attempt from close friends!

Lucky Star Pre-Horse Show Operating Instructions

Pre Horse Show Advice for Lucky Star’s Operating Official

1. Minimal Warm-up. Let him walk around the two arenas and return to trailer for rest.  He needs his rest!
2. Trail Class- Remember the hard part is

  • a. Get him into arena and
  • b. Get his start button to operate. Once he gets going, he will keep going.

3. Rail class operating guide

  • Follow a gelding into the arena
  • Ride as far away from the gate as possible when traveling on the rail
  • Never look at the gate or anyone standing at the gate. Ignore them
  • Strong Focus on the path you want Lucky Star to travel when anywhere near a gate
  • When reverse is called, don’t stop and turn. Do a small 180. Stopping might activate his “stop button”.

5. Pray in Western Pleasure that the judge doesn’t call for a stop when Lucky is near the gate

You Lost the Herd, “No”

Some people look for a horse that won’t go. A young horse that won’t go is worth an easy million. Lucky Star is nearly a million dollar horse. Here’s a story about a horse that wouldn’t go. Http://mofoxtrot.com/viewpoint/2001/12/a-christmas-miracle-story.
That horse’s sire is Lucky Star’s grandfather! Lucky and Dasher are million dollar horses for the right person!

Lucky Star is being converted from show prospect to trail horse. This was our third 2015 trailride. This was the third time he has failed to keep up with his fellow trail horse companions. We are gaiting along at a wonderful flat foot walk watching our trail buddies pull further and further ahead.

This is against the trail horse rule. Trail horses want to keep up with their buddies. It’s a herd thing. Its a very solid horse rule. The horse that doesn’t keep up with the herd, gets eaten by the lion. All horses know this. It is a survival rule.

We are in first gear. We have several more gears to go, but Lucky Star remains in first gear and the other horses get further ahead. A turn comes up for the herd and as they make the turn, the trees hide them from our view. The herd is out of sight. I ask Lucky to go faster. Not only does he refuse to go faster, but he stops!

The other horses are out of sight. It’s a big horse rule to get somewhat anxious when your trail buddies go out of sight. Horses are supposed to get anxious, panic and think about bolting. Riders think about death.

Nope. The million dollar horse gets agitated in his stop. He paws the ground. It’s is hard to describe, but he sort of pranced around while at a dead stop, pawing the ground. I had to yell at the trail riders to come back and get us. As soon as they came into view, Lucky stopped pawing and was able to move forward and join them.(What is this about Lucky Star? Is his dominate bossy inner self is stronger than the horse rules of survival? )

Upon joining the herd, We led for a few moments, but Lucky slowed down to a gait called “the snail pace”. He was passed and the herd went back up to speed.

We managed to keep up with the herd after that, but Lucky was an angry arguing horse. He was forced to be a go horse. He wanted to eat another gelding riding with us. He threw little fits of snaking his head madness. An angry Lucky Star gaited horse goes through a list of all the possible gaits, even the most hated pace. I groaned outloud when he hit the pace gait at a good speed. Whah. Whah. Whah!

All in all, his arguing is much more fun out on the trail. At least he moved forward most of the time and quite nicely on the last half. This is a lot more fun than dealing with his arguing in the arena!

Finally at about the halfway point, we managed to smooth out into our flat foot walk and fox trot. We even cantered a bit. We had a nice smooth non argumentative ride back to the trailer.

Lovable Lucky Star

Gone is the “Horse of No”.    The Horse of No really has left the building.  Lucky Star has become willing to go!  Last year he was coming along well except for bristling when I asked for the canter.  The canter  was bracy and stiff because Lucky was protesting having to go at such speed and effort.  It wasn’t a pleasant experience for the rider as there was a different canter going on with each side of Lucky Star.  He was leading the canter with one leg in the front and the other leg in the back, making the rider feel bounced.

By the end of summer, Lucky was ready to show in non-canter classes.  We did manage two classes at our Fox Trotter club show in August.  He only stopped and balked at the gate twice as we were going around the track.  We were ready for the big national show and I sent Lucky Star to training with Jenny for two weeks.  He had no chance.  He learned to canter willingly under Jenny’s training!  I had a new horse after two weeks!  However, He came down with a cold and was unable to show at the Celebration.

Spring came in March and my riding has started.  He canters!  There is no balk.  There is hesitation and the desire to stop next to the gate to escape to grazing on the grass, but it’s just a thought instead of a full fledged balk.

