Minnow Caught on Film

I really am on this “looking back” kick. Can’t help it!

I decided to check out some of my REALLY old videos on my Youtube account, so I went back to the very first video I ever posted onto Youtube. And of course it was a video of Minnow painting – published on February 21, 2007.

I had filmed this video for a class I was taking at Kutztown University. Now I must disclaimer first I am not a videographer, in fact I really suck at making videos. My brother is the videographer – and I’m dying to have him make me another video of all three of the Trick Ponies. But alas he is living in North Carolina right now (if you are in North Carolina and need a Videographer/Editor contact my little brother!), so it looks like I may have to reach my 2010 goal of making a new film of the ponies myself. I know it won’t be pretty.

But speaking of stinky videos of mine. Here are a few more I had done for the class I took in college. My downfall is music choice, I really can’t choose a good song if my life depended on it. So when it comes to making my new videos I may just have to enlist everyone’s help out in blog land!

I’ll be waiting until the Spring/Summer to start my new film project – as the ponies will look much prettier without their fuzzy winter coats. So I have until then to really work on some new exciting tricks for the new video.

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com

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My Oreo Cookie

Me and Oreo Cookie

So I’ve been thinking a lot about how my life in horses began – maybe its because we are at the threshold of a new year. Its been 5 years since I taught Minnow his very first trick, its been 7 years since he came to live with me. Minnow will turn 17 this year (*tear*). But my life with horses started way before then. If you want to be technical it started before I was even born. I was taking trips to the barn while I was still in the womb. The very first horse I ever came in contact with was my mom’s 16 hand Thoroughbred cross, J.G. Pippin. I took pony rides and brushed below his knees probably before I could even walk. But it wasn’t until 1989 that I really fell in love with horses.

I was 5 and it was just before Christmas – I knew something was up because we were headed out to the barn after dark. I arrived to a crowd of my relatives and a small black figure in the shadows. As I got closer I was plopped on top of a small black Shetland Pony with a big red bow on her head. I named her Oreo Cookie. My mom had rescued her from a farm that was going out of business, she had been a victim of founder, and we suspected a few other forms of cruelty. I loved her from the moment I met her.

Oreo Cookie

My favorite thing about her was that she had just as big a sweet tooth as I did. Her favorite was Chocolate Chip Cookies. My mom’s favorite thing was that she took care of me. Never once did she buck, take off or bite me – no matter how many times I waved sweets in her face. She’d even stop and wait for me when I’d take a spill off her back.

She went with me to summer camp and took me to my first horse show. I learned how to braid her mane and clean her stall. She taught me to be responsible and to care for another creature. She taught me how to love horses.

Oreo at a horse show

I was 10 years old when she was put to sleep. At that point in her life she could barely walk and her hair had become grayed and curled (due to foundering earlier in life). I kissed her goodbye and whispered in her ear that I would always love her. I knew then that I would spend a lifetime loving horses.

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com

Oh and, yes, we used to drive Oreo to horse shows in the back of a pick-up truck that my dad made adaptable for the pony. She used to press her face to the wind and knicker into the air as we drove down the highway. I’m sure people talked about us for years.

Oreo in the "horse trailer"

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USET and Olympic Dreams

I posted the other day about my trip last Sunday to the site of the United States Equestrian Team Training Facility, Hamilton Farm, located in Gladstone, NJ. I decided I had to go back and talk about this location, because its unlike any other horse training center I have ever been to. I have been to this particular facility several times before, and its beautiful every time I go.

First a little history (taken from the USET website).

The United States Equestrian Team Foundation supports equestrian athletes, promotes international excellence, and builds for the future of equestrian sports.

The eight High Performance equestrian disciplines supported by the United States Equestrian Team Foundation are dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, para-equestrian, reining, show jumping and vaulting.

More about what the USET Foundation does can be found here. Now although they don’t specifically help the equine sport of Mounted Games, USET does allow us to use their beautiful facility for competitions. Hopefully someday Mounted Games will be added to the list of recognized Olympic Sports (steps are being taken to do so!) and will be supported by the USET Foundation.

So anyway onto the facility. I was able to sneak around one (yes one) of the main barns where some of the competition horses for our event were stabled and the site where we rode was. This particular barn is actually two floors – yes two floors – with stalls on both levels. There is then a third floor that has a glass floor you can see down into the barn from. I think the third floor is mostly used for award ceremonies/etc. They even house several trophy rooms in this particular barn.

