May 7, 2012

Lex’s May Training Schedule

By Helen Smith

One week in, and it has been a really busy month so far.  At least with work versus horse stuff.

Here is the PDF link to Lex’s May Training Plan  The summary of my goals and challenges is below.

Happy riding!

- H.

 May’s Monthly Training Goals:

  • Active training 3-5 days per week
  • Practice with clippers, focus on ears. 
  • Teach to move forward on lunge with side reins.
  • Get moving on showmanship and halter training – show in 30 days!
  • Walk, jog, lope, comfortably under saddle and doing good direction changes at walk and jog.  Loose rein, comfortable movement, easy steering.
  • Total working ring time = 40 minutes, about 20 minutes under saddle/session

 Challenges:

I have a really varied and busy work schedule this month.  It will be difficult to get all of my rides and planed sessions in.  My focus will be to get show ready for halter versus performance under saddle this month.  Lex is a little performance horse, so I’m going to need to get cracking to get him ready for the halter show pen. 

 Beginning Comments:

Lex is lunging nicely, and is working solidly on all ground work cues.  He has been mounted 3 times, and has been lightly flexed to the side and with side reins attached to his saddle.  He gives nicely to pressure, but is still a little slow on the lunge. He is not as “into” everything as he was last month though he has figured out how to untie quick release knots!  I typically lead on a loose line, but discovered when a friend lead him he is goes back to trying to lick his handler on a short line.  Need to work on not doing that, no matter how close he is to a human!  Lex can only be termed as lazy under saddle so far.  Going to make sure I have a helper with me when I do the next number of rides – so I don’t feel like a small fry kid kicking my pony!  :-)

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May 1, 2012

Lex’s April Training Progress

By Helen Smith

Ta-da!  I’m even on time with this blog post!!  I’m excited to finally be getting started on Lex’s training.   Hard to be believe less that 2 years ago I was drooling over a beautiful foal online – now he is mine and getting started under saddle :-)

 

Lex is LAZY.  So far.  Here is a picture of me on his first ride.

Lex's First Ride

Lex's First Ride

 

My work schedule seems to already be slowing down my riding time, but as this is Lex’s 2 year old year, I’m not that concerned if we progress slowly at this point.  My primary goal is to have a happy, sound, well broke stud who will be a life long performer.  Below is my completed training plan for the last 2 weeks with notes on my progress.  Over the next couple of days I’ll get May’s training plan posted. 

 

Lex’s April Training Progress (PDF link)

Soon I may even write something in addition to my training plans.

 

Happy Trails!

 

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April 16, 2012

Hello 2012!

By Helen Smith

Wow – it has been a LONG time since I have up-dated Lex’s blog!!  It is that time of year though, so I’m getting back at it!

Lex had a successful show season, including a couple of reserve champion futurity finishes and APHA points in halter and lunge line.  He spent the fall and winter at my parent’s stable in Cape Breton eating hay, kicking back, and growing nicely.  Lex moved up with me about 3 weeks ago and is just getting ready to get on to a nice easy two year old training program.  Currently Lex is at Ski View Stables located just outside of Windsor, Nova Scotia.  He will move back to the Fraser’s in Beaverbank after the Colour Classic APHA Show in June.

In the next couple of weeks I plan to put together Lex’s YTP (Yearly Training Plan) to take us until the end of December 2012.  I have to say, it is pretty scary to post my plans for the world to see – things can change with young horses, but I hope this will keep me motivated and on track.  Texas 2013 here we come!!  This plan is for the next 2 weeks and my first few rides.

Hopefully some people find this interesting . Suggestions are always welcome, I’d love to hear about what others are doing!!

Happy spring and have a great ride!

