It's a Really Long Way Down

The dilemma every horse rescuer faces eventually

2010-02-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

The reason I've been so quiet here is that I'm saving up on my VLC stories for my Horse Illustrated column. He's going to be prominently featured later this year in a column so you'll get to read the update there! For those of you who can't wait, he is doing great. We have had numerous delays in getting to our first show for various reasons but this month for sure.

I do have an update about another of my rescues. You may recall previous posts about Lucy, the black Thoroughbred mare from the July 2008 Enumclaw auction. Lucy came back to me because of a job loss this past fall (she had been adopted out to someone very experienced, but he got deployed to Iraq and then his dad lost his job), and I really had that dilemma all rescuers face eventually. Here was a mare with a fairly serious fear bucking issue. I'd ridden her once and she didn't buck but she felt to me like she thought she had a cougar sitting on her back - she was waiting for the axe to fall. I didn't feel comfortable giving her another try, and I didn't know of anyone else who wanted to take that on. Was it time to give up and put her to sleep? Or was that person out there who could get through to her? I don't have an easier time making these decisions than any of you -- I procrastinated, rationalizing that she wasn't costing me much because she was on pasture board, and, well, I'd think about making a decision on her next month.

I'm glad I waited. I've had a young trainer offer to give Lucy a try, and she's really clicking with the mare. They had a successful first ride yesterday and now I'm hopeful that things will continue to progress. We'll see. I don't have a moral issue about putting down a horse that is unsafe to ride. There aren't enough homes for horses that ARE safe to ride. Conversely, I've seen the right person turn a horse into a rideable horse enough times that I don't feel right about not giving a horse plenty of chances with different people. Look at Whiskey, that SAFE horse - once pronounced unrideable, she is now a terrific trail horse for her current owner. All she needed was some hard work and a job to do. So this is another chance for Lucy, and we will see how it goes!

Who else has been faced with this dilemma? Did you find Mr. or Ms. Right for a difficult horse, or did someone just get hurt and then you regretted it? Mugwump has blogged a lot about an unpredictable horse she had like this - I think his name was Captain. She thought she had him sorted out, and then he put someone in the hospital. It's just the worst "rock and a hard place" situation to be in, isn't it? But the fact is, they're not kittens...most people don't want to feed them if they can't do a job, so sometimes you wind up right where I am - asking myself how many chances to give, how much risk to take, and how much risk to let others take.

Your thoughts?

Long time no post!

2009-08-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

I keep waiting to get GOOD pictures of him, but the ones in the indoor turn out blurry and we don't have an outdoor, so I'm just going to do an update post for now and pictures will come later. I have a lot of updates on all of the horses.

The VLC, who, it is true, is technically the VLS at this point, is doing very, very well. He has no problems with his headset and "gets" collection, but things like sidepassing have come hard for him because he's so big and not exactly catty, LOL. He gets kind of baffled at where his feet are and where they are supposed to be, and then he gets frustrated and would prefer to skip the whole thing, but he is learning! He remains calm, quiet and lovable and is a barn favorite. He'll go to his first schooling show soon, and I'll report back how that goes.

I cannot say enough how glad I am that I was super, super, super picky about trainers and only let him go to a barn where every horse looked happy. As a result, he is fresh, happy and has not developed any sour behaviors - and I am delighted. I have a horse who has learned to be round and learned to move laterally and hasn't learned to wring his tail, pin his ears or throw his head. Hooray!

Then there's the difference in my own riding. I have taken lessons on and off my entire riding career but I saw instruction as a second set of eyes - someone to pick on my equitation. I'd ridden with people who were fabulous riders but couldn't explain things enough to help me at all, and people who were not that great but could at least tune me up enough that I would go win an equitation class. And then of course I just exercised horses for years, didn't show, and didn't try to really progress in my riding - at my age, I figured I was good if I didn't slip any further. Well, I finally got that trainer who explains things well enough that I am actually improving. I'm kind of shocked. I kind of figured a lot of my riding flaws were there to stay, and I was stiff and old and set in my ways. Uh, no. A few lessons with her and I went back out and won an equitation class, something I haven't done in 15 years. Yeah, just a schooling show but still - I was excited! Now I'm starting to feel like I might really be able to ride like I used to. Wow.

So the next step - remember the Small Spotted Pony that offloaded me last year? Well, he is in training now and I'm going to take lessons on him just as soon as possible. May even show him at the end of October if he's ready. I am fired up - I'm going to win this one. The noodle-necked bucking pony will not triumph!

Some more updates - the Cute Spotted Stallion became a Cute Spotted Gelding and is riding great and out on lease to someone who may buy him. His buddy, Chaser, who I was working with this winter, went to training to get further along and got purchased before his 60 days were even up! His registered name is Sure to be Spotted and he will be at the Pinto shows next year.

The Drama pony is jumping and going to lessons and available for anybody in the PNW wanting a talented but quirky medium pony. E-mail Jessica if interested. I rode the Gossip pony in the SAFE show and she and I are taking lessons together with an eye to hitting some POA shows and she is also available for adoption (large pony, great to ride, challenging on the ground - you have to be the alpha). She is available through Pony Up Rescue. Class, the red pony I rode in last year's SAFE show, is still looking for a home - she showed again this year and even took 3rd in Hunter Hack! She is available through Cowgirl Spirit.

Bullwinkle is with Karen V. and the last time I saw him, he was over 15 hands. He is the spitting image of his sire. Karen still has Honey, who is a much loved pasture pet due to her old pelvis issues. Libby, the VLC's other oops baby from before I owned him, is growing up to be a beautiful girl and her mom, Bessie, has been enjoying the good life in one of those amazingly picturesque pastures. Lucy is the companion to a 17 hand dark bay Thoroughbred gelding and seems to be very much enjoying that job and relieved no one is trying to ride her. I still have the Crabby Old Bat, who is fat and happy, and Thai, who finally found her "perfect" herd - two llamas and a weanling. She just can't hack it with anything bigger or tougher. Thai got ridden quite a bit this summer and is quiet, easy and available for adoption. The Big Moving Horse I blogged about is fat, happy, and his owner decided to take some lessons on him and give mastering him another shot, which I'm really happy about as I think he's an awesome horse and they could be a great team with a little help.

The gelding who held his breath, unfortunately, turned out to have Wobblers and was put to sleep this summer. It was the right thing to do. The lack of balance explained his fear about picking up his feet, and he was never going to be comfortable enough to enjoy life.

The Moosealoosa got sold to a teenage girl who loves him and I am sure his fat is turning to muscle as we speak. My Big Gold Yearling, now a 2 year old (I must stop with these age-related names), was almost sold and then tore up a muck bucket with his forelegs and re-injured his radial nerve. So he is going out to sit and eat for the winter and we'll re-evaluate in the spring. He is over 16 hands already and looking to outgrow the VLC. Just hoping he comes sound so he can do something with his life!

So that's MY update...how about yours?

What does it take for you to throw in the towel?

2009-05-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

A couple of recent incidents with people I know have prompted me to ask this question, as I'm interested in your perspectives and experiences. When do you give up and pass along a horse (green OR trained) to someone more talented than yourself for that horse's own good? What sorts of behaviors cause you to throw in the towel and stop trying to get back on?

Or are you the person who says, hell no, I AM going to ride this horse - whether or not that means more than one trip to the E.R.?

For me, I know I am no bronc rider. I will get back on if I get bucked off and am not hurt, but I will probably do some longeing first and try to wear down the horse to the point where the incident will not be repeated. If something got me off twice in a day, I'm pretty sure I'd be done getting back on and would absolutely pass that horse along to a trainer that I know has more of a velcro butt than I do. I think it's extremely bad news for a horse to succeed in offloading riders on a regular basis...every time your butt hits the dirt, they win and the behavior is reinforced. To me, it's really smart to just pay the money to stick someone on the horse that the horse cannot throw. Most horses will respond to that by giving up, and usually in surprisingly short order. The few that don't may really have a screw loose (or undiscovered pain - always, always, always look for pain first.)

There are other behaviors I'd be more likely to keep working with myself. Spooking, not usually a big deal. Bolting, hey, go back to the round pen and go back to basics and make sure you have a working whoa - bolting is often a sign of missed basic training - like with track horses who were never really broke, just learned to carry a rider and run. (Not true of all OTTB's - all trainers differ! Some trainers have them pretty well broke and transitioning them is a snap. I applaud those trainers!) Rearing is not something I like to deal with and if I can't find a source of pain (back, teeth?) that explains it, I'm likely to pass that horse along to someone else.

I will throw in the towel quicker at a public event like a show than I would at home. Let's face it, a crowded warm up ring is no place to resolve a serious problem. You're likely to interfere with other riders (which is rude and can cause someone else to have an accident) and you can't concentrate on your horse when there are other riders everywhere and you have to worry about not running into little kids on ponies.

I know horsepeople are split on this. Some will tell you that if you don't work through the problem AT the show, the horse learns he can misbehave at shows and get away with it. I don't know if that's completely true. I do think that when you fail to punish misbehavior in the show ring the same way you would at home, they do figure that out, but I also think that you don't have the right to screw up everybody else's ride bronc-busting in a flat class (or getting tossed and having a loose, bolting horse getting other people tossed) and that the polite thing to do is come to the center and wait to be excused.

If you're in a dressage ring by yourself or jumping a course and you want to do your best to fix the behavior, knowing that the ribbons are already out of your reach, go for it and I applaud your guts! I don't know who the rider is in the picture, but they are doing a fabulous job on a hard bucker - their position is just exemplary. They may not win a ribbon, but they are going to win that round with their horse.

I can watch that halfpassgal video all day and just go, OMG, I wish I could stick like that and wish I had her courage. (If you've never seen it before, beautiful example of a rider sticking and then NOT freaking out and NOT changing their riding and NOT having a temper. She proceeds as though nothing bad happened. Ah, youth...)

Do you look down on a trainer for deciding to pass along a horse? I don't at all. I think that if you train professionally and that's what pays your bills, it's only intelligent to draw some lines about what you will and won't get on. After all, if you get seriously hurt, you are out of business. Also, I don't think the most talented trainer is necessarily the person who can stick like glue, and most horses don't need the person who can stick like glue. Those people do exist, for those horses who need it, and often it just takes a few weeks or a month before they can be passed back to the regular trainer or the owner with the problem resolved.

Have you sent a horse off to fix a specific problem that was a bit too much for you, whether that was a misbehavior or a "fine tuning" issue? Did it work? Was the problem cured or did the horse still display the problem with you even though the trainer did not have the problem? Were you able to regain your confidence with a horse who had scared you off by seeing the trainer succeed with him and then working with the trainer to learn how to ride through the problem? Or did you simply learn that the horse had your number and it was not going to be the right horse for you?

Welcome to the real world and real work!

2009-04-27T20:30:00.000-07:00

Ignore the funny looking haircut - we are in the middle of teaching him to have his mane pulled, plus it likes to fall on both sides. I swear I'll have him looking normal eventually!

So, my very large son is at boarding school, AKA the trainer's, and is learning to work hard for a living (I hear he actually sweated today) and give to the bit and that he has to lead quietly for people who are not me. I am surprised to hear he is being a shit about the latter, but as my trainer says, she has seen him lead quietly for me so she KNOWS this is b.s. and she is doing all the same things I would to correct it.

I do remind myself that I have ridden lots of four year olds who still have their moments, under saddle and on the ground, and a little misbehavior is normal - it's just that this horse has had so little misbehavior that I am the one who is spoiled. I think of him as an old broke 12 year old and am terribly disappointed when he acts his age in any way. I am like that parent who has fits when their child gets a B+ instead of an A. ;-)

I am going to head out tomorrow and work him myself and see if he really is playing a game or if he's got a bad case of four-year-old-stallion spring fever. My trainer has trained and shown many stallions, so I trust her judgment. I know there are those who will be positively gleeful if he ends up getting cut and I'll tell you now - I don't care one way or the other. I'm not obsessed with the idea of this horse staying a stallion and if my trainer says to cut him, we'll cut him. If she says his behavior is normal and can be fixed, we'll work through it. She's the pro and her opinion is part of what I'm paying her for.

Meanwhile, the Big Gold Yearling, now a Big Gold Two Year Old, is being fitted up for sale at a friend's barn. I don't have time for two greenies and I feel like I've done my job in his life (raising him up from orphan-hood) and it is time for him to move on. My dressage rider friend drools over his short-backed build and beautiful shoulder and we both feel that his niche will be dressage/jumping. He is quiet enough to make a great amateur eventer - nothing spooks this guy. I will have pics as soon as he's completely shed out and we've convinced him that clipping his ears out will not kill him. I am looking for a home with someone who won't push him too young - he is 15.3 at 25 months and I think I can safely say he'll finish out around 16.2 so he definitely needs to finish growing before he is asked to carry weight. Fortunately, those people are more easily found in the sport horse world and he's the type to appeal to them.

Winter's finally over and my Crabby Old Bat and Thai, the old TB broodmare, are coming home soon to share a large pasture. Belle found herself a job - my friend who has boarded her this winter asked to keep her for the summer as she's proving to be a stabilizing influence on a more spirited mare, so she will stay where she is for now.

Now that I am done with the BIG mustang project (see the other blog!) I can get back to the SMALL mustang project. It should be warm enough soon to give baths and that is a big part of progressing with the two I've been working with. They are just too yucky with Washington state mud on their underbellies to clean it off without soap and water (they do not care for currying there, and currying isn't enough to do the job anyway), so I got them both longeing nicely and then couldn't move forward to carrying tack til they got all the way clean. I also need to rig up a high line in the arena to teach the scared one to tie so I'm going to try to get to that this week.

I have also started working with my friend's very sweet red dun overo stallion (he's been mentioned here before) again. I rode him for the first time this year last week and he was just perfect. As I've noted before, he's Sonny Dee Bar bred and while I just hated those horses 15 years ago, now I sing their praises. They don't go fast, but BOY are they safe and comfy. This guy makes the VLC look like a hot potato. I've also been doing ground work with my other friend's ex-stallion and he's learning to long-line beautifully and to wear a bit. He does not like the bit and does need more work on lowering his head for it - he is no fool and knows that despite only being about 15.1, he's still way taller than me when he puts his head up. I have been busy trying to convince him that the whole process is easier on both of us when he lowers his head. Note to self, buy some baby carrots. (And yes, I am grateful that the 16.2 one never went through a hard to bridle phase!)

So that's my update. I may hit some schooling shows on a rescued POA this year and am toying with fitting Thai up for the SAFE show if I can squeeze her into the work schedule and don't get too lazy about having to actually, you know, go out to the pasture and drag her in. (I confess! I'm SO much better about riding horses that are in stalls or paddocks near the barn! I know I'm not the only one...fess up!) I'd like to do it because I always promote the idea of retraining broodmares and now I have a completely sound 24 year old who could make a perfect example! I've ridden her once and she was so good. She is still out at Karen V's awaiting a ride home.

How are the rest of you doing? Got something to show this year? Still working? Still deciding if you are ready to take that step? Who has a new rescue they are working on?

For those of you are looking for your serious trail horse and don't have one lined up, I have to recommend Whiskey, who's a SAFE rescue. She has been in a foster home that has been using her for mountain trail rides and packing and it is TOTALLY her niche. She is super happy on the trails and not at all spooky. She is fit and ready to go and if you're in the Seattle or Portland area, you should definitely consider her! I have ALWAYS liked this mare and it is so cool to see her find her true calling thanks to her excellent foster home. It will be even cooler if she finds a permanent home. She has been on the kill buyer's lot twice and I want to know that she never has to fear that again.

Desensitizing - what's your theory?

2009-03-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

We were just talking about how to cure horses of certain phobias. For example, the SSP is pretty sure plastic bags will kill him. Every night, he has to snort anew at the plastic bag I have been carrying his brushes around in. I have let him sniff it and thoroughly investigate it. He still thinks it has teeth and eats mustangs for lunch.

I was trained to believe that when they're scared of something, you put it in their environment and make them deal. I've effectively used methods like hanging polo mallets in the stall so that they have to bump them as they move around, hanging a running clippers next to their grain bucket so that they learn to ignore the noise, and so on. So my instinct with SSP was to tie a plastic bag to the door of his stall so that he could bump it and learn that the crackly noise wouldn't kill him. He has touched it with his nose and jumped back but he's not panicking or anything so I'm going to leave it there.

A friend of mine brought up that she'd only had success with this kind of thing if it was done so that the horse had more control. For example, that if the horse was brave and touched the scary item, scary item was removed. This, of course, involves human participation - you can't just leave the thing they don't like in their stall or pasture.

What do you think? I mean, we've all seen the concept of "making them deal with it" go bad - like the story of the horse that someone tied plastic milk jugs with rocks to, who jumped the round pen and headed down the highway. Like anything, you can go too far and use bad judgment, but normally I'm still a proponent of "making them deal with it." There are certain things, like being hosed off, that I can't imagine any other way to teach. Or having to deal with livestock - living next to a cow, donkey or llama is really the only way I can think of to teach a horse that they are no big deal. I used to know a barn that had a pasture right next to train tracks. It worked - their babies didn't blink at trains.

On a related note, do you believe that horses can get too desensitized to the point where they become dull and react to nothing, or is that your goal? I think it kind of depends on how you use them. I think a dull horse is the easiest horse to sell and the most likely horse to find a good home. But obviously that horse isn't going to be your star athlete in a lot of disciplines. I know many people who believe, for example, that spooky horses just have a prettier jump and there's probably some truth to that. They are not going to risk their hoofies touching a scary rail, that's for sure. Does your discipline favor the dull horse or the edgy athlete, and how does your training seek to create that?

The not-so-glamorous mustang challenge!

2009-03-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm guessing most of my readers know at least one well-intentioned person who has horses in need of training growing progressively older in their backyard. While they're not abusing the horses, and the horses are well-fed, no training is being accomplished - or poor training has resulted in the horses training the people. I recently agreed to help out someone like this. Yes, money was involved, and I've only agreed to do ground work.

The horses are mustangs and while I think that some are quite nice looking and good-moving, they have just been pets for their entire lives. They kinda sorta lead. They are mostly friendly and like sugar cubes. That's about it. So about two weeks ago, I started working with two of them.

The Good Mustang apparently had some ground work way back when, and he is not stupid. He seeks out human interaction and is interested in what you are doing. His past training consisted of being ponied on a trail ride without and then with a rider (he was good for that) and then one ride in the arena (he blew and hurt someone). So of course we are going back to square one and filling in the blanks.

He is the personality type that tests you, but he's quick to learn. The first time I had him out of his pen, he got tired of standing still and shoved me in the stomach with his nose. He got bopped in the nose once and there has not been one single repeat of that behavior so I've decided he's pretty smart. He already ties without incident, longes both directions, knows "ho" although he's a little lazy about it (drops to a walk rather than a halt - so we are working on a sharper response) and is generally doing very well. He started out extremely distractable - he would look at everything but me and had a most annoying habit of craning his neck to look at spooky things and barging his shoulder into me as though I was not there. He has been poked in the shoulder a lot with my elbow, and does seem to be improving steadily with work. He's actually a very good mover. Overall, I really like him. I think another week and he'll be ready to start wearing a bit and long-lining. I'm not really anticipating any major problems with this guy - I think his previous explosion was merely due to a lack of consistent ground work before riding was introduced. He was scared and he reacted as you'd expect.

Then there's the Spooky Sorrel Paint. Not quite as sharp and has no interest in humans. Every vibe I get from him says "throw me hay and leave me the F alone." Clearly much more unhandled than the other, this guy took a week of work in his pen before I felt comfortable bringing him out. He started out deathly terrified of having me stand on his off side. He would turn himself into a pretzel to try to keep me on the "safe" side but I persisted, doing annoying things like standing in his stall while he ate and brushing the "scary" side until he pretty much got over it. He is still very spooky of the ear on that side - wondering if someone has eared him in the past, though earing on the off side sounds odd. Usually if people do that, they do it on the near side and as a result the horse is spooky about the left ear.

SSP leads but doesn't back. Backing is completely new, so we're working on that. He also doesn't move away from pressure at all - he's not panicky but he's like a tree stump. "Over" means nothing in his world, so we have a lot of work to do.

I brought him into the arena yesterday and let him loose to play in a much bigger area than he normally has. He was fine about letting me catch him, which was a nice surprise. You longtime readers know that we have a converted barn with a solid fence in the middle of the arena so we usually tie horses to that for grooming and tacking. I knew he might not tie, so I just threw the lead over the fence and walked around to the other side. I held the rope wrapped around the side of one of the big beams so that if he moved out of the range of the lead, he'd feel resistance against the beam but he wasn't really tied. I just wanted to see what he'd do when faced with a little pressure on his head but I was holding him the whole time.

Well, I was glad I was on the other side of the fence as we got a performance worthy of the Royal Lippizan Stallions. It was interesting. He'd stand quietly and not even act scared, then all of a sudden - walking on his hind legs. And I mean, straight up, Hi-Ho Silver rear. I was holding him so I would give and take but not let go. He would settle and stand - again, not acting scared or shaky or white-eyed - just like he was contemplating his next move. And then suddenly - a rear with a huge leap through the air.

As I say, I was glad I was on the other side of the fence. I could give and take but there was a lot of solid wood keeping me out of hoof range. I wasn't bracing the lead against anything anymore - just moving with him but not letting go. He threw his fit, then settled, then another fit, then more settling. Finally he stood for a little longer than he had before and I pet him, unsnapped the lead and let him go. Amusingly, he stood right where he was "tied" until I left the arena.

I've dealt with these kind of theatrics before in a spoiled older horse (and worse - at least this guy isn't aggressive or charging me), but this is a little different as I know SSP simply never learned his A-B-C's in the first place. I'd like to rig something up to tie him from above as I think that's the least traumatic introduction to tying. I've been around long enough to remember the days when we tied them to a tree with one of those one-piece poly cow halters and let them fight, but I'd like to think we can teach tying a little less violently these days! So my new challenge is how to rig something up that works - something that won't break but has some give. Your suggestions are welcomed.

By the way, I'm not so sure it's as much about tying as it is about being away from his herd. I will bet I could tie him in his pen and he wouldn't care, but in the arena his whole focus is on getting out of the arena and back to his friends. If he's loose, he stands at the gate trying to dig a hole to freedom unless I flag him off. Did I mention he was gelded late? Yeah, that too. And he led like a lamb going back to his friends so, again, I think the herd-boundness is the main issue here.

So after the boys, it was a real pleasure to work with Sly. She is so smart! She long lines both in a circle and on the wall now. We just started doing it with a bit, so she's adapting to that and fussing a bit but that's to be expected. She's gotten so much less reactive to things and can do the most gorgeous little jog in the long-lines. She doesn't seem to care at all about the lines anymore. (Her owner reminded me that she had a bad accident and got her hind legs caught in New Zealand Wire fence years ago, so she really might have had a good excuse to be so scared of the long lines at first). I was really impressed with her last night since one of my landlord's cows was right up by the arena and the cow spooked at her, and while she spooked, she did it in place - she didn't really go anywhere. Big improvement from when I started working with her and she'd try to bolt on the longe line.

'course, mares are just smarter. *ducks tomatoes from gelding owners*

Who else hates this time of year?

2009-03-09T17:46:00.001-07:00

I'm just gonna whine!

I hate it. I want it to be May. I want to be able to go outside and use the round pen. I want to be able to haul horses to another arena to ride without worrying that the roads will be slippery. And I'm ready for the horses to shed - I am tired of having long-haired, filthy yaks!

We have mud and intermittent snow here. Our indoor arena has not yet completely recovered from the flood damage, so it is nice in some spots and way too deep in others. Sly, the buckskin Paint mare, reacts to hitting a deep spot by freaking out and scrambling so I am hesitant to continue her under-saddle training until we get the arena in better shape, so I've introduced her to long-lining. I thought she was kind of spooky about it the first time until I learned that her actual first time doing it, a year or so ago, she flipped out completely. So now I decided that the fact that I got her going around both directions in a reasonably controlled manner to be a success, and we'll keep working on that. She is terrified of the rope being near or around her butt, so we will work up to that - for now, I am letting it just lay over her saddle.

We are sticking to walk and jog. She needs to learn that it is OK to walk - I like for horses to have a solid walk on the longe line and she thinks you need to go out there right away and charge around - which I think is pretty common. Lots of people ignore walking and it's not just the NH-ey round penning set - I see plenty of hunters that think you go out on the longe line and run around like a fool. I hate that. I want 3 good, reasonably controlled gaits on the longe, just like any other time. Fortunately she is a smart mare and is catching on quickly!

I also want to introduce her to ponying, so I'm going to try to put some riding on a very well broke, huge Appy gelding that we have here as I think he'll tolerate the idea of being ponied off of. He is Mr. Personality - big as a house, so big that he looks part draft even though he isn't. I have renamed him the Moosealoosa. :-)

All my others are fine except for my 35+ year old, Clover, who had to be put to sleep last week. She just got to that point where her balance was going and even though she was still "cleaning her plate" and looked good, it was obvious she was going to go down at some point and not be able to get back up. She was a free Craigslist horse two years ago, thrown away by a girl who wanted "a young horse who could go fast" and "didn't know why she was so skinny" (she was long past any ability to chew hay, and was starving to death). She ate hay pellet mush with me for a little over two years and died looking like you see below. That's my idea of a happy ending!

The "big horse, big mover" issue

2009-02-15T10:04:00.000-08:00

I know someone who has a lovely horse. Sixteen hands, buckskin, sweet and a lovely mover. However, prior to her ownership, he had two speeds:

1) stop
2) go fast

She has put some training into him, and he has done very well but the problem she is still having is that he just feels big underneath her. He launches into gaits with an enthusiasm that is scary to sit on and she's having trouble making herself relax and not instinctively tighten up on his mouth. Her dressage instructor loves him - but this is a woman who rides warmbloods all day!

My friend is far from a wimp or a beginner. She trail rides all over on a hot-tempered Arabian mare who would be difficult for the average person to get along with. She's shown on the national level. But her previous horses, like the Arabian, have had very collected gaits. Getting used to a huge stride is proving to be challenging and intimidating.

I think this is a pretty common problem! We've all ridden big horses that don't feel big because of how well they collect. I've been lucky with the VLC that he doesn't have a big stride and his transitions have always been quiet, if on the lazy side, so I quickly became comfortable on him. By the same token, I'm pretty sure that if I got on something his size that had the great big step or the super-springy trot (you know the one I mean - the one where you constantly have to remind yourself "post low, relax, absorb" because the gait is launching you skyward), I'd be a lot less comfortable too.

So who has got a horse like that and what guidance can you offer for adjusting and adapting?

An interesting offshoot - who has a horse right now that is totally different from what you "normally" own - i.e. you've always been a QH person and now you bought yourself an Icelandic, or you've had Arabians up til now but just purchased a 17 hand part-draft? I think this stuff can be particularly challenging for people who've pretty much always owned their own horses rather than gone through the "I'll ride anything" phase that so many of us experienced as horseless teenagers in large lesson/training barns.

And some updates - the breath-holding Thoroughbred has relaxed quite a bit. Apparently you can touch him on the "scary" side of his neck just fine as long as you are feeding him a cookie with the other hand. Uh-huh. Breath-holding TB below. Reg. name Extinguisher, foaled 2003, rescued from Enumclaw kill pen late 2008.

The Drama pony I've talked about before is going to her first schooling show two weekends from now, so it'll be exciting to see her progress. I turned her over to a more size-appropriate person for jumping and she has been doing fabulously.

The VLC is doing fine - holding up sound after his October stifle injury and continuing to be ridden and fitted up for training. You all know what a stickler I am for conditioning so there's no way he'll go out until I know he can work a very solid 20-25 minutes without strain. That shouldn't take more than another month though, so we're getting close.

I rode Thai's My Mama, the old broodmare, last weekend and she was great. 100% sound and bright and well-behaved and eager to work. I can't believe I finally rescued something sound. She's technically available for adoption, because I really shouldn't keep the sound ones, but I won't cry if she doesn't leave. Still, if you have a thing for old but rideable, personable red mares, feel free to contact me! She would be a gift contract to the right reference and site checked home. No special needs, but she's a wimp and would do best living with another wimp.

