Looking Back at 2014

Wow, Once again another year has gone! 2014 was a good year that brought us some new adventures :)

In January we started off the year super busy. Once again we were at a cross roads with the barn where my horses stayed. My trainer was leaving and we were asked to stay on and help run the boarding side of things. It was a good learning experience, but we found we couldn't work for free (yes, it was supposed to be paid) so by the end of February we made the decision to leave.

February also brought the loss of my Duel. He was 10 1/2 and had lived a long healthy life. We lost him quickly and unexpected, but he didn't suffer. I still miss him, but I am blessed to have his sister Dakota still :)


My Duel

By mid March we were in the throws of trying to move barns. Not an easy task when you have 5 horses! However, we were super lucky and our new barn came to pick up all of them at once. One of the hardest choices about moving barns would be the horses would be 30 minutes away. That is the farthest they had ever been! But with the distance came great things such as their own big pasture, 20,000 acres to ride on, and being back to full care.  As of March 26 we were members at Beartooth Ranch :)

As winter faded away and spring was upon us we spent most of our time riding and playing with the horses. Spring brought Navi's and I first ride! It was uneventful as we had hoped :) Throughout spring I put a few more rides on her, but then gave her the summer off to grow.

Before we knew it Summer was in full swing. I was busy busy at work. Most weeks I found myself working overtime. I found myself teaching grooming academy again and soon discovered I would be doing a lot more teaching this year!

Summer was shaping up to be busy at work and at home. In July we found ourselves at the vet with Devan a lot due to the fact she was losing weight and was fading away before our eyes. The 4 + weeks before we got our diagnoses of EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic insuffiency ) were heartbreaking. Finally we found the answer and we started treatment. She started slowly improving and we once again had hope :)

By September Devan was doing much better and I was underway with my 2nd Grooming Academy of the year. One day before work we decided to take Laurel and Devan to Tractor Supply to see their old foster family. Well we ended up coming home with a little skinny puppy, lol. He was 6 weeks old and weighed 5lbs,he won Sarah's heart and Henry joined the family.

The holidays were fast approaching and before we knew it Halloween was here. This year we went over to a friends house and ate dinner and watched movies. Why is that a big deal you say, well because we never leave the house on Halloween, lol.

Mid November we had a scary incident with Laurel and the icy partially frozen Yellowstone River. It was okay in the end, but it certainly taught me a lesson about icy rivers and ice rescue!

By November 23rd I was on the road north. I stayed in Kalispell, MT teaching my  3rd Grooming Academy for the year until December 20th.

The end of 2014 is here and I am happy to say we are all healthy and happy. Devan is continuing to  maintain weight, Laurel and Henry are active and drive me crazy. Dakota, Riley, and Tigger are older so they are content to lay around the house watching over the young puppies. The horses are extremely happy in their new home. We love all the riding opportunities and the fact that all the horses are fat and happy! Oh and yes, the cats are well also :)

Here is to a great 2015! I look forward to what it will bring! Wishing everyone the best for the rest of 2014 and all of 2015.

Merry Christmas!

We are alive and well! I just got back from being gone for a month so hopefully I can do an actual update tomorrow.

Treats vs Rewards. Plus Pixie and I hit another milestone!!!

If you see me at the barn most likely you will also see my treat bag on me or attached to my saddle. I am one of a very few people that carry treats with them at the barn. And I think I am the only one who has a clicker with me. I am an oddity at the barn because I feed treats, and due to that fact I get lots of questions regarding the feeding treats. So I thought I would do a post on what my techniques for feeding treats and training are:

1. There is a big difference in feeding treats and rewarding your horse for good behavior. I do not just freely hand out treats to my horses. They work for them and earn them. I am not treating them, I am rewarding a good behavior!

2. The MOST important step when rewarding with food is to first teach food manners! My horses do not get rewarded for mugging or nipping! They are first taught to look away from me. (Navi is still learning this one) Now once they are respectful around the treats I can be more relaxed with how and where I feed them. Take Pixie for example, I can feed her in any location or position because she has learned to take the treats nicely. However, Navi, I have to watch my timing and her position carefully as not to ruin my own training.