I rode him the second day and Lucky Star suffered big time.  He needs sympathy.  He had to canter all over the arena.  We did drop to trot lead changes on the rail.  We serpentined through the middle of the arena and did drop to trot lead changes as we hit the middle.  Our lead changes weren’t pretty, but we had impulsion.  Impulsion used to be a “no” word in the language of the Lucky Star.  Lucky has impulsion now.  He will go.  Sweat was present upon his body and he had a bath upon our return home.  Poor Lucky Star.

All Lucky Star’s lack of work ethic was expressed in the arena.  Out on the trail Lucky has always been ready to explore the trails.  At least with other horses as company.  He’s a great trail horse…brave, willing and smooth.

More later on Lovable Lucky Star as we continue our journey.

Lucky Star Fun

Cisco is away for training with Tony and Jenny Vaught.  This makes Lucky Star the winner of nearly every day riding.  This is our second every day.  Away we went to the arena. I took off Lucky’s halter and we are “at liberty”.   Lucky and I drug the barrels out into the arena….one at a time.  I set up the barrel and secretly placed a treat on top.  Lucky and I went at least 20 feet away.  We stopped and I gave him the sign to “go touch the barrel”.  He touched the barrel and discovered the treat!  We did this three times.  Our last time we were about half the distance of the arena away from the barrel.  I told him to go touch the barrel and away he went.  Oh we thought that was fun.

I changed the game.  I put three barrels on their side lined up on the wall.  They are now “jumping barrels”.  Lucky and I got into a good place and I told him to go jump over the barrels.  Prepare to be amazed.  Lucky trotted off and jumped over the barrels.  Remember, he has nothing on his head.  He is loose.  Amazingly, he jumped the barrels at liberty.  He got a treat and we rested by the barrels.  This is called “training”.  I wondered if he would jump the barrels going the other direction.  Another amazing outcome.  He jumped the barrels again.  We got the treat and rested by the barrels.

I decided that we were done with the barrels so Lucky and I drug/pushed the barrels to the middle of the arena…away from the wall.  Hmmm, I thought.  Will Lucky jump the barrels when they are not shoved against the wall?  Why not try!  So from the middle of the arena, I told Lucky to go jump the barrels.  Clutch my heart, he jumped over the barrels.  Good Lordy!  Lucky Star got about five treats for that!  Amazing.

Finally, Lucky decided I should get on him and ride.  We had a good time working out his minor arguments about moving forward in a gait faster than a slow walk.  At the end of our session, Lucky and I cantered around half of the arena.  It doesn’t get too much better than this for fun with your horse!

Lucky Star and the Horse Show

Lucky Star did fantabulous at his first real horse show.  Some of my nightmare visions came true and other of my nightmare visions didn’t occur.  Overall, Lucky did great.

Lucky Turns it On

1.  When we got there, Lucky was tied up while I created the trail class obstacles.  He did fine.  I didn’t have any nightmares about this.

2.  Saddled him up and he did have some energy.  Thanfully, friend Hope was there with Chip.  So we rode in circles around Hope and Chip until Lucky was calm.  No nightmares about this part either.

3.  We then rode in the two arenas, practicing.  He was a little keyed up, but he ended up being very calm about everything.  no nightmare here

4.  We were the first contestant in the trail class.  Lucky went into the arena willingly and gave me all the impulsion I could have asked for.  My nightmare was that he would balk at the gate and not go in.  He did surprise me in the back thru the triangle barrels.  He got angry with me and put some speed in his backup.  In fact, he backed up out of the pattern.  This was the first time I’ve ever not been able to get him to stop or slow down!  amazing

5.  We won 2nd…amazing

6.  Opening Ceremony of the horse show.  I was asked to carry the club flag.  Well, Lucky has never carried a flag before, but he is calm and I have certainly prepared him for things zipping around over his head.  And he did it!  He carried the flag in following the horse and rider with the American flag.  We kept up with that horse, stood quietly for the National Anthem and followed the American flag horse out of the arena at the same speed.  Now that is a memory to cherish forever!

7.  Western Pleasure – went right in and did fine.  nightmare was that he would stop and balk

8.  Novice-  Went right in, balked at the gate and again when we stopped and reversed.  I got him going again before creating a problem for the other horses.  nightmare was balking, creating a problem for the other horses, being asked to leave the arena, except he still wouldn’t move.  So the nightmare was way worse than what really happened!

