Tara Maxwell

Scarlett

tara — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:05:32 +0000

Scarlett’s had a big week with a lot of progress. She’s a two year old filly that’s being started under saddle. I always start with tons of ground work to build a relationship and teach a cue system that will be carried to the saddle and also teach the horse how to ‘feel’ what I’m asking for through the halter and lead rope (which simulates the reins when riding).
The first session was teaching her to back. I don’t think you can back a horse too much. In teaching backing, you are also establishing the grounds and understanding from the horse of your personal space. Scarlett was a hard to move at first. She didn’t want to move her feet – would stretch back and raise her head trying to avoid moving her feet. She was also a horse that had no respect for personal space. She always wanted to be in my back pocket. With patients and persistence of asking over and over she learned to back with the halter and lead.
We then worked on separation of hind and front end. With a simple exercise of placing my thumb in the place where my foot will bump her when I’m in the saddle I taught her to mover her hind end over from a light pressure of my thumb. – First place thumb, and when the horse doesn’t move off of the pressure, start bumping her with the back of your hand, when she steps over, stop, rub, and tell her she did good. Eventually, she moves off of the simple pressure of your thumb. I can’t stress enough how important it is to teach a horse how to separate the back feet from the front feet.
Next was a lesson of moving the front over. She was much more resistant with moving the front than the back. This is typical of a horse that doesn’t respect your space. Because of her being resistant and wanting to stand her ground, I used a training stick to tap her shoulder until she moved over. She finally gave in to the lesson and moves her front feet over and away from me when I stand at her head and shoulder and simply raise my hands and ‘pump’ air toward her.
After Scarlett understood how to separate her body parts, I proceeded with driving her forward. It took work to get her to move forward. At first, she went backwards, sideways, finally forward. With her moving forward, I can start teaching her to feel what I’m asking through the lead rope. I want her to be soft, have slack in the rope as she moves around me, and if she hits the end of the rope to soften and put slack back into the rope. When Scarlett finally decided to move forward, it was at a trot. It took a lot of her hitting the end of the lead rope hard to disengage her hind quarters and walk instead of trot when asked to move forward.
After Scarlett understood to walk forward and disengage hind quarters, front quarters, and side pass was incorporated into the teaching.
Scarlett learned how to drive on the halter and lead rope. I really like teaching a horse this. It really makes them pay attention to every step you’re asking them to make. When they understand what and how to do this, they become so soft and light.
We are now working on transitions. This is an exercise where I use my lariat around her torso and it sits in the flank area. There is no pressure on her until I bump the rope. The process teaches walk, trot, and canter when asked. It’s a good foundation to teach transitions on the ground. The horse will have a clear understanding and you don’t have the worry of bucking when going into transitions in the saddle. You’re able to move to bigger and better things once you start riding.

Levi

tara — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:51:15 +0000

Levi came in as a rescue. He’s a big bone, strong, 16 hand, 9 yr old gelding. The little history I know on him is that he jumps 3.6′ and has a little buck when going into the canter.
Spent some quality time with him. He absolutely loved being brushed by my 3 yr old daughter. I didn’t have any problems leading him from one place to another and he already seems attached to Paden – he followed her around the round pen and hardly took his attention away from her.
He picks up all 4 feet when asked and I can hold them as long as I want without question from him. He needs some weight for my liking, but with a little TLC, that will come. I really like his kind eye.
I look forward to working with him, learning his personality, his likes, and giving him another chance in this world.

Cassie

tara — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 05:19:35 +0000

Cassie is a unique little horse. When we first started working with her she had so much anxiety that she would break out in a dripping sweat just from ground work. I’ve presented my training program to her just as I would any horse. With Cassie, it’s been going forward – then seeing things that need more work and going back to them. I always want to do what’s best for the horse and if there’s things that need more work on the ground, then we work on what we need, to make the horse feel comfortable and help it in every way to understand what’s being asked of them.
If things are not good on the ground, there’s no need in being in the saddle. If we skip the time needed to build the relationship we want on ground work – we’re going to have a horse that’s not responsive to the rider in the saddle.
Cassie is now at the point where her nerves doesn’t take over her learning ability. We can go through the ground exercises without all of her anxiety coming out in dripping sweat all over her body. She’s responding with softness and roundness in her body. This picture of Karen working with Cassie on the ground, and having a ‘dry’ horse is a big accomplishment for this little horse!

Cassie

tara — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:05:33 +0000

Another big day for Cassie was ponying her through the trails. In doing this, it exposes Cassie to the wide open world and she’s able to gain confidence by being beside and being led by another horse. We ride trails that wind through woods, go up and down hills, and cross water.
Cassie really seemed to enjoy the trails.