Lex’s Training Plan  April 15th-30th 2012

Lex’s April Training Schedule (Day-to-day in PDF format)

Competition Goals 2012:

  • June Colour Classic APHA Show – Halter & Colour Class 
  • September MPHC APHA Show – Halter and 2 year old western pleasure futurity

 Monthly Training Goals:

  • Active training 3-5 days per week
  • Practice with clippers, focus on ears. 
  • Teach to move forward on lunge with side reins.
  • Mount – at least 3 rides by the end of the month
  • Work on basic ground exercises and focus

 Beginning Comments:

Lex is lunging nicely, and is working solidly on all cues.  He has had the saddle on about 5 times, and has been lightly flexed to the side with side reins attached to his saddle twice.  He is a little slow on the lunge, and would rather go slow than move forward into pressure.  Stops and stands when confused with what is asked.  Lex is always very quiet, though “into” everything like a lab puppy!  Need to work on focus.

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May 19, 2011

Jumping…. Lex?!?!?!

By Helen Smith

I may have bought myself a jumper.  He has world-class reining and cow horse blood lines – but he likes to jump large things, like giant piles of poles.  On his own, Lex has diverted twice to jump this:

Yes, it is pretty big by most standards for a horse to gently lope to and over on their own.  It measures about 2.5 feet across and a tad less than 1 foot high.  I guess this means the bridge in our yearling trail class shouldn’t be an issue.  :-) Thankfully I had a witness the second time Lex causally loped a circle and then aimed straight at the pole pile.   Most of the folks at the barn thought I had officially lost it.

Maybe Lex is channeling his grandsire “Flying Storm Kite”

Kite not only has points in halter, heading, and heeling – but has also won open classes on the flat and over fences.  If Lex wants to take after him and Rolex, I am sure not going to complain.

Until that time comes, he’ll just have to settle for yearling trail on the flat, and hopefully not try to jump anything he shouldn’t!!  One of the reasons I love working with the young ones is that they will always do something that will surprise you.

Watch out hunter ring, Lex is getting an early start on his training!

As promised yesterday, below are a few pics of Lex the day after his 1st birthday, there are more on his facebook page here:

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May 18, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEX!!!!

By Helen Smith

Today Lex is 1 year old.  It is hard to believe that it is only 11 months since I saw his cute little picture on Joni’s website.  I know the exact date because I thought it was a great idea to look at new horses on my birthday.  I never thought I would find the one I wanted on my birthday!!  Less then 2 months later I was on a flight to see him, and now here he is, here  :-)

Lex got a carrot for his birthday, and a birthday bath.  As it turns out when you are owned by a non-treat feeder, getting a carrot out of your owners hand is a big deal.  Another exciting first for Lex on his birthday is that get got on and off a two horse trailer with a ramp.

I forgot my camera today, but I will make sure to run out and get some good pictures of him tomorrow.

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May 9, 2011

Lex’s Training Plan – May 9th until May 27th 2011

By Helen Smith

Here is my training plan for the next three weeks before our first  APHA show.   I have attached a pdf link to the plan below… now if it ever stops raining, we will be in real business.

Lex’s Training Plan, May 2011

Show objectives for May 28 and 29 – Halter, lunge line, yearling trail – basic level

Goals:

  • At least 12 sessions between May 9th and May 27th  (14 days out of 18 days with active training.  Training include no more than 15 minutes on the lunge and 10-15 minutes doing halter/trail work.  Most sessions total about 20 mins.  Rest days to include brushing and “fun” chased turn-out in lower ringer when possible).
  • Practice with clippers.  Starting May 10th,  include at least 3 “mini” practices.
  • Every day, square-up on cross-ties.  Stand cue.
  • Introduce all trail obstacles, basic.
  • Focus on relax on lunge.
  • Work on basic ground exercises

Current status:

Lex is lunging nicely at a basic level, walk, jog, and lope both directions.  He is reversing from about 20 feet away.  We need to improve promptness of his commands, and work on generally smoothing things out.

