UVM Believer

**Update: the link is now live. Feel free to visit Levi online at his new site, http://www.uvmbeliever.com/ .**

The new blog is set to go live tomorrow evening. The URL is http://www.uvmbeliever.com/ and you will be able to view it after it is published tomorrow. I am looking forward to continuing to share Levi's adventures on the new website.

There are many new updates. First, and most exciting, Levi's Frey Sprint cart finally arrived a couple of weeks ago! While I plan to share many images and much more information on the cart on his new website, this photo should give you some idea of how completely gorgeous and special it is, and I am extremely impressed with it so far. I've introduced Levi to the cart and worked him around it to get him used to its presence, but do not plan to hitch him until closer to his birthday in April. This will give us more time to sharpen up and help him make the transition from working on the ground to working under cart a little more easily. I will discuss that important plan in an upcoming post on the new blog.

Second, we have had many changes in Levi's environment at the boarding farm. The biggest change was the departure of our beloved former barn manager, Paige. She left some mighty big shoes to fill, but we boarders were all very fortunate to have a relatively seamless transition with the new manager. Both Paige and the new person have similar training styles and views on horsemanship and management, which is a plus for everyone. We will miss seeing Paige every day at the farm, but are also fortunate that she will return to working directly with us, as our new trainer! Paige's work with Levi was so impressive to me, and she managed to accomplish some tremendous progress with him in such a short time, that I decided we must work with her in the future. She is not a driver, but she has an extensive background in various styles of training and natural horsemanship in particular; she understands that there are unique training requirements for driving horses that do not always galvanize with this style, and is working with me to develop a more tailored training plan for Levi's needs and our goals. I am confident I can develop Levi as a driving horse while she helps us with other aspects of training that I am less experienced in. I'm very willing to investigate and incorporate new (to me) approaches and styles regardless of how different they are to us, if they are effective. The over all result is a much more polite, attentive, safe horse who understands how to handle himself with humans on the ground, who is becoming more self-reliant, and is also able to focus and perform under harness with greater confidence in himself. I am sure that her training will definitely help us navigate our first show season coming up this summer (that plan will be shared in another upcoming post on the new blog). I'm grateful for all of her help and support with my young horse, as our barn manager first and now as our trainer.

Finally, in my last post I mentioned that we had experienced some training setbacks. I think it is important to discuss these because not everything I experience with Levi is always positive, and it is essential to me to clarify how I have solved specific problems so that others can hopefully find some value in it. I hope my experiences, both positive and negative, that I've shared are of some use to those working with young horses. These most recent issues started about three weeks ago, when Levi began to reject bridling and sometimes even refused to be haltered, which are completely out of character for him. When he did this the first time, I was working with him as I usually do in the cross-ties, and had removed his halter to place his bridle. He threw his head and suddenly bolted forward, breaking both cross-ties, and wound up at the other end of the barn with me in tow as I was not about to let go of him. That space in the barn is just a storage area and the doors were closed with nowhere for him to go, fortunately, but the event had me a little rattled - I wondered if something I couldn't see or hear had set him off, and decided to put him in his stall to bridle him. When I attempted this again, he threw his head up and absolutely refused to take his bridle. I worked with him for about 20 minutes and he finally relented, but we did not have a very good session in the arena. The next day, he refused his bridle again, and I decided to halt what we were doing, and investigate the problem instead of trying force what would probably become a frustrating situation.

My initial thought whenever his behavior changes from its baseline is not that he is being defiant or naughty; generally, Levi does what I ask of him and refuses something only when he either cannot do it for some physical reason, or is afraid to do it, both of which are completely valid. This sentiment is in contrast to the commonly voiced assessment that he is being obstinate or defiant and is just blowing me off, and I shouldn't let him get away with it. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it usually seems to be flat out wrong, at least with this particular horse. As it turned out, I was correct in halting working in the bridle to investigate what was causing the issue, because after checking his mouth I discovered not one but several adult teeth were all erupting at once. Levi is just about four years old, so this is not unexpected, but I had not checked his teeth in several months and was surprised to see his third incisors and both bottom canine teeth had made their appearance, and all of them were sharp. The upper bars where the top canines would erupt also seemed tender, and I thought I could feel the bud of an emerging tooth on the right but not the left. His jaw, cheek and muzzles did not seem swollen, but understandably he was very reluctant to have his head or mouth touched and had been throwing his head a lot while being walked in a halter. The head-tossing, head shaking and rubbing, yawning, lip lifting and increased mouthiness, not to mention an overwhelmingly poor attitude, were all signs of teething-related pain, and could readily explain his resistance to bridling. If I had continued to work with him and force him to accept the bit during this time, assuming he was just being defiant and bad, and treated a temporary developmental issue as a behavioral problem, I would have swiftly destroyed any desire for compliance and the trust this young horse has in me.