3. I use positive reinforcement training (clicker included) in which I use the treats as a reward. This is a very systematic training method that requires good timing as with any other method of training. It is very possible to do it wrong and create a horse that is mouthy, but if someone takes the time to learn how to do it correctly it is a kinder approach to horse training and one that your horse will love!

4. I have been teaching this method of training to dogs for 10 years now and started with my horses just a little over 3 years ago. I still learn everyday how to improve my timing and approach. Every new behavior I teach my horses I am learning along with them since I am new to using this method in the horse world. This method involves not only the training, but managing the environment in which you are training in. The animal must be set up for success!



On to Pixie and I :) We accomplished her targeting my hand with her butt, lol! 2 years ago I set out to teach her to back up with me standing behind her. And now we not only have backing, but direction change too. This is done at liberty with no pressure and release. I can't wait to see how far we can go with this!

Mounting Block

Navi and I have officially mastered the mounting block at liberty. She is now to the point where she will line up on her own and wait for me to get on :) I, of course, am clicking and treating after I am mounted. We had a great session two days ago where I got on and off 4 times. The last time we walked off before I dismounted. She is flexing nicely both directions while I am on her too! We are finding the softness that I hoped to achieve before riding her again. :)

Learning and Behavior

This last week I spent a day on the road with some good buddies of mine from the barn. It was a fun road trip with some good conversations. And you know of course that when you get 4 horse ladies in one truck that training and trainers will eventually come up as a topic! It was a good conversation and it got me thinking about how and why I train the way I do. I have grown so much in the last 4 years as a trainer. But this post isn't about how I train...I want to break down the 4 Operant Conditioning Quadrants.

This will be a very simplified post to just get the basics out there. I believe if you are training an animal you should at the very least know and understand what method you are using and why it works or doesn't work.

The Four Quadrants

• Positive Punishment
• Positive Reinforcement
• Negative Punishment
• Negative Reinforcement

I will list a few examples of each. It is important to remember positive and negative are not referring to good or bad, but as adding and subtracting. You are adding or taking away something to ether increase or decrease a behavior. It is also important to note, that before using any of these methods you need to know what behavior you are not wanting and what behavior you want in place of it.

I will start with my favorite methods:

• Positive Reinforcement- Here you are adding something to make a behavior more rewarding and increasing the likely-hood that the horse will repeat the behavior. Example: I reward Pixie with praise and treats when she stands still at the mounting block.

• Negative Punishment - Here you are taking away something good to decrease a behavior. Example: If Pixie doesn't stand still at the mounting block I ignore her taking way all praise and treats.  

My least two favorite methods are:

• Negative Reinforcement - Here you are taking away an unpleasant thing to increase a behavior. (This is the most used in horse training, often referred to as pressure and release). Example : If you want to stop your horse you pull on the reins creating pressure and pain in their mouth the pressure is released when they stop.  

• Positive Punishment- Here you are adding something unpleasant to decrease a behavior. Example: Your horse moves while you are trying to mount so correct them by pulling on the reins or yelling at them. 

I did list Negative Reinforcement as one of my least favorite methods, but I do use it. However I find that as the years go by I am using it less. My goal is to be the most humane trainer I can be and to always give my horses a choice when safe to do so :)

Saying No

Yesterday I received an invite to participate with Pixie in a Demo at the NILE (Northern International Livestock Exposition), which is a huge multiple day event in this area. Participating in the NILE is huge and something I have wanted to do for the last two years! It was a honor just being asked to be there! Showing the world what Pixie and I have accomplished would be amazing! So why does my post titled Saying No?
Well because I turned down the invite. Why would I turn down the chance to do something I have always wanted to do? Something I may not get another chance at doing.  Really the answer is simple...it is because of Pixie. Would she be able to do it? Yes, I think she could have, but I don't think she would have enjoyed it. We could have trailered over early, and she would have calmed down enough to listen to me. Even so she still would have been stressed to a certain point. Pixie and I have reached a point in our relationship that we can work through most stressful situations just fine, but it doesn't mean I want to expose her to them on purpose. In the end it boils down to this...Pixie and I have come this far in our relationship because I always try to put her first.  And while performing at the NILE would have been our chance to show everyone what we have accomplished, it would have been putting Me first not her.