He gave his all on this class.  We scratched the next class and I took him home.  He was grateful to get home and drink water.  The facility had a water problem and there was no water to fill a bucket.

I decided that Lucky should go into full time training before the World Show at Ava.  Lucky is currently at For the Horse Ranch and being trained by Jennifer Vaught.  My nightmare of balking at the World Show is abating.

Riding Alone

What technology do we have in our lives.  Someone on Facebook recommended that I have someone who knows I’m out there to check on me.  Have a start time and a check in when done time friend.  It’s a little lonely at James A Reed Wildlife Area during the day on weekdays.  I guess non retired people are sequestered at their job.  I remember having a job too.

So there’s this iPhone App called Find Your Friends.  You can allow people to look on a map of where you are at.  My good friend Hope is my emergency tracker.  I tell her when I’m mounting up and estimated time to be done.  I message her when I’m done.  When it comes time, she looks for me on the map.  If I’m somewhere other than near the parking lot, she will check to see if I’m moving.  If my location on the map stays static for a while, she’ll try to call me.  If no answer, she will go into full emergency mode and have the park ranger try to find me.  If it seems really bad, she knows these trails as well as the park ranger and she will come and find me…using the Find My Friends app.  Isn’t that cool.

I didn’t ride Lucky yesterday.  I’m debating on how much ground work to do so that he will recognize me as his leader and be calm when I’m riding him.  He did really well the last time.  I decide to cut the ground work time time in half.  We did go into the field to play, but we didn’t walk all the way to the corn field and back.  He was calm and gave me some effort when I asked him to circle around me.  We yielded hindquarters and backed quite a ways.  He’s good to go!

We do our riding warm up in the parking lot, riding figure eights around the row of trees.  We rode on the road and listened to the magic steps.  I decided we were ready to go on the trail to the dove field.  We get on the trail and Lucky tenses up somewhat.  I go into my calm down defensive moves.  We do hindquarter turns, 180’s, 360’s and bend his head slightly as we move forward.  When I get a brace on the rein, I know he’s not paying any attention to me, so we do our defensive moves unit he is light again and listening to me.

We make it to Dove Field.  Dove Field is like an outdoor arena.  I love outdoor arenas.  Lucky is fairly calm as we walk down the wide dirt oval.  The dove cages are in the middle.  I make it to the end and see a park employee has come in his pickup.  He is out checking each cage.  I decide that Lucky and I will leave the dirt arena at the end and head for the trail.  We walk through horse stomach tall grasses on a faint track left by a vehicle.  Not too long in the grass and Lucky got stuck.  When he gets stuck, his front legs bounce up and down and he can also paw the ground in a furious manner.  I offer him the option of turning around and returning to Dove Field, but he lets me know that he is stuck for that direction too.  I try some hindquarter turns mixed in with offers to stop.  Stopping isn’t an option for Lucky…he paws and offers to bounce up and down again.  Now my options are 1-Get off and walk back or 2-Back Lucky to Dove Field.  Option 2 works.  Lucky becomes unstuck when I ask him to back.  We back nearly all the way to the Dove Field when he calms down and offers to walk forward.

Whew!

I chat with the Park Ranger.  He tells me that they are catching the doves to band them. Oh that is a relief!  I thought they were catching them and keeping them somewhere to use when Dove rifle season starts.  He drives away and Lucky and I head back on the trail.  But I decide to take the real trail out into the park.  Lucky is calm and walking nicely.  He’s a slight bit nervous about something in the bushes so we elect to ride in the weeds beside the trail.  We make it halfway through the field when I decide to quit for the day.  We turn around and walk with great calmness back to the road.  We ride on the side of the road in the grass and hear a big clattering engine noise coming towards us.  Out of the tree line comes a huge garbage truck going at least 100mph.  Good Lord, I’m thinking.  Lucky stays calm.  I’m waiting for the garbage truck to slow down and it doesn’t.  Good double Lordy.  Lucky stays calm and I flag the driver and tell him to slow down.  I sign language that I’m a little worried about my horse reacting.  The driver slows down as he goes past us.  Lucky stays calm the entire time.

Love this horse!

Tomorrow Lucky and I are taking two friends on a trail ride.  One of them has never been on a trail ride.  What an honor this will be!  Lucky will be a great trail leader horse.

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