Dear John Henry, reprint

		Dear John Henry
			John Henry, New York's favorite Eventing mule, now not only has his regular column in the BRAYER magazine, but has given ADMS permission to publish to the World Wide Web! He and owner Kathleen Conklin welcome questions - but they cannot quarantee they will be answered in the column form used in the BRAYER and ADMS website.  Please post any questions to ADMS, who will forward them to JH and Kathleen for review for the column. Dear John Henry: My mom is working me on a lunge-line before she rides me. I'm coming 4 years old, and I am getting light daily riding. One thing she has noticed is that I seem to take shorter strides when lunging to the left (counterclockwise, she says). She is having a hard time feeling it under saddle (she says she can kind of tell if she trots me in circles to the left) but she's sure she can see it when she lunges me at the trot. She had the vet look at me, and he says I'm not lame, I just need exercises to make me lengthen out that side. How can we do this? I can go round in circles all day, but it doesn't seem to help. Gone Crackerjax Dear Cracker, Tell your Mom that you are still quite young and it might be better to lunge you just a LITTLE (in VERY LARGE circles) to get any bucks out and then to ride. Your shorter strides on one side could be the result of uneven muscling on that side. If this is so it is a long term process to even out. I would suggest that you ask your Mom to ride in large easy circles in both directions but more to your weaker side. I would also suggest that your Mom always use a mounting block [or a stump, rock or trailer fender] when mounting to ease the pressure on your withers. Work over a larger number of ground poles at the (posting) trot in a straight line and eventually on a large curve will help even out your trot strides. You should make sure you have a good forward trot rhythm before you head to the ground poles. This isn't a fast and easy answer, but a long term goal that needs your Mom's continuing attention. There is a great book you can buy called Cavalletti written by the German Olympic Gold Medalist in dressage named Reiner Klimke that explains all about the use of ground poles and there placement and how they help improve the equine. Another tip is to make sure your Mom posts (rises to the trot) when trotting and that she post more often to the diagonal on your weak side. This will help a little in developing that side. (This means that working in a ring or pen, with the weak shoulder to the rail, she should be sitting when the outside shoulder is on the ground or all the way back). A lot of care should be taken that all training is done in both directions, but not necessarily equally at this time. Practicing carrot stretches to both sides and full front leg stretches should also help in equaling out your muscles. Carrot stretches are fun!  Have Mom hold a carrot behind your elbow, and you stretch your head around low and to the side to get the carrot.  She can stand beside you and keep you from swinging around.  Later, after your ride, you can also do a carrot stretch with her in the saddle.  She should hold it near her toe and watch to see if you shift your weight, step, or just reach with your head and neck. It might also be a good idea to get some professional instruction from an instructor you admire. It is always good to have an experienced "eye"; looking at you and helping you develop good habits. Speaking of an "eye", if you have access to a video camera be sure have someone take a lot of film of you lunging and being ridden right now and at intervals in your training.  It will give your Mom a good reference point when, in the future, she looks back and is able to see your progress. I have a problem lunging myself you know....my Mom (Kathleen) noticed early on in my training that I will cross-canter for a few strides on downward transitions in the lunge pen (in both directions). After much thought, Kathleen decided that I really didn't need to be lunged and that it would only reinforce cross-cantering when going from a canter to a trot. I never cross canter when being ridden under the same circumstances. The vet looked at me and so did a Standardbred race horse vet who's specialty is leg lamenesses. Neither vet could find anything wrong except that I am a little weaker on one side. I guess that this is usual in equines as well as people. Kathleen does everything listed above with me and in addition makes sure that I use both canter leads equally. These little problems are not usually life-threatening but they give you and your Mom something to work on and small goals to achieve. I like it when Kathleen notices something she doesn’t like or wants to improve on,  because then we have a new training goal to work on. It keeps my life interesting. Good luck.! Happy trails and Tally ho, John Henry \ /   & Kathleen

A ROOSTER Day!

It was a ROOSTER kinda day!  Nine roosters ruled the roost for a short time.  Like ISIS, started killing those of their own that should have been family aka flock.  So, the long arm of the law came along and dispatched nine of the wayward souls and once again we have peace.  This photo is called Rooster Bird Bath for the resident head of the family. It is a reminder to the human factor that sometimes we have to clear our inner selves of the demons before peace can be restored. 

Look Up | The Chronicle of the Horse

Look Up | The Chronicle of the Horse

The New Year 2017

Happy New Year!

I hope it is happy and filled with positive upbeat loving people that make you smile and feel good inside.  Having said that, I would like to discuss the choice of words so often in the paper and news feeds today.  Take the word 'feel' for instance, it is important to remember that when we use the word "feel" we are referring to an emotion.  I feel safe, I feel happy, I feel sad, etc.  This word is so misused today that I think English is either being seriously corrupted or all English teachers are out of a job.  The word feel is more often than not to describe an opinion or conclusion about a topic.  An example would be....I feel the current political atmosphere is corrupt and unfair.  How does one feel that?  Perhaps they feel pain, sorrow, or anger due to the atmosphere, but it is impossible to feel corruption and unfairness.  Here is where the word 'think' comes into play!  Or have we forgotten how to think?  We cannot think pain, sorrow, or anger but we can 'think' the current political atmosphere is corrupt, unfair, bizarre, entertaining, etc. When we 'think' about something we are then able to state an opinion about what ever it may be.  We cannot 'feel' it, but we can think it.  We can feel the emotion it may generate, but we cannot think the emotion.  Maybe I should have been an English teacher!!!