 So Saturday I will be spending all day at the NILE enjoying all the great demonstrations, sale booths, and horses they have to offer. While my Pixie girl will be at home in her pasture with her herd enjoying a quiet day :)

My Favorite Time of the Year!

Fall has arrived!! I love love love fall! I always enjoy getting out and enjoying the beautiful weather. Plus seeing all the amazing colors of this season. Yesterday was no exception as I went out for a 3 hour trail ride with one of my friends at the barn. We had a great time exploring the ranch!

The rain was moving in

The path home. Love this trail!

We watched a storm roll by as we headed home

As we come on top of the ridge the view was amazing!

cow pony in the making :)

Pixie and I. This horse is my heart and soul!

Struggling with EPI and the True Costs

This post is all doggy related even though this is a horse blog :) This post is going to be centered about Devan my rescue dog that we adopted June 2013. I have been wanting to write this post for a while, but just haven't had the time. As it is this will probably be a 2 day project.

Devan was always a healthy little puppy, full of energy and a good weight. But then in June of 2014 right after she turned 1, we noticed that she was starting to lose weight and was having diarrhea. Okay pretty easy fix or so we thought. We took her into the vet and were prescribe wormer, giardia meds, and anti-diarrhea medication. All total the vet visit was $162.00. A few days into the meds Devan's stool become better, but her appetite was increasing, and she wasn't looking any better.

 Ten days later after all the meds were gone we noticed the diarrhea was back and Devan was continuing  to lose weight! She was now down to 37lbs from her healthy 45lbs. At this point all she did was eat and sleep. She had no energy and was looking worse and worse daily. Back to the vet we went this time with a stool sample in tow. We were prescribed a prescription food, more anti-diarrhea meds, and a fecal test that got sent into the lab. The food was $30.00 for 7lbs for the dry and $2.00 a can. Not bad until you stop to realize at this point we were feeding her 4 cups a day just to try and satisfy her hunger. Plus her stool never really got better, she still had loose almost diarrhea stools. The fecal test was $50 plus we had the meds and re-exam. All together we were looking at $154.00 for this visit.

A few days later we had our answer on the fecal test. Unfortunately the fecal came back completely clear of anything. Our next step was x-rays and a full blood panel. The blood panel came back normal and her x-rays showed that the stomach was full of food and was huge like a dog with bloat. As I stood in the room with the vet looking at her x-rays the vet looked at me and said " She is literally starving to death in front of us and we don't know why" Those words almost took my breath away. I was watching Devan fade away in front of my eyes as she has lost more weight as was down to 35lbs. That was 10 pounds in just under 3 weeks!

 From there we scheduled a fasting blood test that would test her pancreatic levels and B12. We had to fast her the rest of that afternoon and into the morning. It was heartbreaking to see her search and search for food and not understand why we were not feeding her. The x-rays, more meds to make her food move out of her stomach faster, and the blood work came to $466.00.

All the while I had been frantically researching everything I could on the internet. All of her symptoms were pointing towards Malabsorption, but there are multiple causes and I didn't have a clue what was causing her issue.  At this point I made the decision to take her off the prescription food and switch her to a pre-packaged raw diet. Everything I was reading said raw is much easier to digest. Off the local pet food store I went and $148 later I walked out with 12lbs frozen food, and a package of dehydrated raw plus some supplements. I was so grateful for the staff at the store. They were such a big help in helping me decide what the get!  

 And finally the next day we had some answers! Her blood work came back! Her B12 was low so we stopped and picked up some shots for that for the next 12 weeks we would give subq. to help increase her vit. B12 level. Thankfully the shots only ran us $15. Not too much later in the day the rest of the bloodwork came back. It showed her Pancreas wasn't producing enough enzymes to digest her food. FINALLY...we knew why she was starving to death. It was Friday evening of course so we had to wait to till Monday to get the enzymes we needed. We also had to put her back on an antibiotic to combat SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth)

I went home and starting researching her condition and discovered it was called EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency) It was almost unheard of 10 years ago, but is becoming more and more common.

