Ground Handling
22 March 2010
Julia and Presley came to Horsemanship today and they worked on ground handling through a course with Molly the Welsh pony mare. Molly is small at 11.3 hands, and she’s just the perfect size for these two girls! They walked, trotted and backed up through a pattern, and worked on turns on the haunches as well. See a mini video here. Fun!
Braiding Manes & Erin Go Bragh!
17 March 2010
Today Sherman was the POTD (pony of the day) for the Wednesday Horsemanship Club girls, and he was very patient as they learned to braid a mane! First the girls welcomed Zora, a new friend of the farm, and they sat at the picnic table with little bundles of brown yarn and practiced three strand braiding, or as my New Zealand friend Braeburn calls it, plaiting. Then they got Sherman, groomed him and braided his mane. He stood very still while the girls took turns standing on a stool to reach. Being up high makes the braids smooth and lay down better on the neck. Emily gave them hand outs about braiding: hunter braids, dressage braids, knob braids, button braids, running braids and lattice manes (which are not braided, but look like lattice work). Sherman looked pretty when they were all finished with the grooming, as he was quite dirty when they started! The sun was out today and we four ponies (Molly, Buttercup, Sherman and I) all took naps at mid day when the sun was so nice and warm!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or as they say in Ireland: “Erin go bragh!” Did you wear green today? Our dear departed pony friend, Prince Patrick, would have been 29 years old today. RIP dear pony Patrick, we miss you.
Driving Lessons
16 March 2010
We had driving guests this morning, and it was a beautiful sight! Miriam brought her mare, Katie, over for a driving lesson with Kyra and missed the high winds and rain that arrived a few hours later. Katie looks so pretty doing her job, and you can watch a video of them here.
The Horse’s Gaits in Living Color
4 March 2010
Wednesday was Horsemanship Club, and three girls came for fun and learning in the sunshine after school. They watched a bit of the video The Visible Horse, with Emily stopping and starting the film to point out and talk about the horse’s movement and different gaits. What are gaits? The four gaits of most horses are: walk, trot, canter and gallop. After learning about the sequence of foot falls in each of the gaits from the movie, they got Buttercup from the big field where she was munching on grass and groomed her. She was dirty and shedding a lot, and she loved the attention from the girls. Emily wrapped two pairs of polo wraps on Buttercup’s legs: green ones on her left front and right hind legs, and blue ones on her right front and left hind legs. They all went to the arena where the girls sat on the mounting block and Emily longed Buttercup. At the trot her two blue wrapped legs moved together and the green ones moved together to complete the movement of the trot. Emily had Buttercup increase the length of her trot stride so the girls could learn about the different paces, rhythm and tempo of the trot. They clapped in time to Buttercup’s movement and noticed how she is not as balanced at the canter as she is at the trot. In the canter the legs move in a three beat sequence: outside hind leg first, then inside hind and outside front together, and finally the inside foreleg steps finishing the three beats of the canter. Duh-duh-dum, duh-duh-dum, duh-duh-dum! It’s like a waltz step in 1-2-3 time! You only have two legs. Can you canter? Not the same way we horses do, but you can move your legs so your feet make a 1-2-3 rhythm before the next three beats of your “canter!” Walking with color coordinated leg wraps takes four different colors because we only move one leg at a time in the walk, making a four beat rhythm in that gait!