I believe Lucy may have a home...she "picked her person out"...after almost a year of turning up her nose at myself and pretty much everybody else who has tried to work with her, and continuing to be hard-to-catch, snorty and distrustful, she went right to the farm owner's adult son where she is boarded and decided he was her new person. She loves him and walks right up to him. Go figure. I am waiting 'til he gets a chance to ride her and make sure they get along before I am calling this a done deal, but things are looking very good for her. I would love it as she loves the "herd" there and fits in very well and it would mean she'd stay with her friends.

I rode Bessie again a few days ago. She had a bad case of scratches that put her out of commission for awhile but the hair is growing back and she's not painful anymore, so I just got on her for a little walk around. I hadn't yet introduced her to a bit when I rode her last summer, and I think she's gotten away with being difficult for bridling since then as she really did her best to evade me. They have a very nice Mylar "comfort snaffle" on her and she doesn't seem to mind it once it's on - she's just objecting to the process. So, that's one thing to work on. She's still the same old Bessie though - very quiet - always going to be the type not to get excited about anything that isn't an alfalfa flake!

The flooded mess around here has subsided and the arena is almost rideable again, so I will get back to work with Sly and am looking forward to that. I'm also going to put some rides, weather permitting, on my friend's rescued large POA pony, shown below. She got her from the Chehalis auction last fall - I believe she failed to receive a bid - and spent the next few months putting manners on the competely mannerless pony, who would literally run you over. The good news is that the issues were all on the ground. Once that was fixed, she turned out to be a lovely riding pony. She is a packer on the trails, has super comfy gaits, a good mouth and absolutely no riding vices. The only thing we need to do is finish her canter - she'll canter nicely on trails but is lazy about holding her gait in an arena situation. This is definitely a pony that could come out of rescue to have a very successful show career with a little more work, and it'll be fun to help with that. (Yes, I know, the mane is hideous and needs professional help!)

The rest of mine are just sitting and eating, their favorite things! I did decide I'm going to sell my two year old palomino Appendix gelding this year, but I'm wary of doing so because of the fear that someone will break him out immediately. I'm going to take some time to shine and slick him up and try to find a nice, like-minded, sporthorse type person for him later in the spring. You never know what someone will do once you sell, but I know I'm not the only person who doesn't believe in starting two year olds, so I'm hoping that the right person will come along. His potential is going to be as a jumper or eventer, and those are things I'm never going to do so I need to find someone who will be able to use and enjoy him.

Holding my breath until I turn blue!

2009-02-02T09:18:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine has this huge (17 hh!) Thoroughbred gelding that was rescued from Enumclaw two sales ago. He is very sweet but very nervous around new people. I haltered him and led him out to the turnout and spent some time petting him.

After a while, he let out a huge sigh. My friend explained to me that around new people, he holds his breath until he is sure it is going to be okay. He wasn't trying to get away from me. He didn't show the whites of his eyes. He did everything I told him to - but he was holding his breath the whole time.

Anybody ever have a horse that did this? He's an interesting puzzle. We know he was broke at the track but didn't race, probably at 2. He's 5 now. He is generally quiet and low-energy and not reactive but he looks at all new people like they are going to eat him. Once he knows you, he is great. We are rehabbing his feet at present from some very serious cracks so it will be a while before we try to do any serious work with him but the ground work will continue until then.

What's your learning style?

2009-01-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

I was just talking about this with a friend.

Everybody has different learning styles. I learn by doing, which traditionally has made me an underachieving student. I can't sit in a lecture for two hours and pay attention, but I can do things like teach myself CGI by looking at it and experimenting.

This has carried over to riding. I read Mugwump's wonderful descriptions of how to do certain things, and I think that I will try some of them, but in reality I can't imagine how I'd remember what she said without notes in front of my face while I'm actually on the horse! For me, books or videos could never be a great teaching tool - I need to learn in a very hands-on way, with someone telling me when it looks right so that I learn to recognize the feeling. (I also love riding with mirrors - what a great and helpful idea, especially for people like me who feel correct when they're doing it wrong - i.e. leaning too far forward instead of sitting upright!)

Sometimes I think an instructor has to play around with different methods to figure out a student. I've had people where I had to get on the horse and show them, and voila, they caught on. I've had others where the right analogy worked wonders (imagine an invisible cord hanging you from the ceiling to the top of your hunt cap - that's how straight your back should feel) or really simple ones for kids ("noodle" arms that are soft and give, not stiff like an uncooked macaroni).

Sometimes you really need to feel things. I still remember the instructor who finally fixed my inability to get the better of the school horse who "rooted." She stood in front of me and pulled on my reins, hard. I flopped forward. Then she went to the side and gently pushed my shoulders back until they were behind my hip bones, and repeated the exercise. Amazing! I didn't get pulled forward. From that moment on, I "got it" and was able to correct the rooter and keep him on the rail.

So what's your learning style? What has created the a-ha moment for you?

I hate to waste much space when a simple spritz of Troll-B-Gone will do, but all of the Troll Questions have been covered before: (a) the whole point of this blog was to address that many people can and do ride with fear and that it shouldn't stop you from reaching your goals, nor should it be an embarrassment or something that you have to hide from everybody. If not for that whole point, it would honestly not be all that interesting to read a simple training log about a colt who quite frankly has been so fricken' easy that it's sometimes hard to figure out what to write about. Mugwump's hot-headed cowhorse mare makes for a MUCH better story! (b) I have never bred the VLC and certainly cannot be held responsible for the fencing he was turned out on prior to my ownership. (c) I don't believe in riding 2 year olds anymore - yes I used to do it - and will never do it again or pay for it to be done (d) if the VLC does not prove himself in the show ring, he will become a VLG. He doesn't have forever to do this. One show season should suffice. He is either going to be competitive, or not and the only opinions I care about are those of the AQHA judges since those are the opinions that determine whether or not any future foals would be marketable. (e) If you think a coming 4 year old is over the hill and it's "too late" for him to have a successful show career, our opinions on working young horses are so diametrically opposed that we're destined to think the other is an idiot no matter what other discussion takes place. If you think a 4 year old is done growing, you need to read more of Deb Bennett's work. (f) the VLC is a grandson of a Superior Halter Horse/World Show Top Ten/High Point Halter Horse and his dam is a mare who is a full sibling to an AQHA Versatility Horse of the Year with over 2000 points in a wide variety of events - from halter to barrel racing to WP. If that isn't good enough breeding for you, ok, we have different standards but I certainly haven't contradicted myself and my previously stated standards. I have said that I like to see some kind of significant accomplishment in the first three generations - not further back. I have that. End of discussion, at least on my end. I could buy Indian Artifacts or Invitation Only tomorrow and there are people who would say they were POS's because they don't like the Fugly blog. That's why I'm happy to let the judges decide - they're the only opinions that matter. (And now I can link back to this blog entry the next time people bring up the same half-dozen questions that have already been answered...)

Small victories, and learning by doing

2009-01-24T08:46:00.000-08:00

All of you in the chickenshit re-rider group will appreciate this...this week I was told to get on a 4 year old OTTB in a large outdoor arena and I did not balk. I just got on him and he was fine, ha ha. Actually he was kind of lazy! So that's my small victory. What's yours?

Regarding the VLC training debate - funny how life works. I was in somebody else's barn watching her trainer work a young stallion who was giving her grief. The trainer never got mad. She never got frustrated. She was never inconsistent. I don't think she even said anything which impresses me as I admit I'm one that talks to the horses constantly and growls at them when they are doing something wrong. She got the same results with body language. So the VLC is going to her, and no, at this point I'm not naming names. You will all see who is showing him when he shows, ha ha. Suffice it to say I finally got a really good vibe about someone. And I was only incidentally in the barn with her - she did not know I was a prospective customer, so I know what I saw is the reality of how she works.

Regarding the baby Moose...none of us were born knowing how to work with a baby. I learned in the late 80s because I was working off my board at a barn that wanted me to longe their AQHA yearlings. This was in the era before round pens, LOL - at least they weren't as common as they are today. This barn did not have one. I had to go out to the large indoor arena and convince previously barely halter broke babies that they wanted to longe. This resembles water skiing behind the Road Runner as Wile E. Coyote is chasing him. I learned about body language and placement not because I watched a video or went to a clinic but by trial and error. If I was in the right place, I could get the baby to keep going around. If I failed, the baby typically did something like charge into the middle straight at me. Fun, fun! Babies bolted off down the wall and I had to practically sit down to hold them to the circle. It was the baby rodeo but it did teach me how to longe.

Around the same time, someone helpfully gave me a completely unhandled yearling as a thank-you for helping him to sell a show horse. Gee, thanks! His name was Tex and he'd been thrown in on a deal with another horse. They weaned him by chasing him into a horse trailer and hauling him from Texas to Wisconsin, where he was chased into a box stall...where he sat until I came along.

Well, he was mine now, so I decided I'd better do something about him. I was young and in the barn all day, so I hung out. I hung out in his stall with a grain bucket. He came to me after a few days or weeks...I can't remember now how long it took. I got a halter on him and we practiced leading inside the stall until we got it right. One thing I remember is that I wasn't in a hurry and I think that was the most important part. We worked on picking up feet. I hung a clippers next to his grain with baling twine so he got used to the buzzing in his ears.

Shortly thereafter, he caught his jaw on something in the stall, probably a bucket hook, and tore quite a hole in the underside of it. I had to hose it out really well daily. When the barn owner saw him standing quietly in the cross ties letting me hose his face, I thought she was going to fall over. It really hadn't taken that long. I rehomed him as a two year old. He saddled, bridled, clipped, longed, ponied, loaded, stood tied to the trailer and basically had everything done but riding. I saw him a year later at our local big rodeo - he was carrying a flag for the grand entrance, as a three year old. The lady was just thrilled with him and said he'd been the easiest horse she'd ever broke out.

I was so proud of that little guy, but in retrospect he taught me way more than I taught him. And the Moose and his difficult moments will teach his mom much more about feel and timing and body language than any clinic or video or instructor ever could. All she's got to do is pay attention all the time...to what works, to what doesn't work. Watch his eye. Watch his ears. Is he cooperative and soft or pissy or confused and apprehensive? Is his attention on you, or on the other horses down the road? You don't have to accomplish everything immediately. There's nothing wrong with isolating him in the stall or round pen and working on basics...ho means ho, stand where you are put, pick up feet, clip your bridle path, etc.

Get it all down in a safe, enclosed space first before you try to take the show on the road and remember, everything is stupider in a cold wind, even thirty year olds! (Admit it, everybody - you've been taken for an unplanned ice skating session by a 25+ year old who was feeling goooood in an icy wind! I know I have.)

And always remember...anyone who never has a doubt about whether or not they are doing the right thing with a horse is probably a complete asshole. Every good trainer that you will ever talk to will admit to moments where they realize they could have handled a behavior better, reacted differently, or tried something else. I mean, I can tell you things like "when they start running around you in circles, the next thing they do is duck in and try to come over the top of you, so have your elbow ready to block them" but that's also something you'll learn by doing. You learn by doing and the more of them you handle, the more you learn. Some day, it really will come easy!

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

2009-01-19T08:11:00.000-08:00

Lots of updates!

The VLC is back to 100% sound after a regimen of handwalking, hand-backing and longeing on a big circle with lots of walk-trot transitions, so I finally got to ride him a few days ago and was reminded again how much I love him! He hasn't been ridden since October, I think, and he stood perfectly still for mounting and did not move off until I asked (hooray! That was a tough thing for him to learn last year, but it stuck!). He then walked off on a loose rein, ignored the other horse in the arena and generally rode just like he always did. He was so lazy that I had to threaten him with the rein ends to get a jog but that's typical with him - he fires up as he gets fit. When he is unfit, he is a marshmallow who just wants to walk. Personally, as an older, chickenshit rider, I think that is a FINE, FINE, FINE quality! It's great to know that any time he has to be laid off and not work, he will come back LAZY. The rehab period had another nice benefit - he has learned to back on a perfectly straight line, as well as back around circles and corners and make turns. I think we've inadvertently set him up for trail class!

Now of course I'm back to the original dilemma...training for his show career. Wouldn't you know it, the trainer I liked sends horses to ... *sigh* Cleve Wells. Now, that person may be completely innocent and not know anything about him other than that he's a big name and wins. The trainer I like is a long, long, long way away from Cleve. Still, now I am nervous again. I imagine what I would do to someone who put spur tracks on MY colt or broke HIS jaw and I'm pretty sure I would go to jail for it.

Friend #1 says to send him to a dressage trainer. While I can find one of those who isn't abusive, you guys have all seen my VLC (pic below for those who may not have). He just isn't built for it. He's built for AQHA pleasure. That's his niche. That's what will come easy to him.

Friend #2 says send him to the original trainer. I saw nothing wrong in that person's barn (true, I was VERY impressed and didn't see ANY unhappy, thin or marked-up horses) and we all have some shitty friends (also true! I would not like to be judged based upon everybody I've ever come into contact with in the horse world. I worked for some eeevil bastards in my youth.). But he'd be far enough away at Original Trainer's that I couldn't check on him all the time and I am just too nervous. And I don't want to be anybody's paranoid, pain in the ass, nightmare client, either. If I'm not 100% comfortable, I'm sure we'll both be happier if I just don't do it.

Friend #3 says to just do it myself. I've noted before that my major reasoning for not doing it myself is (a) I have a lot to learn - I haven't shown in so many years that, back then, we were still "seesawing" to get head set and (b) I have bad show nerves. I don't always think logically, I make mistakes because I rush things like transitions, and if we get to the point of jumping, forget it because I don't see distance well enough to make a horse look pretty. My horse deserves better than that.

So now I am toying with a variation on #3...I am going to meet with a possible trainer this week and see if I can put him there, take lessons on him a lot and do most of the riding myself, and then have her ride him for shows. If she is comfortable with that, it might be a compromise that I can live with.

I've also decided that at some point this year (might be spring, might be fall, we'll see how other things work out), I want to send him out to a friend in Eastern Washington and have her guys put 30 or 60 days on him just using him on the ranch. He LOVES cows and he LOVES to herd things, despite his size. He herds the smaller gelding he is turned out with. He is way too big to ever cut and I don't think he has the acceleration to rope, but I think that mentally, he would absolutely love the experience and it would make him into the sort of solid, do-anything trail horse that even I would like to trail ride.

And yes, I will start calling him the VLS...in May when he actually is! For now, he's still a three year old to me. :-)

I'm curious, who has a horse in training or going to training this year? How did you decide on a trainer? How much information do YOU need to feel comfortable that your horse will be safe and that you will get what you pay for?

The Big Gold Yearling (hey, he's not two til March 4th!) is out to pasture with a TB colt and they are enjoying their life of rolling in the mud and biting each other in the neck. I'm thrilled because the TB likes to RUN and that has gotten my colt into a lot better shape without putting him into a formal work program. The eternally ribby, gawky yearling look has gone away and now he's round with a butt and some muscle tone! He's still growing like a weed. I think he's going to be bigger than the VLC. He'll come back home this summer and get to work learning to be ponied and wear tack.

I am hoping that Thai (above), who is still out rehabbing with KarenV, will be amenable to being used as a pony horse. My goal with her is to fit her up, teach her to neck rein and use her for that. She's sound and normal weight now thanks to Karen - just waiting for spring to bring her back to this side of the mountains and put her to work!

Lucy has an admirer! Lucy, the Crabby Old Bat, and the yearling are all pasture boarded at the same place, and the lady's adult son loves Lucy. Lucy, surprisingly, loves him too. She is still very wary of most people but will let this big guy come right up and catch her. He is going to ride her when weather permits and see what he thinks. Cross your fingers - Lucy really needs a person of her own! She also just loves the pasture board life - she thrives on it and has no trouble holding good weight in a herd. She would very much like to stay right in the herd she's with, and if he adopts her, she will. For now, she is muddy and happy and probably the most relaxed that I have seen her since we got her. All efforts to ID her have failed - her tattoo is simply too illegible. We know she is 15 this year and that's all we know. Lucy is below. Love that front end. Jeez, people, who bred that? She's 100% sound, though!

The Crabby Old Bat is also muddy, happy and delighting in the fact that she gets to rule a small herd again. I tried keeping her separate with Lucy and Belle and she would have none of it. She needed to rule over the barn owner's geldings and walked through the fence repeatedly until we gave up and let her. Now she is happy. She has a 17 hand Seattle Slew bred OTTB gelding for a boyfriend, and the two of them hang out together and kick anybody else who dares to come near. She's also the best weight I've ever seen her, and I credit a lot of that to finding really mud-free pasture for her this winter. Even with all of the rain we've had, the place she's at is high and mostly dry - it runs off right down to the road - there's mud but none of the deep, sucking stuff that aggravates her old joints and causes her to drop weight from pain.

Belle and Clover are with another friend as Belle wasn't doing well out with Lucy and Buffy. Belle isn't a "herd horse" - she likes to be treated like a princess. Her teeth are so poor even after a floating and extractions that we have switched her to alfalfa pellet mush along with Clover. The two of them live together and gimp around happily, waiting for their slaves to bring them their warm mush! I actually dewormed them the other day without drama from Belle. That is a first. She normally rears, strikes and makes a huge drama out of it. Maybe you can teach an old dog - or an old-ex-broodmare - new tricks!

My January training project is going to be my February training project. Sly finally returned from the fairgrounds but our arena is still too wet to use. I may try to do some ground work in the gravel parking lot, but for the most part, training is simply pushed forward to whenever I have a safe place to ride again.

I went out to visit Libby, the VLC's filly from last year. She is in that gawky yearling stage and gave me a little grief about catching but after that, she was wonderful. She stood quietly tied to the fence and let us pick up her feet, groom her and shampoo her tail. She's much more "huntseat-y" looking than her dam and I think she's going to turn out pretty cool!

That's my update. How is everybody else doing? How's my baby moose? :-)

Training on hold but Sly is a star!

2009-01-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

Here she is on the KOMO TV site:

http://www.komonews.com/news/37488089.html

We are still recovering from the flood and I still can't ride. They did have "open riding" tonight at the fairgrounds where our refugees currently reside but I did not think that "open riding" was a good place for Sly's third ride, LOL.

So we'll pick back up when we have a story to tell!

P.S. I can't watch things like "open riding." OMG. Lady on the little sorrel with her ears pinned, she's pissy because she is LAME, stop snapping her in the face...she is crossfiring because she is LAME LAME LAME. Arrrrgggghhhh...

Click!

2009-01-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

Just came in from having a great session with Sly. This was #3 and today it all clicked. She figured out that I wanted her to keep going in a circle and resisted the urge to stop and fly backward just because she was on the "open" ends (some of you may recall that our home arena is divided by a fence in the middle, so it's like having a round pen on two sides of your longeing circle and open on the other two sides - otherwise known as "temptation" for green horses who think they might want to go somewhere other than a nice round circle!) She walked on the longe today without trying to break into a jog. She jogged when asked, without any of the jumpiness and snorting that had characterized longeing sessions #1 and #2. In fact, she didn't even snort once.

I did have another horse tied in the arena today. I noticed that Sly gets very distracted and upset when she's alone, and the other filly needed a tying lesson anyway, so we brought her in. Sly was definitely more able to focus on work with another horse in sight. We have about a half-dozen Thoroughbred mares who could use patience lessons, so we'll just call this "killing two birds with one stone." Yes, horses need to learn to work alone, but they also need to learn to work with other horses around so I don't really care which they learn first and, actually, having to ignore a Thoroughbred filly having a hissy fit and pulling back is probably a good learning experience. (She is a smart filly. She only did it once; when it did not work, she abandoned the idea.)

We also worked on "ho." This mare knows to stop when you give a sharp pull on the longe but there's no voice command associated with that. If you don't pull, you could ho-ho-ho like Santa Claus and get no response. I want a verbal "ho" installed on a horse. I want a "ho" that means, you slide stop and plant your feet no matter what - even if the headstall broke, even if you are really scared, even if you are pretty sure you do want to jump off that cliff in front of you. I want emergency brakes that work pretty darn reliably, so I am working on installing them now!

This reminds me of a funny story. The first time I ever went to a real hunter horseshow, after growing up at a polo barn, I thought the horses were just terribly mannered and I couldn't understand why they were winning. The reason? They all took so long to stop! I had grown up on horses who slide-stopped on "ho" or when you drove your seat into the saddle and squeezed with your thighs. I couldn't imagine why it would take a horse several steps to stop cantering (or to start cantering, for that matter). I had never ridden a horse who lugged on the bit and slowly ground to a halt. They all looked barely green-broke to me. Ha ha, culture shock!

Who else had a major "WTF" experience the first time they saw a riding style very different from what they were raised with? What looked weird to you (or still looks weird?)

Back in the saddle!

2008-12-31T13:27:00.000-08:00

I just got off a horse! For you diehard blog readers, this is kind of surprising since I haven't gotten on a horse since the ride on Lucy that I detailed in November. Between bad roads and bad schedules (I won't get on green horses unless someone else is at the barn), I have done a whole lot of mucking and bucket-cleaning and zero riding.

Today we finally got everybody's schedule together thanks to the holiday, so I was able to start working with Sly. Sly (reg. name One Sly Private Eye) is a buckskin tobiano APHA mare who was rescued as a weanling from a PMU farm in Canada. Her training history is a crazy story, but not that unusual. She was sent out for 90 days of training as a three year old. She returned, and someone got on her who admittedly did not do the smartest thing and gave her a boot in the ribs.

Sly, somewhat understandably, took off bucking. Her owner called the trainer, who said, and I quote "well, I never rode her with a saddle."

*sigh*

Since that time, Sly's mom has ridden her with a saddle at a walk and jog in the round pen without incident. That was a few months ago and now, again thanks to the weather which necessitated 30 horses living in the indoor arena here til the flood went down, she has been vegetating and eating for a few more months. She's my new project, starting today. I started off with some basics, just longeing both directions. She started off perfectly and then decided to see if she could stop and back up instead. Of course, the only way to correct this is to get yourself behind the point of their shoulder again and urge them forward, so she would start backing and I would scoot to where I could get her forward again. A few verbal corrections and finally I gave her the butt-smack she was asking for. Amazingly, she instantly remembered how to longe nicely without stopping up and backing. Uh-huh. We had a good laugh about that. She has a good "ho" although not quite AS fast a response as I like. We will be working on that.

She knows how to back and she moves away from pressure on both sides, faster on the right side. I tested that out some before getting on her, mindful of the kicking --> bucking incident, but she's not that sensitive. The guy must have really booted her a good one. I got on her today and just got led around and then longed at the walk. I like doing that as we can reinforce the going-forward thing on both ends - she tried to stop and back a few times and both got leg and encouragement from the ground. Worked great. What I was particularly excited about is that we reversed and she did a nice little half-turn - stepped right around, crossing over. Some of them would happily let you drag them on a half-circle to reverse like you're turning a riding mower. I like it when the lateral moves come so naturally.
Last night I went to visit Bessie, the ex-broodmare I worked with this summer. She has now had a few weeks of additional training and is solid at the walk and trot. Monica says cantering is not exactly her idea of fun yet - she said she will lope a few strides and then balk. However, apparently she can't buck to save her life because she is too big and unwieldy (I believe that - this is a moose of a halter bred mare, she wears a 54 huntseat girth!) so it is more funny than anything else when she tries. She is doing very well and is on track for her owner, Sydney, to show in 4-H this year. Here she is in her stall, which is covered with Christmas decorations!

I also saw another happy ending rescue at Bessie's barn. Seven in the Tropics came off the track this year with a blown suspensory. It looks great now, and he is on track for an eventing career. He was bored to death on stall rest, so his teenage owner started teaching him tricks. When you say "show us your ID," he flips his lip to reveal his racing tattoo. How cute is that?

There's also a particularly cool Thoroughbred there looking for a home. He is over 17 hands, 10 years old, bay, personable and sound. I am told he is a nice boy to ride. I might go try him out myself (not for me, but just so I can tell you all what he's like). He's looking for a good home "make an offer" so if you are around Seattle and looking for a bargain on a new dressage or low-level event prospect, contact me and come check him out.

The VLC is back to work and he also started a very important lesson this week - clipper training! This had been delayed as the clippers had fallen into one of those black holes in the barn. The harder we looked, the more we couldn't find them until finally they chose to reappear :-) He was fine as soon as he realized clipping was going to happen in conjunction with cookie feeding. He is extremely food motivated. He would walk across a bridge with flames at both sides if you had an alfalfa flake on the other side.

So that's my update. Have the rest of you been riding over the holidays, or have you let it slide?

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T17:46:00.001-08:00

Well, I don't have much to talk about. With the recent blizzards, the VLC's progress has come to a screeching halt because I can't get out to the barn he's at. I haven't made it further than the grocery store in over a week.

For those of you in the Midwest or East coast who think I am a wussy, let me explain what happens when it snows in the PNW:

Nothing.

Yes, that's right. Because it's such an infrequent occurrence, we are not set up for it and so nothing gets plowed, salted or sanded. It just sits there on the road. Everything closes up and you are expected to simply stay home. So, despite three decades mostly in Wisconsin and good winter driving skills, this time I am stuck. I am assured that the VLC is fine and that a friend actually made him a nice hot mash with peppermints in it the other day. He goes out in the indoor with the geldings and they play tarp tug-o-war. Well, the other gelding is trying to teach it to him. He hasn't quite caught on yet, and simply drops it and lets the other guy have it. He's not the most competitive, ha ha.

*shrug* What can you do? Can't fight Mother Nature! The VLC blog will return when the weather cooperates and he can get his furry oversized butt back to work. For those who missed this in the comments, he's been seen by the vet and put back to work - slow conditioning, backing up in hand and hill work if we can find a hill (nothing on the property, unfortunately). It was his stifle, as I thought, plus he was a little bit out in the hip so that got fixed. He also needs work on neck flexibility so he was prescribed carrot stretches. The VLC thinks the vet-chiropractor was like the best idea ever.

So that's it for now - Hope you and your horses are having a wonderful holiday season!

Cross your fingers...

2008-12-09T01:02:00.000-08:00

I finally got the vet I wanted (the vet who is also a chiropractor) scheduled to see the VLC and hopefully figure out what is going on with his very mild left hind lameness. We discussed it on the phone and she thought he might be out in the back which honestly would not surprise me as he is a big goofy dork and does things like jump sideways on to his gelding friends and fall off, and he has been doing things like that as long as I have known him. So, please cross your fingers that we can resolve this and get his big furry butt off to training ASAP!

In the meantime, allow me to introduce my next project. Sly is a young buckskin and white APHA mare who had 30 days of training on her a year or two ago. I am assured she did not make any effort to kill anyone during that process and that she will welcome further training. :-) She is a very sweet and people-friendly mare, and we have always gotten along well, so I'm looking forward to working with her. Her bloodlines look like she ought to be interested in cows, so I am hoping that is true because I'd like to do a lot more of that stuff myself. I'm dying to have my own cutting horse but that is probably several years down the road, so in the meantime I'd be very happy indeed if I had something I could go team sorting on, and Sly might be it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

And here is your dose of cuteness...the VLC's son Bullwinkle. That's the barn owner where he lives with him, not his owner, but you can sure see how fast he's growing! He was the LAST colt of the season at his breeder's so this is not an early one...I will bet he's going to be bigger than his dad. I am so thankful he found a great home - look at that lovely fence. He is also out with another colt now for which I am equally thankful. They really do need buddies their own age!

So, I'm still working on the web site and still not riding but I can give updates on previous horses I've talked about here. The VLC is still a little off and doesn't mind it a bit. I have so far played nothing but phone tag with the vet that is also a chiro, but I really want her because, after all, why not call the vet who is also a chiro and kill two birds with one stone? Also, my friends think she's a goddess. So I'm still trying. He doesn't mind the layoff a bit. He is entertaining himself playing with his gelding friend and doing things like systematically pulling bags out of the trash and throwing them all over (I always forget he's THAT big and he can reach over fencing the other horses can't and cause mayhem). I haven't been able to blanket him as heavily as I probably should, because I'm always worried he'll get hot during the day when I'm not there, so he's only wearing a lightweight one and has haired up like a yak. Could be the next thing we'll be teaching when he is sound is bodyclipping!

For VLC fans who would like one just like him, but a gelding, I noticed Clyde is for sale. Clyde is a 17 hand gelding by the VLC's sire and he is reportedly the quiet, willing, trail safe gelding of your dreams. Registered AQHA, not sure if he's PHBA but he could be. The pictures show they are not exaggerating his size!

