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Thanks for the log, Phoenix! It’s great hearing about Frodo’s progress! I think that’s cruel, trotting mares out in front of a penned-up stallion! Why don’t some trainers like stallions?
Your’re right. The stallion should be walked by the mares and taught to ignore her.
Trainers don’t like to keep stallions because you can’t safely turn them out with other ponies. They tend to beat up on geldings and you can’t trust them with the mares and stallions fight. So it really does limit how many you can keep. Plus they can be loud and obnoxious. They tend to damage their stalls when frustrated.
Frodo doesn’t do this because I worked really hard to give him some manners.
I never feed him by hand because he tends to be really mouthy anyway. So if I want to give him a treat, I throw it to him. I caught a lady feeding him carrots with her mouth 😯 An adult “horse woman” feeding a stallion (or any horse reallly) with her face. She wasn’t too happy with me when I walked around the corner, saw her, and said “Are you F*ing stupid??!” 😆 I told her to stay away from Frodo because she obviously didn’t know the proper way to handle stallions. 😡The trainer’s dad didn’t want a stallion on the property because he thinks they’re all rank. She got him to agree and I had asked how he was getting along with Frodo:
Hello! Frodo is fine with Dad, in fact Dad thinks he is a very friendly guy. Although lately I have been doing all of the feeding and cleaning as Dad is having more and more difficulty doing these things. I will tell Mom & Dad to look out for those items you are sending down.
For the last couple of training blocks I have been working Frodo at halter. He is great. I stood him up all over the ranch including right in front of the other horses’ pens. He is doing fantastic, and although it took a bit of work but I now have his attention most of the time. He also now knows what to expect from me and respects me. Stallions love to test new people out just to see how far they can cross the line, if at all..! Also, since I had been teaching him to canter for the western training, I now have to retrain him to stay at the trot on the line! That won’t be too difficult though. Now, for a show to practice at…
She started riding him 😀
I have been riding him for three days now! He is still getting used to the extra weight, but is doing quite well. I lunge him for awhile first, then get on him, so far we walk a lot and trot some too. I have been working a lot on turns and bending, giving to the bit, etc. I won’t canter/lope him for a while yet until he gets his balance and is going more confidently. He does look real cute going western.I get kudos! 😀
Yes he is mouthy, but not bad. He and I get along just fine. When I have his saddle and bridle on I can throw all of his training stuff on his back and take him anywhere, he follows me like a puppy and could care less what I put on him. He takes it all in stride, just a great disposition in that way. Yes he is a stallion so the mouthy thing and other stallion stuff is to be expected, but all in all he is a good boy. Yes, you have done a great job in spook-proofing, not much bothers him! That makes my job that much easier!
Once he is going solidly I will let you know and then you might try riding him, even if it is here at the ranch where I have a nice 60′ round pen and it is very quiet out here and he is comfortable in that arena. He is going to be just a great riding pony!! I think he will take to driving too, but that is once he is going very well under saddle. Right now I just want to get him broke and my goal is to ride him in Western and English classes too, as soon as I think he is ready for that.
Jane
Last one for today: He’s going to an open show the next day!
I have been riding Frodo pretty much daily and he is doing fantastic!! He is now loping nicely under saddle, he still needs to understand his leads but is doing well. Now I am only riding him in a 60-foot round arena and have not yet ventured out to the big arena, I want him going very well and solid so that I know I have control before we go out to the big arena. We are now working on his head-set, leg-yielding and speed control. From here on, he will just need a lot of ‘wet saddle blankets!’
He is such a good boy! He is great to work with – at home. Now for the show tomorrow. I will not ride him there (not ready for that yet), but I will show him in a halter class and school him around the showgrounds. Just for the morning, but I will take him all around and work on his manners. Will let you know how the show went, and I will have my husband take some photos for you.
Well, the show didn’t go well, but I learned it wasn’t just me 😆 :
I took Frodo to the show today. Take a deep breath before you read the first part of this letter, but I think you already know…
I don’t know if you want to see the pics and short videos of the show, he looked great and stood up great, but he was standing on ‘five legs’ almost the entire time in and out of the class, and in the class I worked on him as quietly as I could until the judge got to us, but the moment I quit reminding him to keep it up, it went down right in front of the judge, and when I was going to walk & trot him for the judge, ‘it’ was swinging around and would not go back up. Totally embarrassing! The judge would not look at him because of this, but he did give me a tip to help. He said to get a ‘stallion ring’ from the vet and that would completely fix his problem. The judge did say that he was a very nice pony and could have been very competitive in the class. (This ring goes on the end of his penis and prevents him from getting an erection, therefore ending the problem.)