After discovering this situation, I decided to give Levi a little break in training, which was substantiated by the sudden appearance of some dangerously cold weather. Instead, I hunkered down with my grouchy baby and his little herd of donkeys, and gave him lots of pampering and affection while considering what we could do instead of driving while his teeth did their thing. On warmer days, I worked an amended training plan involving a lot of walking and trotting in hand, groundwork for building confidence, some free work in the round pen without any pressure on his head, and work in a new cavesson with a wide leather noseband. This horse was first trained to drive in a simple noseband, and it was easier to return to that briefly with our new cavesson so he could still drive a little bit, while we waited for him to become more comfortable.

With training somewhat on hold, I also found my hands full in dealing with some new problems that emerged as a result of his equine companions. If you recall from a few posts ago, Levi was initially turned out with a large, beautiful spotted draft mare, Zoie. Both her owner and myself, along with Paige, really had hoped the two would warm up to one another, but Zoie refused to accept Levi, and Levi's attempts to get close to her were not taken well at all. The two horses wound up actually fighting and while Levi was not severely injured, the mare did manage to double-barrel him in the chest, leaving him a little bruised, and ripped some hide off of his girth and stomach. Unfortunately I was not present during this fight so I could not confirm anything except what was said secondhand; believe only half of what you see, and none of what you hear, as the saying goes, but we all knew that this situation could not be resolved except by separating the two horses entirely. I was relieved that neither horse was badly hurt; a solid kick from a horse as large as Zoie could have caused a career-ending injury for Levi. Making matters worse, there was literally no other paddock to put Levi as the ice had closed off a couple of spaces, so he was stashed in the round pen for turnout for a week while we sorted out a solution. Lack of his usual space and some probable heartbreak due to rejection took its toll on him for a little while, on top of his head hurting from his teeth and he was a nightmare to handle. Well, he still had his little donkeys at night, I thought, and that could be some comfort for him. As it turned out, Levi began to obsess about these donkeys to the point that if he was in his stall and they were out, he would scream for them and would refuse to eat unless they were next to him. This is quite out of character for Levi, who is usually not attached to horses and is generally calm on his own, but he had become so attached to these donkeys that it was reaching a point where he could injure himself if he did not have access to them.

Our new barn manager took one look at this new development with the donkeys and swiftly decided to remove him from his current living situation and put him into the second barn with other horses only, a solution I agreed with completely. By serendipity, one of the horses occupying its own paddock moved to another facility, and we were able to take advantage of that paddock for turnout. His new stall is much smaller than his setup with the donkeys but he can see and touch other horses and is surrounded by them in a cozy barn instead of the previously cavernous space, which helped him relax immediately. His new stall mates are two surly uncle types, Saint and Oliver, who are both lovely stern old gentlemen who have no ill will toward Levi but are also gentle and interactive with him. He still has an open stall front, where he can reach over and touch Ollie and groom with him if he wants to, and he can also see and touch Saint through his stall wall. During the day he is turned out by himself where he happily motors around eating up the shabby new grass. Almost overnight, I have my old horse back, and I think Levi is much happier in this new living and turnout arrangement. This was made possible by the swift responsiveness and active listening done by our new manager, for whom I am also very grateful.

Over the past week and a half, we have been easing back into driving with his bridle as his teething pain abated, and I hooked him to his tire to drag around the arena last week. He has been slowly improving by the day, and as of last week his mouth pain was gone and he has accepted his bit and bridle as though nothing ever happened. He has calmed down considerably since putting him in closer contact with other older male horses nearby during the nighttime, and on his own in his own space during the day. His place near the lower rung of the equine totem pole has been firmly re-established with benefits to all. Levi is not currently (and may never be) herd leader material and, while bless him for trying it, the world is better off if he spends his time listening and following instead. This whole situation illustrates how important it is to consider biological or developmental reasons for a horse's actions, and not jump to the conclusion that there is a behavioral or training problem, even though those reasons may manifest as acting out in work. It also illustrates how meeting the horse's basic needs - for safety, for companionship, for consistency in treatment, for freedom of movement, for fairness - are bottom-line requirements before any progress can really be expected in training. It is simply unfair to blame the horse for its reactions to these things over which it has no control. It is also unfair, and unproductive, to blame oneself and give up, or get frustrated and risk losing emotional control. I calmly investigated the problem, adjusted my expectations, sought advice and help from people who took me seriously and listened, evaluated all possible solutions, and ultimately changed several factors to help and support the horse, all with a positive resolution.

