Wyndover Farm

04/22/2025

Liberty with Fiora

Changed things up a little with Fiora today and decided to work her at Liberty. Now, lunging is second nature to her and we work well together. I figured it was worth a try.

My arena is almost 100x200 so they can easily drift away. And though she does use the entire arena, she was responsive to my requests. This is a really good first Liberty session.

We continue our work on her feet but she will be going home this weekend so hopefully they'll be able to continue the progress my team has made.

04/22/2025

Here's a quick compilation of video snippets from my ComfyFit harness fit drive on Cezanne. The breeching is too short. I need to rotate one of the shafts a bit more. The very end of the video is my perspective.

After our wreck in June 2023, caused by harness failure, I was without a properly fitting harness for Cezanne or Reyna. For Reyna, I made due with a collar that was a bit too large, but with Cezanne being so much more green, and having suffered a wreck due to harness issue, I was very resistant to drive her until we were safely harnessed.

Cezanne has maybe a dozen drives total since I started her in 2017. But considering she's such an as***le to less confident riders, she's not getting enough exercise, so I'm gonna make her drag my phat ass around .....that'll teach her to be an as***le......Momma's a bigger as***le.

04/19/2025

This is a long one, folks, grab a drink and get comfortable. lol

This video is the 1 year progress of the retraining of "Captain". WHERE'S MY CAPTAIN MORGAN 😎 is a 7yo registered American Shetland Pony gelding.

There are 4 sections to the video, if you want to click ahead

First 3 mins, pre-drive desensitization - there is wind over much of the audio. I'm sorry for that. I'm discussing the how and why of desensitization to sound/clicking and touch (whip on his legs and back)

Next 3 mins, ground prospective demonstrating challenges with clockwise bend

Next 2.5 mins, my/driver perspective, discussing issues with clockwise bend

The rest of the video is the entirety of the drive, start to finish, with no cuts... but I was playing with video software learning how to zoom.

Captain's history:

He came in, a year ago, for conditioning then sale. This is following an accident where he was a hitched pony without a driver. A collection of factors contributed to the accident, including being driven by a friend of the owner, so not his regular driver. He spent a year with a Shetland driving trainer but they never introduced breeching. (Strange) And this trainer taught wrapping traces around the shafts!?! (I understand this is commonplace with the American Shetland pony and miniature horse people. 🤷) So he was likely hitched this way.

Another misbehaving pony backed into Captain which threw him backwards, rapidly, which threw the driver backward causing the back of the cart to break and the driver fall out, landing on her unhelmetted head (WEAR A HELMET, PEOPLE!) This knocked the driver out cold requiring the other driver to manage her own pony and deal with her downed friend. This left Captain without a handler and he ran home, on the road. He tried to run into his paddock but the cart got stuck in the gate. He was discovered and handled/checked immediately. Other than a couple, superficial scratches, he had no injuries. I learned this through discussion with the owner (driving the bratty pony) and the driver.

When he arrived here we evaluated him for injury and he's had a couple sessions of bodywork with plans for more.

After a few weeks, I determined his trauma was such that there was no quick turn around for sale. At the time, I had several senior (1+yr) interns who could use a bit of a challenge so I offered to keep him on (just needed to cover his feed) and my team would have the chance to learn on a troubled horse. Historically, interns learn on well trained, predictable horses. Captain increases their challenge level and keeps it interesting. (In the comments I'll post a video from May last year, a few weeks after his arrival, to show where we started).

We spent significant time desensitizing him to the harness. We work on desensitizing him to every sight or sound that overly concerns him. He was very reactive and nervous, when he first got here. I met and drove him prior to his accident and he was nowhere near this reactive but he was very green and did not pull properly.

We did in-hand work, obstacles, lunging, double lunging/longlining, physical therapy and bodywork, miles and miles of ground driving in the arena, fields, orchard, trails, across the road, he pulled tires and logs and skids and we desensitized him to the changes in sounds when the ground changes (Branches on gravel sounds different than the sound of branches on grass. He would react to the change in sound.) He pulled tires of varying weight until he learned to lean into his collar. Previously, he was never trained how to properly push into his harness.

It was over 4 months of groundwork before we hitched again. Since then, we still do about 10 ground sessions for every 1 time hitched. I want a relaxed pony. His well-being and our collective safety are my main priorities.

Even after months of work and finally being able to re-hitch him, he was nowhere close to finished enough for me to sell him as a carriage horse. I wouldn't want him to end up where his trauma is more than the new owner could handle. I also don't want my name associated with another trainer's shoddy work.

The entire team fell in love with him so his owner decided to give him to me to get him off her feed bill, considering he needs so much continuing work.

He's the sweetest pony I've ever worked with, in 40+years. He'll go on Liberty walks around the property and around obstacles with me. He comes trotting to me when I call. He'd rather follow me around than anything else. He's smart. He's brave. We just need to work on his confidence.

So he's not going anywhere and we're in no rush. He continues to make great improvement and I have great confidence that he'll make a happy CDE pony. He has the biggest heart and the biggest try.

Notes: this is a harness fit video, as well. This is his new ComfyFit harness from chimicum tack. I need to drop my tug loops down a hole.

For the longest time I didn't have a harness that fit him. Instead I had a Frankenstein harness. This is his first drive in his new harness. So I was reluctant to drive him in a turnout that didn't fit properly.

The points where he rushes and goes above the bit are 100% when I'm asking him to bend clockwise. It happens with or without whip contact. I spent the entire drive witnessing this. I never felt like he was about to bolt, he just took a few, rushed steps, with his head in the clouds.

