The many adventures of the tall appy

On a roll!

2012-02-12T17:49:00.001-08:00

We've been slowly but steadily working back towards our fitness from last fall. Back in November Bear came up with a slight hind-end lameness (think he must have slipped in the pasture and over stretched something) so he was pared back to gentle work. Add to that Christmas craziness and a two weeks in France and you can imagine he wasn't getting out much. Now in mid-February I feel like we've finally caught up and can start progressing again.

Our dressage lessons are going well, and I'm getting the better quality trot work from him more often. He canter is his strong point, and after our lesson yesterday I feel he's gaining stamina there too. The most improved is his walk. With the slow work we focused on only walking. This change of pace helped him mentally not to be overly eager to trot again. Plus we've been walking poles and small caveletti to build the strength in his hind end that seemed to be troubling him.

I've got video from the second part of yesterday's lesson. We're still working on submission, that darn camel impression keeps popping up! Ugly, counter-productive, AND he's managing to hit me with his green drool! He was getting tired, and started stumbling in the back. I hope that will go away with more strength.

Both leads are coming along nicely, but cleaning up the departs is a big item on the to-do list before our goal of cantering the Intro Test C at the end of March.

I'm looking at starting him over fences in the next few weeks, so we made our cross country debut without really jumping! A friend and I hauled out last weekend to a local place called Jack Rabbit Flats, and had a blast! We started, as we always did when I was taking Lola out there, with some trotting around the one-mile perimeter track. We did this each way with walk breaks and then picked up the canter starting left lead. Bear is favoring his right lead lately, and on a straight away like that he chose right. I let him continue anyway, but picked up the left before we got to the turn. Then to make it even, after we had changed directions I made him pick up the left for the straight-away and trotted the change to right lead before the turn. My friend and I were both focused on a good quality collected canter as this was Bear's first time cantering in the open with a friend. I was really impressed! He put all his excited energy into the canter without getting strong. I got such a fantastic rocking-horse canter I was blown away. SO fun.

Then we got to schooling. Bear learned about water, banks, and at least one ditch (a scary one too!). I got a quick video of the water and banks, but we were too busy playing follow the leader with the ditch to get video of each other.

He thew a fit going into the water the second time, but not because of the water. He was bulging his shoulder, and I tapped it with the crop to remind him to listen to my knee to straighten that side. That was clearly quite offensive to him! ;)

I was very please with him, despite his overly eager head tossing! Ugh. He was pretty calm and cool about the whole thing. I hope to have him jumping little stuff by the time we go back next month.

New saddle success!

2011-11-27T12:06:00.001-08:00

I have made a considerable upgrade in saddles over the last year. Last January I found a deal on a keiffer dressage saddle, that while quite used, was a huge step up from my ancient-as-time-itself Steuben which was not quite as straight and deep seated as a dressage saddle, but not forward enough to be an all purpose. The improvment was not exactly luxery or even a taste of new saddle smell! It was an extremely practical improvement though. The straight long flaps helped me to finally learn to open my hip angle, and the deep seat has helped me to learn to scope the saddle and canter correctly.

Recently, I upgraded my jumping saddle. After having used a super-flat-no-padding-or-blocks close contact for years, I decided to steal my mom's ancient Crosby out of the garage. It had a deeper seat and more forward flaps, and it worked for a while. I have been jumping in it for over a year, while always keeping my eye out for an appropriate replacement. The thing was used back when my mom purchased it in her 20's, so it was way older than me, and I decided not really comfortable galloping a cross country course in tack that old! Should have thought of that before the season, but we survived, so no point fretting about what could have happened.

About a month ago I finally got around to finding the used saddle shop that had opened up nearby. As luck would have it, I found a used Stueben with all my favorite things! It has nice forward flaps, a deep seat, and while it doesn't look to be brand new, it has hardly been used. I took it out for trial and actually rode my dressage lesson in it that day to be sure it got trainer approval on fitting both me and Bear. He seemed happy, I felt secure, we were sold!

Best of all, it was only slightly more than my "Saddle Savings Account" so a little haggling on the price and a little cash from another account and I have a new saddle!

I still dream of upgrading both saddles to something magical! For now, the money is better put towards lessons. No point owning a Devacoux if I can't jump anything more than a cross rail! I think leaving the truely nice saddles out there in dream land gives me a little motivation to earn the right to ride in one! I really hope that some day I'll be in a position to NEED a nicer saddle. For now, a respectable one will do!

The Davis Derby

2011-11-25T15:56:00.000-08:00

In my last post I was explaining how sure I felt about the Derby. Then I went and stopped riding! My great dressage lesson had been the Sunday before, and then with the time change taking away all my daylight, I couldn't ride a single day that week. Of course being a Saturday meant I couldn't even ride the day before. Ugh.

Despite my best efforts to get out there early and even getting up 10 extra minutes early, I was late. (I lost my keys and then left a bag at home and had to go back.) I had hoped to be on 45 minutes to an hour before my ride so that I could have a solid half hour warm up and still be over to the ring to collect my thoughts 10 minutes before my ride time. If that had happened, I think we would have done ok. Instead, I frantically raced over to sign a release form while my friend tacked up Bear. I raced back over to throw boots on and grab everything that I needed. I found my parents on the way over to the warm up arena, which was great since I suddenly realized that I had left my number at the trailer so I sent one of them back. By the time I got the the warm up arena Bear was jumping out of his skin! He was SUPER excited. I tried to go straight to a trot warm up hoping that I could get him worked down a bit in the little warm up time that I had, but no such luck. Instead of transferring his energy into a forward trot it was like there were little sparks of energy shooting off fireworks in unexpected directions. He went sidewise, he canted in place, he was WAY to light in the front like he could go up at any time. I could have worked through it with a good walk warm up and strategic exercises, but I had about 5 minutes and couldn't figure out the best plan of action. Pretty soon I was being called to head over to the ring. Okay, this would be interesting! Here's his camel impression!

So needless to say, things did not go well! I managed to lower my score from our debut ride a few weeks before. It was ugly, and felt horrible. He tried his best to leave the arena the first time we past A, and I think we were probably far enough out to have been considered leaving the arena! At least it was a schooling show. What a shame.

It did not go well, but some days surviving is good enough! This was the naughtiest I have ever seen him, tense at best with that feeling he might explode out from under me! My favorite comment from the judge was "mildly disobedient" when he threw one of his tantrums, but on the rider's note I got "quietly and tactfully ridden." We managed a few decent pictures of trying to fake it. Our little bitty trot and bulging under-neck muscles was not the goal, but at least he wasn't going sideways!

He went back to the trailer and got to snack on hay for a while before heading out for jumping. I wasn't nearly as worried about the jumping since it was such an easy task, but he was just as explosive in the warm up arena there. I don't think I even cantered him. He was hot, tense, sucked back and behind my leg. If I tapped his butt to go forward, he'd buck, which got him several more taps. Ugh. We also completely obliterated one of the warm up fences which got him to be a whole lot more careful and actually jump the fences.
When we finally got out into the arena he was still feeling like he was sparking unexpectedly, and you can see he had a great "firework" at the beginning trying to get to the first fence! BAD spook, but I was very impressed with our recovery. He walked past it, and even trotted past when we circled back again. Luckily this was all before our round and once we got started, he did quite well.

I think we have a whole lot of potential. It will be a lot of fun to really get him started over fences this winter. This was meant to give us some experience with show ground atmosphere, and interesting jumps. As much as he overreacted to the silly pile next to the arena, he didn't even look at the scary jumps with flowers! So as an exposure exercise it was a success, I just didn't get out of him what I was hoping for. That will come. We survived. Then we had a kick-ass lesson the next week to make up for it! He's got some fantastic potential for dressage! I just need the time to tap into it. Can't wait!

In between shows...

2011-11-25T15:05:00.000-08:00

Last spring when I took Lola to the UC Davis Event Derby, I SWORE that by the October Derby I would have Bear ready to go for his jumping debut. This was because it was such a convenient and "greenie friendly" event at a good price. I lucked out that the event got pushed back to the beginning of November leaving me a little more room to cram in some work!

So after the dressage show we squeezed in one more lesson and started to put the pressure on to really accept the bit and stop his nonsense in front and start focusing on pushing forward from the back. We had a great lesson and could really see a ton of improvement in his fitness and strength, as well as breakthroughs on understanding submission and seeking the bit instead of being behind the bit to evade the connection.

We also went to a poker ride where I won the 4th best hand! I was so surprised because there were so many people there. We had fun, and I got a second poker hand free for dressing up in costume! Bear looks pretty stunning!

I also hauled him out to a friends barn to do a little jump school. I walked him around while she warmed up her horse so that he could settle in. He was pretty distracted, so it was nice to wait it out and be able to enjoy a ride on a quiet and relaxed horse an hour later! So I spent the first bit leading Bear around and raising jumps and measuring so that she felt good about the height that she'd be jumping at the Derby. Then I dropped all the jumps back down the the smallest cross bar height and warmed Bear up. We had just four set up, and they were all the the center of the smallish square arena, so it wasn't much of a course, but still got Bear to pick up his feet. He mainly just trotted them one foot at a time since they were so small, so I did canter over one twice. He was quiet and didn't think much of it. That was the extent of our jump schooling before the show! I mean they would be tiny cross rails, how much prep does a pony need? And I had already done well on the same dressage test, so that was in the bag, right?

I was feeling pretty proud that in one month I had gotten Bear ready for this despite all his time off! I was pleased with how easy it had all been. I was feeling a little to secure and stopped pushing to really prepare him; I was in for a surprise...

First dressage show, and setting ourselves up for success...

2011-11-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

I keep running into the same problem with my greenie horses. If you ride the LOWEST level, it means have to ride first! First is usually WAY too early for me. My ride time for our first show was 8:08, and it was a really far drive.

This is painful to even look back on, but I got up at 3:30am to make this happen! I had agreed to swing past a friend's barn to pick up her horse, so that added in some time. Plus it was almost a two hour drive out there. The saving grace? I had set us up for success. As a schooling show catering to young riders and horses, they had a "Greenie Weenie- All Walk Test" and I thought that would be the best way to introduce the dressage arena, and judges booth. This meant that my warm up could be pretty limited before our first test, and then I could come back to finish the warm up before our Intro Test A.

Watching an all-walk test can be about as exciting as watching grass grow, but Bear tries to make it interesting by demonstrating his amazingly dramatic head tossing abilities. He is seriously talented! He can get his foamy mouth dribble on my face, isn't that impressive? I think his nickname of "Giraffe"has been substituted with "Camel".

The warm up arena was right next to the barn and trailers, but to get to the show arena you had to walk away from everyone and through a pasture which, obviously, held some horse eating monsters! It took some coaxing to get Bear all the way there, but once he was there he did alright. We were able to use the test to calmly introduce him to the arena, and develop some relaxation while working on keeping his attention. Perfect start!

Before continuing I want to take a moment to review where Bear is at in his training. He was started under saddle in the winter of 2008, and he was going well under saddle by the end of spring of 2009. He was only three, though, so I really just wanted to get him out to gain exposure and experience before asking anything too physically or mentally challenging. That should have lasted for a year, but instead his trail riding life kept getting extended. January of 2010 he moved to his first boarding facility with the goal of getting his training started, but we had one health problem or injury after another until we switched barns in May. Basically 5 wasted months. Through the spring he was ridden just enough to be sure my (then boyfriend now husband) could ride him. That's to say, walk, stop, turn, and patiently ignore the rest of confusing cues in order to be safe enough to trail ride. I was gone for the summer, and then that fall, we went about the same. I feel like in all of 2010 we had probably 10 good training rides! Mostly he was just ridden on the trails or used as a beginner horse. He moved back to pasture at my parent's house in November 2010 and just finished his pasture vacation in October of 2011. Basically in three year's he's done quite a bit- horse camping, trail riding all over, various riders and such, but never been asked to do much more than walk, trot, canter calmly under saddle- no real considerations to quality of gait, being on the bit, or being fine tuned to respond. Now ALL of that has changed, and he's a little confused by the new rules of the ride.

That said, our goals for this test were to keep him forward while accepting a light and following contact, that was really it. We had prepped for the show with one dressage lesson. Literally he went from a handful of rides to get him back in shape, to one dressage lesson, and an attempt at a show. Taking that into consideration, it was an enormous success.

Catch up time!!!

2011-11-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

I LOVE holidays! Not just for the holiday eating and family, but for the complete break from reality. Its a Wednesday, and I'm not at work! How wonderful is that? Instead I got to sleep in, enjoyed super sale prices and no state sales taxes while shopping, and am currently cozy in my in-laws home while the Portland weather steadily assures me that sitting on the sofa with my laptop is indeed the right choice! I don't have a kitchen to clean, meals to make, laundry to do, closets to organize, or any of the other busy and never-ending work that I have at home. I don't even have a horse to ride or a dog to walk! This complete freedom means that I finally have time to reflect just back to the last few months of fun that I've not gotten a chance to write about! We have been BUSY!

I am going to break each of these out into several posts since I have pictures and video to go along with it. We've had plenty of training moments to capture so that I can go back and look at them later. When I look at all we've done, frankly I'm impressed with how well Bear is coming back into work and handling it all.

We've now had several "first times" to add to his list:
first dressage show,
second dressage show,
first time jumping cross rails,
followed immediately by his first time jumping a course at a show,
sprinkle in some impressive progression in a only three dressage lessons,
and a poker ride where (despite him being a little coo-coo for the first part) we won the fourth best hand and looked fantastic in our coordinating Halloween costume!

First of all, to set the scene, we moved to another barn...again! I feel like I'm a transient horse owner based on how many places Lola ended up living (heading off to her lease home was her 9th move to her 6th location), but I guess Bear has had less moves and he spent the last year at the same place: happy in pasture at my parent's house. This worked fine for occasional lessons and hauling out to trail ride or use the community arena, but it got to the point that I had to hook up the trailer and haul several times a week to get anything done. I even hauled out to lunge. Ugh. So when Lola found a lease-home, it became clear I needed to find a place with an arena and jumps, trails nearby, and at least some lights to do some quick riding or lunging after work on weeknights. That's what I needed to make it better than leaving him at my parent's, because really he had it good there! On his side, I didn't want him to have to give up all his horsey freedom since he's always been in pasture or a pasture sized paddock with a buddy. I wanted to be sure it wouldn't turn to a mud pit, since we've had to move because of that before. Quality of care has also been a problem before, as well as his penchant for destroying things. Then of course there is price and gas cost to consider!

I can tell you that I was feeling pretty hopeless for a few weeks. Then I stumbled across the winner: small facility body-wise (only 8 other horses) but really quite large land-wise! It has a good size arena with footing that is still ride-able after a rain and enough jumps to get us started. The six stall barn only has two horses which leaves plenty of hay and tack space and a warm dry lit place to groom or tack up. Add in room for my trailer, outdoor wash rack, and super nice people, and it has turned out to be wonderful! Here's the cherry on top: we have direct access to some of my favorite trails in the area! These have always been my favorite training trails because they are fairly flat, wide with good footing, and since they area is fairly small the trails loop and crisscross giving you endless options to get miles of ride in without having to stay on the same trail out and back. We've been enjoying them regularly, and will be the perfect way to keep him fit and fresh with some long trots and canter sets through the winter.

We still need to get the lights back up and running for winter, but I have faith that piece will fall into place also. As for Bear, he has the best pasture ever! He has a hug big pasture in the very back of the property, and he has it all to himself right now. This means lot's of grass, no competing with others for feed, and plenty to do to keep him happy.

Funny enough, one of the woman there had taken lessons with my dressage trainer in the past, and so we've started to split the travel fee for her to come out to give a lessons at our barn. Now I don't have to plan the extra time for travel or cost for gas! Plus there is an extremely reputable hunter/jumper trainer right next door with an enormous jumping arena with incredible fences and complete with a bank in the middle. As much as I loved my eventing trainer for my jumping lessons, she is always hard to schedule time with, and if I have the choice to WALK next door instead of driving 30 minutes each way, the choice should be clear. I hope I like her, I'm a little intimidated by her, especially being an equitation focused coach! I probably need some ripping apart though.

I've got huge goals for this beastie this year, and I'm excited to have the right set up to support the progress.

Horse show insanity...

2011-10-14T17:35:00.003-07:00

About noon I was SUPER excited about the lesson and show this weekend. After looking at ride times and creating my schedule I'm horrified to see that I need to be leaving at 4:15 with horse in-tow in order to make this crazy plan work! Why do I do this to my weekends???

Outing number two!

2011-10-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

We had a second scary outing this week, and, aside from some bug-eyed giraffe impressons, we survived!

I hauled Bear out to ride with a friend where she boards her horse. They have lights in their covered arena, so we could manage this after work even with the short days. It was just dusk when we got there, and the place is a bit chaotic for a greenie. The train tracks go right behind the property, and since the communter train passes by it is a pretty regular distraction. So it is dark, there is a loud train, its a new place, add to it pigeons flitting around in the fairly low rafters, a man with a bike and trailer zipping around in the dark past the arena, a very unruly teenage girl/mare combo out of control or out right defiant in the arena, and a donkey braying in the dark pasture on the other side, and you can imagine Bear's alarm with the situation. Luckily he gets over anything with time.

We just walked around the arena, or stood in the middle for quite a while. I basically decided to wait out the dangerous horse. With a total of four riders in an arena only slightly larger than a dressage court, I didn't want to get in a bad situation if I found myself next to the pissed off mare. So by the time we started riding, he was calm and focused. We took it easy and worked on some walk-trot transitions, walk to free walk transistions, and plenty of bending to ask for more contact on the bit. He was a good boy, and we finished the evening by standing in the middle of the arena while my friend practiced the dressage tests for the show Sunday.

It felt so good to be on him. He is built and moves so differently than Lola, it is a weird feeling! He is narrow, where Lola was round, so my leg hangs differently. He's so easy and pokey most of the time that's it hard to create the energy at first, but he's got bigger and more relaxed strides. With Lola I was working to turn her energized strides into slower longer swinging steps, with Bear I'm trying to energize his lazy jog into his long swinging stride! He's also so ignorant! He is an easy horse to ride, so its hard not to treat him like a dead broke lesson horse. But he is just getting the idea of accepting the contact and from there we'll be working on stretching to reach for it. A work in progress. He did start to get the idea of stretching his nose down at the free walk. Getting it, but not quite there yet!

I have a dressage lesson on Saturday and I think we'll make some good progress towards tidying things up before Sunday's show. Can't wait!

And then there was one...

2011-10-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is right, down to one horse! It is quite bitter sweet. Lola and Bear acted like such a sweet old married couple, that it was heart breaking to split them up. Lola is off on a lease with a junior rider who will be taking her to more competitions this coming year than I would have had the time or money to do in five years! It is a fantastic situation, but I will miss her. So...how do you get over missing your horse? Ride your OTHER horse! Bear doesn't even know what hit him!

Immediatley after sending Lola on her way, I loaded Bear up and took him off to a local western schooling show. Their trail classes were marked english or western, but I'm sure I was the only one in an english saddle! I squeezed in two walk-trot trail classes and then went and worked in the warm up arena for a little bit. It was good to get him out and exposed to the world again. He hasn't been anywhere without Lola for about a year, and he hasn't been to show grounds for probably two years. He was not exactly his lazy and laid back self, but he wasn't a complete wreck either. Good start!

We even took a fourth in one trail class! (I was disqualified in the other for being off course.)

Just look at that silly sweet face!

I've got big plans to keep him busy and me distracted from missing Lola. We will be hauling out to a friends this week after work to ride. I have our first dressage lesson in probably 2 1/2 years on Saturday. AND we will be going to a dressage schooling show Sunday! We're off with a bang! I'm looking forward to it!

Working equitation

2011-10-04T21:53:00.001-07:00

I've been riding my entire life... well almost... a pony at the age of 4 should count for "all my life". As a horse obsessed, kid, teen, college student, and now adult, I have made a life of reading about horses, horse products, horse disciplines of all types and around the world. I've participated in western horsemanship, trail, barrel racing, trail trials, endurance rides, hunter/jumper, IHSA, dressage, and eventing. So when I come across something that I've never heard of, working equitation, I was surprised. But when I looked into it an thought it sounded right up my alley, like it could be the coolest thing that I'd ever not hear of, I was amazed! Its a crazy combination of trail obstacles, jumping, livestock, with lances and all. Seriously, it sounds really fun!

Not sure how I find a place to compete in this obscure discipline, but it would be fun to try to find a way!

Oh the weight of it all...

2011-09-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

If you don't read Lola's blog, take a look at my last post here. I took Lola to our first Horse Trials at Beginner Novice level. This was a HUGE step for both of us. We prepared as best we could, we schooled the cross country course prior, we have been working over fences that size all summer, and now that we've sorted out canter departs, our dressage was good enough for the test. Should have gone fine, right? Except we had an epic FAIL. Now you really do want to go back and click on that link don't you!!! Really, I understand! I while I like hearing other bloggers talk about how well they did at shows because I can learn something from it, I LOVE getting hear everyones' sob stories about terrible shows! Ok, maybe not truly terrible, I can't ever stomach hearing about riders or horses injured. But boy does it feel good to hear that there are other people out there like me, just trying to make it, and feeling just as awkward about it!

So please, if you have a bad show experience to share, leave it in the comments. I would LOVE to hear that all the bloggers who really seem to have it all together have also fallen off at shows at one point or another! Yes, that's right, after a embarrassing dressage score, and a refusal and rail in stadium, I was eliminated from cross country for a falling off at our third refusal.

I completely psychoanalyzed the ride on Lola's blog, and it was a very cathartic exercise, but there is one more aspect I need to vent. Since Lola is a sale horse, I feel personally responsible for her future. Riding poorly when I can just come back stronger next year on a horse I'm committing life-long ownership to is one thing, but riding like I did at the last show that I can afford to take her to for the season is fairly devastating to her sale promotion.

I am feeling the weight of not giving her a good enough ride, the weight of the tediously slow work it takes to get Bear back into shape after almost a year of extremely inconsistent work, and the weight of the reality that summer is gone and my evenings are fast disappearing. And then I remember that having a horse at all is a blessing! Owning TWO talented horses is a stoke of extreme fortune! And really, compared to many of the winters other bloggers face, I have an extremely mild and short season of bad weather! I may not be managing them to their best, but how dare I allow horses,such a positive area of my life, to bring me down? Well, I'm a perfectionist, and I get frustrated when I can't manage it just right.

So now that I've vented on failing my mare, I will focus my energy positively. I will trail ride more, even in the rain. If time limits us, I will take Bear for walks in hand (I'll get fit too!). I will remember horses need time to develop as much as they need good training. And I will definitely still find other bloggers out there who have bad days at horse shows every once in a while!

New (used) saddle fail

2011-08-30T19:35:00.000-07:00

I've been shopping new jumping saddles, but have been at the mercy of what is available in my budget at the local tack shop. I stopped by on a whim last Thursday and found... drum roll please... a Pessoa for $300!!! Some minor issues from regular wear and tear, but seriously, only $300? I don't know a ton about the different models, and maybe this started out life on the lower end, but it seemed like a great deal for me if it worked. "If it worked out" was the problem.

It fit me great! Loved it. It fit Lola alright. She seemed to go fine in it. There was as a little bit of dry hair under the wet saddle pad that made me question it though. But on Bear, it was a total fail. I didn't even need to go in to the saddle fitter to decide. Not nearly enough wither clearance. Sat right on top of his withers in fact!

Oh well... guess I'm waiting for the next great deal!

A moment of cuteness to brighten anyone's day!

2011-08-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

So the question is... will I ever think the baby is cuter than the horse?? Does that maternal instinct kick in at some point and give me the desire to pinch chubby cheeks? For now I just want to pet the pony! And I'd rather scoop poop than change a diaper any day!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

When life is multiple choice...

2011-06-20T22:44:00.000-07:00

We all have times in our lives where we set up a Plan A and a Plan B, and if we work it just right, we could be equally happy with either. Right now I've got those, plus a Plan C. Yes, its THAT complicated!

Plan A: Lola and I keep working our tails off to prepare to go Beginner Novice at the next Horse Trial in late July. We're on a roll, and I'd love to do it! I really feel we have so much more to prove to each other.

Plan B: Lola sells (one great potential getting her trainer's opinion as we speak) or finds a leaser (one coming out next week to try her) and I get the chance to put ALL my love and attention into the spotty beast. He is MAJORLY out of shape, so that would be our limitation, but he'd be more than capable of trotting logs. His training is far enough along, that with some tune up we could do the same event if we stuck to Elementary. It wouldn't be fantastic, but wouldn't be disastrous either.

Plan C: (This plan is also contingent on a Lola living with another rider.) Instead of launching into another big commitment to training and competing, I take two months to work on me! I am getting married August 13th, and all the plans to work out and get into bikini shape have fallen clear off the priority list! I have friends that I promised to visit, and I can't find a free weekend. And of course I've still got a wedding to plan! I also don't want to take the fun out of my fun horse by putting the pressure on too quick. We'd have a blast just trail riding and starting the occasional dressage lesson this summer. So, for my own sanity, I really should probably stick to that. But where's the fun in being sensible?

Whatever way the plans fall, I will be happy, my horses will be happy, and I'll still manage to get the wedding plans under control before the actual event. It's nice to have options!

Bear would be so jealous if I told him...

2011-05-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Lola and I went cross country schooling!

Just a sneak peak...more photos on Lola's blog!

Of course, at this point, Lola thinks going out of the arena means strolling along a trail, and generally relaxing and taking in the sights. That's because I've worked very hard to ingrain that in her! So she headed out to warm up on the course with big relaxed swinging strides and things got better from there.

I am so excited to have taken her out, and were head back this next weekend to compete in the horse trials. This is great news for two reasons: I'm SUPER excited, and with it over I can start splitting my time a little more evenly between the two beasts. Bear needs to get conditioned if I want to start really stepping up his training this summer. The next horse trial at Eventful Acres will be in July (on my birthday weekend), and based on what I saw of the elementary course, any horse that can lift his feet to step over something at a walk can probably handle it! So the goal is tentatively set to take Bear out for our first horse trials.

Of course this is contingent on Lola being sold. Otherwise Lola and I will be pushing up to compete BN in July. She's been simply fantastic lately. The horse market is weird, so I know I won't get a ton of response to her ads, but I really can't imagine some one NOT taking her home if they tried her! She's just so much fun.

Anyway, big open grassy fields to canter in, this is just something that I know Bear will be great at. How high he can jump is a question we can figure out later! I don't really know that I have the guts to compete any higher than Novice, and I think he can do that just fine. So now that he's five this year, I'm eager to get back into work with him and bring on the fences!

Long days… warm weather… LOTS of hair!

2011-04-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

I have been sort of ignoring everyone’s complaints about shedding horses because Lola has been sleek and shiny since that warm weather we had in January! A box stall and blanket will do that for a horse. Plus she’s worked hard and groomed regularly. I forgot that my pasture ornament wouldn’t be exempt from the spring shedding craziness! I snuck out to see Bear right after work last night in order to get a quick ride in before the 7pm Maundy Thursday service at church. (He’s sort of on the way.) So I scurried out, grabbed a saddle and grooming bucket, and he was waiting by the fence as usual. I pulled his sheet off (we had a rainy spell again), and I started currying only to find he’s one hairy mess!

With the sheet on I don’t think he’s been very effective in rolling any of the hair off his body himself, so he had hair matted to him! CRAZY! He hardly grows a winter coat, none of this long belly and neck hairs that Lola gets, so I was surprised that he had that much to come off! He certainly enjoyed the curry, and as long as it doesn’t rain again, he’ll be done with that rain sheet. The poor guy is probably itchier than all get out! So at least he can start rubbing it off rolling.

After getting all this off... we didn’t have much time left. So we took off down the road for at least a half hour ride. We did our usual walk down the back roads, and I am just always amazed what a good boy he is! He hasn’t been out for a two weeks, and hasn't been regularly ridden for months! Yet he was a perfect joy to ride. He stopped and looked when the donkey snorted at us, he got a little prancy when the crazy arab rushed the fence at us, and he flipped his head once while we were climbing a hill and a tractor started up (loudly) behind us somewhere. That’s it! So very impressive for a horse that is out of work right now, and all pumped up on spring grass!

I’m realizing that if I do want to get serious about putting him back into full work this summer, I better be consistent about our conditioning. The trailer is at the boarding facility with Lola, so trailering him anywhere will just be a lot of work, but we’ve got enough back roads and trails from there to at least give us a 2 hour walking ride. From there I’ll need to either start trailering out to the local arena or get him back to the boarding place. We’ll see how long it takes to sell Miss Fancy Pants. She’s doing SO well right now, I feel like she is a really marketable horse. We’ll see though. It has to be the right home.

