Good Day!
Today’s show is the second episode filmed here at my home place near Salida CO back in June. You’d think mid June would be nice summer weather but we froze our tails off—still frosting at night—and fought gale force winds for two of the three days of the shoot. Of course, the following week, it turned summer, but we scheduled the shoot as late as we could and still make the editing deadlines for the shows to air this month.
Leadership and authority are the subjects of today’s show, “Pony Power.” Starring Zeke and his naughty pony Frost, you’ll see an amazing transformation from an obnoxious, spoiled pony who walks all over Zeke, head buts him and drags him to the grass. Turns out the pony knows exactly how to be a perfect citizen, she’s only lacking a reason to do so.
I knew within seconds of taking hold of the pony that she knew how to act in the presence of authority. With only brief reminders of her manners, she morphed into a perfect angel. So the main goal would be to teach Zeke how to take charge—the pony knew how to act. Fortunately, that turned out to be easy for two reasons.
First, Zeke totally understood what I explained to him about authority and leadership in the horse herd and he was eager and coordinated enough to do exactly as I said. For a 10 y/o boy, he was incredible! Of course, anytime you give a young boy permission to “smack” an opponent, he’s happy to comply. After only one or two “spankings” from Zeke, Frost looked upon him with new eyes.
The second reason we had so much success with Zeke and his pony was that my dear friend, Twyla Walker, who trained with me for years was here to supervise the riders and horses through their practice sessions. With supervised practice, it insured that they practiced correctly and Twyla was able to continue the coaching so the rider’s understanding increased with their skill. I wish I could take Twyla with me to every shoot! It made a huge difference in all 5 episodes that we filmed here.
Speaking of shoots, it’s hard to believe that our first 09 episodes will be filmed in a few weeks. Yikes! We’ll be headed to Martha’s Vineyard Labor Day weekend for a shoot the following week.
BTW- I’ve finally got copies of my videos from the reined cowhorse show a couple weeks ago and with any luck at all, I’ll be able to figure out how to upload it to YouTube—so check back on that. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube account and you can get notices when we upload a new video.
Enjoy!
Julie
Julie,
ReplyDeleteI loved the episode today. I was interested to see Zeke's "before" shots since I only got to see the new and improved Frost. Wow! I think I'm going to have to get me a little yellow flag and have a discussion with my mother's horse about authority. :)
Shawntel
Hey Julie, Just wanted to let you and everyone else know that Frost continues to be a "good citizen". However, she always tests Zeke and he has reminder lessons on manners before he even tacks up. I think that it's the pony in her! Sometimes the mini reminder lessons are very short and sometimes she is a little stubborn about remembering. Zeke does remember and works really hard on the lessons you taught him. On another note, my horse Scarlett, the "moody mare" has continued to behave herself while riding with other horses. Since the show she has only had two occasions where she pinned her ears. I ride really aware of her body language so I can stop it before it starts. Thanks again for the opportunity for Zeke and I to be on the show.
ReplyDeleteI am loving the reruns!
Karen