Lucy may be going out to a friend of mine who has a daughter who can ride anything - we're working on that. It has not worked out for me to do anything with her because, due to conflicting work schedules, no one is ever around to be a ground person for me and I'm just plain not getting on a horse who is squirrely to mount and dismount without a ground person. Friend's barn has ever-present trainer and lots of other people always around. We are still trying to ID Lucy and I have submitted a search to the Thoroughbred Protective Racing Bureau which is known to get results where the Jockey Club can't.

Bessie had her VLC filly, Libby, weaned off of her and neither one cared. Bessie then headed out for training with Monica Stephens who will be finishing her under saddle. Apparently the month I put in messing around with her with wild filly at side was completely adequate for Bessie to think she was broke, if not going to work too hard at it - her new kid has been riding her all around the home property, sometimes double with friends. Yes, with helmets. Bessie loves, loves, loves the attention. My friend who feeds in the morning at Monica's tells me that every morning, Bessie is flat out in the shavings in her box stall, clearly not believing her good fortune. She was born and raised on an Idaho ranch, came through the Yelm auction and then lived in a big broodmare herd. The whole stall/spoiled life is a completely new experience for her at age 10 and she is eating it up. They have also discovered she has the ability to pin an Uncle Jimmy's Hangin' Ball up against something no matter where they hang it, and eat the whole thing...Yes, Bessie is happy. I am not sure how happy she will be when training begins December 1st and she learns she is actually going to have to, like, canter with a rider and, you know, break a sweat but I guess we will find out!

By the way, I noticed Bessie's three year old daughter on DreamHorse...bad picture, but might be worth checking out if you're local and looking for a project! She sounds like she got Bessie's people-friendly disposition. This is the foal she was carrying at the auction, from the stallion in Idaho.

The Drama pony returned to her owners and is jumping with their adorable 5'0, 100 lb. friend Heather in the saddle. I will get pictures as soon as I can. She is so damn cute. They almost took her to a schooling show last week but decided she was not quite ready...but that is coming soon. I like the role I played here - it's the same as I did with Connor, another rescue pony who turned out great. Connor was broke out by Juliane of Cowgirl Spirit. I had him for a while and did more finishing and put a canter on him and leads. Then he got sold to an event trainer who finished him the rest of the way and now he lives in luxury at an "A" barn.

I realized we have a little theme here going on the updates and it is a good one to bring up...you know, you don't have to be the one who gets a horse get trained from start to finish to be successful. It's perfectly fine to do what you are able and then pass them along to someone else for a next step. I see people who are driving themselves crazy because they don't have the ability to take the next step, and why? Do what you can. If that means doing all of the groundwork, great. If that means putting the first 30-60 days on, great. If your niche is more finishing and fine tuning, that's great too. Horses need people who can do all of these things, and they're not going to be traumatized if they have a couple different trainers along the way. And with rescues, we all need to work together to ensure they get as trained as possible and on track to great homes in the future.

My Big Gold Yearling is ecstatic - I found new boarding for him where he is out with a weanling Thoroughbred colt. They run. And run. And run some more. I had no one his own age to turn him out with and he would just stand in a corner of the paddock and sulk. This is so much healthier for him. He is fat and filled out now and looks so good - the yearling ribby stage had me at my wit's end despite the vet telling me he has fine - he just looked so lousy, you know? Fortunately it really was a growth stage and he looks good now. I may actually get a picture of him I'm not horrified by sometime next year. :-) The Crabby Old Bat moved to the same place, as it could offer the mud-free pasture she needs to stay as sound as possible on her creaky old legs, and my other two old mares are going this weekend. Clover of course stays home as she needs her hot mush twice daily, but at 35 she also is fine being turned out in a small paddock, while the rest of them aren't. Crabby Old Bat is very happy. She walked through the hot tape the second day and moved in with the barn owner's four geldings. I thought that was going to be a disaster but she merely established herself as the Queen of the Pasture and now has a 17 hand gorgeous Seattle Slew bred gelding who is in love with her. Go figure. Love is blind.

Casper returned to Cowgirl Spirit and they have taken her out trail riding and she did fabulously. Acted like it was all old hat to her. Didn't spook at a thing! That's pretty much what I expected since nothing ever bothered her here. She did figure out that she could revert to her stubborn/sticky behavior with some riders so Juliane is working on training that out of her. She is, of course, still available for adoption and does come with her APHA papers so she is eligible for all of APHA's riding and showing programs.

I may have a new project but it'll just be an old mare fattening-up project. I'll fill you all in if I get her! Hopefully we can make it a happy Thanksgiving for her and have her in a safe place eating mush before the weekend is over. She is a thirty year old Thoroughbred mare and the cutest thing ever...

Slow going...

2008-11-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

Not much to write about because not much is happening! I'm trying to get in touch with a highly-recommended chiropractor to give the VLC an adjustment and see if we can get him back to 100%. I'm sure if I trotted him past 100 people, 99 would ask me WTF I was talking about, but one of you would see what I'm seeing...slightly uneven on the left hind. I've been keeping him in more and only turning out in the arena since we've had a monsoon here and everything outside is slop. He doesn't seem to care. He's certainly an easy horse - he's happy living outside, he's happy living in a stall. Nothing in the world stresses this horse. He'll deal well with the horseshow life.

We're taking it very slow with Lucy. She's still very nervous about ground work so the current goal is longeing at the walk without thinking we're going to eat her. She remains unconvinced, but I think it will just take time. She's so much better on the ground than she used to be that I know she'll come around with time. We are still trying to ID her - I sent off pics and info to the Thoroughbred Protective Association for the really high-tech search this week so I'll let you know if we get a hit!

The Drama pony is doing very well. As I think I mentioned, we found an even smaller rider for her - and one who has more recent jumping experience - so she is learning to jump and getting close to being ready for her first schooling show. I can't wait to post those pictures so you can all see - she is just adorable over fences, but they have to be high enough or she is lazy. It's just so easy for her.

All right, hopefully someone else has something more exciting to report! I may have a new project to talk about soon, but I'll bet some of you have a new project already. Fill us in!

Dealing with new mom syndrome in horses...

2008-11-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this for someone I know reads the blog but I won't ID them. I think it's something a lot of us went through with our first horse and I'm hoping someone can offer some helpful advice.

By the time I got my first horse, I'd been in lessons for nine years and was already working polo ponies. When you polo groom, you are 100% responsible for making sure that 6 horses stay the right weight, fit, and completely sound. You get used to inspecting legs daily and memorizing what they look like. You know right away if a horse isn't quite right or something feels or looks different. It's great experience and I'd recommend it highly to any of you younger riders who want to really learn horses inside out and learn to ride a variety of temperaments consistently well. So, growing up in that, I didn't really have the "new mom syndrome" that so many people go through upon purchasing their first horse.

You know what I mean. If you're a boarding stable owner, you've likely encountered this person. They may get upset if their horse has a little hay in his water bucket, for example. I dump buckets once a day, when I clean stalls, and I assume other good barns do likewise. That said, horses like to throw their hay in their bucket and some actually wash their hay. The crystal clear perfection accomplished at cleaning time usually only lasts 5 minutes once the horse goes back into the stall.

This kind of owner will just about have heart failure if their horse comes in from shared turnout with a bite mark, and your reassurances that this is just what horses do won't assuage their level of upset. This owner worries nonstop about their horse and is often calling upon you to look at it and see if you think it looks thin or is acting sick. Now, while we all far prefer this owner to the owner who doesn't notice if their horse is thin or acting sick, after a while we end up rolling our eyes when the person heads our way. Their horse is fine, why can't they see it?

Like I say, I never really went through this. I've always had horses, I've usually had multiple horses. If they get a cut, they get it washed off and treated. I don't worry that they're going to die unless they're colicking or something that I know is truly life-threatening. I can't really put myself in the shoes of an adult who didn't grow up in the barn and is experiencing a constant and continual fear that she is not taking good enough care of her horse, when in reality it's obvious to everybody but her that she is taking exceptional care of her horse, with the exception that her worrying has resulted in his having to change barns a lot. It sounds to me exactly how (I hear!) people are with their first baby...where they are just convinced they are doing it wrong and will somehow kill it. If you can relate to this syndrome, I'd really appreciate your posting your story or your helpful advice.

I rode her!

2008-10-29T00:12:00.001-07:00

First, I have to tell you this - this is so cute. Drama, the POA, had her first jumping lesson tonight, so we had a small x set up with two ground poles spaced in front of it. I was going to see if Lucy would walk over ground poles, so I lowered the x to the ground and learned that not only will Lucy walk over ground poles, she will walk over them following me like a dog! All I had to do at the end was kiss to her and circle and she'd follow me back over. It was adorable.

So, I finally decided to get on her and I used the time-honored Cookie Distraction Method to do it. My friend fed her cookies, I got on. Worked GREAT. She did not move a muscle, even after I was up. Stood quietly, was only interested in my friend and the cookies. Hooray.

Well, bless Lucy, she pretty much told me everything I need to work on in the space of one short ten minute ride. I love it when horses are transparent like that. There is not a whole lot of steering and she massively overreacts to leg (like, spooks away from it like you goosed her). That's a pretty comfortable zone for me - I've ridden a lot of horses like that and don't have a problem staying quiet and leaving their sides alone. She's really gate sour - one moment I was walking past the gate to the left and then, swoosh, we were back at the gate facing right. WTF? Kind of interesting to correct on a horse who won't bend her neck and doesn't like leg. I told her she was going to deal with some leg, but we were going forward and going to the left. She actually dealt with the correction pretty well. I felt like the first time I put leg on her it surprised her and she was a lot better after that, though of course I kept it as subtle as possible.

"Ho" is not a problem. We have "ho." We have a nice quiet stand once stopped.

She wanted to follow the cookie-feeding friend, but she accepted being asked to part from her without any drama. She didn't act spooky or "looky" at anything in the arena.

I didn't want to do much the first time and just keep it short and positive, so I halted (far awa from the gate!) and dropped my stirrups in preparation for getting off. They must have tapped her in the sides because she jumped and tensed up. White eyes, scared again. Hmmm. I quietly recollected my stirrups and petted her. When she had settled again, I dropped them more carefully and slid off quickly. That scared her again, but I was definitely not leaving a foot in the stirrup on a horse that goosy about mounting/dismounting.

She's broke and never felt potentially explosive when I was on her but either (a) she hasn't been ridden since the track except for Stephanie and hence is still adjusting to rider legs being in that position at all or (b) she's been spurred/scared. I did not feel at all like this mare was wanting to do anything bad to me. She was simply concerned about what I might do to her. She would relax pretty quickly every time I petted her and told her things were fine.

So, tonight's ride makes our game plan pretty clear. We're going to do some ground driving to improve the steering and also desensitize her to things touching her butt and flanks. Kind of thinking we may do it in a western saddle so that she adjusts to stirrups bonking her in the sides and comes to learn it's no big deal. I think that she is a fast learner and will come around quickly, but I do think she has a little bit of that naturally panicky nature you sometimes get with Thoroughbreds, so we'll go slow with her.

P.S. Drama pony was AWESOME about jumping! She LOVES it and will not even jump unless it's a vertical...X's are too easy and she trots them. This pony will choose to free jump when loose in the arena and not being chased. She's got a real enjoyment of it and I am sure she will only go up from here!

Just one of those times...

2008-10-27T23:14:00.000-07:00

I don't have anything to write about because I'm busy working on the new web site and all I do in the barn is chores! My stalls are clean, pails are clean and full, paddocks all got mucked yesterday, aisle swept, old mares got baths yesterday and tails conditioned (boy was the Crabby Old Bat so not thrilled with being tied to a tree to dry off...she got me back by rubbing her nice clean neck all over the tree and getting sap on it) and I haven't ridden anything. I was finally going to tonight, and then the barn owner decided to replace the light bulbs in the indoor arena (for which I AM grateful, as it needed to be done).

So, uh, yeah. So much for the training blog 'cause all I'm doing is barn work and grooming! I hope the rest of you have more exciting things to report - fill me in. On the plus side, Lucy is really starting to like people now...she followed me all around yesterday while I was picking up poop and was nosy and everything. I love watching her start to seek out attention and seek out human contact. She was so "shut down" this summer. I haven't gotten her to make a face for wither scratches yet, but I will. In the meantime, the Crabby Old Bat is enjoying them...

I spend a lot of time scratching my horses, and would actually really love to learn equine massage. My best friend does it professionally and I love watching her work on the horses. They all look so darn happy. I figure anything that helps them relax around people and enjoy human company, particularly if they're rescues or horses with questionable past experiences. I was told that the COB was originally trained by a girl who implemented a training device known as a barbed wire necklace. I thought that had to be an exaggeration, but a little investigation and I learned that this training trick actually exists - you use a piece of barbed wire, one would assume wrapped on the ends so that you can hold it, around the horse's lower neck/chest, to force them to rock back on their hocks. The mare is so psycho about having her chest area touched that this story makes perfect sense. Blanketing her takes two people because she will chomp you when you go to fasten the neck. Now I know why. Yes, the more I hear about some people's training methods, the more I understand why there are so many crabby old horses out there who have just had enough, thank you very much.

Things I used to know about riding...

2008-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

And still know, but seem to have lost the ability to implement particularly in the split-second when I need to do it!

1. OTTB's don't stand still. Just get your toe in the stirrup, grab a good handful of mane and haul your ass up there as they trot off. It'll be fine!

2. Of course the pony is going to be better if you ride 6 days a week as opposed to 3, dumbass. Why are you acting surprised by this? This is how ponies have been since the dawn of time. Did you forget?

3. They can't buck if they're going forward so all you have to do is boot them in the ribs and they won't be able to buck hard enough to launch you if they can buck at all. If you hunch over and freeze the moment they start bucking, yeah, you're gonna eat dirt.

4. Oh, and LEAN BACK if they buck. You knew this when you were 16. It was second nature. How is it that now you hunch over? Do you think that will work better? How's that going so far?

5. In your entire riding career, you have been spooked out from under all of twice. So why do you get nervous when they are spooky? You have taken cutting lessons, and did fine. They don't spook any harder than they dodge following a cow. It is the exact same motion.

6. Taking the easy way out doesn't get the horse trained. Bailing while you know you can still safely land on your feet when a horse is brewing up an explosion may be the easy way out but it doesn't solve the problem at all. (Who else has developed the "emergency dismount" response? I particularly have it when trying to trail ride. If they start jogging or being stupid or acting like they want to go home, I am on my feet beside them in half a second. Then I regret it and think, you moron, how is that going to fix it? Ride it out. But then I can't get back on because they're jogging and being stupid and I'm not coordinated enough to get on jogging, stupid horses anymore...*sigh* This is why I mostly stay in the arena, where I feel safe. And I know it's mental because I feel safe in a pasture made of one strand of hot tape, too. You KNOW that would not actually stop a horse, but it stops my fears. Go figure.)

OK, I know I'm not the only one. What have you forgotten that you used to know (or just forgotten how to make yourself do?)

Working with Nervous Nelly!

2008-10-21T00:05:00.000-07:00

Lucy is a 14 year old Thoroughbred mare rescued from the Enumclaw Auction this summer. I took her on because I'd just placed Petersburg Knight, and as they say, nature abhors a vacuum. A friend of mine had her all summer and put some rides on her, and now she's back for me to continue with.

Lucy is interesting. She's broke. She got ridden around all summer, no problem. But the horse is scared. She's truly nervous about people. Oh, she's 500x better than she was when I first got her - back then you could barely touch her head and she would not take food from your hands, not grain or grass or anything. Now, she only gets upset about her head if something happens like the reins hit her in the ears as I flip them over. I can touch her everywhere, she will lower her head and snuggle, and she was even letting me pet her ears today. She knows all about cookies and carrots now, will seek out attention, and is getting easier to catch.

Now I'm trying to fix her fear of mounting. I get on the block - she swivels the other direction. I have someone stand there to block her, and she stands but the head comes up, the whites of the eyes show, and she starts breathing faster. She's genuinely scared. Why? What was done to this one? I don't know, but I'd like to fix it. So I have been tacking her up and just going out to the block and standing there, and petting her, and scratching her withers, and leaning over her like a green horse. She seems to be less nervous but I still feel like she's waiting for the ax to fall. Very interesting.

If only they could talk, right? Well, I've got all the time in the world...we'll figure this out!

Sorry for the lack of updates...

2008-10-13T16:00:00.001-07:00

As you Fugly blog readers know, I am nose deep in developing a new web site. The VLC is still looking NQR so he is on vacation and doing nothing more than rolling in the mud and playing with his gelding friend. I have not had time to ride at all in a few days and am going to regret it when I have to get back on the Drama pony.

Casper went home to Cowgirl Spirit to begin competing in drill this season and I wish her much luck. We had begun cantering before she left and she was wonderful on the straightaways and (I LOVE this description my friend came up with to describe those greenie legs-everywhere moments) an eight-legged huffalump on the corners. But she is a baby and she will get it! Other than that, she was a total success story...riding like a champ, no bad behavior. I am very happy with how that one turned out!

Lucy came home and I need to ride her too. She is looking good and much less head shy so I'm very pleased by that. Updated pics very soon. She is available for adoption so if your barn might need a cute black 14 year old TB mare with four socks and a blaze, let me know. Stephanie says she's great to ride and has no issues other than a bit of ongoing headshyness.

OK so someone else entertain the troops...what's your best green horse story from this summer? Funniest/silliest/dumbest moment?

Maybe it's not fear. Maybe it's common sense!

2008-10-06T14:10:00.000-07:00

I heard something VERY interesting on the radio the other morning about how the human brain doesn't fully develop until age 25. Until that age, people have problems with impulse control and poor decision-making not because they weren't raised right or whatever, but because their brain simply isn't mature. So I started thinking about that in relationship to riding as I drove along...what if we're all here wondering why we got chicken as we got older, when really all we did was develop better decision-making and that's what keeps us from riding as fearlessly as we did at 21?

Certainly food for thought!

Anyway, the update here is that the VLC pulled his stifle. Probably did it playing in the mud - he does not see the presence of mud as any reason he shouldn't gallop and slide stop and do rollbacks. So he is just taking it easy and I'm hoping he's back to 100% to go to training in November but you all know it'd just be Murphy's Law of Horses that he won't be...

On a better note, the two training projects have made major progress. Both seemed to turn a corner into the land of cooperation quite suddenly. The lazy little paint filly has developed forward motion and barely requires any leg now! I'm so excited. She was always this amazingly smooth and sane ride, but she went through this "no I WON'T" stage which involved a lot of ear pinning and cow-kicking. Thanks to longeing and "ground support," she caught on and is now just a joy to ride. She is heading back to Juliane's in a week to begin her drill team career, and I am getting Lucy back on the same trip - an adorable black Thoroughbred mare with 4 socks and a blaze that was rescued from the Enumclaw sale this summer. Lucy is doing great and it sounds like she's pretty much ready to adopt out, but I do want to work further on her headshyness issues. She appears to be totally convinced somebody is going to ear her down, even though that has certainly not happened since she left the auction yard!

The headshaking POA mare has calmed down considerably. She still plays with her head but she's not rooting and having a fit, and the spooking and propping episodes seem to have been worked through. (Good thing. Propping ponies are hard on the ol' back.). There's another POA show toward the end of this month so I'm hoping we'll get her to that and see how she does. Her owners and I had talked about hanging on to her and finishing her further but I think right now the decision has been made to sell, so if anybody wants a pretty darn fancy medium pony prospect, let me know! (put PONY in the subject line so I don't miss it.) I am going to try to get some video soon. She really is a wonderful mover.

I have my next project all picked out, if Lucy gets adopted and I have room. A Thoroughbred breeder I know has this to-die-for gorgeous 17 hand broodmare for sale. She's only ten so she's plenty young enough to have a riding career, she's a Northern Dancer granddaughter, clean legged and sweet and a whopping $300. So with any luck I will have space for her soon!

I'll also be getting in another POA to work with. This one is very well broke but pushy on the ground and needs finishing under saddle. She is much more classic POA type than the other pony - this one is a big, substantial thing. She is going to be interesting as she has a truly problematic ground issue - being SO aggressive to other horses that she will actually go for one while you're handling her. If we can fix that, she has the potential to be a terrific show pony - but the challenge is, how do you 100% fix that so that a kid will be able to handle her safely? How do you drill through the pony's head that she's just never, ever going to do that ever again? This should be an interesting challenge. She is a rescue and probably for that reason as I'm told she's a bombproof machine to ride. I'm looking forward to her arrival and would also love to hear everybody's bag of tricks for curing aggression toward other horses (both on the ground and under saddle - I don't know if she'll go for another horse mounted yet but I'm assuming she will).

So that's the update here. How is everybody else doing? Horses sound or lame? Behaving or not?

Longeing: It's not just to keep from dying anymore!

2008-09-29T23:33:00.001-07:00

When I learned to ride, and particularly in my teens as I was learning to train and ride more difficult horses, I learned to longe as a means of survival. I boarded where they didn't turn out for you, so my horses maybe got a little turnout a few days a week, if I could manage to grab one of the whole four turnouts (at a barn with 60+ horses). So, throwing them out on the longe and letting them buck and fart around kept me from eating dirt, particularly with the really cold backed gelding!

By the time I was 19, I was boarding at an AQHA show barn and while I did plenty of longeing there for the same reason, I learned reason #2 for longeing: fitting up yearlings. So I worked off my board by letting previously unhandled yearlings drag me around the arena. My primary accomplishment from this time period is learning to yank the line sharply down and to the side and throw them on their side if they tried to bolt off and drag me.

(Yes, yes, sorry, I was young and dumb and did what the Big Name Trainer told me to do.)

And of course I did the usual longeing with tack on prior to riding greenies. Figured if they stopped trying to buck the saddle off their back, it was safe to get on! I once had a mare who bucked so hard on the longe she broke the cinch and the saddle flew off. (Surprisingly, that mare turned out to be easy to ride. She just played HARD on the longe.)

Mugwump has blogged rather extensively about longeing as an actual training tool. She doesn't allow hers to buck and fart around and she actually has a pretty interesting method for disciplining that kind of behavior out of them, which if I tried it, would probably wind up with my getting myself macrame'd tightly to a panicked horse's side. I am 41 years old and can't do shit with a rope and I know better than to start trying now. But it works for her, so go Mugs and the rest of you who can handle ropes! I still figure I am having a good day if I can longline without tripping myself.

I have, however, evolved to the point where I do see longeing as a training tool and not merely a substitute for turnout and am trying to resolve specific problems with my horses that way. Drama, the POA pony, was only broke to walk and trot under her previous owner. She started out having a lot of trouble holding her lead on the longe line so I have been using longeing to fit her up at the canter before I try it under saddle. If she gets disunited or switches leads, I break her to the trot and we re-start. She has been doing wonderfully and I can see her becoming more balanced and stronger. It makes so much more sense to start our canter work this way rather than with my weight for her to deal with!

Casper, the paint filly, has had some trouble connecting the idea of leg pressure + go forward. She was confused and resistant. Since she had started to longe well, we started longeing her with a rider and it's working great. She knows how to longe and feels confident that she's doing the right thing if she obeys the commands of the person on the ground. It's made so much more sense to use a little "ground support" than have a senseless fight with a confused greenie who simply wasn't getting it.

The VLC, as I've noted before, definitely prefers to go to the right, so with him, I've been working on the left lead on the longe. He doesn't mind taking the lead, but he doesn't bend/balance himself as well that direction so I'm letting him work on that without my weight. He's such a big galoot and I can see that it's hard for him to manage himself sometimes. He totally does NOT get how big he is. He reminds me of the big dog whose wagging tail knocks everything over, except with him, it's his nose!

I'm always concerned about centrifugal force and "torquing" the neck, so I always longe at the far end of the line, so the horse is taking a big circle of half of the arena. I know a lot of people who only round pen because they want to avoid the force on the horse's neck, and I kind of went through that phase myself, but ultimately it's two different things. You have more control with the line and I think even the horses feel more like they're working with the line - as opposed to feeling like they are turned out.

So what do you think? Are you okay with them "playing" on the longe or is it always work time? (I'm still a bit undecided. I still kind of feel like longeing gives them the chance to buck and have it be okay if you're in a situation where turnout is impossible, let's say at a show, and I like giving them a chance to "vent" acceptably.) Are you/have you used longeing as a training tool, and if so, how? What kinds of issues have you fixed on the longe? Or are you anti-longeing and think it's too hard on them? (Well, it definitely can be, the way I've seen some people do it with the horse going 95mph on a teeny circle in deep footing!). Thoughts?

Rolling the dice...

2008-09-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

You all know what I'm talking about. You know when the horse won't do what you want, or is having a rebellious moment, and you have that little internal conversation? I was doing that last night with Drama, the POA pony I'm working for friends of mine. She is a lovely little pony, but the last two rides, she's developed this new behavior where she stops short and balks. This wouldn't faze me so much, but she has an ongoing behavior where she rears in the crossties. The crosstie-rearing has been improving, and she has never reared under saddle, but when you know you have a rearer on your hands, and they suddenly stop and suck back and start going backwards and all the weight goes to the back end, it does give you that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. And so my gutsy side and my chickenshit side were back to doing battle.

Gutsy Side: She's giving you Appytude. You need to whale her one and let her know that's not okay.

Chicken Side: Um, but what if she goes ballistic? I've never had to "get into" this pony before.

Gutsy Side: She's just gonna get worse if you don't make the point now that you're in charge. And she's 13.1. How far are you gonna fall?

Chicken Side: She could go right up and over and land on me, I bet a 13.1 pony weighs a LOT when it lands on you...who'd make the point then? I think I will just cluck to her and tap her with my heels.

Gutsy Side: Oh yeah. That'll scare her. Oh noooooooo I will never balk again, I might get clucked at.

Well, the clucking and tapping didn't work so I cautiously escalated. Nothing bad happened and I finally realized that booting the pony while growling really loud caused the pony to go forward every time. And after 2 or 3 boot/growl combos, the pony actually gave up and rode fine.

Gutsy Side: Bwahahaha, I told you so, you're such a dumb shit!

*sigh* That's always the hard part though. Logically, you know that 99 times out of 100, the horse is gonna give up and do what you want...but there's that 1 time that lands people in the emergency room or worse every day. The older you get, the harder it is to believe that you're going to continue gambling and winning.

I was going through this with a friend the other day, who is paying waywayway too much money for a trainer to do things she could perfectly well do herself, if only she could get over the mental block so many of us are fighting at this age.

Me: Has Horsey ever bucked anybody off?
Friend: No.
Me: Has Horsey ever reared and dumped anybody off?
Friend: No.
Me: Has Horsey ever spooked out from under anybody?
Friend: No.
Me: Then he's probably not going to develop any of that specially for you. I think you should ride him.

Of course, High Priced Trainer has told her she can't ride her own horse *eye roll*

Ultimately, we have to remember that we gamble every time we get out of bed. Sure, people get hurt or killed riding, but they also slip in the shower, get nailed by a drunk driver on the way to work, or find out they have terminal cancer after living the health-nut, organic only, exercise-daily life for forty years. We have all chosen to ride. Everybody reading this blog loves horses and wants to enjoy them. Sometimes you just have to take that leap of faith and decide that for the 10 seconds required, you're going to ride confidently...you're going to do what needs to be done. If you can convince yourself, you're going to have a lot better time convincing the horse!

(And by the way, this is head shaking pony, and before someone brings up that head shaking pony may be seriously out of alignment, we discovered the head shaking stops almost completely when we braid pony's forelock for riding! So apparently pony is suffering from Fluffy Forelock Syndrome which is not a condition requiring veterinary or chiropractic intervention, but is merely cured with a rubber band...LOL! I am told this is a comon Welsh pony quirk and this pony is allegedly part Welsh...)

As to the rest of my herd, Casper, the APHA filly from Cowgirl Spirit, had a pretty extreme wolf tooth removal so I'm taking it easy on her - we're slowly starting back ground driving and I rode her around lightly yesterday. She is quiet but lazy and very resistant to leg so I'm trying to put together leg + voice cue so that it makes sense for her. Right now if you just put leg on her, you get pinned ears and cowkicking, but she is starting to figure out that leg + cluck means trot and don't be pissy about it. She is very forward on the longe, I just don't think she understands the leg squeezing thing yet. She's dead quiet at the walk, has a perfect "ho," and I could take her on a trail ride tomorrow but now we need to develop those other gaits.