Standing in the isle ways made me wonder if any famous horses had walked these halls – or stayed in these stalls – or rode in the ring. Many of the stalls had dedication plaques on them, but I ran out of time to look through all of them. I’m sure many were for past Olympic mounts – many of the greats.

I hope to one day see this barn filled with Mounted Games ponies – ponies that are destined to be Olympic horses. Not many ponies can say this as most of the Olympic disciplines are reserved for the bloodlines of horses, although some exceptions apply, Theodore O’Connor (Teddy) comes to mind – even though he was never really in the Olympics. The 14.1 hand pony who competed at the highest international eventing level with Olympian Karen O’Connor (although Teddy was from horse lineage). Teddy was an ambassador for ponies everywhere as he shed light on the fact that ponies weren’t just fuzzy backyard pets relegated to be children’s sidekicks and babysitters. Some are destined to be great.

I don’t doubt that someday Mounted Games will be among the list of Olympic Sports. In fact this year a petition was sent to have an exhibition of the sport in the World Equestrian Games for 2010. Although the petition was denied (I have suspicions why) the beginning is in place. My guess is that until there is one recognized organization and rulebook for mounted games than this cannot happen. Currently we have several organizations within the US (all with their own set of rules) instead of one main organization – we need to have one lead group…like the  USDF (United States Dressage Federation), one governing body that sets the rules nationwide. Difference in opinions caused a split in our one organization – The United States Mounted Games Association, now we have two, Mounted Games Across America and USMGA. Not to mention that the United States Pony Clubs even has their own set of rules separate from MGAA and USMGA. Its sort of a big mess right now – so I think until thats all figured out there is no way we will be permitted in among the Olympic arenas.

But I do think that someday it will happen, hopefully I live to see it. The first modern Olympics to hold equestrian events were in 1900 in Paris, France. Only three disciplines were contested: Show jumping, high jump, and long jump. Several horse sports have made their appearance in the Olympics since those beginnings. You can see a small photographic history of Equestrian Olympics here. So there is hope!

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com

 

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Can’t use the Accelerator if the Brakes are Cut

Blitz and my mom warm up

On Sunday Boomerang and Blitz traveled 2 1/2 hours to the site of the United States Equestrian Team training facility, Hamilton Farm, in Gladstone, NJ. It was a long journey (with us up at 4am) but it was well worth the trip for the hour of riding we did due to what we accomplished alone. We were to compete against two other teams in the pairs division – teams with top riders and ponies much more advanced than our boys. My mom and I saw this as another step in their training – to play against better/faster horses…and for the boys to keep their cool.

See in mounted games many of the horses feed off eachother. They stand at the start in a line waiting for the flag to drop, one horse jigs and gets excited, the next starts to rear, and before you know it the whole line is dancing around with adrenaline. Adrenaline – its the curse for all of us, how do you control a 1,000lb animal that can’t control its own emotions? Trick question – because you can’t! But you can teach your horse how to control these emotions – inturn making your horse controllable to you.

As the other horses reared and danced Boomer and Blitz stood like statues waiting for their cue from us to take off. And take off they did…well Boomer did atleast, Blitz’s idea of taking off is a few speeds slower – but thats fine, because thats the way my mom likes it. I decided to use this fairly low key competition to ask Boomer for a little bit of speed. Despite the overnight rainfall I felt the footing would be ok so I used the opportunity to test out his wheels. And wheels he has. We aren’t too far off the speed I want out of him, but I definitely don’t want to ask for it all yet.

I strongly believe that the “meltdowns” of many a games ponies are due to the fact that the riders push them too much too fast. As a rider in an extreme speed discipline its hard to not want to go fast all the time. Once you feel that rush its in your blood and its hard not to want to feel that all the time. But for a young/green horse going fast is the last thing you want to do. In training, ponies should be working on spins, stops and most of all control. You can’t step on the accelerator if your brake lines are cut!

So when I asked Boomer for a little more speed I only did so because I was comfortable in knowing that I for one had a really good stop on him. I say whoa and he slams on those breaks (and of course looks for his reward haha). I also knew that he had his adrenaline under control. Our months of racing up hills than asking him to stop and stand after a flat out gallop have really helped to teach him to control his emotions.

