Weekly Posts!

My plan is to post each weekend some of 'what's been going on this week' at the Nicholes' place.
Whose horses are in for training, which of our horses are being trained and ridden by who, etc.

For this week there are quite a few things; Steph Teeter and Carol Brand have the first training spots of the season and those two horses arrived Monday. Derby (formerly known as Luna) and Pyrite (Flint's little half brother). They really are two very cute client horses!  Also now in for training (by Terrence) is Steph Teeter's newly acquired Standardbred, Shotgun Willie.

Kathie is getting Chloe tuned up and has started conditioning rides with her sponsor Tamara Baysinger. She is super excited for this endurance season!

Beth is working on all of her own horses and MJ too. Cheerfully assisted by Laura and Sarah for help on Clay, Ardreth and MJ. And of course, Beth also assists Laura with Hugo on occasion!

This time around Sam is responsible for client horse supplementation. We provide them a handful of soaked beet pulp and some probiotic, and whatever else the owner provides as supplementation.

SAM - delivering supplement to Py.

Terrence - finishing up Willie's training session Tuesday.

Ted and Lost Juniper Pyrite

 Ted - providing coaching to Beth while she works Cookie.

Beth - used every bit of daylight this day!

 Sarah getting ready to put a little ride on Clay.

 Sarah grooms Ardreth even on the days she doesn't get to ride him.

Grooming and riding Clay and Ardreth are Sarah's most common assignments. Most days Laura and Beth each ride/train two horses, often more.

Derby has grown up pretty! I am looking forward to seeing how she looks all shed out in another month or so.

Laura getting Hugo's tail prettied up. 

MJ and Laura showing off her stop.

My new hobby is reading books on equine nutrition, feed labels, and lab reports on hay and then calculating ration supplements.

The 'Extra' Fall clinic at Oreana was Great

I haven't actually sorted through all the photos yet, but here is a link to an article by Merri Melde
for now;

http://merritravels.endurance.net/2015/09/teeter-ranch-hosts-foundations-and.html

The clinic had seven participants and Terrence, Matt, and Kathie were there to help Ted out. (Beth missed this one as she was at Oregon 100 with her wonderful endurance sponsor Karen Bumgarner.) I will keep working on sorting through pictures and get some posted soon! Kathie was Dad's schedule assistant (delivering messages such as "Hey these people need a water break" and providing all help that she could as well as taking photos.  Our new baby boy is one month old now but I was still not quite up to a full weekend of clinic, much to the disappointment of the rest of the Nicholes crowd, who are ever eager to go to 'Steph's'!

Watch out Teeter Ranch - expect an influx of Nicholes for Canyonlands!

WE HAVE A WEBSITE!

We now have a website! Please visit us often at FAB Horsemanship. We are still adding features and pages but there is already a lot there. Thank you for checking out www.foundationsandbeyondhorsemanship.com and for sharing with your friends!

Oreana Again! 3 Day Clinic September 18, 19, 20

We have added another clinic to this summer. Since there is enough demand to justify it - we are holding another clinic at the Teeter Ranch this summer. September 18, 19, 20 - save your spot by contacting Leni and getting your deposit in. Explore this blog and read the postings on past clinics for photos and more information on what you can expect at a three day FAB clinic. Also - as always feel free to contact Ted (541-212-3330) or Leni (541-212-3555) with any questions. 

Public Service Announcement Re: Training Spots

We have made the decision to increase the training fee for horses coming to Foundations And Beyond. We still do a 'through the program' price versus a 'by the month or week', the price is now changing to $1600. If you would like to have a spot next year I recommend you contact us soon - spots are reserved by the receipt of a non-refundable $100 deposit to hold your space, the deposit goes towards your training fee and is applied to the 50% of fee required upon drop off. Spots are limited and are first come, first served. We also require owners to provide or buy their horses feed, supplements, fly spray, etc. We are currently booked up for the rest of this year and have several spots already reserved next year as well. To talk to Ted (if you have questions about the training program), call him at 541-212-3330, or if you already know that you want to get a spot reserved for your horse call Leni at 541-212-3555. 

JUNE 20 - TRAIL CLINIC/CHALLENGE DAY at OREANA

Here is a link to the flyer, 

 Owyhee Trail Challenge Horsemanship Day

Tell your friends and then come join us at Steph Teeter's on June 20. 

We are excited to be heading out to Oreana again. This event will be a lot of fun with a mini clinic, advanced horsemanship demos, trail challenge course, and a potluck meal after the ride!  There will be a bunch of arena obstacles with coaching from the Foundations and Beyond Horsemanship crew available all day as well as a five mile trail obstacle course. Come enjoy a fun day of horsemanship at the Teeter Ranch, Saturday, June 20.  

Ted will be at the Teeter Ranch and available for private one on one coaching Friday the 19th and Sunday the 20th as well. (Friday afternoon and Sunday morning are already taken.)

Call Ted at 541-212-3330 with questions or to schedule private lesson times. Steph does have horse pens available making it very easy to stay overnight in order to schedule private lessons on Friday/Sunday. 

What Is WRONG With My Horse?!!