If you've read this far - congratulations, I wish I had a little prize to give you. This will be our final post on Facebook, and I will keep this page live but it will not be updated. For new posts, feel free to follow us at our new site, http://www.uvmbeliever.com/, which will go live tomorrow evening. Many thanks to everyone who has read, commented, and supported Levi's journey far, and I hope you will continue to follow our adventures in our new online space.

A little lunch hay before we go to work (in a blizzard 🥶). The new blog is ready but not yet live; I will try to finish the last few formatting issues this week and will post a link in my next update. Lots has happened since my last post but we’re still plugging away despite the challenges of cold weather, some small training setbacks and a few changes in our barn environment. I’ll share more very soon!

One special buckaroo packed his own lunch out to paddock this morning! I think this may be my favorite photo of Levi (this week, anyway!). Many thanks to Paige who always captures him on his best behavior!

Someday soon, instead of those hay nets, it will be me riding him back in from turnout to the barn at night in his nerdy little rope halter. I can hardly wait. Until then, we still have a long way to go, and to my eye he still looks so little that it's hard to believe he's almost four.

In my last post, I mentioned the importance of a good feeding regimen for keeping up energy levels in training. I will say something people are not going to like: three small flakes of hay and two quarts of grain per day are not sufficient to sustain the growth of an actively growing young horse in full training (5-6 days per week for at least 30 minutes) and still keep him sane with the energy to focus and work productively. If owners put the mental health of their horses above their dread of hay bellies, perhaps horses would stay healthier in all ways. I am not a vet, and this isn't medical advice, just my observations. Like the rest of the horses at this farm, Levi has access to hay nearly constantly; it's difficult to feed free-choice in a facility this large and with so many horses, but they are fed so frequently with slow feeder options that it is almost the case. The hay is good quality, first-cut timothy from Canada, fed up off the ground where it won't become filthy and trampled; the horses like it but it's not so delicious that they devour it immediately and spend all night searching for more (or eating their bedding). One of the major positive points to me, when I toured this farm before moving Levi here, was the fact that every single horse still had some hay left in their nets while out on paddock after daily turnout; moreover, these horses actually stopped eating/resting, turned toward me and began to walk over to say hello, even though I had no food for them. They were not so hungry that they couldn't live life, nor were they rushing to the gate with the hope I'd be bringing food to them. Each horse is at a healthy weight, for the most part, with a few individuals needing to shed some pounds, but not to the point I would consider them obese. In addition to the hay, Levi also gets a serving of timothy pellets with his vitamins in the morning and night. No more haystretcher - real hay will do, thank you very much.

When Levi first arrived, it was like he thought he'd died and gone to heaven - he dove right into the hay situation and I was a little worried he'd get fat. After about a week of eating all he wanted, including the little remaining grass, he slowly realized the food was not going anywhere and would always be available to him, and he began to regulate his eating. Now, there is extra hay left in his feeders every morning, and he is still eating well. Keeping him mostly naked, unless it is below 30 degrees out, also helps him burn extra calories to stay warm. With the increase in feed in the form of 99% forage, fed in small quantities often, came increased energy and a lot of more interest in movement; in fact, he's nearly running to the arena with a swift, lengthy walk that would make any dressage driver jealous. Free-choice feeding of horses not in work and who are already at risk of metabolic issues may not be as desirable, and the vet is the best resource to help make that decision, but to those who believe horses will become obese and lazy if they are given enough access to good hay, I say, "FAT HORSES WHERE??"

This photo of Levi was taken this morning. He is becoming more fit through training and looks very healthy and happy to me. It is very funny to me that I have been told 'he's so narrow and thin!' and 'your horse is getting too fat' by different people in the span of a single week. Everyone has an opinion about your horse and they are going to inform you, whether you like it or not, with a good dose of unwanted advice and possibly a few excoriations. The proof is in the training results, and the mental well-being exhibited by the horse himself.

Two ideas that have resonated recently with regard to training could be each summarized by two words: "relaxation" and "competence". I have a few thoughts about this, mostly in the context of how we apply the goals of dressage in work with horses in hand and in new environments. Hopefully, this serves as a fair warning so you can avoid the next update in particular, in case reading about training isn't your thing.

