ePortfolio

Intro Essay

30 Day Challenge 

As a young horse rider I have gone through a lot of challenges and learned a lot of things over the years, from learning how to ride horses at age 7 to riding Bulls at age 19. I absolutely love training horses, and teaching them something completely new. Yes sometimes it’s very hard but the trick is, is to never give up on them and teaching them that they can trust you with whatever it is you are doing. Getting a horse to do everything you want them to in 30 days? Sure! That can be done, but then again it all depends on the horse, some will cooperate very well with training and others will test you. 

I got my horse Flash on my 14th birthday, she was on her way to the killer before I bought her. She kicked and bucked and was so spirited, that I just fell in love with her the second I saw her. I have owned her for 6 years now, I have taught her everything on my own she knows dressage, trick riding, cow sorting, barrels, cutting, spinning, leg pressure, she is also amazing at ground work. Yes I baby her and I let her do whatever she wants but when its time to work her head is set and she's ready to do whatever I ask of her. Flash and I have a very strong bond we are both very hard headed, but we manage to make it work.  

I chose this 30 day challenge not just for the essay but to also see if I can train a 2 year old horse in 30 days. When I will finish training this horse I hope that the owner will be happy with the outcome. So then I can teach the owner of this horse on how to control her and what she needs to do to gain respect from her horse. I would also like to teach her how to not be scared and how to take control when her 2 year old horse gets out of hand. 

This 2 year old horse is the baby of the mom that I trained and am still working with her to this day her name is Jazzy she is 11 years old. She is a very smart horse but can be so stubborn at times, I am still working with her on trust and endurance. She is starting to run when I want her to but sometimes she just doesn’t want to. So I push her until she does and when she runs I stop her after a lap and pet her to let her know that’s what I want from her. Jazzy is not very tall, probably about 14.2 hands tall but I'm working with her on barrels. She is quick when she wants to be, so that’s why I'm trying to get her to open up more on her running. Jazzy's baby Misty will probably be the same height as Jazzy but she is also a quick and a very smart horse. 

My goal for the next 30 days is to teach the horse (Misty) ground work, trust, and respect. If she learns all of that before the 30 days are up then I will saddle her and try to ride her. I won’t be able to run her or jump her when I do ride because she is almost 3 and her knees haven’t locked yet. Misty is a very pushy horse. She loves to pull you all directions especially wherever she wants to go. I’ve been working with her on all of her manners, she learns very well, but on the next day she acts like she has never done anything that I have taught her to do. It’s a slow progress but I’m sure she will get where I want her to be in a few days. Misty is not very tall but she has a lot of spunk and curiosity, I have a feeling that I’ll be able to at least put a saddle on her back before the 30 days are over.  

My 30 day Blog

My Digital Story 

                                                               Artist Statement

While I was creating my digital story I focused more on how can I make this story exciting and powerful? As I added pictures, music, and affects my video I started to get butterflies in my stomach. It was time to record, after the second time I got frustrated especially after I read more than half of my paper and then boom! I mess up on a word or I just freeze because I lost my place. It got frustrating more and more after the twentieth time I recorded, I was about to pull my hair out! I stopped recording and started to put a couple of my videos in from bull riding practice. The music was upbeat it went good with what I was talking about and doing, I went with the music even though I wanted something more intense. After I put my videos in and everything looked good and in order I went back to recording. I took a couple big deep breaths and pushed record. I was reading my whole story from beginning to end with an exciting tone; I laughed a little and had a very happy and exciting voice. As I got to the end I didn’t want to mess up so I kind of slowed down a little bit, after I said my last word I pushed stop I was so happy to be done. I watched the video, tuned a little bit of stuff moved a couple pictures to the right places and there I was sitting looking at my video. I started realizing that it was so much better without me talking because all my pictures and videos said a story that I didn’t even need to explain, when I was talking the video lost its intensity and excitement. As I watched my audiences watch the video I saw their eyes glued to the screen, that’s exactly what I wanted to happen, when the video ended they were so happy and impressed with what I do for my life style. Seeing my audience excited made me so happy that words can’t even explain.