Ever wondered this; 'What is WRONG with my horse?!!'

A recent call to Ted centered around that question. Layne Lewis was concerned about her horses recently developed behavior patterns. 
The horse in question, Harley, is an experienced (as in 1700 AERC miles) gelding whom Layne has owned since his birth eleven years ago. Recently he has become difficult to work with, showing resistance and disrespect. Having been the rider and trainer of this horse for years Layne had the horse checked for possible physical causes of this behavior. Not only did Harley check out fine physically; Layne considers that he is in fact in probably the best condition of his life. 
Frustrated and becoming even more concerned Layne decided to talk to a trainer with a reputation for being able to help with a horses manners. Layne knew of Ted through mutual friends in the endurance community and gave him a call. 
After some conversation Layne and Ted decided the best thing to do was get together and have a private lesson session to evaluate what exactly was wrong with her horse. A private lesson was accordingly scheduled to try to provide the answer to the question 'What is wrong with Harley?' and also hopefully determine how to begin the process of fixing what was wrong with her horse. Since I saw only short snapshots (a total of about two minutes!) of the lesson Ted wrote the rest of this blog post. 

The following is Ted's narration of how that lesson played out;

The big red horse trotted off to the far side of the round pen, alternating between sniffing the ground and lifting his head to look as high as he could. Perfectly normal, I thought, a prey animal assessing his surroundings, determining limits, evaluating escape routes, possible dangers, threats, etc. Doing everything a horse in his natural environment would do. The only thing abnormal about this behavior was that my round pen is about as far from a horses natural environment as he could get. So why was he acting this way? What was missing between him and his owner? I wished he could talk... I hoped one day would be enough for us to figure it out. The words I had heard Layne say over the phone came back to me, "I'm looking for answers." she had stated with an intensity that left no doubt she wouldn't stop until she found them. An intensity that Harley was very familiar with and that we were to discover was in large part responsible for me having an opportunity to meet Layne and Harley. 
As I entered the round pen, Harley paid no attention whatsoever. 'He couldn't care less if I'm in here or not,' I said to Layne. Over the next several hours as I worked through many of the Downunder Horsemanship Method fundamental exercises with Harley he became more and more respectful, responsive and trusting. He certainly wasn't ignoring my presence at all anymore. Showing up less and less were symptoms like re-activeness, defensiveness, anxiety; the traits he had exhibited just a few short hours before when he was first turned into the round pen. By the end of the day Harley was no longer acting like a prey animal needing to fend for himself; instead he was part of a team, he recognized that he had certain obligations he was expected, even required, to fill (two eyes on me please) and certain expectations in his handler which he could be confident would be filled (your comfort, safety, and rest are with me).  
As we spent these hours working on Harley and Layne's ability to perform these exercises we were evaluating and discussing everything about the situation with Harley, among the many things we discussed were horse psychology and personality types. As we observed Harley and had these conversations it became apparent to both Layne and I exactly 'What was wrong with him'.  Harley, an eleven year old, been there, done that, 100 mile ride ready, confident in his own abilities super horse, was lacking mental stimulation. His interaction with Layne was limited to 'Hello there. Must condition!', therefore Harley's perception was naturally, 'Here she comes = another grueling ride.' Conditioning rides for most horses, particularly with a focused, goal oriented, intense rider (like Layne) are just that, only a conditioning ride. They can become not only drudgery, but boring drudgery for a horse who needs more mental stimulation than what just an intense workout can provide. As Layne commented, this is a particularly easy mistake for a competitive rider to fall into, in essence 'conditioning but not training.' Interestingly enough Layne felt that she made this mistake both consciously and unconsciously. Consciously in that she was aware that she essentially chooses to condition versus train, but unconsciously in the sense that she never really gave it a whole lot of thought and certainly not in the sense that Harley might be lacking mental stimulation due to her lack of letting him be 'more'. 
While horses are very forward thinking and can and do travel long distances in nature, it is typically on their way to comfort and safety. Not directly away from comfort and safety as we often expect them to.  We have to remember that horses are first motivated by comfort, safety and food, and then and only then, stimulation, physical and mental. As with all training, maintaining balance is our job. Cold versus hot, left versus right, go versus whoa. In this particular case it was the balance between physical and mental stimulation which was a problem. Allow your horse to tell you who he is and where he needs balancing out. Some horses are office workers, some are like smoke jumpers, some are social butterflies and some are not.
Even though they can't 'talk' we can indeed learn to pay attention and 'listen/see' what they need from us as trainers and handlers. With a mutual bond of respect and trust there is virtually no limit on where you can go together, but it is our job to steer.
With Layne's newly developed understanding of just what type of interaction was missing from her work with Harley, things have changed. Gone is the resistance, poor attitude, misbehavior, apprehension, etc. Harley is back to being an enjoyable equine partner and Layne is equipped with the knowledge and tools to deal with lapses. 
Harley and Layne are doing very well enjoying each others company again with a new perspective on their time together. 
I am thankful for the chance to interact with horsemen and women like Layne who are always striving to be their best for their horses and themselves. 

Let's ride!

Ted