Shoes for Winter

Shoes or barefoot for winter? We recently learned it’s a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. It is true, wild horses obviously don’t have the steel shoes that ranch horses sometimes wear, and they do just fine, right? Ranch horses who work all day running cattle might need additional protection against bruising caused by rocks and uneven terrain, but those who are worked less often could stay barefoot throughout the year.

 

All our horses have been barefoot their whole lives and haven’t had an issue. They, however, are not classified in the “work all day” category.

 

The horses’ hooves were trimmed 5-6 weeks ago and immediately afterwards Shine was favoring his front left. That has happened in the past, but usually the stiffness passes in a day or two with light exercise. This time it got better for sure, but then he appeared to be favoring it more again. I gave him more time off and it got better, but not to where I could ride or even our young students could get on bareback. Time to call the vet!

 

The vet came out today and we got some interesting news we wanted to share. Barefoot is definitely preferable, especially in the winter because the hooves expand and contract more in the cold weather. As the hoof expands the frozen ground, manure, rocks, etc. will fall out. The shoes have a tendency to hold the frozen ground against the hoof which could be bad news.

 

The ideal horse hoof is round, meaning when they step down, they would leave a round impression on the ground. In Shine’s case, his hooves are elongated in shape, meaning the toe is on the long side and the heel is smaller. His weight cannot be as evenly distributed as it could if it was round. This is one of the confirmation “issues” that can’t be fixed over time. As the vet said, it is something that can only be fixed when sperm and egg come together to make a baby horse to begin with.

 

In Shine’s case, the vet suggested front shoes to give him more protection. In his case and others, horses should wear shoes even in the snow because the positive protection they provide outweighs the disadvantages. For horses who wear shoes, remember to check their hooves, especially in the winter to make sure they stay cleaned out.

 

Lameness scale: Our vet explained it to us like this…the scale is 1-5. 1 favoring occasionally, inconsistently. 5 being unable to bear weight. Shine is thankfully at a 1 on the lameness scale.

 

We are planning to have the farrier do front shoes for Shine when he comes next week.  

Happy Birthday, Soot!

Soot was born in Ramona, CA and spent his early years learning how to accept many things. We recently learned more about his parents and now know that his sire was Brabant, and the dam was Percheron/Drum horse. We have updated our website to include more details of those breeds.

We recently received some pictures of Soot as a baby and he was adorable!!

Soot came to our ranch in July of 2019 and has been learning numerous things. Before he turned 3 years old, we had bought the surcingle in preparation for him pulling a wagon. He is exercised on a regular basis and enjoys cantering in the round pen, pulling a tire around, and taking tight turns when indicated to do so with the driving reins.

 

 

Now that he has turned 4 years old, is over 17 hands and nearly 1600 lbs, he is being worked under saddle and is learning what leg cues mean and how they relate to what he already knows from the driving reins. We are still on the lookout for a western saddle with a large enough gullet so we can use it on him.

Training on Your Timeline

Do you board your horse? Do you have your horse on your own property? There are pros and cons to both cases and we've done both. Here are a few things we have noticed. 

Pros for Boarding:

We found while boarding our horses for 20+ years... 1) You can take a vacation whenever you want/need. Because the ranch where we boarded our horses was setup with people who fed all the horses, we didn't have to be out at any special time to feed the horses. This worked great when we were in high school and college, with after-school activities, schoolwork, and weird class schedules. 2) You can use all your horse time to work your horses, rather than having to take the time to feed and clean up after them. For those people with a limited schedule, busy with work, school, or sports activities, it might be much better to not have all the other horse related chores to finish too. 3) There are probably other horse lovers around so even if you are the only person in your family who rides, there is someone else around who can go with you on trail rides (never ride alone) or even to just enjoy spending time with while riding in the arena on the property. 4) Most vets will attend to multiple horses at each location, so for standard vaccinations you might be able to split the call charge. 5) If the common area equipment or facilities need to be updated, you can just alert the manager an they can take care of the work. 6) If there is an emergency and you can't get to the ranch, you might find that the owner can move your horse with their own horses. This happened to us during the fires of 2007. We had 1 horse at that time, but we didn't have a horse trailer. The manager at the ranch took our horses with his when he evacuated. He is a horseman, so we felt comfortable to have him watch her. It worked out great, since it was needed.