                                                                       Reflection
As I sat here in my living room, going through my Intro essay, Blog, and digital story I was looking for something to tweak and fix. I will say that it is nerve-racking putting together my ePortfolio, because it’s a big project. I went through my intro essay and read it a few times but I liked it and personally I couldn’t find anything to add to it. As I looked at my Blog, I saw some changes that I needed to make. I remembered that I needed to not make it so much of a journal/diary. So I revised it to make it a little more about me and then I talked a little bit more about Misty the horse I worked with for the very first entry. I also made it more of a hook, instead of automatically starting to talk about how I worked with Misty and how she did. 

This 30 day project was absolutely amazing! It was definitely challenging but to the point where I can still tolerate it. I have never created a blog before, so when I started working on mine I said to myself wow it’s not going to be as good as everyone else’s but at the end I managed to pull it off. I was very worried about my Digital story video because I have never even heard of this before I was so scared of the outcome. I wanted to pull my hair out while working on it, but when it all came together I was so relieved and excited to show it to the class with a little bit of nerves playing a role as well. Even right now I am nervous about this eportfolio, because this means it’s the end of it all for this semester this is the biggest project of them all. I am very proud of myself for pushing and making myself get through this semester even when it got hard and when it was easy. 

Well my 30 days has officially ended, I have accomplished everything that I wanted to except for actually riding Misty. But that’s ok just because 30 days has ended for my blog doesn’t mean it will end for me, I will be working with Misty until she is ride able. I can’t tell you enough on how much I love working with horses, they are just so much better then working with people. I will not stop training horses; I just hope that soon enough I will be getting paid for training them.  Today I got Misty out, I lunged her got her to calm down and put the saddle on her back again just to see what she would do. Misty just doesn’t care for it that much, when I tighten her cinch she just looks at me like “what are you doing”? haha Misty is so funny. I decided to lunge her with the saddle and oh boy! She started rearing and jumping and kicking. Now that is where my next journey takes me, I will be working with her on breaking that habit and hopefully she will get over it very soon.

Learning a little bit more about training a 2 year old horse But with someone else telling a story
Without Insperation and motivation you wont get anywhere in life.
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About Me

As a young horse rider I have gone through a lot of challenges and learned a lot of things over the years, from learning how to ride horses at age 7 to riding Bulls at age 19. I have learned to jump, trick ride, cow sort, dressage, vault, barrel race, Bull ride and more! I absolutely love training horses, and teaching them something completely new. Yes sometimes it’s very hard but the trick is, is to never give up on them and teaching them that they can trust you with whatever it is you are doing. Getting a horse to do everything you want them to in 30 days? Sure! That can be done, but then again it all depends on the horse some will cooperate very well with training and others will test you.

There are so many horse trainers around the world, of course there are good and not so good ones. Some trainers like to take their time with a horse teach it trust instead of just throwing a saddle of in and riding from day 3. Personally I am somewhere in between, I like to take my time with a horse but at the same time teach it everything but also very thoroughly in a good amount of time, which would roughly be 2 to 3 months. When I finished training a horse the hardest part is to teach the horse’s owner on how to handle their horse from that point on. Yes the horse will listen to me and it will do everything I ask but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people come up to me and say well my horse isn’t doing this and my horse isn’t doing that. And I tell them “well it does everything with me”.  But in all reality there are strong  people and there are people that just don’t have it in them to train any horses. Really their isn’t much to it, all the trainer has to do is train the horse and then teach the owner on how to work with the horse and how to get the horse to do what you want.

Horse Training in the saddle  This video will help with teaching your horse something especially on bolting, or even if you're just curious on how horse training under saddle works.