Come Monday we felt a huge weight lift off our shoulders when we finally got to pick up her enzymes. We finally had a way to make her better!  It did come at a cost though. The enzymes were $203 for the bottle and the pharmacist told us to expect them to last 30 days. Now we faced the fear of wondering if we could afford to keep her healthy. Her food was $39.00 for 6lbs and she was eating almost 9 lbs a week and now the cost of the enzymes! Thankfully in my research I discovered where to get the generic enzymes and those were only $48. a month. That was a huge relief! We ordered those right away too so that when our first batch was gone we had them on hand so we didn't have to worry about shipping.

Adding up all the costs from when we first discovered something was wrong to finally getting her diagnosed and getting her first bottle of enzymes we paid a total of $1,264.00.  I am so very thankful that we could afford to pay those costs, cause I couldn't imagine if we had to lose Devan due to money. I hope that if someone reads this, it will help them have the proper bloodwork done sooner to help save them time and money.

I would love to report that Devan made a complete turn around, but that is simply not the case. She is still struggling. We are currently starting another round of antibiotics to see if that will help her gain some weight. She is able to digest most of her food as her diarrhea has stopped. She is currently eating 4lbs of raw food a day and is only 31.5 lbs. I hope to someday have her back up to 40lbs. I have joined forums and support groups online and have registered her with the college that is researching this scary disease. She does have energy and her B12 levels are back to where they should be!

Devan

Remembering Baby Berry and 1 Year with Char

In just a few days it will have been 1 year since Char and Baby Berry stepped off that trailer at my barn. I cannot believe how fast time goes by. I had no idea what was in store for either one of them or myself at that point. How could I have ever guessed that I would have been taking on such a huge task with Baby Berry and Char for that matter. Sometimes life changes that fast! I had no plans of ever owning a 5th horse. We each had 2 and that was plenty, but we couldn't not help these two horses.

Baby Berry was only in our lives for a short time, but boy did she make an impact! The day we let her go will forever be one of the hardest days of my life. She was a great little filly with a big big heart! She fought hard to make it, but in the end she wasn't meant to be on this earth for a long time .I believe everything happens for a reason even if we don't know why at the time.  I truly believe she was brought to us to make sure Char had a happy ending.

I still don't know what exactly we will end up doing with Char. And by that I mean I don't know if we will ever ride her or if she will just be. She came to us as a basically untouched 17yr old broodmare. Now she knows almost all the basics and of course I have ridden her, but this summer I just let her be. We hung out and groomed, but that was it really. Other than feet work we didn't require much of her, and she seemed to enjoy it. She greets us in the pasture and loves attention! I am going to let her tell me what she is comfortable doing. If the day comes that we ride then so be it, but if not she will spend the rest of her time just hanging out with us.

I cherish this photo of Baby Berry and I

One of the many days I hung out in their pasture gaining trust.

Char this summer. She will live her life out on this ranch.

Wow, Time Flies!

I can't believe it has been a month since I have last blogged. Bad blogger! I do have an excuse, okay maybe for only the last two weeks. Two weeks ago a skinny little 7 week old puppy joined our family.  We adopted him from the same place we got our girls Laurel and Devan. He will grow up to be a trail riding doggy too!

Henry at 7 weeks of age

We have know that mom is a Heeler mix, but we don't know what dad was. He is 9 weeks here.

Speaking of the girls. Devan went out for a trail ride this week and was amazing. Before we go again she is getting her rattlesnake vaccine because we saw one and it was too close for comfort for me!

Devan enjoying the day with us. Jess is to my left and of course Pixie is looking off to the right :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why is this okay?