So speeding away we went. I was so proud when several times we came neck and neck with another rider and thanks to Boomer’s speed we actually crossed the finish line first! And what I didn’t expect out of Boomer’s speed was that he actually transferred it over to my vaulting. If you have been following along in my posts, you remember that we’ve been working on leading (and not biting) while under saddle. All in the hopes that Boomer will match my speed when I’m ready to vault on. So in the past several weeks we’ve completely stopped working on vaulting and focused only on the leading part. I expected Boomer to be somewhat respectful while leading, but I still thought he’d revert back and stand still while I vaulted. I definitely was surprised when I placed my hands on his neck (in my typical vaulting position) and he proceeded to take off in a controlled canter. Wow this is exactly what I wanted (I really made sure to make a fuss and click and reward him)…however since I didn’t anticipate this my vaulting was a tad delayed. Sadly I’m a little rusty on my speed skills since we’ve spent the past year doing things slowly. So when I vaulted I kept ending up behind the saddle – or missing alltogether. Thankfully Boomer didn’t buck me off and I was able to claw my way into the saddle as he galloped towards home.

All this made me realize in what bad shape I’m in. I’ve been focusing so much on Boomer’s progress I forgot to keep myself up to par. Looks like I’ll be spending the winter doing pushups again!

Anyway to wrap up the day. We placed 3rd – but respectfully points wise. And although we didn’t take home the blue ribbon, we were both extremely pleased with the boy’s progress and thats all that really matters. Riding to us is about personal goals. Winning is nice, but if you can’t be happy with what you have done/accomplished than none of it really matters. Each day the Trick Ponies learn something new, and for that we are proud. We are thankful that we have been able to create a partnership and a language with our horses – and it makes riding and competing that much more enjoyable for everyone involved!

-KD
http://www.ponypaintings.com

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Bridge to the Future

Blitz on the bridge with my mom

Just had to share a few photos of Blitz today. A few days ago Blitz mastered the “Bridge”. Its just a simple walking bridge that by dad had built for the horses and for part of our skillathon. Blitz has always been a bit cautious when it comes to strange objects – as most horses would be. But in the last few weeks he’s really changed. I think he’s finally made a connection with my mom (who now owns and rides him). They have been working together since I sold Blitz to my mom in September 2008.

In the past year Blitz has taken to our clicker training method tremendously. From the very beginning I knew he was a food oriented horse (thats part of the reason I bought him). In fact, Blitz loves food so much that I think it helps his ability to learn skills faster.

In the beginning we struggled with keeping him from mugging us for food, as well as warding off his aggressive attitude in an effort to get his reward. We spent a long time working on keeping his ears forward when we work with him, and teaching him that grabbing for food would not get him anything. He has improved with this greatly, but he still tends to get a little aggressive when other horses get too close to “his” food. Funny because he’s not the “head horse”. Minnow is. And what is odd about that is that Minnow is the LEAST aggressive when it comes to the food – he would patiently wait his turn for a treat no matter how long I make him wait. I really don’t know how Minnow ended up as the boss pony. Before Blitz and Boomer he was always the lowest horse in the herd. But somehow when the two youngsters came along he took on the role of leader – a nice leader. I never see him kick or bite – and I’m really not sure how he bosses the other two around – he just does.

Anyway so back to the bridge. It took Blitz 2 days to get up enough courage to walk on the bridge. 2 days is a tremendous achievement for my mom too, because she has struggled with being patient with Blitz. My mom is a recently converted clicker trainer. I’ve been using the clicker since 2005 but my mom was always just happy to watch me work with the ponies and my clicker system. It wasn’t until 6 months ago that I really convinced her that it was the right tool for working with Blitz. See she hasn’t really had a horse of her own for several years. The last horse she had was her home-bred Throughbred Cross who passed away in 2002. Since then she just rode my sister and mine’s hand me down horses or exercised ours while we were in school – no real “training” involved. So taking the leap into owning a horse again was a big change for my mom.

I watched as she struggled to work with Blitz in her traditional methods. I knew from the beginning it wasn’t the path for Blitz. So I would work with clicker training Blitz on the ground, and occasionally I would ride him. Finally one day after my mom was getting frustrated with Blitz’s desire to jig home after our cross country runs I convinced her to try the clicker on him. After we galloped the horses up a big hill I told her to ask Blitz to stand. When he stopped moving his feet I had her click and reward him. Instantly Blitz relaxed and became a completely different horse. Thats all it took to convince my mom that clicker training was something special – I thought it was cute that she told everyone she talked to that this clicker made her jigging horse walk quietly home. I think it was her aha moment.

So to see my mom patiently take her time and allow Blitz to choose when he was ready for the bridge was really neat. My mom is not one to take her time and wait for the horse (and she will admit this)- this is partially due to the way she was trained to ride. She grew up through the old school pony club teachings (as did I but I chose to take it with a grain of salt) and she spend much of her youth galloping race horses. Racetracks especially have a go go go mentality – which my mom developed as well. Makes me proud to see that she is finally breaking free from this, and I love seeing her being able to take her time now and enjoy learning with Blitz.