Such a good boy, if only he’d hold still for his picture. But he sees the camera and comes to sniff it. Does it every single time!

I was in a Derby!

2011-04-18T22:47:00.000-07:00

I was in a derby!!!! But it was on Lola...
By the next on in October Bear will be the horse choice, I'm sure! I have big plans for him this year!
In the mean time, check out our awesome success on Lola's blog...

<--- click there...

or go here:

http://mytrainingproject.blogspot.com/

Bear takes the back seat... as usual

2011-04-05T22:33:00.001-07:00

Bear gets the lush pasture of spring grass while Lola does all the work. When I put it that way, Lola is getting the raw end of the deal! I, however, can't help but feel guilty for not balancing the two.

We're doing lot's of fun stuff with Lola, but writing about it on her blog means this one has seriously dwindled over the last year too. I am a worrier and a guilt traveler (a guilt trip only works if you take that trip, right?). I am a sucker for guilt trips. If there isn't someone around to give me a guilt trip, I misread peoples comments to make it into a guilt trip (my poor fiance is so patient with me!), and when that fails, I just create my own guilt trips for myself because I am not perfect and I cannot live up to my unrealistic training expectations while working full time. There of course being the catch 22, because I can't afford the horses without working full time!

So I move on, and do what I can, and every so often I call myself out on it! So here I am again, justify (to myself) why I haven't completely ruined my horse through my neglectful behavior.

He is happy! He has two acres of pasture to play in. He's always cared for, vaccinated, wormed, and trimmed. He's gets excellent care.

He is already off to a good start. He just turned five and he has more training on him than some horses get their whole lives. By starting him early we opened up his options, I can take him trail riding, alone, with friends, or with completely new horses. I can take him to canter across the big open beach at the lake. Some horses are never under control enough to do that! He can put up with a beginner rider! Probably 10 years down the road I will be so happy that I gave him such low impact/ low stress miles in the beginning. Whatever happens to him physically later one I'm just going to blame myself for anyway! So I guess this is a blessing to have one less item of guilt later.

Its spring, and he's full of it. That's the decision I've made on the uncomfortable or naughty debate. We went for another walk last Saturday. I tacked him up and walked about 15 minutes then rode the rest. He was perfectly fine. He seemed happy, and he was relaxed. It helped that I convinced the whole entourage to come with us! My fiance came and walked our dog, my dad walked their crazy energetic German Shepherd, and my mom walked the old mare (who was THRILLED to get to come along, and was out walking my mom!). Even walking back up the big hill with me on him he seemed comfortable and no signs of head tossing as he tried to push himself and my weight up the incline.

I think the chiro work has done its job. I think Bear needs to get down to business to get this head tossing/half rears in check. I fee like this spring will give us a chance to slowing move back into working condition through trail riding, and this summer maybe we can get back into training mode. Its time I asked more of him on the flat, and this is his year to get started over fences.

He's got a bright future ahead of him. I think its ok that he's not there yet, we still have time.

Updates...

2011-03-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well the old mare pulled through. The vet came out for a follow up visit later that week and basically said that she had muscle soreness all across that right side, as well as a bit of swelling in the tendon on that leg. She's made a good recovery though and she is back to her perky little self. She even ran around a bit last weekend, and when I went out to stop her, she pranced and snorted at me! Looks like she's back to normal.

The trailer is fine, it was all covered by insurance. Its not the prettiest trailer, but as the guy at the shop pointed out, it wasn't that pretty to start with! Thanks... I know its not shiny and new, but its MINE. This is what it looked like going in... Plus the sun roof/vent was totally busted. Now at least it doesn't leak! I'll post pictures as soon as I get back out there. (It's been so rainy that I have been sticking to the barn when I'm out, it was even SNOWING when I picked the trailer up!)

Bear is still not quite himself. The wet pasture hasn't helped. The second chiro visit was good news. Basically he seemed much better, so that means two good things, he was better after only two, AND that an improvement after one helps to show that it is something physical (that can be corrected by chiropractic) and not something systemic or neurological that wouldn't have responded quickly. The vet basically prescribed a slow rehab back into work. So far that has meant taking him for walks down the back roads since everything else is too wet to give good footing. We've only been doing in hand work because the first day out he spooked and lost both feet out behind him! I though, well if he wasn't injured before, he probably is now! He seemed fine when I made it out there the next week (darn rain) no lameness at walk or trot. I hopped on in the pasture and he was crabby and defiant under saddle. I don't know if it is attitude or pain. He might be getting a little more cantankerous with age, but based on his character I think its more likely he's in pain or afraid to move around under my weight with the bad footing. So for now we'll play it safe and take our long walks down the road. I think next time I'll tack him up and see if I can't get on and ride a bit once he's had 15 minutes to warm up.

That was my plan for yesterday, but Monday night after walking him I started throwing up when I got home, now I'm down and out with the stomach flu. I am looking forward to longer days, sunshine, and actually getting out to see my ponies!

A week of being too close to death...

2011-02-28T21:50:00.001-08:00

Last week was not what it was supposed to be...

I had the dentist/chiro out on Tuesday. Good news for Bear and Lola... good news meaning Bear had some stuff clearly out of alignment, so hopefully his issues will go away with chiro care and he won't spend the rest of his life being a clutz. Their teeth looked good, AND the vet tells me Lola is a year YOUNGER than I was told when I bought her. Bonus!

Then we got the old mare... she needed extra sedation and two infected teeth had to be extracted. No fun for anyone. Plus I had volunteered to pay for it, and the extra work cost QUITE a bit extra.

It got so late that I didn't want to take Lola back to boarding that night, and put it off for another night. I was all set to go out on Wednesday, pick her up, tack up at the barn, and have my fiancé get some good video of us. But when I got to the house the old mare was down. She got up after a bit. But she didn't seem right. She was stomping her back legs and backing up. I went down to check on her, and she seemed alright so I thought she may have been stiff. I hooked up the trailer, pulled it down to the driveway, and before I could load Lola, the old mare went down again. Not a good sign.

And so the night began... 8 hours of stress and anxiety, numerous vet phone calls, a dose of bute, an hour of walking, one poop (YEAH!), a dose of banamine, lots of monitoring her laying down to keep her laying quietly and not rolling, one vet's opinion to either get her to an intensive care for all night monitoring or put her to sleep, a frantic call to our regular vet for a second opinion, a midnight ranch call from said vet, lots of oil down her nose, and one last shot of "stuff" to help, and she finally thought about eating a little. I went home relieved that we hadn't had to put her down, but not convinced that she'd make it through the night.

This mare was my mom's 40th birthday present to herself. She always wanted to own a horse, the one she bought at 18 tried to kill her, numerous times. And yet she bought a very hot arab at the age of 4o... She basically became one of the horses that I grew into. We did all sorts of stuff together, and she became my primary horse once my show mare developed terrible arthritis my first year of high school. So I did some trail trials and endurance on my hardy little arab. She was the horse that I could come home to while in college, and jump on bareback with just a halter and canter circles in the pasture. She was a HUGE part in training Bear. She was such a trooper to come out of retirement to pony around the naughty and frisky young thing that he was. We've owned her for 17 years now. She's a huge part of the family. I was a wreck at work the next day, I kept expecting the call... the one telling me to come out quick because the vet's coming back to put her down.

She did make it through the night, but with all the getting up and laying down (and by laying down I really just mean "choosing a place to fall" because she was so weak that night) she somehow hurt her ankle. She's hardly putting weight on it, holding it out in front, and limping terribly. So now that she's pulled through the colic, she's having to have this injury evaluated. I still can't let myself believe she's out of the woods.

So with all this terrible news, I was understandably edgy when I got a voicemail from the barn owner where I keep Lola. I was so relieved that it wasn't another life or death horse emergency that my first reaction was to laugh when I hear that A TREE HAD FALLEN ON MY TRAILER!!!! Well after seeing it, I'm not laughing. Not what I need just when I'm hoping to gear up with a full schedule of lesson, schooling off site, and showing. I can't afford a new trailer. I'm hoping for the best, and sort of planning for the worst. If the repairs cost more than 70% of the value, it's considered a total loss. I'm not sure I can replace it for what I'll get. I can't justify buying a new one now. I'm not ready to lose my horse trailering independence.

The old mare's name is Lacey. I don't think I've ever said her name... it was just such fun to call her the old mare: a background character in the story of Bear. Truth it she has been a huge influence on my riding, and my life. So I think I might take some time to tell her story too.

Vet should be out tomorrow. We'll see what there is to say about the leg.

Happy Birthday Bear!

2011-02-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

My spotty valentine is five years old today. This year he has to quit playing and get a real job!

Reunited...

2011-02-13T10:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I hooked up the trailer at the barn, loaded up Lola, and then swung past my parent's house to pick up Bear. He was super excited to see a trailer pull up, and proceeded to gallop up and down the hill in the lower pasture. This was fine by me, as I was hoping he'd take the edge off his spunkiness before I put the finacé up there!

I caught him, through him in the trailer, and the finacé and I set off for a trail ride! It was the perfect day for it, we just didn't have much time. Both horses were hot and sweaty when we pulled them out of the trailer. It is unseasonably warm, Bear had been running around, and Lola had been probably nervously sweating in the trailer not able to fully see what all the commotion was about, so it was understandable. It didn't change the fact that it felt weird to take up sweaty horses!

They both settled in pretty well once we got up the first hill. I wish we could have done the whole trail, but the day just didn't allow for it. We at least got them out. They weren't crazy or too attached about being together again. I was surprised how fit Lola was compared to Bear, but he really is a weekend pony at the moment, so it makes sense.

When we got back to my parents we had to take off right away for a dinner, so Lola stayed for a sleepover. I knew I'd have to split them up later to feed that night, but I turned them both out to pasture while we were out to dinner, and they were just adorable. They ran around... sided by side, ate grass... side by side, stood to watch each other roll their sweaty back in the grass. They were the picture of perfect contentment. It will be heartbreaking to separate them again today, but Bear needs to be out in pasture, and Lola needs spring grass limited and daily supplements given. Plus they were getting too dependent on each other, and I think the separation will allow me to more easily take them out alone to shows and such.

They will get a repeat of this horsey sleepover next weekend. I have the farrier coming Friday night and the dentist/chiro coming Saturday morning, so I'll be consolidating the horses to one property for the appointments.

Alright, enough thinking about horses, time to go do something with them!

Plans and Goals FAIL!

2011-01-31T22:10:00.000-08:00

How ironic that the last post was about plans and goals... this one is all about busy-ness and pasture vacation!

After deciding that the mud ocean that was their pen had become unacceptable I started looking, once again, for a place to keep two horses. I didn't find it. Lola needs certain things, Bear just needs to be dry and turned out. Lola moved to a stall at a place with an indoor arena. Bear moved back to my parent's house. It was good timing really. I am SO busy at work (9-12 hour days). He's SO happy in pasture. Really my parents have the ideal set up. Two half acre pastures to rotate back and forth, a large 1/4 acre pen with a huge shelter, another horse to keep him company, and the put up with his antics. They have refused to unblanket daily, but I don't blame them, what a pain. Not that it matters right now since its cold enough to leave on all day. Then when it warms up I'll just switch to the sheet so that it won't be too hot during the day.

Needless to say, he hasn't been doing much. We did have a fantastic trail ride with the gal that bred and sold him to me! He's certainly grown up since she saw him last! The trail was great, it was a clear bright day, and we had a blast. We also got to do lots of crazy water crossings with all the rain that's been coming down! So we had a good time, and I definitely want to head out there again.

I couldn't get a picture with my phone, but somehow I got some video! New phones... ugh.

Silly, I know...

Bottom line: Bear is happy a clam. I don't feel guilty. He's only 5 minutes away from Lola's barn. So this weekend I'll pick him up on the way to the trails and try a Bear-Lola reunion so that I can take my fiancé out for a ride. We're all happy, and, for now, we all have just what we need. What a good feeling.

So many goals... so little riding time!

2010-12-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

I've really been struggling to find time to ride the two beasties as of late. I am working long hours at the office, and then it seems that I have time to ride only on days where its raining or its super muddy the previous days of rain. Then I've been even less successful in convincing my boyfriend to come out and ride with me. I am hoping both of these will soon change.

The boyfriend very cleverly suggested that we ride BEFORE work. I say clever, because he knows how much I HATE mornings! Thus if I say no, its my decision to give up the idea of teaching him to ride. So I agreed. We made it through one very early morning session with enough time for me to get to the office, shower at the gym there, and get MOST of my clothes on with 2 minutes to walk across the parking lot to our building. The problem was that I was lacking the final piece to my outfit... I had packed everything but my skirt! Hmm... knee high boots, tights and a sweater REALLY don't work without the skirt!

Other than the wardrobe emergency, it was a fairly productive ride. Bear was not in his calmest mood, so I really just spent that first morning making do with what I had. Once we get a bit of a routine going with this early morning thing, Bear will settle in quickly and get down to work. But for the first day I mainly spent time lunging him and getting his attention before putting the BF up there for a lunge line lesson. He did well, and Bear was a good boy.

I think the mornings will actually work out quite well. I was in a fantastic mood when I got into work, despite the fact that I had gotten up early enough to be out at a cold dark barn at 6:30 am! The barn owner laughed at me. She was coming out to feed as I was packing up to go, and she commented that one way or another, I'm always out there in the dark! It does seem to be a rare occasion that I seem them in the daylight.

With a good morning routine I'm hoping to have the BF turned into a confident and effective enough rider to be my spring trail buddy! It would greatly help me to keep both horses in shape if he could come out with me for some conditioning rides. We'll see how long I can get up for before-light rides though...

Today we broke a sweat!

2010-11-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Oh what a glorious fall day!

I had arranged to go out with a friend to ride Bear and Lola at the lake today with the idea of doing some trot and canter work out on the beach. At the last minute she had to cancel, but I was still so excited about going out that I decided to take Bear out alone. Its been AGES since I've taken Bear any where with out Lola. She goes out to things alone all the time, but he tends to be the one left behind if I can't take two. So he was a bit vocal about being put in the trailer all alone!

I took Bear because he's been so sluggish in the arena. He's obedient, he'll move forward when asked, he'll trot or canter when asked, but I do feel like I'm nagging him to have a little more energy with every single step. I figure its a twofold problem: I don't feel like I've really gotten him back into good condition since the summer so he tires quickly, but mainly he is getting bored with circles in an arena. So we took the trail ride to help with both of those problems, good conditioning ride, and there's nothing like an open space to make trotting and cantering fun again! It worked like a charm. I can hardly get him to work hard enough to get warm, let alone break a sweat. Today we got hot and sweaty and had a blast!

Bear was calling for Lola the whole way to the trail parking, and he was super jazzed up for the beginning of the ride. He was a little spooky on the trail, but nothing unexpected since he hasn't had to brave the trail solo in a long time. We did spend about 10 minutes slowly approaching a log though. He was convinced it was hiding a monster.

We had spent about a half out on the trail just walking along and getting all the benefits of climbing the big step ups and rocking back on his haunches to go down the hills. By the time we got to the beach he was nice and warmed up, and had settled his nerves a bit. We started out trotting because every time we got to a divot where last week's major rain storm had created streams down the beach. He slowed to look EVERY time! So silly! So we made a point of trotting over these for a while, then started trot over the drift wood and logs out there. He just felt so great! He'd trot up to the smallest logs and gracefully canter away. I had a blast! We cantered around a bit and I'd like him start to lengthen and really stretch into a big stride, but I don't think we are mentally or physically fit enough to go for an all out gallop. I was certainly sitting myself up straighter than usual! The best reminder not to lean in front of your center point is the threat that your trusty steed is going to slam on the breaks suddenly! I was so impressed with my boy. Each time I asked him to come back he'd collect back to his lovely rocking horse canter and then into a great balanced and relaxed trot. Really I'm still floored how much great trot I got today! I mean on the bit, swinging trot and stepping right into the canter! What an awesome horse I have.

We made it a point to walk around a bit on the way back to the trailer. He was all sweat from ears to girth, so I wanted to make sure he was well cooled. The trailer parking has a great wash rack, so I cold hosed his legs and at least washed his sweaty girth area. The rest of the sweat needed to dry before getting brushed away, so we just hung out in the gorgeous fall sunshine and he snacked on grass. What a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

Motivation...

2010-11-10T22:06:00.000-08:00

I find as I go through these situations again and again that I'm a bit of an adrenaline junky. Maybe that's not even the right term. I'm driven by goals, that's clear, I love working with horses partly based on all the planning I can do. Little baby steps to meet the goals. But I've seen over and over again in my life that I tend to throw myself at extremely difficult things, not just to see if I can do them, but to give myself something stressful enough to incite some action. I finished my Masters degree this summer. The very first week of my very first summer I was pretty sure I had bitten off way more than I could chew. I finished because I am stubborn. It was insanely difficult for me, partly because it is a high level of education, but mainly because it hit on some of my biggest weaknesses. So why did I throw myself at that? Bigger question, why did I find some much motivation to finish it?

Motivation is a funny thing. There are many days where the only motivation to go through the motions of the day is that some piece of it HAS to, absolutely must, happen. Mornings are not my favorite thing. Without a concrete event to incite action, my morning mode, where I don't quite engage with life, can be prolonged up to the point I go to bed again. I had this happen surprisingly often when I lived abroad. There were vacation days where I didn't have to work and those few people that I knew were out of town, and after a few days I would realize, that I hadn't spoken to a soul, for several days. I read books, I walked, I sucked into an interior life that didn't allow for an outside reality. I found out that I can be an extreme introvert, to the point of being a recluse, and it didn't really seem alarming. I was living without a dog, cat, or horse. I think that made a difference.

My days, most often are incited to action by the fact that I have a job that expects to be in there sometime around 8am. I don't clock in, I don't get written up if not in at a certain time, so the motivator works, just give or take about 20 minutes. Once at work I usually engage in what I'm doing, new things, challenging things, extremely overwhelmingly filled lists of things, they capture my attention while there and then I forget that I need motivation to get things done! Then there are other days, where once I'm there I'm not sure how I can convince myself to do anything other than think about going to get more coffee. The days where everything is easy and simple and straight forward, I hate those days. Somehow I don't end up doing half of what needs to be done, and yet the day before I had twice as much to do and managed to do it all! Apparently I love to be stressed!

So the conclusion drawn here is that if I were left to my own comfortable, unstressed, uninterrupted life, I think I would probably cease to shower, clean, leave the house, then eat. I'm sure it'd be a slow process! But it is the interaction, or even confrontation, in life that motivates me to get out and do something. I think this could be true, except that I have animals. I have people too, don't get me wrong, I would have people coming to pull me out of my smelly unnoticed misery with in a day! But that would be an intervention, not a motivation. I'm sure this will all change when I have kids, but right now, the only things in this world that rely on me for their well being and happiness, are my animals. A dog politely encouraging you to get up because they REALLY need to pee, that's a motivator to start your day! Horses that will be cold or hungry if you don't go out to feed and blanket is a motivator. My horses bring satisfaction in a job well done, they creature to worry over, and tend to. They give you something to care for aside from yourself. Again, this isn't to say that I don't value human relationships, but my perfectly capable boyfriend is not going to go hungry, he doesn't rely on me the way my animals do.

Alright, so I have found my motivator, my catalyst for action, my horses and my dog drive me to get going, start the day, engage in the world. Then what, then I run into the same need for new, the need to be challenged, the need to believe that there's a good chance that what I'm doing could totally fail and yet I'm pushing though anyway. The need was filled by buying a 2 and a half year old gelding, and starting him under saddle. But then he got really too easy! He's so stinking easy! So I bought another horse to break, really honestly, to prove that Bear was a fluke and that I couldn't do it. Low and behold, Lola was tougher at times, but I've done it none the less. Now I have two, and that too many, there will be no third horse. So aside from quitting my day job for the highly dangerous and low paying job of breaking colts, what do I do now? I start focusing on my next goal, my next challenge, my next commitment that will leave me thinking, "Good gracious what have I gotten myself into?"

I'm short on time and energy to focus on a really big goal, but that is what inspires me. In the mean time I'm staying focused on keeping the momentum so that I'm ready. My ridiculously challenging goal for the moment, is keeping both horses worked regularly. Its tough too! I know that my next push with both of them will be getting them jumping so that as soon as show start up next spring, we'll be ready. To jump then need to be fit. To be fit they need regular and strategic work. So that is my goal for now, and it is working terribly well because it hits my procrastinator vein! If I can put off committing to jumping due to Lola's flat work needing improvement, Bear's general lack of condition from the summer, and other minor details that I can tell myself I'm working on, then I can prolong the moment of actually facing the fact that I really want to do something that I'm not terribly good at! So there is my next terrifying, stressful, and utterly motivating goal, I will jump courses bigger than two foot. I will learn to not get launched around with funky green horse mistakes. I will be a better rider, and I will become a better person in the process. That is were the motivation resides, the thrill of becoming something more than you were.

Where has the summer gone?????

2010-10-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Where do I even start? How do you recap after a 3 months hiatus from the blog world?

I think the photos say it all… the first pic is the last day before leaving the boarding place for the summer… the next is Friday just after getting their new blankets adjusted so the two would be warm and dry for the rainy weekend. Same two horses, same paddock, a whole season later!

Let’s see… I am proud to say I have a Master’s degree… and I’m ashamed to say it will be several years before I do anything with it. This is mainly because my current, completely non-major related job, offered me a promotion after I got back from finishing my school program. All these things explain my complete lack of blogs. I have managed to keep playing round with the horses though!

What else… August we spent just getting Bear back into some even remote level of fitness after his lazy summer in pasture. September I found a gal to half lease him! She has ridden a ton in the past but is just getting back into it after about five years off. He’s been a perfect fit for her! She is taking lessons on him with my dressage trainer, and it’s a great fit for me too since I can ride a couple days a week but not feel like I’m neglecting him the rest of the time. For now it’s great. So far in October he’s done a super fun poker ride, and moved back to boarding.

It seems like he grows every summer. I measured him the other day and he was just shy of 16 hands! He’s looking so much better weight wise than he was last spring too. He looks more like a real horse!

He’s been a fun treat to hop on bareback, or take around the arena for a quick ride. He’s so easy that it doesn’t take much mental or physical energy to ride him, just a treat, every time.

In other news, I volunteered as a jump judge at Woodside a couple of weekends ago, and had a blast! I hope to have both horses trained up to compete at Beginner Novice next spring that way if Lola sells before I ever compete with her, I’ll still have Bear semi-ready for the show season. It will be my first plunge into actually competing in the eventing world. I’m oh so excited!

Letters from home

2010-06-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Mom,

How is school? How are your roommates? Are you studying hard?

I'm having fun out in the pasture at gramma and grampa's house. They still have the old red mare, and she still gets too tired to run around as long as I want to, and she still squeals like and elephant to say hi. They still have the dumb brown fur thing that goes crazy with the barking and runs the fence line incessantly. I some times go poke my nose at it when it settles down to see if it has enough energy to start again, yep! It start back up with the obsessive running up and down the drive way. Its been fun.

But I do have to say that I don't like grampa ANYMORE! He was always my favorite because he'd bring interesting things out to the pasture. He seemed to thing they were parts and tools for fixing fences and stuff, but they were so much fun to pick up and carry away that I think they must have been horsie toys! Plus he'd dangle them off his belt, or leave them sticking out of his pocket then turn his back to me. I think he was offering them to me to take! I really do! But then he'd always chase me down and take them back! Not fair! Anyway, I used to love him coming out to scratch me, but now... I just don't know...

So here's what happened. You remember we took the drive to the stinky place where the lady always pokes me with needles and sends me off to la-la land for a while and this time she took the scratchy itchy thing out from behind my eye ball? Yeah, that was kind of a relief. But THEN grampa kept coming out 3 to 4 times a day to squirt gooey stuff onto the inside of my eye lid! I was NOT a fan! I hope its all over with now. My eye feels better! It really does! Then the lady from the stinky place came out to look at it again, and I didn't even get the dose of la-la land. I hope she told grampa to stop torturing me with eye goop.

I don't know if I'll ever get over this... grampa was always so much fun before... Oh look, here he comes with dinner! I like dinner! I wonder if he'll give me some scratches... I like when he gives me scratches... Gotta go!

Love and horse kisses,

Bear

This is Bear here…

2010-06-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hey guys…

This is Bear here… everyone else’s mom seems to let them take over the blog once in a while, so I told my mom it was about time that I got to say something! So with my 30 seconds of fame… while I’m standing here on my soap box… now that I’ve got a captive audience… here’s what I have to say to y’all… you gotta help me!!

My foster sis Lola… she’s GOT TO GO! I thought it was a great idea at first. I mean I totally have a thing for red mares you know. Plus she pretty much just follows me around and she’ll do whatever I tell her! It’s been totally fun.

But NOW I hear that she gets to go on some fun vacation to the beach instead of me?!?!?!? That’s just not right… her time is up. Don’t get me wrong, I like the kid and all, but seriously, stealing my vacation? Mom keeps telling me that I wouldn’t like the LONG trailer ride down there. I don’t know what she’s talking about, I LOVE trailer rides! I get to rock out back there creating all sorts of good drum beats on the floor, on the walls, on the divider, even the top when I stretch up and reach it! It’s a blast! I try to entertain her when we stop at traffic lights with the new rhythm I made up. I don’t know why she doesn’t tell me how good a drummer I am… I rock!

So anyway, while Lola gets to go to have the cool ocean breezes all day long, and long gallops on the beach, I have to roast in the NorCal sun. Hmmfff… So here’s my plan, I will take it upon myself to find her a new home! Now it has to be a good one, hear? I do really like the girl, and I want the best for her. Plus I’d really like to be able to see her at some of the shows next year… you know say a friendly hello… catch up on how our winters went… kick her plain red butt in a friendly competition! He he he…

Yep, let’s send her off… I’ll take carrots, oats, apples, and pretty much anything else you want to offer that I can either eat or pick up with my teethies and toss around my pen! My mom might think she’s getting money for my sis, but I know all that is going straight into feed and goodies and giving me new things to destroy.

Well that's all I've got for now... I think its about time for me to kick my bucket around for a bit.

Pretty much everything revolves around Lola... hope he's not getting a complex

2010-06-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

So Lola is for sale, which means I don't feel like I can even skip a day of her schedule. So again, all the action is on her blog. Check it out though! And if any of you know of anyone who wants a fun little eventing prospect, she'll be a blast! I just want to make sure its the right home! I'll even make this easy... http://mytrainingproject.blogspot.com/

Plus there is an awesome little incident with Bear from last weekend's post... craziest thing I've ever had happen to me on the trail! EVER! If I've been riding since 4... that makes just about 24 years of riding trails, most of those being in northern California, and I've NEVER had this happen to me!

Now you're curious, huh? Go look! But then come back and read more about Bear...

So we had a really good ride tonight. He's so SO different from Lola. Body-wise he's much narrower, so its different to sit on him. He's not that much taller, but he sure feels it. He carries himself very differently, and he'll have a whole different set of challenges to learn to really be on the bit. Although he's greener than her in some ways, he's got a personality (and we have a longer relationship) that makes him very easy to just pick him up once a week and still feel like we're getting somewhere. He's physically less mature than her, but he's so naturally athletic that in some ways they're even, in someways he's better, and in someways he's never going to be a long hard journey to be as good as her. Its been a fun experiment to ride the two of them back to back on my lesson days. I try to apply the same lesson on him, only to find that it doesn't really apply! Its either too advanced because I need to introduce steps 1, 2, and 3 first, or its focusing on something that is not a weakness of his, so I don't need to use the creative steps to get to the goal. Its funny. It does give me the chance to put to action the equitation corrections that I've been hearing for the previous hour, and THAT always helps our ride. It gives me a lesson plan to work with so I don't go crazy trying to do too much in one ride. Its been fun.

He's been a blast on the trail lately. We've been going just about once a week, so he's getting slowly put back into shape. He didn't even break a sweat tonight, and I gave him a pretty solid 40 minute ride, so its not like he's outrageously out of shape. But I always think its important to start the conditioning at the walk. So he's been getting nice long walks on the trail. We've got some really good ups and downs to build muscle, and lots of steps and rocks to teach him to be careful and think about where he's putting his feet. Last Saturday we added in some trot and canter to our ride too. He's so happy and relaxed about all of it, its great. He was pretty tired by the end of a 2 hour ride though!

So that the fun we've been up to. I've got high hopes for him next fall! It will be a lot of fun to focus just on him again. He's come a long ways this spring, and he did it without consistent time under saddle. I really think that giving him the spring off was actually a good thing, not intentional, but good none the less. He's come back into work a much more balanced and steady horse than he was last fall. Its amazing what physical maturity can do for a four year old! I'm ok with the time he had off of training because now that I'm starting to push him, he's much more capable to step up to the plate.

