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February Morning
Just a quiet look at the farm in February (not your normal February, mind you).
Enjoy our Fun Friday:
Click here to view the embedded video.
-Hollie McNeil, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
Summer Camp Planning
How far away is summer? Not that far and we’re already getting requests for our summer camp information.
Here you go:
For the 12 and under rider we are offering two different camp sessions this year.
Session A runs from June 25-27. Three days of riding, learning, and horse related fun activities.
Session B runs from July 30-August 1. It will be different material but same format. Riders can attended either one or both!
For members of our Youth Dressage Team, a D4K Boot Camp.
This camp runs from July 1-3 with the focus on test riding, getting the competitive edge, studying for the written test and winning warm-up techniques.
For the more advanced rider we also have our Advanced Camp.
This year the dates are July 18-20. With dressage, stadium, cross-country and other horse adventures. In the past we’ve played polo and learned how to drive a carriage. This camp includes a camp-out style sleepover.
For more information look at our camps page: http://ridingfarm.com/riding-camp.php
Get in touch with us if you’re interested in signing up!
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer: Riding Right Farm
Winter 2012
So far this winter I’ve tried to stay away from blogs on the weather. Perhaps it’s a superstition (from a not very superstitious person) that if you talk about it- that will be the end. I suppose I feel comfortable now talking about the unbelievable, down-right silly weather we are having this so-called winter. Since it’s mid-February how much winter can be left? I know, I know. We could still get seriously hammered. Everyday in March could be a huge snow storm. We could have snow on the ground until May. I get all that. But it’s not like last year where the snow that came in December was still here in April. Even if the rest of the winter is horrible it still beats last winter’s tale of woe.
Regardless of the weather, we have the luxury of an indoor arena. I am ever so grateful that it provides such a fantastic place to run a business of offering lessons and training. We couldn’t live without it. There are times though that I long for the outdoor arena. The idea of having other things to look at, the bigger space, the open air and nature all around.
This winter there hasn’t been the “boredom” of the indoor arena. The outdoor arena, especially this week, has been near perfect condition. The footing is soft and even. There’s no dust, mud, bugs, or anything else to detract from the joy of riding outside. The horses’ feel so free to move in the bigger, open space.
To think that I’m teaching and training in the outdoor in mid-February is just amazing. Can’t wait to get out there again today.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Finding The Future
When you look at a horse in training the important thing to keep in mind is that every horse has potential and it’s the trainer’s job to figure out what that potential is. Horses are athletes and just like you wouldn’t mistake the brilliance of an Olympic swimmer with the attributes of a star football player, you wouldn’t take a cutting horse and line them up for a run over a cross country course.
The obvious first questions are breeding, confirmation, and temperament. In our training program the horses that come our way are already hand-picked by their owners for some kind of future in English equestrian sports. Regardless of what direction the owner would like the horse to go in, the program begins with the basics. This foundation training is establishing a simple walk, trot and canter in both directions, on circles, bending lines and straight lines. Oh, to write those words. It sounds so easy. I wish it were so. Until you work through the multitude of issues that confront you in this seemingly simple quest, you just have no idea how hard it really can be. I will admit that the question of standards is probably the key difference between it being a simple job and a difficult job. We can bring just about any horse into the arena and get them to walk, trot and canter. The question is the quality of those gaits. The rhythm, relaxation, contact, impulsion, straightness and collection… those words, in that order, define the Training Scale. I could go on and on about that, and in fact I have, in my book 40 Fundamentals of English Riding.
My point here though is that every horse deserves a chance to find out what they could be really good at. Some horses have all the makings of a fantastic Eventer. They love to jump, gallop across fields and they are brave. It would be a shame to confine this horse to a life only in the dressage arena. Other horses simply hate to jump and every time they are put to a fence they act like they’re being tortured. Yet this same horses might easily be able to master the finer points of upper level dressage. Again, it would be a shame to have this horse “wasted” in the jumper ring.