Pros for Owning Horse Property:

1) Since you feed your horse directly it is easier to adjust the amount of feed depending on the workout, or depending on their weight. I notice the fit of the saddle on my quarter horse and can know if I should drop his feed. 2) Since you are the manager of your own property, you won't have people coming onto your property and bothering your horses. Even if your horse is friendly, it can cause the horse to have bad habits if people (at a public place) are always bothering them. 3) With your extra chores of cleaning up the stalls and feeding the horses, you will notice "red flags" that can help you realize health concerns much sooner. You will get used to how much water each horse drinks each day and know if they stop drinking. This is more challenging to notice if you have bucket that automatically refills. You will notice what their manure normally looks and know if it looks different. You will notice how they act each day when you enter their stall and know if that's normal behavior or if something weird might be going on. 4) You can set your own schedule to clean the stalls, so you know when they will be clean. You will also know they are cleaned on a regular basis because you're doing it. 5) If there is any barn or property maintenance you do have to complete it yourself, but you also get the opportunity to do exactly what you want rather than what the manager of a boarding facility decides. You can put your money into the places you find most important and can decide to save it for something special you want to purchase or update in the future. 6) You can check on your horse any time of the day or night without getting dressed and driving in your car to get to them. This can also be a positive thing if you have to give them medication or dress a wound regularly, or if you want to check in on them in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm, etc. 

Happy Birthday! - MR SMARTSHINING KING "SHINE"

Our quarter horse Shine just turned 5 years old yesterday and we had a chance to look back on how his training has improved over the years we have had him. 

We bought him from AA Quarter Horses back on October 1st 2016 when he was just over 6 months old. I remember the day we were headed to pick him up, we ended up having to reschedule because we lost a tire on the horse trailer. I remember stopping on the side of the freeway and helping Dad change to the spare tire. We were so glad we didn't have a small horse in the trailer. Not only would he have been young, but it was also over 100 degrees that day. Whew!

Yeah...I wasn't smiling when we found the fender 1/8 mile back on the freeway.

 

We didn't want to wait to get the fender fixed, so we scheduled with a horse transporter to help us go pick up the baby horse. We headed out in my Saturn station wagon and got a ways up the freeway when my car started dropping in acceleration. It had done it before, so I pulled over carefully and went back to readjust the gas cap. My car seemed to be doing fine after that, but Mom and I waited for Dad to join us before we continued on to Riverside. 

 

That day we met Ryan (horse transporter) and then went into the backyard of the breeders' place to see Shine. We found him in the round pen. This was fun because I got to work with him a bit and get him into his halter. I remember leading him out of the round pen and heading toward the trailer. This would be his first time in the trailer alone. 

Eduardo & Claudia (horse breeders), Shine, Shari

I led Shine pretty much right into the trailer and tied him up. I had bought one of the stretchy lead ropes, but had Ryan (transporter) bring me the regular one he had with him. Shine was pretty calm the whole way back to Escondido. Ryan let me get him out of the trailer and we snapped a quick picture before we walked Shine to his new home.

Ryan, Shine, Shari

Over the years of training I have learned how to be flexible while still being consistent with my training.

Shine helped me look at training differently and made me realize how much an equine could be a friend as well. Dad was out there a lot, taking pictures and we have gotten quite a few neat ones through the years. 

I almost match Shine when I wear my yellow shirt and he learned quickly what "Selfie" means.

There have definitely been some trials throughout training with him, but I learned a lot from previous horses I had taken lessons on and trained, that I felt like each trial just made me that much better of a trainer going forward. 

To date, Shine has learned to give consistently to pressure, to stand while been brushed and tacked, allow kids and adults to ride him, doesn't mind walking with me to pick up some plastic bags, likes the large American Flag, and stands at attention while I play my trumpet from his back. I look forward to many more years of fun and learning.

 Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Update on Training

The weekends are awesome! We don't have as much time limit and we can work each horse for as long as they each need. Some times that is for an hour of long riding where you can work on more difficult things, or it might be a good 30 minutes of training on the basics. It's a good training session if the human and the horse are calmer at the end of the session than they were at the beginning. 