The sad thing is that he had just lost so much weight at the last place. He's starting to look a little better, but its been a month already, and he's still got a little bit of ribs showing. I keep telling myself that once he's back up to weight, it will be easier to maintain, and that its just the process of getting him there that makes it feel like he's eating twice as much as the rest of the horses. I think the problem is that Lola eats twice as fast as him and so he gets less food. Starting last week he's getting his supplements separately, so I think just that will make a visible difference. They get three hay meals a day (plus I feed the "sloppy" mix when I'm out there), so I can't ask for much more!

The summer plan for him is 6 weeks of pasture vacation with the old mare. He'll get grass all day, plus hay morning and night in a separate pen where he can take his precious time eating! He's such a silly boy, I can't figure out if he just likes to savor his food, or if he gets too easily distracted. I can give the two horses the same amount of their "sloppy" in two separate tubs and watch Lola finish before Bear makes the halfway point. Crazy. He will have spread it twice as far as Lola though! If he were human, he'd be the kid that painted the dining room table with his spaghetti sauce instead of eating. I love my silly boy.

I feel good that he'll be fat and happy when I get back. I feel really confident now that I can pick up lessons with him in August and have him ready to hit a couple shows before the winter weather hits. That is if I'm back to one horse by then.... I can only hope. I'm exhausted just thinking about still having two horses this fall!

Managing to have fun with two horses!

2010-05-11T22:57:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday I had a friend come out to the ride with me on the trails at the lake! I figured since she was coming out, I would have her test ride Lola since she needs to have some experience of other people on her back. Then I sort of thought, why not have her just ride her once we got out to the trails too? So I got to ride Bear! A nice treat since I'm used to giving him up since I sort of consider him the safe bet. At this point she's come so far that she's probably the nicer ride now!

We had a blast! Much more challenging trail than I had planned, but they both did well. We even convinced them to go into the lake up to their knees! So fun, and I've already booked another friend to come out this Saturday! If I could spend at least one day a week on the trail between now and when I sell Lola, I will count this whole working to keep up two horses thing as worth it!

Tonight we had another good "post lesson" ride. I cantered him, which was a blast because its the thing that he's so good at and I have to work harder with Lola with that (but then again she stops on a dime...) They all have their strengths and weaknesses.... Anyway, it was fun, and I'm exhausted, so it must be time for bed.

Two big new flashes:

His feet seem to be too big for the "most awesome and too damn expensive" easy boot slip on's that I bought him last fall. Grrr.... He did fine on the trail though without them.

I can't see his ribs anymore!!! I realized today, that although I can still feel them, I can't see his ribs! Amazing what two weeks will do! He'll be a whole new horse in another two weeks. He doesn't seem to have any problems with the fact that he's not in pasture... Although now that I think about it, he did buck some good ones on the lunge line... So I'll start over... With regular turn out in the huge outdoor arena where he can play and be silly like he would in pasture, I don't see any drawbacks to having him in a large paddock instead. Let's hope he stays a happy, healthy, sane, fattened up, and un-injured horse for awhile!

Ok, so I'm too excited not to brag...

2010-05-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

The dressage schooling show that I went to on Sunday posted the scores today. I got high score of the day!!! Unbelievable! Little ol' me on a mare that I've trained, at her first dressage show, and, get this, MY first dressage show! Ok, so there wasn't a huge turn out of people. But still... I am just blown away, and super proud.

So none of this has anything to do with Bear, and yet has everything to do with Bear. I have so much more confidence and motivation to start getting him out to some shows once I'm back from the summer.

Plus its a huge personal victory.

I'll go back to being humble now...

First real ride in AGES...

2010-05-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight started with my lesson on Lola... (You can see the full description on her blog http://mytrainingproject.blogspot.com/ which might help since I don't want to run through it twice!) I'll be doing Tuesday night lessons with her until she sells, and since its a night I don't see my boyfriend anyway, I have the time to ride Bear afterward. This worked out great tonight since I could take all the exercises I had just been working on with Lola and apply them to where Bear is in his training.

So here's where he's at now:

He's come out of pasture in great shape. His canter looks awesome on the lunge line, nice and uphill and light.

He's focused and responsive to what I'm asking while lunging. He's getting back into the swing of things with the side reins.

The only rides I've done on him for the last two months have been bareback, so we just did circles, steering, little yielding shoulders or haunches, and picking up the trot for 5 to 10 steps then coming back down to the walk.

Here's where he was at this time last year:

Working well at walk, trot, and canter.

Accepting the contact, although never really on the bit.

Usually heavy on the forehand and rushing forward a bit. Needing work on tempo.

If I really held him together, we could for a do steady and reasonably balanced walk, trot, canter on a 20 meter circle with changes in direction from circle to straight.

Tonight:

He really got the concept of accepting the contact and maintaining a bend.

By the end we were able to do a walk-trot-walk transition that was balanced, with a bend to the inside, and with acceptance of the bit.

His tempo is great.

He is happy to be worked again, and it was a total light bulb turning on sort of night!

How it came together:

So we started out with small circles to ask for a lot of bend and encourage him to make contact with the outside rein and then even reach down for the bit. (Again, Lola's blog has got the scoop.) He wasn't really getting it. He was trying, but only succeeding in stiffly turning his head in. I awarded some near success by changing direction or walking off to another part of the arena, then tried again and again. Still not much.

Next we started the never ending trot circle. This is something that we did in the very first lesson with Lola. Focusing on tempo and rhythm and maintaining a steady contact even when they are resisting. He did that a ton... giraffe trotting around like I'm tearing at his face. I kept up the patiently keeping a light but steady contact no matter where he put his head, and he started, just a little to accept it. Still no bend, still no reaching for the bit. Again I rewarded the tiniest effort, but no real break through.

Back to walk circle exercise, and FLASH! The light bulb goes on. He suddenly gets round in his neck, bends both directions when asked, maintained a slight bend along the straight parts, AND started stretching his nose to the ground when I fed out the reins while pushing him along with my legs. What a difference!

So we tried it at the trot to the left. Start him bending and push him into the trot while keeping that bend. Magic! He's suddenly trotting so much better! Unbelievable difference from the resistance before. I even sort of thought it was a fluke. Like he was better on his left, and it was his right that caused the problem. So back to the right, and he was just as a amazing! He just plain got it. Of course he's not perfectly steady about the contact, and once he got it both directions so well I was so floored that I hopped off and gave him a big hug! He's taken the big step of understanding what I'm asking, now we just need the time to build up the consistency.

I'm really looking forward to getting him back into training mode. As much as I love Lola, somehow Bear is just more of my type of horse. I just feel better on him, which is good, since he's the one I'm keeping! I am going to make the most out of my lessons by applying the week's homework to both horses, and I really think he'll catch up to her in no time.

It felt so good to really be back at it.

Oh good boy Bear!!!

2010-05-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly but surely getting Bear back into the swing of things. I hopped on him bareback on Friday, just because I had so little time. I had turned him out in the big arena to run around and buck while I lunged Lola. She didn't get ridden because we were going to have back to back shows this weekend. So then I let her go and threw a bridle on him and hopped on with the bareback pad. He was great. We worked on lots of big circles, and then small circles, keeping a bend. We worked on walk halt transitions, since he's pretending to forget this one, he stops, just not perfectly. It doesn't help that I'm comparing him to Lola who has stopped on a dime since the day I got on her!

Then today after the show with Lola, I got Bear out to work. I threw the western saddle on him since we'll be starting up teaching my boyfriend how to work and ride him, and we'll be going out for lots of trail rides with friends now that the weather is awesome. Once I had it all cinched down, I realized there was not clearance at his withers! The saddle just doesn't fit anymore! Its so frustrating because this is the saddle I broke him in! It should fit! Why doesn't it fit? He lost so much weight at the other boarding place... I haven't had it on him since January when I was using him to pony Lola. Then he started loosing weight because it was a cold hard winter, but he never gained it back despite 15 acres of green spring grass. Hopefully we're back on our way to being up to weight.

I lunged him in the saddle anyway, but he twisted and kicked out with front and back feet when he picked up the canter like it was pinching him. He got over it quick, so I don't think it was all that bad. Still, once I finished lunging him with the sided reins I took the saddle off and threw it on the fence and got on bareback instead. He's such a good boy. We did lots of walk work, circles, halts, moving his shoulders or haunches around, then halts. We even did some little walk-jog-walk transitions, keeping it really slow so that I didn't get bounced right off! I want him to be very cautious about his rider being secure on his back when my boyfriend gets on him, so bareback is a good warm up for that.

Watching him canter on the lunge line makes me realize how much he's matured since last spring. He's so light and graceful on the lunge line! I just love watching him!

Still most of the big new is over on Lola's blog. We had our first dressage show today! Video and everything! Check it out. http://mytrainingproject.blogspot.com I'm just beaming I'm so proud! Now that I've broken into the world of dressage shows (or I should say small community of local dressage schooling shows) I feel a whole lot more confident about getting out there and doing it! I hope to have Bear doing Training level tests this fall once I'm back from the summer.

I succeeded in working two horses tonight!

2010-04-26T21:23:00.001-07:00

I didn't actually ride him... just lunged. I let him out to charge and buck in the arena, then called him over and lunged him. Perfectly relaxed and controlled walk-trot-canter. He's so funny. He'd just been galloping around calling for Lola, but the moment I put him to work he's Mr. Manners. I love my boy.

So then I lunged him over some trot poles since we now have an arena that I can leave trot poles in! YEAH! (I haven't seen a western saddle yet.) Then I lunged him over a little bitty cross bar, maybe six 10 inches, maybe more like 8 actually. He was nice and relaxed and cantered over it right in stride. So we did it three times and called it a day! A good start. Then I had to get going with Lola, but at least he got out. I'm determined to get him going again so that I can launch into his training full swing the moment I find Lola a home or at least a rider to lease to. I'll be deciding on a price (tricky thing that is) and listing her this week. The longer I keep her the harder it will be to let her go, so its gotta happen soon.

Rain is coming in again tonight... so it will be a couple days before I can be out in the big arena again. I'm looking forward to having poles to work him through some low gymnastics. This summer we'll be focusing on dressage, with hopes of competing next fall. So as far as jumping goes, we'll just be doing poles and gymnastics to get him to learn to put his feet where they need to go and develop some muscle from picking up his feet. I am so excited to have a big arena to do it in, with lots of cavelettis, blocks, and short jump standards.

So far I LOVE the new barn!

Officially moved...

2010-04-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

I am feeling so much better. I found an awesome place to board just 5 minutes from work. Its quite a bit more expensive, but I will actually be saving a ton in gas.

They've got a dressage arena, a big outdoor arena with jumps, a round pen that is big enough that I can have something small and safe for beginner riders, and in indoor arena that is at least big enough to lunge in and keep working through the bad weather. They'll be in a large pen. So no more grazing out in pasture, but that pasture was going to turn to dry weeds soon anyway.

So I am looking forward to the new place! I am only 4 miles from the staging area for some of the most amazing trails in northern California. Literally access to 100 miles of awesome trails, I'm so excited.

I guess thats the first good news on the spotty appy front for awhile! Should be back to work soon.

The straw that broke the camel's back...

2010-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Bear is hurt again. Now this is just getting ridiculous! Pretty much I haven't been on him since mid February for one thing or another. Its not any one serious thing, but a bunch of little things that I'd rather give him a few days off for, but they're back to back. What an insane spring. He's had soft heels so wet and squishy I was afraid he'd bruise or split them, a cough, a banged up front leg bump and cut, and a heel bulb ripped open (partly due to being too wet again). I wasn't out there for a week solid. Lots of overtime at work, then a few days get away to recover from a crazy four months at the office. I got out on Sunday to take Lola to a little show only to find she had some cuts on her left hind leg and swelling from mid cannon bone down. Not terrible, and not lame, but not going to a horse show! So I clean her up, baby her, and I head out to get Bear to ride instead. Guess what, he's even worse off!

His hock over all was the size of a small melon, with lots of swelling down to his hoof. Once I cleaned it up I found a puncture wound on the side of his hock. Since I haven't been out there all week I don't know how long they had been injured. Could have been a week, could have been two days... long enough to be infected! I was SO frustrated. He also has a pretty big cut on his front forearm and lots of bite marks across his back. After cold hosing the leg for a while, the scab came away and it started to drain some, which is probably good. Bear is now on anti-biotics and cold hosing for the week. The two horses are in a large pen for the time being, and I'm spending this week figuring out a game plan.

I'm guessing its not just a coincidence they are both hurt at the same time. Something happened. I don't know what, and I never get a straight story from anyone out there. No one noticed that my horses we're hurt, even with what I think is obvious swelling. They're being flexible about allowing me to have the horses in a small private pasture while I deal with this, but I can't ask them to help feed the meds because I don't trust it will happen. So I'm going out at 5am to do it before work! I love having Bear out where he can run, but he's managing to hurt himself pretty regularly out there, plus they don't check the pasture horses for wounds, plus they keep changing the herd and stirring up trouble, plus I just plain don't trust them anymore. Its time to move.

Bear has never lost his slight rib showing rangy look out there, and he's been mildly hurt for ages. So I'll be telling them the situation is not working out for my horse, and that's that. No point in telling them I think they're horse care sucks, I don't want to make enemies in a small vengeful horse community, and I've got a feeling they'll figure it out themselves as people start fleeing with their horses.

I felt like the situation was too good to be true when I moved there, and it was. I've found another place that seems like it has what I need. He'll be in a paddock, which I'm not sure about, but with pasture turnout every other day. I have May and June, then I'll be gone for 6 weeks and I think it would be best for him to be back in my parents' pasture then. So I guess if I don't like the place after two months, I'll just take him home for the summer, and figure out a new place from there.

I'll be going out a second time to the new potential place after the rain to see how the property handled it, and to ask all the questions I forgot to ask the first time. I'm trying to be thorough with my questions without seeming like I'm badgering them or subjecting them to a job interview, but thats what it is. Wish me luck!

I'm a drama mama...

2010-03-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe his foot wasn't as bad as all that. I scrubbed it up again yesterday and it was already all dry and scabbed over. It doesn't seem to bother him a lick. I'm still waiting to work him until I'm absolutely sure that I won't be busting open a scab or anthing like that. Ugh... I hate blood. If its bleeding I'm pretty convinced its dire! Guess I was over reacting a bit. It still ruined my Sunday trail ride plans... :(

Rain, rain, and more rain. I don't remember California ever having this much rain. I guess its good since I want the spring grass to last as long as possible, and its normally dried up by the end of April! So I'll put up with it. It does mean I may not see the out doors again for a week. It sounds like its back to the indoor for me! That's alright for Bear though since it does have the softest footing, and once his heel looks good, that's were we'll be working until its 100%.

Ho hum has now become RAARRRR!!!!

2010-03-28T15:51:00.001-07:00

So I hauled the project mare out for a lesson today, and had the afternoon all planned for Bear. I had chatted with one of the girls at the barn that has a huge thoroughbred that she jumps, and we agreed to take them out for a trail ride on Sunday afternoon.

I get Lola back, feed her a sloppy, pull Bear out of the pasture, tie him up, walk away to get the grooming kit, and when I get back I notice he has some very black mud on his left front heel. I was hoping it was just very black mud. But no, it was blood mud. He has completely shredded his heel bulb! Now the banged up shin was really nothing. He wasn't lame, just hot and swollen. This is something. Still he's not lame, and its nothing that can get stiched up or bandaged, so I just have to wait it out, but shoot, if I didn't have a project horse I would never ride!

So I at least put the time to good use. I recruited the help of the barn owner's nephew who works around there, and we got all the poles in the arena so now I have something to use at trot poles and make some little cross bars out of. Then we got really creative and started hauling poles and logs out in the pasture for a bit of a cross country course! Yeah! So we have a little cross rail, a brush jump, two huge logs, and a skinny wall (one that about half as wide as a regular jump). So now at least we have some fun to look forward to. But Bear and I have a lot of homework to do before then, and his beat up legs are helping the situation!

Ho hum...

2010-03-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

So the vet visit went fine, he got his sheath cleaned and the vet pointed out two spots on his pink skin that I need to watch. Darn pink skin. She didn't think much of the lumps, and they've gone down since. We talked about his feet and skin, and he got his shots. Totally uneventful.

So I got back into the swing of things this last week. We had a great ride in the indoor arena on Monday, on Tuesday I through on his western saddle, rigged up a sort of draw rein fixture to lunge in, but then put on running shoes and took him for a run out in the pasture. Creativity is the only way I get things done these days. I need to get back into running which I can't do at lunch break if I don't have time to TAKE a lunch break! So I got a workout and he got the equivalent of trotting with side reins, just on a straight line and with a little more give than regular side reins would allow for if he tripped on the uneven surface... which he did. Then I hopped on and rode back in. He felt great.

Now we get to the "Ho hum..." part! Wednesday I was off doing my thing as usual. Thursday I pull him out of the pasture and his front leg is hot and swollen! You've gotta be kidding me! He seems to have caught his leg on something. He's all scabbed up there, but not lame. I have been hosing it and medicating and watching it. So he's not done a thing. What a silly beast.

Seriously I think I need to keep him in a bubble from now on!

Taking action

2010-03-16T22:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I said another offhand remark to my boyfriend about the pasture horses being fed last and the blankets not being put on. He tends to take a "Let me fix it" approach when I'm more looking for a "Let me whine and complain" reception. But last night his fix it approach got me realizing that I want things to be better magically. I want them to get better because I'm unhappy. I express my unhappiness to all the people that can't make the situation better. I need to take action. I need to step up and say something each time I'm not happy, and either the problem gets fixed or I move my horses. Simple as that. I jokingly told him that if I told the barn owners that I was moving the horses it would be because my boyfriend just can't handle any more of my complaining about the place!

I also realized I can regret and feel guilt until the cows come home, but until I took action and actually got back into the swing of things with Bear nothing would change. So I did. He has an appointment with the vet on Saturday. Check the neck swelling, check his teeth, clean his sheath. The second two are working towards making sure that other stuff is not working against us in the effort to get him in good show condition. The teeth are obvious thing to check since he's still showing just the slightest ribs despite spring grass. The sheath cleaning is the less obvious. It seems to be the solution to his tail rubbing! Being an appy he is pink down yonder, and the pink skin tends to have more issues. So despite my best efforts to keep up with it, I think he's in need of some cleaning up higher in his nether regions, because the tail started to go bare again a few weeks back.

I will also take full advantage of my $150-$300 visit to ask every question I've ever wondered about him. Itchy skin, supplements, feet, sleep patterns, you name it, I've got concerns about it!

Other part of taking action. I spent time with him first tonight! Not as much time as with Lola, but he got the precious outdoors daylight hour. I lunged him out in his pasture for 5 minutes solid trotting or cantering each way. I was trying to get him out of breath. It didn't work, he just got lazy. No coughing though, so that is great news. Then I climbed up on the gate so that I could get on him bareback and we walked all around, and even jogged a bit. He felt great. It never ceases to amaze me how cautious he is to just barely jog every so slowly for me when I'm on bareback, but under saddle he launches into a speed that could challenge a trotter! He is a fantastic horse. My goal with him is to make sure he's back into shape before I sell Lola so that I can launch straight into a training regimen with him. Nothing relieves the absence of a sold horse better than a steady training schedule with another.

Poor neglected Bear...

2010-03-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

So I've been realizing just how much I have been neglecting Bear's training lately. I thought I'd have time for two horses, but Lola takes the priority since I'll never sell her if I never train her well enough that I can have people try her out successfully! Although its does seem like lately there is something or other with him that worries about working him anyway.

He had the scratches (grease heel) out break which is at least not spreading, but the scabs are huge and nasty. The same wetness also made his heels so soft that I was afraid to work him.

Then I took him out and lunged him and noticed he coughed twice, seemed odd. I rode him bareback, put him away, and didn't think of it again until I had my sister come out to ride with me and he coughed again. Bad news. For the next week I would go out to the pasture and trot him a few circles, he'd cough, I'd decide not to work him. I'd check his temp, he'd be fine and he'd gobble down his "sloppy". On Thursday I ran huge circles around the pasture trotting him as fast as I could until I had to stop and double over to catch my breath. No cough. Lunge him a little in the arena on Saturday, no cough. Lunged him tonight, walk trot canter, enough that I would imagine I he'd at least be breathing hard. One single cough, but wasn't breathing hard at all. I would hope that means he's back.

Saturday I notice he has two swollen golf ball-like lumps on his throat. (NOT strangles! Everyone relax!) Of course I didn't relax, I called the emergency vet line and made the vet talk me out of my "freak out" diagnosis. Worried about the neck swelling... what's next?

I think I am going to try to work in a vet appointment this week, Saturday I can't work out an after work appointment. He's got balding patches and he's constantly cut up, so I'm guessing he has some major itchy skin going on. I was reading into all the possible "itchy skin" issues, and many referred to secondary injuries and infections due to "self mutilation". Yep, that would fit Bear, he loves a good smack, and I guess if I'm not out there to smack him one, he'll just find a post to cut, bruise, and mutilate himself on! Seriously, I'm selling the wrong horse... but I don't think I could part with him. I'm just hoping this is a horse version of nasty teenage acne!!

Boarding barn blues... or maybe I should say horse mom rage!

2010-03-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

So when I first made the choice to board I knew this day would come, the day I realized what the rest of you have been complaining about! I always hear people who are frustrated that their horses don't get the type of treatment they want them to get. It comes down to the boarders having a higher expectation of the level of care that should be given than the barn is giving. Any horse that I have actually owned, has been kept at my parents' place. That means that all the time I was off in college and then off exploring the world, I rode in many kinds of barns, with many kinds of problems, but never owned a horse there. In eash situation someone else had to be the horse's advocate in the age old battle of owner versus caretaker. So I realize now that when I moved back to the area and threw a horse into my parents' pasture that they were taking exceptional care to follow my desires for his upkeep. They took way better care of him, they didn't get paid for it, they had to deal with him at his brattiest 2 to 3 phase, and they did it because they know what good horse care standards are (and maybe because they didn't want to see my full wrath!)

I've been fighting the battle of getting the boarding facility to blanket/unblanket consistently, and the only consistent thing this winter has been that I feel like I must be being unreasonable. I thought it would be a given that if I paid for blanketing services on a horse pastured out where he won't be warm and sheltered, that it would mean that the blanket would come off in the morning, go on at night, and stay on for rain and other circumstances. The circumstances seem to be everyday. If the blankets are off, they want to leave them off because its not that cold at night, if the blankets are on, they always have reason to leave them on. I was asked if I'd like to blanket at night since I was out almost every night. "Sure!" I said. I figured that I'd at least make sure they got on right. But then the next week I had almost no time to get out to the barn and found myself making extra trips out just to blanket, only to find out that they had never taken them off that day! Then I start finding that the buckles have been take off wrong, straps put on wrong, blankets on the ground in the mud. Worst of all I found back leg straps still hooked in the back and crossed through eachother just as if the horse stepped out of the blanket. How does a horse step out of a blanket? It happens if you take a blanket off in a way that when the horse spooks the blanket flies off while still strapped to the legs. Do you have a good mental picture of that? Let me help. My lovely long legged 4 year old has all buckles undone but the ones around his legs, runs off through the pasture dropping the blanket off the side, spooks the other horses into a stampede with his winter blanket dragging along, now underneath him, tripping him until he finally stomps it to the ground freeing himself of it. Now maybe that didn't happen that way, but its the picture stuck in my head.

Now March comes, the sun comes out, they say it seems like nice enough weather, so why don't they refund the blanketing fee from my board that I've just paid. I'd been insisting on the blankets coming off in the day because Bear had shoulder rubs, so I took this as a hint that they'd had enough. But they are being super nice, saying they feel bad having me pay when its going to be such nice weather and never necessary to blanket. So I agree, since I don't think they'll do it anyway, so why pay, and they agree that they'll still blanket once or twice if its bad weather or rains. Literally the cold came back in two days. Raining, and storming and back in the 30s at night. I was the one to put the blanket on, I don't think they took it off, fine, whatever, at least its on. I mentioned to them that its really cold, that Bear has a cough suddenly, that I'm going to put it back on. I go out tonight, its not on. Its in the low 40s. It's an issue. I'm not afraid of being assertive, but I'm afraid of passive aggresive retaliation if I piss them off. It's like living in constant fear that your food has been spit. Imagine you've had to ask for a clean glass, remind the waitress you have no silverware, get up to tell the hostess you can't find your waitress so maybe they could do something about the hair in your butter, then you have to send back the plate becasue its not what you ordered, then again to be cooked all the way through. By the end you're so afraid that they hate you and they've done terrible things to your food that you don't even want to eat it. None of it was your fault, but you're at their mercy. That's how I feel with the service at the barn.

Well that's my rant, I guess this has been building over two months, so I needed to get it off my chest. I'm not sure what I can do since I know this place is the only one that has all I need to train with this good of a price. If we can make it past blanketing season I'm sure I'll have no other reasons to be pissed off. At least I hope... I'm afraid the blanketing issue is a sign of an overall lack of horse care at the place. I'm worried. Tonight I'm really in the ranting mood because when I went out to ride tonight there was no power in the barn! Nothing. Who knows what's going on, maybe wiring issues. But seriously if I hear they got their power cut off for not paying the bills, I'm looking for another place to board!

Where the heck did February go?

2010-03-04T21:10:00.000-08:00

Wow... what a month! I wish I could say I was so busy riding my handsome horse that I just didn't have time to post, but I was busy with other stuff, stuff that pays the bills if you get my drift.

Highlights and lows of the fastest 28 days of the year... (I swear it flies by every time!)

Good: Bear was ridden by another girl out in the barn! Great to have some one else on him.
Bad: Bear has scratches, ie: super grunge skin condition from too wet conditions.
Good: He stood quietly while I scrubbed up his ankles, dried them, and clipped them.
Bad: I suck with the clippers, and it sort of looks like what a 4 year old does to their bangs when they get a hold of scissors.
Good: The nasty scabby grunge hasn't come back.
Bad: His coronet band (peripole I think?) is so wet and squishy all the way around that its starting to separate from his hoof and I'm really concerned about his feet.
Good: I've been tying him in the barn while I ride Lola so that his feet dry out at least for an hour, and low and behold, the boy doesn't act like godzilla hooked to a tie rail anymore. Or at least not as much.
Bad: He's got blanket rubs on his shoulders again this year!
Good: I swapped the horses blankets and since it fits differently they are getting better not worse! Phew...
Bad: Weather has been terrible! So I don't get out to the barn because I can't face trudging out to the pasture to find the horses in the storm.
Good: He LOVES being in this big open pasture, and the herd seems to get along, and he can run and play and eat all the grass he can yank out of the ground.
Bad: I haven't been riding him much at all. The other horse takes priority because I bought her as a training project, and that means a certain level of commitment to make it happen.
Good: I found a summer schooling show series that I'm excited about taking him to! I need a goal to get motivated, he needs to get out and about in inexpensive ways this summer so that if and when I can really start showing him I'm not wasting my show fees getting him (and me) over show nerves!

That's a brief run down of our month. More bad weather sadly, but soon an extra hour at night will help motivate me to get out there with enough time to work both horses!

Two hours and counting…

2010-01-26T18:34:00.000-08:00

So I’m shocked every time I leave the barn and realize that I’ve been there for hours, literally at least two hours pass, and I feel like I have about twenty minutes of work accomplished. I think my frustration stems from the fact that I’m looking at it from my work-minded productivity stand point, and I keep thinking of how I can cut back on unnecessary things, streamline the workflow to ultimate efficiency, and get the most out of my time at the barn. Then my mindset while at the barn is total relaxation, do what I want for as long as I want because this is my zen time. So I guess I’m trying to find a happy medium.

Some things should be allowed to take as long as I am inspired to do them. Training can’t always be planned to the last minute, sometimes you’re on a roll, sometimes you’re working through something. I do need to limit myself how many different things I’ll try to work on in one night, for example I will lunge to warm up, then either lunge with side-reins OR lunge of poles, not both or I’m lunging too long for by time frame and the horse’s attention span. Grooming is another thing that I never think was a waste of time, especially during the spring, if I’m motivated to groom for an hour, I better take advantage of that inspiration, because I’m sure they need it!

Other things just seem like time suckers, and productivity goes down the drain. Running back and forth to the tack room is always the first place I start going wrong. I am trying to have a plan of what I’m doing and what I’ll need and grab it all before getting the horses so that it is sitting out and organized. The one I’m really struggling with is getting the horses from pasture. I don’t notice the time going by because for the most part I don’t mind the walk out there, but I timed myself this week and it took me 18 minutes one night to get ONE horse from pasture! Crazy! It was the worst case scenario, and was so pitiful that it warrants the story being told.