We have the same challenges bending on the ground and we are actively working on this.

I am working with my trainer, Joshua Allison on his development. I believe trainer's have a responsibility to also further their own education. See one. Do one. Teach one. I have us registered for a 4 day CDE clinic end of June. I've been training horses for over 40 years and driving since I was 11 when I started driving.

04/19/2025

Thomas Holkenbrink taking Fiora the long way to dinner. Relaxed horse on a loose line. That's what I like to see.

04/18/2025

Here, I'm doing the same exercise with Captain as I did earlier with Lautrec.

I've introduced a sliding side rein to help develop proper head carriage and to build musculature down their top line.

Notice this is NOT a tie down. We are not forcing a frame. This encourages the horse to reach for the bit. With regular side reins, pressure is felt equally on both sides of the horse, on a straight line. But if you're working on a circle, like I am, that means that the outside side rein has more pressure than the inside. This makes the horse want to go straight to even the pressure and be in balance. With the sliding side rein, the bit contact adjusts so the NET contact is the same but it allows for equal pressure when the neck is bent on a circle and enables the horse to balance.

I do SO much groundwork to help develop my horses, physically and mentally, so that I'm not trying to teach and develop this form while they also have to manage the cart. I want to develop muscle memory of proper form so that they naturally move this way while hitched. That means they are using their bodies in the most efficient manner possible. I do roughly 10 ground sessions for every 1 time hitched.

04/18/2025

With Lautrec, we are focusing on longlining and ground driving. I couple the two because I can work on bit contact and obedience at the walk, trot, and canter. As many with forward horses know, sometimes getting them to JUST WALK can be a challenge.

Here I'm working on a relaxed walk on a long rein. You can see he breaks into a trot a few times. He was a bit full of himself today. But we also introduced a sliding side rein, today, so he was getting used to that, as well. At the very end of the video, I zoom in so you can see the sliding rein.

This is the end of this portion of our session. After this, I switched to shorter lines and we did some ground driving out of the arena, including across green grass....another challenge. We finished by walking through the shallow section of the pond, twice! That was a bit of a battle but I won and he didn't drown, as he feared.🤣😎

04/14/2025

Working on bit contact with Captain. Today, I'm introducing the canter on double lunge (longline).

At this stage, when he's pulling a cart, I'm more concerned with him going forward, in a relaxed manner, with a steady rhythm.

When we work on our driven dressage, we put these components together to maintain that forward, regular, relaxed gait while also maintaining contact on the bit. While the canter is a bit in the future, between the shafts, we always school below where we compete.

With these American Shetland Ponies, they tend to be bred more upright than their proper, British cousins 🤬🤬. They also tend to have a much higher head carriage. Here I'm asking him to bring his head down, to reach down for the bit instead of putting his head over the bit. He's pretty good at the walk, we're working on the trot (and you can see when he pops above), and like I said, just introducing the canter.

04/14/2025

Spring is here and we are adding one more person to the team.

The Wyndover Farm Internship offers education in horsemanship, equine behavior, health and welfare, training, handling, facilities maintenance, and so much more. I train horses to ride and to drive…

04/14/2025

Yesterday, Lena Voronovich brought Arro over to deliver Riba back home and to ride in the big arena. I took the opportunity to increase challenges I throw at Lautrec. This is the first time he's had to focus on work with a strange horse near. A horse he wasn't allowed to meet. This is the very beginning of the session. We finished the session successfully being able to pass at a walk and trot, going together or against the flow and were able to canter together, going the same direction.

I thought this was funny, though. This is the first pass going different directions. You can see he tries to turn around to follow her, but when I kept him straight (that's why I keep my lines low instead of through turrets on his back) his only option, if he wanted to follow her, was to go backward.

Introducing Lautrec and his moonwalk.

04/12/2025

Fiora has new friends

Brownie went back to his owner's, yesterday, so Fiora is here on her own. I moved her stall, so she has a different view.

She's now neighbors with Lautrec and Reyna.

Just a normal Saturday morning at Wyndover Farm .

04/12/2025

Get that ball, Junior!

(How to keep Trouble out of trouble)

04/11/2025

The ComfyFit harness I ordered for Cezanne and Reyna (they are ALMOST the same size) arrived! Trying it on here. The breeching is too short and the blinders don't fit properly, so I'll be exchanging some pieces, but we'll get there!

04/11/2025

Ground driving Cezanne on the driveway. She didn't want to stand still. Knowing my horse the way I do, I know that she does not move her feet unless she has to. For her to dance around like this tells me she's anxious..... Not because she's trying to step off, which is a minor offense, but because she's behaving out of character.

The area where she was anxious was also where we wrecked a couple years ago. I've only driven her a few times since then because I didn't have a properly fitting chest collar. The wreck occurred due to a broken trace which was 1 piece with the collar. No collar, no pully pully.

So we are getting into driving shape. We've been lunging, double lunging, and ground driving both Reyna and Cezanne in preparation of hitching with this new harness. SOOOOO exciting!

Weather and trace length dependent, we'll hitch both Reyna and Cezanne this coming week. Mariah and I will work Reyna between the shafts on Monday. Kim and I will work Cezanne between the shafts on Friday. The arena is freshly harrowed and ready for driving!

04/10/2025

Doing harness fittings with Captain. We got his new harness a few weeks ago but there were a couple pieces that didn't fit so we were waiting on the replacements, which we got but now it appears we need shorter traces. This is on the shortest hole.

04/10/2025

Lena Voronovich was a busy girl tonight. She ground drove Lautrec for me. This is the first time someone else has ground driven him. He's doing really well. We'll be pulling a tire, next week.