First Gymkhana!

Sunday, Feb 17 was Preacher's first gymkhana! He was ridden by our student Brandy (age 15). It was also Brandy's first gymkhana and the two did lovely together. We saw where they are at as a team - Brandy has only ridden Preacher twice prior to the gymkhana but had liked him more than the horse we had her riding previously so she "went for it"! We also got to make a "starting point" for Preacher so we can watch how he improves at subsequent gymkhanas.

The duo did 3 events. First was the classic barrel pattern. Unfortunately, they had a disqualification because Preacher turned too early at the second barrel.  Over the next month we will keep working with Preacher on his barrels and helping Brandy learn to keep her legs steady. Preacher is very responsive and turns when leg pressure is applied, so likely Brandy accidentally cued him to turn and he did it! Whoops!

The second event was called "cupid's arrow". Preacher did it in 15 seconds, which is admittedly fairly slow for that event. We hope to see him doing 11's and 12's in the future.

The third event was the regular washington poles. The pattern went flawless! Preacher isn't the quickest horse in the world, but we hope to see him speed up a  bit more in the future. He ran a 37, which put him 7th in the tough age group. We were so proud of Brandy and Preacher!

All in all, we were very proud. Preacher hauled like a champ, was calm the entire time at the park, willingly did the events (even though 2 of them were new to him!), and was overall a solid, safe horse. March 10th will be his next gymkhana, so we'll be sure to put up his times after that!

Stay tuned for pictures around the 24th of Feb to demonstrate "one month" of Preacher being here!

Update

Preacher is doing great! He has three students riding him now! Jennifer is an advanced-beginner adult, Abby is a beginner adult, and Brandy is an advanced-intermediate teenager.

We will update when he gets to his quota of 5 lessons, how he comes along, and also add photos/videos at his one month mark! That will then conclude his blog of training. Thus far, Preacher is now doing each of his gaits perfectly - walk, trot, canter, and learning to stop on whoa. He might even try a gymkhana this Sunday!

Preacher Begins Lessons

Preacher has been doing lovely! Saturday was his very first official lesson. His student was Jennifer, an adult rider who has been riding most of her life but hadn't ridden in the past two years. Jennifer and Preacher did great together and will continue partnering up for future lessons.

Preacher had a second lesson on Monday with Erin, one of our most advanced riders. They did very well and she feels he is very responsive and "honest".

We will continue to work with Preacher a bit to get him stopping completely on 'whoa', using himself a little better so his hind end is evenly muscled, and find students to ride him! Our goal is to have him being used 5 times a week. Stay tuned!

A real walking, trotting horse!

We are very proud of Preacher!

He has been doing very well for us. Samantha did some great work trying to find his brand, we figured out that Preacher came from Cornville/Page Springs - a ranch called DA Ranch or "Dancing Apache Ranch". We unfortunately couldn't find much on the ranch, but maybe one day we'll meet someone who knows more!

Preacher is now 100% walking and never even offers to jig. He is also trotting about 80% of the time, occasionally offering to jig or break into a canter. We are working on getting his rhythm at the trot, both as a slow jog and working trot. We noticed Preacher has an extreme amount of muscle on his right hip and nearly none on his left hip. We feel a couple things could be the cause of this... One could be that he appears to prefer his right lead and maybe cantered mostly on that side, causing overmuscling there. Another cause could be some arthritis in that leg, causing him to carry it slightly differently and giving it more muscling. The third possible cause would be a previous injury, in which he healed strangely and the muscling came from that. In either case, it isn't too much of a big deal because he is going sound, although a bit stiff. We will work on teaching him to reach under himself with his hind end and work both sides evenly to see if we can change the lopsidedness.

Here's a short clip of him cantering. I even look back at his hind end at one point to see how if it looks odd while cantering!


Today, Samantha rode Preacher for the first time in a few days and noticed quite a difference in him! She felt he was an easier ride than Cutter, one of our other lesson horses who is quite a jarring ride. This was somewhat a "first lesson" for Preacher. Here's the video:




We hope to use him next week for an official first lesson and see how he does with our intermediate level riders. We will continue working on his gaits, re-training his muscles, and getting Preacher to the level of being a solid lesson horse!

Day 3

In the past 3 days, Preacher has had 3 rides. He's gotten incredibly better each ride!

Today, he NEVER offered to do his little jiggy dance. He walked 100% calm and laid back, he trotted fairly well and had a reasonable rhythm too. His canter is improving as we work on his collection. He stops very well and just needs to learn to connect "whoa" with stopping.

I also rode him in the rain through our trail course on the property. Nothing phased him - even the 6 inch deep leaves and 6 inch deep running river! He hesitated at the black tarp, but willingly walked over it. It was great to see that he's also a solid trail horse. Here's a video of the leaves and water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmM8ro5K7Gw

Preacher is definitely a responsive, well-trained horse who just needs some "fine tuning". It seems like most horses these days need just that! Amazing what a little work can do for a horse. Preacher is getting cleaned up a bit already - Samantha put braids in his mane to train a wild patch to stay on the correct side of his neck and a blanket will come for him soon to help him lose some of that winter hair he grew up north.

We'll see how Preacher changes over the next week. We hope he further improves with his walking & trotting, starts picking up on 'whoa', and becomes a slightly smoother ride! In one week, we'll have Gabe ride Preacher again to tell us what feels different from the first ride that first day. If we're really fortunate, Preacher might even get used for an intermediate lesson!

Introducing!

 
Today we happily introduce Praying Knees Preacher, aka "Preacher". While Preacher was already named that when he came, he is suspected to be just a grade ranch horse (appears to be a rather well built Appendix!), we decided that "praying knees" should precede "preacher" due to the fact that the calcium deposits in his knees made owner Katie Magowan think, "it's from all the praying".

Preacher is a 20 year old, 16 hand bay gelding from northern Arizona. His previous owner trail rode with him and we were told his owner before that was a young girl who used him for 4D and parades. While browsing craigslist, Katie stumbled upon Preacher and thought he looked nearly identical to Desert (Mr. Desert Wine; thoroughbred gelding), one of her past horses that she adored. They were only asking $250 for him and they needed him gone quick. Katie saw one poor photo of him, a short 30 second clip of him jigging across a road and doing a rollback, and that was it. Never had she bought a horse sight unseen until now! She felt confident that if he wasn't "lesson horse quality", she could turn around and sell him easily.

This adorable gelding arrived like a belated Christmas present. Everyone was excited and discussing what he'd be like. When he got here, Samantha and Katie clipped his muzzle, jawline, ears, and bridle path quickly without any issues. We also brushed him up and took some 'before' photos.

Gabe had the honor of riding Preacher first. He noted that he's extremely bouncy in all gaits and unwilling to walk. Katie and Samantha both rode him and felt the same. Everyone believes he just needs a little "fine tuning" though! Preacher was very willing, honest, and responsive. The next 7-15 days Katie (and likely Samantha too!) will be working with Preacher to see if he can become a solid lesson horse.

Goals for Preacher are:
1. Learn "whoa"
2. Learn to collect up better
3. Learn to walk calmly
4. Learn rhythm for a trot
5. Learn a nicer slow trot that is bearable for beginner riders

Check back to see how he comes along!