The weather has been so awful. The pasture had four inches of water/mud, the kind that really suctions off your rain boots, so walking is tough. Then part of the pasture has turned into a lake, and there is a stream that’s formed across the pasture that is 6-10 feet wide. So I go out to get Lola and of course my two horse end up being a the farthest end of the pasture, past the stream! So I slowly start making my way through the water, hoping it didn’t get too deep. I picked what looked like the shallowest part and it still made it to within a few inches of the tops of my rain boots, so maybe 10 inches deep! Ugh! So I halter her, and it starts to pour on us, so I start the long trudge back, splashing through puddles and dragging my feet out of sucking mud holes, while getting bucketed on from above. It takes ages to walk through that mess! (Add to this the fact that I forgot to blanket Lola before putting her back out and didn’t realize until I was all the way at the gate and had to turn back around for the barn, and you can imagine how much I was dreaming of having them in stalls!) I can’t wait for the rain to stop!

I do have to remember that by the time I leave at night, no matter how late, I’m in a better mood, and I’m less stressed than when I left work. That’s the whole point of it now isn’t it?

A little fun in a week of amazingly bad weather

2010-01-26T00:09:00.000-08:00

What a crazy week. Monday night was one of those lost causes, nothing went as planned. Two and half hours at the barn, and all I really did was lunge in a halter. Should have taken 20 minutes right? Not when I’m waiting for the horses eat at the barn since they’re missing dinner outside, and when a certain appy-butt gelding doesn’t believe my promise of food at the barn and refuses to be caught, and when I’m unexpectedly cold hosing the leg of a certain mare that I had planned on riding!

The good thing is that I did get to meet my tack room neighbor; she has a HUGE standardbred and a thoroughbred, both off their breed specific tracks. It’s good to get to know people so that I’ll have someone to go on trail rides with!

Bear did great lunging, his canter is already much stronger than two weeks ago. He is comfortable cantering on the lunge in there, and we trotted over some cones that I had laid down on their sides. (I had to get really creative! I’m bringing the trot poles over this week.)

Tuesday night I checked on Miss Big Leg and things went so terribly wrong getting out there, and it was raining so hard that I was drenched by the time I found them in the pasture. So I gave up and went home for food and warm dry clothes.

Bear has been getting slightly more attention towards the end of the week. Friday and Saturday he got lunged and I hopped on with the bareback pad. He’s so comfy bareback, he’s got a good back for it! I still use the pad because I feel like my butt bones would poke him. He’s so good about it! Every time I get on him bareback I think, “This is the day… the day he dumps me…” Real positive, I know. But he stands still while I climb on, and he jogs along so smoothly if I trot a bit, he really doesn’t get that he could take advantage of getting me off balance, I love that! Also I think doing some bareback is really helping him pay attention to my body asking him to turn. He felt awesome tonight, just right where I wanted him each step. I kind of like this new game, keeps things fresh.

When I lunged Friday I put the side reins on after warming up a bit. His canter is good and strong on the lunge line now, but I didn’t canter him with the side reins because I had them on the bareback pad and that’s not really designed for that! I was lazy and cheating on tacking up, and it worked just fine for some trot-walk transitions.

Saturday when I lunged I put some trot poles down (YEAH! I finally took them out there!) and he got to pick up his little feetsies. I slightly raised one end of each pole with the raised side being left on first pole, right on second, and so on. This created the visual guide of a lower center to encourage him to trot straight down the middle, and it raised the poles just enough to really make him pick his feet up and pay attention. He trotted through like a champ, nice and relaxed but with good cadence and stride. Then I rearranged things to have a tiny cross-rail jump. Tiny in height at least. He trotted that a couple times and thought it was no big deal, but did have a hard time picking the middle of the jump. He got it after a few tries, so much easier to jump the lowest part! So I asked him to canter of the little X a couple times and called it good. I want it to be easy and interesting, I want him to enjoy jumping!

The rain broke for Saturday, but it sounds like it’ll be back on and off all week. LAME! I want to go out on a non-muddy trail ride, and the way things look now I feel like even with out more rain it won’t dry out until March! Oh, winter… I guess that’s why he’s at boarding school with the indoor arena!

Working on the same old trick…

2010-01-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

I am anxious to finally start progressing with Bear. I have been repeating the same lesson since last April because I haven’t been consistent enough! In May he was a super star, way beyond my expectations. He was balanced and responsive at the walk, trot, and canter even on a circle. Then he had three months off. September we started again, and by October he was pretty comfortable trotting again. Then he had November and December with hardly any work. So we’re back to balancing. He’s got forward, that’s good! But then he just gets more forward and starts falling forward. This make his feet quicken to catch up, and takes away all hopes of steering since his shoulders are just trying to keep everyone upright, and he starts diving in on the circles to catch his balance.

So we’re back to the same exercise. Walk-whoa every half to quarter of a circle, then trot-walk every half circle. By the end he’s anticipating the downward transition and holds himself upright more in order to be prepared to stop. He has a more collected gait, he is carrying more weight in the back, and he is listening. I forget how simple the fixes can be when you break it down to a simple exercise that the horse can feel confident in doing well, and something that doesn’t get me over-thinking and screwing it all up!

I had my mom ride Bear for the first time tonight, and just had her do the same thing with him. It worked so well. It gave them something simple to concentrate on, and kept him balanced and working well for her. It was a huge success for him to do so well with another rider on his back. For the next few months while I have this project horse he’ll have quite a few other people riding him since I’ll be on the mare, so I really want them to be safe and for him to still have a positive step forward in his training each time. So tonight was a good sign.

A little picture of Bear being so patient while helping train his new friend.

Now if he would just stop eating things off shelves at the tie rail… wait, now that’s asking way too much!

Nature vs. Nurture

2010-01-14T22:27:00.001-08:00

Bear is Bear, what can I say. I love him to death, but now comparing some of his manners to the new horse, I can’t help but wondering, have I created a monster?

Nature vs. Nurture is debated in the human psychology fields depending on the realm and which philosophies they follow. Nature versus Nurture asks if there are certain behaviors in humans that a created by the environment that the individual was exposed to (nurture) or are they innately predisposed to those behaviors through genetics (nature). Let’s take a serial killer for a very general (and extreme) example, is this outrageously unacceptable behavior because of poor nurturing, say from severe neglect and abuse as a child? Was this killer naturally wired wrong and this behavior is a reflection of his mind not working?

The answer most often is both. Sometimes in extreme cases of mental illness the social behaviors are never quite right regardless of the best nurturing. Sometime the most neglected child can grow up to break the cycle and become something completely removed from the violence and chaos they thought was normal for so long. There are exceptions on either side of the spectrum, but most cases have a little of both. If mom had a history of mental illness and dad had a history of violence, both of those factors are surely going have an effect on the child and later his chances of being a successful adult.

So now we get back to Bear. What behaviors are there because is, after all, only four years old and seems to have a natural curiosity about what things are and how they would fit in his mouth? What behaviors are there because I haven’t been consistent enough in laying down the lines of what is expected of him?

Example: Lola ties quietly, occasionally paws, but can be trusted to stand tied alone. Bear dances, paws, puts his head down and gets the lead rope over it, bites, chews, eats his lead rope, eats anything around him: tack, blankets reins, his neighbor… you get the point. He has to be supervised! The tie rail at boarding school is chaos for Bear. I have to tie him super short or he’ll stick is head under it. He started clearing off the shelves while I tied the other horse. He’s a menace! Why? I tied him in the arena so he wouldn’t destroy things and he started playing a game by moving the gate back and forth, sticking his head through slots as far as he could. Plus more dancing, pawing, and neighing.

Here’s the even worse problem: this is exactly the same issue with trailering him. With standing tied I can at least discipline him (although I think he secretly loves being smacked) or I could hobble him while tied to quit the pawing. But what the heck do I do in the trailer. He gets bored and creates entertainment for himself! I tried feeding him while trailering, but he stuck his foot in the feeder on a regular basis.

His naughtiness is such a nuisance. In fact I think either of those would have been great names for him! Will it ever go away? Or is this is personality? He is a work in progress though, I guess I just need to remind myself that some changes will only come with training and maturity, and look back at all the success we have had.

Doing better already

2010-01-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

I guess every horse is bound to have his bad day, and I was certainly not my most patient when I went out on Saturday, but Monday when I went out was a 100% better.

Everything about him was better, tacking was much easier, and he was sort of back to himself. I lunged him a bit, and then put his side reins on and spent the rest of the time dividing my attention between him and a phone call. He did really well lunging off just my body position since I stopped talking to him, and then we just walked around on a loose rein since I was still on the phone. Not the ideal situation, but I got out there late and when your boyfriend calls from out of the county you can’t just say that you’ll call back once you’ve spent enough quality time with your horse!

I tied him up and went to get the new project horse out of pasture and we did a quick training session to teach Bear to start ponying Lola. To start with I just walked between them to lead them together, then looped her lead around the horn as a pulley and lead him on his left and let her get ponied like she would. Bear still turns and looks at her every so often like he just doesn’t get it, but I’ve ponied the old mare from him so many times I think he’ll get the hang of it quick, it’s more the adjustment to it being a new mare.

He seems to love the pasture at “boarding school” and he had totally buddied up to Lola already. So I am super happy with the situation so far.

Like stepping back in time...

2010-01-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

So I got out to boarding school yesterday to ride Bear and I was not pleased with the day. We made the most of it, but it was like I was riding Bear from a whole year ago, fresh and all over the place.

I got him out of pasture just after three girls had pulled a few other horses out to ride, one being the alpha mare of the pasture. Apparently Bear has a big crush on her, because he was simply beside himself when he saw her in the barn! He likes the mean ones that kick!

He was anxious while I tacked up, he was anxious and wouldn't listen while leading around, and so the plan to just hop on and trail ride around the ranch was shot. I felt like I better take him in the arena since he was so hot, and it was pretty wet out. There was already one of the girls in there, and the other two came in just after. Four horses in a small indoor is a whole lot of distraction. Bear never calmed down. There was no option to lunge while sharing the only place dry enough to lunge, so I just made the most of it. I just walked and worked on lots and lots of turns, walking pirouettes, turning on the forehand, stopping, and backing, I tried a little trot but he was just sticky, trotting too fast then dumping on his shoulder and walking, and it was not going to work to try and pushing him forward with three other horses trying to run barrel patterns! So I decided we'd try outside now that he was more focused.

I hopped off and lead him around outside a bit, and he got all hot and anxious again. I finally got on, and did some more turns and circles outside in a grassy area by the trailers, then finally walked out to one of the fields that hasn't been fenced off yet. We trotted some since now we could just focus on going forward in an open space and he relaxed a bit finally. My back has been killing me for about two weeks now, so I couldn't really do much. (Add to that that Bear yanked me forward when a horse bit him while I was pulling him out of pasture, and my back was awful by the time I was done.) So I was crabby and in pain, and mainly just really disappointed that he's regressed so much.

He's in a new place that he's still getting acclimated to (he's only come out of the pasture twice now), and has no training routine going, so all this is my fault and the fix is simple: consistent work. That's the plan for him being there! I just have to follow through now. I'll be taking the new mare out to join him at boarding school today, so I should be able to get out to ride the two most nights after work. I'm thinking I may wait until more like 6:30 or 7 so that they won't miss dinner in pasture and so that the indoor arena will clear out. I have no idea what the riding traffic looks like on a week night but I would assume its the worst right after work. Since I need to lunge and do other things with the new mare (like ground driving) that requires the arena to myself I may end up working horses at 9pm in order to have the place to myself!

A new friend...

2010-01-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

Its official, I have a training project. Now Bear is going to have to share my time and attention. It should be fun! If you want to see what the fun is all about:

http://mytrainingproject.blogspot.com/

She's a cutie! It will be a great experience trying all this again with another horse with a totally different disposition and body type.

Bear will still be getting way more work than usual though since I'll be determined to get out to the barn to ride the new girl (consistent work is more than just good training, its a safety thing) and with the lights I will end up staying until both horses are done.

They won't meet until next weekend since he's off at boarding school and I took her to my parent's property for this first week. Hope they get along!

Bear is off to Boarding School!

2010-01-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

I was pretty impressed with my dad for coming up with the oh so cute label for Bear's new home. He's just at boarding school! Adorable, and fairly accurate. He's not in training there, but I will finally have the facility to get cracking on his training myself. I am very excited to see some progress this spring.

I trailered him out this afternoon, it was later than I wanted, but I at least got him there a half hour before dark so he could meet the new pasture mates and figure out the fence line. He was high as a kite when I got him out of the trailer, prancing and snorting and spooking at blanketed horses. When we put him out to pasture he prance straight out to the middle of the herd and arched his neck and stuck his tail straight out! I so wish I had taken a video camera out! I don't think I've ever seen him move so beautifully! He sure is gorgeous when he tries!

I threw his blanket on him once the all settled down to eat. He was warm, but not wet with sweat, so that was good. I spent the last two weeks switching his feed so that he'd be ready for a new program, so he should be good there. He's already made a friend in the pasture and figured out which mare is to be given space at all times! I think it will be great.

I still need to move my tack in and clean up the various piles of horsey items around my parents' house, then the move will be official. I'm so looking forward to riding after work in a covered arena!

One last ride with the old mare

2009-12-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

I think I'll be moving Bear out to the boarding place this weekend. I have one last check to do, and some paperwork before hauling him over there. It will be nice to have an arena to work in finally. So since I've had some holiday time off work we spent Tuesday taking one last ride out on the back roads. I started out riding the old mare and ponying Bear and then switch horses for the ride back. He's such a good boy! Even though I haven't been on him for ages and he was super hyper getting out of the wet mud pasture for the first time in weeks, he was still a good boy once we got going.

We also tried out the new Easyboot Epics I bought. Once we got a replacement for the one he broke playing in the pasture, I've been pleased. He walked perfectly comfortably on the gravels and rock roads, and since I was riding next to him, I could really watch his foot fall in them. So far I think they're great! I just couldn't get used to the muffled thwap-thwap noise that his boots made instead of the tap-tap of his hard hooves.

Its a little bittersweet to be leaving. The old mare will be alone again and she's been such a trooper helping to train Bear. I just finally got her tuned up and into shape again, and although I'd love to use her with this new project horse, she's not going to be convenient to get to. We'll see.

To board or not to board

2009-12-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

So I have been toying the idea of moving Bear for a long time. He is perfectly happy living in pasture with the old mare, but I want to have access to an arena without having to trailer out. It’s worked great so far to have him at my parents, but I think they're getting sick of having another horse to bother with. He has kept the old mare company which was the idea in the first place. Then I was trailering out to take that colt starting class in the indoor arena once a week all last
year and it was only a few miles from the house. While that was great experience for him to load up and trailer somewhere every week, I’m getting sick of always hitching and unhitching the trailer EVERY time I want to get some training done with him! The pasture is too wet to ride in most of the winter, so that means the only option is to take a walk down the back roads, but I’m so bored with them now, and I can only walk. Good for stretching the legs, but not much of a workout.

I had moved to a place where I could board Bear on the property, but decided in the end not to stay there since I changed jobs and the commute was awful! (Plus the trails that seemed close weren’t accessible unless I hauled him out the mile down the busy highway, and
the arena sucked!) So what seemed perfect to start with, didn’t work out. Now I’m looking at boarding for the first time in my life in order to have access to all the stuff that I want to train and ride.

I think I’ve found the place. It’s a good price. In fact it’s such a good price that I’m still looking for the catch! I called to ask some questions today and the guy seems really nice, which is a huge relief, because I really thought that would be the first big deal breaker. Its
pretty rural area, and out the opposite direction of civilization, so it is cheaper than what I’m used to seeing around the area I currently have Bear. But the place is only about 8 miles from where I’ll be living this spring. So I think that is manageable to drive out to see the horse, especially if it means I can go out in the evenings after work and know that I can ride after dark. (Only catch there would be finding him in a 15 acres pasture after dark! But right now he comes
when he’s called; I’ll just have to REALLY positively reinforce him coming to my whistle!)

The place seems perfect. I’ve always heard horror stories about trying barn after barn before finding the right place. I’m not taking a trainer into account, since I can’t afford to board at the caliber of place where I plan to take lessons. So what I want is a good safe facility, without drama, just good care. I’ve heard those are hard to find, and I’m looking for all the problems in advance. The guy mentioned they’ve only been there 4 months and have done a ton of
improvements, with more to come. I hope he’s not biting off more than he can chew. I googled the address and found that it had been for lease, so they must not own the property, but I can’t see that being a huge problem. There were also two other training business names that came up for that address, so the property seems to have a high turnover rate. Should I be wondering why?

Here are the good things that are drawing me to the place:
-It’s a 93 acres property, so plenty of riding on site, plus 5,000
acres across the street that is accessible for riding!
-There is a hunter/jumper barn 3 miles down the road, and a dressage trainer next door.
-Big outdoor arena, and they should be getting all weather footing and jumps.
-Indoor arena (He says its small, but I get the impression its at least the size of a full dressage court. It has lights and rain coverage, so anything bigger than a round pen will do!
-They have pasture board. I really think part of Bear’s easy going personality is that he gets to run off his excessive energy. I think he would be bored and irritable in a stall.
-They offer blanketing service even for horses in pasture for just a little bit more.
-They have no time limits for riding!!! I would love to be able to stay out there late to ride after work, and its nice to not have someone giving you stink eye for not leaving by 9pm!
-They live on the property, and one of them is there pretty much all the time. Plus they have a lesson and training business so I can feel better that they actually know what they’re doing with horses.

Negatives:

-It is WAY far out there. Its close to home, but nothing else. It will never be just on the way, and it will always be the opposite direction when I’m heading out.
-If I want to be more selective about a trainer, it could be a 45 minute to an hour haul.
-It is in an area that I’m totally unfamiliar with, so all my favorite trails will be too far away, and I’ll have to find new places to explore. That and I’ll be hard pressed to find a hill!
-A huge pasture like that with so many horses could end up a being a problem. Right now I think Bear would really like it. He loves interaction with other horses, and this would give him the room to really run. He might turn out to be the pasture pest though.
-It’s a lease, and they sound like they are still just getting started up with their business. If they flop, I’ll be looking for another home for the beast. It’s not a huge deal since I always have my parent’s property to fall back on, and I’ll be looking at moving him again in two years anyways, so it’s not a permanent move.

I’ll be going to see it sometime soon, so I’ll get a better idea then. I’m really excited about it though! We’ll see how I feel after seeing it!

Lot's of fun stuff, not much riding...

2009-12-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

The weather is making life tough... so much for California's mild winters.

Just after the last post, I did a 5k run the weekend before Thanksgiving and I probably shouldn't have because I felt like I was getting a cold and it was FREEZING out there! Alright, maybe just above freezing, but way colder weather than I chose to run in. I did it anyway, and ended up with laryngitis, I was miserable with no voice for the trip to Portland for Thanksgiving, and then I got a sinus infection in time to have an extraordinarily painful flight home. All in all I spent about two weeks feeling too sick to do much with the horses.

Its been a frustrating week since then too. On Saturday I had the shoer come out and trim Bear's feet and he talked me into buying boots for his front feet since I don't really want to put shoes on him. They're the type that are kind of like sneakers for horses that you can just put on for trail riding. I'd been thinking about it for awhile, and these are used a bunch in endurance right now, so I figure they must be good. So he tells me to just put the boots on and just turn him out to let him get used to them. I'd like to tell everyone now, if you've just spent 90 bucks on boots, don't let your horse play in them! He ran around a bit, and it seemed fine, and the shoer says, "See what I told you, there great!" And I figure if he can be bucking and spinning in the pasture, they MUST really be great. So I pay him, he leaves and then I go out to take off the boots only to realize that I have no idea how to get them off! The shoer kept taking them off and it seemed easy, but I hadn't tried it myself, and nothing seemed to be working for me! They are the kind that are really form fitted to the hoof, so they are tight and sort of suction on. I think I just don't have the strength in my hands like he did. So I go in to think about it and look for a screw driver (he mentioned you could kind of pry them off) and Bear gets to running around again. So I go out, and sure enough, he rips one boot off while I'm out there, but the leg wrap that goes around the ankle is still attached! So he's continuing to gallop around with his boot dragging off his ankle. UGH! I get him stopped, and undo the Velcro wrap part and he's torn the upper Velcro part halfway off the boot! It didn't last 30 minutes! So I'm frustrated because I had wanted to ride down the gravel road with them on Sunday to test them out, AND now Bear has ONE boot on, and I still haven't figured out how to get it off! I finally pried it off with a screwdriver, called the shoer (who came back and fixed the boot the next day), and hoped the drama was done for the day, but no. I came back out to say a quick hello to him that afternoon, and found his nose looking like this...

I swear it looked nastier in person! I was all freaked out by it! Only thing can thing I can think is that he got it caught on the fence some how. Maybe harassing the dog? He likes to nip at the German Shepard through the fence and make her crazy.

Then Sunday the saga continued. It started with the weather reports saying it would snow that night. It never snows here, so we hardly believed it, but I pulled a blanket out for the old mare anyway. Normally we blanket Bear and just let the old mare grow a heavy winter coat. They get put in a pen with shelter anytime it rains, and its usually 30 degrees at the worst during the winter, so she's fine. Since the reports said 20's and snow, we figured we better be prepared. So Sunday morning I pull out an old blanket to try on her. Now Bear wears a blanket all winter long, and never had an issue with the blanket going on for the first time. But the moment he turned around and saw that the bay mare was now a light blue color and made a rustling noise when she walked, his head shot up in the air and he started prancing and snorting around. They were separated while eating, so he couldn't get up close to smell her. So he ends up getting the old mare worked up with his spooking, and she started running around, which spooked him more! So he ends up slipping and falling on his side! Stupid horse! So I let the old mare down to the pasture with him, he sniffs her and keeps harassing her like she's a new horse now that she has a blanket on, and she finally gets fed up and just lays into him! Double barrel kick to the ribs! So I take off both blankets and get him to trot around to see if he had hurt himself. He looked a little stiff, and how wouldn't? But not lame. So I got little bits of video since my camera was still in my coat pocket. Silly boy just awkwardly hops over the logs in the way! Turn down the sound since I'm not tech savvy enough to mute it! (The camera clicks weirdly.)

REALLY short and not too interesting, I know. He was more interested in me holding the camera, and kept coming back to check it out. You can see he needs a younger playmate since the old mare doesn't buy into the need to gallop around the pasture 10 times a day despite his best efforts to get her to join in! Then they second one is a tiny bit more interesting... a fun half spin and one more pass over the logs! And if you didn't turn your sound off for the first time, you'll get more weird clicking AND me yelling at the dog!

So Sunday I couldn't ride in the morning as planned since we were waiting on the boot to be repaired, but I did sneak in a short ride Sunday afternoon to try them out. They're all fixed, and we did a walk, trot, canter test under saddle in the pasture, and they seem great! I can't wait to hit the rocky trails I've been avoiding! AND I figured out I can pry them off really easily with a hoof pick, so I'm happier.

Then Monday morning, despite all our doubts, we woke up to snow! My corgi Piper LOVED it. She ran around eating it! So cute that I couldn't resist putting a picture up! It wasn't much snow, but the surprising part was that the snow stuck for the next couple days! We never have snow! My boyfriends house got 8 inches and it stuck until Thursday! So between the snow during the week and the solid downpour of rain this weekend, Bear hasn't done anything, he hasn't even had his blanket off during the day. So he'll be glad for a break in the rain Monday when he'll get his blanket off and get back out to the pasture. Then hopefully we'll get out to do something this coming weekend. Like try to boots out again!

Too much update all at once...

2009-11-17T18:18:00.000-08:00

Only a month ago I had nothing to report, and now I have so much to say but no time to actually post!

Bear is awesome! We’ve had a couple of huge events pass, first time hauling out alone to a new (and spooky) arena, first time with a different person on his back, and that person was my absolute beginner rider boyfriend! He’s been a super good sport with everything! Bear, I mean, although the BF is great with this all too, Bear is the one that is surprising me with his patience and good-natured attitude.

First of all, I’ve figured out that although I can’t drag myself out of bed in the mornings to run, I can convince myself to get up and ride. So the last two weeks I’ve dragged myself out before light to hop on for a little bit at least twice during the week. We have a short and sweet training session, and call it good. A half hour on his back is better than nothing at all! I’ve also been lunging him over the trot poles, and a little log in the pasture. It’s kind of a precursor to starting jumping later next spring, but mainly because it’ll help strengthen his body since I don’t have the time to do long conditioning rides. I also hoped on bareback a couple times, mainly to make the half-hour more of a work out for me, but also to save time saddling. We are pretty much just walking though, we are not ready to do much else bareback yet, so I take the time to practice turns and circles.

So two weeks ago, I hauled him out to an arena that offers a monthly haul-in fee to use the facility. It’s a huge indoor arena (so I can ride when it rains), a dressage court, and a smaller warm-up arena with some jumps. It’s not far, and it will be very useful when its too wet to ride in the pasture and I’m forced to haul out just to have anywhere to move faster than a walk. So we were just trying it out to see. We were there alone, it was way past dark, and a totally new place, so Bear was high as a kite to start out. I figured he would be, so we just worked through it. The indoor arena has stall on both sides, one side the open stall fronts face into the arena across and isle, but on the other side it’s the solid backs of stalls that make up the wall. That wall also has the huge full wall mirrors on a quarter of the length. Bear had never seen anything like this, and coupled with the fact that he could hear and smell horses right behind the mirror while seeing his reflection in it made for some pretty humorous reactions! We lunged for a good half hour since it was cold and I wanted to give him some good walk warm up time, and THEN get his kicks out, plus we haven’t have a chance to lunge for awhile, so its still good to work on strengthening his canter in good footing like that. By the time I got on he was happy and relaxed, but pretty hot from lunging (mainly from the prancing caused by the mirror) so we did mostly walk work, mixed with only short spurts of trotting, to dry him off. He was great. Plus by the end he LOVED the mirror, he didn’t want to leave it! He was like a parrot gazing into the mirror. That’s the great thing about him, he is way more curious than he is spooky.

Then last Sunday, I took Bear and the old mare out to the easy trails for the much anticipated “Boyfriend’s First Ride”! I taught him how to groom and tack up, and then how to get on the old mare, and off safely, then finally put him on Bear! Yikes! He is an absolute beginner, one time on a guided trail ride kind of rider, so I had no idea what to expect. He is, however, very athletic, and naturally good at everything he does! (Although I’m super jealous as well, the fact that he’s turning out to be a natural rider makes my life of teaching him on a 3 ½ year old horse a LOT easier.) We started out just ponying him off the old mare, and worked on lots of exercises in the saddle. Then we jogged a little since I can keep Bear really collected next to the old mare, then even moved out to a nice trot to teach the BF to post! They both did amazingly well. Bear didn’t mind at all having a newbie on his back. They were both so relaxed and comfortable, that I let Bear off the lead and let the BF learn to turn and stop him. We worked on some small circles out in a grassy clearing, and taught him out to back. I couldn’t believe Bear was so calm and patient, he’s clearly going to be a great match for the beginner BF, which is great because it will allow me to ride another green training project later on without having to worry about the two of them. I was SO proud of Bear, all the work I’ve done on him totally showed.

Then Saturday we tried a lunge line lesson. Bear lunges really well, but he’s a bit out of practice since I don’t really do much lunging in the uneven pasture, more just trotting him over poles with walking the other (downhill) half the circle. So I lunged him to warm up, and had the BF learn to lunge a little too. Then he hopped on Bear and off we go! I really need to think of good exercises for the rider while lunging, I know I’ve done a ton, but darned if I can remember them now! We were mainly working on him learning to post the trot anyway. Lots of “Stand up in the stirrups, and let all your weight sink down into your heels… Good! Now stay that way!” He was great, and Bear did even better, nice and calm. He broke into a canter once, but he smoothly came back down. Over all it was a great learning experience for them both. Plus it was a huge work out for Bear to trot circles with the weight of the rider in the deep sand.

So he got the day off Sunday, while I worked on setting up some tiny cross country jumps and poles out in the pasture. Some for cantering over, and some for trying some trail stuff: side passing and the like. I even constructed a sort of bridge! The pasture is full of stuff to keep the training fresh and interesting. The funny thing is that the poles are in the way when Bear gets to running around and playing, so mainly he is jumping things while running around! By the time we get to actually riding over them he’ll have jumped everything out there a hundred times! Its fun to see him play, he’s so athletic the way he changes lead and turns so easily; I really think he’ll make a super fun jumper.

My horse is awesome!

Back in the saddle... but making bad choices

2009-10-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well, we did it... we got back in the saddle! Well first we got back into the bareback...