In the picture with this blog, this is a horse we’ve had in “dressage” training. I thought I’d test the jumping waters, so to speak, and gave her a chance to take some jumps in what’s called “free jumping.” You set a line of jumps in a shoot so that the horse can go down the line without a rider and see what they think of getting over fences. I had an inkling that she really had the right stuff to jump and she proved it. A 3’6 jump from a trot was followed by a 4′ jump in the canter. Our training program for her is switching gears. Dressage as the foundation but jumping as the future.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Hyperbaric Chamber Kills Horse and Woman
News from the horse world this morning is that a 28-year-old woman and a horse have been killed after a hyperbaric chamber exploded. The accident happened at an equine therapy facility in Ocala, Florida. The eventing horse was apparently in the chamber when he starting kicking. It appears that he then broke the steel wall of the chamber which set off a spark and then an explosion. This particular facility in Florida has several hi-tech treatment options for horses, including an underwater treadmill, laser therapy and the hyperbaric oxygen treatments.
When I read this story the question beyond the tragic headlines for me was what’s up with a hyperbaric chamber? For the background, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been around for centuries. After WWI it was safely used to help treat deep sea divers with decompression sickness.
Since then it’s been used as a therapy to treat a wide variety of medial conditions including carbon monoxide poisoning, gangrene and decompression sickness. It’s described as a gentle, non-invasive treatment and has been popular with athletes as it has been used to successfully treat soft tissue injuries, cutting recovery time dramatically.
That’s where the treatment for horses comes in. Horses are apparently doing very well in recovering from injuries by using the chambers. The question that will certainly be raised now is how safely are these chambers designed if a kicking horse can cause it to explode?
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Smile- It’s Friday
Sometimes we just need a good smile and sometimes that smile can come from the smallest thing– like a photograph.
For Fun Friday today, a dip into the “Cute” file of horse photos.
Hollie McNeil
Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
Another Horse Sport to Consider
Jousting anyone? If all the basic horse related sports and activities are boring you, dressage (boring for sure… I can say that because I”m a die-hard dressage rider) cross country jumping, barrel racing, fox hunting, for example, have you considered jousting?
The sport of medieval times is back. The History Channel brings it alive this Sunday with the premier of a new program on real-live (nothing fake about it) jousting.
The New York Times has a great piece on it in today’s paper, plus this video report:
-Hollie McNeil, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
Blanketing Bonanza
It used to be that blankets for horses were green. You’d look out at the turn-out paddocks and see one green blanket after another. If they weren’t green, they were blue. Then came a few purple blankets. Shortly thereafter the plaids started to come in. Green plaid, brown plaid, blue plaid.
Look what’s happening now. Cris is sporting a winter camouflage blanket. Too bad we have no snow for him to blend in with. It’s pretty striking really. He’s in a paddock near the drive way to the barn and more than one person has publicly commented on the distinctive nature of Cris’s blanket. His owner says he ripped apart his purple blanket but this one remains in pristine condition, so he must like all the attention he’s getting. Do you think horse’s really know what they look like?
Cris isn’t alone in his fashion statement, by the way. There’s another horse on the farm who wears polka dots. Really brightly colored polka dots too. She also wears luminescent pink bell boots. 5th Avenue fashionistas have nothing on these horses.
Since these bold prints are clearly selling, I’m going to bet that manufacturers are going to go with the trend and create more interesting and eye-popping blankets. Hard to imagine what will come next.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Blanketing Bonanza
It used to be that blankets for horses were green. You’d look out at the turn-out paddocks and see one green blanket after another. If they weren’t green, they were blue. Then came a few purple blankets. Shortly thereafter the plaids started to come in. Green plaid, brown plaid, blue plaid.
Look what’s happening now. Cris is sporting a winter camouflage blanket. Too bad we have no snow for him to blend in with. It’s pretty striking really. He’s in a paddock near the drive way to the barn and more than one person has publicly commented on the distinctive nature of Cris’s blanket. His owner says he ripped apart his purple blanket but this one remains in pristine condition, so he must like all the attention he’s getting. Do you think horse’s really know what they look like?
Cris isn’t alone in his fashion statement, by the way. There’s another horse on the farm who wears polka dots. Really brightly colored polka dots too. She also wears luminescent pink bell boots. 5th Avenue fashionistas have nothing on these horses.
Since these bold prints are clearly selling, I’m going to bet that manufacturers are going to go with the trend and create more interesting and eye-popping blankets. Hard to imagine what will come next.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Tune-Up
Sometimes when your car isn’t running quite as well as it should be you know it’s time to take it into the shop for a little tune-up. The same could be said of horses.