After the class I took him out to school some more, I backed him, turned him, walked him, trotted him, all to no avail. It seemed that the longer we were there, the worse it got. When I started losing my patience I quit quickly when he had it up, patted him & put him in the trailer and left. When we got home he promptly dropped again the moment he was out of the trailer and so got more light schooling, I would not take him home until it was up . Then once I took his halter off, down it went again and stayed down even while he was eating! I have never seen one that was this persistent!! I thought I could work it out of him. And I certainly don’t want to make him defensive/aggressive by constantly picking on him for it at the show. I may not be able to ride him at a show because of this, unless maybe the stallion ring might cure him?
I would like your ideas on whether or not to try the stallion ring. Although it may be a quick fix for his problem, there are cons to using it. One problem with the ring is it can cause scarring or stricture in his penis if the ring is not the correct size, so a vet has to come out to measure him and prescribe a correct size. Stallion rings are used on the racetrack and hunter stables all the time to keep their stallions under control, and those stallions are successful in the breeding barn after their careers, so it seems to work well enough for them. I would certainly want a vet’s opinion on the useage of a ring though. I would be willing to give it a try as the judge today was certain it would work. Then I could try another open show to see how it works on Frodo.
Poor Frodo, he really has such a good disposition otherwise, he just cannot control his own hormones! And he was Not Bad at the show, just drop drop drop drop. I am convinced now that it is not a training issue nor a disposition problem, it is clinical and beyond even his control.
Back to training…
Frodo was Such a Good Boy today. He is riding so well now, he is very smart. It is a joy to ride him, he does not have ‘pony-gaits’, he is comfortable both at the jog and lope, and he has a very nice walk. He is loping right off from the walk or jog, which he also does on the lunge, just with a voice command. Today he did not miss his leads at all for the first time!
And more… Is everyone bored yet 😆
I took Frodo in the big arena today for the first time. I lunged him for a while and he did so good that I thought what the heck? So I got on him and just walked and jogged. He did fantastic for his first time up there, he occasionally looked around but most of the time he was paying attention and working fine. What a guy. Today also, the little imp for the first time dropped while tied in the crossties…he got tickled with a long whips lash and that took care of it…then I gave him a bath and tried on his new sheet.
Frodo is doing so well in his training, he is a model student! He is really nice to ride, and very responsive and learns new things very quickly. I really like riding him. I am working on his head-set at a lope, and he still misses his leads here and there, but he gives to my legs both left and right at all gaits, he turns on the forehand both ways, he already somewhat sidepasses both directions, and we are working on turning on the haunches (which is more difficult). He backs okay, and stands still for mounting 9 x out of 10. He practically neck-reins already with just the snaffle bit and leg commands! He is really smart and willing. I will Try to get a video of me riding him but my husband has to do that for me… Yes he is a good looker, very handsome and cute too! By the way, his neck is changing, it must be the excersize and the headset I have been working on. It is looking so much better.
He is fine by himself, but when another horse is on the scene he is hard to control under saddle and he overreacts even to my gelding here. I just don’t want any others hurt at the show. The other day I rode him by the gelding that has been next to him all this time, and he blew – he screamed, reared, and ran backwards, I thought he was going to fall on his butt. He did this all by himself, I didn’t even correct him, I was just hanging on for all I could (!), I guess he has a ‘guilty conscience’. So I jumped off and had to lead him past the gelding, all the while he was puffing up…
And this is the last update I have gotten. It is by far the best and I was so happy reading it! I had a lot of faith in Frodo as a stallion, but with his dropping issue and his being hard to control around other horses, I was considering gelding him. If he has such an overabundance of hormones that he loses control, I couldn’t show or have confidence that his colts wouldn’t have the same problem. So I was really considering bringing him home and gelding him.
Hello again. Just have to ‘crow’, I am so proud of Frodo! He is really smart, I cannot believe how well he is doing at this point in his training. I have trained horses including Welsh ponies for 6 months before I had the responsiveness to leg and rein like Frodo is now. For instance, he side-passed for me today flawlessly like he had been doing it all his life, both directions, crossing his legs in a straight line and started and stopped when asked, (4 steps left & right). We even opened the arena gate (yes, mounted), one step at a time (step,whoa,step,whoa…), a little unsure, but he did fabulously for his first time! So I think he should make a great Trail Pony too! He likes the little challenges, keeps him thinking and breaks the boredom of the walk, jog, lope practice.
Today he passed the gelding without saying a ‘word’, I just told him “ah-ah-ah”, and jiggled the reins, and he went by just fine, even though the gelding was looking at him with his head over the fence. He did start to drop but not for long.
I guess there is hope for him after all! 😉 He is going to make one heck of a fantastic performance show pony as he is very talented; providing he gets over the dropping and screaming when he sees ‘new’ equines.
It would be sad if you had to geld him, but I can understand why you would. Will you try the ring she suggested?
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