I can’t wait to see what the future brings for both of them. I knew Blitz was a special pony from the beginning – thats why I brought him home.

-Kd
http://www.ponypaintings.com

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All About Mounted Games

Kyley and Chincoteague Minnow

At the suggestion of a reader (thanks!) I’ve decided to make a page on the blog all about Mounted Games! Mounted Games has been my equestrian sport of choice since I was 14 years old (11 years!!). Although I have a deep passion for Dressage among other disciplines, Mounted Games will always be my true love.

But it came to my attention that most people don’t know what Mounted Games is – I didn’t either 11 years ago. So in order to make all my posts about mounted games here on out easier to follow please check out the new Page on Mounted Games. Be sure to leave comments and suggestions….because it honestly is a hard to explain sport if you have never seen it!

-KD
www.ponypaintings.com

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Accepting Boarders

Iron Horse Farm

Iron Horse Farm, where the Trick Ponies of Chincoteague live and site of my family’s new horse farm, is now accepting full boarders!

Our Facility

8  12’x12’ matted stalls with dutch doors
1  12’ x 16’ matted foaling stall
4  pastures with 2 bay sheds
1 small paddock with screenings
Hot/Cold Water Wash Stall
Tackroom with boarder lockers (lockers to be constructed soon)
Bathroom
150’ x 290’ riding ring with screenings and lights (footing and lights to be added soon)
Access to stadium jumps
Access to miles of trails including the Laurels

For more information please visit our website!

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Mounted Games in the News

Recently some of my riding companions/friends were featured on the news for our sport of choice, Mounted Games. I think its great that our sport is making strides to get Mounted Games noticed by the world – we all have high hopes of someday having Mounted Games added to the list of equestrian sports in the Olympics. What an accomplishment that would be! Anyway enjoy the videos! WATCH HERE

-KD
http://www.ponypaintings.com

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How falling off taught me to ride – grand prix style

Yesterday after work I headed out to the Devon Horse Show to watch the Grand Prix Jumping. I admit I live about 15 minutes from the show grounds – but I haven’t actually been to Devon in several years. I went a few days ago as well to watch several riders from my local Pony Club compete in jumper classes.

Now the Grand Prix Jumping is something I find to be utterly amazing. We all know (whether we care to admit or not) that the real crowd draw is the crashes. Secretly everyone watching is hoping to see a horse and rider crash through a fence or a horse throw its mount. As morbid as that sounds thats why watching the Grand Prix Jumping is so popular. You hold your breath as horse and rider jump fences at heights you wouldn’t dream of yourself, all the while in the back of your mind wondering when the first “incident” will happen. We’re all in it for the shock value.

My little sister jumping our childhood pony, Oopsie Daisy

As a youth I developed a distaste for jumping – mostly because I owned a stubborn little pony named Oopsie Daisy (makes you wonder where his name came from) who clearly disliked to jump. With each year that passed he hated jumping even more. I crashed and burned more times than I can count. I think I was the only rider jumping an 18″ hunter course that ever knocked down all the fences with their own body. Pretty pathetic. But despite all of my falls I think those tumbles made me a better rider.

When I was about 13 years old I decided to join my local Pony Club. I was dreading the initial rating because I hated to jump – and all riders were required to do a stadium course as well as a cross country course. I was set to take my D-2 rating with a group of other riders – that lets face it – had point and shoot ponies that would jump anything. I on the other hand had a ride him with everything you got – hold on for dear life and close your eyes pony. I successfully made it through most of the fences without a fall – but had pretty much a refusal at every fence – some that I had no luck getting Oopsie over at all. As I waited for my pass or fail results the instructor doing the testing approached me. She explained to me that even though I had a pony that clearly hated jumping and I struggled to get over the courses, I was the only rider in the group that could actually ride. My difficult pony had taught me how to have a strong seat and leg, and most importantly how to overcome challenges (we all know that image of the kid getting dumped and bursting into tears immediately). She told me that I not only passed my rating but that I was receiving a higher rating of a D-3.

Oopsie went through the years of Pony Club with my little sister and I – he even passed both of us up to our C-1 ratings (barely). Oopsie passed away last summer unexpectedly. Over his 30 years of life he accomplished so much.

