TTouch

I made sure to braid Wynters mane before anything today. He didn’t like it when I first started he tried to shake a few times and then gave up when I continued. I think he was thinking everyone would think he was a nancy with his hair like that. Stallions just don’t wear there hair ‘up’. Sorry about the crappy photo my camera battery is dead so all I had was my cell phone. So I took a picture of Wynters pretty braid. He was not that pleased about it.

The barn was relatively quiet today. The trainer was just throwing his last horse in the trailer when I arrived. They are off to horse show and won’t be back 'till Sunday. So there grooms went around giving horses dinner and making sure everything was ok. I was alone halfway through our work out today. You have no idea how nice it was to be alone and just ride, reminding me of when I had the place to myself.

We worked on our bowing first which he is really getting. Today was the day he decided that he could pull his foot away. I struggled with that the whole time and one of the times that he was trying to pull back he actually went all the way down. He got a good scratch for that and gave me a funny look like ‘that was weird’. He never went all the way down again but he got within inches and even though we were moving around in circles a lot I called it good. He is breaking down and dropping like he is supposed to.

When we lunged he was lazy boy again. (No not the chair) Trot was like the fastest he wanted to go. I didn’t make him do to much I fingered his brain was pretty focused and I just did enough to get his blood flowing.

Just so that you know when I woke up this morning and stood up it felt like my right leg was swallow around my knee area. It doesn’t hurt it just feels differently. Its odd. The more I walk around the better it feels but I think I pulled something behind my knee. Chasing Wynter around on the lunge was way low on my priority list! The fact that I had to post was also getting me to wince.

Taking his halter off and putting his bridle on I noticed how laid back he is and how much I trust the dude. I pulled his halter off in the middle of the pen and bridled him. After he was bridled I threw the reins on the ground and went and hung up the halter. He just stood there and waited for me.

Who ever thought putting the fake ferns by the mounting block was a good idea? I swear. They have to smell like plastic but Wynter insisted on telling me that he really could digest them. Once I told him twice that they were not as editable as they looked he just starred at them like ‘damn they look so real though’. His expression made me laugh, he is such a hippie! He reminded me of the VW bus off of Cars.

Once on him my legs felt a lot better. The whole theroy on if your soar after riding, the best thing to do is ride again rings true. I bent him around using both my rein today to keep him bridled. I bend him every time I get on and I can usually asses what is going to be a problem during our ride this way. Today he was still lazy and he was very persistent with drooping the left ear. His right ear was a lot better. I bumped him up to a forward jog and did a few circles. When I asked him to move out for posting he was like ye haw!

He drove forward making me laugh at his eagerness. He thought he knew what was going to happen and tried to anticipate our change of reins. Trying to foul him up I did a lot of circles and changed reins in odd places. As we went around he would brace or get heavy on my left rein. I did several things to fix this. We would circle to the left till he got soft our we would back up. He didn’t care for either but it helped a little. We did a lot of posting trot today and I’m sure my leg is going to kick my ass for it tomorrow. Oh well….

Lope work was a light bulb moment for me. I never cease to stop learning or figuring things out. For one I made is pretty hard for him mentally. Instead of working on either end of the pen we worked in the dead middle. This made it seem like he had no walls to ride off of. He loves the rail! Trying to keep him off of it was one challenge and getting the correct lead was another. It was when we went right that I had a enlightenment. I was asking him wrong! Stupid Sam *slaps head*. My mom refers it to riding goofy footed. (My brother skate boards so we use a lot of Skater lingo) Instead of asking for the canter with the outside leg I cue the inside leg. So I support with the outside and ask with the inside leg. For some odd reason I was asking for the right lead even when I was going left. So it was my fault he was going for the left lead!

After I realized this I tried it out and sure enough he pop off on the correct lead. Figures….

We jogged around and again I noticed that his left side was off. He wouldn’t jog without trying to drop that ear. Going right I didn’t have to touch him. I’m currently trying to see if I have the funds to haul him out to Jennifer for a few lessons. I need a few just so I can fix this and make sure I’m not going about things completely wrong. I would hate to drill something into him and have it turn out to be wrong.