Saturday I was determined to ride, but didn't have much time since I was at a church thing until 4:30. So I hopped on the old mare bareback knowing that Bear would run around the pasture and get his kicks out. It works great really. He charges around and bucks, plays, and jumps over the logs that are out there, and generally gives himself a good workout, and as long as he doesn't get to frisky next to us, he's allowed to let loose, because he's quite literally loose! So once he was all warmed up, I pulled him into the round pen and let the mare go. I threw a bridle on and worked him from the ground just a little, bending, moving his haunches and his shoulders, then set in up next to the fence and got on. This was actually the first time I'd been on without the bareback pad, so I was worried my butt bones would poke his back to much, but he didn't react to that at all. We just did some easy turns and halts and then opened the gate and backed out, all pretty snazzy! Then we walked around the pasture and over the logs. His only problem was that he was a little reluctant to go down to the lower pasture and thus out of sight from the old mare. So we went down anyway, did a couple more things down there, and then I hopped off for the day. Over all really good! Especially since I was daring to get on him bareback after three weeks of not even seeing him!

So after our success on Saturday, I got a little too cocky on Sunday. I take all the blame for the frustrating ride we had, I did not really set us up for success. I wanted to ride out from the property, and didn't want to pony the old mare, so I took Bear alone. We've done this before, but its been ages, and he was used to being taken places without the old mare. But with the summer off, he hadn't been out of her sight since early May. So he was that annoying zig zagging horse that is always thinking about home instead of forward. I pushed him forward into a trot a couple times just to get the forward, and he knocked off the zig zagging. Then we get to the gate and I start to ask him to side up next to it, something we've done hundreds of times, with this gate and others, and he starts to have a little tantrum! Let's just say that he got very light in the front!!! He didn't rear, but his front feet weren't fully on the ground either! NAUGHTY!!! So he got to practice trotting around in tiny circles in front of the gate! Then I hopped off and he got to practice going through that gate properly from the ground. After side passing, pivoting and standing quietly at the gate, I got back on and continued riding like nothing had happened.

He was good for a while, but then I had yet another error in judgement! I took him down the tiny trails instead of sticking to the back roads that we know so well. He got nervous and started rushing everything. I let him go along at a loose rein, as long as he didn't break into a trot, hoping that he would regulate his walk himself. He didn't and when I finally paused to really look at the trail, he started throwing a bit of a tantrum again, and started hollering to the mare! Now, we're probably 4 miles away from the mare now, he can't hear her! But he was feeling nervous and frustrated and obviously all my neglect has taken a toll on my alpha horse status! So we happened to be in a spot on the trail that is maybe 5 feet wide and 20 feet long, so I start circling him, and trotting him up and down the length stopping and turn him at the ends, and eventually I stop in the middle and stand on a loose rein. The moment he starts walking off, dancing around, or other wise being crabby I start again. At some points he slid off the side of the flat spot, or tried running up the bank on the other side, all of which threw him off balance and make him work harder to keep his feet under him. If he hollered to the mare again, I'd back him, just to get his attention back. I thought it would only take 5 minutes, it took WAY longer. At then end of sweat dripping eternity, he stood stock still for a whole minute, and I simply got off, took off his bridle and led him graze a few feet away.

Then we started to walk back! These are tricky little trails, and I shouldn't have even been on them. So I made the first good decision of the day, and walked. His issues were not stopping or turning or having me on him, his issue was listening to me and trusting me, and that is something that we can work on from the ground just as well as on top, better on the ground in this case. He had to walk next to me, not ahead, and he had to fall in behind me on the really narrow trails. He wasn't allowed to push past me, pass me on the other side, and if he pushed into me or stepped on my heels, he got a lead rope swat or some sort of thump to the chest for invading my space. Back to learning to lead! I got turned around and we ended up on tiny deer trails, not the actual trail, but we made it out. Once back at the road I put the bridle on and hopped back on. He was very forward now. So we just started the simple pattern of each time he broke into a jog, we'd stop, back a few steps and then carry one on a loose rein. He caught on quick. Funny thing was he was not dead set on going straight home! We all know that horses know the shortest route to home or the trailer, and a barn sour horse will suddenly quicken its pace at the exact halfway mark of a loop like they know they've just begun to head home! He usually is slower going home, like he's sad the adventures over. So although he was being quick, he still wanted to take all the detours like he usually does! Silly boy... so at one point we had a grassy stretch, not heading towards home, but another detour off the road. So I asked him to trot, and allowed him to go into a lope, and for that stretch let him open up and really move out. At the end of the stretch was a fence, so an easy enforcer, but he stopped very nicely when I said whoa, and we went back to walking! Again, if I had even thought of cantering the crabby old mare when she was having a barn sour day she would have pranced, poured sweat and shook her head all the way home! So I have to acknowledge the positives that he was still listening to what I was saying, going forward, stopping, and keeping at a walk.

The problem was that I had created an idea in my head that wasn't realistic for him, and therefor felt like a frustrating failure every step of the way. Overall it was a frustrating ride, but not a detrimental one. Despite the fact that the problems that had to be addressed had been created out of poor judgement, I think we probably accomplished quite a bit in the course of the ride. I don't think that I left him traumatized, I don't think he was left thinking tantrums we're ok either. Its a fine line when you're doing a battle of the wills. At some point you make it worse by creating a battle out of nothing, but some behaviours can't be tolerated. Nervousness is alright, dancing about and considering walking around on two feet is not! But at the end of the ride he was responsive enough to open and close the gate to the pasture, and he was dry. I figure if a horse has had enough time to dry, they've probably relaxed enough to call it stopping on a positive note!

No time for the poor pony!

2009-10-23T15:27:00.000-07:00

Oh, poor and neglected Bear… so right after my last post I trailer Bear out to the really easy trail, and did the “pony him off the old mare then switch and pony her off him” trick. It’s working better and better! He is getting used to her being in a different position, it really frustrated him to have her back by his flank for awhile. We even trotted down the trail a bit and he settled into a nice relaxed trot on a loose rein. Such an nice treat. We also got out to the arena and had a very productive workout both on the lunge and under saddle. We’re starting to get the hang of half-halts to rebalance his trot, but after all this time off and sporadic work his canter is very weak and off balance. He just needs to get into shape again.

That was at the end of September. Then the first Monday in October I started a new job, spent most of my free time doing wedding stuff for a friend, and then spent over a week house sitting. So I have hardly even seen Bear!

Winter is coming, and with that all sorts of new needs to meet. I feel pretty good about his feed and keeping his weight up better than last year, but I still need to figure out a couple things. Firstly I blanketed him last year, and with that blanket he hardly grew any hair. He’s out in pasture full time, but has a shelter to get into so he doesn’t absolutely need to blanket for rain protection. I mainly blanketed to keep the heavy winter coat off since I was working him at nights and wanted to make sure he’d dry easily if he really got worked into a sweat.

Advantages:
~He was almost always clean except his neck and legs, which were covered in mud because he lies down and rolls often.
~He grew very little hair and looked sleek and pretty and never got lathered up from work.
~He is naturally a lean athletic horse and I think the blanket helped keep weight on him.

Disadvantages:
~The extra time and hassle to un-blanket and then re-blanket during the days (as long as it was warm and dry enough).
~He is VERY hard on blankets. His blanket from last year was fixed twice and when he broke it a third time in early spring it got retired to emergency blanket status.
~His shoulders got rubbed.
~He runs around and plays a lot, and blankets, despite being for turnouts, are not designed to be galloped in.

So this year I haven’t started to blanket yet, and it’s starting to get pretty cold at night. So far he is not fuzzy, at least not like the old mare. I’m curious to see what kind of winter coat he would get, but I’m afraid it won’t be much. I think I may have convinced myself to start blanketing again, I just need to see what I can do to address some of the problems.

Secondly, I need to figure out a riding schedule. I don’t have the night classes in the indoor with him until January, I work too far away now to ride at lunch, and pretty soon it will be dark by the time I get home. I am looking for places that let you haul in to use their indoor at nights, but that gets costly on a regular basis, so maybe just finding a trainer that will give after work lessons which I am willing to spend money on. I am seriously considering setting up lights at home, but the pasture is not as flat and safe as arena footing. Night trail rides (in safe, level, non-cougar places of course) would be a good challenge, but really I shouldn’t do that alone.

Thirdly, which really ties right into secondly, I will get out to ride more often if I could take my boyfriend along. The old mare is crotchety and set in her ways, so she’s not actually the best beginner’s horse. She is well trained with me on her, and I feel confident that she’ll do anything I need, but she puts up an attitude when my mom rides her. She also can get very anxious and prance on the trail when we turn towards home. SO in many ways she can make herself a frustrating horse to ride. That leaves three and a half year old Bear as the better beginner option. Of course that seems silly, which is why I haven’t actually made this happen yet! I had been hoping to have my sister get on him first since she’s more of an intermediate rider, but she’s pregnant and not allowed on horses. So eventually I will make Bear and the boyfriend into riding buddies, but I think they are both going to find it boring because of all the safety limits I put on them! To start out they won’t be allowed off of the lunge line or lead rope (I plan to pony them down the trails). Even with these restrictions I want to make sure Bear is 100% mentally and physically back into working mode. (Having a beginner bounce around on his back will be easier if he’s got a strong back and a balanced trot.)

So I have a whole lot to think about! Well I hope to be back on the boy in the next few days

"Ugh!" Seems to be the theme

2009-09-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

This post is from Sunday actually, I'm been writing, I'm just behind in posting.

Ugh… that’s the best way to describe life right now… ugh. Lots of good things, but what a roller coaster!

I will be starting a new job next week which will not be nearly as flexible on taking off early to go ride, and is too far away to ride on lunch breaks. So for the next month or so, I’ll still have daylight to ride after work, but once winter hits I’m going to be riding by the light of two measly flood-lights on stands, or only on weekends. Ugh…

I have fallen way behind on my reconditioning training plan, and can’t even remember what I’ve done since the last blog… ugh! So here are some highlights in no particular order: ridden him with a bareback pad at least 4 times now, lunged at least 4 times, been out on the back roads with both him and the old mare (ponied him, then switched and ponied her back), trot poles about three times. All of this is going great considering his age and the total inconsistency that has been our training regime lately. He does have suspicions that mini-donkeys might just be tiny creatures from hell, but at least they’re not llamas!! Of course the llamas didn’t move or stare him down the last time we passed by them, so he didn’t even bat an eye at them.

So today it was hot when I rode, yesterday was hot and although I didn’t get to ride I was still out working in the sun, and Friday when I last rode it was hot! UGH! I am done with the summer heat, REALLY! So today with the heat and the physical and emotional exhaustion from all the other UGHs in my life that I won’t bother going in to, I had a tantrum while riding Bear. I had a tantrum, I’ll admit it. It was dumb, and based on completely unfair expectations from a horse that puts up with all my crap, and still trots up to me in the pasture. Basically I was crabby that he wasn’t acting like an old broke horse, which he’s not. I didn’t come unglued and beat on him or anything! I just got frustrated and fed-up, which is not the attitude for handling a young horse with limited training. I think of all the times I’ve seen him buck in pasture, and I remind myself why I want things to be positive in our training. I’ve ridden sour horses that explode when they get frustrated, and I know that if I screw Bear up and make him into a sour cranky horse, I would have a snowball’s chance in hell of staying on.

Let me be clear here, HE did not have a tantrum, just me. HE was being a green horse that is out of shape and looking for the easy route. He was in general wanting to go back up the hill to the old mare, the place for untacking, dinner, and all other good things in life, but its irritating to ride a horse that is only thinking about going up the hill, and I was getting crankier and crankier, until finally I just roared at him and hopped off! Here’s what we were doing: pick up the trot, go over the trot poles, collect the trot a few strides, halt, turn around and do it again. It’s a simple exercise and the idea was to work on getting him a bit more balanced. We had started out with walk-halt transitions and he had been doing great! He was really stopping off my seat, which was the whole point since I really wanted to work on half-halts, and he was moving out at a nice walk. So we did a few trot to walk transitions using the half-halts, and again good, but that’s when he started veering in the general direction of the hill each time we trotted. So we start the trot poles and first he veers around them, which of course is him being lazy and me not thinking ahead, but added to my crankiness. Then we crossed back over and he just sort of blew threw the half halt and rushed forward falling on the forehand and throwing his head in the air when I really sat down and made him stop, and then he wouldn’t even have the decency to turn around. I think this is about where the roar happened. So I leap off of him, and make him move his shoulders away in a sort of turn of the haunches way, I run down the line of poles with him trotting along side me, I slam on the breaks and stop after the poles, and turn him around and do it again. He followed me step for step, and stopped on a dime each time. So I laugh at myself a little, because he’s being so patient with me, and when I hop back on he does it perfect, like “Oh, is this what you want mom? Why didn’t you say so!”

We did it a few more times and he still rushed a little bit trotting the poles the other direction. It must be sloping down a little going back that direction, or it was still that he was thinking about the hill… but whatever. He could do it perfectly going towards the driveway, so I figured I better quit before got snippy with him again for innocent mistakes. Overall, he was getting the exercise, good trot departure a couple strides before the poles, nice big pushing strides over the three poles, half-halt and sit a couple strides to collect him, then halt. Lots up of down transitions while keeping that forward energy.

Tomorrow he gets his feet trimmed so he’ll get a break, but that means that Tuesday I will probably trailer out for a ride in the arena for the soft footing just to play it safe. So that will be the third training ride in a row. I’ve been trying to go every other with trail riding for just some easy conditioning, so hopefully the fun of trailering somewhere will make up for all work and no play lately.

Since we've been back

2009-08-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Second week back
(Really I’m on week four now, so this will be a quick catch up.
The second week back we were still focusing on walking for the most part, but trying to through in some more challenging stuff, and a few changes.)

I started out by lunging, walk, trot, and even a little canter to see that he was sound and happy and still capable of listening to me. But then were went back to walk mode.

Started working on line driving again.

We did lots more work with the tack on, and our walks down the road with the old mare were closer to an hour.

Introduced the bareback pad! I figure some people start their colts bareback, and while I had no intention of doing that, I do want him to accept being ridden bareback while he’s still young. So I figure while I’m throwing new stuff at him again I should just add this in and he’ll just take it with all the rest!

Week three back

Monday: Got on for about five minutes after working on long lines, called it good.

Wednesday: Trot work while ponying him from the old mare with the bareback pad on him, then I threw a bridle on and took him to the side of the round pen and started working on laying across his back and sliding off several times before finally throwing a leg over. He totally couldn’t have cared less!

Thursday: Rode a bit more around pasture over logs

Saturday: Ponied him from the old mare, got on bareback in round pen, ventured out into the pasture. Yeah for my new bareback horse.

Sunday: I ponied out on the back roads, swapped horses at the turn around point, and rode him most of the way back while ponying the old mare. We’ve ponied the old mare in the pasture a few times to make sure he was ok with it. It makes for a nice easy way to get on him out on the trail but still have the security blanket of another horse there. Plus by having the responsibility of the return trip he’s all warmed up and settled in. He tends to be a little excitable heading out, and slows down on the way home like he’s sad that its over. My old mare on the other hand has the bad habit of trying to rush home, so having to walk at his pace instead of plow on ahead is good for her as well. We ended up swapping again for the last stretch of road before the house because there is a chance we might actually pass cars on that part, and I’m more confident in maneuvering the two if I’m on the old mare. Bear did pretty good. We had some major llama drama (always the llamas…), but otherwise a big step forward to be on him again out and about in the world.

First week back

2009-08-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m back! I’ve been back for a while, about three weeks. However huge life changes never seem to come at convenient times and I’ve been crazy busy. We won’t go into all these said life changes, but here are the important ones to Bear, and a recap of what we were up to the first week that I got back (first week of August).

I moved! Not far, just else where. The exciting thing is that I will be able to have Bear here with me. We’ll have a barn to use (although I’m afraid he might not think much of stall life!) and an arena and we are just one mile from some of the best trails in the area! So the move will be even more exciting when I actually get Bear here, but for now he’s eating up the summer grass with the old mare, and loving life.

My schedule is weird right now, and it seems like I’m being pulled in all directions. This is part of why I haven’t moved him up here. I need a regular life in order to commit to coming home to feed twice a day, plus find time to clean and exercise the crazy boy. I realize how spoiled I’ve been. The other part is that I’ve been brining him back into working mode very slowly and strategically. It makes way more sense to start over with the familiar and expand from there then it does to move him to a new location where he is going to be nervous, lock him up in a stall for most of the day, and then expect him to act like a well behaved horse after a full 3 months off! So I avoided the urge to hop on him the very first day and take him to a show a week later… and its all paid off.

This is what we’ve been doing (mostly the same as what we did last fall, but just in brief overview format).

First day, I went out and cleaned him up and loved on him, and remembered why I love working with this horse so much: he is genuinely more interested in hanging out with me than doing just about anything else! Haltered him up, and hopped on the old mare to pony him around the pasture. Probably about 20 minutes of walking. Reminding him its not ok to chew on: the saddle, my leg, the old mare, the old mare’s tail, my reins, his reins, the lead rope, or pretty much ANYTHING else! Silly boy has to put everything in his mouth. The plus side is that he hardly ever spooks at things because he makes a bee-line for them to check it out with his lips or teeth! He constantly steals stuff from the grooming kit if I turn my back. Naughty, but he makes me laugh.

Second day, started out by setting up some new logs in the pasture. Newly cut branches mean new trail obstacles for me! Bear of course wants to help, and follows me all around to see what I’m doing, and inevitably puts himself in the exact spot I’ve decided I want the log. Such a pest. It gets even cuter when he starts mirroring me! I was pushing a log forward with my foot, but having a hard time because it was uneven and didn’t roll right. So after two or three attempts of pushing this log, getting enough momentum to roll it all the way over, Bear suddenly picks up his foot and puts it right on top of the log next to my foot, like he's saying “Is this what we’re doing today mom?” Such a silly boy. We continued with the plan of ponying him off the mare, but going over tons of logs and poles patterned across the pasture, probably worked about a half an hour.

Third day, tacked up both horses, and ponied him around the pasture for a quick warm up to see how he was listening, then took them out on the back roads. Just down the road a little ways and back, really only a half hour, but it was good to get them both off the property for the first time in ages.

That pretty much does it for week one. Walking. Why? Couple reasons:

He got his feet done that week, so I didn’t want to do much work before they were done because they should have been done before I left, so by the time I got back his toes were long. Then we waited a couple days after he was trimmed before heading out again, but still at a walk.

Also, I’m trying to make his retraining and reconditioning process really easy and positive. So we are doing interesting things that he already knows, so he is set up for success. He loves when I come out to play with him, and I want to keep it that way.

The biggest reason is that I’m being very careful of his physical condition. He’s young, with young tendons, joints, and such. Lots and LOTS of walking for long periods of time is going to strengthen all those things. If I just concentrate on developing his muscles first, he’s going to hurt himself. He had that stifle issue back in January, and the one word of warning was that these injuries can reoccur when a horse is out of condition. So for the first couple of weeks we’ve taken he’s reconditioning process in a slow, methodical and almost rehab-like manner. Better safe than sorry with a young horse, especially one you want to have sound still at 20! I figured it took me 4-5 months to get on his back when I was first training him, so its not going to happen in a few days after three months off.

He’s been very good, just silly. He’s filled out a ton this summer, and doesn’t look like the gangly youngster anymore! He looks like a real horse. He lost his next set of baby teeth, right on schedule at three and a half years! So happy "half" birthday Bear, he acts like such a mature adult that sometimes its hard to remember that he’s just a baby still. (Although week two brought such obnoxious baby behavior that I thought we were dealing with a two year old again! Nothing serious, but he did uncinch the old mare and chew up the end of the latigo while I had my back turned. He picked up the huge gallon jug of liniment that I was using to bath the old mare, and carried it away by the lid, which of course popped of after three of four good shakes, thus pouring half the bottle out before I ran over the deal with the situation. NOTE: child proof lid, does not mean horse proof! He has untied himself, taken my gloves out of my back pocket, carried away my grooming tools, and had his own reins/lead rope in his mouth more times than I can count! Cute little personality quirks quickly turned into a disaster of a horse the second week, so we’ve set about nipping this in the butt and now have higher expectations. This behavior would never be allowed if it were the old mare, or a horse I was retraining. If I picture a sale horse behaving like this in front of potential buyers, I'd picture said buyers running away from the monster as fast as they politely could! He certainly had manners when I bought him! Somehow he’s wrapped me around his little hoof. Is it because he’s my first baby, and I'm babying him? Or is it because I think of him as my forever horse, so I think I can decide what to put up with? Either way, it’s stopping right now. He oozes with personality, and he’ll have plenty of personality left over even when he starts acting like a gentleman again.

So here’s the official restart of the blog: continuing the goal to train a happy, healthy, well-behaved horse!

A new first...

2009-05-23T16:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't been riding lately. I'm terrible, but I'm so busy. That's not usually an excuse, but I will be gone for 6 weeks this summer anyway, so I'm just not in the goal setting mood when I have only four weeks left until I'm gone! So he's just getting time off out in the pasture.

Today, however, we actually went out and did something! I trailered him out to the trails by the lake. So it was an entirely new place, and I took him with out the old mare, so two firsts. The trails were quite a bit more challenging than what we've done before, and I'm supposed to be hiking to condition for Mt Shasta, so I walked him! It worked out wonderfully! He has never been forced to walk behind me like this. The trail narrow enough that I couldn't have him next to me like he's used to, so he got lead endurance style, trailing along behind. Only problem is him watching how close he's getting! So after a few sudden stops to check if he was paying attention and a couple swats to his chest to back off, he got the idea. He only stepped on the back of my shoe once! By the end of the hike he even slowed down and fell in behind me when the trail started to narrow! Good smart horse!!!

We walked down to the lake and he stuck one foot in and his nose. I didn't ask for more since he was being brave and the footing wasn't great. Most of the lower trail was right along the lake. The boats were rocketing by with screaming kids on intertubes, and Bear would just casually stop to see what the fun was all about.

He had to cross a log that was HUGE. It would have made a great jump, but not at the end of a lead rope and certainly not on a cliff trail. He was great, I drove him over it in front of me in case he jumped, but he just stepped really high, one foot at a time, with no hesitation. I was so proud.

We had one horse pass us when we were heading back, she was heading out and ended up catching up and passing again on the way back. He was curious, but otherwise just fine with the other horse leaving him behind. I just feel so SO lucky to have such a steady personality on this horse. Its so easy!

So we got some great exposure and training in. We both got a workout, and it was just a fun day!

The practical final!

2009-05-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

So over the last two semesters I've been taking Bear to a weekly class. I like it because I have a covered arena to work in and someone to scoop me up off the ground should Bear finally realize he's bigger and stronger than me! But it is a class non the less, and last week we didn't ride because we took the written final, and this Tuesday (while I was on a plane coming back from Portland) we had the practical final. Its a real class so it has real tests, but within reason since everyone is taking it for personal enrichment! So since I missed our test night with Horse Training II, I had to go to Thursday's Horse Training III class, and yes, he had me do THEIR final instead! And I KICKED BUTT! Or at least I would have if I hadn't convinced myself it was too hard... I hadn't been on him for over two weeks, and we haven't done that much work at the canter, so I had convinced myself that we couldn't do these canter circles! I totally underestimated both of us... here's the pattern.So we started at the very bottom at the cone (where I forgot to write start). The directions were: trot (to the left) two large circles, then two small circles, then pick up the canter for two large and two small circles, stop reverse, and repeat to the right. We'll stop here for comment on what actually happened! When I got in, the instructor sort of said that I didn't have to do the canter part if I didn't want to. Which set up doubt in my mind suddenly. We've been cantering circles some, and we've certainly been steering around things (like evil horses that try to attack us if we come within 20 ft of them!). BUT we've also had the dropping the shoulder and falling to the inside problem that I had just started to address at that dressage lesson. Since we've not had a chance to do the same exercizes at the canter, I didn't think he'd stay balanced enough to do the small circles. So when I was suddenly given an option to take the easy way out, I wanted to do just that. I said we'd try the canter circles as long as they didn't count against us if we didn't nail them! So going to the left we trotted two perfect large circles, and two perfect small! I was so impressed! I just kept thinking sit up and keep him going on a nice relaxed, balanced trot, not so forward that we start falling on the front! It totally worked. We picked up the canter pretty much at the cone, (wow!) and it was even the correct lead (double wow!) and he did fairly well until we came around to the side where the serpentine cones were set up. (Even when I drew this I realized the circle was hitting the cones!) We ended up on the outside of the second cone the first time, and running it over the second time! Which of course caused us to break to the trot, and get all flustered and unbalanced, and since I had just been told that I could take the easy way out I did. I trotted on more small circle and stopped at the start and called the left side done! I took a deep breath and did the it all again to the right, except this time I did it right! No running over trail obstacles, no breaking gait, just a perfect balance trot and canter for both large AND small circles! I was on cloud nine! He was so good! It was such a victory, I just wished I had been more dertimined to make it happen both directions.

From there it was easier; here's the pattern again for reference:

After the circles it was a jog serpentine through the cones, back through the L, a 360 degree pivot on the haunches both directions inside the box, over the bridge, and right hand push through the gate. I was really impressed with his cones, he just went right through them at a nice slow sitting trot. Then he's great on backing up! Super light and willing to please. We took a bit to figure out where to put his hind-end while getting around the corner of the L, but overall it was great. The box was tough because it was so tight. So while he did have a few times where he really moved his shoulders cross over his front feet there were a lot of repositioning his hind end so we could stay in the box. The bridge was fine, and we even collected for the slightest pause on top to show he was listening to me to either stop or keep going. Our go at the gate was probably our best one yet! He's so relaxed about these things! I just love it.

He's such a fun horse to work with, and I just need to start trusting that he is capable of more! Both this and the show I thought would be challenges for him, but he's taking it all in stride! I can't believe what a great horse he's turned into. This final was a great test for me to really see where he's at! He's beyond where I thought I'd have him in just 4 months under saddle. In fact he's beyond most retrain projects that I've shown in the past! They've all had anxiety issues about one thing or another! We're at a great place in training, and he doesn't need to know anything else until he's a bit older!

For now I'm looking forward to lots of trail rides and conditioning for a while. I'm totally broke, so shows and lessons will have to wait until we both can really benefit from them. He could used some consistant lunging with side-reins to help him develop the right muscles in his neck. Other than that, unless I can think of someone I could trust to ride him while I'm gone, he'll have 6 weeks off during the height of the summer, and we'll be figuring out our next step in the fall. But he's only 3 and already acting like a well broke horse. I can't really ask for anything else.

First Horse Show!

2009-04-20T08:56:00.001-07:00

We went to our first show on Saturday and Bear was a super star! He was fine when we got out of the trailer, but the longer he stood there with three people rushing around trying to do horse show things the more he fed off that energy and got VERY antsy! Once I had him tacked up and over to the warm up ring to lunge, he was back to his usual self and was behaving despite being pretty hot. He relaxed a ton after lunging, and I had no worries about getting on. He was great. It never fails that there are a hundred unsupervised kids running there horses all over the place and trying the jumps in the warm-up only to have their horse bolt off sideways into traffic. Bear saw it all and was very patient with everyone!

Bear with his head sky-high checking out the horse show world

Our first class was walk-trot Pleasure First/Second Year Showing (for the HORSE). This isn't always made clear whether the novice/green applies to the horse or the rider, but at this show that had clearly marked in the program: pleasure= 1st/2nd year showing for horse, equitation=1st/2nd year showing for the rider. But its not regulated, and as I saw the riders move out of the line up, there were most definitely 10 year olds on seasoned show horses! Oh well! I really don't care that we didn't place! Even if there had been 8 of us, I still wouldn't have placed. But I had chosen the class specifically because I thought it would be small, and there were 16 other horses in it! Overall it was a very good warm up for him. He was very hot starting at the trot, and spent most of the time looking around with his giraffe head way up in the air! We had a couple good spots where he would come back to me and actually work on the bit for a few strides, but he is still very inconsistant. Training-wise I knew we weren't ready to really be competitive at a show, but experience-wise I wanted to get him out for this challenge.

Our second class was a walk-trot horsemanship pattern class. I was really proud of him with that one! My main goal was to keep him collected enough to not go all over the place on the circles, and trotted fairly round circles, and maintained a nice slow even trot. I was so excited with the first circle I took for granted that he would stop at the cone since that was supposed to be the easy part for us! I asked too soon and we stopped short, and then he didn't want to settle down into the halt and just kept dancing! So I finally gave up and just moved him into his pivot which started bad because of the dancing, but ended alright. Second circle not as good as the first but not shabby. Then the second halt was better, but not straight and I was so excited about showing off his backing skills that we backed WAY more than four steps! Oh well. All the mistakes were mine, and over all I was really pleased with his effort. And I have a video!