Take for example our fancy German Riding Pony, Jimi Hendrix. He knows it all: shoulder-in, traver, renver, half-pass, flying changes, canter pirouettes. He’s a wonderful asset to the riding program as he truly falls into the category of “school-master,” meaning he’s able to teach riders what he knows. Sometimes however, these school master types start taking advantage of their situation. “Not riding me quite right? Well, here’s a little curve ball to deal with.” That would be Jimi talking if he could.
That’s where the tune-up comes in. A rider who knows more than Jimi (i.e. Andrea, our assistant trainer) got on the little squirt yesterday to set a few things straight. The rules are pretty easy to understand. You will go forward, straight and obediently. Not sideways, silly, and with your head looking one way and your haunches swinging like you are Hawaiian hula dancer. Jimi was none too pleased with being told who was who and what was what. He had a look on his face that clearly conveyed the message that he had been caught being naughty and he was being called on the carpet for it.
This tune-up is what makes working with a trainer so important for horse owners. It’s so easy to get stuck on your own and out-witted by your horse. When you can have someone who is more experienced, skilled, and knowledgeable get on your horse and clarify the training process everyone benefits.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
New Ideas in Trailering
The method of moving your horse from one place to another seems like it’s always changing.
When I was a kid (the dark ages) most folks I knew had a box on the back of their pickup truck with a big loading ramp. I knew another horse owner that had a home-made horse trailer with a tarp tied on the top for a roof. We didn’t think twice about these handy inventions. Hey, you wanted to get your horse from here to there and whatever worked -worked. It was better than riding your horse to whatever show you wanted to participant in (which is what I had to do…).
Today you see everything from huge rigs with living quarters (LQ), to smaller trailers that can be pulled with the family car. I found a new style that just seems smart for the person who has no intention of ever trailering more than one horse.
This nice little trailer looks like your standard two horse with no dressing/tack room. But when you open the back door you see it’s really just a one horse trailer and then a full space for toting around hay, tack, equipment, etc. I do see a lot of people these days pulling their horse trailer with their SUV. Who wants to put hay and manure buckets in the back of their nice SUV? This system means everything horse related can travel right with the horse and safely too. What will they come up with next?
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer: Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Clever and Polite
I always enjoy the antics of a clever horse… to a point. The Houdini horse, you know, the one who’s always figuring out how to get out, can be a challenge. You need to be one step ahead of him.
Well, here’s the opposite. The Houdini horse that lets himself in. And that’s not all. This youtube bit also shows that he knows his manners when the ladies are around.
Enjoy our Fun Friday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wHSLDwRZN60#!
-Hollie McNeil, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
The End of the Cat Tale
We have the end of the Cat Tale today. The saga of the stowaways on a hay wagon has been going on for a couple of weeks. Were there two cats or one, black or grey? As endings go this is a pretty good one.
To back up for the new reader, a delivery of hay arrived at the farm over the weekend of January 14, 15. When we finally got to the project of unloading the hay, on Tuesday January 17, the fur started to fly. Cats that had sought refuge from the cold at the farm where it was loaded were transported to our farm several miles away. As we dismantled their home they abandoned ship.
I have no interest in more barn cats, as Tigerlilly, our barn kitty, would be highly offended that she’d have to share her fiefdom with any other feline. So, the quest was on to return these critters to their rightful owners. There was a question of whether there really were two cats or one. One night early on, our dog treed the black cat. We weren’t successful in catching her but confirmed that it was a black cat that we were looking for. No sign anywhere of a grey cat. That was until a have-a-heart trap arrived and over the weekend of January 21, 22 a grey cat was snagged in the trap.
At this point I had written off the whereabouts of the black cat. I figured she had moved on to another farm where a St.Bernard wasn’t going to chase her into trees. However, this past weekend, it was in fact our St.Bernard that brought an ending to the two week long adventure of the stowaway cats. There was a serious commotion going on inside what is an old milk house on the farm. We store things like skiing equipment, sleds, balls, and other outdoor sporting goods in the little barn. At first it was thought that Meiko, our intrepid St. Bernard was cornering a rabid Raccoon that had scared the wits out of us the day before (that’s a whole other story…). However, as the commotion from the barn exploded into the yard it was Meiko who had pinned the cat to the ground with her mouth. Sounds horrible, but Meiko just stopped the cat in her tracks, held her there, caused no harm at all, and gave us a chance to grab the cat by the scuff of her neck and get her in a cat carrier.
