Bri... yes my Arab has a very strong and amusing personality. Show her something once or let her get away with something once and it's learned!

  687940 I think you''ll find the young people here are exceptional. Many of them are very knowledgeable and are  supportive and encouraging. They have  helped me many times with good advice or a kind word. You've landed at a good place! IMO  Jan

I think it's great we have a place to post where we all know the majority of us are "50 Plus"!  But the youngsters are very smart and willing to share what they know, I've learned so much since I found this forum a couple of years ago.  I have been around horses since I was very young, but never in a formal training/barn situation.  I've either boarded my horses at a small stable or had them at my house.  This stable where I'm at now is huge, 140 horses (guess).  If I need advice about something I'm unsure of, it's the young people I seek out.  Most have had years of formal training by trainers and are more than willing to share with an old folk like me!

Yes, Arabs have personality plus plus plus!

And I have noticed compared all the other horses at the Barn, all you have to do is reprimand Ashen verbally, and she appears to understand what I am saying, cause her behavior changes according to my voice commands. She also appears to understand my requests and my approval of her behavior when she is good.

 Ashen is so smart, that I am not sure who is training who!

I have noticed that Lady Ashen is a vain proud girl. She will stand patiently for hours if she is being groomed cause she likes to look her best. And when she is tacked up in her best black shiny saddle, and turquoise patterned parade blanket, breast collar and head-gear she prances like a queen!

I can read her expressions, body stance, and signals pretty well now, but I bet she has me figured out even better!

I had traded one of her extra saddles [the Billy Royal] to the tack shop for some real gorgeous parade fancy saddle blanket and other stuff a week ago and planned to give them to her for Christmas. While Ashen was being ridden by a young girl a short distance away, I took the opportunity to show a friend Ashen's Christmas presents that I had been hiding from Ashen in the car.

Suddenly I noticed Ashen had very quietly stepped closer to the car and was stretching her neck over the heads of the crowd that was blocking her view of her presents! Ashen was sneaking a peek at her gifts out of curiousity!  Everybody laughed cause the [I'm busted] expression on her face was sooooo hiliarious!

I am ridiculously proud of her.

LadyAshen:

Yes, Arabs have personality plus plus plus!

And I have noticed compared all the other horses at the Barn, all you have to do is reprimand Ashen verbally, and she appears to understand what I am saying, cause her behavior changes according to my voice commands. She also appears to understand my requests and my approval of her behavior when she is good.

 I am ridiculously proud of her.

They surely do.  My Keeper horses were either Saddlebred/Arab, Morgan/Arab or purebred Arabs. 

 I had a penchant for bringing home Widermakers to re-school and find good homes for them.  It was that eye-popping penchant that put me on Tennessee Walkers 17 years ago or never ride again - lol lol

 Everything you say is oh-so true.  I rescued my current Arab 14-1/2 years ago as a head attached to a skeleton.  Streeter is 21-1/2 now.  Somewhere in his first seven years of life, he lost his human (they are extremely loyal).  While he tells me everyday, he is thankful and that he loves me, I know I will never replace the human he got separated from.

Streeter also loves to be brushed and scratched.  He LOVES little children to brush and play with him, thus he became a lesson horse for anyone 11 yrs and under when I realized early on that he also had a vertebra injury which would prevent him from carrying much over 100# (leaves me out - lol)

Do you have Lady Ashen's papers?  I am so curious because she reminds me so much of my Streeter who was sired by Backstreet.  Streeter is Crabbet bred and goes straight back to Skowronek.  He has three or four crosses to both of the Brothers Raffles and Raseyn.  He also has some old IBN blood in him.

You are a very astute horsewoman.  You sound to be one of those folks that should have never gone thru life without having a horse by your side.  Not only do you have every right to be very proud of Lady Ashen, but very proud of yourself for having such a deep soul as to figure her out.

Even if the day comes when you can't ride, always keep Lady Ashen.  Owning a horse is NOT always about riding 

I took this picure a month ago, so "The Street Man" is 21-1/2 here.  He second in command in my herd of four.  Streeter is what is known as a "passive leader".  That means when my strong Alpha-leader horse gets to bullying the other two around, I notice Streeter going off alone and pretty soon those other two go to be with him and to ask him "what the HAAAY! is up with Duke today?" 

This is Streeter giving my God-daughter's two-year old a ride.  That young lady needs a "no fear" t-shirt - lol lol

walkinthewalk:

Owning a horse is NOT always about riding

I couldn't agree more about that. It's been a long time since I've riden and I adore my horse! She is 7 years old and we'll get there.. lol. I had an older horse who I rode but lost him almost 2 years ago. He had become thin and I wasn't able to ride him for a few years, but my time with them is precious time! I'm content sitting in the pasture watching all the horses graze :)

Suzie is 1/2 Arabian/ 1/2 Hackney Horse. I used to be afraid of Arabians, now I just know they are smarter than me! 

"Do you have Lady Ashen's papers?  I am so curious because she reminds me so much of my Streeter who was sired by Backstreet.  Streeter is Crabbet bred and goes straight back to Skowronek.  He has three or four crosses to both of the Brothers Raffles and Raseyn.  He also has some old IBN blood in him.

You are a very astute horsewoman.  You sound to be one of those folks that should have never gone thru life without having a horse by your side.  Not only do you have every right to be very proud of Lady Ashen, but very proud of yourself for having such a deep soul as to figure her out."

Even if the day comes when you can't ride, always keep Lady Ashen.  Owning a horse is NOT always about riding "

I am not good at reading pedigrees, but from what I can understand Ashen also has Crabbet bred forbears.  It looks like Nazeer and Zaafarana [Crabbet], were bred to produce Talal who sired Talagato, who sired Pasquanell, who sired RJ Hallazeer [Lady Ashen]. 

