Enter Working Trot, Halt at X, Salute....

by: Erin Shea

I am not going to lie, but Sunday I had never been to a dressage show but I heard from people in the hunter/jumper world that it is about as exciting as watching paint dry. However after the few hours that I spent observing today, my slightly biased opinion was dramatically changed.

I can see how anyone who does not know much about the sport could find it boring. But can't that be said about most anything? What's so fascinating about seeing people lob a small ball over a golf course? Or watching racecars fly around in the same circle hour after hour? From my perspective, I saw more horsemanship on display in the dressage classes than in a typical hunter show class. To ride a test well and win, dressage riders have to be in complete communication with their horses every step of the way. That's not always the case in hunter rings, sometimes our horses carry the weight a lot more than you think! The active and constant communication required by a dressage rider is established and maintained with the correct use of the seat and hands. The dressage rider's position must be upright yet deep, strong yet fluid, and in constant harmony with the horse's motion. Power and control come from the riders' seats, with their hands held lower than hunter riders which allows their horses to follow through with their heads and necks. When positioned correctly, the rider could make her horse engage its whole body while beautifully moving through the dressage pattern, which consisted of walking, trotting, cantering, circling, and halting at specific points through oust the arena.

Another big difference about a dressage show and a hunter show is how the contestants are scored. Every movement of every dressage test is given an individual score and commented upon by the judge as the test progresses. After the classes, riders could pick up their prizes and their score cards which include not only included total score for all the movements combined, but also individual scores for the rider's ability, the quality of the horse's gaits, as well as its obedience and impulsion. Not only did this system of judging make the classes seem more objective than many times hunter classes are but it also provides an extremely helpful tool for the rider to know what needs to be worked to improve for next time instead of trying to guess why the judge placed you a certain way.

I have to say, after spending a day helping out the MMSC team (which ended up with a third, two fourths and a fifth). I have gained a whole new respect for dressage. I know that as a hunter rider I have a lot to learn from this discipline. Solid communication between you and your horse is critical for every equestrian discipline, from eventing to jumping, to reining, and even trail riding! I hope that while riding out at the Center I can learn some tricks of the trade from these dressage people because now I see how it can provide a solid foundation for riding well and for retraining, or, indeed training any horse, to be the best, most obedient athlete it can be.

25 more days until the Games!

You Can Teach An Old Horse New Tricks

by: Erin Shea

As summer comes to an end, the Kentucky Horse Park is a busy place gearing up for the World Equestrian Games, now only about 30 days away. The Secretariat Center has also been full of action with its daily routine of training horses, seeking adopters, shipping horses out to new forever homes, greeting visitors, and the arrival on Friday of two new horses, "Frigidoon" and "Kim's Rhapsody."

We have also been working on our plans for the Games. We will have daily demonstrations at the MMSC every morning at 10, with each demonstration showcasing a different aspect of Horse Centered ReSchooling Program®. For one demo we're planning on having our mascot, Ferdy, perform some tricks.

As Ferdie is not strongly motivated by good and seems to have a limited attention span, teaching him new tricks is not such an easy task, so we've brought in the help of a clicker. The clicker, which is a simple hand held device that makes a loud clicking noise when pushed, is used right after the horse performs the necessary task and right before he is given a reward. After a couple repeated steps of click-treat-food, the horse knows that the click means he has performed the correct task and will be receiving a reward. When the horse realizes this, the horse may beging exploring options to see how far he can push the task or how many times he can do it in a row to get a reward, and this is how the horse will learn the tricks. The "trick" for the trainer is to watch what the horse offered up as he explores new behaviors and to capitalize and build on a behavior to build it into a trick. Susanna and I noted that Ferdy willingly picked up his front foot, so we worked with that and combined it with a bow (stretching his neck down to the ground) as well, which he performs very easily now. After this action was perfected, we moved on to placing a bucket of grooming equipment in front o fhim and having him touch his nose to one of the brushes. We thought that it might be fun for us to tell people that Ferdy was keen to be groomed, so our goal is to have him be able to pick up the brush from the bucket. Although Ferdy is 15 years, it was fun to see how quickly he learned and how experimentitive he was! We will be working with him as much as possible from now until the WEG, so who knows what he will come up with as far as fun things to show to the crowd!

More to come soon, only 29 days until the games!

What a crazy week it has been! According to http://www.rk3de.org/, Rolex brought in a total of 61,828 spectators across four days. Many of those people took at least one stroll through the trade fair. Located just inside the entrance of the indoor on the second floor, the MMSC had many people stop by to find out about the program and stop to look at our available horses board. Because so many people were interested in adopting, we ran carloads of people back and forth from the Center to try out horses Friday-Sunday. Deputy Alydar was adopted and left Monday. Benny and Mr. Informed are ready to go and just waiting for rides home. Aspen arrived at his new home and settled right in. We will also be receiving two new horses within the next few days who we are very excited about: Hap's Online and Cool Smoke. Keep an eye on our website for pictures of these flashy horses. Also on our website under the News section is an updated calendar. School will soon be out, so if you have time on your hands, don't forget to come volunteer at the Center and look for us at shows!

We would also like to give a big thank you to our Training Intern, Whitney Campbell, for getting a Photonic Health Red Light kit donated to us which includes the light itself along with many charts and books which explain how it works. We have seen such therapy used for many purposes in the past and work wonderfully.