Our third (and exhausting final) class was equitation. Watching the couple classes ahead of mine gave me an idea that I was up for a challenge! I had just been talking to a friend earlier that day saying I felt out of shape because I hadn't risked doing work without stirrups on him yet, and of course that ended up being what the judge was asking for! The same friend happened to be at the gate when I went in and commented on my being very brave to do the class! It proved to be absolutely exhausting! Bear was pretty darn good, but kept trying to stop at the gate, so I guess he thought it was a good time to quit too! We were asked for a sitting trot, then sitting trot without irons, then back into a posting trot without irons, then pick up your irons at the trot, then two point, and finally an extension of the trot in two point. He wasn't a huge fan of the irons bumping his sides, so in our pictures of the no irons work his expression progressed from happy to slightly irritated. We were all grumbling and crabby by the end! I'm pretty good with eq classes at the schooling show level, but doing it on such a young horse was definitely more of a challenge! We ended up 5th out of 8 which is not bad at all!

Off to a good start

No irons!

Just trying to stay up in two point when my legs were SO tired.SO tired, and making a face about it! Although Bear seems fine.

Overall I was pleased with the day. He stood around for hours between classes, and he was very brave and sensible about it all. There was no running down ponies, no freakouts when horses came right up on his butt or cut him off, he was quiet in the line ups, overall SO good. I'm a proud mama!

The quest to find the right instructor...

2009-04-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

So the quest began last night. I figured the easiest way to compare the various trainers will be to jot down my reactions and thoughts after each one, and then go back to reflect once I've seen a couple places.

Trainer #1: Lesson at 5:30pm on Wednesday 4/15

Proximity: 20 minute drive, easy to get to, nice pull through parking.

Facility: Clean and tidy place with happy and quiet horses. Bear was super relaxed there, hardly even looked around, so there's a nice overall calm at the place. Covered arena, big out door arena, nice round pen for warm up, field with cavaletti and small jumps when we get to that point.

Trainer: was punctual, polite, and positive! She took the time to watch me warm up on the lunge even before the lesson started, and offered comment. She complimented both my horse and the training I had done! Bonus points!!! She works from the German Training scale, which gives a better reason for doing things than "Because that's just what I do..." But she also has the experience both in training and competing to really validate what she's saying. I loved that she put everything into age appropriate context. I don't like it when trainers expect all horses to reach perfection regardless of age, development, or fitness level. She acknowledged both his weaknesses due to age and conformation (shortish neck with muscling underneath) and what we could do to improve that, rather than what it would prevent him from doing. So far so good!

Lesson: Amazing! We had a complete revelation! Basically I was able to get exactly what I had been wanting out of Bear by going about it in a completely different way. My biggest pet peeve with him right now has been him diving into the circle with his shoulder. So I've been going about trying to keep the bend to the inside and keeping him pushed out to the outside, but I've been working really hard with little result. Its bad at the trot and worse at the canter and it seemed like the more I tried to push him out, the more he ended up coming in. Of course I hadn't mentioned this. I merely said that we were at a point in his training that he was going forward on a loose-ish rein, stopping, and turning, but that it seemed like the past couple weeks when I had started trying to ask for him to be on the bit more, things were getting worse, not better.

She had us warm up a bit and just do whatever we normally do, to get an idea what to tackle. The trainer hit the nail on the head after watching us trot a couple haphazard serpentines around the arena: he's off balance and falling to the inside! (I'm not helping it by letting myself lean forward either! Which explains why he's better in the western saddle.) So what I'm was thinking was him not understanding or responding to what I'm asking: bending and moving to the outside, turns out to really be his young heavy-on-the-forehand body causing him to veer in. She said that before you can work on balancing him side to side and bending, you have to first balance him front to back. We talked a lot about what's appropriate rate and rhythm for his age and considering his long long legs. She had me work on walk-trot transitions until he was engaging his haunches more, and we had a more balanced and steady trot. Anytime he started rushing forward or get strung out we'd come back to the walk and start again. Sounds simple doesn't it? It was! It was REALLY simple! Yet it fixed the problem! Any time he wasn't responding to the directional cues she told me to either collect him or bring him to a walk. He can't effectively follow directions if he's just trying his best to stay balanced, so rebalance him first in order to turn, circle or whatever, then continue on. It helped immensely. I'm not good at thinking of doing both at the same time, and he's not clearly not either, so by simplifying it we were both happy campers. So instead of a strung out and quick trot, by the end we had a really balanced trot with good consistant rhythm, and he was actually stretching down to keep contact with the bit! Amazing! We didn't get to the canter, but I've got plenty to chew on for awhile.

The other thing she was able to pick out was my inside leg coming forward. I like trainers that can pick out when equitation is hindering or causing problems, and not just ones that have a stylistic equitation approach. So there is something for me to work on, because it seriously made Bear turn the wrong way when it was out of place, and helped him move on like a happy horse when it was in the right place. I'm thinking he's quiet enough for some no stirrups work, but maybe to be safe I'll start with a few sessions on the old mare!

Overall impression: I would be more than happy to schedule a lesson a week all the way up to summer! I swore I'd look at a couple places before making a decision, and I'm sticking to that. I was happy with the progress we made, and it was a very positive experience! I feel like she will be conservative in what she asks of such a young horse, which is wonderful because I would rather have a trainer that is too cautious and babies them a little than one that pushes past what I would have thought was too much and makes me regret it!

Bring on the next barn! Until then, I'll have some fun to report on from the horse show on Saturday! Should be exciting!

Same horse every time

2009-04-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

I just can't believe my luck sometimes. I was out of town for spring break, and spent much of the week before preparing to be gone. So last night at class was the first time I had as much as seen Bear in two weeks! Aside from a swollen cut on his leg, he was exactly the same horse that I left two weeks ago. He wasn't wild or crazy, he hadn't regressed. He was just good old relaxed and happy Bear. (And who knows when the cut happened! Its old enough that its all scabbed over, and thank goodness it isn't hurting him. But its definitely one of those things that doesn't get noticed if I'm not around! Grr...)

Two weeks ago we started lunging with side reins again (which I had given up while he was rehabbing from the injury), and he's already doing better breaking at the poll under saddle. Then we worked on the usual walk, trot, canter. He's been really leaning to the inside and leading with the inside shoulder so I took advantage of there being two less horses and a little more room and rode just about everything but the rail! We did straight lines and pivots, lots of little circles, serpentines, and anytime he wanted to go the center we mad lots of circles there. So by the time we got to the canter he was almost relieved to canter around the rail on a loose rein. Any time he came into the center he had to work on circles!

Our fun challenge for the evening was working a gate! Its the type you find in any trail class, you know the kind horses look at and say "Hey Stupid! Can't you see we can just go AROUND the gate?" But that's not the point, now is it? Bear has been ponied through many real gates so he has no fear of them, but he hasn't ever been the one responsible for actually opening it. We took things really slowly. Step by step. First we did a little warm up of one step turn on forehand, one step turn on haunches, and so on until we had sort of done a shimmy side pass along a pole. Then I turned that into a more legitimate side pass. Then we just came up along the gate and stood there. I want him to know the best place to be is right by the gate. He can always have a break if he's right up next to the gate. The fun thing with Bear is that he's not afraid of a darn thing, but he does like to play with new objects a bit too much. He got scolded for trying to open the gate himself, and trying to shake the whole thing over! We took the gate very slowly, so that each step was what I was asking for, and pausing in between so that he didn't even think of rushing. We did it twice and called it a night!

He's such a fun horse, and I already forget that he's so young. He's going to be such a great horse to do cross country with because he's so bold and eager to try new things! Even the terrifying horse eating llamas can't ruffle his feathers anymore. He's on his way to being an amazing all around horse, we just need to start committing more time to actual training!

Just for fun!

2009-03-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't ridden every day this week like I hoped, but oh well. I took some video of him playing out in the pasture the other day, and got a little creative with it last night! The funny thing is that he wasn't jumping over anything, he was just leaping into the air for the fun of it!

Balancing time, balancing training, balancing progress

2009-03-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

Monday I was good about setting aside time to leave to ride at lunch break. After his Friday of huffing and puffing up the hills I realized that Bear is pretty out of shape. Now I don't expect to canter circles for 20 minutes straight, but building up some muscle and endurance is only going to help make my job of training him easier. It really started me thinking. I don't think I've ever owned a really athletically fit horse! I've ridden plenty, but they weren't mine. My horses growing up were lucky to get ridden once a week, maybe twice if a show was coming up. That fact never stopped us from going all day long at shows or hauling their sorry butts out to horse camp for a week of being ridden several times a day in the grueling heat! No wonder my pony ran away from horse camp! (Literally, she busted past me while I was closing her stall door, bolted off past the barns, broke into a brisk trot straight towards the main gate like she knew exactly where it was, and then turned right on High St making her debut in downtown.) Thinking back all my childhood horses were saints to put up with me!

So apart from conditioning the old mare for a 30 mile endurance ride (back when she wasn't old) I haven't ever had to think about the fitness levels of a horse and what they should or shouldn't be doing. When riding other horses in clinics I've had to suggest we stop, or do something easier, lower, or at least take a break because I know that the horse is not in regular riding shape, and the clinicians expect a horse with the stamina to work and compete. So this is my dilemma. When do I start getting lessons? I don't want to tell the trainer that we would like to do mainly walk work because he can only canter a few laps. If I go to the show this weekend, how many classes should I do? Sometimes I'm even exhausted after a class, especially those big walk-trot classes full of the hundreds of people who don't want to canter their horse in public. I've been making things easy for Bear, we stop before it gets uncomfortable, he rarely breaks a sweat, and we move on to easier things. So where is the fine line of babying him so much that we aren't able to progress, and preserving his natural enjoyment of what we're doing and protecting all his young horse tendons and joints?

So Monday we worked on two very different things that sort of complimented each other. He is still figuring out moving off my inside leg to balance on the outside rein... I guess its not one of those things that they get over night, but still we need to get a move on! So we are breaking things down a bit. He has know how to move his shoulders and move his haunches almost from the beginning because I worked on that with his groundwork. However, he's needed a bit of a refresher lately. I think he is still trying to sort out all the different ways to move his body. Circles on an arc where his whole body follows the bend is much different than the square corners where he moves his shoulders, which is different than a one rein stop where I disengage his hip. All ways of turning... he just has to pay attention to the subtle differences. So we started with the refresher from the ground of moving shoulders, then haunches. Then we moved on to side passing along the fence line. He has the concept, just not the perfectly correct form. But we were able to do a little under saddle as well, so I was happy. So we balanced all this mentally challenging work with some long trots and a few canters up the hill. The hill in the pasture is not so steep that they really have to grunt and labor to get up, but enough grade that it makes it a work out. Overall a great use of the time I had, and I was happy with his effort. But we still hardly broke a sweat!

Tuesday night class was mainly devoted to getting some of the other horses to canter, so it was a while before I even got on. I specifically made a goal to keep trotting a little longer than when I naturally wanted to quit. I had to really think about establishing a rhythm while trotting because he either wanted to fly around, or just break back down to a walk. But we did alright when I really made him follow the rhythm of my posting, then we did a little sitting trot too. We cantered both directions and he got his leads perfectly! I have been asking for canter departs on the lunge line lately, and he is doing really well with that. So last night I asked for the canter from the walk both times, and although it wasn't a perfectly clean step into the canter, it was calm and controlled and he picked up his leads, and he really couldn't have take more than two steps at the trot to do it. I'm so glad for the easy things!

Just when we're on a roll...

2009-03-22T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have the hardest time balancing all my commitments in life and staying consistent with each one. As I mentioned in my last blog Bear is a whole different horse when he is worked regularly. The trick is making that happen. I feel like I should be out there everyday, but to make that happen I feel like I am squeezing it in and letting other areas of my life fall to the wayside. Its a tricky balance that I need to sort out quickly, because I feel like we need to start looking for a dressage trainer so that I can get back into lessons. If I'm paying for training, we darn well better be doing our homework between lessons and keeping up a certain fitness level to make it worthwhile! Now that the weather will be clearing up it will be the real test since I can no longer blame it on the rain!

Friday afternoon was gloriously sunny! That alone is enough to get me excited to ride, but with rain predicted for Saturday and Sunday I was even more anxious to get out and take advantage of the day. So I took off at 5 on Friday to ride. It was well worth it (even though the consequence was going in to work on Saturday to finish the grant report). The sun was perfect, and the timing was just right. I tacked up both horses thinking that if no one else showed up I'd just ride both individually since the old mare probably could use a tune up. Luckily my mom drove up the driveway just as I put the bridle on the second horse! So while she looked for some boots, I trotted Bear around the pasture and worked on a couple things to warm up for maybe 5 minutes. Then we were off!

He does surprisingly well on the trails considering he is used to getting lunged first. He wasn't antsy or excited or spooky or anything! We went down the road and decided to check out the trails for the first time in about a year. Right now everything is overgrown and unused so the trails really only consist of deer paths! Hard to follow, and not great footing. Add to this that it is very hilly, has lots of gullys, switchbacks, and tight squeezes between tress, and it makes for a pretty challenging ride. So it would have been logical to have the old mare lead and let Bear follow along, but I knew which of the deer paths were trail to where I was looking to go, and which not trails at all! So I lead, and Bear did great! It was amazing, he totally listened to wear I needed him to go, and just plugged right along no matter how hard the trail got. I was SO proud.

We were only out for an hour, so we didn't continue down the trails very far. It was enough to test how he would behave on trickier trails, and see what state the trails themselves were in. I had forgotten how bad the poison oak was down there! But by the time we were done Bear was hot, tired and sweaty. Hills are a workout!

It was a great way to end a Friday, and a good step forward in training. As predicted it rained pretty good both Saturday and Sunday, so I didn't get out to see him again except to drop off feed. The good news about the rain is that I think the show was rescheduled for next Saturday, so I might get to go after all!

Regular work makes for a happy Bear

2009-03-17T22:36:00.000-07:00

So I dragged my butt out of bed Saturday morning in order to have a decent trail ride before tackling all the other plans for the day! It was well worth it. My sister and I ran out to the ranch, hooked up the trailer and loaded up in record time, and took off to a new trail. Being new, the two horses were high as kites when we go them out. We tacked up as quickly as one can when its shedding season, and based on the continued kite-like behavior of both of them we lead them up the first hill. Now with Bear that's enough. For a forward moving and leggy horse he is lazy deep down in his heart. As soon as he's gotten his heart rate up, he's ready to settle into a more sensible state of mind. The old mare on the other hand is an endurance breed arabian and would suffer the heart attack rather than stop going! And at her age that's what we're afraid of! So at the top of the hill I get on, and Bear stands fairly well while stirrups get adjusted (mom was the last one to ride the old mare). Then we're off like a rocket! (Unfortunately!) It took Bear a bit to really settle in and relax, but he did, and he was a saint on the way back. The old mare alternated between speed walking and jigging. (Now that I have a chance to watch from behind I realize that she walks in front, and jogs in back, its CRAZY!) Luckily he relaxed enough that we didn't need her to be the sane one, and even let her walk way out in front after a while since he was comfortable following a ways behind and catching up when she stopped.

The trail was a good work out, lots of hills and switch backs. We rode for just over an hour, which was probably plenty considering the terrain and the fact that even as well behaved as he was, it was all very new and exciting for him. I'm hoping that the next time we're out we'll have more time to get out farther, and they can both relax a bit more. We did get to cross a big echoey bridge which was good, and the creek had a pretty good water fall in one spot. Plus there were a ton of other horses, walkers, dogs, and kids out there, so plenty to see and get used to. Overall it was a good ride!

Monday I snuck out there for a little bit. I only had two hours for lunch and I had already used up a chunk running errands. So I threw on the saddle and hopped on. I wanted to work on trotting around the pasture to put a little more steering on him. So we warmed up a bit at the walk and then picked a spot were we could do a big circle so that we could work on bending and moving to the outside rein. I think it helped a lot. Then we picked some straight paths to trot. He's getting so much better. Then we tried to do a couple trots up the hill, but he was not a fan! Lazy... I didn't want to push the issue because it was wet and we had a limited space to trot anyway, but we did trot up twice. Then I grabbed a rope for the old mare and started the first part of my new project. Ponying the old mare off Bear. Its not going to work great until he has some neck reining so I can steer with one hand, but I want to get him used to the idea now while he's still used to having her in such close contact. So we just did it in an area that I could let go at any point, but I didn't have to. She followed right along, and he doesn't mind the rope along his side or butt. It was a good start, and it will be very usefull someday, but certainly nothing I'll do out of an enclosed area for quite a while.

Tuesday at class we took some time to encourage everyone to try cantering for the first time. Its not the first time for Bear, but we had plenty to work on since we still don't really have canter departs down and the left lead is tricky. He was great tonight! He wasn't silly at all when we started, and we just got right down to business. Amazing what regular work over a few days will do! He's trotting out really well, and he's starting to follow more of a relaxed rythm by responding to my posting. He will transition down to the walk with just a big breath out, and he is following his nose much better. In fact I hardly remember him shaking his head or showing attitude at all tonight. He HATES me scrathing his neck while he's working, HATES it! Which is good since its a bad habit of mine to try to soothe the horse by rubbing up their neck as they trot along. He flips his head every time, like "Just ride why don't you?" He'll get me trained just the way he likes me eventually!

We still need to work moving off my inside leg, and he's still WAY too interested in the rest of the horses, but getting better. He picked up his right lead fine, and we were able to canter around really nicely. He felt balanced and athletic. Going to the left he picked it up fine but there were two horses that hadn't moved off the rail and were very pokily walking side by side, so just when I had come around once I had to screech to a halt to keep from running into them. He's got good brakes! Then he picked it up wrong, and seriously felt more balanced than on the correct lead, so we counter cantered the straight part, and came down to a trot after the first turn. Wrong again, brought him down quickly. Then we did a little leg yeiled toward the wall then asked and picked up the left lead! Great, except someone was right in the way, and even though I said coming on the outside, he couldn't get his horse to move anywhere, so Bear had another lovely halt from the canter while this horse danced around in circles in front of us! I think everyone knew I was annoyed at that point! We finally were able to pick up the left lead and canter a few laps with out horses in the way. He feels funky on his left, and leads with his inside shoulder, but its a start. Its all good experiences for Bear. He'll be well prepared for the show ring when I can finally manouver him successfully around the other greenies in this class.

Hopefully I stay consistant in getting out to see him now that the rain isn't so bad. I think I'll forgo the show this Sunday though. I really am supposed to be somewhere else that day, and I can't quite justify the long drive, show costs, and skipping out on another commitment just to get him out to have the horse show experience. I might as well wait until he at least is going along on the bit and might have a chance of placing in a walk-trot class! The problem is that I'm out of town for the April and the May dates for the show thats really close by. I'm afraid I'll regret not taking advantage of this weekend's show, but I've got so many other things going on. Plus I know he'll benefit more from me spending the same amount of money on getting out to start dressage lessons on him. (And he'd just like going for a trail ride most of all!)

Best in the class! Proud and ashamed all at once...

2009-03-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

So I have a terrible problem with being competitive... I don't like it when I'm not up there with the best. Part of my perception on how well things went on Saturday was based on the fact that I was comparing my horse to the girl (looked like a trainer to me) who was loping perfect circles in a nice frame with her young but perfectly behave horse. Comparing never get you anywhere, and is particularly dangerous when comparing apples to oranges!

Its the same thing at class every week! I end up evaluating our night not based on how we are progressing, but how we did compared to the other horses. Two horses have limited training and are working at their own paces, one is in there for retraining because she didn't come along very well the first time, and one is a lazy off-the-track thoroughbred. Usually the tb is the closest competition, and her owner is one of the better riders so she does really well. The retrain project knows some of it already so it comes easily, for example she's quietly jogging around on the rail while my beast is zig-zagging through traffic, but on other things little Miss Retrain copes an attitude and refuses to progress much. Bear knows certain things better than the other horses, he learns really quickly, but he's a total nut job for the first 10 minutes of every class and tends to rush through things no matter what.

Tonight was our night! Our sole lesson for the class was to work on a bridge. Bear loves bridges! I think he sometimes even tries to make more noise on them than necessary. But when someone else went over it and made the noise he spooked and whirled around and was generally trying his best to be silly. We walked right over it a few minutes later while warming up, and he thought it was just fine. So we took it from all directions, and included poles and stopped with his front feet on, then with all four feet, and most of the rest of the night we stood around and walked everyone else fail to get their horse over it! Crazy...

Other than that we spent the time working on some more consistent trotting. He went we to the left, and I really felt like he was going forward and balancing off my inside leg. When we went to the right, he just kept diving in, and would move out as well. We did get a nice relaxed sitting trot in at the end and he started to slow down and lower his head. Oh! The bit was a huge success! Less head tossing, much better response to me asking him to bend to the inside, or follow his nose around the circle. Tonight he stopped really well off my seat, and I really only had to think walk and breath out and he relaxed into a walk! Yeah! That's to say he did all this after bolting forward and needing some one rein stops several times during the first couple laps around the arena! Silly Bear, I lunge but he still takes a couple warm up laps.

I'm hoping to sneak out to ride at lunch tomorrow, but that will greatly depend on how quickly I get a few projects done. The pasture is dry enough now that I can at least ride and trot in the upper part. So I can really work on him going where I want him to at the trot instead of wiggling about or cutting corners. With that many people in the arena I feel limited to just little circles and the rail. It will be nice to do some work on more of a twenty meter circle, and the random patterns around the topography of the pasture. The plan for Saturday is to hit the trail. Its time to tackle some hill work under saddle, and he'll be glad to get out of the arena.

Skipping the show was a good idea...

2009-03-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

So the weather changed entirely, and the show grounds were probably perfectly dry, but I caught another cold bug and couldn't put any prep time in. We stuck with our plans to get some riding time in at the big arena on Saturday, which was a much better idea. We were able to really work on just going forward and letting him relax into the gait a little bit. So we got some big trots in, and I took advantage of the big dry arena to try the canter again after 3 months! He was fine with cantering, but very silly about a ton of other things.

We started with lunging (of course) and just as we got started at big family with toddlers on bikes, and a baby in a big red wagon come up from the trails on the opposite side of the arena. So of course it takes them ages to make it all the way around the arena, past us, and finally out of sight! Bear wasn't being naughty, but he definitely did his best impression of an arab while trotting around! His head was sky high, his tiny ineffectual tail was sticking straight out behind him, and he was prancing as much as possible while still trotting on like I asked.

We were sharing the arena with another rider who had a horse and a dog tied up at my end. Bear could care less about it all until the dog woke up and sat up! Then it became an issue! So after a few spins and balks, we made it a point to pass and circle back until it got boring. Another rider came so I did get to share the arena with 3 other horses, which I adequately avoided even though he wanted to go check them out each time we got within 30 feet! Still a good thing I wasn't trying to dodge 20 other horses at a schooling show. We still have some work to do about rating his gait, since I spent most of the time focusing on just going forward, and transitioning back down. We even tried a canter depart from the walk at the end and he surprised me by getting it with only a half trot stride! He's going to be so much fun when he's finished!

Overall it was a good day, but I am not sure that he likes the bit I switched him to. I first started him in a loose ring snaffle (the western style with the big flattish rings) and I had switched him to an English headstall when I started back into the dressage saddle and I have a D-ring with a french link snaffle mouth piece. He doesn't seem to be following his nose as well as he was, so I'm not sure that he like the pressure on the opposite side of his mouth. Its supposed to help, and if its not, then why use it? I'm going to be digging out a standard dressage loose ring snaffle tonight, so we'll see if its better or not.

My mom came out and rode around on the old mare (who was in an epically cantankerous mood when they started!) and as requested mom spent quite a bit of the time just videoing me and Bear go around. She's TERRIBLE at it! So none of it is worth posting unless I can figure out how to edit out the parts where she forgets to stop recoding and everything goes sideways as the camera swings at the end of the cord! It was very useful for me to see though. She stopped recording right as he spooked so it catches just the beginning but missed the recovery which was a shame since I would have liked to really look at my reaction. But she did catch my canter depart from the walk which was nice to evaluate.

Sadly I was conked out with the cold again on Sunday because I over did it on Saturday, ugh! I'm hoping to get back to regular work with him over the next two weeks, since the next show that was on the goal list is March 22. Lots of work before then!

Rethinking our Saturday plans

2009-03-03T23:24:00.000-08:00

So its raining... its been raining for what seems like decades, and it is going to rain all the way up until the show on Saturday. While part of the classes are in the indoor arena, the two that were my bare minimums (the ones I felt I could do even if he was wild and crazy) will be outside in the slop and muck. I haven't been able to ride much because of the weather, so Bear is not as far along in his steering control at the trot as I hoped. He also has been penned up in the mud so he's got way more energy than usual. Put these two together and I can't in any good conscience put him in a walk-trot class where children might be present! So the classes in the indoor are out, and I just can't muster up the courage to brave the chance of the round pen being to slick to lunge in, the parking lot too wet to pull out of, and Bear being too overwhelmed for us to enjoy ourselves all to just to slop around in the mud for the two solo classes. So I think I'd rather use the first dry day to just get some good training time in.

The plan is to trailer out to the big arena, where even if its wet, its not that bad of footing. That way he can have a good lunge session, and we can get some big trots in without dodging other horses. I'm hoping to get some pictures even though I'm not showing. I'll be glad when things dry out and I won't always have to trailer out in order to do anything but walk.

Class was good tonight. We had two less horses, so it was a little easier to get some work in. Bear is still very distracted by the other horses, and want to get up close and personal in order to check them out! He started to veer towards another horse that we were meant to be trotting by, so I gave him a tiny swat when he didn't keep moving forward and he just about jumped out of his skin. He jumped forward (which was fine since that was what I was asking) but then did a little half buck and tried breaking into the canter. We trotted on, nice and forward and pretended that he hadn't just had a silly fit. He was very over dramatic tonight and felt the need to leap over pee spots, dodge shadows, and in general find reasons to be silly. It will be nice when he's back in pasture full time. He's coming along slowly, but regular work would make everything nicer for both of us.

We'll see if there are any breaks in the rain to get out tomorrow and at least get a walk in. He literally planted his feet and slid down the slope from the pen to the paved driveway when I pulled him out today. I think he's been practicing ice skating through the mud!
TOO MUCH RAIN!

Little steps toward the big goal

2009-02-24T11:22:00.000-08:00

Poor Bear has been all wet and soggy for awhile, and we've not been getting much training time in. Last Tuesday the 17th he didn't even get to go to class since there was no way I was going to be able to get the truck into the muddy pasture to get the trailer out. Luckily due to the cold miserable weather riding that night was optional, and everyone else opted to go home! So we didn't end up missing anything.

I snuck out of the office on Wednesday to ride during lunch break, but just got on the old mare and ponied him. It was too wet in the pasture, and he was feeling oh so frisky with no outlet for his energy for so long. So instead of risking a wild ride on the roads, we opted for the chicken workout. But he did get a good hour of power walking alongside the mare, and that was much better than being stuck in the slick pasture.The rest of the week got busy, and I couldn't get out to see him at all.

Saturday morning I went out just long enough to get the stupid trailer out of the pasture and onto the paved driveway before the major rains hit again. Even though it was REALLY slick in the pasture still it was going to be one of the few clear days so the horses were turned out to get some grass and frolicking. As soon as I took Bear's blanket off he decided it was time for his rodeo, mud or no mud. I'm sure this is how he injured himself originally, and through his recovery he would often slip again and be sore for the day, so I was watching with some concern as he galloped recklessly around the pasture! I'm sure I could have grabbed a bucket of feed and occupied his mind with eating instead of running, but what's the point? If he wasn't running now, he'd be running later, and at least I could observe it. More important is that he learns some sense! He was really booking it around the pasture, but he kept his balance and his feet underneath him the whole time. His sliding stops up to the fence line made me nervous every time, but he never took even one off step, so that's a huge improvement! He is still at a very awkward stage and still seems to be figuring out what to do with his body, but I hope that by learning to gallop and maneuver in the slippery muck he will better keep his balance under saddle on grass jumping field or cross country course.