While at the auction yesterday I saw countless riding horses. For the most part they seemed pretty "broke". From a far all seemed okay with the horses, but if you took the time to look at them hanging out in the pens un-tacked you could see the truth. Horses with bloody mouth corners, sores in the cinch area, spur marks, and it goes on. One horse had no hair left where the cinch was at. This wasn't just a few horses with injuries from the tack, this was the majority! It is amazing what horses will endure! If we saw these type of injuries on dogs from our equipment it would be considered animal cruelty! But lets face the cold hard facts...hitting horses is considered an acceptable training method. As long as it is acceptable to whip them in public it will be acceptable to use any force necessary to get what you want out of them. Why is this okay? Why is creating open sores on them considered an acceptable training method. Is it because they are big and can hurt us so we must hurt them first?? Dogs are capable of injuring a human, but it is still considered cruelty to use excess force with them. Our views on training dogs has changed over the years, just maybe it will change in the horse world too! I don't know that I will ever get the answers I am looking for. I find that as the years go and as I learn more I am more in tolerant of what is even considered nice training methods in the horse world. The thing I find interesting about training,  is that I am considered an outsider and get ridiculed by professional horse people because I use food while training my horses. In fact it took me a long time to figure out I didn't really care what other people thought of my methods because they work for me and my horses. Why is it that I get weird looks for not hurting my horses, but the guy hitting his horse over and over gets applause when the horse finally does whatever it was supposed to do. Nothing will change until the majority of people change their mindset of what is considered acceptable training. The funny thing is is that a lot of people will tell me it isn't acceptable, but they aren't willing to change their ways. If faced with a horse that wouldn't do something for them they would up the pressure until they caused enough pain for the horse to do whatever was required. In fact I was that person, when push came to shove I reverted back to old methods with Navi. Once I stepped away completely though and said no more I have a much happier more willing horse. It was hard to take the leap, not because I feared it wouldn't work, but because I feared what others would think. I knew it would work, but I also knew I had to be ready to defend my stance and my methods.  I am not perfect, but everyday I set out to be a better horse person and trainer. And everyday I hope someone will see my pain free way of training and want that for their horses. Someday maybe we will see horses as an animal that feels pain just as we do. 

Too Many Horses

Yesterday was a cool rainy day in our area, so we decided to spend the day at the horse auction. Nothing like making the day a little more depressing, right!? Actually I have always enjoyed visiting the auctions because it was something my grandfather and I did every summer when I visited.

Now of course they aren't nearly as fun as when I was a small child running around just enjoying the all the horses. Now I see more. I see the hurt and fear in some of the horses eyes. I see just how bad the market is. I see just how many horses we are breeding only to send to slaughter. (Again my disclaimer on slaughter. I am for slaughter, but I feel we should have slaughter in the US so it can be regulated.) Speaking of breeding, I feel that is where the problem is at. Too many back yard breeders thinking they can make money off the babies. When the truth of the matter is we have too many horses! There are not enough homes even for the good ones. I saw some extremely well broke nice looking horses go for around 1,000 dollars. There were weanlings and yearlings going for 50 to 70 dollars. Now of course there are the exceptions. A few extremely well bred weanlings went for around 400-700 dollars, and some really nice adult horses that could work cows went for around 5-6,000 dollars. The average seemed to fall in the 1,400 dollar range for a trained horse. I suppose the market is slowly getting better since last year most babies went for 1-25 dollars. Regardless of price, the fact that they had around 500 horses to sale in a one day sale is a lot especially when they will have another sale in 4 weeks. Once a month nearly a thousand horses are sold in a two day period right here in my town. Now lots of people do come from out of state to sale horses here. However, them traveling all the way here tells me our market must be better than theirs to make it worth the time and fuel.
All this combined tells me the horse market is flooded just like dogs,cats, and other small critters. Too many horses, not enough homes. They have become throw away animals like cats and dogs. If you don't want it any more just loose sale through the ring and go buy another one. Now obviously not every horse that goes through the loose sale goes to slaughter. Some go to great homes, other goes to just okay homes, and some go to slaughter. Just as not every horse that is consigned to the main sale goes to a great home, some of those go to slaughter. Some times slaughter is the most humane option for them. Well actually just being humanely euthanized would be the best option, but people are too cold hearted for that.

This horse should have been euthanized long before making it to the yard. Shame on its owners for allowing this! Now it must endure the long trip to Canada for slaughter.

Hopefully one day people will stop breeding indiscriminately so just maybe there will be less horses neglected, abused, and thrown away.

Here are some pictures from my day. We left around 3pm and it was far from over.

Weanling

Same weanling as above just showing the number because that is all she is now...just a number. She loved having her butt scratched!

