Horsekids with reins

The horsekids made a new progressive step. Learning to use reins. Interestingly, the one who asked, a boy, last year had no interest in EVER riding with reins.

There is no rush in learning to "ride" before you learn how to "be". Riding is a fairly small part of keeping a horse. There is the manure cleaning, fence and barn upkeep, feeding, hay stacking, health, brushing, hoof care, tack upkeep, if your horse doesn't live at home there is the travel to them and back. It is a labor of love. We love it, caring for them, watching the herd dynamics, listening to them talk to us as we move around the yard ( I am talking about the mental stuff), just being with them. Yes , we love the riding too. I want the kids to know all of it, to be sensitive, understanding, quiet, intuitive, to sit atop, to relax, to breath, to trust their instincts, to trust their voice from the horse. Only then will they be ready to communicate and ride "with" their horse.

I try not to focus on too many things at once. It will all come together in the end. It is not necessary to overwhelm them with too many things to think about at once. They can sit quietly and confidently now, they can communicate softly, they are ready to learn the reins. I use a rope halter with reins. The kids hold the reins while I lead the horse. They are still using a bareback pad, no saddle yet. I can instruct them and let them practice without worrying about being on their own. I let them do all the work and am only there if needed. They can feel their progress...I can see the smiles. They know the sounds the horses make when they are happy...all the horses made them.

How long will we do this? I don't know, until they are ready for the next step. That's what I do, no agenda really. We do what feels right in the moment. The horse and rider must be able to be ready together...a partnership.

Have I told you about the mounting? The kids climb onto the big wooden spools. They hold the lead line and ask (mentally) for their horse to allow them onto their back. When the horse is ready he/she walks over and sides up to the spool. They can all do it, beautiful to watch.

Finally, there is the itty bitty boy, he just turned two. He has been coming with his sister since he was 6 months old. He never liked the animals much. He rides now! Requesting his helmet as soon as he arrives. A big grin plastered on his face when on board his mount.

That other boy, I have never seen his grin so big as I did this day. Riding with reins.

Fun in the spring sun!

For the first time since last year we had a warm, sunny day for horsemanship.

The day starts early with Scout and I feeding the horses.

When the kids start showing up we have a surprise, caught in the barn over night.

Thos little guy ate ALL the lettuce that I had growing in the greenhouse! He had to go. We took him out to "the meadow" to let him go.

On the trail, heading out to "the meadow", we found this fox scat. It is located in the same area I found fox tracks over the winter. We inspected the scat and it looks like his last meal was a mouse!

Working hard cleaning up the paddock.

Horses come out and the brushing begins. Tonto has lot's of riders.

Satinka is doing so well. She doesn't like being separated from her little man Frodo. She was very calm all day and ignored Frodo's cries. Her rider was doing awesome. She knows her horse will always react to her feelings and emotions.

Little is always a good boy..unless he senses an insensitive rider. His partner has learned this and understands it well. They have become a great team.

Tonot's older riders help the little kids first and then each other. Tonto is such a good girl. So patient.

Tonto knows when she has the tiniest riders on board and is extra slow and careful.

The kids start out with quiet time with the horses, brushing and walking. They are communicating mentally with them, sharing feelings back and forth. They are working on their breathing and body language. They know they must be able to communicate everything from the ground that they want to on board their horse. Next they asked their horse `permission to get on. Their horses moved next to the mounting spools to get into position. This lets us know the horses want to ride, they are mentally and physically ready to ride. I lead them through the trails while they practice stretching exercises and work on communicating, subtily, with their seat and legs. They all did very well. They even worked on some trotting.

No one wanted to do much art today. The weather was too nice! Instead all the ride on toys came out and the races began.

They raced for over an hour.

Ten kids from 18 months - 14 years old. All playing beautifully together.

I love having a house where all the children love to gather and have fun together.

Jousting poles

Becoming a knight is something one of the kids is interested in. This works well for horsemanship and also gave us an idea for our next art project...jousting poles!

We happened to have some pvc water pipe lying around. I cut it into sections, sized to each childs size. This section is curved because the pipe was in a coil. But hay, it was free, so we just keep bending it and it will eventually straighten out. We cut the top of a milk jug and positioned it as a hand guard. Then taped it into place.

Next we wrapped the "business" end of the pole with a piece of pipe insulation.

A piece of insulation, about 1 inch long, was left extended past the pipe. It was folded over the end and taped with electrical tape to make a soft point. You can get any color electrical tape you like at the hardware store. The bigger stores may have better color selection. We happened to have green already so that is what we used.

The whole thing was wrapped in the electrical tape, including the hand guard.

You could use multiple colors for a more dramatic pole.

Then the knights mounted up!!

Spring chores

The ground was to frozen to pick up the paddock so we cleared the trails today.

Using your pony makes the chore extra fun!

When everyone was getting cold we moved into the art studio.

The kids are all at different stages in making and painting their paper mache horses.

I set Scout up with this horse, came back, and this is what she had done...all by herself. It even has eyes!

A finished pony

good times

whats better then a boy whistling while he works!

Littlest horse kids

Only the littlest kids were here last week for horsemanship.

They had Tonto all to themselves.

Scout kept her steady

Silly horses

enjoying the sunshine

and the mud!

buddies scratching

little riders

little helpers

putting on their own puppet show

Life is good!

To icy for horses

The horse kids came today. It is so icy right now it is just not safe to take horses out. We did find plenty to do and the kids had lots of fun.

Hay is brought up to the far end of the paddock, away from the ice. We talked about how you measure a horse, in hands. A hand is 4". We had made "hands" out of cardboard and they started by measuring each other. Our first "horse" measured 12 hands plus 2", 12.2. How many inches are you? How many feet? Then they measured the horses and even Stennis, the dog.

It was pretty cold yesterday. Stennis trying to keep his little piggies warm!

With no snow on the barn/greenhouse roof and the wood stove had been going all morning, it was pretty toasty in the art studio. Stennis joined us for lunch.

We started an art project, paper mache horses. It was cold on the fingers dunking in the glue with bare fingers. But with hot cocoa cups and a little persistence they did a great job. We will continue them next week and you will see the pictures when they are finished.

The kids all gravitated back outside and found chickens, this one now named Amber Grace....

and sleds!

They played, explored, created, innovated and had fun for the next couple hours! Do you see the fourth rider?

Here's a closer look.

And where was Scout?

Inside, getting naked and applying a tattoo!

Happy Days