We made quick work of returning the black cat to the farmer where we got that load of hay. That poor kitty needed to have her little nightmare come to an end. Now, it’s all back to normal on the farm, whatever that is.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Fun Friday
A fascinating bit of history and horses today.
In the British countryside there are several so-called “hill figures.” Many of them are horses, although not all. A hill figure is a huge symbolic animal that was created by digging out a hill side and then filling in the dug out parts with chalk.
The one pictured here is called the Uffington white horse. It measures about 374 feet in length and is about 110 feet in height. The trenches that mark the lines of the white horse are between 5 and 10 feet in width and 2-3 feed deep. What’s amazing to me is that you really can’t appreciate the horse from the ground. It is so big that you need an aerial view to get the idea that it’s a horse. As Britain’s oldest and most famous figure it’s dated at more than 3000 years old. Obviously it was created long before anyone could see it from the air. The earliest reference to it was in the 1070′s when the white horse hill was mentioned in some document.
The actual meaning of the Uffington white horse is debated. Many believe it represents the Celtic horse goddess Epona, who is known for fertility, healing and death. Among the theories for why it exists is that it may have been created to be worshiped in religious ceremonies.
-Hollie McNeil, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
A Star Is Born
There’s the old story of the down-on-his luck guy who manages to be in the right place at the right time and somehow hits the big time and becomes a successful movie star. It looks like the same inspiring story could be told about a horse. The big star of the Oscar nominated movie War Horse is proving he’s made of all the stuff that Hollywood loves.
The former race horse, who couldn’t run to save his life, is not only the premier equine star of War Horse but he also did Seabuscuit and has a string of new movies ahead of him.
The New York Times did a great piece on him. Check it out:
Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
If There’s Trouble
There’s a old saying, that if there’s trouble a horse is going to find it. Truer words have never been spoken.
Take a look at the picture here. This is Oakie, our school horse, firmly attached with not one but two blanket attachments to the so-called “safety” fence in his paddock. Now, you’d think we were starving the poor boy because this all happened as a consequence of him reaching over this fence to get to that little bit of dry, withered grass on the other side of the fence. Trust me, we don’t starve our horses. I think he’s just into survivalist mode. You know, the people who have perfectly good food on the table but opt to go out to the woods for a week to prove they don’t need modern society to survive.
Upon finding Oakie snagged to the fence you might think it was just a matter of unhooking the snaps. Nope. Can’t be that easy. Every time I tried to unlatch the snap Oakie would pull back in his effort to free himself from his imprisonment. Tension is not what you’re looking for here. Solution for freeing him was to take the blanket off him- not the fence. He ran with glee to return to his herd and eat the hay that is generously provided.
The next quest was to free the blanket from the fence. Easier said then done. I don’t know how he managed it, but those snaps were around two sections of wire fencing where the wire squares come together as a knot. I couldn’t do that with the dexterity of all my fingers so I haven’t a clue how he managed with no fingers at all. Getting it off the fence was about a 10 minute enterprise, where I even contemplated getting out the wire cutters.
As the saying goes- if there’s trouble.
Hollie McNeil-Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Trapping Skills on a Horse Farm?
When venturing down this road of running a horse farm I really had no idea the number of skills I would pick up along the way. Truly, if someone asked me for my job description I would laugh out loud. The list is so long and so varied. I can now proudly say I can add “animal trapping” to that list.
If you are a regular blog reader you know that when we got a hay delivery last week it came with the bonus prize of two six month old kittens. Well, we thought two. But then determined it was one. But now we’re thinking maybe two again.
The story goes like this: we had a black kitten spotted running from the hay wagon as we were unloading the hay. Clearly this kitten was a stow-away on the hay wagon. I don’t think she was trying to run away from the farm she was at. She was a victim of staying warm buried deep in a stacked wagon of hay. Good insulation really. When the wagon was delivered to our farm, she came along for the ride. Now, when the black kitten jumped ship there was also a flash of something grey. It was presumed that we saw two cats. The following day our dog treed the poor black cat in a lilac bush. Our attempts to retrieve were not rewarded. She jumped and ran like her life depended on it. That’s when we moved onto trapping.