I give Oopsie a big hug after competition

He was an eventer, a dressage pony, a show pony, a lesson pony, a pony club mount, and in his later years a mounted games pony. He taught my sister and I how to ride. And he introduced both of us to our passion in playing mounted games. Oopsie took both of us to a combined total of 5 USPC Championships in mounted games. He excelled In the Junior, Senior and Advanced level. In his later years he even entered into the fossil division with our mom. Oopsie was just a once in a lifetime pony. And he will always be missed.

Nitro successfully clears a fence during my C-2 Rating

I later moved on to my 16.3 hand Dressage horse, Nitro, who seemed to enjoy stadium jumping but when it came to cross country fences became emotional and nervous. He eventually passed me through to my C-2 rating but with a very huge effort. He dumped me about 10 times at a ditch jump and panicked over the tiniest step down fence during schooling. But when I cleared the last big log as Nitro hopped from side to side trying to evade it during my rating the tester yelled out to the group “now that is how you ride a horse through a course”.

Minnow was the pony that followed Nitro and at this point in my life I was winding down my enthusasium for ratings (and jumping for that matter). So I tooled around with teaching Minnow to jump (which he had no prior knowledge of before) but he too would rather dart around the fence than clear it. And honestly Minnow had so many other issues to overcome that my jumping him sort of took a back seat – although I did successfully take him cross country schooling once.

Now if you are noticing a pattern here…I think you are right….I have never owned that “made horse”, the one that will do everything without so much as blinking an eye. But through all these years, and all these horses, I think I gained knowledge in riding and training horses that most young adults don’t have. I wouldn’t trade my crashes for anything – or my horses. Each one of them has had something valuable to teach me and with each new horse that enters my life I am surprised at how much more I can learn.

I am now onto my 5th horse (I didn’t mention my very first pony, Oreo Cookie, because at 5 I have fogged memories of her), Boomerang, and I think I can honestly say he is the only horse I have ever had that does not come with “emmotional baggage”. He’s got a long way to go in his training but his very willing attitude is something I am very not accustomed to. And Boomer is the only pony I have ever owned that truely loves to jump, he clears an 18″ log at a height of 4′. Now I don’t think Grand Prix Jumping is in our future, but I’m looking forward to seeing just how much this pony loves to jump. Perhaps he will be the pony to renew my interest in jumping again, but if spills happen along the way I know that this will only further my riding ability.

Here’s to the high jumpers of the world! It takes nerves of steel and a horse to get you there!

-KD
http://www.ponypaintings.com

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Polocrosse

I’m so excited that I have another long 3-day weekend (I decided to close my shop saturday through monday for memorial day weekend) to play with my ponies. Who knows – maybe I’ll be really bad and sneak out early today. 🙂

On Sunday I am trying to plan a Polocrosse Scrimmage for the local Pony Club that I coach. I don’t really talk about Polocrosse much because I’m not as active in the sport as I once was. My sister and I were actually very competitive in the Intermediate Pony Division a few years back – earning rights to compete at the National Level, as well as my sister’s horse winning best horse at several tournaments. For those of you that don’t know – Polocrosse is:

A team sport that is played all over the world. It is a combination of polo and lacrosse. It is played outside, on a field (the pitch), on horseback. Each rider uses a cane stick to which is attached a racquet head with a loose, thread net, in which the ball is carried. The ball is made of sponge rubber and is approximately 4 inches across. The objective is to score goals by throwing the ball between your goal posts.

 

Minnow playing Polox

I used to compete with Chincoteague Minnow in the #1 position – which is essentially the scorer, and my sister played as the #3 which is the defender. We then would have a #2 player which acted as a mid-fielder. Most of the time we played under the team name The Flying Cadets. Minnow unfortunately was not extremely fond of Polocrosse. I think because he is so short he didn’t like having to get close to all the other horses that towered over him. Frequently he tried to run off of the field with me – and he actually succeeded once, dumping me to the ground near the sidelines. I ended up bracing my fall with my left arm – which resulted in several weeks of physical therapy and an elbow that still isn’t quite right. But despite Minnow’s protests to Polocrosse, he was actually a very good #1 because he was fast (even with his shrimpy legs) and he could spin rather quickly to get away from the defenders.

 

I am hoping to bring Boomer and Blitz along so that they can both play Polocrosse in the future. Both ponies have been exposed to the rackets and seem to do quite well, and hopefully sunday I will referee off of Boomer. We’d have an all family team then – me, my mom and my sister – The Flying Cadets shall return again! 🙂

-KD
http://www.ponypaintings.com

For more information on Polocrosse please visit these websites:
American Polocrosse Association
Bucks County Polocrosse

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