The VLC continues to be wonderful. He's my easy horse to ride, which makes me laugh daily. Who would think that my 3 year old, 16.2 stallion, who's been under saddle for five months, would be the easiest horse I ride? He is, though. He just never does anything bad. The only thing I have to remember on him is to steer because he doesn't realize how big he is and will go too close to the walls if I don't direct him. I set up new cross ties and now he gets cross tied right next to mares and he ignores them. He rides in the arena with others, no problem. He is almost 100% fine about his feet now - the back left, he will still try to pull away a time or two but he gives up pretty quick. I bought him a brand new rain sheet and even though I'm pretty sure he hasn't been blanketed at all in the past, he's fine with it and has made no effort to destroy it (GOOD COLT! Some of them are so hard on blankets.) He's just such a sweet, cooperative horse about everything.

I also got a great report about his mini-me -- Bullwinkle is leading, "longes" at a walk (goes in the direction you point, what a smart boy!) and is generally just learning everything about life very quickly. Of course he's out of the cute baby stage and now looks ridiculous, much like my Big Gold Yearling. I tried to get some good pictures of the BGY the other day...oh forget it. I'll try again in a year, ha ha!

I loved hearing everybody's updates - keep it up! It's really good to hear from those of you who finally found a trainer that works for you and your horse. The good ones are out there - I swear, trainer shopping is like buying clothes at Ross, you gotta go through all of the fuschia print hot pants and sweatshirts with teddy bears to find that little black designer dress in your size hiding amidst all the crap!

Off to school!

2008-09-11T10:37:00.000-07:00

I said I was going to do it and I have...I believe I finally found an AQHA trainer that I trust to finish my VLC and do it fairly. Great facility, weekly lessons are included, and there was not a single bit in her tack room that I object to. The worst thing I saw was a slow twist, which doesn't bother me. It's the thin wire "tongue slicer" bits I object to. Like this. If anybody ever put this on my horse, I would have to kill them.

Anyway, he is off to school November 1st! I am excited about it even though he won't be at home and I'm paranoid about that. But I'll have my weekly lesson so I'll still see him regularly. Right now the game plan is just to do a thirty day evaluation and then give me things to work on for the rest of the winter at home. Then he'll go back in the spring, closer to show season. Money is always a factor, and I like that this trainer is willing to work with a limited budget. She made a lot of good points I'd already thought of about how it makes more sense to go to bigger shows and fewer of them and to start him off at the local open shows and keep it cheap and not take him to an AQHA show at all until he's super solid and has a very good chance of doing well. I really felt like we were on the same page, and every horse in her barn was happy and looked great. I didn't see a single pinned ear.

I figure I've got him as far as I can go without possibly making a wrong turn - he walks, trots, lopes, halts and backs. I can ride him around bareback in a halter. He is still somewhat one sided and doesn't like to bend to the left, and sometimes has balky moments on left circles. He also likes to drop his shoulder that direction. All the methods I know for fixing that are probably not the ones we want to use given that we want his head to stay low and his neck to stay flat. It's time to turn him over to someone who is an expert at what he needs to do and can also watch me ride and pick on me.

I think I'll always be glad I started him myself though - I got what I wanted, which is a very calm, easy horse who's never had a bad experience about riding or a reason not to like it. Now I just need to fill in some of the training gaps before he leaves - like teaching him to clip, as he's expected to know that and I admit I don't own a pair of clippers at the moment and haven't even tried so far. (Fortunately, I can borrow!)

So how far did the rest of you get with your projects? Did you decide to get some outside help? Did you decide just to haul in for lessons or get a friend for a second pair of eyes to assist? Who actually made it to a show this summer? (I tried, and then they decided not to allow stallions, and they didn't have stalls so there went that idea) Did you accomplish as much as you meant to? More? I got everything done on my list except the trail riding - not surprising, that's the hard one for me because I freakin' hate trail riding, even on trained horses much less taking the green one out to see what happens! But on the plus side, he rides absolutely great bareback and I hadn't even meant to try that at this point.

(hmmm, there was more to this post and Blogger ate it...next time!)

The turtle and the hare!

2008-09-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Right now I have both of them to ride!

The turtle is Casper. Casper is a three year old APHA filly that was rescued and donated to Cowgirl Spirit. From pretty much day one, her attitude about riding has been "okay, whatever, and can I have a cookie now?" Juliane rode her bareback the first ride. I believe she trail rode her on ride #2. I got her after that and the only real challenge we've had is that she doesn't see any reason why she should have to go faster than a walk. Just like Bessie, she is pretty much bomb proof quiet at the walk but now has to learn the other gaits. She is so smooth once you get her going that it's just a pleasure to ride - one of those trots you can sit even if it's fast - and "level" is her natural head set. Casper's only about 14.3 so normally I would think that's a little tougher size to place, but in her case she's a born youth horse. It really isn't going to take much to get her ready to progress with a kid (or petite adult) who has a trainer, so I don't expect to be writing about her for long. If you think you might be interested, let me know! (Please put CASPER in the subject line). She does have papers, in order and ready to transfer, so she's eligible for APHA competitions and programs.

This was ride #4. As you can see, she is not actually awake...

Then there's the hare. The hare is a pony named Drama. My friends rescued her from a scary chicken barn thanks to a Craigslist ad, and they made a great call, because this pony is a "10" mover and I mean a "10" mover. I mean, a holy-crap-this-pony-could-go-to-the-A-shows mover.

The Drama pony, so named because at first everything they did with her involved a lot of Drama, is the opposite of Casper. She is fast, and fussy and will shake her head violently when you ride her unless you braid her bushy forelock. (Ponies!) She was broke out the typical way around these parts, complete with western saddle and shank bit and oversized rider, so I have had to convince the pony that I will not (a) hurt her mouth (b) flop on her kidneys or (c) annoy her in any way and it is ok to (a) slow down and (b) relax. But she is getting it and as I have mentioned before, I love ponies. This one is a medium, 13.1, a POA/Welsh mix. The girls who rescued her got her ground manners solid and did a lot of ground work, and have now passed her along to me for riding. She's five, so a perfect age to begin serious work.

We hope to get her to the A shows eventually (of course with someone else up - I'm too old for ponies even if I'm still reasonably size appropriate for them). But you know, first we have to get the head flipping and, well, drama to stop so you'll be hearing about her for a while! (And yes, she is scheduled for a power float - but she flips in a halter too so it's not just about teeth).

So those are my two new projects. Of course I've still got the VLC, who is the turtle when it's warm out and the hare when it's chilly, LOL! He is very much tuned in to the weather. If it's 85, I could ride him in a halter through a field full of mares in heat and he wouldn't have the energy to raise an ear. Memo for future: Send him to big AQHA shows in very hot climates and watch the points mount up!

This is why I love my Very Large Colt

2008-09-06T20:17:00.001-07:00

I haven't ridden him in a few weeks. I left my girth at the SAFE show, and nothing else I have works on him, and I've been busy with other horses and working and you all know the drill. So today I climbed on him and he was...

exactly the same as always. Quite lazy, actually. Walk, trot, canter...didn't do a single thing wrong. Someone was actually watering the arena with a hose while I was riding...he didn't blink. Oh, and I longed him yesterday and someone had left a tarp in the arena. He bulged out a little and trotted over it without blinking. He's going to be such a good trail horse - he really ought to be owned by someone who isn't so chickenshit about trail riding!

This is why he rocks. I have ridden a lot of 20+ year olds who get a few weeks off and it's like they just came off the range the first time you get back on.

He is awesome. I love him. I gave him a nice bath and detangled his tail (which is thicker than my own hair, and that's saying something) by hand. Then I did the same to the Crabby Old Bat, who was highly annoyed at the beauty treatment and responded by whipping her tail violently back and forth and whacking me in the face with it. Gotta love old broodmares...

Meanwhile, I have actually gotten off my dead butt and started working with my yearling. He is such a smart little snot. I pulled him out last night and longed him and he was kind of all over, and then today? Longeing like a superstar. Which is great, because I want to put him out on a big circle because of his age and now I can do that because he's staying out there and not requiring much guidance to keep going. We just walk and trot but he is being very, very good. I thought for about a minute about how cool it would be to take him to a show for yearling longe line and then I remembered he's butt ugly at present. Just use google to find a picture of a yearling Thoroughbred. Now paint it yellow. Now you know what he looks like. Blech. Seriously, the only thing he got from his dad is his color and his wavy tail. Everything else is from his mother, who wound up a very attractive 17 hand Thoroughbred mare but was probably extremely hideous at 18 months also...

So I'll put up a picture of when he was a baby and still cute. You will all see more pictures of him around...um...2011.

No real rhyme or reason to it...

2008-09-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

I commented briefly before that I can't figure myself and my fear issues out. I really can't. It's like there are some horses I'm fine on even if they do misbehave and others, forget it. I want off. NOW.

The SAFE show was a prime example of this. The vet put the kibosh on showing Honey (who I was very comfortable on) so a friend brought a sale Thoroughbred for me to show. He was just lovely. Dapple gray, elegant looking, pretty mover. Well, I got on him and after one circuit of the warm up ring at the walk, he dove for the out gate. I wasn't expecting it and we nearly took out a pony. I got off and I said, uh-uh, not going to do this.

Half my brain was telling me I should have fought it out, but the other half provided the convenient (and actually accurate) justification that the warm up ring is not the place to have a battle with a horse you don't know and that it is unfair to jeopardize other people's safety with a horse you may not be in control of. (Especially when the horse has scared the crap out of you and you are all weak in the knees like you narrowly avoided a car accident) So I took him back to the trailer and one of the other girls from the barn said "oh yeah, he dove out the gate with me at home, too." Well, okay then...

By then the Cowgirl Spirit trailer had pulled in and I figured I would try to commandeer Class, a Quarter pony I'd worked with a little earlier in the year, for a class or two. Instead, Juliane suggested I ride Prince Caspian, the rescue's newest project, in the 40+ walk trot.

"Is he broke?" I asked. I knew he hadn't been just two weeks ago.

"Yeah, he's great! I've ridden him four or five times now."

Four or five times. Juliane being Juliane, she had already fearlessly trail ridden him, taken him into the river, etc. I looked at him. He looked really calm. So I got on him and he just plain felt calm. He felt solid. I felt solid. So even though he was dead green and he went sideways all the way down one side of the arena when he saw the flapping banners on the fence, I never felt unsafe or unconfident or like I wanted to get off. I felt like I was in control. We were good to go. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep him straight and focused. (He got adopted very shortly after the show, by the way!)

So why was I okay on one and not the other? I'd love to analyze it out. Well, I do truly hate gate darters. I have this vivid memory of a horse that my friend was on darting into the barn from the arena and sliding right onto his side when he hit the slippery wood floor. That was over 20 years ago but certain things stick in your mind, and that stuck in mine. Still, that's not all of it. I just can't explain it. Green Arabian, normally a breed I'm wary of, no problem. OTTB, normally my comfort zone, I just wanted to get off.

I hear this from a lot of you though. You've had the same thing happen. Allegedly "easy" horses scare you, whereas you effortlessly deal with "difficult" ones. There are certain horses you'll fearlessly bomb around bareback on, and other horses you feel nervous walking around the round pen. Why? Why? Why? Wouldn't it be great if we could just figure it out?

When I was younger, I used to psych myself up to ride the really nutty greenies by visualizing that I was on one of our old school horses who was in a mood and needed to be sorted out. It worked really well. I've tried to do that now, and it works inconsistently. Some horses, I just want to get the hell off of. This drove me crazy at first, and now I've decided, eh, it's okay. I'm not training for a living or anything. It's fine if I don't want to ride something. I used to worry that - especially if I backed down and got off the ones that scared me - the fear would keep growing like some kind of fungus until it took over and I was afraid to ride everything but the 25 year olds, but that hasn't happened. I just can't make total sense of what has happened, and for a super logical, must-analyze-everything person like me, it annoys me.

Ah well, that's my SAFE show report amid lots of rambling. I lost my girth at the SAFE show and as a result of that and just lack of time, the VLC has been on vacation. I started longeing him again the past two days and I think I'm going to finally ride him again tomorrow. He's so easy to longe that if I wait til the end of the evening, that's all I do because I can almost fall asleep standing there holding the line. I need to make my own horse a priority again, instead of letting him wait until after I've ridden the horses I'm riding for other people!

And back to work...

2008-08-26T08:20:00.001-07:00

A post on the show is coming but I really do want to wait for more pictures to surface. I can talk about last night because in the indoor arena, almost all I got was grainy and blurry anyway!

So last night I felt like being productive but I was worn out from the weekend and knew it wasn't the best night to get on greenies, so we did more ground driving. I think the ground driving is very helpful for the VLC. When he wants to resist the bit and balk, you are right behind him. That option simply isn't available. Therefore, he has to get over himself and go forward, and he does. I have a friend who knows how to ground drive much better than I do, and she's giving me lessons in how to do it effectively.

Then we decided to do the same with Casper, the Cowgirl Spirit horse that I am working with. Casper is just one of those great green horses who truly wants to learn and loves the attention. She caught on to everything we asked so quickly, whether it was body language on the longe line or her first ground driving session. I admit, I've become a fan of ground driving. I like it better than longeing because you can go in a straight line and do maneuvers like serpentines that you could never try on the longe. You can use the whole arena and aren't torquing their heads around. It's just more tiring for the human because when they trot, you trot. But hey, I needed more exercise anyway!

Honey and Bessie are home and back on vacation for awhile. I am sure they are both thrilled!

One preview from the SAFE show...this is me on Class, a Cowgirl Spirit pony who is available for adoption now. She is a Quarter pony and is six years old with no soundness or behavioral concerns. She is just under 14.2 and would be great for a Pony Clubber or other young rider with supervision. She still needs finishing (this was actually her first show class, ever) but she is willing, easy to ride, and has seen and done a lot this summer with the drill team.

That annoying, frustrating thing that you can't fix!

2008-08-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

I wish I could learn to have an eye for distance. I don't have it. I've NEVER had it, and because of that, I've never tried to jump anything bigger than 2'6. I had my trainer at the time try to train it into me, with all of the usual drills involving counting, or practicing seeing distances while on foot or driving the car or whatnot...it just didn't help much. My depth perception isn't great or something. I can see a polo ball and whack it just fine but that's because it's right next to my horse. Trying to look ahead of me, I don't see my jumping distance until it is too late to adjust nicely.

(That's a great big reason someone else will be showing the VLC)

There are riding flaws that can be fixed with work, and riding flaws that seem to be insurmountable. I used to pump at the canter as a child; that turned out to be a matter of no trainer who had been able to explain how not to do that. I finally figured it out myself and stopped doing it, but there's no such easy fix for the distance thing.

Do you have a frustrating riding flaw that you just can't seem to fix that is preventing your ability to progress in your chosen discipline? I hear a lot of dressage riders who are having issues with sitting trot given their bad backs, for example. What's yours, if any?

I will have a full report on the SAFE show but I'm waiting for pictures. It seems to be my show to end up riding barely-broke grey Arabians. Go figure. I still can't figure out my own fear issues...it's like, certain horses I'm just immediately confident and fine on, and others I just know I'm not going to be able to do it anymore. It doesn't even have anything to do with how they're acting. It's just weird. But more on that later...

Nope, not dead, just busy!

2008-08-22T22:40:00.000-07:00

I've been busy and so the VLC's only been getting ridden about once a week, although we did have a super nice ride in the french link happy mouth bit I borrowed. He definitely prefers that bit, as many of you predicted! I am not taking him to the SAFE show because (a) they don't have any stalls and I don't think that's a good first show situation for him and (b) they decided not to allow stallions. We will find another schooling show for him to go to in the next month or so. However, as you can see from this (admittedly crappy cell phone pic), he continues to be, um, not exactly a wild and crazy guy. (The misty effect is my friend's finger...LOL!)

The new plan was to take Honey to the show, but I have noticed Honey's back bothering her and the vet determined yesterday that he'd like to see her get an adjustment before we proceed with any further under-saddle work. Karen came and picked her up and I did climb on her with a halter and lead rope bareback and show her how quiet her OTTB was now. Honey is such a sweetheart!

The nice thing is that she will have a home with Karen no matter what her physical issues are. My vet suspects an old pelvic or hip fracture as she flexes a little sore on the ankle (what I thought was the problem) but very sore when she is flexed "high" to stress the hip/pelvic region. He also felt she had some arthritis in her neck (she does have an obvious old neck injury, with visibly asymmetrical muscle development). She trots out sound without weight and a little off with weight, but I noticed her getting sore toward the point of the hip and we decided to have her examined. I'm glad we did, and I hope that a chiropractor can help her be comfortable and happy for some light trail riding, which is all Karen would like for her to be able to do.

Bessie goes home on Tuesday and the plan is to give her a break until the baby's weaned and then resume training in October. She is steady as a rock to ride - just needs further education about what the aids mean. Her former owner is theorizing that she may have been packed with, which actually makes a lot of sense as she has no reaction to the girth or anything that you do on her or anything that happens around her. (The last time I rode her, several cats bolted through the round pen. She couldn't have cared less. She is a superstar!) However, as one of my roomies pointed out, dead deer don't use leg aids. Nope, guess they don't. That really would explain a lot of her mysterious training level - bombproof to ride, but totally uneducated! Her filly Libby got halter broke this last week and is learning to lead. She was not thrilled at first, but learns quickly and is figuring out giving to pressure very well.

Bullwinkle also got halter broke, but he is pretty disgruntled right now. Of course, he also got shots and weaned and his first trailer ride and I think the combination of all of those things have fried his furry little mind. He is on his way to his new life and I'm very happy for him!

With horses leaving, another project has arrived. Casper is a three year old APHA filly that was rescued and given to Cowgirl Spirit Rescue Drill Team. She has matured incredibly over the summer - she was a classic example of something that might have chronologically been old enough to ride, but one look told you she just wasn't there yet. Now she has filled out and looks ready to carry a rider. Since Casper is small and Juliane feels too tall on her, I'm taking over her training. She has had 3 or 4 rides on her and has been very cooperative so far. She's great about most things and has already attended a couple of CSRDT events as a "spokeshorse" for the rescue! This one is going to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure what her niche is going to be yet, but we will find out.

I also climbed on another old broodie this week to evaluate her under saddle. Well, she's not old, she's only ten. She's had some very nice babies but was also a sweetheart to ride - despite the fact that she most likely has no post-track training, she rode off very quietly and even stood motionless for me to mount. Also, no herdbound behavior which is unusual -- usually when you take one of these broodies away from the other horses, they act like the sky is falling, but not this girl. Like Bessie, she was actually lazy which I am coming to appreciate more and more as I get older. ;-) She is looking for a new home which could be breeding, riding or a combination of both. Both sire and dam are stakes winners. E-mail me if you would like to know more.

What does cross-training mean to you?

2008-08-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Thought this would be a fun topic...

Most of us have heard the term "cross-training." The general idea is, you shouldn't school your horse day in and day out to do Discipline X or pretty soon he's going to get sour and hate Discipline X. You should mix it up, do something different, and give him some mental breaks. I agree with this 100%, but I'm curious to hear what that means to you and what you do with your horses.

My old show horse Jack competed in pretty much all of the typical open show events. We did showmanship, hunt seat and western and he won a lot of high point trophies. While Jack was well trained enough to dink around with the other WP horses, he truly loved to run so we did things like gallop in my back hayfield and occasionally run barrels and poles at the shows. He wasn't good at barrels or poles - he was a big horse and not that great at pulling himself together for a fast turn - but he liked it. So we did it. At home I whacked polo balls around off of him, jumped a little, and used him to pony young horses.

(I've always hit polo balls off the show horses. I think it's good for them and most of them find it interesting. I will have to start that with the VLC. I am just not sure they make a mallet that long...)

Of course, I know that if I were keeping the VLC at some nice h/j barn and I went to whacking polo balls around off of him, people would think I had lost my ever-loving mind. In those kind of barns, cross-training means that you do a little dressage sometimes with your hunter.

To me, the perfect horse is something like the VLC's famous uncle, Favor Mr. Sabre. FMS is a full brother to the VLC's dam. He was AQHA Amateur Versatility Horse of the Year in 2001. He has points in halter, ranch versatility, barrel racing, reining, trail, hunter under saddle, working cowhorse, western pleasure, western horsemanship, hunt seat equitation, western riding, pole bending, showmanship, and breakaway roping. I love the idea of a horse that can win western pleasure and barrels at the same AQHA show. I'd very much like for the VLC to mature into exactly that kind of a horse. (By the way, if anybody has a picture of FMS, I've always wanted to see one and have so far failed to locate it. Super special bonus points for video!)

So, I'm curious, what does cross-training mean to you? What do you like to do with your horses that is totally different from what they show/compete at? Have you jumped your cutting horse or taken your warmblood team sorting? Do you have one of those fabulous all-around horses who does it all and does it well? Do you agree that cross-training improves performance and keeps their mind fresh, or do you think it's possible to confuse them by doing things that are very different? Does your horse like to do a lot of different things, or does he/she seem to get frazzled when you deviate from the norm?

Heat Wave!

2008-08-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

You guys in the South and SW are gonna smack me for whining about the 80s but...it's been in the 80s and it's hooooot and huuuuumid and I don't waaaaaant to ride. Or clean stalls or do much of anything else except maybe spray myself with the hose while watering!

The good thing about heat waves is it makes all the green horses safer. After all, who really wants to explode in the heat? Not that Bessie was in any danger of exploding anyway. Bessie is just making us laugh. Tonight was ride #3. I've been trying to teach her to associate clucking with moving forward, since she has no reaction to leg pressure. Honestly, she reminds me of a draft horse. She just does not care HOW hard you squeeze. She can stand there and go to sleep through as much squeezing as my legs can provide. Nor does she care if you smack her on the butt. So now I am working on verbal cues and I think she is starting to figure it out. You can turn her and "unstick" her front end but it's not that easy. She is a big, heavy mare and about as easygoing as a Barcalounger. Which will be great for safety with her 12 year old owner - but we do need to create some semblance of forward motion!

One nice thing is the baby has settled down about Mom being ridden and now calmly walks along behind us. I think this is a good experience for her, too. The big challenge is grooming Mom. Baby is SO in love with being groomed that she squeezes between any grooming implement and her mother. :-) I'm glad she's so people friendly though - maybe she'll forgive me for tomorrow night, when we plan to put them in a stall and get a halter on baby, who wants no part of that idea.

I'm also pleased that Bessie seems to have figured out that she has a reverse gear. The first week, it was truly funny. She just would not back up. I mean, you could push on her chest for all you were worth and she would just give you a look like, WTF are you trying to do? I employed Mugwump's hoof kicking trick and what do you know, we DID get those front feet unstuck. She even did it willingly under saddle tonight!

In other news, for those of you who remember Footloose, the OTTB mare we rescued literally minutes before the truck to Mexico was loading last fall, her new owner took her for her first ride tonight. I'll let her comment on that but apparently she was awesome! Hopefully she will have a new career as a low level eventer. I think she'd like that, she's super calm outside and nothing seems to bother this mare. She is just naturally good minded and no amount of training can replace that! The really cool thing is that she wasn't sound last fall, but after time off doing nothing but eating - she is. Pretty cool outcome for a mare who almost slipped through the cracks.

Best and Worst!

2008-08-05T07:44:00.000-07:00

What is your horse the best at?

What is your horse the worst at?

Here are mine:

The VLC:

Best: Best darn natural, slow, round lope I have ever ridden. And, really, nothing upsets him.

Worst: Staying on the rail. He's just lazy and will cut in if I'm not paying attention, in the manner of a 26 year old school horse on a hot summer day. Solution: I just need to pay attention - it's a lot easier to catch them two inches off the wall than when you are daydreaming up there and all of a sudden you are in the middle of the ring wondering how you got there!

Honey:

Best: She has totally mastered halt and stand still. I mean, she will halt on seat and I can drop the reins and she will stand there motionless until next week. She does not fidget at all. It is really impressive. She stands still like a cowhorse!

Worst: Still working on bending right. She still wants to drop her shoulder and put her nose to the outside. I would like to get her off site to a better arena for some rides soon so that we can work on proper circles. That would help a lot!

So what is your horse's best and worst?

Let's talk about pain!

2008-08-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

As one alert poster observed, I ride like my back hurts. Yep, I do, because it does. 24/7 to varying degrees. It hurts a lot when I get up in the morning. It hurts enough to make tears come to my eyes if I have to stand in one place for long periods of time. Riding actually helps loosen it up but I have some degree of back and neck pain 24/7 and it's been like that for a long time. I can trace it to an accident at age 15 where I went ass-over-teakettle into an arena wall, but really, all the wear and tear since hasn't helped any.

This is not unusual. Most of us realized around age 30 that our bodies no longer felt the way they used to, and if we've had some painful spills, that was even more true. By 40, the arthritis and age related stuff starts to set in as well. I have a bad back, a locking knee, and ankles that crack like a 16 year old OTTB's when I walk stairs.

Most riders my age tell the same tales. Riding is not easy on the human body, particularly if you've ridden competitively or trained for a living. You can always identify the trainers at a horseshow - they are lamer than the oldest schoolie, hobbling from show ring to barn area with a perpetually hunched back. They all look like they need 2 grams of bute and possibly a shot of vodka to chase it. Now, add the fact that most of the professional horsepeople I know either have no health insurance, or no time to go to the doctor (I have the latter scenario) and - let's be honest here - we horsepeople are infamous for hating the doctor. I freely admit to the statement "I go to the doctor - if they drag me there unconscious while I can't protest." I tend to treat my aches and pains with lots of Advil, applications of horse liniment and the occasional shot of vodka. That's pretty typical. I have pointed out MANY times that if we only took as good care of ourselves and paid as much attention to rehabbing our injuries as we do if it's our horse with the problem, we'd be in a lot better shape - but it seems like almost none of us do. (Why is that? Why is it so many horsewomen, for example, have their horse's nutrition down to a science, yet can't put themselves on the same strict plan and lose the extra weight or just plain eat more healthfully? I mean, hell, I'm guilty. The horses have supplements for whatever they need, but do I take a vitamin? Uh, no.)

So as we age, we're not only dealing with increased fear issues, but most of us are dealing with pain issues. Yet we want to ride. None of us want to take the doctor's advice and take up a kindler, gentler sport more suited to aging bodies. And hey, we all saw the video about the 102 year old cowgirl...if she can do it, why can't we?

What's your pain issue? Do you know why you have it (i.e. a specific accident) or is it just wear and tear related? Have you been good and received actual medical care for it, or are you self-medicating? Does it affect your riding? Are you doing things like yoga or pilates to help regain your lost flexibility and strengthen your muscles to help deal with it? Why are we all so bad about taking care of ourselves?

Can I get an order of coordination with a side of balance?

2008-08-02T22:19:00.000-07:00

Today I want to talk about coordination and balance - two things that often seem to desert us as we age. I noticed this recently when the VLC was having a stubborn streak (I caaaaan't go forward with a bit in my mouth, I caaaaan't, I caaaaan't) and I really needed to carry a whip and/or smack him with the end of the reins.

Well, I felt like I needed three arms. If I reached back to whack him on the butt, it was like I simultaneously lost my balance and didn't know how to steer all at the same time. I'd whack him on the butt to move him out of the balk but then he'd veer toward the middle before I could gather my reins back up and react. Now, bear in mind this is a Quarter Horse who really has to be ridden "pitched away" - aka on a very long, loose rein. I cannot, as I would on a Thoroughbred, simply grab up my reins so that they are short and I have more control. (But then, a Thoroughbred would probably not be balking in the first place!) He does move off of leg - when he wants to. I need to fine-tune the moving off of leg part so that I can ride him the way he needs to be ridden (aka all leg/seat and no hands) but in the meantime, he just needs to keep going forward and deal with the fact there is a bit in his mouth. So I decided to just go back to the round pen and that actually worked great. I didn't worry about steering - I just worried about keeping our forward momentum. Once you get the forward, they pretty much have to go to the wall in the round pen. He still wants to put his head on the ground, but he really isn't making the fussy faces about the bit that he used to.

Yeah, yeah, I know. He needs his mane done big time. Anyway, I bet I'm not the only person having these balance/coordination issues so what have you done that has helped? I keep hearing yoga and want to try to start that when my schedule eases up. What else?