This will be our interns last official week as their graduation will be held this Sunday at 1pm. Bryn will be going home to NH for the summer, but will return to UK next fall, and will certainly be back at the MMSC to volunteer. Whitney graduates from U of L next weekend and will be moving to Lexington. John will go back to Burlington, KY for the summer but return to finish his degree at UK in the fall.

I have enjoyed updating the blog and learning how to publish stories to the website. I hope you have found both to be informative and effective. Have a lovely, horse filled summer, and I will see you all next year!

As always, campus has been bustling with activity. The Paul Frazer Combined Test was a positive experience for our horses. Benny and Haley Barbato received a 37 on their BN dressage test. Ann Cothran rode a beautiful stadium round on Ferdy, and Shalise Gallaher gathered an 8th place in the Beginner Starter division on Fly Lite.

On March 30th, the TRF-MMSC was recognized as a Kentucky Economic Development and Tourism entity through a resolution passed by the Kentucky House. We brought Champ and Benny to greet visitors at the Capitol Building, including many school children, some of whom got to pet a horse for the first time. An article run on the event the next day can be found on the front page of The State Journal.

Our Saturday demos have kicked off to a great start. Last Saturday we crammed a record 45 people into our old horse van, Big Agnus, to transport them to the Secretariat Center. After photo opportunities with Secretariat, the group was led through the office to learn about the life cycle of a Thoroughbred and the mission of the TRF-MMSC. The kids then enjoyed brushing the horses and having a race of their own around our oval "mini track."

We have also had a lot of horses coming in and out. Rummy, Champ, and Benny will be leaving at the end of this week and Bandit went to his new home in Georgia last week. We have received four new horses to fill their spots, Racehorse Davis, Mr. Universe "Titan," Mr. Informed "Impulse," and Marked For Action. Pictures and further descriptions can be found on our website and facebook page.

The Kentucky Horse Park will be hosting the John Henry Adoption Fair this Saturday, April 17th. We would appreciate volunteers helping to get the horses ready on Friday and manning the booth on Saturday. Come out and adopt a horse, or just see Molly, the Katrina victim pony who's leg had to be amputated. See her prosthetic leg and hear her miraculous story during her guest appearance.

Tune in on Sunday the 18th and 25th at 10am for the TRF-MMSC segment that Fox Channel 56 filmed. It showcases the life of a racehorse, what happens when they come to us, and our horses receiving treatment form the vet and dentist while the interns watch and learn, getting some hands on experience.
We hope everyone gets the chance to go to Rolex next week. Feel free to stop by our booth and say hello, or sign up to work it!

The Volunteer Orientation last Saturday went smoothly and we look forward to seeing even more faces at the next one. Also last week, Rummy was adopted and will soon be on his way to Virginia to be a hunter and trail horse. Champ, Victor, and Ollie all have pending adoptions.

On Saturday Fly, Ferdy, and Benny will be competing at the Kentucky Horse Park for the Paul Fraiser combined test hosted by CKRH. Come support these horses in their first show of the season!

Some Amish men came and built an addition to the garage which the tractor now resides under. They did such a nice job that we decided to have them build us two run in sheds in two of the pastures that currently don't have one.









Two of the smaller pastures have been combined to make a jumping field, which we will set up with our newly donated jumps from JumpsWest as soon as the grass grows and the footing is firm.

Back in full swing!

If you are not already a volunteer, come to the Volunteer Orientation this Saturday, March 13th from 10-12 followed by a complimentary lunch. The horses are starting to roll in and they need new homes as quickly as possible; we want the grass to have a chance to grow in the pastures and make room for more! If you aren't already our friend on facebook, please add us! More pictures and descriptions can be found on the photo albums.
http://www.facebook.com/MakersMarkSecretariatCenter
Do you tweet? Follow us at http://twitter.com/mmsc04















(left) Olympia Fields "Ollie" is very sweet, but is suitable for a companion, pleasure, or trail riding home.
(right) At 5 years old and 16.1 hands, Rummy (Mr. Runstadler) is very quiet and easy to ride. He is a nice mover, goes w/t/c, will do lead changes, and is brave to the jumps.



Guidance up, "Benny" (above upon arrival 5/2009) is back and ready to go after having the winter off. He is 9 years old and 15.2 hands. He would make a great young riders horse with help from a trainer as he will figure out how to get away with things, or he would make a wonderful mount for a more experienced rider. He has lots of scope and does well at shows, although he can be a handful at first out on the cross country course. Gets along with others and has great ground manners.

Gentle Bandit (above) is an Angel Acres horse, sound for light riding. He was returned to us because of the economy, but he can w/t/c. He is suitable for a light riding home. Watch him being ridden at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNyCSKf7-c



















Champ (above and right) is a 3 yo 16.1 h gelding just off the track. We started him under tack and he w-t-c's both leads and even jumps small cross rails-day 1.


Victory March(above) is a 4 year old just off the track. He would make a great eventer with some reschooling. He is a little timid, but a lovely mover and wants to learn. Victor has a lot of scope to be an upper level horse.


Savvy(above) is about 15.2 hands and 8 years old. His flat work is is very solid and he loves to jump! Watch the video of our first ride on him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8yVhJotE8k




Moose (right) - adoption pending!







Interested in any of the horses? Contact Melissa at mdecarlo@thoroughbredadoption.com