Hunting For Arrows

    I'm a big fan of cross training no matter what discipline the horse I am working with is intended for. I find it incredibly beneficial to teach them different skills and disciplines and to expose them to new things. I did everything under the sun with the little mare I had before Joe. I bought her to show Western Pleasure, and in the 17 years I had her with her we barrel raced, sorted cows, did cowboy mounted shooting, countless parades, trail class, western riding, hunt seat, and spent 5 years on a rodeo grand entry team. I was once told that by doing that I was a "jack of all trades but a master of none". What I ended up with was a very confident all-around horse that has gone on to make a great kid’s horse. Joe was bred for Western Pleasure, turns out he's a kick ass archery horse and confident trail horse who loves to work cows and go for gallops at the ocean. I'm always looking for new things to engage his brain and keep him from shutting down, which h...

  I hauled my targets and archery equipment out to the barn on Sunday to get some practice time in on Joe. Since I had the targets set and had my bow and arrows handy, I decided to introduce Holly to them. Holly continues to improve each day I work with her. She had two bad days in a row where everything seemed to set her off. I could barely get her blanket off while she was in the cross ties while she snorted and pawed.   Even on those two days, she worked well and was focused on the lunge line. It seemed that something back in the barn had set her off, she kept looking at the entrance to the barn where her stall is and would react anytime someone would walk through that space. There have been reports of a cougar sighting in the area, but I have a hard time believing she would be the only horse reacting if it had cruised through the barn. None of the other horses were acting like her. On the second day of Holly’s panic attacks someone let me know they had been giving her gr...

        I started working with one of my barn owners horses during the Christmas break. The barn owner has 7 retired AQHA show horses that range between 18 and 27 years old. They get turned out in large pastures when the weather is good, but this time of year they spend their days in stalls with attached paddocks. Holly, one of the youngest at 18 was moved into stall with no paddock when a few new boarders moved in. With the weather changing to mostly rain in the past few weeks, she wasn’t getting turned out on a regular basis. I had handled Holly a few times over the past year; I brushed her out in the spring, gave her a bath or two over the summer and gave her another beauty session in October when winter blankets went on. I always found her easy to work with, she is a rock star in the cross ties for grooming and bathing but seemed a little weird when I would hand graze her. Holly would be happily eating grass and then out of nowhere would look up at me with wide...