Shine: We love having weekend time to ride together. I tacked Shine up in his stall and walked him out to the field to mount. He stood calmly while I mounted. I rode him at the walk around the field, picturing myself riding in the arena that we hope to work on this Spring/Summer. The field is still uneven, but he doesn't seem to mind. We then trotted, I have been working on keeping my balance centered and ready in case he stumbled. The bird were calling the trees, but he stayed focused on me. We even did some cantering. While cantering, I'm working on him staying on the path I tell him to. He has a tendency to canter on the diagonal rather than keeping his hind end in the right alignment with his head, neck, and front feet. He only does it on the same side, so I think he's trying to get to the other end of the field because he stayed lined up when I direct him over there...We also worked some in the barnyard. Since it has sand, the footing stays more even and is easier to ride in all the time. It helps to work on things with Shine in different places on the property. He learns he can be calm anywhere. I like the barnyard because it's fenced and we can work on hard stops and turns. He finally understands the rollback and has done it perfect several times in a row...I also had time to work with him walking past the house, like he does when we go get the mail out front. He was having a tendency to not want to walk back toward the ranch area when we were on the way back, so I walked a short distance and turned around then walked a short distance back and turned around. I want to work on that a few more times before we just walk straight out to get the mail...Shine is also over his "fear" of plastic bags. There were a few of them blowing across the yard, so later in the day, I put on his halter and we went to grab them from the field. He followed along right beside me and even stood still while we worked a plastic bag through the fence that had become caught on the opposite side.

Soot: He has been mostly calm during the weeknight training sessions, but over the weekend we were able to get him moving. Once he was moving he didn't want to stop. Heehee! We didn't do any pulling yet this weekend, but we did get the saddle on him again. The stirrups are more English style and come off quite easily when he's cantering with no person on his back. They flew off a few times. We got him cantering which he probably finds easier when he can really see where he's going. We still don't have arena or area lights to use during the dark evenings. He wanted to keep stopping when we started off in the round pen, but we kept him going and then he didn't want to stop. We worked on having him continue to change directions and stay out away from us, so he could really pick up the canter. We worked him until he wanted to stop, then we kept him going for a few extra minutes. When we were cooling him off, I mounted up and rode in the saddle at the walk while we lunged. That saddle is different than the other saddles we use, so it will help the more comfortable I am riding in it. I think we'll do that during his cool down for the next few times we use it. At first I was pulling on his mane to keep balanced, it felt like I was moving all over. Soon though, I realized I wasn't pulling anymore. It takes some getting used to because his stride is so much longer than Shine's. He was much better when walking him back to his stall at the end.

Serita: She still comes to greet me when I enter her stall. Getting her halter on is easy. She actually puts her nose into it sometimes. I am still working her on the basics having her step forward when I tap her hip and doing that multiple times in a row. The key there is to keep tapping until she actually steps forward then stop tapping immediately. Sometimes I tap for a long time before she moves forward and other times she steps forward right away. When cleaning up her stall the other day she came forward and reach out like she was trying to get me to leave. I decided that to break this habit, before it even got started, I would tie her up while I clean. She stands calmly the whole time and will let me walk right up to her afterwards or even let her loose from outside the stall. After she tried to pull away from me when I walked her outside her pen, I haven't taken her out again. I have instead practiced leading her around her pen, stopping and moving, then stopping again to get her to behave correctly in the controlled environment before taking her out again. I am setting her up to succeed and answer correctly every time. She continues to improve with holding her feet up while I clean them and will stand still most of the time even when I just put the lead rope up over her back. She has a tender stomach and twitches a lot when I brush her under there. I am working on having her stand still by brushing her softly and then stopping before she moves away. Her tendency to move is slowly improving for sure.

Who Inspires You?

I have been asked this question by a few people, so here is what I have said. I like the natural horsemanship training that goes with what the horse already does naturally. This can range from those people who teach the horse to rear on command to those who want the horse to pivot on their barrels quickly. I have done a lot of research on trainers and my favorite few to date are John Lyons and Jonathan Fields. 

I had somehow gotten on John Lyons mailing list and started by receiving a book called Communicating with Cues Part I. I read the first few pages and was hooked, I mailed my check immediately. What followed was more books to complete the series and I loved and continue to love them all. The Perfect Horse series is on my bookshelf and I reference it regularly both for inspiration and for affirmation that I am training the right way. I also got the opportunity to meet John Lyons in person at the Equine Affaire (now called Horse Expo) in Pomona, CA several years ago and he is the same godly man and trainer as I expected from his books.

While at the expo I also met other trainers, including Jonathan Fields who showed a lot of liberty work. After getting home I looked him up as well and watched several free videos online of his training. I joined his viewer video list and continue to get "31 videos in 13 months" Inspired by Horses training series.

