Lucky One Sporthorses

11/02/2017

08/16/2017

Schooling day at Pine Hill... getting ready for a big fall season with the new paint pony Rythem and my little sorrel mare Pretty!

08/16/2017

Lucky One put in a great effort at the CTDS mini show the other weekend! 2 first places at 1st level, 2 first places at training level and a 2nd and 3rd place at 1st level!! Way to go ponies :)

07/19/2017

Big upgrade for Lucky One Sporthorses!! Stalls and paddocks coming soon to fill out this big barn! Huge thank you to my fabulous husband Chris Ellison! I love you!

07/07/2017

06/15/2017

Beautiful sunset at Lucky One!!

05/12/2017

I absolutely love this... i agree the "slow" way is the fast way and many people get caught up in the quick flip and lose sight of what is best for the horses

05/03/2017

Jumping "skinnies" and how to train horses to do it----

Well, you can just bet that this horse didn't just come out one day a canter down and jump this vertical pole. I saw another old cavalry photo of a horse jumping the hilt of a sword that was stuck in the ground.

The way to get horses conditioned to think of these as something to jump, rather than as, more logically, to go around, is by a process of "gradual diminishment," to coin a phrase.

Say you want to start by teaching your horse to jump a single upside down muck tub, maybe 2'6 high, and what, 3 feet wide?

You don't start with one muck tub and get into a big altercation when the horse runs by it, as any normal horse will. No, you start with maybe four muck tubs side by side, with a jump rail for a ground line, so it has a "normal" shape to the horse.

Trot this a few times, so that the horse knows what he's supposed to do, Then take one tub away, get a shorter ground rail, and repeat the process. Teach him what it is we want by quiet repetition.

Now take another muck tub away, so that there are only two left. Try again. If he doesn't get it, use two jump poles, one on each side, to funnel him in. Then, when he understands, remove the jump poles, and lay them on the ground to give him a guide to the jump. See? You are creating in the horse a "conditioned response." This is a trick, and you are teaching him to perform the trick. This isn't a "normal" jump, it is a trick jump that you are "explaining" to the horse.

Now take away one of the two tubs, so you are down to one. Use the funnel poles. Jump it a number of times. Now, take the funnel poles off the muck tub, and lay them on the ground beside it, creating a sort of visual arrow head. Jump it. Gradually roll the arrow head rails back and back, until the horse just jumps the single muck tub.

When you watched horses at Rolex last week locking onto those skinny brush jumps, the reason they locked on was because they have been trained to lock on, just as you have just done with your horse in the example I just gave.

Just as the horse in this insane photo was trained to do----