When we were done jogging I let him walk for a while and then went back to jogging. We changed directions a few times and then I jumped off him on the rail. Like I said he loves the rail it is a relaxing place. He was mister happy pants as we walked into the wash rack. He is happy to be doing something again. His shower was uneventful and he tolerated getting his face sprayed off like a champ. Tomorrow we will work more on bending and body placement. We did go over body parts today but didn’t get to do to much with his hind end. Tomorrow we will along with more canter work. I would like to get his body part down so we can do haunches in and out. I have a feeling we need to fix out ear dropping before we can do to much though. I gotta call Jennifer.

OK so I have Linda Tellington-Jones book Getting in TTouch and I decided to do Wynter.

Profile #9 Wide prominent nose bone. May indicate inflexibility. Well I guess a little.
Jowls #2 Medium jowls. Average ability to learn (You can bring your horse way beyond average with intelligent education) This was really hard for me I couldn’t decided on large or medium so I went with the later. He is super smart I wouldn’t really call him average.
Bumps & Bulges He doesn’t have any.
Muzzle #4 & 7 4 is Usually goes along with a sensitive personality. 7 is May be somewhat inflexible and take a little longer to learn new lessons. He is sensitive, you really have to have a reason for telling him now or he will pout about it. Again with the inflexible. I may have to keep an eye on that with him.
Mouth #3 Medium mouth. Indicates nothing in particular. Look at other physical characteristics to evaluate personality. Pff figures.
Lips #1 Flat upper lip. Generally signifies a horse who tends to be quite independent and single minded and who tends to mind his own business. This one hit the mark for sure!
Nostrils #6 Edges of nostrils well defined. Mentally quick, intelligent. Intelligent is for sure, he is half human sometimes. The looks he give me sometimes make me think we are very old friends. #7 shapely, fluted at the top. Horses who tend to think a lot. If the top f the nostril has a well-defined shape and is firm, they’ll tend to be cooperative if a person is fair and confident. Also, beware if the skin an inch above the top of the nostril is very loose, indicating a tendency to react and snort or shy in new situations. This was hard because his nostrils are long a narrow and from the side they are quite different looking than anything in the book. The first part is correct, like I said above as long as you have a good reason for correcting him he understands. If not he gets a little put out and can get a little testy about. Now the spooky thing is odd, He will blow but he doesn’t jump around like a sissy. He is a stallion after all and if he ran from something the girls may hear about it.
Chin #6 Relaxed chin, medium thickness. A steady, cooperative horse. Yes that’s for sure. Riding him around today I was just thing that same thing. I would be comfortable putting a beginner on him.
Eyes #5 Medium-size eye. Average intelligence. #8 Triangular-shaped eye. Average intelligence. Personality will depend on other characteristics. You would think the eye would hold a lot more than average. His eyes tell me so much about him, they are so deep.
Ears #1 Wider apart at the top than at the base. Indicates steadiness and a tendency to be uncomplicated. #10 Pin ears. Horses with ears like this are often willful. Again I concur. Willful when he wants to be but other than that he is very simple and uncomplicated.
Swirls # 4a Double swirl, side by side. Please note that this description was a whole page so I have only taken the facts and didn’t type out the thoughts that Linda had on the swirl pattern. Horses with this swirl combination tend to be more emotional and overactive than average. They tend to become upset without apparent reason and at unexpected moments. This doesn’t really go with him that much as he is a real steady Eddie. When such horses blow up the best way to handle them is to back off and allow them to settle. Punishing them doesn’t help; in fact it usually only aggravates the behavior more and can even bring on more resistance. This is true I usually let him be when he doesn’t do something stupid. His head is usually to high in the clouds to get him to pay attention to you until after he is finished. For him its usually about the mares, I think its more testosterone than anything. Horses with two adjoining swirls can be a great show horse. Hell yes he will be one of the greatest show horses as long as I go about it correctly. But generally horses with this pattern are not ideal for inexperienced riders. That’s a double edged sword for me. Since he is a stallion that rings true now if he was a gelding I really don’t know how it would work. It all depends on what that inexperienced rider is asking of him. Like I have said I would put a beginner on him because he is safe to me. Then again I wouldn’t let a novice show him or ride him on the trails.

The book has a lot to it and I recommend anyone to look into it. It really helps you out on figuring your horses out or giving you insights that you have never seen before. So I think that is about it for today. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.