Pinys Red Savvy (Filly Born 3/24/04)

By Papa Durr and Richs Whisperin Pine (Piny)

AQHA #4554877

This filly will register foundation and comes from my favorite cross. We have 5 colts from Piny and Papa Durr and Savvy is number 4. She looks just like Fancy (purchased by Robin Wadsworth) and she's the bulls eye of our breeding goals. Expect her to be 15-2 and big enough to ride spring of 06. Robin had Fancy in the mountains passing for a 3 or 4 year old this summer.

Savvy's Training Diary

The pictures above are slightly before her second birthday and the 2nd hour of her training. This is Monday. Here's the Diary of Savvy's training starting 3/20/06.

3-19-06 It started Sunday when I tied her to the horse trailer and got the white saddle blanket out. She seemed to be OK with it at first and then proceeded to break the halter. After a new halter and a few more attempts at pulling back she decided the saddle blanket was OK after all. She didn't mind being saddled or cinched. (She gets good behavior treats through all the ground work - my theory is that if they chew as an indication of being relaxed then I'll give them something to chew to help them relax) I put a stud chain on her when I first walked her away from the horse trailer with the saddle on. She did take a few jumps but when she felt the chain tighten up a little bit she quit. Since she seemed agreeable I took the stud chain off and put on a bozal. We lunged her with the saddle on and then leaned over the saddle - pictured on the left. She let me sit on her at the end of her lesson on Sunday (about 45 minutes).

3-20-06 Monday's lesson started with saddling, lunging again, and then I got on her and had Sue lead her around the yard. Next we just practiced turning at a walk and backing. I had to get off a few times to get the backing connected in her head. Tomorrow we'll go out in the hills in hour #3. Sounds pretty easy doesn't it? It is. These colts want to learn and once you set the boundary they want to get along.

3-21-06 (1) Tuesday we saddled up (no problem now). I lunged her with the bozal, got on in the back yard and repeated our turning and backing from yesterday. I led her up a paved road so we could get out in the hills since I didn't happen to have another rider to go with. It's easy for the first two rides to follow another horse and gradually start leading the way. Anyway, I got her in the sage brush with a windbreak between us an home. I expected her to want to run home since we were about 1/2 mile away. We spent about 20 minutes going up and down a dirt road and dodging through the sage brush - all at a walk. I wore spurs but mostly used the a 3 foot quirt on her rump to get her to go. I got a sweat up on her but didn't really wear her out. You have to be careful with 2 yr olds. The goal is to get them a little tired to get the energy edge off without over stressing young joints and out of shape muscles. She let be ride her home on the pavement although she was nervous about being so far away by herself.

3-23-06 (2) We took Wednesday off and Thursday I repeated the same lunging warm up and tried to ride her up the paved street. She wasn't ready and I didn't want to use the spurs or over use the quirt on the pavement so I led her up the the sagebrush again. This time we rode for 1-2 miles on dirt roads and sagebrush. She never bucks, but when she gets too nervous she spins 180 for home. I just turn her around and give her a spank on the butt and a little spur pressure to get her back on track and moving forward. She pulled that about 2 dozen times, then calmed down and she let me ride her home on the pavement. Again, she got up a good sweat but was still plenty energetic.

3-24-06 (3) Friday I warmed her up and tried to ride up the street from home. She really resisted and we did the 180 end swap a dozen times complete with a little spanking and spur pressure to get her back on track. By the end of this ride she began to stop refusing obstacles (walking past scary stuff). The biggest hurdle was a dragline parked right next to a dirt road. Today we went about 3 miles and I tried to find lots of sagebrush to walk through so we'd have an excuse to turn and she would have something to concentrate on besides going home. By the end of this ride on the mile or two home she put her head down and showed me her mothers fast walk. I was pretty impressed. She seems very level headed and bucking never seems to cross her mind. Today when she did the 180 swamp I put more pressure on her with spurs and the crop to get her out of that habit and it worked. We got up a good sweat and got past her nervous energy without getting her too tired. She did trot a little occasionally for the first time, but I kept her in a walk. No loping yet.

3-26-06 (4) We took Saturday off and Sunday did the warm up routine and headed up the street. She tried the 180 swap trip once and she seemed to have made the connection between getting the discipline and trying to refuse. Today she wanted to trot right up the street. Instead of trying to make her go I was having to hold her back while going away from home. Pretty interesting. She felt so energetic that we went 4-5 miles with some elevation change. I gave her the opportunity to run up a hill heading home and she just walked - we'll lope the next time out. I let her set her own pace and made her rest a few times. She got up a good sweat. She's losing her "colt" appearance and her muscles are starting to show. When we went past the dragline she was fearful but didn't refuse approaching it. I light to turn their nervous energy into miles. On the way home she put her head down and did a good job of keeping an even walk at a fairly fast pace. Savvy is a little unique in that her ears have always been forward. Most colts are concerned about the rider when they get fearful. They often focus their ears on you when something bad is about to happen. She's going to be quite the mare. I trimmed her feet a little when we got back. Her hooves are holding up well and I'm going to postpone shoeing her as long as possible.

3-30-06 (5) I had to skip a few days because Savvy was getting tender footed from the long ride last time and because she's not used to regular riding every day or two. My choices are to buy her some boots or shoe her. Tonight she was OK on soil but a little touchy an the asphalt getting there. I've been working spurs into the equation and she's responding to them now without rearing or bucking. When I use both spurs and crop after a few rides we leave the crop home and don't get any negative reaction from the spurs. Colts just have to have time to learn what the signal means. We went on a short ride to let her hooves catch up. Savvy tolerates saddling, getting on, spurs like an old pro. She's also backing, turning, trotting, and tonight she loped up hill away from home with not problem.

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