Tuesday night, back to class! Yeah! We spent a good amount of time lunging off his excess energy. He wasn't all that naughty considering! He shook his head and half bucked once, and kicked out about the sand hitting the arena wall, but compared to the airs above ground he's done when I lunge him in the pasture it was quite tame. (I think he knows I'll chase him forward and really work him when he's in the arena like that.)I put the dressage saddle on, since I was planning on starting back into a little trotting this week. I guess I sort of thought twice about it, but mainly I would just be embarrassed that if I fell off people would say "That's why you should ride colts in a western saddle!" But I'm so much more comfortable in the dressage saddle! When we got on he was fine, and stood quietly. When we walked off we only made it halfway down the rail before he took a bug-eyed look at the "scary" corner, and spun completely around! I sat it just fine, in fact maybe even better than in a western saddle! But the spook was a indicator of our evening. He wasn't bad, he was just not great. It’s been a solid two weeks without riding, and he's had such a big break in his training anyway, that I shouldn't expect more until I can put the time in. He had one more incident when another horse spooked and bolted off right in front of Bear which of course made him follow suit! But I turned him into the wall and he stopped just fine. While that horse was off dumping his rider, Bear was dancing around a bit, but settle down pretty well. We did get a little bit of trotting in both ways, but he needs a lot more work with regularity of gait, and it was hard to get that worked on when I was dodging 6 other green horses! The lesson for the day way pivoting on the haunches starting with forward movement. Bear moves away from pressure alright since we started the process of moving his shoulder versus moving his haunches a while back, but he wasn't really getting the idea of stopping the forward motion. So that's what we'll be working on for a while, but it was a great start. Little steps...

Today, Wednesday, I went out to see Bear over lunch break since it sounds like the rain is coming back and my weekend is pretty full. We had another first! With all the hand walking I was doing in January, I've taken him out away from the house alone several times in hand, but today was his first trail ride ALONE! We walked to where the dirt road started, and I got on there. He was fine for about 20 feet, and then it suddenly hit him that he couldn't hide behind me if something scary came up! I was hiding behind him!!! So he sort of staggered back and forth across the trail thinking about turning to go home, but he got over it pretty quick when he remembered that the back roads are fun, and the pasture is muddy and boring! Then I got off again at the big hill. I figure I'm out of shape and need the exercise, and I know he's out of shape and wanted to make this an easy work out. Then we continued on under saddle for the flat stretch. He hardly spooked at all when the ducks took off from the pond, which they do EVERYTIME we pass. In fact he let out a big sigh of relief afterwards like the anticipation was just killing him! Over all it was great and he never felt like a danger. He does, however, have a major problem with wiggling all over the place instead of walking a straight line! I guess he's always following the mare, and taking his direction from her. So we need to work on him taking his direction from me more.

The big goal is a show March 7th, only two weeks away. It’s the same one that will have the in hand trail class, and I'm hoping to do one or two walk-trot classes just to get him in the show arena. That is, as long as I feel confident he won't run down small children on ponies! We have physically conditioning to do, and a bit of work on a consistent trot rate before we'll be ready! We'll see...

Happy Birthday Bear!

2009-02-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

Today, my baby is 3 years old!!! Which makes him seem much more like a horse, and a lot less like a baby...

Not up to much...

2009-02-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

With the rain and being sick for a whole week, after that Sunday trail ride Bear and I haven't been up to much lately. We had to skip Tuesday class because I was sick and never got out after that. My last post said we were preparing for a schooling show, but when Saturday came I just couldn't muster up the energy. He hadn't been worked with since the Sunday before, I knew he'd be a mud ball, and I was going to have to get up really early since it was one of the first classes. When the alarm went off it was cold outside, I could be dealing with a potentially explosive horse being that it was his first show and he had a week's worth of pent up energy, and I had to go through all the hassle of hooking up the trailer, blah, blah, blah... or I could let the dog out and go back to bed for a few hours! Clearly the bed was the best choice.

I did drag myself out on Sunday to sneak some time in so that he wasn't a complete disaster at class Tuesday. We started with the lunging/driving system. Its really kind of fun since we use more area, go over the poles, up and down the hill, and he doesn't get bored and think about bucking to spice things up. He did really well and got a decent workout, so when I got on I really only planned to spend 5-10 minutes on his back and call it a day. He was so light and responsive and was doing so well that I probably only was on for 5 minutes! It was so great. He is not always responsive to a whoa, so last class we had been working on responding to voice and seat command only. But that had been almost two weeks before, and he was really paying attention and stopping every time I asked! It felt so nice. So we reviewed the other task from class which was leg yielding in and out to make the circles bigger and smaller. He did great on that too, so we just ended!

Tuesday night wasn't quite the miraculous revelation like Sunday was, but he was at least well behaved. I was able to use the arena to lunge and he looked great walk, trot, canter! Yeah for three weeks of being sound! We warmed up walking around with the group, and we worked on a ton of circles and leg yielding on and off the rail. Then the exercise for the night was to go around a grid of cones that made up four boxes. So by keeping the cones always on your left and crossing through the middle each time you would make all left turns and complete four boxes before stopping in the middle cone again. Then of course we did all right turns. The idea was to do it at the jog, but I feel like he hasn't been worked enough lately to justify moving back up to trotting, and SINCE we haven't trotted under saddle for almost two solid months, it didn't make sense to try to do something so complicated. So we walked it, but it was still a very good exercise.

The rain started up again that night (I almost didn't get the trailer back in the pasture!) so I haven't been out since, and don't see getting a whole lot done this weekend. We'll see how Sunday goes.

What we've been up to...

2009-02-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Still sound, still going strong!

So Friday's work out was very similar to Wednesdays, lopsided lunging to jog along the dry flat easy parts of the pasture, and using the hill to walk up. I actually wasn't planning on going out at all since I had so much to do at work, but my day had been so stressful that by 3:00 I was going start yelling at people if I didn't get out into the sunshine for a little break! So I kept my time out there short and sweet. I did get about 15 minutes of trot work when I added it all up, and at least as much walking. Then we worked on the trail course a bit: turns on the haunches, stopping over the poles, and backing a circle (I'm hoping this will help him back straighter in the long run). Called it a day, and rushed back to work.

Saturday was an unexpected blessing. I scheduled myself to go into the office for a few hours to train interns (it always sounds good when I'm in work mode, but then I'm always mad that I gave up even 15 minutes of a sacred Saturday when I start getting ready to go), then I also had commitments that night. Luckily I was able to sneak out of work earlier than planned, and the night stuff was pushed back to much later. So I got out right at the warmest part of the afternoon which and I was able to ride in a T-shirt the last day of January! When I got there Bear was already sweaty from chasing the mare around, and then had rolled in the muddiest part left of the pasture. So I figured I would use the sunshine to my advantage. I saddled up the old mare and ponied Bear around the pasture and we used the gentle hill for some trot workout. We went up about four times, then just trotted some big circles around the upper pasture for about 10 minutes with a breather in between. He did great! He hasn't always been a big fan of trotting alongside the other horse, and used to get lazy and fall behind, but he kept right up and wanted to trot faster. So I used the sun and warm horse to do a quick rinse down to get the sweat and mud off. After a quick scrape, I hopped back on the mare and we ponied him down the back roads until he was totally dry. We made it all the way to the llamas again! MUCH better this time. It really helped that the horse across the street was only standing quietly instead of pounding against the fence and bolting off! So we were able to calmly face the llamas, and walk past them, then turn and head home without any drama. I'm so glad he gets over things fast.

Sunday afternoon I skipped all super bowl parties and went out to see my horses! My sis and I hooked up the trailer and took the two out to the easy flat trails. I walked along behind for about 15 minutes until he was nice and warmed up, then hopped on for the 15 minutes back. So only the second ride since the injury, but still very slow and limited. He was fine! Its also our first time riding out there, but he's walked it so many times now he's really comfortable. He tried jogging a couple times to catch up with the mare's super walk (I still swear she was an accident and her daddy was actually a Tenn. Walker!), but he was responsive to me when I asked him to walk instead. The best part: the few times he did jog, he didn't feel off at all! I am pretty good at feeling anything funny, better than seeing it, so it was a good test.

Monday I never made it out because I was already taking off early from work for an appointment, and then we didn't go to class tonight since I'm feeling really sick and can't quite muster up the energy to deal with hooking up the trailer, the occasionally wild horse, and standing around in the cold. What I normally love seemed like a huge hassle tonight.

I'm still not ready to trot him under saddle until I feel that he's really been conditioned back up to it, so the real test is still a couple weeks out. Its been 5 weeks since the injury, and the last 2 weeks have been progressive conditioning without any limping. I'm figuring on another two weeks of creative conditioning: longer trotting sets, hills, tons of backing up, before I can finally sigh a HUGE sigh of relief that we're done with all this! Everything from there will but common sense for his age. Because he's only 3 I'm not going to be jumping, galloping, spinning, sliding or really doing ANYTHING too long or too hard that would really be taxing on his body or joints. So I figure the rest of the rehab conditioning and restrictions that I would do over the next month or so with an older horse, falls into his training plan for the spring anyways. That's the good thing about him being young, there is no hurry to get him doing anything very hard. I'm looking forward to a Spring of walking lazily down the trails, and starting some walk-trot classes at the schooling shows, and progressing to W/T/C classes by early summer.

So far he loves being handled and loves to go for rides. I think a horse's attitude is a real indicator of when they are being pushed too hard either mentally or physically. Here's to a spring of sound mind and body for BOTH of us!

Training for what we CAN do

2009-01-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

So it’s Wednesday, and even though I just posted the week update last night, I’m not sure I’ll have a chance to post again until next week so I figured I’d journal on today.

It was still too wet to do much at the trot in the pasture without being very careful to pick our spots. So I got creative! We lunged at the walk for a few circles and then I started driving him along the long side of the pasture down the fence. It tends to be dryer there and I thought if he could get the hang of it we could trot it. He questioned the shape of our lunge circles at first but got the hang of it. Then we changed the location a bit and I drove him up the slope on a similar elongated circle. Which was good for getting some of his hill walking done. So I was able to pretty much chose the driest, flattest, straightest paths, it wasn’t a crisp and clean process, but it was a success in safe and controlled trotting! This was a really good lesson on transitions since I was asking him to pick up the trot for only 5-10 strides then come back down to a walk. Plus it made him pay a lot more attention to me, so he was keeping to a slower pace than usual too.

After he got some trot exercise in for the day, we tackled the ground poles. I’ve got them set up in different spots in the pasture going different directions, and there are a variety of shapes and sizes so he doesn’t get bored of them very easily. Then we went back up to the upper pasture and got to work on the trail course set up there. There is a schooling show in a week and a half that is very close. I’ve been wanting to take him to a show just to have the crazy show grounds experience and this one has a in-hand trail class. Since most of the shows limit the in-hand classes to under 3, this may be one of our last chances to try it. (That and I’m sure I won’t care much about an in-hand trail class when I can RIDE a trail class instead!) So taking out the days where I won’t be able to get out to see him, I’ve got days of training to prepare.

Although he knows how to pivot and back and side pass from the ground I am guilty of not cueing very subtly. This week we will definitely be working on him responding to just my body instead of taps, pokes, and rope swings. The other goal is getting him to stand square. This problem is totally my fault. I am pretty sure the breeder made him square up whenever she stopped him because he seemed to know it when I got him. Of course as we started working on bigger and better things I got sloppy about enforcing this. Then with the injury and all the hand walking we re-evaluated his manners while leading in general, but I wasn’t about make him stand on all four feet when one hurt. So now that he’s standing on all feet again it is time to start asking for square halts again, but it is SO tedious. Ugh.

It is fun to have a goal though, it keeps me more accountable try to improve everything he does and not just maintain the level of “he sort of does it”! At the very minimum it will give me an arena to lunge in, and a whole new experience for him. Who knows, maybe we’ll even place, it’s not a very big show! ;)

Sometimes "Not Limping" does not equal sound, but today it does!

2009-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

As dvm2012 pointed out to me in the last post, a horse is not sound unless he's sound at all gaits. So after my video from last Monday of him demonstrating the crazy manoeuvers that made me second guess allowing him to be turned out, he was "not limping" at the walk. Which is not sound, I know, but even though he had run slipped enough to make himself sore he was trotting out so nicely the next day that you couldn't notice a problem unless you knew where to look for it. So barring anymore crazy slips or antics in the pasture, he's officially on the mend! Here's his progress for the week:

Thursday, Friday, Saturday rain rain RAIN!

Sunday, was clear finally but still very wet all around. I picked the driest flattest spot in the pasture and trotted him out to see how he was doing... not limping! So off to a good start. I went ahead and tacked up both horses and I rode the old mare and ponied him all tacked-up. He was certainly walking out big today with all his pent up energy after three days of rain. We went down the back roads for just over and hour. He did really well passing the two goofy pet cows that always charge past bucking and kicking whenever they see us (first obstacle), he did spook slightly at the horses on the dirt road (second obstacle) which is something he's fine with normally but one of them shot out of his stall into his run when he heard us coming, so that's fair enough. We got through the gate perfectly (third obstacle and one that I'm very proud to say I do on a regular basis, I can open the gate and get the two through without getting off!) We passed by the less friendly cows and crazy donkey pasture (fourth and usually final obstacle) and he was just fine. Then we came to the point where I normally turn around. Bear has seen the llamas once before, and he wasn't a big fan! So I was cautious approaching the first llama gate. They were really far off so we missed the two in the south pasture, but the majority of them are in the north pasture and we'd see them 1/4 mile later when we got all the way around the property. On the way we came across 6 arabs turned out in a pasture on the other side, and the all ran around like crazy! He did well, he just got a little quick and excited. Then came the llamas!!! He might have been fine to stop and stare at them if it hadn't been for the fact that another horse came galloping up to the fence line on the other side of the road. So we were sandwiched in between the terrible long necked creatures and the crazy bucking horse that kept hitting the fence and spooking him! Then my old mare starts squealing! Yep, she's one of those menopausal mares that has weird emotional heat cycles with no reason. But after circling a few times the other horse stopped harassing us so we could get down to some good staring! So we past them a few times, then turned around to go back. Final test was stopping and having to stand quietly so I could talk to a neighbor for 10 minutes while his dogs ran all around. Bear had no problem, but the old mare kept reminding me it was time to go home! We passed everything just fine the second time, and made it home safe and sound. I love having this route when its wet because after the 100ft of main road (which is still a rural road), I turn down a side road its totally safe and very remote roads after that. Plus from a conditioning stand point there are some pretty good hills.

Monday, took him for a walk in-hand for about an hour. We pretty much did the an abbrieviated version of the route we did on Sunday due to time. He walks quite a bit faster when he has to keep up with the mare, so the half hour mark came up fast and we ended up stopping before the llamas. He was very well behaved today, and only spooked at the flock of ducks taking off from the pond. So over all great! Still trotting out fine for the little "tester trot" at the beginning and end of our workout. Its just still too wet to trot him out for any sort of exercise.

Tuesday, off to class! I tacked him up and lunged him walk-trot-canter and he looked great! Not just not limping... he was sound! Hurray! So I at least got on him and walked him around for a bit then got off. He felt just fine. Of course we're not ready to start trotting again or anything like that, but the soft indoor arena was going to be the best place to get on again, so we went for it. The great thing was that despite the fact that he's not been ridden for a month, and really he's had less than 30 rides on him total, he was better behaved and more in control than half the horses in there! It is a training class, and I shouldn't compare him, but he is awesome.

Well tomorrow I plan on either lunging if its dry enough, or ponying off the old mare. I figure I don't want to push my luck by riding on uneven or slippery surfaces just yet. So I might try it again Saturday, but most likely will end up waiting to get on again until next Tuesday at class, till then we're back to the regular schedule!

And we're back! I hope...

2009-01-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

A little taste of his frolicking... he's putting on quite a rodeo. TURN OFF YOUR SOUND! My camera make's a weird clicking sound and records it!

Hurray! So its almost exactly three weeks since he injured himself, and he's been sound for two days in a row!

I mentioned that last Saturday I ponied him around the trails and started him back trotting a little bit at time. He did really well that day, then had Sunday off. When I went out for lunch on Monday he was harassing the old mare and trying to get her to run. He probably galloped around for a good 10 minutes solid, bucking, kicking, rearing galore and of course he slipped and tripped and stumbled (being a clumsy awkward teenager). I caught the last bit on video. He finally got the old mare to move around with him, but the despite how crazy he looks, the major part of his rodeo was actually already over. I did catch his "I'm hot and sweating and I SO need to roll" move, he does it all the time. Just a little bit in he totally slips and it makes me cringe every time I watch it. No wonder he can't heal! So with all that I really thought it was time to put a stop to this and keep him confined if he was just going to be silly and hurt himself, but although you can tell he still looked off when he was trotting, and it looks like cantering was easier, but he just was fine walking afterward. By the time he was done with his shenanigans he was puffing and dripping in sweat. Silly boy... what am I going to do with him? So I took advantage of a hot horse on a surprisingly warm day, and gave him a really good hose down. Then his rehab for the day consisted of 20 minutes of walking until he was dry.

Dun, da, dah! Tuesday he was sound, even at the trot! YEAH! I took him to class and trotted him out for the two trainers. One said, "Which leg is he lame on?" The other guessed it correctly based on a slightly shortened stride on that side. So I lunged him walk-trot and I could barely even see it, and wouldn't have noticed a thing if was looking for something to be wrong.

Today, he was perfectly sound again. I lunged him for 20 minutes walk-trot (well mainly walk-trot, he did burst into a gallop a few times... and did a lovely leap into the air! grr...) but he looked great. So we are on the upswing of things. Hurray!

I'm hoping for a week solid of progressive trot conditioning and continued soundness. I'm so relieved to have a happy healthy horse again.

One step forward, two steps back...

2009-01-19T00:21:00.000-08:00

The rehab continues, and clearly Bear has no intention on following my schedule for healing! Its been two weeks since I last blogged... at that point I was all sunshine and rainbows. I made a very optimistic plan for his recovery knowing that it may not go that fast, but at least looking at it with a best case scenario gave me some courage to not keep thinking that my horse is broken forever! Our plan helped my emotional processing, but hasn't worked on his leg.

We were golden with the progression of his recovery for a whole three days... then was hobbling about doing the toe walk thing again. So I'm not sure what's going on. I'm not totally confident in the vet's diagnosis, because when he's off it's like there is something catching in his fetlock that prevents him from flexing fully and causes him to step down on that toe but then it will suddenly jerk back to the flexed position. Maybe that's just where I see it, and there is a tendon or ligament catching farther up in his leg but I only see the effect at the bottom? I was determined to wait it out at least a week before calling another vet out for a second opinion, but despite the fact that its like one day he's toe-walking every couple steps, and the next day he's fine, he does seem to slowly be making progress. I'm going to get a second opinion from the two trainers at class this week for starters.

For now, lots of walking! I'm be in great shape by the time this is all over! Especially as we get into the trot conditioning part and I'm jogging next to him for 5-15 minutes! ;) Friday he was limping about again, and I highly questioned forcing him to walk when his fetlock looks like it catching and I imagine the pain he's in and long term damage it could be doing if the vet is wrong in her diagnosis and treatment plan. But when it comes down to it, it seems like he is only off when he's been running around like a looney! So its his own damn fault, and the walking is supposed to help. So Saturday I gave him some bute, mainly to help witht he getting in and out of the trailer and we drove out to a really easy trail that's flat, wide, and relatively enclosed. It was his first time out on a real trail so my sister came along to ride the old mare and I followed behind leading Bear... good for me to get some exercise, but I'd sure rather be on him! He was a star, and we even walked over a bridge! Yeah for continueing training while rehabbing.

Sunday I think I must have just ponied him around the pasture again, and the rest of the week I rotated between ponying him down the back roads and up a big hill, and hand walking him (which was great to take him off the property alone and leave the old mare screaming bloody murder in the pasture! He was fine about leaving, a little more nervous without her but not naughty at all.) I even got all his tack on and used the long lines to drive him around the pasture once this week, and round penned him (at the walk...) once because I didn't have barn shoes with me and couldn't walk around much. So far I'm doing a great job keeping us from getting bored by switching it up each day. Then this Saturday I took the two horses out to the trail again, but solo this time. I successfully ponied him around for a full hour and they both did great! He LOVED being out there, and was clearly glad to have a change of scenery. We even trotted a bit since thats supposed to be the next step in the reconditioning process. Overall he seemed fine all day, but every so often he'd take two or three toe-walking steps, then be fine again... but I still think we're making progress.

Its slow going, but he's looking a lot more sound when he does get running around and being stupid in the pasture. He can still canter both leads (HUGE sigh of relief!) and do flying lead changes. I'll still be doing the class even if Bear isn't really keeping up with the other horses. It sounds like we'll be starting off at a more basic level than I ended on last class. With Training I we got the first couple rides on him, and a walk-trot-canter twice. For the most part we worked at a walk. With this class were going to be doing a lot of flexing, bending and yeilding, all of which will start from the ground. So even he if he takes another three full weeks before I even get on him and walk I think we'll still get a lot out of the class.

Its a work in progress, but its been less than a month. The simple fact that he's not on any pain killers and he's looking happy and more or less sound the majority of the time is a step forward. I just need to make sure I'm wearing my patience pants for a while.

He seems like a normal horse again!

2009-01-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

Bear is trotting out perfectly sound even without Bute this morning. So we'll try the next two days without it and see if he's still good. I am highly suspicious of the vet's diagnosis now. His leg was never locked back like it would be with a locked stifle, and he wasn't taking high kicking steps like if it were catching. He was walking on that toe like couldn't fully step down so it was like something was catching, but I have no idea what. Also he never had any swelling or heat in the stifle area, but he had some swelling across the front of his hock. Who knows… if it happens again, I’ll have the equine sports therapy/chiropractic vet out instead. I should have called him in the first place but I wasn’t thinking straight and just called the general practice vet since that’s the number we have stuck to the fridge.

Anyway, now I’m just thinking about rehab time. He’s been doing about 15 minutes of walking a day, so that’s now bumped up to 20 minutes of walking, and tomorrow we’ll do 25 minutes which will include the big hill. The vet suggested not getting back on until he’s been worked up to 20 minutes of jogging. The trick is going to finding creative ways of slowly bringing him back at the jog when the pasture is too wet, and jogging down the road is just stupid. There a few straight level spots in the pasture where I can trot him out, but they only last about 60 ft! But I guess it’s a start; trot the length walk around and start again. Then I guess I’ll be hauling out to the arena to start some real trot work Saturday and Sunday. It would probably be good for him (and me) if we did some more long-line work, and I never really got to the point where I could drive him at the trot, so that will be the plan. Good for the training, good for the slow conditioning.

Class is still up in the air. It starts in a week, and we’ll at least go to the first one and see what they’ll be doing and how much he’s capable of. I doubt we’ll do any work the first night since we’ll be spending quite a bit of time talking about what the class will cover. So I’m hoping to go a little early and use the arena to get some trot work in. Which would give me a two-week goal to get back on him for the second class. If things are still going well and Bear is sound still after two weeks of conditioning, I think we’ll probably be safe to start back into slow training. Obviously we won't be loping circles anytime soon! I’ll be taking things cautiously, and we might not be keeping up with the class, but I’ve got a feeling that the class will be starting off really slow as well. So far so good! I just have to be really consistent for the next two weeks, let’s hope for no rain!

Six days after the bubble burst...

2009-01-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

So I guess I'll start with a little more details because for the next month or so this will be more of a rehab blog than a training journal.

It was first noticed at feeding time Monday night.

I came out and looked at it first thing Tuesday morning on my way to work, and based on the way he was holding it I guessed stifle. But really there wasn't any swelling or heat there. He didn't want to move much, and I didn't make him, but by the time I left he had clearly moved around while grazing. The vet came out that afternoon, he was really ouchy if walked and pitiful at the trot. Vet said upward fixation of the patella. This could be just because he's growing, and is seen often in young horses with long straight legs. She said bute twice a day, and hand walking at least 10 minutes to make sure he's using it. So I waited until he had the bute in his system and walked him for the first time. He was really off, and stepped down with his toe pointed, and his fetlock didn't fully flex. So he gimped around on his toe for 10 minutes before I gave him some love and went back to work.

Wednesday (and New Year's Eve so I only worked the morning), I had a bit more time to just hang out with him. He trotted up to the gate when I came out, and although he was still dead lame on it, at least he was feeling good. I was feeling lazy and totally depressed about the whole thing, so I hopped on my old mare to pony him instead. Yet again I am so glad that he ponies from other horses. I walked for at least 10 minutes, and he looked much better and his leg was fully flexing with each step. So I let him off, the rope and continued to ride around the pasture for a bit and just watch him. He started running and bucking and playing! Totally unsound and definitely shaking his head out of frustration, but still spunky. Then he just had to roll, and I had taken his blanket off so I knew I would be spending at least 20 minutes scraping the mud off before I could put his blanket back on. When he got up after rolling its like he just sprang right up into a buck. I don't know how its physically possible for a horse to buck from the sitting position, but that's precisely what he did. I was feeling much better that this had been something minor, and he'd quickly recover.

Thursday (New Year's Day so still off work), he was back to walking on his toe, and couldn't fully straighten his leg. Looked that way the whole time I was out there.

Friday I came out midday when someone else could cover the phones for me at the office. It had been raining so they were both in the pen, and the pasture was super wet. So I walked him down the road instead. He's been out there before, but never without the mare. He got all big-eyed and high-headed about the cows and some big green plastic container by someone's barn, but was otherwise pretty well behaved for a pent up energy youngster on his first walk away from his best friend who was dashing about and calling like a crazed lunatic at home! I'm so glad that he's more sane than she is; he's better behaved at 2 years old than she is in her mid twenties! AND HE WAS WALKING SOUND! Yeah!

Saturday, my parents report to me that my horse is CRAZY! He treated them to his rodeo show at it's finest. Bucks, rears, rolling and then bursting into the air from the ground, and all his general let-the-spunk-out routine. Of course when I got out there and got the old mare's hackmore out (yes, she knows which things go on Bear and pose no threat, and which are coming for her) she took off at a dead run with her tail flying like a flag straight in the air, and Bear calmly ate his lunch while she zipped past him each time she crossed the pasture. So you can guess I had a couple retorts about just which horse is crazy, and since officially the old mare is my mom's horse I only claim her when she's acting well trained. Anyway, Bear looked so good while I walked him, that I started wondering if he was off at all anymore. He had cantered off a few times and looked pretty good, stiff, but not lame. So just before leaving I ran back out to make him trot a few steps. He still was off, but definitely better. I'm starting to have hope.

Everything I've read has said that slow and consistent conditioning is the best thing for these things. Long walks, hills, lots of turn-out, and gradual increase of work. First of all he's always turned out since he's on pasture. Second, aside from the once a week Training 2 class, I really was planning on spending the next 6 months doing nothing but moseying along the trail anyway. He's too young to start a ton of collection work or jumping, so this really won't kill my spring. I probably won't be on him for a few weeks, but its rainy anyway and this will give me a chance to tune up the old mare again since she's meant to be my sister's beginner mount when we go out riding together. So a lot more ponying and consistent easy exercise; I'm hoping for the best.

And the bubble is burst...

2008-12-31T16:14:00.000-08:00

Sad news and a frustrating diagnosis; Bear came up lame Monday night. I had been laughing at his attempts to frolic in the slippery pasture on Friday, but now its not so funny. We think he must have slipped and fallen sometime Monday because he was fine that morning and noticeably lame that night.

So needless to say I'm more than frustrated about having to give up all my immediate goals and plans for him. We had planned on trailering out for his first real trail ride today, and clearly the January show is out of the question. In fact even with a best case scenario I doubt that he'll be able to go to my horse training 2 class. But more than anything I'm just worried how sound he'll stay in the future and if this will affect him later on.

The vet prescribed bute and hand walking and waiting! We'll talk about what the next steps are on Saturday depending on his improvement by then. He was certainly feeling better today, and trying his best to be silly despite the slick pasture and a bum leg. So he was back to bucking and kicking and running about. But he's definitely still lame, and is throwing his head like he's frustrated that he can't run like normal.

Anyway, I'm heart broken, but trying think positively. His training log is probably on hold since all his work will be in hand for a while. I hope to have better news soon!

All I want for Christmas...

2008-12-27T12:53:00.000-08:00

Rainy, muddy, cold and miserable... I SO want an indoor arena! I would be so much more productive.

It had been so long since I went out to ride, that I actually had to look at the calendar to figure it out! 16 days! Leaving a barely broke horse to sit for 16 days is not the best way to progress, but between the rain and the holidays it couldn't be helped. Unfortunatley it also means that he spent most of that time locked up in a pen because of rain, and when he is out in the pasture its too slick and muddy to actually run.

So yesterday I was determined to get back out there. We have just 15 days until the schooling show, and I'd like to be able to do a walk/trot class (without crashing into other horses!) I head out in the afternoon feeling a little rushed to get done before dark, so of course I end up cutting corners and regretting it! Because of Bear's run-around-the-pasture-before-being-ridden routine, I decided to take off his blanket first, and then get his lunch ready. I went straight out without a halter or anything, and as soon as I get all the buckles undone except the front two, he starts walking off. So off he goes with straps slapping and banging about, so needless to say, he spent the next 5 minutes trying to get those straps to stop flapping! Every time he bucked, they hit harder, so he'd buck harder! He was distracted by the running and bucking because he had to be REALLY careful not to slip and fall, so he wasn't really watching where he was going. I was just laughing too hard to really do anything about it. He noticed a big boulder at the last minute, and had to jump over it. Then he ended up tripping and sliding when coming up to the old mare, and he only came to a stop when he actually crashed into the side of her!