 

Every horse is different, by color, breed, height, personalities etc... This makes training different for every horse. You can train a horse to do almost anything if you put your mind to it. Some people have one horse for everything they do like cow sorting, branding, jumping, trick riding, dressage, and rodeos. But then there’s people who have a different horse for every event, that part just comes from being too rich (hahahaha). My horses name is Flash, and she does absolutely everything because that’s what I taught her to do. In all reality if you do more with your horse and let it experience everything instead of just doing the same thing over and over again than it will be a better horse. That is what I am trying to teach Misty, I want her to be able to do everything. Misty doesn’t have to be good at it but I would love for her to at least be able to do it. Misty has come a long way, she will be 3 on May 14, 2016 and she is just little I really don’t think she will be a tall horse. So sadly nobody too big could ride her, but that’s ok she will be good at something. Anyway I put a saddle on her back just to see how she would do, and she did absolutely great! I am so happy with how fast she is learning everything. I can’t wait to until I can actually get on her and ride and teach her everything under saddle.

Horse under saddle for the first time

I dont know how to explain it but I always had a deep connection with horses. I can feel them I know their reaction before they even do it, I know how they are feeling and I know what they are capable of before they do. Today was the first day of training I got Misty to Lunge and I let her know that rearing, kicking, and running me over is not okay. Yesterday I got her out and fed her then I put her out to let her know that every time I do get her out it wont always be work work work. Anyway, today I got her out as usual I gave her some grain and brushed her off. I took her into the arena lunged her again she did a little better after I got her going she still kicked and reared and definitely tried to run me over. But I did the same thing I spanked her until she stopped kicking and rearing. when I said "Ho" and puled her face towered me she didn't stop because she didn't know What I wanted form her so I said "Ho" again and pulled her face in towered me even harder. That  time she stopped in a dime, looked at me and licked her lips, when a horse licks its lips or puts its head down towered the ground that it a great sign that means she is paying attention and she understands what i'm doing. I was super happy because that was the first time I saw that she was calm and that she understood what I want from her, even if she still acted like a mare.

Lunging

This is a video of Clinton lunging a pushy horse by Clinton Anderson

Misty's First Training

Well I got Misty out of the pony pasture no problem, she is so sweet and has such a great personality. Misty gets super excited if we go anywhere at all, she tries to run ahead of me and stops and then tries to run me over. All I can say is good thing shes still small, or she really could take me down. So I made her circle all the way to her trailer where I grain her, She definitely didn't like me working her and moving her feet all the way to the trailer but she did it with her ears pined down all the way there. Misty was very calm when she was eating so I decided to mess around with her by touching all her legs walking behind her touching her neck and her back. After she was done eating I took her into the arena I decided to lunge her she didn't know what to do so I slowly made her circle and after about 30 minutes she figured out what to do. Misty still tried to rear, kick me, and run me over, but every time she did I would take a whip and hit her in the butt with it. Its almost like a spank, I cant hit her to hard or else she will think i'm going hurt her the whole time and then I wont be able to catch her in the pony pasture.

Lunging
Here is a video that will show you a little of the basics on how to teach your horse how to lunge by a guy that you might already know Clinton Anderson.

How it all started

Misty is a 2 year old bay mare, she stands 14.2 hands and is a firecracker. Misty is a baby of one of the other horses i'm training her name is Jazzy and she's 11 years old. Misty and Jazzy are so much a like, from their attitude to their walk. When I saw Misty for the first time I noticed that she doesn't listen to her owner, so I decided to help them out with Misty as well. What I saw was when Misty's owner would lunge or even just walk somewhere with her then misty would try to rear or run her over. That helped a lot, because as I was watching I looked for what I needed to do and how to fix the problem. Misty wasn't hard to catch out in the pasture, she stays with the ponies because shes still not big enough to go out with the big horses. Misty needs to learn ground work and that she needs to stay out of my personal bubble. From there I will teach her how to back up and build trust. Just like you would do with any horse, trust is the key with any training.If everything goes well I hope I can put the saddle on Misty and maybe even ride her for the first time.