Then I did the first "real" ride on Bessie. I've been on her and she's eaten hay and ignored me but today we took her and the baby to the round pen and, with Stephanie as my ground person, we walked both ways and reversed. Bessie was fine, but we have established there is no response whatsoever to leg. None. I suspect her riding was limited to "follow the leader" trail rides, which I am pretty sure I could do with her tomorrow. She doesn't react at all to the saddle, cinching, flopping all over on her back, etc. But when it comes to the aids? She's clueless. The only way we got forward motion is Stephanie giving her a tug, or Stephanie beckoning to her..."come on Bessie, come here!" LOL.

We had a bit of a laugh about this - I remember Mugwump's blog about how, when she worked for the Big K, she was supposed to get on the first ride and lope off. We would all like to see someone get on Bessie and lope off. Josie said she would not bet money on my being able to make her trot. I think we are going to have to work on longeing to teach voice commands and get some fitness level on this mare. She's quite, um, well-fed, and had a sweat mark from the girth after 10 minutes of walking with a rider. :-)

See, this is why I think Thoroughbreds are easy. You always have "forward" with Thoroughbreds!

There is a WHAT in the barn???

2008-07-30T22:35:00.000-07:00

Tonight, as usual, I was running late. A little work with the VLC swiftly determined that he was in a pissy, antsy, impatient mood. So I decided to torture him.

"Aha," I said, "This is a great night for a patience lesson!" I proceeded to double-halter him - one regular, one rope and tie him very carefully and solidly to a beam in the middle of the arena. "You, young man, can stand here and just deal with it while I ride the Lust of Your Life." I figured he'd paw and scream and have a hissy, and it'd be just as good for her - since I'd never ridden her with another horse in the arena and we're going to a show in less than a month - as it would be for him.

I brought Honey in and, surprisingly, after a few screams, he realized he wasn't breeding anything and he decided to stand quietly, cock a back leg and go to sleep. Wow. Okay, clearly this wasn't as big of a challenge for him as I was thinking. I groomed her and tacked her up and was about to get on when I noticed he had come awake and was staring intently at the parking lot. He hadn't moved. He hadn't made a noise. But he was clearly on the alert.

A second later, Honey saw whatever he did - or smelled it. Her reaction was a bit different. You Thoroughbred people will know exactly what I am talking about when I refer to the Great Thoroughbred Freak-Out. Every muscle in her body tensed at once. Her tail and head shot up, her neck arched. She snorted loud enough to be heard in Malaysia.

I stared at the parking lot but saw nothing.

"Come on, you silly mare. Let's just walk down there and look at whatever is so terrifying." I tugged on the reins. Nothing. She was planted. And then, she exploded - the complete, my-brains-have-fallen-out-my-ears Thoroughbred Freak-Out. She basically ran around me at the end of the reins at Mach 10, terrified out of her wits. In following her, I got to where I could see the corridor to the barn - and what was freaking her out.

It was a cow. Well, I later learned it was actually a bull but what did register is that it was black and fucking huge and would NOT shut the fuck up. It was doing that agitated cow noise that they do when they get separated from the other cows and are too damn stupid to find their way back.

"Moo! Moo! Moo!" went the cow.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!" went Honey, running all around me.

I am a vegetarian, but at this moment, I understood completely why Mugwump feels their highest and best use is as a steak. I would certainly have sent this one on its way to becoming a steak without the slightest pang of guilt, if only I'd had a gun on me.

I now had a dilemma. I wanted to go chase the Bad Cow away from the barn. But I had a stallion tied in the arena and a mare who clearly could not be trusted to be tied up while I went cow chasing. Nor could I take her with me, as it required most of my attention to ensure I did not have a 15.3 hand mare in my lap. I will say that she quieted somewhat when I had my hand on her neck talking to her. She does trust humans not to steer her wrong. Well, to a point...

So I tried to call for help. I called my roommate Josie.

"Hello?" said Josie.

"Josie? OMG there is this BIG FUCKING BLACK COW loose down here in the barn and Honey is freaking out and I can't leave her. Can you come out and help me?"

Turned out Josie and my other roomie were in town having Thai food. They did however promise to call my landlord, the probable owner of said cow - but he wasn't home. Meanwhile the Bad Cow had moved to the barn aisle where it continued to moo. If you've never heard the sounds of very upset cow echoing off a very old aluminum sided barn, all I can say is that Honey was probably somewhat justified in her belief that it was a Thoroughbred Eating Demon.

I tried to keep her calm and hoped it would go away, which it finally did. When she had settled down, I tied her to the twine and went out to check on the status of the Bad Cow. I saw it heading down the neighbor's driveway. OK the coast was probably clear to proceed, and while there's nothing more that this chickenshit middle aged re-rider wanted to do more than untack both horses, go into the house and lay on the couch, I kicked myself in the ass and determined that I was going to at least ride the mare.

The Bad Cow was gone, but she knew it was somewhere. Honey has, except for the very first ride, always been very sensible with me. She's not a spooky horse but tonight? She was a freakin' idiot. I got on and we could not get past the opening to the corridor where Bad Cow had been standing. No way. She does, however, have a lovely rollback. Now I knew I was alone at home and I didn't want to get into a war, so we finally compromised that we would work in half of the arena but we would work. She was actually quite good, and at the end of our ride, Josie returned and managed to stand in the doorway and lure her back over. It took a while, but we got it done. I turned her and Clover out in the arena for the evening so hopefully by morning it will be the same old arena again and not the scary, scary place where a Bad Cow was.

By now I was beat so I longed the VLC, cleaned my stalls, filled my waters and trudged my half-dead ass into the house to write this post.

So here's what we learned tonight:

1. Thank you, VLC. I was almost on that mare when you noticed something was wrong outside. I appreciate the warning and you rock, even if you do have pissy, antsy three year old moments.

2. Karen, if you do not already possess a cow, please buy or borrow one. You are going to have to cow-break this mare or she's never going to be safe to trail ride. I'm not sure if it's all cows or just bulls, but boy, nobody would enjoy being on her the way she reacted! Maybe you can turn her out with a small, non-threatening steer or something.

3. Honey, I do appreciate that you tried really hard to get your brain back upon request even though you were very, very scared.

4. If there are any cows at the SAFE show, I am going to die.

5. The bull, I have learned "went missing" from the neighbors several days ago and my landlord saw it eating under his apple tree today. Farmers are an odd bunch. A reasonable person would tell everybody else that there was a 2,000 pound animal on the loose, walking, you know, in the middle of the fucking road where we drive. But no, never occurred to anyone to forewarn the rest of us...sheesh. I mean, I know we can't put up a Bad Cow Alert like we do the Amber Alerts, but pick up the darn phone already...

I love it when we're all on the same page!

2008-07-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned Bessie before. Bessie is a ten year old AQHA mare with a baby at side by the VLC. She's now owned by a 12 year old who is eager to start riding her. We know Bessie has been ridden, but we don't know the extent of her training, so I'm trying to refresh her memories!

Last week I started saddling her up. I started with the hunt saddle, reasoning that the smaller and lighter choice is always the one to start with. The first thing I had to do was go back for a bigger girth. The 48" that fits the VLC wouldn't even begin to reach on Big Bessie. Fortunately I had a 56 that came with the saddle. Yup. That fit Big Bessie. Good grief!

Baby was highly interested in the saddle. Bessie ignored it and kept eating.

So, since that went well, next session we progressed on to longeing, which was far more exercise for me than the horse. Bessie just didn't see any reason at all to actually trot. That was way more work than she was interested in. (Pets tend to resemble their...trainers?) We got her going both directions but she showed very little motivation. Baby, however, showed a level of motivation similar to Smarty Jones, blasting around the paddock at mach 10 while her mother trotted sedately on the longe. (It's always so much fun working them with babies still on them. The best part is when you start riding and they cut you off continually!) If anybody has any brilliant tips for training a mare who's still got the baby on her, feel free to share!

I put a western saddle on her this time. She kept eating.

Tightened the cinch. She kept eating.

Put a bridle on her. She made faces like she'd never worn one, tried to go back to eating. I removed it and decided we'd tackle wearing a bit another day.

I snapped reins to her halter and got on her. She kept eating. This mare and I are going to get along just fine.

I have to post another pic. How pretty are they? I love this mare and the baby's better than the mother. Baby, however, is scared of the halter so we are now working on desensitizing her to the halter, ropes, etc. in preparation for halter breaking.

Honey and I are getting busy preparing for the SAFE show on August 23rd. I was originally going to have that be the VLC's debut but I am so busy with the horses who HAVE to get ridden right now (Honey and Bessie) that he has fallen by the wayside a bit. That's okay. We'll get to a show yet this year, but I'm going to let this show be Honey's day. It's more appropriate for her to go to a horse rescue's show anyway as she was a free cast-off from a breeding farm, not an expensive show prospect who was never in any jeopardy like the VLC. Friends watched me ride Honey last night and I got to show off how she halts from a trot and stands perfectly still with the reins pitched away. We've been working on that! Her neck-reining is also coming along super well. Karen, I need to get you some video. I actually have this coming Saturday off from work so I may prevail upon Josie to haul a few up to the local public arena for me so we can get some good video for a change, not to mention getting Honey out to a new location before the horseshow.

As for the VLC, we have introduced ground driving and I agree it is a great tool. It is hard to balk because you don't like wearing a bit when Mom is behind you and able to growl at your big shiny butt. He is getting better about it - it will just take time. While he is very quiet in most respects, once he has decided to be a drama queen about something, it takes time for him to get over it. The first challenge was the cinchiness - now he's over it. The second challenge was moving off while mounting - he's about 75% over that. The third was the feet, and he's on his way to being over that. Now we have the bit. Mind you, this horse NEVER bucks, spooks, or does anything really bad under saddle. He just occasionally says "nope, don't like that, gonna pout and have a hissy fit."

On another note, seeing someone else ground drive him made me want to make him into a pleasure driving horse. Man, he is so pretty. I know he's mine and I sound like a typical mom, but he really is that pretty! Again, hopefully I can get some pictures this weekend or better yet video. :-)

Josie also ground drove the SSG, who tried to pull the bolting off maneuver that way...and got shut down hard. What a wonderful teaching tool! She is going to keep up with that and try to get him back on track.

Meanwhile, Kyra put in some ground work on my naughty yearling, who is full of beans and can definitely use it. She loves him and has already taught him to pick up his feet perfectly - now they are working in the round pen and on leading without any pushy moments.

So that's my update. What's yours?

Oh, and I just have to post another picture of Bullwinkle because I loooove him. :-)

Too busy to blog!

2008-07-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

I really am getting that busy and things show no sign of slowing down...but I'll try to be better!

The VLC had his first ride with a new person this past week! My friend's daughter Kyra , who is 14 but at least a half a foot taller than I will ever get, took him for a spin and he was really good. He just pulled the same stuff he's been pulling on me, which is trying to veer into the middle when going clockwise. But with me on the ground growling at him, that was quickly circumvented. She loved him, of course. It was great to get to watch him go! I rode him last night and he was just not going to circle left. Just didn't want to. Wanted to slam on the brakes and rubberneck. I picked up a whip for the first time. He was VERY surprised. It worked, but I got rid of it just as fast after accomplishing what I meant to accomplish. Josie said it was the first time she'd ever seen his eyes look anything but calm. That's okay. He will learn that we can do things the easy way or the way that stings!

Honey continues to live up to her sweet name. I was really impressed with her tonight. My roomies just brought home a darling new 3 year old filly from the same breeder Honey came from. Gracie needed someone kind and friendly to go out with, so we turned her and Honey loose in the arena to play. After about an hour or two, Josie brought Gracie in and Honey was, understandably, doing the herdbound TB thing...whinnying and trotting around by herself. I caught her, tied her up and groomed her. She was a little antsy but not bad. I didn't know what the ride was going to be like with her friend gone, but I was pleasantly surprised. She stood like a statue to be mounted and just rode great! As soon as I was on her, her focus returned. What a good, good mare. She ignored Gracie screaming in the barn, horse trailers coming into the driveway, etc. We are on the one-month countdown now to be ready for the SAFE benefit show. I think we are just doing walk trot (as we have not yet cantered, ha ha) but you never know. We'll see what we can accomplish in a month!

I moved some horses around today to get Bessie and her baby into a flat enough pasture to actually work Bessie, and not just sack her out and do walk-only ground work. They were terribly excited to be down near the other horses, and ran around like wild things. I wish I'd had a decent camera, but I snapped what I could with the phone. I can't get over what a nice baby Libby is (well, she IS the VLC's daughter!) I showed everybody tonight how I can pick up all four feet, loose in the field, without a bit of drama. Since they're owned by a 12 year old, mare and baby have had a lot of visitors and are just wonderful with everybody - horseperson or not. That baby is a social butterfly who rarely gets frightened. She is going to be such a joy to train one day! In the meantime, Mom still needs to progress so Bessie's goals for the next week include wearing a saddle and ground driving.

As for the other baby version of the VLC, I visited Bullwinkle on Friday and dewormed him and watched as he got all of his four feet picked up. He is equally friendly and SO DARN BIG. The picture below is with his 16.3 hand mother. He was born May 27th -- that baby is not even two months old yet! He has been sold to a blog reader, in case you missed that update, and I am telling her I want to see the Baby VLC blog for sure!

And YES, we are going to drag the Small Spotted Gelding back out of the field and ground drive HIS furry little butt...tomorrow for sure! He is not off the hook, it's just some of the other projects are a bit more time-sensitive, like Honey and Bessie who will go to their respective homes in a month.

The Thoroughbred mind...and yes, they do have one!

2008-07-17T07:39:00.001-07:00

Those of us who like Thoroughbreds tend to spend a lot of time arguing with people who don't over whether or not they are crazy. We point out that we can ride ours in halters with lead ropes and they follow us around like puppydogs. This does nothing to convince those other folks, who have determined they are all batshit psycho after seeing a Thoroughbred run around a show facility dragging the hook from the side of the horse trailer, a lawn chair and a hay net while 53 people tried to catch him and he successfully evaded them all.

The truth is, we're both right.

Thoroughbreds are my favorite breed. Have been for a long time. I grew up on Thoroughbreds; I learned to ride at a polo barn and was working polo ponies by the time I was in high school. They were smart and fun and had a lot of personality. If only I could have found high school boys with those qualities, I might not have ended up dating a 32 year old in my senior year. But I digress...

Honey is a perfect example of a typical Thoroughbred personality. When Honey first arrived here, she was snorty and silly and reactive. The first time I got on her, she was so light sided I couldn't touch her and she overreacted to everything. Her head was in the air and her feet barely touched the ground. It was easy to see how she could be an intimidating ride.

A few weeks later? She is a dead dog. I could ride her anywhere now in a halter, no problem. She doesn't spook. Nothing bothers her. She is easier than the VLC to ride, and that's saying something.

To me, this is a very familiar pattern. Thoroughbreds are sensitive beasts. They get somewhere new and their reaction to everything is OMG OMG OMG at first. They pick up the attitudes of other horses like a lightning rod - if another horse is upset, you can bet your Thoroughbred will have sympathy hysteria. Same goes for your attitude. If you are scared - they will be scared. Every time. After all, if you're scared there must be something to be scared about, right? A smart horse will react now and not get eaten by that mountain lion that apparently only his rider can see.

But once they adjust, which can take an hour or a month depending on the horse, the circumstances, etc. - they are fine. They are like Quarter Horses to ride, just a little more light-sided. The polo ponies are typically the easiest horses to ride in the world - you pitch their head away and they lope until you tell them not to - usually while you pony 2 or more horses off of them at the same time, and on a track not so different from the one they once raced on. It's pretty unusual to see a polo pony screwing around during exercising. They know enough to save their energy for the field.

So how do you survive the high phase? My best tactic has always been long trotting. Don't even try to make them walk. You will not win. They will just get more and more stupid and hyped up. Just let them trot, and let them trot as fast as their legs will carry them. Don't let them break into the canter, but let them trottrottrot as fast as they want. Put them into a big circle if you want to slow down a bit, but don't pull on them. (You'll never outpull an ex-racehorse but you may piss them off and teach them to leap or rear by trying) Trot, trot, trot. 20 minutes straight is not unusual to get the edge off. You wanted to be in better shape anyway, didn't you?

The high phase doesn't last. Give them a little time, a lot of turnout, lots of hay and no grain. You'll have a whole different horse in short order, and you may even change your mind about the breed in general!

(as opposed to some other breeds, cough cough cough Arabians, that you cannot freakin' tire out or wear down or get the edge off of no matter what you do!)

*ducks tomatoes from the Ay-rab people*

My two in one training project!

2008-07-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

If you've read my stuff for any period of time, you know that I believe every broodmare should be broke to ride so that she can have a second career when her producing days are over. In Bessie's case, she was just sold to a 12 year old to start that second career at the age of 10. She's not old, nor are her producing days necessarily over, but she's put three nice fillies in a row on the ground in the past three years, and as far as I'm concerned, her job is done - an easy life of carrots and riding lies ahead of her!

We know Bessie is green broke but that's all the history we have. She was an auction purchase, four years ago. She is papered, so we know where she came from but have few details about her past life. She happens to be my mare Kit's daughter - they came through the sale together. Bessie arrived here on Friday and I let her and the baby settle in for a few days.

Last night, I went up and decided to put my Dr. Cook's bridle on Bessie and just do some basic groundwork. I led her around the field and worked on "ho." She barged past me a few times, and then caught on to what we were doing and was stopping on voice command within a few minutes. Backing up was a little harder - this is clearly not a maneuver you learn in Broodmare School - but she did it.

Then I "sacked her out" with a saddle pad. Threw it on her back, hung it on her head, all over her butt, threw it up in the air. Bessie never moved. So I sacked out the baby. Baby didn't care either. This is not at all a skittish baby. She has no real concerns about Fast Things, Flying Things or Crackling Things. You can touch her anywhere. She's ready to move on to halter breaking and picking up her feet.

I led Bessie up to the hay feeder and put her next to it. Bessie stood like a statue while I laid over her back, put my leg over her, etc. She was great. Tonight or tomorrow, when I have a helper, I'm going to get on her. I'm also going to get a halter on the baby and start working with her in earnest!

And yes, I finally rode my VLC. He knows Bessie is on the property and apparently remembers her. (Do they remember mares they've bred? They must.) So I turned him out in the arena and he just galloped like a fool and hung his head out the end doors and screamed, screamed, screamed at her. He never gets this excited over a mare, and I was kind of concerned it would affect him under saddle. Nope. He was fine. Never whinnied once under saddle and he even stood perfectly still twice for mounting last night (the second time because I dropped something). He was actually a little on the lazy side. He's started pulling an old trick again the last few rides - the attempt to veer into the middle without warning. I don't know if it's general pissyness because I'm riding with the bit (but with the reins loose - I'm still riding off of the halter reins) or he's just hot and doesn't want to work that hard or he's just bored because all we do is schlump around this dusty indoor arena and do figure 8's and circles. Well, not exactly unusual baby horse behavior. I just have to stay on my toes so I can counteract it before he gets off the wall in the first place. I definitely can't complain - one week off and he came back just as if I'd been riding all along. He seems like he'll be one of those horses where you can give him time off and hop back on and it's like he never had a break.

Tonight - more Honey and Bessie!

Making it look easy!

2008-07-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

I had to laugh tonight. I got totally and completely shown up by a 14 year old.

I've talked before about how both of my boys - the yearling and the three year old - are royal PITA's about picking up their feet. The yearling was great when he was a weanling. Over the winter, he developed an attitude about it. I have a really bad back and the last thing I can do is hang on to the hoof of something that is (a) rearing (b) flying backward or (c) falling down. Therefore, they got away with it and I determined I was going to have to pay someone else to teach them to pick up their feet. And really, it wasn't just me. Josie tried it too and he was a brat for her. He was a brat for my farrier, who is built like a brick shithouse. He was just a naughty, rearing brat, no matter who tried to pick up his feet.

I was standing out watering today when the yearling came up. I thought, I should see if I can pick up his feet just for a second. I reached down and he picked up each of them nicely. Wow. I patted him and told him he was excellent. I thought I'd accomplished a major breakthrough until I found out that Kira, my friend's 14 year old, had been working with him. And now, well, he picks up his feet pretty much fine. Oh, he hopped a bit with her but she didn't let go and he decided to give up and eat cookies. Easy peasy. She seemed somewhat baffled at how the 40 year old semi-professional trainer in front of her and the big burly farrier had been so incapable of performing this task.

I told her that we are going to do videos of her picking up feet on difficult horses and market them a la Pat Parelli. She can be the child prodigy of the natural horsemanship set. I will sit back and collect my cut, and she can continue to pick the feet on my yellow colt - he seems to like her.

In other news, I have to say that if Miss Honey gets any quieter, she is going to be ready for the 10 and under walk-trot class. She is just doing so well. She is starting to develop a neck rein. She is backing up nicely with her head down. She walks and trots on a loose rein and nothing bothers her. My only concern is that I'm picking up a little ouchiness on her left back ankle, which has a big knot on it from the track. I think I just need to get out of the round pen, but in the heat it's hard to get motivated to ride in the dusty, hot indoor arena. Maybe I'll start taking an afternoon nap when I get home from work and riding in the late evening!

So the bay mare and filly from the last post are here now. Their new owners are the nicest people on earth, and both horses are loving their new life. This mare has only ever been a broodmare, and seems ecstatic about having a kid of her own to feed her cookies. She cannot believe her good fortune. Baby, meanwhile, is equally appreciative of the attention and has become so fond of the butt scratching that when her mother's feet were being trimmed this morning, she was "backing up the bus" and trying to scratch her booty on our farrier's booty! Too funny. Bessie's going to get her first ground work sesssion tomorrow evening. I'm sure Baby will watch with great amusement (and try to interfere to get scratches!).

I must ride that very large colt tomorrow, too...

Pets tend to resemble their owners!

2008-07-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

One of my personal failings is that I'm just not that patient. I'm fine with horses, but with traffic, long lines, and people who cannot make up their minds, I have a pretty low boiling point. So it should come as no surprise that so does my VLC. I decided tonight that we were going to simply work on standing still by the mounting block. I wasn't going to get on. I tacked him up and free longed for a while and then we were just going to work on patiently standing still next to the block. Not fidgeting, not barging past, not backing up. Just standing there and being praised for standing there.

Ha.

The VLC is like his owner. He doesn't want to F around, he wants to get out there and get working. He couldn't figure out why were screwing around just standing there. He got highly annoyed. First he tried to turn around and nibble on my feet on the block. I pulled his head straight. He barged forward. He backed up. He swung his hindquarters. I just kept bringing him back to stand and praising him when he did stand.

He decided I was an idiot and this was the stupidest thing ever. He even stomped his back feet a few times. I growled, he quit.

Finally, after at least 15 minutes, he gave out the long-suffering "God, my owner is a prize moron" sigh and stood still and relaxed. I got off the block, took him inside, put him away and detangled his tail while he finished his dinner. I am not sure whether or not he learned patience, but maybe we took a step in the right direction.

I also rode Honey tonight. The BTM continues to be just extremely good. She stood like a statue for mounting, was bending to the right better than ever before, and is really getting the hang of backing up now. We've started to work a little bit on neck reining. She is such a kind, cooperative mare and she just feels solid underneath you - you know? She is relaxed, even when she's fast - she's not a nervous Nelly at all.

We have some changes coming here. Lucy, the black mare from the Enumclaw sale, is heading off to Stephanie Korhel's barn for the intensive ground work she needs to get over her fears about humans. I think being in a busy training barn with lots of handling will be good for Lucy, who I suspect has sat in a field popping out babies with minimal handling for years now. Meanwhile, I have a new project coming in. Bessie, who is actually my old mare Kit's daughter, has been sold to a new owner and is coming in for 30 days' refresher training. She has also been just a broodie for years now with the exception of a few bareback rides last summer, but she isn't scared or spooky. It's pretty obvious nobody has ever been mean to Bessie. She thinks humans are creatures that supply alfalfa and horse cookies, and so does her month-old adorable bay filly (by the VLC, one of his two from before I owned him). I'm so excited that she's coming here and I'll get to play with the VLC's first daughter. Aren't they cute?

Finally, some more exciting news - the VLC's first colt, Bullwinkle, has been sold to a reader of the blog. He's out of a mare even bigger than the VLC, so I think he'll max out at 16.2 or bigger. His future will be dressage and trail riding, and he is heading to Idaho as soon as he is weaned this fall! I have strongly suggested that he get his own blog. :-)

What do you mean, we have to go back to work?

2008-07-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy week with a lot of extracurricular activities going on (a work party, a couple trips back and forth trying to get some horses sold, etc.) and just a couple of nights where, after I got done with chores, I was too damn tired to ride.

I did brush all the old mares out one of those nights!

Anyway, last night it had officially been five days since I had ridden, which really isn't acceptable, so I finally had to kick myself in the butt and get going again. I decided to start with the boys and leave Honey for tonight. She just looked so happy out there eating her hay with her friends...and she gets extra credit as I dewormed everybody last night and she was one of the best ones. The VLC was also excellent as was the BGY. The COB, of course, that was a twenty minute fight while she tried desperately to bite me. COB, I am not asleep at the switch and I do know where and how to hold you so that you cannot bite me!

I rode the VLC while Josie did groundwork with the SSBG. I decided to put reins on the bit (the D-ring copper snaffle) and reins on the halter and ride with both and see how that went. He really doesn't object as much to the D-ring, though I still do want to try the french link happy mouth when I can borrow that. It actually went really well with very few silly faces or annoyed behaviors. He had some stubborn moments when he hit the end of the reins and balked, but we rode through them and all in all, it was pretty good. I rode with the bit reins longer, so the only time he had to feel the bit was when he bulged off the wall and had to be corrected. The SSBG was tied in the middle of the ring and he really would like to go in and visit with his friend. Sorry, VLC. No go.

I have to say that the VLC probably has one of the top 5 canters I have ever ridden, lifetime. He is so comfortable! Really, he doesn't have any of the green horse all-over-the-place canter thing going on. He doesn't like his right lead but will take it. He's very balanced around the corners even though the ring is narrow for a big horse like himself. I am dying for a larger, better ring to work in and will probably move him elsewhere in a few months to do that. It's just so hard to find a place that takes stallions, and will turn him out more than 15 minutes in a round pen. He's used to being out at least 12 hours a day. He'd go nuts if he were stall bound.

The SSBG started off pretty well and then got very, very stubborn about simple leading. As I pointed out to Josie, since the last time I just had her lead me on him, he is now going to refuse to lead in an attempt to get out of any further riding. He lost the battle, of course with some ground support from me after I got off the VLC. We found that one of Josie's surcingles fits him, so his ground driving training is going to begin shortly. I really am hoping my dressage rider friend will get her butt up here and give us some expert ground driving instruction...hint hint Princess Jess. :-)

My goal for tonight is another ride on Honey and then I am going to try to follow up Thursday night by riding her in the arena and not just the round pen. She's always very good but she's been soooo squirrely in the indoor in general (just when turned out or longed in there) that I'm a little leery about it. She seems to be one of those horses who prefers the outdoors, where she can see everything and there are no surprises - as opposed to the indoor where all of a sudden you see things come from behind doors, and there are skeeery pinpoints of sunlight coming through holes in the wall.

How was your weekend? I know a lot of you went to shows, so how did that go? My first show for the VLC, if all goes according to plan, is less than 2 months off now. He's going to have to learn to deal with the bit because I'm pretty sure he can't show in a halter!

Wonder if I could shrink the VLC in the dryer?

2008-07-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Kidding...kidding...sort of.

Okay, so I took my first cutting lesson last night and it was the most fun I've had on a horse since my polo days. Now I want a cutting horse. (We'll do pics next time, I promise)

I had forgotten how long it had been since I've been on a really broke horse. I mean, I am trying to think back and it is entirely possible I have not ridden a non-green horse since December 2006, the last time I ever rode my old polo pony Raquita. Since that time, I have ridden:

a) unbroke, start-from-scratch young horses
b) horses with 30-60 days on them
c) broodmares that only ever had 30-60 days on them...15 years ago
d) OTTB's
e) rescue horses with completely unknown histories, most of which appeared to be 30-60 days broke...10 years ago

Hmmm, okay, I think I went on a trail ride in May '07 on my friend's well broke Standardbred, but that is it! I've been riding nothing but greenies that are work to ride for a long time now. What a total pleasure it was to go out for this lesson and get on this lovely little bay overo paint mare who loped around on a dropped rein and slid to a halt every time I asked her to. I have to get her real name - apparently she's been to APHA World and everything. She is built like a tank, absolutely adorable (definitely meets my "breeding quality mare" standard), and really knows her job - but she's also a school horse and you could tell she was evaluating me.