Lex is walking and trotting nicely at halter, and now need to transition to using the chain more often.  (Lex leads pretty well, so I have been a bit lazy and have mostly just used a lead clipped to the bottom of his halter).  We haven’t started any major turns/reserves at a jog yet, but he is pretty supple with everything I asked of him.  We have started working on turn on the haunches, he pivots consistently with a hand on his shoulder, and is starting to plant a pivot foot just off of his halter.  We have backed between straight poles, and need to start work on backing in circles/around barrels.  We have done an intro to hip yield on the ground, but he took to it so quickly I haven’t worked on it in a few weeks.   Lex is starting to set-up consistently ok, however we need to get more solid on it.

Generally Lex is at a good stage for his development and amount of training.  My challenge over the next 3 weeks will be to get our maneuvers a bit more consistent, and diverse enough to get us though our first trail class.   I am not planning to have any “finished” obstacles at this point, however I am continuing to work to have him willing and interested in all of this activities.  In addition to my plan outlined above, I also do a lot of work “sacking” Lex out with my carrot stick.

I’ll post some pictures of us working as soon as the rain stops.


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May 5, 2011

Month 1

By Helen Smith

Once again, I am a little (lot) later than I hoped getting this all online.  As of today Lex has been in Halifax for 1 month.  So far, fantastic!!  He is coming along nicely, and settled in to his new home as good or better then anyone could expect.

Below is my training program for Week 1, along with comments on what we did and areas to work on.  Over all, I am tickled with how things are going.  I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop because things are just going so easily.  In case anyone is wondering how long my training sessions are, they last between 30-35 minutes, including the leading/standing portion.  Where Lex is a young yearling I am capping his total time on the lunge at 15 minutes or less.

LexTrainingPlan_Week1_2011 (PDF File link)

I can’t wait to see how this month’s plan works out!  My “work work” schedule is a little less crazy this month, so I will get my next month’s training plan out before I actually do it, and keep progress reports up each week.  As soon as the rain stops, pictures will follow!

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April 1, 2011

The (late) grand total and 2 more days to the big move

By Helen Smith

It has been way too long since I have had a chance to write a blog post.  Forget saving the best for last – I would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who like, commented, and shared my blog post about helping animals in Japan.  Between the APHA facebook fan page, and my friends and contacts, over 400 people liked the link on facebook, it was shared over 70 times, and over 1200 people visited this blog!  This created a ton of awareness about the issue, and I am donating all of the $200 to World Vets to help animals in Japan.

Busy, busy is the name of the game for the rest of my weekend.  Lex is moving up to his new home closer to me in Beaverbank, and his preparation for the show season will officially begin.  To top-off the busyness weekend I am facilitating the equine coaching theory in Sydney all weekend.   I can’t wait to have him, and his “big sister” Trudy, up in the city with me. :-)

This is the first time I have entered a horse in a show before they were actually trained and going well in their event.  Yippes.  The end of May “Color Classic” Lex is entered in halter, yearling lunge line, and yearling trail.   We had our first mini lunging session on Thursday.  I know I am a bit biased, but I am pretty impressed with Mr. Lex.  So far, he is hands down the easiest horse I have worked with.  Here is hoping it keeps up!!

It is exciting (and a tad scary) to be getting officially started on Lex’s training and the meat of this blog.  Early next week I will post my initial assessment of where I feel Lex is at, and my “planned” training plan for the week.   Each week I will post how we did, and my new plan for the following week, and so on.  I’ll also make sure to get some new pictures up each week.

 

Happy trails!

 

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March 18, 2011

Help Lex (and me) help animals in Japan!

By Helen Smith

It is hard to fathom how the people in Japan are coping.  Let alone coping with the grace and good will they continue to display in the face of mounting disasters.  I am impressed with the people, deeply bothered by the images on TV and the internet, and worried about how things will work out for the citizens of Japan.  This tragedy made me think about how if I were in their place how this disaster would affect me, my family, and my friends.

My family includes my hairy and furry four-footed creatures napping by the fire and munching hay in the barn.  After a few days of thinking about the people of Japan and their devastating loss, I thought about the rest of their lives – and their pets.  Then I thought about mine.  Then I cried.