A “have a heart” trap was brought in. Cool set-up. I like catching unwanted things without hurting them. We caught our poor little barn kitty, Tigerlily, the first night. At least it proved the trap works. Then Sunday morning (remember how cold that was?) we found a grey kitten in the trap. Yeah! She’s been returned to her rightful owners. Now the question remains- did the grey cat just look like a black cat, or do we really have another one around?
The trap was set up again in the hopes of catching the mystery “black” cat. Instead with caught a white cat. Andrea’s cat Fritz found himself behind bars when trying to get the food in the trap. We’ve set it again. Who knows what we’ll catch next.
Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Lendon Gray and Education
I got back late last evening from a trip to Woodbury, Ct. I was presenting one of my educational powerpoint/videos at the Dressage4kids Weekend Educational Program, otherwise known as WEP. This was the 10th annual WEP and the brain child of two time Olympian, Lendon Gray.
You really have to hand it to this woman. She has truly dedicated herself to the education of riders. Her focus has been on kids, as they are obviously our future riders and the caretakers of our horse knowledge. However, education is for every age and the door is always open and adults are encouraged to attend these events.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the topics that were offered this weekend. Dr. Hilary Clayton, the country’s premier researcher on equine bio mechanics, gave lectures on horse back pain, bits, bitting and rein tension. Other presenters talked about everything from animal cruelty investigations, to speech therapy and therapeutic riding, to improving performance through sports psychology.
There were also sessions for professionals in the business that tackled the tough subjects of difficult client situations. Examples: how to deal with difficult boarders (and tell them to leave…), and the sometimes dicey relationships between students, parents, and horse owners. Lendon was one of the presenters for this one and it was great to hear how she’s dealt with these difficult client situations. After decades in the business and running facilities with more than 50 boarders she’s pretty much seen it all.
Personally, I found every session I attended interesting and informative. There’s never an end to how much you have to learn in the horse industry (and in life itself for that matter). A big thanks to Lendon for doing her part to make all this knowledge accessible.
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding
Cool Mo-Cap
The technology that is turning movie making into a computer project, almost rather than an acting project is the future. Take for instance, Tin Tin, Avatar, and Lord of the Rings. It’s the melding of what’s real and what’s not and sometimes and it’s tough to tell the difference. For our Fun Friday today a look at how one film company took on the project of motion capture with horses. This is some fascinating video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNeRjfEPkw
-Hollie McNeil, Author:40 Fundamentals of English Riding, Owner/Trainer:Riding Right Farm
A Mishmash
A mishmash of things today.
First, in looking for an image of a hay wagon I came across this old photo. It’s a six horse team pulling a bob-sled or sleigh (I know there’s some difference but not sure what) full of hay. Horses are called hay burners and I can imagine that these guys got to where they were going and then needed to turn around and eat all the hay that they delivered. Tough work.
The discovery of this photo came about as a consequence of yesterday’s blog about the delivery of hay that we got that came with the bonus delivery of barn cats. As I used to say in the news, “We have an update this morning…”
It looks like the image of two cats scattering away after being stowaways on the hay wagon was probably just because of the blur of activity. We think now that there is only one barn cat. We’ve spotted a lone black fluffy cat darting between the barns. My dog is always a good one for letting us know when a cat is around that doesn’t really belong here. She’s been on high alert and running around the barns with her nose to the ground. Last night we actually found the cat in the branches of a lilac bush. The great hunters that we are (not) gathered around with a cat carrier, ladders, and a force of five people. You can probably guess the rest of the story. We didn’t stand a chance of collecting up this half wild, scared out of her wits, black cat. Today, we are resorting to food in a cat carrier as a method of catching her. Even if this system doesn’t work she won’t be starving. We’ll call it a win-win situation.
To close out the mishmash, reminders to all that this weekend you can attend a great program put on by Lendon Gray’s Dressage for Kids organization. The program is called the Weekend Education Program and it’s held in at a high school in Connecticut. It’s not just for kids and it offers multiple educational opportunities. I’ll be presenting on Sunday afternoon with some very neat video taken from our work on the book/dvd 40 Fundamentals of English Riding and also from some of our video for a new book/dvd that we’ve been working on that focuses on dressage and kids. For more information go to:http://dressage4kids.com/educational_programs%20at%20Dressage4Kids%202008.htm
-Hollie McNeil, Owner/Trainer: Riding Right Farm, Author: 40 Fundamentals of English Riding
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