The first test was the left lead. She said she would prefer to take the right lead. I think it took four tries but we got the left lead. She loped off, resigned. It took two tries the second time, and the third time she just gave up and did it.

The second test was plain old motivation. Kimmie is who they put all of the beginners on. I imagine this encompasses quite the range of riding skills. She is not going to hurt anybody, but she has also learned that working hard is probably optional. As I've mentioned before, I'm not typically a spur wearer. Before the lesson my friend who was taking me with her texted me.

Friend: Bring spurs
Me: I don't own spurs

Trainer Guy, the kind of guy who probably wears spurs to bed, kind of rolled his eyes at my lack of spurs.

"You can try it. I don't know if it's gonna work."

Hmph. I have been around the block a time or two and I do believe I can get something into 2nd gear without spurs. Well, in practice, he had a point. I did get Kimmie into gear but I could see where a little extra speed on the response would have been helpful. I will purchase spurs before next time.

For those of you who have not tried cutting, all I have to say is OMG SO MUCH FUN. Seriously. I leaned forward a little too far the very first turn, which I learned not to do because I caught my bra on the horn and snapped myself a good one. I sat up after that. My friend who was watching said she saw me "get it" after the first three turns, and then we just had a ball. The hardest thing for me was to stop parallel and wait and watch the cow...from polo, my instinct is to turn and take off on the fly, and you don't do that here. You stop parallel and you don't let the horse turn to face the cow. You sit and you stare down the cow and wait to see what he's going to do. And you'd better be ready when he moves. There's a reason they let you hang on to the horn in this - honestly even if you're a solid rider and used to doing rollbacks and working at speed, these horses are so quick that there's no way you'd stick with the force of the motion if you didn't steady yourself a bit.

Cows are interesting. I've never worked cattle before. I used to ride my mare around during team sorting and go wander around with the herd but that was it. They stop, and then they do one of two things. Either they try to change direction (that's when your horse does the left-to-right skiing motion you've all seen cutting horses do, to cut them off) or they just decide to run like hell, in which case you run like hell and stay at their shoulder. That part is kind of familiar since in polo, you run like hell and bump shoulder-to-shoulder, so I'm used to watching another animal and trying to match their speed. Sometimes the cow slows and you have to slow too. You really get tunnel vision - I would not have noticed if a bomb exploded adjacent the arena. I was so busy watching that cow.

A couple times one really got to running. I booted old Kimmie in the ribs and asked for more. She pinned her ears and thought about bucking but in the end she gave me more. I just loved her personality - she reminded me of the COB. I do have a soft spot for that kind of hard bitten working horse attitude. Even when we weren't out there practicing, if a cow came too close, Kimmie flattened her ears and gave him snake face. Now that's a horse who knows who she is. She's the predator. They're the prey. I'd never question that she was doing what she loved. It was obvious.

Did I have any fear at all about getting on a brand new horse and doing a brand new sport involving running like hell and turning faster than I've ever turned in my life? Absolutely zero. You know, she just felt solid from the start. I think this is how the VLC is going to be in a year and it's one of the things I'm happiest about with him. Even if he is too big to be a cutting horse. ;-)

Trainer Guy said I did good. I did not get the impression he is given to excess words or flattery, so I assume I did good. I am going to make this a regular thing if I can figure out how to pay for it. The price is actually really fair, $45 including the use of the horse, but an extra $45 in my budget (plus probably $25 in gas to get there and back) isn't always easy. I am already wondering if he will let me clean stalls...

So when was the last time you tried something totally new on a horse?

The spirit is willing but the body is toast!

2008-07-02T09:14:00.001-07:00

Have you ever had one of those nights where you know you are just riding like shit?

It doesn't matter how well you ride, it can happen. Your balance is off. Your legs feel like noodles. You know you are leaning in funny ways. You don't feel secure. You know that if the horse decided to offload you, they could do it without breaking a sweat. You hope and pray they won't take advantage, and try to just get the horse worked without doing anything too complicated.

When I was younger, I only felt this way when I was sick. I particularly remember it from when I was riding with pneumonia. Now? Could happen at any time, and it definitely happened last night.

We started with the SSBG (sorry Josie but that's his name until he shows me he is not going to repeat his behavior!) and I decided it's definitely time to go to a bit with him. If you're going to slam your head to the ground pitching and rip the reins through my hand in a bitless or halter, then guess what, you're going to learn to carry a bit. Now.

He's not bad about the bit. I set him up and let him free longe in the round pen with the reins loosely knotted on the horn. He tested them and felt them out but he's not terribly resistant to them - he's normal for a green horse. Free longeing him is work. There are horses that will pretty much just go around while you stand in the middle and read your e-mail. He's not one of them. If I took my eyes off of him for even a second - he stopped. He was always looking for an opportunity to spin and go the Preferred Pony Direction, so I had to be on guard and positioned at his hip to counteract that. It was probably more work for me than it was for him!

We also did a lot of work on stopping, but stopping without a rider has never been his problem. He stops great when someone on the ground tells him ho. When you ask for it on his back, no matter how gently, his first instinct is to throw his nose up and resist. So I decided we needed ground support. We put a rope halter on over the bridle, I mounted up and we just worked on walking and stopping. If he wanted to walk through my request to stop, he got reminded with the halter that this wasn't an option. My whole focus with him for the next week or so is going to be all about installing brakes before we go any further. He was a good boy, although very distracted by all of the horses running in the fields - but that is the price you pay for using the round pen at twilight!

By now it was quarter to ten again (I know, I know, it's just I have all of these horses to feed and waters to fill before I can even think about riding, plus the phone kept ringing) and I needed to ride the VLC. As soon as I climbed on, I knew I was just...mush. I was past tired, my coordination level was zero, and I just couldn't quite pull it together the way I wanted to no matter what. I felt loose, I felt off balance and just not quite right. I hate that. But hey, it was the VLC, so he trotted around without any drama and everything was fine. I did have enough common sense to decide not to lope, and to work on something easy - stopping and immediately backing a few steps. He is figuring it out well, and is not resistant about backing. What a good boy! Josie makes fun of me because she can hear me when I'm in the arena in her aisle and I am always telling him he is the Best Colt in the World and Such a Good Boy. Well, he is!

To me, one of the primary indicators of a really good minded horse is what happened last night - the horse that does not take advantage when you're not riding your best. Believe me, the horse knows if you're off balance and weak. A good horse packs you around regardless. A dishonest horse goes, woo hoo, here's my chance to offload her! We've all ridden both and, at this point in my life, I want to ride the good minded ones.

A couple pictures tonight of Honey, the BTM! They are blurry because it was twilight when they were taken, not because she was moving that fast. (The trot pics, yeah, those are so blurry you can't even see them, ha ha!) These were from ride #2. Standard disclaimer applies, I am aware of my lack of a helmet and yes, I am riding in sneakers. Just think, you can use me as an example of how not to ride for your kids! :-)

I see why Karen misses her so much. She is a snuggly Honey Bunny and was all over me for petting this morning while I was out watering. Anybody would love to have her around, and she gets along with the other mares so well. She and Lucy were mutually grooming each other - I wish I'd have had my camera!

Love is in the air...

2008-06-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Or at least lust. Every mare on the property seemed to be in heat tonight and all of the boys had definitely noticed!

I started off with Honey. Honey was in raging heat and this had the side effect of rendering her obnoxiously herd bound. Oh my heavens, what was I thinking trying to take her away from her friends? She screamed and pranced and generally acted like a particularly rank youngster in the post parade.

"You are EIGHT YEARS OLD," I reminded her. "Walk like a lady!"

I put her in the round pen, where she bucked and farted and ran around while I finished my chores. She was still on the alert when I came out. You know that Thoroughbred mare mood where they are just ridiculously twitchy all over? Antsy, twitchy, peeing, pooping (how does that much poop come out of one horse? She just kept doing the nervous pooping tonight.) , couldn't stand. Got an elbow in the ribs more than once as I brushed her up and she forgot I was there and barged over. She didn't seem to notice.

(This mare would make a great polo pony. Truly. Karen, any interest in polo? 'Cause I'm telling you, that is Honey's niche. I can just see her bumping. Would not faze her a bit! )

Tacked her up and did a little work teaching the backup on the ground to start. She catches on really quickly. Then I let her trot around loose and do her signature move where she throws her head and neck all over like she is a real bad ass, had her canter a bit til I was sure the edge was off and then climbed on. She was really very good. I was expecting worse given her overall mood, but once on, she was about the same as usual. We continued to work on bending to the right (the left bend, unsurprisingly, is fine) and halting and backing a few steps. I saw the first hints of a really free back a time or two tonight, but she's still resistant. She will get it. She is just figuring it out.

I had started turning her toward the wall to start teaching the pivot last time and this time she really caught on and started doing a true rollback at the walk. I was really surprised and pleased and she got major petting and praise for that. This mare is so light on her feet when she wants to be. When we get the cues installed, she is going to be a sports car to ride. The other really nice thing about her is she has no problem at all walking on a loose, dropped rein. Sometimes that is a real challenge for OTTB's but this one gets that a loose rein means just relax and walk with your head low, and that is exactly what she does. What a good girl!

Hosed her off, put her back out with the girls (she still had enough energy that I had to growl at her to walk back to the other mares) and grabbed the VLC. I figured it would be a valuable learning experience as there were mares in heat behind another fence not ten feet from the round pen. Time to see if Mr. VLC can think with the upstairs head!

Tonight I just ended up doing ground work with him. I put a little different bit on him - a copper mouth D ring that's quite a bit thicker than the loose ring snaffle I was riding him in. He definitely preferred that and there was a lot less of the "OMG you are killing me" face. (I have a friend who is going to loan me her happy mouth french link so I am betting he will really like that!) I knotted the reins loosely to the horn so that the only time they made contact is when he tried to trot with his nose on the ground - his usual reaction to riding in a bit. I let him trot around and figure out that the only place his head couldn't be was lower than his knees.

I've mentioned before that our round pen is a little deep. Not dangerously so, but deep enough that it's a pretty good workout for them. He wanted to talk to the girls, truly he did, but after the second round, he realized he didn't have the wind to both whinny and trot, and Mean Mom was going to make him keep jogging. He gave up. He completely ignored them after that, and I mean, one of them was backed up butt first to the fenceline. What a good VLC! I'm guessing that pasture full of conveniently located slutty ex-broodmares is going to be one of the best training tools ever.

Ran out of time and energy and did not address the SSBG (new name. Now he's the Small Spotted Bucking Gelding) tonight but we'll get to that later this week. My hand's still healing up and I think I might want to have both of them in working order for the next ride!

Funniest part of the evening: I have been turning my ancient mare, Clover, out in the "hallway" between our two lines of pastures overnight so she can gum some grass and enjoy some freedom. Tonight, we heard major squealing coming from the direction of the "boy" pasture (mixed stallions and geldings). Josie thought a stallion was flirting with Clover, and headed off to check it out. Nope. It was her Appy gelding, and yes...he was in loooove. The two of them mooned at each other over the fence line for quite some time before she gave up and headed off in search of more grass. I am sure he was heartbroken.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. I know, it's become a boring blog. Going to try to get more soon!

Two out of three ain't bad...

2008-06-27T07:29:00.000-07:00

Last night's report:

The Beautiful Thoroughbred Mare

Honey is doing really well. This was our third ride and she was just as quiet as ride #2. I think being out on three acres with three other horses is doing her a lot of good. She has buddied up with the Crabby Old Bat, which cracks me up as I didn't think the COB liked anyone - but she likes Honey. Honey is a good herd member - she gets along well with everybody. She has her Thoroughbred moments where she and Lucy gallop the length of the pasture. The two AQHA mares look on disdainfully with mouths full of grass, wondering why in the world those dumb Thoroughbreds are running when nothing is chasing them.

Last night we worked specifically on two things: backing up and starting the pivot. Honey has absolutely no back-up, not really surprising. That's not a maneuver they teach on the track. So we worked on halting and backing a step. She is resistant but not in a bad way. She's just figuring it out and every time she took a step back, even a small one, she got petted and allowed to move on. She really has no problem with "whoa." She stops and stands quietly on a dropped rein every time. I'm riding her in a D-ring copper snaffle that is on the fat side and I don't think she'll ever need anything more.

As I've mentioned before, she has a killer rollback loose, so we're going to use that and start teaching her to pivot. I did several directional changes where I just stopped her a little bit away from the wall and turned her toward the wall. She figured it out quickly and pivoted and stepped out of it, getting more petting and major praise. One thing I really like about Honey is that she's not overly reactive to leg. You can put some leg on her and she doesn't go, OMG, leg, must gallop. Some of them do!

Of course, we also just worked on bending, particularly to the right since we have absolutely no bend to the right (again, no surprise). Even loose in the round pen, she travels with her nose canted off to the outside and her inside shoulder dropped. I would like to see her get adjusted at some point - they all come off the track crooked and it doesn't necessarily fix itself with time. I had a horse adjusted years ago that must have been twenty, and his head-neck area was still crooked to the left from the track. She's not showing any pain behaviors when I do flex her to the right, though - it's just obvious that's a totally undeveloped side and this is a new experience.

The Very Large Colt

The night was a long one. I had friends stop by before I even got on Honey, so it was 10 PM by the time I got on the VLC. Honestly, at that point, I didn't want to work hard and he and I mutually agreed we were just going to do an exercise ride. In other words, trot and do figure 8's but not work hard on anything in particular - just cruise around. That's exactly what we did and he was absolutely perfect. I really appreciate how consistently good he is. I also really noticed tonight that my leg is tightening up from riding more. It feels good!

Goal for the next week is going to be to get back to bit-training him in earnest. I need to ground drive him, much though that bores me, and just work on getting him to accept wearing a bit and that it will not kill him. I got lazy the past few rides and went, F it, ride in a halter if it makes you happy. It does, but he's not going to be a trail horse and he just can't ride in a halter forever. (I do think it's kind of cool that I have an immense sized 3 year old colt that rides perfectly in a halter at a walk, trot and canter though!)

The Small Spotted Gelding

All right, now it was 10:30 and both Josie and I observed that the SSG had that look in his eye. You know, the "I just don't want to cooperate, F You" look. Still, I was dead set that I was going to get all of my horses worked. I knew I had something else to do Friday night and I was going to get these three horses worked that I had scheduled myself to work, no matter how late it was.

Mistake #1.

He was pissy about the girth (not normal for him) and just looked like he was going to be uncooperative, so I decided to play it safe and longe.

Pony trotted around just fine. No sign of any drama.

OK fine. Normally I ride him with a shorter set of snap on reins but they weren't in the arena and I was tired and I said, what the Hell, I'll just ride him with the long white ponybeater reins tonight.

Mistake #2

I've observed before that the SSG has a noodle neck and the ability to go in a direction his head is not facing. However, up to this point, I really did not think he would do anything worse than trot sideways around the arena with me. I hadn't quite figured out how to get the body to follow the noodle neck, but in the indoor I tend to think, well, hell, where are they going to go? I will just run their nose into the corner if I need to.

Mistake #3

I got on the SSG. And he...left. At a fast trot. I pulled his nose halfway around to my knee. He was still trotting, in the same direction he wanted to trot, and ignoring me. I tried to put his nose into the corner to stop and he just sidepassed his little self out of the corner at a fast clip and headed off down the wall. I said, ok fine you little shit, we'll just long trot 'til you get tired and then we'll long trot after that until you wish you could stop.

Mistake #4

The long trot disintegrated into the Pepe le Peu canter. You know the one I mean. Stiff legged, head in the air. He dove around the corner with a turn worthy of a barrel racer, stuck his pony nose down and started pitching. I think I stayed on for two of them. It was so dark in that end of the arena that Josie didn't even see what happened.

I landed fairly painlessly on my hip and side. My early training about rolling myself into a ball has never deserted me, and I'm thankful for that. What hurt like a bitch was my left hand. I'd been trying so hard to pull the pony nose back up that I rope-burned the living hell out of my fingers and the area between my thumb and forefinger. I jumped up, announced I was fine, but didn't feel like I could get back on as my left hand appeared to be on fire.

Which, very honestly, bugged the shit out of me. I should have gotten back on. He got worked - Josie soundly longed his little spotted ass - but I wanted to get back on, more for myself than anything else. I do however, despite the amazing lack of common sense shown by this entire incident, have enough sense not to get on a green pony that just bucked my ass off with one functioning hand. So I didn't.

Here's what I hope/think I learned:

1. If it's 10:30 at night and you know you're tired, and the pony is looking at you like F You, Lady, just longe. You are not being paid by the ride here, nor do you have to have him ready for the Olympics.

2. The pony does not like to be turned out in the arena all day and then worked when he has not had dinner yet and dinner is late and he had to listen to the other horses whinnying and being fed.

3. Failing to turn the pony and the VLC out to play together like they normally do before riding is just stupid. I don't care how late it is, if it's that late, then just don't ride. I am very lucky the VLC was kind enough not to buck my ass off too - that would have been three more hands' worth of fall and probably would have actually hurt.

4. Before you ride the green pony with the long, hanging to the knees ponybeater reins, you MIGHT want to LONGE in them first. I think he was spooked by the hanging, flapping white reins and I got exactly what I deserved for never giving him a chance to be desensitized to them before I just hopped on and rode like that.

5. You need to figure out how the hell to consistently stop the noodle-necked, hyperflexible pony. NOW.

6. Perhaps we have established that the pony should not be left for last with the assumption that he will be the easiest one of the bunch?

On the plus side:

1. I'm actually not stiff or sore. I'm fine. I'm shocked. I did load up on Advil before I went to bed but I'm still surprised the only thing that hurts is my hand.

2. I don't think I'm scared. I think I'll be fine about getting back on the pony.

3. I'm going to learn a lot from riding this one and it will save my ass in the future when I encounter his type again.

OK, anybody have any really good recommendations for some over the counter stuff that will make the rope burn on my hand feel better?

The tale of the Statue Filly

2008-06-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

I said the other day I'd blog about this soon...

We were all talking about horses who just balk, grow roots and won't move. I had one of those to deal with last year. She was a three year old AQHA filly, by the same sire as the VLC and the BGY, a big sorrel with an adorable face. She had many of the same quirks - quiet to ride but antsy to mount and didn't like to pick up her feet. (Can that stuff be genetic? LOL.)

I met her in 2006 when she was a late 2 year old, and watched the Trainer Wannabe who was riding her at the time. She was doing all the typical low-end stock-breed training stuff to her, all the crap I hate - riding in these huge clanking spurs, riding her in a single twisted wire snaffle, popping her in the face every three seconds. Sure, the filly jogged, but she did it with her nose behind the vertical and her ass off the wall. Lovely. The filly would occasionally hop around, not surprising since she lived in a stall at a show facility and rarely got turned out. She got more snapping on the mouth for the hopping. Trainer Wannabe was probably 20 years old, blonde, hot, way thinner than I am and thought she was amazingly hot shit. I would just watch it and roll my eyes.

Filly finally got fed up with Trainer Wannabe. At a horseshow, she slammed on the brakes mid-lope and refused to go forward another step. Trainer Wannabe did not appreciate looking foolish. She threw the filly back in the stall and scratched the rest of her classes. There's some training for you! What do you suppose that taught?

Trainer Wannabe ended up quitting as she thought she was worth $50 a ride and nobody else did. At that point, my friend Jess (Princess Jess on the blog) and I decided to try to do something with Statue Filly. So one day we pulled her out. Boy, was she antsy. Just getting tack on was a major ordeal. We put her in a hunt saddle and a nice fat snaffle and of course no spurs. It was almost impossible to mount her. Antsy, antsy, all over the place. And of course, that barn was Grand Central Station and there wasn't really a quiet place to do anything. Jess admits she thought the filly was going to be a bronc to ride, based upon the mounting drama. She managed to get on her and...

Nothing happened. SF was practically catatonic under saddle. Jess could barely push her into a jog. SF however could back up for days. Prior to this experience, I did not know what a "spur stop" was. I'm primarily an English rider, though I have my share of Western ribbons from the days when I had that marvelous all-around gelding in the early 90s. I am pretty sure we did not have the "spur stop" back in those days, or if we did, I sure as heck wasn't exposed to it. I stop by squeezing with my thighs and pushing my seat down into the saddle. I cannot imagine the point of teaching them to stop from lower leg pressure - for god's sake, if that means stop, WHAT the HELL means GO? I am confused and if anybody wants to explain it to me, please do.

Anyway, apparently one of the things Trainer Wannabe had taught Statue Filly was the spur stop. Any leg pressure at all resulted in the brakes being applied. WTF? What do we do with that? Jess was baffled. I was baffled. We were overscheduled anyway and only got the SF worked once or twice that winter. She went home, got thrown out in the field and proceeded to sit and eat for five months. Then she needed to get sold, so I had to get on her and see how she'd ride around...at her home farm, where there was not so much as a round pen. I was fairly convinced this was not a good idea, although she was substantially easier to mount than she'd been when she was at the show facility. Even in a field with loose horses adjacent her, she was the same ride. Catatonic. I got a bit of a slow jog. Long trot? Forget it. But hey, it was apparent she wasn't going to kill me, so I took her back to my house to ride for a while.

At first, she would just stop and refuse to go forward at all and we worked through the normal cures for that - tried to turn her out of it, etc. It kinda sorta worked. She really did just want to grow roots and stand there like a giant Sequoia. I escalated to using the pony-whacker reins on her and that did get her into gear, at least sometimes, although I kept thinking I was going to get a buck. I never did. She truly did not care how much leg or whip you lit into her with. She could stand there through anything. The only way I finally made some progress with her was by using Jess as a ground person - equipped with a longe whip. I worked on equating trot with cluck and kiss with canter, hoping that if the sides didn't work, voice commands would. Again, it sort of worked.

After about a month, we were getting through rides without any balking episodes. She was just so dead quiet and wonderful that if she didn't lock up, she was a total pleasure to ride. She ignored July 4th fireworks, which in my neighborhood sounded like the bombing of Iraq. She learned to neck rein in, like, one lesson. I even started riding her bridleless and she was perfect. She surely wasn't going to run off with you!

I moved her to my friend's hunter/jumper barn last fall and would go out and ride her on my lunch hour. Again, not a great turn-out situation and so the sourness returned. Sometimes she rode great. She loved doing ground poles and little x's. She was super happy if there was another horse in the arena and she could just follow. But alone in the arena, she'd still lock up. A whip could disengage her but it created a level of tension I wasn't happy with - the head came up, she'd trot around kind of looking at the whip and going slightly sideways. Still, progress was made - she was bending both directions, she was loping like a champ. She was doing killer one-step simple lead changes. I really wanted to fix the damn balking. I tried different things. One day I decided we were simply going to sit there 'til she got bored and wanted to move. Well, 20 minutes later we were still sitting there. *sigh*

In other ways, she was a superstar. Some Parelli person had a tarp and a bridge set up one day. Their horse was snorting and spooking and scrambling over it. Statue Filly walked up to it, sniffed once, and then quietly walked back and forth over the bridge and tarp however I wanted her to. She had never seen anything like that in her life.

She went home after about a month of that, and got sold almost immediately. Her current owner mostly just trail rides, something the SF is very happy with. They love her spookproof nature and her foolproof brakes. It is the right home - she is happy, they are happy, I'm sure she'll be there long term. But I'll always think of her as a failure because I never did fix the balking 100%...and I still don't know what the solution was. Was it just arena sourness that was created by the Trainer Wannabe and just couldn't be fixed? She never did balk as badly outdoors...but she did balk outdoors. I truly don't think we had a pain issue. The saddle fit and I've watched her longe a million times...never a sign of any unevenness to her gait. Never any pain behaviors like tail swishing or ear pinning.

She just grew roots, and what was the solution for that? (And yeah, I know at least 3 of you are going to pop up and say ground work...well, we did plenty of that. She was longed and ground driven and "encouraged" from the ground and it always worked fine to keep her moving forward, but if the ground person disappeared, she knew she could grow roots and that is exactly what she did.)

The cast of characters

2008-06-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

It has been pointed out to me that this blog is getting confusing with all of the different horses, so I am going to provide a guide today to who's who. Bear in mind these are mostly crappy camera phone pictures, and are not intended to accurately represent how the horse looks!

First off, this is the Very Large Colt (VLC), so named because he had hit 16.2 in the hip by his 3rd birthday. He is still growing but I do think that 16.2 is where he's going to end at - I think the front end is just going to catch up now. He is a three year old AQHA colt. The eventual plan is for him to show as an AQHA working hunter, in two years. We will probably do some schooling shows and maybe he will even get out for some AQHA hunter under saddle in the meantime. I've also considered doing some Buckskin stuff because they do have shows not too far away. He is not currently breeding mares, but does have two foals on the ground this year, from prior to when I owned him. I am very fond of his colt Bullwinkle, who is out of a 16.3 mare, so if you are looking for something that is buckskin and will be huge, e-mail me.

This is the VLC:

And this is his VLC, Bullwinkle:

(So, for those of you who were concerned that I needed to do a "test breeding" with the VLC to see if he was worth keeping a stallion, it's already been done and in my never-humble-opinion, the outcome was good!)

Then there is training project #2, the Small Spotted Gelding (SSG), barn name Ditto. Ditto came into being three years ago when the neighbor's mustang stallion ran through his crappy fence and bred my roommate Josie's yearling filly. You would not think a yearling filly could get pregnant, but some months later it was discovered that was indeed what had happened and Ditto is the result - half mustang, half some kind of PMU draft cross. Ditto has had seven rides so far and is proving to be a naturally quiet personality who should be a great show pony for someone. He is just 13.3 hands.

Also by the VLC's sire, we have the Big Gold Yearling. He was orphaned at 4 days but made up for it quickly. I need to stick him again but I believe he's 15.2 in the hip right now. Josie is doing ground work with him in exchange for training on Ditto, and he is doing very well. I would kind of like to sell him, but am afraid to. He is kind of "for sale to someone I know, and am absolutely sure is not an asshat, with first right of refusal." I have a friend with a tall, leggy 14 year old daughter who really needs to buy him for her future show horse... ;-)

(Yes, it's a baby picture but he was just so freakin' cute...)

Karen V. from the blog brought me training project #3, the Beautiful Thoroughbred Mare (BTM), real name "Honey in the Money." Honey has 10x the energy of either of the boys, but she's already been raced so I don't have to break her from scratch and that's a little easier. Honey is a sweetheart and a pleasure to have around.

My other roommate, Stephanie, owns the Cute Spotted Stallion (CSS), registered name Sonny's Grand Scribble. She is breaking him out. He is also three, and if he were human, would be the guy whose wife has to nag him daily to get off the couch and do something. Western pleasure is going to come very easily to him!

I haven't talked about them prior to this on this blog, but I also have a collection of Useless Old Mares. They are retired broodmares or performance horses. They do not do anything except eat horse cookies, carrots and get lots of neck and wither scritches. The senior member of the collection is Clover, who is approximately 35, eats mush, and bosses everybody else around.

Then we have my 23 year old, Kit. Kit is the poster child for why you shouldn't overfeed your baby halter horses so much. Also for the fact that the entire Obvious Conclusion line, successful through they are, resemble dachshunds in length.

I have two twenty-two year olds. One is a to-die-for cute AQHYA Champion producer named Belle. It is a shame Belle never had a show career herself, as she's adorably cute, but smart enough to have conned several previous owners into believing she was not broke. (Comment from one: "Belle lets you ride her?") Belle is indeed broke (we even won the Trotting Barrels once, ha ha!) but at her age, she is also fairly broke-down so right now I am not making her do anything but eat. She is really good at that.

The other is the recently acquired Crabby Old Bat (COB) which I am sure I will have many stories about. The COB, despite her impressive performance career (points in 9 events) is actually best known for her infamous baby-stealing incident two years ago, detailed on various message boards. She has not adjusted to the fact that her producing years have passed her by, so she decided to steal a newborn from another mare. She literally bullied the other mare away from her foal and took it for herself. As soon as this was discovered, she was taken out of the mare pasture and the baby was returned to its rightful parent. The COB had major hysterics.