So, now that I have expressed my pet peeve of the year, I will return to the purpose of this post.  Happy New Year!  Years ago I was gifted with a program called" The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People".  I was captivated, and began to study Stephen R. Covey's program.  That was over 20 years ago.  I am going to share some of his work here with you.  I hope you will find it as I did to be insightful and inspirational.

January 1
   " If we want to change a situation, we first have to change ourselves.  And to change ourselves effectively, we first have to change our perceptions."   I approach people and situations that include horses from this perspective.  It is usually our perceptions that needs to be examined.  If you can,

Ponder that principal and hopefully you are on a path of discovery and will stay tuned for the next entry.  If you have reached this point, thank you for taking precious time.  Cheers!

No More Surveys!

Not so long ago I received a phone call.  The caller did not identify themselves only asked if we tested for PSSM1.  I was taken off guard, but responded " we have seen no indication that blanket testing would justify." This call came about during a heated internet discussion regarding the need to test each and every gypsy horse in this country.  Mind you, this is not an every day condition for most breeds.  You may want to read the info at the following link before thinking it is" irresponsible" to not test.
http://horsetesting.com/Equine/Genetic_Disease/PSSM.asp

However serious the caller may have been was not evident as she promptly hung up giving me no opportunity to have a discussion.  The group of women who brought this to the table made enough noise that breeders are listing the results on their sale ads and the GVHS registry for Gypsy Vanner Horses has included the test as an option for their members.  Good you say and I agree, but having been breeding GVHs for the past 16 years and seeing no symptoms, I still think it is a far cry from" irresponsible". I would be more concerned for the potential of harm done attempting to produce pretty colors with little regard for proper conformation and typical sweet disposition.

So we might move forward and smooth what ever ill feelings the caller may have, we tested the two 2015 foals for pssm1....negative and negative!  I will post this on our face book pages and tweet the link often .....Just don't bother calling me with anymore surveys!

Is Your Horse Ready to Learn?

Is Your Horse Ready to Learn?

The Importance of Reward by Courtney King Dye reprint from Dressage Training Online

The Importance of Reward by Courtney King Dye

The Importance of Reward, by Courtney King Dye

In beginning the process of writing my articles, I found that I'm always stipulating that a rider reward the horse, so I want to dedicate an entire article to stressing its importance.

If you think about how training must seem to the horse, we're fairly constantly telling him no, that's wrong, more of this, not so much of that. We need to balance that out with, yes, that's right, good effort, you're on the right track, or the horse has no incentive to try. He'll just think, no matter what I do, I can't get it right, so why try? Most horse's want to please--they're rather amazing creatures that way--but I've had a couple who've already written the rider's opinion off as unimportant. With those horses, reward is especially necessary...not little scratches on the neck or small good boys, but huge pats and loud rewards. I often say love him! Make him feel like a star! Like people, it's an extremely rare horse who won't then want to be told he's a star. I remember riding around Lendon's ring on one such horse and her saying to her students, "Courtney's annoying to ride with, but boy do her horses try!"

My rule for my students is to be equally as generous with their rewards as they are strict with their corrections. Most of the time, only really good deserves a reward, but that's if a horse should know what's being asked for. For instance, if a horse knows pirouette canter, the rider should demand perfection, but if the horse is just learning pirouette canter, she needs to reward him for trying, to say, yes, you're on the right track. Then the next time, the horse may try that response more.

In bringing a horse along, reward is important to encourage the horse in the learning process, but it's equally as important with a trained horse. I often talk about respecting the horse, and this is one way a rider shows respect. It's like a boss of a company telling a worker good job...it shows that he appreciates the hard work, and that gives the worker a sense of accomplishment and makes him want to do a good job the next time. In the portion of my book this article stems from, I talk about getting Idy, who was already a proven Grand Prix horse, out of a grouchy faze by rewarding him; he got happy and tried again because he appreciated the appreciation.

One thing that often happens when a rider rewards the horse is that they give everything away and lose the quality of their work. This shouldn't happen. One arm can just reach forward and give a little pat or scratch without loosening the other rein, and when a big reward is needed, the core still remains strong. I normally tell students to pat with the inside hand, which makes the inside rein loose, because I want them to be able to do all work with no inside rein--for the bend to come from the inside leg pushing to the outside rein--but the pat should really come from whichever rein the horse wants to lean on to make him associate carrying himself on that side with reward.

A mistake I often see when I'm teaching is that the reward comes at the wrong time. For instance, the rider gets after the horse for being behind the leg, the  horse bolts forward--which is the correct response to the leg or whip--the rider brings them back, then gives the reward. If done in this way, the horse may think he's being rewarded for coming back when he should be rewarded for the forward response. The reward should be given when the horse is galloping forward. It doesn't matter if he's bucking, picks up the wrong lead, cross-canters or is just generally spazzy, the rider should give him several pats and good boys (within safety) when he's going forward.

A couple things I'm often asked about are 1. is voice ever enough, and 2. should I use sugar cubes. For the first one, voice can be enough if the horse knows the movement he's being asked for very well and he consistently performs it well. It's like the example I gave of the boss of a company telling a worker well done: it just says good job; it's not celebrating how fantastic the horse's efforts were or congratulating him on figuring something out.

As far as sugar cubes, I've only ever used them for two things: to get a horse to stay still at the mounting block or convince him to let me get on, and for piaffe on the ground. For anything on the horse's back, I feel it takes too long to stop, get a cube out and lean over to give it, and as I said above, I think it's important to reward the horse immediately after he's done something special.