For now, we have a few new friends to introduce. The new farm is quite expansive, with over 20 acres of mostly flat fields, an indoor and outdoor arenas, two barns, round pen, and plenty of space to work on roads and trails. The property is abutted by conservation trails that many people use to ride. The outdoor arena is situated on one of the higher points of the property, with great views of the various farms and fields adjacent to the property, and which gives a great over all experience for desensitization. There are many new equines including donkeys and some of the tiniest mini horses I've ever seen in my life; Levi currently presides over his tiny herd of mini donkeys but also shares space during turnout with the paint/draft mare, Zoie, on approximately 1/3 acre pasture. The pasture grass is mostly gone but there is enough for Levi to snuffle around and vacuum up that every day is a grand time out there for him. The horses get free choice hay and also have hay in their stalls pretty much 24-7 which, as I suspected, was going to make a huge difference for him in multiple ways. While that requires its own post, this update just shares the diversity and beauty of some of our new friends: a gorgeous Friesian gelding, Anton, who also goes by 'Bradley Cooper' due to his lovely locks and handsome looks; another pretty draft cross, Veronica, who happens to be one of the sweetest mares I've met; a herd of tiny miniatures and donkeys; little duos and trios of horses running out in large and spacious paddocks. I think this place feels right, and Levi seems to be very happy here so far. Next post will update on training and goals for the next few months; for the new blog, the server has been built and the new site should be ready to launch in the next couple of weeks, after I've made a few stylistic decisions. I'll be sure to post that link when it becomes available.

Despite his recent attempts to visit his new pasturemate before everyone was ready, Levi is settling into his new barn environment very well, and the two horses were introduced with no issue. The paint/draft mare, Zoie, firmly clarified her expectations of his conduct while sharing her space. He followed her around all day yesterday, hoping perhaps for some mutual back scratching which will come in time.

The image of Levi meeting three new friends today was taken by barn manager Paige, who is making sure he behaves while turning out; what strikes me most about this photo is the fact she could take it while leading not one but three horses to their pastures, while meeting a brand new horse, in nothing but rope halters. That's some skill indeed! What is also striking is how well Levi is beginning to represent the Morgan breed - just have a look at that sloped shoulder and arched neck in all their Morgan glory! His friendliness with new people and horses also cements his place as an ambassador for the breed. I have not yet met the center bay horse in this image, but the two bookends are a Halflinger and Arabian, respectively. All breeds true to type, represent!

This week, I am just allowing him to settle in with no return to formal training yet. He needs to get his bearings and gain some confidence in the new environment and I have a surprising number of Levi-related tasks unaffiliated with training to finish in the meantime. Since we completed only two workouts last week due to our focus on moving, next week, we will visit the round pen first for some brief review, and take a walk around the large and beautiful indoor arena which is across from Levi's and Zoie's paddock. If weather holds next week, we will have a nice stroll around the outdoor arena and the roads around the outbuildings, first in hand in his simple rope halter (which has proven its worth yet again despite being such a humble piece of equipment), and then ultimately while ground driving in harness. I really can't wait to start driving Levi in these spaces.

I am also planning to host this blog on another site than Facebook in the near future. To this end, I am currently working on building a server to host the blog, and will try to migrate soon. It would be nice to have some other advantages in organizing and publishing these posts. When I have something I'm happy with, I will publish a link to the new blog here, and keep this page live but not updated.

Since there are so many new events and situations to think about and share, I will be posting more often, with a target of weekly posts to summarize what we are doing. Next post topic - who are our new barn friends, and what is this amazing place?!?

My next update on Levi's new activities will follow this post, but I felt this article was too good not to share. Particularly, #3 illustrates how the aids differ in driving vs. riding, and how the whip in driving takes the place of the leg in riding, and neither should be 'overused'.

https://www.chronofhorse.com/article/7-reasons-riders-should-try-a-driving-lesson?fbclid=IwAR31ooBLMsxpaTLWFMKOHpN-ChZ_ZuwsfXFu2TQAdFT9DYvMm60QzxmFyh

7 Reasons Riders Should Try A Driving Lesson For someone obsessed with horses, I have only experienced a tiny sliver of the wider horse world myself as an English rider. When I had the chance to take a driving lesson with FEI-level driver Jessica Tanglao, I jumped on it. I loved the experience ...