She was happy last year as we stuck the BGY with her after his mother died. If anybody in the PNW ever has an orphan, bring it to me. She'll be deliriously happy and she does a damn good job of teaching them manners.

Next, we have the Blind as a Bat mare, aka Sunline, acquired from CBER in a moment of complete idiocy at 3 AM when I still lived in Los Angeles. Sunline is on her last summer, as she is losing the remainder of her sight and is not dealing well with that, but she is turned out with her BFF Kit and doing fine for now. There is a special place in hell for whoever dumped this barely-sighted mare at a dealer's in Yakima. I would loooove to know who that is.

Finally, this is Lucy, the most recent auction rescue. Lucy is here for two more weeks and then is going out to be fostered by Stephanie - thank you, Stephanie! She is sweet and just needs more handling - she's obviously broke but a bit headshy and scared. We have so far accomplished teaching her to eat treats. :-) Lucy will be available for adoption when we have a little better idea of her training level.

So that is the herd. And I wonder why I am so tired all the time...ha ha. Actually, I cannot complain. Both the VLC and the SSG were positively angelic last night, good thing since I was moving horses from pasture to pasture and filling water tubs and somehow did not manage to start riding until 9:15 ...

You never can tell...

2008-06-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, I didn't think anything about what a horse did when he or she was turned out. It never even occurred to me that wild acrobatics and running at light speed might translate into the same behaviors under saddle. I just assumed that they knew not to do that when they were ridden - and because I believed they wouldn't, they rarely did.

Well, you know, time passes and the age-related chickenshit syndrome (should we just name it ARCS?) kicks in. In the past month or so, I saw the Small Spotted Gelding do airs above the ground loose in the arena and the Beautiful Thoroughbred Mare run like hell and spook at everything when loose. In both cases, I was absolutely convinced they would do this to me under saddle. I was sure I needed to Be Prepared for Anything (!) with both of them. I was shopping for the stuff online that sticks your ass to the saddle, sure that I no longer had the seat to ride the acrobatics that surely were coming my way.

Of course, I was completely wrong.

As you all know by now, the SSG has been even quieter to break than the VLC, and that is saying something. Ride #7 tonight and he was trucking along at a nice even trot, both directions, even changed direction through the middle and past his MOM (the human one) without trying to stop and visit! Josie was working with the Big Gold Yearling, who was also excellent tonight. I am sure she will talk about it on her blog. Anyway, I ended up thinking about how I had been just sure that the SSG was going to be this quick little ball of fire under saddle - and now here I was, seven rides in, getting a damn good leg workout keeping him in 2nd gear.

(Which is a good thing. Lazy ponies that need leg sell better than quick little ponies that need tough little riders. No complaints here. My calves could use the workout.)

But the real surprise tonight was the BTM, Karen's mare Honey. I had been on Honey once before, in the indoor. She was snorty and spooky and walking at light speed. Josie observed that her turns were so quick, it looked like she was doing rollbacks. At the walk. I was pretty convinced this was what I had signed on for, so I was busy psyching myself up to just get out there and Ride Like I Used To...i.e. get on the hot potato and long-trot 'til the brain kicked in and hang on for any spooks, spins, or other maneuvers. Tonight, I came home from work fired up and ready to go. I got on her outside and...

She was dead quiet. Even kind of lazy.

Yes, apparently the BTM's issues are all about the skeeery indoor arena, with points of light coming through nail holes in the wall and various other questionable features. And really, should I be surprised? How many racehorses are ridden in an indoor arena? I'd kind of forgotten this fact, it's been so long since I've ridden a fairly "fresh" OTTB. In the outdoor round pen? She was fine. Fine. Totally quiet and cooperative. Walked and trotted both directions, halted and stood on a loose rein. Did not even spook when the Pony Princess bolted at warp speed (and being part draft, that is not done quietly) from behind the barn and past the round pen. I was so surprised that didn't spook her. We were all sitting there with our mouths hanging open going "I can't BELIEVE she didn't spook!"

Wow. Wow. Wow. And what a smooth and comfortable trot. I am going to really enjoy her, and here I was thinking she was going to be one of those that you get off every night thinking "Yay, another ride down and I lived!"

You know what's going to happen, of course. I'm going to get some horse in that I have to chase with a longe whip to get it to jog when it's loose in the arena and that is the one that is going to launch my ass!

Could I have your attention, please?

2008-06-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight the Lust of the VLC's Life, Honey, was out in the paddock adjacent the arena. He saw her and did something he has never done under saddle before - whinny, raise his head and totally stop paying attention.

I turned him around and we did little serpentines down half of the arena until he was confused, dizzy, and had forgotten what he was looking at. Fortunately, he is three and has the attention span of a gnat. He was fine after that (and we loped a whole three times around the arena without breaking tonight! What a good boy.) But now is a good time to ask for some advice on this topic - what are your best tactics for getting your stallion to ignore mares while under saddle, even the ones he really likes?

We've already started riding with other geldings and stallions in the arena, and that has not been a problem at all. Is the next step to bring in a mare and make him deal with a mare tied in the middle? And what do you do when they do react inappropriately - i.e. whinny and lose focus? I used the same method I use on the ground, growled "NO TALKING" and turned his nose away from the cute mare, but I am thinking we need something more foolproof (and quiet) than that. So for those of you who have experience in this area, how do you desensitize your stallions to mares so that they can show and stand in the lineup like gentlemen, even with something like Honey the Hottie next to them and flirting? What has worked for you? The VLC is very sensitive to punishment, so I won't have to do much, but I want to be consistent and also clear about what he is being asked not to do.

I love my horse, I love my horse, I love my horse!

2008-06-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Just had to say it. I am so fortunate. I am grateful every day to have this absolutely wonderful VLC that is just sensible and reasonable and sweet and wants to do the right things. He is the easiest personality I currently have to deal with in my life - horse or human. We're starting to lope now and it couldn't be easier. He's got this perfect little soft, smooth lope. He doesn't try to speed up. He has never tried to buck. He has absolutely no problem being collected even though he's totally green...he's not on his forehand, he's not leaning, he's just not doing anything wrong. It is mindblowing to me.

(I mentioned this in the comments, but the breeder is downsizing and the VLC's dam and his full sister - weanling buttermilk buckskin filly - need a home. The prices are right to a good home and terms are possible. Email me if you have an interest. The filly will be as nice as he is, guaranteed. I'd be happy to break out the mare if desired, n/c except board/feed.)

Now I have to work on the feet again. I admit I put it off. I get to the end of the evening, which is when I should do it - when he's been ridden and he's tired. But the end of the evening lately has been between 10 and 11 PM and I have to be up at 5 AM. I just haven't had the energy. No matter how motivated you are, we can all only run so fast and so far and I'm feeling it. Last night I meant to get four horses worked, and I got two. I am trying to get on that staggered schedule but some evenings I am just toast after doing chores and can't summon up the energy to ride. I was thinking back mournfully to the days when I used to ride 8-12 a day, no problem...and then I remembered, that was my job then. It wasn't that I had to go to work from 7 AM to 5 PM, and then do chores and start riding. Heck, most of that time, the horses were boarded or I worked for people who had barn help. I didn't have stalls to clean or hay to throw or buckets to dump and scrub. So it's not just that I'm double the age I was then - there really is more actual work to do. I need to stop beating myself up over my perceived lack of accomplishment. I am doing the best I can, and that's all I can do. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way...we all need to stop trashing on ourselves for not being superhuman.

I did ride both the VLC and the Small Spotted Gelding last night. This was ride #6 for the SSG. He is funny. He started out really, really well but when I asked him to circle through the middle, he discovered he could grow roots.

SSG: Trot trot trot...balk
Me: *squeezes and clucks*
SSG: I'm ignoring youuuuuuuuuu...you can't maaaaake me
Me: *boot boot boot* *growl*
SSG: Ha, I am part draft, I didn't even feel that.
Me: (pulls pony nose to side, attempting to disengage shoulders and "unlock" rooted legs)
SSG: (turns pony nose perfectly around to touch my foot. Legs stay rooted. Torso does not even flex. Damn noodle necked pony.)
Me: Flexible little bastard, aren't you?
SSG: What are you going to do now? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Me: (both legs out from sides) WHOMP
SSG: *oooof* OK fine, I'm going, I'm going

It took the installation of the SSG's mom at a crucial point in the circle to threaten his little pony butt from the ground to accomplish the perfect trotting circle before we quit. I believe next time we will be using the long cord reins with the little leather ponybeaters on the end so that I have some artillery.

This is a good time to mention that I hate spurs. I just hate them. The only thing I've ever ridden in them was my old show horse who would run out of steam and 4-beat if you didn't wear them to show in the heat. But that was different, as he was a highly trained horse and I never did more than squeeze his sides. I have never felt comfortable with the idea of installing points on my heels when I may need to use really obvious leg aids on a green horse. I prefer to whomp with a nice flat surface that isn't painful and just sends a message. I'll carry a whip, but honestly, my favorite are the long reins. You can use them as gently or as firmly as you wish - a lot of times all I do is swish them back to the butt to encourage forward motion. And they are convenient - always there without carrying something extra!

I think the SSG is doing fine. Honestly, I think he has just figured out that riding is something that is going to happen all the time and that it wasn't just a crazy idea Josie and I came up with when we were drunk - and now he is not so sure that he wants to work for a living. After all, for 3 years all he's done is ground work and be a big pet. But the nice thing is that he doesn't seem to have a buck or a spook, either, so he will make a great project pony for someone.

Tonight I really do intend to work with the TB mares. I need to get Lucy in a stall so she just gets handled more - she has so many symptoms of broodmareitis, where someone catches them once a year to breed and occasionally to do the feet on and other than that, they run wild like mustangs. Lucy needs someone to just pet on her - she doesn't know what treats are, she's scared you're going to do something mean to her. (If anybody in the Seattle area wants to just come and spend time and love on this poor mare, hit me up - she really needs it and I do not have the time. Or if you're a bit further but want to foster, better still. My feeling is that she needs a month of just being handled, ground work, loved on, groomed and learn about treats before we try to ride. If that's stuff that you love to do, let me know. She is fine with other horses and easy to handle except for being hard to catch.). Honey the Hottie (in more ways than one) needs to get worked as well. I just need to get my spine installed and give her a serious ride and find out if the stuff she does loose happens under saddle. With many horses, it doesn't, but you don't know until you try and I've been feeling tired and wimpy the last few days. She spooks at the pinpoints of sunlight coming into the indoor from holes in the wall. She spooks at the horses in the field. She spooks at things happening in the parking lot. She does great, big, twisting bucks when she's turned out. There's a 99% chance she will be fine under saddle, but I keep thinking about what a bad, bad time in my life this would be to get hurt - and wanting a nice pair of chaps or sticky breeches! Anybody got some medium size schooling chaps for sale or a small pair of Kerrits sit tights?

P.S. A special thank you to my reader Dana who set me up with this awesome, wonderful adjustable tree Wintec for the VLC. FINALLY, an english saddle that FITS him! It's actually broad enough for his broad shoulders and it's super comfortable to ride in. I am sure he is grateful and I know I am. You rock.

I have to ride how many horses after work?

2008-06-19T07:12:00.000-07:00

*shakes head in wonder* They seem to be multiplying. I need to get them staggered so it's like 2-3 one night and then the other, but I failed to do that this week owing to a strong need Tuesday night to feed the horses and then just go in the house and sit on my butt and do laundry. So that meant I had to get everybody worked last night. Allow me to note that I do not get home until 6:15 PM and have to be up and getting ready for work at 5 AM.

Abby is my roommate Stephanie's, a beautiful dark bay Thoroughbred mare acquired from one of those WTBA auctions. Stephanie points out that Abby went to the track, but she is surprised they bothered. Abby is not exactly rocket-fueled. She's been wanting me to get on her and see how she feels to me as she can feel something funky in the trot. So I started out last night with Abby, who is just one of those really easy Thoroughbreds. She doesn't mind if you put leg on her. She doesn't mind contact on her mouth. She is just a nice, big quiet mare that probably has some hock arthritis. She is better on soft footing and worse on hard footing, so that's my first thought. It's definitely in the back end, and we all know that hock arthritis in a 10 year old OTTB is not exactly unusual! Anyway, Abby was a nice one to start out with as she's just easy and sweet. I hadn't even looked up her pedigree before I rode, but now I did, and I am not surprised to see Mr. Prospector. I looooove Mr. Prospector horses. They all seem to be this level headed. It's one of my favorite TB lines. I see that her sire won $439K. I believe Abby sold for something like $300. I love the TB industry...

All right, one down! Lucy, the black TB mare saved from the Enumclaw auction two weeks ago, was ready to come out of quarantine and be assessed, so she was next. I was going to start with Honey, but I have to fill you in on the hazards of life on what we affectionately (sometimes not so affectionately) call the "Funny Farm."

Basically, I live on a very large acreage with many other people who rent there. Some of us rent in the several houses on the property, myself included, and then there is a cast of characters living in trailers. By this, I do not even mean singlewides designed for human use. I mean, things that you look at and go "Dude, a human lives there? Really?" One of those characters is a little old horse dealer/trail string running kinda guy I will just call the Gnome. He kind of reminds me of a gnome. He is short and old and fairly deaf and has hideously outdated ideas about horse care that scare the shit out of me. He told La Mexicana that she shouldn't have adopted Petersburg Knight because he was "broken." Okaaaaay...I try to just ignore him. Beggars (aka people who need to rent a place to live and bring their eight horses and four cats) cannot be choosers and you get what you get in terms of neighbors. However, sometimes he is hard to ignore. (As earlier referenced, he is the guy who occasionally leaves a jack donkey in a stock trailer in the parking lot to bray all night and scare the bejeesus out of the VLC)

Last night, the Gnome had decided to be productive, which is never good for me. Right as I was about to embark on the Potentially Wild Thoroughbred Riding, he felt the need to weld his truck bumper in the parking lot. Awesome. I looked at Honey, looked at Lucy, and decided to start with the older one.

Lucy, as Fugly blog readers know, came from the auction two weeks ago. A generous donor decided to bail out every single horse that was heading for Mexico. Last night, we had passed quarantine with no sign of illness, so it was time to bring Lucy down to the barn and evaluate her.

I caught her without too much trouble as I got her cornered (she is hard to catch, and the fact that she will not eat treats from your hand doesn't help much...we must work on treat training), brought her into the indoor and tacked her up. She was absolutely fine for that. No issues with tying or cinching or anything. Fine with bridling, which I had wondered about because she acts a little headshy – but I put her in a traditional browband bridle that I had to pull her ears through and she was just fine. She longed fine with tack on although you could tell it had been a while, but she definitely has had training after the track as she wasn’t totally confused about the idea.

I stood on the mounting block and did my usual green horse stuff. I leaned on her and tapped on the saddle and she stood like a statue. Then I tapped on her butt and she spooked and crowhopped. Um, okay. Now, odds are I could have gotten on her and she wouldn’t have done a thing – after all, I was not planning to sit on her butt. But as we have discussed here, I am 40 and chickenshit and can't afford to miss work. So I longed a bit more and pet her and put her away. We will put a few more days of ground work into this one and play it safe. I know she is broke, but I think it has been a very long time since she's been asked to do anything more than be a baby machine and that someone at some point has done really dumb/mean things to her. She just has these fear reactions, and I'm truly disturbed by the fact that this 14 year old horse will not eat out of my hand. I guess no one has ever been nice to her. We will have to change that! Maybe she can watch Honey eat treats and learn from that. Lots of people have been nice to Honey. Honey knows all about cookies.

All right. Welding still going on. Greeeeeat. Honey was high as a kite. I know I've said it before, but man is she fast. Our indoor arena has never seen that kind of speed before. I cannot imagine why she didn't make it on the track. She could go back now! She has legs of iron and LOVES to run run run run run. She and Lucy had a very good time bouncing all over the indoor together, but it failed to take even a little of the edge off. She is still in heat, pissy, swishy and high as a kite. You know, it was just one of those nights when I knew I wasn't 100% on my game and elected to do ground work with her instead - so we worked on bending and we worked on longeing. Now, this one you can tell has not received additional training after the track. She was baffled by the longeing idea, particularly to the right. I got her to do it but we will definitely be doing more work on that. Actually, kind of a productive evening with her because these are all things she needs to learn! Not everything has to be riding. I also had her stand tied while we worked with Lucy because she does need to learn patience. She doesn't pull back but she fidgets a lot. OK, fidget all you want...but you are going to stand there. At least until you untie yourself and walk off. Mares! Honey is another one - I do not really think there is any major bad behavior in there, but she is very fast, very hot, and I really would like chaps or those breeches you all keep telling me about or something to stick my ass on there a little better. This mare can turn inside out and I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride her past the amateur welding operation without a little more insurance that I was going to stay attached if she came unglued...

We also played a bit with my other roommate Josie's mare, aka the Pony Princess. The Pony Princess is not very tall but is quite broad, being an APHA/draft cross ex-PMU mare. She is green broke and very sensible but like most draft types is, um, not highly motivated. We all took turns taking the Princess for a spin. She is very comfortable but she really does not want to work too hard for a living. I got some semblance of a long trot out of her...ok well, a medium trot...and cannot imagine the amount of energy it would take on my part to get her to canter. OTOH, I bet she would be great for someone wanting to tone up their legs!

Then it was time to ride the VLC. I think it is really funny that I have a three year old, 16.2 hand stallion, and my first thought was "woo hoo, now I can get on the EASY one." But he is the easy one and tonight was no exception. We turned the boys out to play first - the VLC, the SSG (Small Spotted Gelding, for you newbies) and the CSS (Cute Spotted Stallion). They had a great time. The CSS has never been ridden with other horses in the arena, so we decided this was a good evening to introduce him to that experience. Stephanie got on him, I got on the VLC, and we made the SSG watch. We had an arena full of three year olds!

I realize I've never shown you a picture of the CSS, so here you go:

The boys were great. They both dealt very well with riding in the arena with another stallion that they had just been playing hard with each other minutes earlier. There was no whinnying, they both paid attention, and it really went well - further enforcing my long-held belief that stallions need to be turned out with the boys and play.

I continue to just not be able to say enough good things about my VLC. He is the best thing ever. He is so relaxing to ride. This is probably, what, two dozen rides along? He is fine. Almost nothing ever bothers him, he's smooth, he's comfortable, and he has air brakes. I just love this horse and there is no amount of money that will ever buy him from me.

All right, last up. Stephanie had never seen Ditto, aka the SSG, ridden, but she had heard all about how he never does anything wrong and is the easiest greenie ever. This was ride #6. I put the VLC away. We figured it would be a good learning experience for the SSG to ride alone in the arena.

What I did not realize is that the SSG is three years old and has never been alone. Never. Not anywhere.

He seemed more on edge than normal but I figured I'd just get on and he'd probably be fine. The first thing he did was get his tongue over the bit and have a head shaking fit. I got off and decided we were going to use some judgment and just take the bridle off and go back to the halter alone since he was clearly in a bit of a mood anyway, and why push things? I got back on and he left. Fortunately not too fast, but he did trot off and then displayed an amazing ability to sidepass. He was just not happy that he was alone, and was bound and determined to get to the end of the arena where he could look out over the fields at his long-lost (as of 10 minutes) friends. I was just as bound and determined to ensure he did not get there.

The VLC is a big galoot. He pretty much has to follow his nose. He is just not flexible enough not to at this point. The SSG, on the other hand, has noodle neck. He has no problem at all trotting left with his nose pointing to the right. I understand he inherited this ability from his mother who has a similar ability to sidepass in the direction she actually wants to go, despite any efforts on the part of her rider to accomplish a redirect.

Anyway, I was left with a noodle-necked pony barging to the right on a circle to the left at an amazingly fast clip, sideways. I tried to channel the nose between my hands while pushing with the outside leg. I am pleased to note that this strategy eventually worked even though I did have to actually boot the pony in the ribs a few times to accomplish the turn at the wall as squeezing did not seem to be a sufficient signal to reach the pony brain. I am further pleased to note he does not do airs above the ground when you boot him. Always a pleasant discovery.

(As we were doing this, the Gnome drove in and rattled around the parking lot. With a stagecoach on a trailer. Don't we all drive around with shit like that? Fortunately the SSG grew up here and is used to the parking lot resembling the Rose Parade. I was so glad I was not on one of the TB's when this happened!)

After a fair bit of resistance but no real dramatics, the SSG gave up and trotted reasonably decently both directions. So we quit and petted him. Hopefully this will give him confidence that he truly can survive being all alone in the skeery arena. And if not, don't you dressage people want a pony that can sidepass straight sideways? Never hit himself once, never stumbled. Talented little bugger! Could be worth a lot! *smiles*

All right, I am tired just having typed all of that. Hopefully tonight will be a calm, quiet evening...just planning on the TB girls tonight.

And now for a little variety!

2008-06-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

VLC = Easy, fairly lazy
SSG = Easy, really lazy
Beautiful Thoroughbred Mare = Not gonna be lazy at all. LOL!

I got home late last night and still got three horses ridden. Woo hoo me! (I didn't get back in the house until 10:45 and I'm swilling coffee now to stay awake, but hey, I was productive!)

First off, the VLC. Boy was he good tonight. I did turn him out with the SSG first and made sure they did some running as he's been feistier than normal on the ground lately. The BTM arrived a few days ago, and he is in love. He cannot have her, and this has been explained to him, but she is in heat and lives three stalls down so he moons over her and tries to whinny and put on a show for her when I lead him past. He is normally really good about ignoring mares - this one is just, apparently, super sexy. However, she has aborted her previous foals at 10 months due to placentitis, so her breeding career is officially over forever at age 8. Anyway, I turned the boys out and they played before we worked them. They are getting along great, which makes me very happy. Stallions need friends, but the VLC couldn't fit into the big stallion/gelding herd where I live because there's an APHA stallion that wants to eat him for lunch. And the VLC wants to eat his little brother, the BGY, for lunch, so they can't go out together. Fortunately, the SSG is the perfect match and they run around and have a great time together.

I was tired and I knew it, so I just had Josie hold everybody for mounting tonight. Better to wimp out than to be too slow on the reaction and have a stupid accident. Mounting remains the only difficult part of riding the VLC. Some days he's good, some days he's still very fidgety about it. Once I am up, it is easy from there on out. So last night I just had Josie hold him, up I went and off we went.

Well, last night he just did not put a foot wrong. He gave me the pretty, soft trot from the very beginning. We did a little bit of lope both directions and he was perfect. It is all so natural for him. He needs to tip his nose in a bit for the show ring, but other than that? The darn horse is practically ready to go. He goes naturally level with his neck, and I can't say enough excited things about what that lope is like to ride. I was saying last night that I've mostly ridden open show quality pleasure horses - the kind that want to drag themselves around by their forelegs. To show them, you glue your leg on them, drive with your seat and basically work your ass off to try to get some semblance of a pretty lope. My old Two Eyed Jack/Sugar Bars bred gelding was a fabulous show horse, but his natural gait was the four-beat. He was 15.3, built like a brick shithouse, and a lot of work to show. Positively exhausting, some days. Great trot, very hard to hold together at the lope. The VLC? Heck, he was born with that show ring lope. I've said before that I've never owned a horse this good - and now that I think about it, I do not think I have ever ridden a horse this good. Just amazing, the difference. Every day, I see more and more how much natural talent matters - and how rare it is. The same would go for anything. I'll bet in whatever discipline you ride, you've found that one horse to whom it just comes easy.

Those are the horses we need to breed more of. This is way more fun than trying to shove a square peg into a round hole, as I now realize I have done a lot of in the past. The Two Eyed Jack gelding was a wonderful show horse, but he'd probably have been much happier roping or something. He loved to run. I did let him run barrels and poles at the open shows for fun!

Moving on to the Small Spotted Gelding...good grief, this one makes the VLC look hard to break. He is SO EASY. Ride #5 and we walk on the wall both directions and trot both directions. No spook, no buck, no rubbernecking. Nothing. We hung a bit in his mouth tonight and he didn't care (see that, you silly VLC who thinks I am killing him?)The only thing that needs work is the "ho," but as Josie pointed out, that isn't something his previous ground work has focused on. He's learned all about moving forward and away from pressure and yielding his hindquarters, but "stop and glue your feet to the ground," not so much. So I have just employed one of my old OTTB tricks...I say ho twice (at the walk) and ask for it with seat and hands, and if he ignores me, I turn his nose into the wall. Of course that stops him, and then I pet him and tell him how good he is. He is catching on. He has a very different neck than the VLC - upright and almost like a gaited horse - so pulling on him is not such a good idea. I want him to stop off of seat so he doesn't pop his head. We are also continuing to work on bending, but I'm pleased to see he can and will relax and put his head down. I think that will continue to improve with work. I told Josie he'll be ready to make a sale video in two weeks, and I don't think I am exaggerating.

Finally, it was time to put a ride on the BTM, who arrived here Friday night. I believe the BTM went to the track but did not race (Karen, is that right?). She is eight years old, not going to be a broodmare, and needs to do something else. I turned her out in the arena to start. We always sit here going "wow, the VLC is soooo fast," because he likes to gallop in the indoor but...sheesh. The VLC is a turtle compared to this mare. This mare is FAST. FAST FAST FAST. Loves to run, and can throw some interesting looking bucks and twisty turns in the air into the mix as well.

Karen had warned me she was cinchy so we went slow with saddling. The only thing she did was look a little cranky when I went around and dropped the off side stirrup down after putting the saddle on her back. She was fine for the actual cinch, but I did go slow with it. (Well, I always do. Even on a non-cinchy horse, you don't want to just crank 'em up like you're tightening a corset. That annoys even the best tempered horse.)

I got on and could immediately tell there was a lot of horse there. A lot. This one is not going to be naturally slow, ha ha. She is going to be the type that needs a job and needs to be kept mentally busy to perform well. However - again, really can't complain. She was very forward at the walk but never tried to break into a trot, a pleasant surprise. I got her busy walking circles and figure 8's and she did very well, but she's going to be very different than the boys. She is naturally quick - very light on her feet. Would make a fabulous polo pony. Would be nothing to teach a rollback to. It did occur to me that if there is a spook here, it is going to be one hell of a spook and it would probably be best to invest in a pair of chaps! However, she didn't spook last night, or even look at anything funny, even though it was dark out and our arena is poorly lit. The tail was swishy but she is in raging heat so I assume that was most of it. She's probably a mare who is not very physically comfortable in heat, but if the worst she will do is swish her tail, I can't complain a bit. She is a big, strong mare, but she is kind and intelligent and I like her a lot. We'll just have to find something for her to do so she does not get bored and start looking for trouble!

That's the horse report for today. Off to get more coffee...

Scary Places to Ride?

2008-06-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

A new post is coming soon about the VLC with pictures and maybe even video, but in the meantime, here's a good thread for us...

What are the scariest places to ride? You know what I mean - not necessary a cliff with a drop off, but barns and show arenas that just seem designed to create accidents, with a million skeery things to spook and way too damn much going on?

I'm going to vote for the L.A. Equestrian Center. I used to work polo ponies for a guy who lived adjacent to LAEC and paid for riding privileges on the property. LAEC has, I don't know, probably six arenas and a track that goes all the way around the property, but the track isn't really soft enough to work horses on. You can walk on it, maybe trot a bit after a rain. We had to take horses all the way around to the back of the property on the track - which is adjacent the freeway, that was fun - then you pass around the back of the property where the horses can hear the other horses inside but not see them through the hedges and stuff. Oh, and you know what comes down the track every five seconds? Trail strings with out of control trail riders running up your horse's butt. And joggers with off-leash yappy little dogs running under your horses.

You enter through a narrow archway which has paddocks used for turnout lining the left side of it, so usually you enter with some stallkept psycho horse blasting around like he's on crack back and forth in a small paddock on your left. Usually more than one.

You then get to proceed to an arena to ride, and the place is Grand Central Station. Actually, Grand Central is probably quieter. Different things going on in every ring or - better yet - some organized event like the gay rodeo. You think I'm making this up? Ha. Either you've got cowboys in purple flounces or minis with carts or saddlebreds - you just never have a clue what you will encounter. It is like an equine Halloween House of Horrors, with weird shit everywhere, just waiting to jump out at you. And then they drag and water the rings every three seconds which is fine after your horse has adjusted to the idea of tractors spewing water fountains coming by without warning. So I am gonna vote for LAEC as my all time Least Favorite Place to Ride (particularly if you're a chickenshit re-rider!)