Both trainers are about lasting results with lots of repetition rather than fast results. They have helped SS Ranch 77 by continuing to inspire us with how we live and work with our horses.

Do you have a favorite trainer?

Difficult Training Sessions

Even though we wish all sessions with our equines were positive from beginning to end, that isn't reality. I try to keep in mind what John Lyons stated in one or more of his books, "leave the training session with your horse being calmer than when you started." At some times this is much more difficult to do than other times. Here are a few things I've learned over the years: 

Weather can play a factor in training sessions. Whether it is sunny and warm, or cloudy and windy, you can work with your horse and have them be calmer at the end than when you first entered their stall. Remember also that you should only ride (or work your horse) where you can, not where you can't. Though it would be fun to just get on and ride anywhere, you want to keep you and your horse safe. Once when I was riding Seyvilla the weather had been sunny and warm, but it quickly got cloudy and windy. We were out in the field and it wasn't going to be simple to just ride home, the wind was really whipping around us. I had a few options, I could 1)keep riding and hope it cleared up, 2)I could turn around and ride home, or 3)I could dismount and turn back toward home. All options could work well, so in situations like this you need to look at the situation completely to decide what to do. Here are some questions to ask yourself: 1)If I turn around now, can do I something on the way back or when I get back, to have the horse be more calm before I put him/her away? 2)Am I riding with a less experienced rider that might get hurt? It might depend on which horse they are riding and how they are reacting to the situation.

Training updates per horse and some reality sessions:

Shine: Though Shine is pretty great in all situations, he does have some times when he has been too excited at the time of his training sessions that I can't do what I had been planning to do with him. He is turning 5 years old next month, so he's pretty strong on most of the basic training things...giving to pressure, bending, keeping his head down, riding over uneven ground, cantering fast while still listening to the rider, picking up his feet, standing while brushed, etc. However, on some windy days I have noticed him pacing in his stall and at times even nipping at me which isn't normal for him. The pacing started when we realized our neighbor had just bought a goat. Shine wasn't afraid of the goat, but he wasn't used to it either. It took him a few days before he was back to his calm self. I used those days to work more on the basic training steps, to do more groundwork and get him listening to me while still working on a few new things. He was easily distracted by the goat in the next yard, so working on a lot of new training items wasn't super effective. Since I have now been training him for 4 1/2 years I can pretty much tell when it's a "back to basics" day, or a day that I can do a lot of new things. One of the new things he enjoys is helping me check the mail, though even now that he does it great in good weather, there are still days I decide not to do it because of where his head space is.

Soot: We are still not doing long sessions with us on his back as he is still growing a lot! We plan to do more consistent riding when he turns 4 years old in April. As I have mentioned before, riding a draft horse is better to do once the horse is 4 years old. Since he is much taller than us now, we must be careful to work with him to make sure he doesn't push into our space. With our other horses, we can see over their backs, but with Soot we can't, so if something scares him on the side we can't see, we can't be ready to react. This being said, we have noticed that while working Soot in the round pen, he has stopped and raised his head high to look at something far away that we can't even see. That isn't an issue ...unless it is. Do we want him to do this while we're riding or when he's pulling a wagon or sleigh? Not really. We want him focused on what we want him focused on. We are continuing to work with him on this, so he keeps his focus on us. He still loves pulling and even on days that he's excited, he seems to calm down when he sees the tire and knows he's going to be asked to pull. Back to the motto that draft horses love a job to do. Maybe we can use him to help us pull the track area or part of the field in the spring when we work on grading for our riding arena.

Serita: She just turned 1 year old this month, but we need to be careful where we work her because all the surroundings are still so new. She is comfortable in her stall and since it's 24'x24' we can work her in there for now. Recently we were leading her to the round pen and she got excited. She pulled the lead rope hard and was able to get away from us but was quickly caught. This reminded us that we need to continue to work with her on leading so she knows when we're leading she needs to follow our lead and not push ahead. This could have ended more negatively if she had gotten caught up in a fence or twisted her ankle. Thankfully she did not hurt herself or us. Working her in her stall gives us time to work with her on giving to pressure, bending, yielding to the lead rope, and listening to us, then we can work more on leading when we walk outside the stall. She continues to improve, but we can't rush the process or someone (human or equine) might get hurt.