New and Improved Steps

A new horse brings all kinds of different dimensions to birthday gifts. Here are my new and improved steps, actually a mounting block. Can't wait to try it out. Several new training books as gifts also, so Piper will be having class soon!

The Stare Down

I had Piper doing really well with her meal time routine. I think she wanted to see whether she really had to follow the rules or not this evening. I told her to back away from the feed room door and waved my glove at her. She only moved back about 5 inches and was standing there staring at me. I was staring back. Yes, we were like two kids. After a minute I went towards her, pointed to he stall, and said "Go" using a commanding voice. She turned and walked into her stall. I felt great that she was following my commands so well.

Now I have a new worry. We never used to find her in her stall when we walked down to the barn. Both my husband and I have gone down several times now and she has been in her stall. I came back to the house this evening and started thinking that maybe when I tell her to go into her stall she doesn't realize it's okay to come out again after I've put her feed and her hay in there. What do you think? I went from thinking she was so smart to thinking maybe she isn't so smart after all!

Wild Woman Cracks the Whip

Well, perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration. I was the wild woman and the whip was a hand towel, and I was only so bold and brave because I was carrying my red plastic wiffle ball bat. So what led up to me being so armed and dangerous? Piper, of course!

Piper came to us not really understanding a lot about a person's personal space. She would stand too close and move with not much regard to where a person was and thought nothing of pinning back her ears telling us to stay out of her space or that she didn’t like what we were doing. Most of that has already resolved. However, she was still a bit too eager at mealtime. Recently when I go down to feed her, as I open the door to the feed room, she is right at my back. On Saturday evening, she decided I should hurry along to she pushed her head at me, hitting me at the back of my head.

Okay, that was too dangerous. Sunday morning I showed up armed. I walked into the pasture swinging my white hand towel in her direction and threatening her and she looked at me as if to say, "Who is this crazy woman who showed up in my pasture?" Once in the feed room, I also had the wiffle ball bat and came towards her with that. (For all animal lovers - and we are animal lovers - I was not intending to hit her with any of this.) It took very little time for her to decide to simply walk to her stall and wait there until her food showed up. We are now several feedings later and she is staying out of my space at feeding time and typically once she sees what's going on, she will wait near or in her stall. Don't you love it when they learn something?

Hi-Ho, Piper

It was such a pretty day that my husband and I walked to the barn and worked Piper in the round pen. She did pretty well and I decided to ride for a little while and it's always a good day when my short little legs get me into the saddle! I can't say it was smooth and coordinated. She is still trying to figure out how I ride and vice versa.
The Hi-Ho, Piper title refers to the fact that when she was in the round pen, minus me thankfully, she reared a bit. I've never seen her do that before. Maybe she thought someone from Hollywood would cast her as a replacement for Silver in The Lone Ranger. (Okay, I remember that TV show and used to watch it.) Anyway, I hope from now on she decides to keep all four feet more towards the ground.
Yes, she had a bit of "attitude" today.
I need to bring my camera with me sometime soon and get more pictures. I know the posts without pictures are not so much fun to read. Piper says a talent agent will never find her if I don't post more pictures!

The Attack of the Umbrellas

I'll very likely be going back and forth with some of my "Piper tales." Not long after we got Piper, we had a morning when it was raining really hard. My husband and I walked down to the barn carrying our umbrellas. Piper saw us and her reaction was like what you would see from a cartoon character - she startled, her legs went out in all directions, her eyes got big, and she stared like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She  didn't move a muscle. Yes, to her it was like a spaceship had landed from Mars! Of course, by now my husband and I are laughing like you wouldn't believe. It's my guess she had never seen an umbrella before. She now tolerates umbrellas just fine so she is a quick study!

The other side of the story about rain is that I don't think she ever had a stall before. Our barn opens to the pasture so we leave her stall door open so she can go in and out as she pleases. There is also a large overhang on the barn roof so there are plenty of places to stay dry. Until recently, if it rained, she stayed out in the pasture and stood in the rain - even if it was pouring, cold, or the rain lasted all day. She would look so pitiful, all wet and cold. I kept thinking of the saying "too stupid to come in out of the rain." That didn't give me high hopes for her intelligence. Lately when it has rained, her coat is dry so I think she must have learned that going into her stall is a fine thing. I have to hand it to her through, she never goes to the bathroom in her stall - it's used only for eating - so it sure is nice not to have to be pushing the wheelbarrow around and cleaning the stall. Way to go, Piper!

Finally, Nice Weather!

Here's where Piper looks the most like an Appaloosa.

You couldn't see the blanket markings on Piper in the other pictures so I decided to add this one. Yes, she is starting to shed out some of her winter coat. It certainly feels odd to be taking a picture of your horse's back. Anyway, "back" to the present...

We've had lots of rain and colder weather lately (about 4 weeks worth) so we haven't been working Piper in the round pen for quite awhile. Yesterday was our first day of refreshing her on round pen work and it wasn't pretty; the weather was, but not her performance. Today I decided to try it with a saddle on her and it went so much better - whether that was because it was her second day in a row getting worked in there or because of the saddle, I don't know - but whatever works!

I will back up a bit and tell you how I got Piper. After my old mare died I was going to try to go horse-less which was really going to please my husband. However, I can't tell you how much I missed having a horse and decided we would take a year off from having horses; then I would begin to look for one in fall 2012. I had a major trip planned for late October so I didn't begin to look seriously until after that. It was very hard shopping for a horse. I had a pretty specific list and "quiet enough for me" and "short enough for me" were especially important. (It's amazing how many horses are over 15 hands.)

Piper has her issues and although she is five, she never got much training so it's much like working with a younger horse. She has progressed a lot as far as us handling her for grooming and for basic things when we work with her from on the ground. Her foot pops up as soon as you ask for it, she's always at the gate or comes immediately when she sees us, and she almost puts her halter on herself when you hold it out in front of her. All excellent behavior. I won't list the "not so excellent behaviors" but we are working on them. You'll probably read about some of them on my blog.

I often hear things along the lines of "You don't get the (blank) you want, you get the (blank) you need" and that may be the case with me and Piper. I really like her despite her shortfalls and she is coming along.

Here's Piper!






Piper is a 5 year old Appaloosa mare that I purchased early in 2013. She's a big change from my 33 year old mare that I had for 29 years. Unfortunately, my elderly mare died in January 2012. This blog will be about Piper and my experiences working with her - with me as the "senior citizen" owner and her as a much younger horse with her own special "attitude."

Piper and I hope you will stop back to visit us soon!