What's yours?

I totally deserved it, and I didn't even get it!

2008-06-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Most of us who have been riding a long time have really gotten launched big-time a time or two - and we can all recall in vivid detail that second when we realized something had gone very wrong. We realize it was our own lack of attention that got us here as we feel ourselves come unglued from the tack, and wish we could undo that split second where we just weren't on our toes.

That should have happened to me tonight. I totally deserved it.

I've mentioned before that the VLC is antsy about mounting, but the last two rides, I've gotten him to stand still and even stay still after I was up. However, this is still kind of a crap shoot. I can get him to stop. I can remind him to stay stopped while I'm still on the mounting block. But he is a freakin' mountain, and I need to grab mane to get up, even with the block. I cannot independently use my rein hand as I am mounting. And you can't just have the reins tight, or he backs up. So I do my best to ensure he is actually stopped and looks like he is going to stay stopped before I put my foot in the stirrup.

We did have more activity than normal tonight. Josie started doing ground work with my yearling and he was basically farting all around objecting to her request that he not invade her personal space/mow her down like a bug. He is another VLC - 15 hands at 15 months and growing like a weed - and quite a bit hotter in temperament than the actual VLC as he is half Thoroughbred (same sire, though). Anyway, our deal is that I'll ride the SSG and she will do groundwork in exchange with the Big Gold Yearling (hereinafter "BGY"), so she started doing that and he actually did really well. I'm sure she'll blog about it...someday. ;-)

Anyway, I put my foot in the stirrup and it turns out I misjudged the longevity of the "whoa" state. I started to swing up and he ducked to the right and walked off and I lost my balance slightly backward and - WHAM - clocked him right in the ass with my right knee.

I knew the second I made contact that I deserved to bite the dust for that one. He did scoot forward and of course I responded in my usual way at these moments: by yelling "SHIT!" and doing a somewhat scrambled and panicked version of the one-rein stop.

He stopped. I was still up there. He was upset; after all, he'd just gotten kneed in the ass for no apparent reason. I had enough presence of mind to let him walk and start doing our usual bending warm-up circles to get refocused - but I really had thought I was going to get launched and so my knees were jelly and I felt shaky all over. Great.

It took him about 2 minutes to forget the entire incident and relax. I probably had to walk an extra 10 minutes. We can see which of us needs more training here, can't we now? Finally I decided if the horse was relaxed, I should be too and we proceeded with our ride. It was back to a sunny high 60s here and he's always better when it's warmer. I got really a nice trot both directions, not quick, reasonably consistent, etc. Since I had a witness around, I decided it was a good night to try out first deliberate canter. I came around the corner, kissed to him and gave him a little leg...and off he went! The first time he was on the wrong lead, so we broke down to the trot and then went back to it on the straightaway. That time he nailed it and I let him go around a little further. He even cantered around the short end. Wow, is he naturally round and collected. Then, haha, I wasn't paying attention since my mind was on OMG WE ARE LOPING and - insert appropriate sound effect - he quietly careened to the center of the arena to visit with the SSG who was tied up there.

Oops. Yes, we must actually ride the horse, and not just go, YAY WE CAN LOPE!

So I reversed direction and we did a little bit that way. He got his lead, we cantered down a long side and I said ho. He SLAMMED to a halt. I mean, you should have seen it. Even Josie said "Wow." One thing this horse has is a stop...a good thing when you are sixteen - f'ing - two. I still think that is ridiculously large. I know, you warmblood owners are laughing right now...Anyway, I couldn't have been more pleased. We walked and cooled out and then we switched the tack over to the SSG.

This was ride #4 for the SSG and we did two new things. First, mounting from the block. The first ride, I got on off a panel and the second and third rides, from the fence in the middle of our arena. The SSG, although he is quiet about nearly everything, is antsy about weight in one stirrup and so I wasn't pushing it. But hey, I had survived one near death experience already about mounting tonight, why not try again? I can't say he was thrilled with the more traditional mounting but he behaved and stood even though he was insecure. That is the mark of a nice-minded horse.

Our second new thing tonight was the trot. We were doing very well walking on the wall and circling (virtually no balking tonight - this little guy learns fast!) but he still would like to go over and crawl in his mom's lap. So I decided we would use this to our advantage. I told Josie to stand at one end of the arena, and I walked as far away as I could, circled back and gently asked for a trot. About halfway to Josie, I got it and what a great little trot this guy has! So smooth it's almost like a gaited horse. I let him stop and get petted and then we headed back to take another try. That was a bit more difficult as there were many distractions. First, he wanted to visit with the VLC and the BGY, who were tied up in the middle. Then, his favorite kitty was on the fence so he wanted to stop and snarfle all over her. It would have made for a funny video - SSG sidepassing toward the kitty and me commenting along lolcat lines "Nooooo. No can socialize with kitty. Riding now!" while bumping him with my legs and trying to maintain our forward motion past the kitty. The second try, he was asleep at the switch...one thing's for sure, he isn't going to run off with anybody. So we gave it a third shot and that time he trotted the length of the arena very nicely. We quit - I remembered Mugwump's blog about reward and so we quit. I got exactly what I set out to get and there just wasn't a single reason to continue further. What a great little pony - someone is just going to love the heck out of this guy!

All right, time for bed. Project #3 arrives tomorrow - a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Thoroughbred mare named Honey in the Money who needs to further her education past what she learned at the track. I can't wait! And yes, there will be more pictures soon. I know I'm way behind with that, but here is a picture of the BGY (although he's much golder now, he wasn't all the way shed out when this was taken.

Time Management 101

2008-06-11T14:27:00.001-07:00

Worthy of its own thread...

In the last post, the question was asked: "How do other people make time, schedule for, accomplish riding/training when working full-time, raising kids, etc.? "

I can't speak to having kids, but I do work two jobs. I work 7 to 5 Monday through Friday and 9 to 5 Saturday and Sunday with a thirty mile one way commute to each.

Here's my weekday:

5:00 AM - feed and pick stalls
5:30 AM - shower
6:15 AM - trudge into Starbucks, LOL
7:00 AM - 5:00 PM - work. Often involves running to the feed store on lunch.
6:15 PM - arrive home, change, trudge out to barn and begin feeding and picking stalls
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM is when I ride. Yes, we have a sort-of-lighted indoor.

I do not cook. I live off of Taco Bell when I'm poorer or premade stuff from Whole Foods when I am having a better money week. If traffic is bad, that means I'm in the barn until 10 PM.

Weekends are a repeat of the weekdays except I get to sleep in until 7 AM.

When I had a more high-powered job, in Los Angeles, I used to answer all of my e-mails as I was cooling out at the end of rides, on my Blackberry. While I am sure no safety expert would recommend this, it does work. You can also do that sort of thing as you're supervising a foot soaking, or holding horses for the farrier. (Just do not move to the PNW and drown your Blackberry in the horse pasture in the AM. I know from experience - they do not swim.)

I have always thought one of the most important things about actually getting the horses worked is not to lose your forward momentum. Do not try to go home first and then go to the barn - if you can, go straight from work or go at a set time every day no matter what. Trust me, once your butt makes contact with the couch it is going to take dynamite to get it off of there and out to the barn. That's any of us.

Past that I'd say: set a goal. For example, my goal with the VLC has been 3x a week and I have stuck to that. Get a calendar and make big red X's when you do it. Or give yourself a gold star for each horse ridden. Whatever works! You'll love it when you can look back on a month and see your progress. I don't care how old you are, you'll feel good when you see that line of stars!

Oh, I also seriously recommend Diet RockStar. I LIVE off of Diet RockStar. Diet RockStar should advertise here, because without their product, my schedule would not be possible! I am immune to caffeine, having ingested massive quantities of it from about age 8 onward, but Diet RockStar actually wakes me up.

What about the rest of you? How do you get your riding/training done amid the rest of your busy busy life?

And the race is on...

2008-06-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

So the VLC had two days off in a row, which does happen sometimes due to my schedule, general uncontrollable exhaustion on my part or - in the case of last night - high winds that made the loose piece of sheet metal whack repeatedly into the barn. We decided those were not optimum conditions for riding three year olds and gave them the night off.

Every time I give him two days off in a row, I regret it. It's not that he's bad. He's never been bad. But two days off and we're back to quick, quick, quick. Any trace of a soft, balanced trot is gone again and he wants to race. What he really wants to do is lope, I suppose, but I was all alone in the barn and I'm just not going to start doing that without witnesses, especially after reading all the stories from those of you who didn't get fireworks until you tried to move past the walk-trot stage!

As I've mentioned before, he really hates having his face pulled on, and I don't want to pull on his face since his naturally low headset is exactly what's desirable, so when he's quick I just open my inside rein and we do circles until he starts to slow down. So that's what we did. It's not that he didn't slow down, it just took a long time, LOL! He is getting fit and it is STILL cold here (well, mid 50s but heck, it's June, what kind of crap is that?). If only it would shoot back to 75, we really do have a nice trot in there somewhere.

I do know better than to complain about "too forward." Beats the alternative!

Someone tell me about the 100 degree heat you have to work horses in so that I'll appreciate the cold and wet PNW!

One step back, two steps forward!

2008-06-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

I think we're on ride #20 on the VLC. I am losing track!

The bad: I was trying, yet again, to pick his front feet. He didn't want to keep the left one up and started pawing with the right. OK, I figured I'd go around and grab the one that was up in the air anyway. When I tried to hang on to it, he cow-kicked at me. Um, not acceptable. Not in any universe. He got the good old-fashioned boot in the gut for that one. And no, I don't want to hear a word about that - it's exactly the punishment another horse in the pasture would have doled out. He understood completely that he had grievously erred.

I don't think he does it to be mean. He just doesn't get that this is not acceptable. I am admitting defeat on this issue. I'm too small and weak and every time he pulls his foot away from me, it hurts my lower back. I am going to need to pay a professional to train this horse to pick up his feet. I am not experienced using ropes and do not want to get hurt/get him hurt. I have a trainer in mind that I think could offer some very valuable assistance with this issue, and I'm going to see if there is any way I can set up a session with him this coming week.

The good: After our showdown about the feet, I was not in the mood to put up with Any More Shit, and he knew it. For the very first time, he stood stock still for mounting and even stood after I was up. He isn't stupid.

And he rode fine. Not quite as soft and pretty as the previous ride, but we did work on something new and he did well with it. Our arena is a converted old dairy barn and so there is a fence running down the middle of it (that cannot be removed as it is holding up the roof!). The arena is, my guess, 50 wide so half the arena is 25 wide. There are openings in the fence at the center and both ends, so we can do figure 8's and circles, but today was the first time I asked him to jog a circle within that confined 25 foot half of the arena. The first time he stalled out but then he caught on and actually did very well, both directions! He is a big horse so I give him a lot of credit for being able to catch on to maintaining his forward motion through a small circle like that.

We cooled out with the reins attached to the bit again, which is funny. As soon as he realizes the reins are attached...whomp, the head goes to the knees. And stays there, on a loose and flopping rein. He is ready for the World Show! Heck, he might actually be too low. It is not going to be hard to put a headset on this one, ha ha.

Then I did ride #3 on the SSG. This time we walked without assistance right from the start and he did fine. He still wants to be close to Josie, so we worked on circles around Josie. Of course he's super green and did stall out at points but I kept encouraging him to move forward and we got a pretty decent circle at the end. (We did determine that there's quite a nice natural sidepass on this one! Hey, I like horses who can move laterally. It's very useful in numerous ways.) He also did better with halts today - the previous ride, he would immediately snap his nose up and resist (and of course all I'm riding in is a halter so it's not like the poor darling was being abused, LOL!). Today he figured out that if you just stop when you're asked to, the reins go slack. Nifty! I think he's basically going to be an easy one but he does have a bit of a balk in him which doesn't really surprise me as he has it on the longe line, too. It's actually going to be easier to fix from on top of him. As Josie observed, she often wishes when longeing that she had an outside leg for help!

So - for the most part - an uneventful evening of greenie riding. As I've said before here, if the VLC throws something at me that I can't resolve myself, I'm not going to be shy about asking for help. He's riding fine but I am going to need some assistance to resolve the foot handling issues. Hey, at my age, I'd sure rather have that than a bucking or rearing habit!

How is the weekend going for the rest of you?

A very productive evening!

2008-06-05T21:57:00.000-07:00

We got off our butts and got both the greenies worked tonight. I say "we" because the SSG's mom, Josie, assisted as our ground person.

We've been meaning to put the VLC and the SSG out together for a while now to see if they might make good turnout buddies. Early on, we established we couldn't put the VLC out with the rest of the stallions/geldings here as the FPS (Feisty Paint Stallion - you'll hear more about him in the future) wanted to kick his ass and, of course, despite my years of saying that horses have to be horses, I freaked and went "OMG that is the most expensive horse I have ever owned and he can't get broken!" So the VLC has been on solitary turnout for the past few months - until tonight. We tried them together and it was pretty much perfect! They had a great time blasting around the indoor at warp speed. If the VLC got a bit too fresh with the SSG, the SSG would warn him but no blood was shed nor contact made. It was great. And of course it took the edge off both of them so that they were ready to work!

I've been meaning to ride the VLC with another horse in the ring, so Josie did groundwork with the SSG while I rode. Wow, what a difference a 10 minute gallop with a buddy right before riding makes! Instead of bopping along at the fastest possible trot, the VLC was more than happy to slow down and give me the soft yet forward trot I've been looking for. Since he was going so well, and doing great about ignoring the other horse in the ring, I decided it was time for another "first" - so we did one lap of posting trot without stirrups for the first time! He sped up a bit at first at the stirrups whacking him but quickly adjusted. Finally, for our cool-down, I had Josie snap my reins to the bit for the very first time and we walked some circles. I told him I wouldn't touch his face if he listened to my legs for direction and he seemed to figure that out amazingly well. No complaints at all - a great ride. I think this was ride #19? I'm starting to lose track now. It's so much easier once you get past that first half-dozen rides!

Of course, this was only ride #2 for the SSG. I tied up the VLC and we switched off the tack and began working with the SSG. Laid over his back, did some bending and flexing of his neck on the ground. He was way more alert today than the first ride, and since it was raining, we were going to do this in the indoor instead of the round pen. I could tell he was more tense but I just kept scratching him and found the itchy spot on his neck that made him really happy. Finally I got on and we started to walk around. As I mentioned before, he's very bonded to Josie and basically wants to crawl in her lap for reassurance so it's a trick to keep him walking but not actually on top of her. We walked around with the lead rope, and then without, and for our final act, I made him turn a circle away from his mom. He survived, I got off and everybody got lots of praise - and cookies. Well, the horses did. I never seem to get cookies...

I am trying to figure out why/how it is that I am suddenly back to breaking out babies without any apparent panic. I mean, I am careful with the SSG. I don't get on until I feel like the brain has engaged and we've done enough ground work. But I am not shaky, scared, panicky, or any of the things I was just two months ago. Have I psyched myself out of my fear by talking about it here, or have I just been so lucky with these quiet babies that even I had to get over it? Will I go right back to being chickenshit the first time I go off, or am I really back to how I used to ride or at least kind of closer to it? I guess time will tell! Right now I'm just kind of grateful that I'm over it - whether or not that lasts.

Do you have a plan?

2008-06-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

I know we've talked about goals before, but this is a little different. I am wondering if you have a plan for your riding in terms of how many days a week you will ride, and what you intend to accomplish in a specific ride?

Riding is a lot like home improvement. It always seems that more gets done when you actually have a plan in mind. I mean, you can sit and look at the Thing That Needs Fixin' for six months or you can decide that, this Saturday morning, you will get out of the house no later than 10 AM and proceed to the hardware store with your list of things needed to make that repair. Guess which scenario results in a Fixed Thing? We all know the answer to that!

Whether we've got a green horse, are battling confidence issues, or both, we all know that it's soooo easy to justify not riding! If you don't have a plan, it's even easier. When you have a plan, you have to admit when you fail to follow the plan. You're making yourself accountable to yourself - which usually works awesome as we're all our own worst critics!

My plan with the VLC has been to ride 3x a week. I'm pretty much doing that - I try for every other day but maybe once a week I slip and it's every third day. I rode him Wednesday and then I rode him Saturday and then I rode him Monday and then I slipped again tonight. Well, by 8:45 I was covered in mud and water from trying to drag hose to water the new rescue mare, and you know, at that point in the evening, if you go back to the cozy house to change clothes, you just know you are not coming back out again. So I fed the VLC and tucked him in for the night.

The pic of the VLC and me is from Monday of this week. I keep trying to get decent pictures in the indoor. And failing. And we have no outdoor, nor any decent place to ride outside that does not have loose horses in it. That'd be bad.

What I should get better about is specific goals for each ride. I don't usually do that. I mean, I think maybe today we'll put the bit in his mouth, maybe today I'll ask for a few steps of backing up, but I know some of you have your training plans all planned out with far more specificity than I do. Now, that doesn't mean you can't adjust those for bad weather, greenie moods, lack of personal fortitude on a particular day, or the occasional jack donkey in a trailer in the parking lot that renders the VLC unrideable...but I still suspect those of you with really good plans get more done.

So which kind of rider are you? If you're not a planner at all, would it help if you were? How about trying to make a thirty day plan to see if it helps you? If you are a planner, how are you doing sticking to your plan, and did you always ride/train this way or did you have to develop it as you got older as a method of getting things done because your life has become more jam-packed and if you don't actually pencil in riding, it won't happen?

Frigophobia!

2008-06-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

I had to look that one up, but I bet I will hear that a lot of you suffer from it!

Due to my busy vacation schedule :-) I had to ride the VLC early yesterday morning. We have had a cold snap here and it was only in the 40's. Well, needless to say the same VLC that is semi-catatonic in 70 degrees is a very different creature at 7 AM at 45 degrees when he hasn't even had his breakfast yet.

(For the record, he is pretty sure riding before breakfast is against the terms of his union agreement, and I caught him calling AQHA on my cell phone to see what sort of penalties I am subject to for this grievous violation...)

I always turn him loose in the arena before I ride but this time he put on a big show. Galloping, bucking, bucking, bucking. When it seemed like it was over, I went to get on. He trotted off when I was halfway on. I pulled up hard and he shook his head violently.

This is the point at which the Right Brain starts talking.

Right Brain: Um, he is going to launch your ass. It's 7 AM, nobody is around. You are gonna die. You are finally on vacation and now you are going to die and not even get to enjoy it. A smart person would get off and just longe him.

Left Brain: MEOW MEOW, you know what I think you are if you do that! Cowboy up or whatever and make him work. What are you going to do next winter? The World Show is in November, ya know. Bet it's not always toasty warm in Oklahoma in November.

Right Brain: But what if I get hurt?

Left Brain: You have health insurance, which is more than you had all of those years you were doing this for a living. Work the damn horse.

Left brain, as usual, won and I decided we would do a lot of circles and figure 8's and bending to keep his brain occupied. That kinda, sorta worked. He definitely had mischief on his mind and threw several defiant little head-shaking fits. Fortunately they never escalated into anything more and after we trotted for about 5 minutes, I felt the hump come out of the back and he flattened out. He actually rode really well, with no balking episodes or rubbernecking moments, and I wound up being happy I didn't wuss out. It's nice when luck is on your side! I've got to ask though - who else gets nervous the second the temperature drops because you just know they are going to be feistier than they are when it's warm out?

So how's everybody else? I know there were a lot of horseshows this weekend - how did you all make out? I will be back to my normal blogging schedule on Tuesday!

Two down...none of them me!

2008-05-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: For those who are going to have a cow about my lack of a helmet, this has been covered before. You aren't going to change my mind and I fully support your right to have different feelings on this than I do. Please don't bore the class...

I did it. I put the first ride on the Small Spotted Gelding, and without any of the shaking and silliness that characterized the VLC's first two rides!

(Am I actually getting over myself? Probably just until I get dumped, LOL!)

I was much more nervous about this one, though I wasn't showing the same physical signs of freaking out. A lot of it is just that I don't know him as well. Cheesy though it sounds, the VLC and I have a bond and I really did not ever believe he would hurt me. (At least not, you know, in a get-the-fuck-off-my-back sort of a way). This one has a bond to his mom, Josie, and seems to tolerate me only because she would like him to.

The good news is, this meant he dealt with the very new experience by cozying up to Mom and trusting her. I am not quite sure what happens when we have to actually leave Mom and get to work, but I guess we shall see! For tonight, he was more than happy to walk quietly as long as Mom was at his head, though he did display the drunken sailor walk I am used to with green horses. The VLC never did that - I am not sure that, given his size, he really notices my weight at all.

All in all, a nice uneventful ride. Walked both directions, first being led and then on our own. No goofiness at all. Even dealt with a little use of leg. Couldn't use the Stubben as planned because we failed to plan for a pony girth!

(See, you all have to admit, this is my size to ride. This is me on 13.3 hands. Looks much more sensible than me on 16.2 hands, doesn't it? Damn hunt seat judges...)

The SSG's training will continue, but he is for sale and we'd love to find him a great home so please feel free to inquire if you think you might have a use for a large spotted pony! He has really fabulous ground manners and has had a lot of ground work. He is half mustang, half some kind of PMU draft/spotted draft sort of cross. At 13.3 at age 3, I think it's a safe bet he'll stay a large pony.

One down...one to go today!

2008-05-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

I am having a wonderful week off of work at present, so I headed out at noon to ride the VLC. I love working green horses in the warmest part of the day. Let's face it, they don't have any more energy than we do when it's warm. Your odds of getting a drama-free ride are greatly increased when it's warm and humid as it is here right now.

Can I just say again how much I love this horse? He was absolutely perfect today and...we cantered! We didn't really mean to but a loose cow (yeah, that sort of thing happens here) came up to the arena gate and bellowed at him just as I was getting into the trot and off he loped. He didn't seem to have any desire to combine any sort of misbehavior with said lope, so I let him go down the wall before easing back into a trot for the corner.

Oh...my...god...he is so smooth!

Everything else today was good also. He loves being ridden in the halter and was displaying far fewer dramatics about the evil piece of metal in his mouth. I rode with the reins on the halter again; maybe next ride we'll put a pair on the bit as well and start playing with that, at least at the walk. He was just in one of those good, really responsive moods - which surprised me as just minutes earlier he'd been screaming at the mares in the field and galloping around the indoor like a bat out of hell. I am so happy to report that he seems to really understand the difference between appropriate times to act like a stallion and times he had darn well better act like a gelding.

Oh, and he stood perfectly still for the cinch. Didn't move once today. Mounting, still antsy but I think in time he will realize resistance is futile - after many years of riding OTTB's, it truly doesn't faze me a bit if you walk off. I also did a more traditional dismount today, where I kept my left foot in the stirrup until I swung my other leg over, and he didn't care about that. I haven't mounted from the ground yet but I do need to work toward doing that. Maybe I need some yoga first...that stirrup is certainly way up there on him!

So now I've decided I'm having a good day and I should get on the SSG (Small Spotted Gelding) this evening. You may recall I've been procrastinating this for several weeks now. Never mind that the SSG has had ten times the ground work and prep that the VLC ever had, the SSG is fast, scooty and half mustang and I am a tad bit intimidated. But hey, his owner has a Stubben Siegfried for me to ride in, and really, the day I fall off one of those overstuffed couches is the day you can all laugh at me with my blessing. So I am definitely going to do it tonight (was thinking about it last night, but then we had a foaling here - and yes, I will post pics later!) - wish me luck, everybody!

It's funny how we all have our fear zones, isn't it? I am totally comfy on OTTB's. I never worry about getting on a new one. What scares me is anything mustang-y or grade with that look in the eye - you know the one - or the kind of Arab that spooks at every falling leaf. Do you have a certain "comfort zone" type of horse, and conversely do you have a certain breed or type that you always worry about having to ride?

P.S. Welcome to the world little sis! This is a full sibling to the VLC except this is destined to be a VLF. :-)

Time to pull out less artillery!

2008-05-26T20:26:00.000-07:00

As you loyal readers know, on rides #13 and #14 the VLC, having previously been utterly perfect, realized he was bigger than me and proceeded to develop some unpleasant behaviors including rubbernecking me into the middle of the arena and balking and refusing to move.

I realized a lot of this was due to having been lazy about getting him flexible in the neck. As a result I had a stallion with a big thick neck that was locked up and refused to flex. It was like pulling on a rhino. Nothing was working. Obviously I had to fix that problem or we weren't going to progress.

So, today I went back to square one. I started off with groundwork, asking him to turn circles around me both directions and flex his nose into the circle and give to pressure. That went very well. I put the headstall with the bit on him and while he still wasn't thrilled, he wasn't as angry about it as he had been the previous night. He mouthed it and made faces but it was just normal colt stuff - not "OMG GET IT OUT OF MY FACE!" So I decided we would try to ride with the bit on, but I'd just snap my reins to the halter. After all, if he was responding to pressure on the halter on the ground, why wouldn't he respond to it under saddle? I love the bitless bridle, but because it crosses over underneath the horse's head, it doesn't provide the direct pressure I needed to fix this problem. A sidepull would have been nice, but for some reason they seem to size them for teeny tiny little colt heads - it's like they only come in cob size. I have never seen one that would fit the VLC's very large head and massive forehead.

Good about girthing today (I did go back to the western saddle), bad about standing still for mounting. It's amazing though, when I finally growled HO! right in his face, he caught on that Mom meant business. Works wonders.

Well, I can't say enough good things about how riding in the halter worked out. He rubbernecked off the wall once, I pulled him right back to it, he never balked or stopped moving, and after a few more halfhearted attempts, he flat out gave up and was perfect again. Hooray! We'll be doing the next few rides this way and then I think I will probably attach a second set of reins to the bit and start getting him used to that.

Like most of our rides, this one made me think. How often, when someone has a problem like this - a big strong horse buffalo'ing right through their aids - do they pull out the heavy artillery? More bit. Draw reins. Drop noseband. 'Cause damn it, they're not letting that horse pull them around - no sirree! Of course, what do these tactics usually produce? Yup, a horse that learns he can barge through more bit, despite the draw reins and the drop noseband! The problem here wasn't that he was trying to be a beast - he was simply inflexible and wasn't really connecting the pull on the left rein with turning his nose left - he was taking it as an invitation to stop. He's basically lazy and he's really happy with stopping! Going back to the halter made it super simple for him and I got the exact results I wanted. I was extremely pleased and he got a nice bath and I hand grazed him out back where the deep clover grows until he was dry.

And how was your holiday? Did you ride? All of my friends went on a trail ride and I thought about it, but these folks like to go out for 4-5 hours and neither he nor I are fit enough for that yet! I need to get my friend with the Cute Spotted Stallion to haul so we can go on the wimp's trail ride (an hour max, somewhere flat and well maintained!)

Want a quiet horse? Be quiet!

2008-05-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned Halfpassgal here before. From what I've seen, I'm a huge fan. Yeah, she's young enough to be fearless but I think we can all - fearless or not - benefit from watching how she handles explosions. Watch how quiet she is, how straight her back is, and how she sets up her upper body so that she stays on the horse. She does not lose her temper. She disciplines when appropriate but then it's over and she's back to being quiet. The horse is always rewarded for doing the right thing. I know someone already posted here that they thought about her riding and it saved their ass when their horse did something unexpected.

The thing I love the most here is that as far as I'm concerned, she's a rescuer. If she wasn't able to work through these horses' issues, eventually they were heading nowhere good. She is proof positive about what I always say - it's not the horse. A good enough rider really can work through the issues with virtually any horse. Riding lessons for you will fix so many issues that you think are the horse's - you just won't believe the difference, particularly if you're self taught and haven't ridden with a good trainer before.

http://www.youtube.com/v/tNMIz-RjJyw&hl=en

I'm going to see a mare tomorrow that was also reformed by the right young, talented rider. This mare was decreed to be "untrainable" by a Big Name Hotshot Kinda Trainer. Um, yeah. Well, now she's basically dead quiet and works cows and trail rides and crosses bridges and...you get the picture. The whole thing makes me giggle. I think Big Name Hotshot round penned her to death and shook ropes at her and all of that silly shit, and this girl's had the common sense to just be quiet with her and not expect bad behavior.

Look at the wild, untrainable mare. LOL.