Dino’s Blog

Probably Time to Get a Dog….

Some tricks are inherently easy to teach an animal because they are based on their core instincts and behaviors. Teaching a horse to play catch is definitely not one of those kinds of tricks.

Horses don’t naturally like to catch objects in their mouths like dogs. They aren’t hunters. They don’t have the instinct to follow an object in flight and try and grasp it with their teeth. Add to this that a horse has a bit of a blind spot directly in front of them, and you can see how this trick can be a bit difficult for a horse to learn. Most horses can learn to “catch” objects by just opening their mouths wide and having the handler toss the object into their mouths. When they feel the object, they close their mouth. Dino, however, has learned to have pretty good eye – mouth coordination, and plays some real catch by grasping the object with his teeth. Check him out in the video below.

If you are wondering why I would teach a horse to play catch….let’s just say that I sometimes have some extra time on my hands while I wait for my daughter to finish with Pony!

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A Prehistoric Birthday…

Guess who is turning 4 years old? I can’t believe how much Dino has grown and changed over the last 2 years. I still picture him the day I bought him – a gawky 2 year old that hadn’t yet grown into his legs.

I put together a slide show of Dino over the last 2 years. It’s in chronological order,  so you can see how much he has changed, follow his basic training and even take one last look at his long mane before I hacked it off.  Pictures start the day I bought him, and go up until recently. Unfortunately since I am the one that takes all of the pix, I have no recent pix of ME on my Dinosaur (other than hacking on trail), but great pix of Kelsey on Dino. Oh well, Karsten did snap a few grainy ones recently while I was goofing around. They aren’t great but will have to do.

So here it is…Me & My Dinosaur. Check out the sound track….who knew there was a whole world of Dinosaur songs???

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Dinosaurs Need to Roam!

Now that Baby Dino has front shoes, it is time to get serious about hitting the trails. And, this is one Dinosaur that loves to roam!

Getting to the trails from the barn, however, makes the Extreme Cowboy Challenge look like a cakewalk.

 

  1. Start with a creek
  2. Add a slippery cement bottom to this creek
  3. Did I mention the water is pitch black so the horses can’t see the bottom or judge its depth?
  4. Toss in a major 4 lane overpass above the creek with an average speed of 45mph
  5. The overpass is located at the bottom of the hill right where the big trucks like to hit their air brakes
  6. Oh, and this is a major route for fire and ambulance crews. Random sirens are always a posibility.

All of the above make this crossing a dark, scary, horse eating chamber of doom, complete with sounds echoing off the concrete strucure. If you get past this, your horse is a saint. You will also be treated to a lovely back country type trail ride right in the middle of suburbia.

Dino is actually pretty good with going under the bridge and through the creek. He isn’t ready to do it on his own yet though. The rest of the trail went really well considering Dino is still only 3. Dino encountered:

  • Mountain bikers
  • Joggers
  • Lots of dogs
  • Polaris 4 wheeler driving on the adjacent trail
  • Stroller and kids
  • Deer (well at least I saw the deer)

Dino’s favorite part, however, was the ranch creek crossing. This is a REAL creek-nothing like the cement one we cross to get out to the trails. Dino LOVED it! He was pawing at the rocks and sticking his nose in the water. I had a hard time getting him out of the water!  He was like a kid playing in the creek for the first time. It was super cute.

Dino is one of those horses that seems to just love trails. Sure he is nervous about “stuff,” but he walks out with such enthusiasm. He doesn’t slow down until we turn for home. He wants to keep going and seems genuinely bummed when we have to go back.

It’s a good thing we have excellent trails at the barn. I see a lot of roaming in this dinosaur’s future!

Baby Dino LOVES Water!
Hitting the trails!
Dino Xing
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Baby Dino Learning Half Pass

Baby Dino is growing up and beginning to learn some big boy dressage movements! Dino is still 3 (4 next month!), and spent most of the year riding-wise just goofing around hacking in a relaxed frame. But, his young age hasn’t stopped us from working on some upper level movements. We just do them in-hand!

The half-pass builds on the very basic lateral movements that baby Dino began learning in-hand as a 2 year old. Dino knows how to perform haunches-in and shoulder-in from my touch. This was then used to build the side pass. When Dino had these movements down, the half pass, was the next logical progression.

Half pass is a forward and sideways movement where the horse is bent in the direction of travel and around your inside leg. Although this sounds similar to the side pass, it is a much more difficult gymnastic for the horse to perform. It is a great exercise to teach in-hand as there is no weight of the rider to influence the horse’s balance. The horse is free to figure it out himself.

Dino picked this up fairly easily at the walk and is progressing to the trot.  He still has his 3 year old moments, but he really does try. You can see his concentration in the pictures below. Gotta Love the Dino!!

Baby Dino learning half pass
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Oops! Never forget the basic rule of liberty jump training….

There is a right way to liberty jump train and a wrong way. You would think after 30+ years of training, that I wouldn’t miss the #1 fundamental rule in liberty training.

I took Kelsey and pony off site for some jump training, but pony was a little too spooky for her. So lacking all necessary lunging equipment, I decided on an impromptu liberty jump training session. Pony is pretty new to liberty jump training, but he really loves it. I thought it would be the perfect way to get his extra energy out, and it definitely was!

I found 3 out of 4 of the basic “issues”, but judging by the video, finding the unknown last “issue” was the key!

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