Cassie

tara — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:00:12 +0000

Cassie and Karen had a big day working with different obstacles. Cassie was asked to walk and trot over poles. This is and exercise to make her pay attention to where she places her feet and how high she needs to pick them up.
It took some work before Cassie was ready to step on the tarp, but she made she made huge progress with this.
Obstacle courses are a great way to gain your horses trust.

Cassie

tara — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:26:07 +0000

The next phase of being prepared for a rider to be in the saddle is mounting. In doing this I take a mounting block (or a muck bucket) and jump up and down on it on both sides of the horse – as many jumps it will take. I want the horse to look as if it’s so bored of me jumping up and down that they don’t mind at all if I step my foot in the saddle and proceed to ride them.
As you can see in the picture, Cassie is very braced and trying to move away from me as I jump up and down on my bucket. So, I will proceed to jump as many times it will take to get her calm and see that she’s not bothered with me doing this.
I do believe the more time we take on the ground, the better my ride will be in the saddle. I don’t want to just ride Cassie, I want her to understand what’s being asked of her and I want her to enjoy it.
Cassie is a great example of — you have to take each horse, their personality, their fears, and work with them however long it takes to get them ready for the next step in training. When you take the time on the ground to assure them that everything is going to be just fine – you’ll have a nice ride. Safety, understanding, and enjoyment is the key to a ‘partner’.
So, I’m going to jump on that bucket 2,000 times, if that’s what it takes, to convince her that everything is going to be just fine.

Cassie

tara — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:06:07 +0000

We’ve been doing tons of desensitizing with Cassie and she’s much better with things. But, something inside me tells me we’ve not quite convinced her that her new world is greater than where she’s been. I take this feeling with caution, but I do feel like it’s time to move forward. Cassie is a very smart horse and I do think she’s up for the challenge if presented in the right way. Cassie has a lot of fear in her and I want so much to help her to understand and enjoy what’s being asked of her. I don’t know that we will understand where her fear comes from. It’s horses like her that I have this fantasy of them becoming human one day and sharing a cup of coffee with me and letting me into THEIR world – what it’s like for them, where they’ve been, humans that have crossed their path and what they think of each one………. Maybe in Heaven, I’ll get that day..
OK, back to reality…. Cassie is one those horses that makes a trainer look off in a direction, take a deep breath, then scratch their head wondering – “what am I supposed to do now” —. I did this – a number of times – and something hit me that’s it’s just time to give her a new challenge.
So after desensitizing, comes the saddle and bridle. Have to say that she took to me saddling her just fine. Her owner says that she’s been ridden before. So she shouldn’t have a problem with this. I still, when I saddle my horses for the first time, like to take the halter off, turn them loose and see what happens. I then proceed to change their direction on cue and get them to walk, trot, and canter at liberty with saddle on.
Cassie took to saddling. When I turned her loose, she never bucked, just ran like a cougar was on her back. So, I spent the time needed to get her to walk, trot, and canter at liberty when asked.

Downtown In Diamonds

tara — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:15:53 +0000

Diamonds is a beautiful sorrel mare. She has a fantastic, eager to please temperament. Diamonds has great ground manners and is a pleasure to ride. This sweet mare loves the trails and would be a perfect match for any rider.

Cassie

tara — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:35:59 +0000

Big day desensitizing! Cassie’s owner, Karen, was able to take a big part in building her relationship with Cassie and gain her trust. Karen spent the day rubbing ‘scary’ objects such as sacks, bags filled with cans, and flags (all that made a lot of noise) all over Cassie’s body to help Cassie realize that what Karen was asking for was not going to harm her. At the end of the day Cassie stood still for whatever she was approached with. What a great exercise! It was a big step for the both of them and also a great advance for their relationship.

Cassie

tara — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:23:46 +0000

This week has been a big week for Cassie. We are spending a lot of time building her confidence working her from another horse and with desensitizing. Even though Cassie is doing much better with her ground exercises she still acts like she just doesn’t know what to do with herself. She still acts like she wants to jump out of her skin with the change of routine and something new. The nervousness seems to take over her ‘thinking for herself’ and she’s always looking for the comfort of another horse. I am taking advantage of ‘the other horse’ security blanket and using that to help build her confidence and at the same time teaching her social skills with other horses. In doing this, I worked her from my saddle horse, Duck. I’m always amazed at the results of working a horse from another horse. It sounds crazy, but it’s like the horses have a silent language between each other that they speak that helps each other with what’s being asked of them. I plan on more work like this with Cassie. Check back soon to see the progress!