I just can’t imagine how I would feel, if I were in that situation worrying about my animals.  I would hope and pray that if I were not in a position to look after them, that someone would be trying to rescue them.  It would drive me crazy, I am not sure how I would function not knowing if my much beloved animals were alive any maybe hurt, likely hungry, and likely confused and scared.

World Vets is currently on the ground in Japan and is working to help animals affected by the natural disaster.  They are keeping people up-dated via their Facebook Page about what they are doing to help.  Please help me, help them.

For each “Like”  or “Comment” on this blog post time stamped before 11:59 pm EST on March 18 2011 on this blog post (it lands in my email inbox), I will donate $1 to World Vets, up to $200.  (The “like” button is located at the bottom of this page with a gold star) Tomorrow morning I will publish a new blog with the results.  I was going to donate some money anyway – but I thought this “dollar per like” challenge may be a great way of spreading the message (thank you to “Sparkle the Cat” for this great idea) and hopefully get a few more people interested in donating some of their own resources to this cause.  

Please pass on this link to anyone you feel may be interested, and give your animal loved ones an extra hug today.  If you have the ability to donate even a little to any of the worthy causes (like the Red Cross) helping Japan, please do.  If you do not, please send your prayers and best wishes.  Today I am feeling extra privileged and lucky to live where I do.  I am humbled that my horse is curled up in a warm blanket with all the feed and water he needs, while everyday people in Japan are in shelters or worse and their pets may be hurt or hungry today.  Thank you, and God Bless.

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March 17, 2011

The “Mane” Event

By Helen Smith

It is amazing how much conservation the sentence “I am thinking about trimming Lex’s mane for halter classes this year.”  generates!  Typically, I got these two responses:

From the people who have known me forever, i.e. when I showed general performance horses with pulled manes:

You would actually show a horse you want to be competitive with in halter with a long mane? (ok, so I am paraphrasing here)

The people who know me primarily as a reiner:

You want a trimmed preppy a mane?  What did you have in that drink last night? You wouldn’t DARE cut a beautiful mane…..?!?!? (ok, so I am really paraphrasing here :-)

As it turns out, people are passionate about manes in both the traditional “trimmed” and “long mane” camps.  Me, I am just torn.  I have been showing my reiners in a few halter and general performance classes with long manes for the past number of years.  However, I have regarded these classes as being fun versus serious competition.  I have done very well with my long mane’ed reiners in both the halter and general performance rings, however I know if that was my primary focus those beautiful long manes would be gone in a heartbeat.

With Lex I want to up the anti and do as well as possible – even in our yearling halter & trail, which is a bit on an unusual track for a yearling who is aimed at the reining show pen.  Frankly, I love a well pulled perfectly banded mane.  It stays flat, the horses neck looks great, it is “proper” for the event, etc….  I also love the natural beauty of a long mane, they way it blows in the field, and how is flys out on a super fact spin.  Oh – the dilemma!

I almost wrote this blog post before I came to my 100%, not to be swayed, decision about Lex’s mane for this year.   In the end, figured it was best for me to make a decision, post it, and stick with in.  So….. Lex is keeping his long, fluffy, hippy looking, awkward, yearling mane.  The kicker in the end is that his end goal is to be a reiner, and he is going to have a long mane as a mature horse.  He needs to go though this awkward mane stage at some point, so I may as well get it out of the way this year.  I’ll be doing my best to get it banned, slicked down, and as “preppy” as I can get it for his halter classes this year.  And I will LOVE his super fantastic long mane, next year!

I also wanted to let people know Lex now has a Facebook Fan Page!  Check it out and “like” it if you do.  I will be blogging about his training journey here, but do to limited blog photo/video space I will be only adding a couple of pictures per post here, and I will be posting more photos of Lex and his actually training log there.

Since I can’t do a blog post without a picture, this one is the first time I saw Lex in the flesh, and it is the first picture I took of him.

Lex, July 2010

Lex, July 2010

 

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