Horse Sledding!

Sledding with horses!

An often overlooked benefit of having well trained horses. Particularly awesome for large families where, in a non-horse sledding scenario, the big kids barely get started before the littlest kids are worn out and ready to go home. In this setting (with horse and pony!), the bigger kids strategically plan who rides sleds up the hill, when, and who takes turns leading the pony and thus manipulate the situation so that everyone is able to enjoy playing as long as the weather holds (or until chore time!). Makes a lot of great family memories!

The time that is spent developing, soft, supple, responsive and calm, well trained horses and ponies pays off over and over and over! I love this. It is so awesome to be able to turn kids loose with horses and sleds and not worry for a second! I did stuff like this as a kid but I was not nearly as safe as my kids are. I had a well trained and relatively well behaved horse but it wasn't like what my kids have! We just didn't know then what we know now!

Collages from Oreana 2014 - Steph, Carrie, Virginia, Bob

I found a new toy in Picasa, collage makers! Thanks Karen Bumgarner for telling me to look for it! Click on the pictures to have it give you a better view!

Virginia and Flash

Bob and his big paint, whose name escapes my leaky memory at the moment!

Steph and Smokey

Carrie and Peanut (I have so many photos of Peanut from when he was here, he should get another collage!)

2015 Oreana Spring Clinic

We have selected the dates for the spring 2015 Oreana clinic! 
We will have a three day clinic at the Teeter Ranch in Oreana, Idaho March 20, 21, 22, 2015. 
In consideration of the many endurance riders who are interested we are having it early so as to be sure not to conflict with the ride season. We do expect to have another 2015 spring clinic a little bit later in the spring, (probably at Parma) but the exact dates are not set just yet. Contact Ted (541-212-3330) with any questions or contact Leni (541-212-3555) or ellen_ann_marie@yahoo.com to reserve your spot. $100 deposit will hold your spot and there will be a limit of seven participants. You can also check out some of the other posts on this blog to learn more about our clinics.

Horses at Home!

Fall is here and I have my camera back from the shop. Here are some recent shots!

First up; Pospy, the three year old appaloosa filly that Beth acquired this summer.

 Popsy is one of the calmest fillies we have ever seen and she seems absolutely destined to become a bombproof kids horse. She will be getting a lot of experience in different environments this winter. Beth has plans to take her to playdays, etc. in addition to all of our normal 'outside' ride areas.  

 This is one of the strategies we employ to help our horses be prepared to be worked by short, small folks! (note - We don't do this when it will compromise our ability to conduct training.  It is used only when the horse is well past the teaching stage of the exercise!

These next shots are of Cowboy. He is also destined by nature to become a fantastic all around bombproof kid or beginner horse. Cowboy is extremely motivated to find the answer when presented with a new problem but he is not motivated to waste any extra calories or to get excited about much of anything. Working on refining intermediate and adding in a bit of advanced exercises at this point. We are leaving Cowboy a stud for now although depending on what his final job becomes he may eventually be gelded. He is such a mellow stallion that it is very easy to leave him be one for now! I call him Ted's therapy horse because it always makes Ted happier when he spends some time working with Cowboy. This particular series of photos was double value therapy; Hang out with your three year old and work on your horse's training! 

More pictures of the Welsh pony that belongs to Beth! These are all photos of LJ working Ardreth. Beth is putting quite a bit of time on him but it really helps Beth to get all of her project horses handled that she has LJ to help with Ardreth.

I love how these next two pictures show Laura sit, sit, sit - before she pulls!

Littlest Sis can't wait until next year as the projection is that she will be able to ride Ardreth next spring.

Terrence on Cruiser. This horse has been a great project for Terrence. Ted frequently states what  a great job Terrence has done with Cruiser's training. Terrence is currently refining some easy trick riding stunts on Cruiser and is working on Cruiser's progress through the Method. He is also making an effort to get Cruiser some other handler experience (in other words let someone else ride him once in a while!) The plan is to take all of our green horses to as many events as we can work in this winter and the hope is that Cruiser will be suitable for multiple kids to use at play days or team sortings, etc. It should be well within Cruiser's ability to fill that slot! Terrence practices riding in a western saddle, a treeless endurance saddle and bareback to solidify Cruiser's ability to discern the cues in various situations. Some of us also think that he likes to show off his ability to stick like a bur to his horse; but we forgive him!

Hugo getting some small handler preparation on his groundwork exercises. Hugo is one of Ted's favorite horses ever to work with. He has so much try it is a pleasure to teach him. 

 I seem to be missing pictures of some of the crowd; Clay, Clyde, M.J. and Snip all got left out of this post. I will try to get them on here soon!