Horse in the main sale

Another in the main sale

Pen of loose horses sold. Every color and age imagined.

consigned to main sale

Loose horse pen

more of the loose horses, most went to slaughter.

more loose horses

Even mini horses are finding their way into the loose horse sale ring. The bigger one was blind in one eye. 

Off Roading

Our view once we climbed the hill.

Willow ready to head out

So yesterday my friend T and I decided to hit the trails. It was a last minute decision on my part. I knew there was a good chance we would be out for at least 2 hours, so I decided I better eat my beef jerky before we headed out since I was getting hungry and it was 9:30am. Neither of us had a game plan therefore we just started riding. We went out a ways and decided to take one of the trails up to the top of the ridge. Except part of the way up T says to me I think we are still on the road, and as I look around I realize we are on a cow or deer path, but not the road. No biggy it was still a good path and we were headed the direction we wanted to be. Soon enough our path comes to an end, but the top is in sight. T who is ahead says it looks like we can make it if we angle up the hill. Okay I am good with that, so we start up avoiding logs, branches and rocks. Willow was doing a great job getting us up safely. It was proving to be harder than we thought. T and I both decide about half way up we better get off and walk the horses the rest of the way as the terrain and hill is just getting to hard to ride up. We get off and start up very slowly. At this point turning around wasn't really an option as going down looked a lot scarier than just getting to the top. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done with my horses. Willow almost fell once when she slipped on a rock it scared me to death, but she recovered and we continued on our way. Once we made it to the top we let the horses eat grass and I caught my breath. I told T I needed to make sure I hit the gym more often if I rode with her, or maybe I don't need the gym if she keeps taking me on rides where I have to hike more than ride, lol. Willow was a champ, she got us through that together and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

The clouds had cleared by then and it was a beautiful view of the mountains.

Once on top of the ridge we found the road again :)

Finding the Relationship

In my last post I had mentioned that Navi was doing amazing, and she still is! We haven't ridden in quite some time because I wanted to focus on my ground work since she was becoming so hard to work with. Well here we sit a few months later and I have such a good girl now. We keep our sessions short and fun. When she says she is done, then we are done. At this point we have back up, her yields, and walking beside me, all done with the lightest cue. She is also trotting circles around me with the lightest cue :) One of our biggest accomplishments is lining up to the mounting block at liberty. I turn her loose in the round pen or outdoor arena. She of course wonders off to explore and I go the the mounting block stand and wait. At first it took her a while to catch on, but now she will come over as soon as she notices me there :) She gets a click and treat when she is aligned properly. We have progressed to clicking when she is facing forward and after I lean on her. In the end I want her to stand still while I mount and not move until given the cue so we are slowing building our duration of standing at the block. Once she is consistent at this at liberty we will add the halter and lead back in so I can start riding her again :)

An update on Char as well. We haven't done a lot with her lately as far as formal training, but that doesn't mean we aren't working on our bond. We are now able to pick up both front feet while she is standing in her pasture at liberty. :) We are slowly making progress with her back feet, but she isn't ready for us to pick them up while loose in the pasture. Some day! She is gaining confidence around us daily and I still feel one day we will be riding together.

Pixie, Willow, and Jess are all doing great as well! Pixie and I are continuing our work on bareback, bridle-less riding along with taking lots of trail rides. Willow and I have been trail riding together too! Jess is getting out for short rides around the barn, otherwise he spends his time keeping his mares in line :)

Pictures

July has been keeping us busy busy :) We are alive and all the horses are great! Hoping to document Navi's amazing progress this week and update on how everyone else is.

Trail Riding

I haven't posted much recently because I have spent the last two days off trail riding, and today I am headed back out for a three hour ride :)

So here are some pics. Wednesday it was just my partner and I that went out and yesterday I went out with three other ladies from my barn. (My partner had to work yesterday :(  )

Willow and I exploring on Thursday

The group of ladies I rode with

Willow and I's ride

My favorite shot looking back towards my barn

Heading back down the hill

Our ride from Wednesday

Cows

Headed up

Pixie and I

Looking back

What a view

We ended by the river for some water play

Willow