Ashen's dam is YR Hallelujah, out of Hal Preachie, out of Preachette, out of Laila Shade who was bred to Preacher Man.

But I never even looked at the papers til I owned Ashen for over 2 months.  I chose her based on her gentleness and overall class.  Some things you just KNOW.  I knew Ashen had what it takes, the papers just prove it to others. 

Thanks so much for your belief in my horsemanship and/or horsey innate knowledge. 

Ashen will always have a loving home.  If my I or my friend Adrian is unabIe to care for Lady Ashen I have made arrangements with the Animal Sancturay where I board Ashen and I will put it in writing. If anything happens to me, the Animal Sancturay will take care of Ashen for the rest of her life in comfort and in peace.

Thank you.   I'm enjoying coming here.

As I move along in age, I find more and more people that really value the connection they have developed with their horse(s), and I get a lot of pleasure out of hearing about and sharing.

I read somewhere a while ago, that people tend to move away from goal oriented activity like competition, and while I do find that happening a certain amount, I still feel very motivated to compete, but I have never really competed for the glory of winning, whatever that may amount to, but have always found the enjoyable challenge one of going out and deepening my connection with my horse while also having to ride the dressage test, or do a jumping round -- the quest being to keep my relationship with my horse my #1 priority instead of how I look to others.   Funny thing is that I do better competing with that goal, than I ever did when I was mostly concerned about how we looked regardless of my horses state of mind.   I'm finding myself more and more attracted to endurance riding, now than my long love of eventing.

I'm having a heckuva time remembering things from my lessons.  I'm one of those people who needs to write things down in order to remember them, and have been since pre-middle age memory problems.

This  week we started having me learn to have the horse "separate" his front and rear.  Can't remember the term my instructor used.  I can do forehand and haunch turns, and I guess this is a step beyond that.  Last nite I went up to the barn to ride and work on these new concepts, except that somewhere between Tues and Fri nites I've lost the ability to do what she had me do Tues, and can't for the life of me remember even where to begin.

 Maybe this has something to do w/being a relatively new rider, I don't know.  But short of taking notes during my lesson, do y'all have any tips for retaining things from one lesson to the next?

Thanks,

Mary 

Do you have someone that can go with you to video your lessons? 

Maybe if you have the video and audio to play back at home, it will help make and retain the connection better

If that is possible, I would also keep every lesson on the same tape.  Then on a rainy day, you can go back to the beginning and watch your own progress

Whew, I'm not the only one.    If I can grab the time to have a quiet spot after my lesson, and spend some time visualizing what we just did, I find, for me, that helps a great deal.   If I don't, then I just lose everything I just worked on.   I used to have fantastic recall, and it doesn't work like it used to.  It doesn't help either, for me, that I have a lot of ingrained habits, and to change a habit takes some intense focus and hard work.   I decided a couple of years ago, that if I seriously want to keep competing, I need to be a better rider, and the consequence of that was to lose a huge pile of confidence in my riding ability, at the same time I was upgrading a level in eventing.  The results were two falls, one cross-country, one stadium from mistakes I ordinarily wouldn't make.   I do have some one to video-tape my lessons, and that helps a great deal, but it doesn't have the same impact for me, as taking that time to spend on visualization.

And during that time immediately after your lesson, have a notebook to write down what went on; if your trainer is still there he/she may be able to clarify a sticking point right then

Well, I can't say one breed is smarter than another...Starlette is one of the smarter horses I have known...once she "gets" something, she just loves it and loves to prove to me she understands...once she figured out sidepassing, she kept anticipating and repeating until I got through to her I wanted to tell her when to move!  Today we were practicing backing through 4 ground poles in a backwards serpentine, and she "got it" halfway through, and proceeded to try to complete the whole course by herself, and at full speed.  Now we have to work on slowing down and waiting for me...because, being a typical teenager (that is how I visualize her age/actions), she went so fast that she missed on some of the turns and we had to go back and do them again (which frustrated her...she *thought* she had done it right).  My biggest challenge with her will be keeping her from becoming bored...I have the hardest time getting her to canter without a little battle of wills because of all the time she spent circling in an arena.

This reminds me...any suggestions on reversing spur training?  I've started at the beginning with leg pressure/response, but I do want to canter, and a lot of times I have to really thump on her to get her to move out because I don't wear spurs.

Spurs, huh.  You could try this --  give her the cue you want her to respond to.   When she doesn't do it, give her the cue with the spur, after she canters a few strides, bring her back and repeat the light aid.  Don't let her just canter after you have to use the spurs, just use it like  she's being disciplined.   Or take the spurs off and leave them off, carry a crop, apply the aid lightly, then apply it, use the crop, bring her back, apply the aid lightly.   Always praise when she picks it up from a light aid.   Horses can respond to the lightest of aids, they just have to recognize what it is.

Hi Everyone,

Well, tonight during my lesson I did something I vowed I'd do within a year of starting lessons:  a sidepass!  Woo hoo!  My trainer had me riding a horse who was pretty responsive when it came to haunch turns, foreleg pivots, etc.  We were working on getting me to be able to work both ends of the horse (can't really describe the drills or what she meant, but I can do them), asked her to teach me the sidepass, et voila!  What a great feeling!  And with a little less than eight months of lessons!

The horse I was on has the most amazingly awful lope--it feels like a jackhammer, I kid you not.  It's definitely a 3-beat gait, but damn it's hard to sit.  Plus, she takes a lot of "motivation" to keep it going, so between trying to figure out her lope plus keep her loping, we had quite the time.

Anyway, I'm really pumped about having learned to sidepass, and am going to try it with several of the other lesson horses in the barn.

Good riding,

Mary