If it was too slippery to have fun galloping and bucking, lunging wasn't going to be an option, so I planned on sticking with the round pen just in case he was a nut case. I hobbled him while I tacked up, so I've at least spent one extra day working on the one item I swore to do everyday about two weeks ago! Then I walked him around and I addressed some of the ground manners I've been getting a little sloppy on like stopping when I stop and not walking ahead of me. Then we worked in hand through the trail course that I've set up with poles and logs, before finally heading into the round pen to get on. He was just as good as he was 16 days ago! Its so wonderful that we don't have to start over at the beginning just because I've been too busy. We just did work at the walk, and worked on stopping and backing up, then called it a day!

Today (Saturday) we trailered out to the big arena with my sister and old mare. He was pretty full of it while lunging, so I'm glad he had a place to stretch his legs and get some exercise. Since we worked on turns and stopping yesterday I took advantage of the big arena to focus on going forward. So we trotted and cantered around, and I even got his left lead! YEAH! He moved forward on a loose rein and was happy and relaxed the whole time. He's such a good boy.

We're off to a good start for the schooling show January 10th, but I need to keep this up everyday to be ready in time.

Trail Training

2008-12-15T12:27:00.000-08:00

So we've been troubled by the holiday busyness and the bad weather, and riding time has been pretty slim. My Tuesday class is over, and my weekends have been full, so its been hard to find the time. I could get up an hour early and give up my current "hour of sipping coffee on the couch trying to wake up" in order to ride, but despite all my good intentions I just can't make myself do it when morning comes.

Wednesday we had a great training day. I trailered out to a friends house to join in on her appointment with the barefoot specialty trimmer. I was super happy with her work, and it was a good excuse to skip out on work for the day. So first of all this was a much longer trailer ride than usual, and he was going alone. We have three set places to train: home, the covered arena for class (10 min trailer ride), and the big arena (20 min trailer ride). He's used to those places, he's secure there, and my mare usually is around so he's go his security blanket. So needless to say when he arrived at this big open pasture with 14 horse staring at him from a pipe barn, without his security blanket buddy, he was more than a little overwhelmed! He wasn't naughty, just hot, and constantly distracted. When I took him back up to the trailer and tied him for 10 minutes before tacking him up he neighed his head off the whole time. They were huge full body neighs! His little stubby tail would shoot out and shake everytime! So funny. But when I actually took him down to the arena to lunge him, he was surprisingly quiet and relaxed. I rode with the friend and her husband around their 20 acre pasture. It was great trail training with a good gradual hill, lots of crossings through a natural creek bed, bumps to go up and over, and ground poles to walk over. He was a star! He normally follows my mare because she walks so much faster, so I expected him to follow the other more experienced horses. From the very beginning he took the lead and bravely walked wherever I pointed him at a nice forward pace. We trotted up the hill, and practiced stopping and backing up the hill while we walked back down. He did spook once, and half spooked a second time, but we easily recovered and continued on as planned. (And now I at least have an idea how he'll spook.) He seems to be a "spin to the right and stop" kind of horse, and his half spooks are just the sort where the seem to jump to a halt. Overall is was a really great training experience, and he's definitely ready to start trail riding.

Since then he's done nothing, but I've got a goal now. There's a local schooling show with a couple of walk/trot classes on January 10, so I have just under a month to get him going enough to try his first show! Yeah!

2nd canter, 1st trail ride, 1st ride on the road... so busy!

2008-11-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

Busy week for trying new things.

Wednesday: Oh so neglected... or should I just say rewarded with a day off after his first canter on Tuesday.

Thanksgiving Thursday! No riding, just ran a 5K and then gorged myself with food!

Friday: Rode in the pasture, and was super surprised that I could even get on considering how sore I was from running without properly training.

Bear never ceases to amaze me! He really has so few rides under his belt, but I have absolutely no qualms with riding out in the pasture. Between the sense of wide open space encouraging a run away, and the many trees to scrape riders off I would not recommend pasture rides for training young or recently started horses! But Bear hasn't learned that he can get out of work by doing either of those things. Now granted, he is not the average freshly broke horse, and I understand that I'm lucky to have a guy with such a great personality, but I can't help feeling that its just so much easier to ride a clean slate! He doesn't know much, so I have to remember that I am limited to only a few things that I can ask him to do. But on the other hand, he hasn't learned bad habits, and he hasn't learned to escape work. Frankly training a horse from the start has been a far easier ride than any of my project horses. I still have plenty of time to screw him up and find ways to fix him, but for now I'm just enjoying the ride. Literally, and metaphorically.

So really I rode in the pasture because I felt he was up to the challenge, but also because without a wall to follow he has to listen to my directions every step of the way. I wanted to make sure that we work out any "who's in charge" debates (you know, when you say left, and the horse pokes his nose right and just keeps pulling) before we attempted any introductions to the trail. He was super relaxed and we walked over the poles as usual, trotted a couple of safe flat straight-aways, but had trouble with making straight lines, so we started a bit of leg yielding (moving away from the leg without the objective of turning) on the ground then on his back. So now when he starts veering or turning either from a straight line or the approach to a pole or log, he can be corrected. Well at least corrected a little, he's got the concept, but we're still working on the correctness and willingness part.

Saturday: We trailered out to the big arena, which means more lunging with side reins (his left lead was much better), lots of opportunity for riding circles, and (yippee!) we cantered for the second time! We stuck to the figure eight trick, although with an enormous ring like this the trip across the center is like an epic journey! He was great both leads, and again despite the open space, he wasn't rushing or bolting. Then since my old camera was not getting great pictures, my sister suggested getting a video, which I was thrilled with since I've been dying to get a video of myself riding for ages, and really want to be able to document his improvement. So I just did a quick walk, trot, canter on a circle (testing my luck that he'd pick up the canter without the figure eight trick so we picked his good side), then back down to the walk.

Riding videos are great, because I am always determined to work on bad habits after seeing myself do them! Feet, legs, hands, are all bad habits that get better if I'm actually in shape, but having to look at them is good motivation to get there faster. But each rider has a personal challenge, one that is unique to them due to history, physical fitness, or even body shape. Its been a while since I've shown equitation or seen a video, and I totally forgot about my rubber back until watching this! I have like a super wiggly lower back when riding, and I forget that what feels comfortable to me at the canter, looks like a spaghetti noodle riding a horse. I have a hard time finding the fine line between following the horses motion, and being too stiff while trying to straighten up and tense my abs and back to stop my mid section from bending back and forth like that! This problem did improve when I was only showing equitation in college, and showing western helped immensly. But its my biggest problem when riding because I do a really extreme version of it when landing after a jump! I just keep reminding myself the video is about the horse and his progress. Thats what I was after, and that part of it is great! Please excuse the horse standing in the middle, her rider is the one filming, and she was happy to take a nap, no safety rules were broken. Oh, excuse the rust breeches also, they were on sale, and they only get worn when the rest are in the dirty clothes pile!

After our arena session, we took the two horses down to the 1/4 mile loop that runs past the creek. It was Bear's first trail ride, although I've lead him down there before. He even put his feet into the creek and got a drink! Clearly water is not going to be an issue.

Sunday: Our first road ride. We have back roads that lead to trails near where Bear lives, so we had our first venture off the property on Sunday. We lead the two horses the 200ft down the main road (main is relative here since its pretty far out in the country) until we reached the dirt road that we'd start riding on. We normally ride the whole way, but I'm trying to be cautious here, just so I can feel like I'm riding a horse with approximatley 15 rides on him. By the time we're getting on, a horse in the pasture at the corner has come over to check us out. This gets Bear high headed and ignoring me. So I decide that I would rather not fight with him to stand still and look away from the horse while I get one, which I know he wouldn't have done. Going back to the no bad habits bubble I currently life in, I didn't want to give him the opportunity to misbehaved while mounting and burst that happy bubble. So I decide I better start off with something to get him paying attention. Something that would make him move, and coax his head back out of the clouds. We did a coupld of turns on the haunches, then forhand, then stop and back, and I did this all with my hands on the reins like if I were riding, and bumped him with the stirrups wherever legs were appropriate. While we were doing this someone going down the road actually stopped and asked us if we needed help! I just had to laugh a little... what did she think she had to offer? Even if she was an experienced horse trainer, was she just going to get out of the car and start helping?? But when I thought about it I guess I did look a little silly. One horse had a rider, the other horse had a rider on the ground holding the reins across his back and was following him around in circles. It probably looked like I was really lame and couldn't get on!

After his little "faux line driving" lesson we got on and he stood stock still until I asked him to move off. He did great, until the cow on three legs... I'm not sure why the cow wasn't using all four legs, but I think the fact that he wasn't using his fourth leg upset Bear more than the fact that he was a cow. He didn't spook, he just stopped, so we took some time to check things out and move closer to the cow before moving on. Down the hill... great, past the white rail by the pond...great, past other horses... great, then we came to the llamas...stop. His head went so high, I think he had the llamas beat! But he didn't spook, just stopped and put his scared eyes on. So I got off! Nicely and calmly, but off non the less. He doesn't spook. Ever. At anything. (Well except the horse measuring stick...) So if he's never spooked, despite the many things I've lead him past, I don't know what he'll do when he does spook! If I'm going to be given the opportunity to observe that for the first time, I'd like to be in a safe place, you know, to take notes and such, and not be thinking about all the naughty I'm teaching him by bailing now that he's hopping up and down and frantically dancing about! So we had to watch the llamas for a while. Then we had to back up so he knew that he could actually move without the evil-furry-strechted-out-circus-freaks-of-horses coming to attack. Then we had to walk to the other side of the old mare and watch from that angle, then back again. Finally when he was a little less terror struck we moved on. We were only going up the hill to the next intersection anyway, so I just walked, then we had chance to pass by them again only 2 minutes later, and that didn't really take any staring at all! So I hopped back on and finished my ride. While the old mare next to us pranced her way back home, I appreciated that Bear is too green and too young to know what barn sour is! Thank goodness for a clean slate.

The last piece of the equation...

2008-11-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

We cantered for the first time!!! Hurray! He only tried to face plant once!

So we've been going strong lately. Saturday we trailered out to the big arena and took advantage of a perfect sunny-but-crisp afternoon. I rode in the dressage saddle again so that he could trot out a bit more without me feeling like a sack of potatoes trying to post in a western saddle. I think the big trots this weekend helped out with the forward willingness to canter by Tuesday. Sunday we rode out alone in the upper pasture for the first time, and he did just fine. I chose a few easy spots to trot, and practiced a whole lot of turning, and moving off leg pressure. Plus having the wide open space meant that even walking a straight line was a lesson in listening. By Monday morning when we rode in the lower pasture, he was doing a really good getting a few steps of a turn on the haunches, and turn on the forehand. We also started over the logs I have out there so that he knows that going straight stopping and veering away is not an option.

So Tuesday night was the big night. The CANTER! Or I should say lope, since everyone present was western trained, and in a western saddle... but I just can't. He actually bucked while cantering to the left on the lunge line, which is pretty out of character for him, and did not seem like a good sign! So I chased him forward for a full circle hoping to make the point that bucking is not a good thing. Then I got on and we walked a few laps around, mixing in circles in the corners, a few turns against the wall, and a nice big trot around the arena at a good forward pace. Then we were ready for the next big step.

So since I'm in this class to see other trainer's tricks of the trade, I was excited to see how this trainer introduced the lope. I've seen several ways, mainly these have included someone from the ground helping to encourage or reinforce the cue to canter. Often this just results in running them or chasing them into it, which is not the correct way to do it, and can create bad habits. However a person cuing from the ground to reinforce the rider is what I've done in the past, and sort of what I had prepared him for. On the lunge line Bear fully understands the difference between a kiss and a cluck. Kiss means canter, and at this point in his training he can transition smoothly into the canter within a stride of me kissing. At least he does on the right lead... the left lead is not as strong and usually results in a few extra steps and the wrong lead 50% of the time. So he understands the cue, but doesn't have that left lead when traveling in a circle like that. So the left lead was my worry. He's been improving, but its still not consistent.

So here's what we did, and it worked marvelously. Trot a few figure eights (cutting the arena into two circles with a change of direction in the middle.) The trick is to have a nice forward trot and make a fairly straight aim at the wall with an almost last minute change of direction. Obviously last minute changes don't work as well with a green horse until they've figured out the changing direction routine, so coming through the middle at angle once or twice to helps to get the idea. Then you can move straight from wall to wall. The idea is that just when you start the new direction against the opposite wall you kiss, and push them into the canter. As soon as they pick it up you continue the canter around the arena once or twice. Then do the process over again with the other lead. It worked perfectly! He picked up the canter calmly, without rushing into it, and without him stressing out over a bunch of cues he doesn't understand. Better yet, he picked up the correct lead every time. We started with the right since that's his stronger lead, and he was just smooth as butter! He was forward but not rocketing around, and he has a strong enough canter that I can feel what lead he's on. (My Arab has kind of a bunny hop canter and your hips hardly move on way or the other enough to feel her lead...) So then we try the left lead, same easy pick up, no problem. I could feel it was the left lead and he maintained it okay for almost a lap when he stumbled.

It was one of those front feet trips where your horse is suddenly trying to use his nose as a hoof while his front feet fly every which way. I hate these kinds of stumbles, I much prefer when a back leg slips out and the head gets thrown up. (If you have to fall at all, its better to not have the horse somersaulting along with you like I did with my pony as a kid!) But when they trip in the front I swear sometimes their nose actually hits the ground before they get two front feet on the ground again, and that just seems wrong! Plus it seems inevitable that I end up catching the horse in the mouth when his head goes down and I'm yanked forwards because I suddenly have a death grip on the reins. Of course both of those things are the worse possible reactions because suddenly the rider has caused a little stumble to turn into you and your horse actually face planting or knee skiing across the arena. Not exactly a confidence builder for me or Bear our first time cantering! Luckily, that did not transpire! I was sitting tall and centered in the saddle so I wasn't thrown forward, and because I'm always obsessively thinking about being light with his mouth while he's young I was able to simply let his reins slide through my fingers a bit until he caught himself.

We tried it again, and had a more successfully go at the left lead. The only real problem we had a difference of opinion on what direction we should go one time when coming to the wall. This was totally my fault; I was trying to cheat. I wanted to pick up the left lead, but I had turned left into the center. This was still in post "almost fall" so I wasn't thinking ahead very well. So of course turning left through the center would mean changing to the right and picking up the right lead. So I thought, well maybe, just maybe, if we turn to the left again at the wall he'll pick up the left lead. Nope! In fact we didn't turn to the left at all. I looked to the left and asked for that direction, and he turned to the right. He was changing directions because that was the drill, and because I had been hesitant while thinking it all through. So I really couldn't fault him. We sort of came to a halt at the wall while I debated how much I wanted to insist on going left when clearly I wouldn't be able to get the canter depart at this point and would only be walking away and starting on the wrong side of the arena again. So I just chalked it up to rider miscommunication and trotted off to the right so that I could pick up the left lead on the next pass through.

Overall it went really smoothly, and everyone commented on how great he was at the canter. (I think they were all secretly hoping for him to take off at a dead gallop, since he can rocket around on the lunge line when he's feeling it.) Sadly we've come to the end of the class! So I'll have to keep him going through Christmas without Tuesday nights in the covered arena. He's learned a ton in the last three months, so the next month and a half we'll just be reinforcing the same basics in all sorts of different places: arenas, pastures, trails, maybe even a show if there's something cheap and close. We just need to perfect what he knows, and then in January we'll be starting into the horse training II class, so in case we totally get caught up in the holidays and bad weather and stop riding, we can still get back on track with Tuesday nights in the covered arena!

Hoping to see the trails before the autumn leaves are all gone...

Appreciating what I've got...

2008-11-20T21:25:00.000-08:00

So I was naughty last week, and didn't ride him at all between Tuesdays. I didn't even take him out to see the show like I planned. But none of it mattered, he was just as well behaved when I got on him Tuesday night.

He was super calm lunging, which I guess isn't surprising based on the wild bronc show I was treated to out in the pasture! The dogs set him off while I was busy hitching up and he was still turned out in pasture. While the dogs all high tailed it out asap, he continued to charge and whirl and generally dance about, and he definitely got all his bucks out! It still amazes me how unbelievably athletic he is. Stops and starts and flying lead changes all show how great he'll do in the future. However, I don't appreciate how well he can buck and then kick higher than his head at a gallop, or hop up and down bucking from a stand still, or strike out while rearing. All that reminds me that if at any point he decided he didn't want me on his back, I wouldn't be on his back! Which is why I never, EVER want to sour him to riding.

After a brief lunge (since he was being so relaxed) I got on and rode walk, trot both directions, and worked on circles in the corners, and turns against the wall. We stopped and backed a few times at the end, and called it good! He maintained his trot a little better this time, and I encouraged him to keep moving forward by posting, which I look ridiculous doing in the western saddle, but it kept him in a rhythm.

He's still a star, and I'm still terrified that we'll hit that wall. So far he's been perfect at everything, even when he's not supposed to know what he's doing at all. I'm afraid that when we find the thing that's not easy, it will be as amazingly terrible as the rest has been amazingly great. I'm probably being silly, but I feel like I've had it so easy that I'm going to get all the bad all at once or something. Silliness. I'm going to stop talking about it before I jinx myself. First time cantering comes next week!

Officially riding on our own!

2008-11-13T15:28:00.001-08:00

So Tuesday night we started with that usual. Lunged, ponied at a walk and trot, then unclipped the lead from the pony horse and followed a bit. Then we took the leap: we walked away from the other horse! He still kept looking towards the other horse, so we ended up circling back, but kept right on going until our circles grew big enough that we were at the rail. The other horse helped us get into a trot, but then we continued around on our own. It took him a few times before he realized we could trot around the corners (or even turn at all). The first time we trotted straight down the wall he just stopped when he head came to the wall that he was facing. Funny guy! So we kept on going and I tried to help him out by looking around the corners and telling him in advance what we'd be doing. Then we did some turns against the wall, and finished with a stop and back! All really simple, and so he's still super happy to do his job! Such a sweetie...

Then he got his vaccination booster afterwards so I gave him Wednesday off... no reason to make him think that its my fault he's sore. I'll just let him think he slept wrong!

We're off to watch a horse show together this weekend. So we'll see what he thinks of crowds and the "schooling show crazies". I can say it, because I'm one of them! So based on the potential chaos, I'm really only planning to lunge him. And we'll only do that if there's a place available which will depend greatly on the size and quantity of warm up area. But its a new facility, so I'm excited to check it out and watch a bit of jumping and dressage. So even if he just experiences walking the show grounds and being tied to the trailer with all the commotion, it will still be excellent experience. Should be fun!

Fun little weekend!

2008-11-10T12:39:00.000-08:00

I had a great weekend with Bear!

I slipped out of work Friday in order to get out to see him just before dark. So we didn't do much, but I threw a saddle on my mare and took the two of them down the road and back so that he's at least been off the property. The funny thing is he can't keep up! My mare is like 14 hands on a hill, and between the fact that he's 5 inches taller (all in the legs) and his head is the the height of a giraffe, he towers over the top of her. And yet, she has this power walk that no horse can compete with, and once she gets out onto the trail she turns it on full force. I swear someone lied about her breeding; she's purebreed arabian, but based on her walk I would swear she's got some sort of weird gaited breed in her! Really its just impressive that a horse that small can walk so much faster than the giraffe. But it is a good thing because it will help him get into the habit of a big free flowing walk.

Saturday we trailered out the the local arena and he got a good lunging with side reins for the first time in a while. I really don't like lunging in the pasture since even the flat parts are sloped, especially not with side reins since he's too likely to slip a back foot or stumble and catch himself in the mouth. So it was nice to work him in side reins again, although I still haven't tightened them up much since it hasn' t been a regular thing. Then I got on him and had my sister pony me around the big arena. So this was all sorts of new firsts because it was a huge arena and seems more open, it was the first time I got on in a dressage saddle and posted at the trot, and there were two other horses being ridden in the arena which was a first for him. So a big success overall!

Then Sunday we did a quick session in the round pen, still with my mare, but we let him off the line to do some circles and turns, and turned it into a follow the leader game where she followed him, then we'd circle back and follower her. He's so relaxed about the whole thing, and really gets what turning means, its so great! Then I got off and just stood with him in the middle and he took a nap while the mare got jogged around the round pen. Such a good boy!
He gets today off, but tomorrow we'll be doing more work away from the other horse.

Taking it slow, but doing great!

2008-11-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

The picture has nothing to do with today's blog except that he's cute and its Fall!

So after 3 rides of having someone else pony me around on him, Tuesday night we let him off the line a little bit. Tried some circles and turns against the wall, always coming back to the other horse. He was a star! He understands whats being asked of him, and calming complying. So we ended after only a little bit, and kept it all very positive.

Next week we'll get down to business a little bit more, for now I'm just giving him a chance to figure out how to balance himself with someone on his back. Having a couple of chances to trip, slid, climb hills, step over logs with the weight of a rider means he'll be better prepared when he does the same thing and I'm on him alone.

I'm thinking I'll get on in the dressage saddle this weekend. I bet he's going to look much nicer for pictures in the type of tack he's built to wear! Right now he looks a little like someone's going to try to round up cattle while riding a giraffe.

Why I love this guy!

2008-10-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

So aside from the fact that he's handsome, athletic, perfectly spotted and is an ideal 15.1 hands, he is just a good horse! He's my ideal temperament: fresh, forward moving, but SENSIBLE.

I hate lazy horses, HATE having to squeeze as hard as my legs can squeeze in order to get some them to even noticably move their shoulder or hip, or to maintain their gait, not because they don't understand, but because they just don't want to make an effort. I prefer the "too quick" horse, the nervous horse that other people don't want to ride, I love bottling up that energy and making it useful. The problem with these horses is that they are often over reactive about anything and everything.

What I've got is the best of both worlds. Bear is a forward mover and takes huge strides. He naturally steps under himself, and always moves when asked. Out in pasture he gallops around, slides to a stop, athletically rolls back, does flying changes, and can buck his heels higher than the horse trailer! But in hand he's a gentleman, and very calmly accepts new things.

I'm reminded of how great he is this week because I got on him for the first time Tuesday night. He simply couldn't care less! He didn't even give me a dirty look. We did keep things really simple though. I got on him and was ponied from a well broke horse, in a controled environment where he's used to being worked. We did walk and trot and he was a star! I had someone video the whole thing, but it was so dark in the indoor arena that it barely showed up. So its really not worth posting, plus it was just so darn boring! He didn't take a single step out of place.

I'm hoping to video the second ride, this weekend in the round pen at home (stay away rain!). Things will be quite a bit different outside with distractions, so it should be at least a little more entertaining.

Almost ready for the first ride...

2008-10-24T16:06:00.000-07:00

The all knowing eye...

Tuesday: 10/14: Line driving for the first time. He did great!

Friday 10/17: Driving on long lines for the second time, he did worse than the first time! Part of this is that it was in the pasture instead of the arena. Its still an enclosed area, and pretty safe, but he's thinking about lunch afterwards and where his mare is, instead of having a covered arena on a Tuesday night when accustomed to be learning and working. Part of it was that I was asking for a whole lot more, and he was showing a little frustration.

Saturday 10/18: More line driving, for a very little amount of time.

Sunday 10/19: Better line driving, still clueless about going straight, and still a little sticky backing.

Monday 10/20: Totally neglected, I worked late and didn't even go out to see the guy.

Tuesday 10/21: Snubbed at class for the first time so this was with a new horse, but he did fine. So that's the last step before I get on him and have someone pony be around next Tuesday!

Wednesday: Neglected again...

Thursday 10/23: So he is line driving reasonably well; walk and trot, through cones, over logs, between poles, whoa and back. So he's at least got some steering, but we're still working on fine tuning it. He's a little extreme still; he tends to turn a full 90 degrees every time he's asked, or he gets stuck and stubborn and stands there pulling against the rein for 30 seconds. So weaving through the cones is helping him understand subtle movements. When we started today he was still very antsy about the whoa, we would walk in place and pull against the bit, then start backing up. By the end he had really gotten the idea. I had to stop him and walked up to him to give him a pat a couple of times before he got the hint that just standing there was exactly what I wanted. My round pen is currently a large square pen on totally uneven ground, so the goal this weekend is to get it set up so that I'll have a safe place to do the next couple of rides after I get on him Tuesday. It won't be perfectly level or good round pen footing yet, but at least it will be a small enclosed space free of trees! I've got my work cut out for me!

Friday 10/24: Still more line driving. Much better on whoa and stand quietly. Starting to transition between trot and walk really well, but steering is pretty wonky at the trot!

Training so far...

2008-10-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Standing patiently at the trailer for his turn at Tuesday night class. Lots of practice being tied to a trailer!

So I guess if this is meant to be my training log, I should bring it up to date, then go from there. Now luckily Bear comes with a great foundation. He had already learned many of the important lessons he needed to learn as a yearling and young two year old before I bought him. When horses can learn to tie, lead, and lunge before they turn into tanks, it makes it easier for them to calmly process the new (and potentially more dangerous) steps we ask them to learn when starting their official "colt breaking" process. I've only had him for a whole month and a half, so I can't take all the credit here. He already knew a whole lot of this, plus he is utterly nonchalant about most things, so it makes even the new stuff seem really easy! At the grand old age of 2.5 years, here's what he knows:

Lead: This means he stops when I stop or say whoa, and then he stands there! No matter what, he's expected to leave his feet in that same place. He's also expected to stop with his feet square, or move them to square up when asked. This is an on going training, and by the time I get on he should be able to perfectly execute a back, turn on haunches, turn on forehand, sidepass in hand, so that when I get on he's only learning a new cue for an old movement, and not having to totally learn what is expected and how to make his body do that. I also fully plan on returning to this to teach shoulder in, and haunches in from the ground before we get there with his dressage training.

Tie: for hours at a time without pulling, pawing, or dancing about.

Hobble: This was a new one for me being an english rider, but I'm totally sold now! I think its so important to teach early, and has so many uses later in life.

Saddle and bridle: As I said he already knew this before I got him, so by now he can have a western saddle thrown up on him with girths and stirrups flapping and I get no reaction. Also its important that he's had a rear cinch on so that God-forbid-I-ever-sell, his first experience with that isn't with some with some poor unsuspecting 4H-er. (Although, like usual, he couldn't care less.)

Lunge: Walk, trot, canter, whoa, with a saddle, bridle, and side reins. Learning to maintain a nice forward gait while on the bit. Also helping him build some muscle on his top-line before expecting him to tote somebody around. Lunging doesn't mean being chased around at top speed while half falling inward for an hour straight. It does mean learning to respond to what I'm asking from 20 feet away despite distractions, collecting and extending his gaits, and learning to carry himself around corners.

Pony or snub off another horse: this has worked great since he LOVES my mare and would follow her to the ends of the earth! He's done this at walk and trot, all across the pasture, up hills, over poles and logs, out in the high brush and gullies of the "back 40" (which is really only 2 acres... but it works great for pretend trail rides!).

Bitting up: Learning to give to the pressure on the bit and bend through his whole body while his rein is tied to his tail. (We had to get really creative on this one because he literally has no tail!) By doing this they learn that by pulling they only pull themselves, not the trainer, and that they can still move while bending. From there he learned to turn by reins in hand, which brings us to...

Line driving: the "training way" with long lines through the stirrups, not with a full driving harness on. He's learned steering, stop and back before having the extra mental and emotional drama of a rider (who has her own mental and emotional drama!).

General obedience: trailering, having a fly mask and blanket put on by anyone and everyone, not running me down and stealing his dinner while I walk it to his feed tub, not biting, bumping, stepping on, or otherwise entering my space without being invited while being groomed, bathed, or clipped. That's where we are so far, and I guess from here on out the exciting stuff starts to happen! I wish I could get pictures of it, but we're mainly working in the indoor arena and you get that snow effect where the flash pics up every single dust particle! I'll have to try a photoshoot on a sunny Saturday afternoon!

The adventure begins...

2008-10-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

So August 24th, 2008 I officially bought my own horse! Don't get me wrong I've owned and ridden horses all my life. Like many families, my childhood horses were passed down from my sister or mother as I advanced. Then as a college student I began riding at barns as a working student where I rode whatever lesson horse that was available, and earning my keep working with the youngsters, in-for-training horses, and any and every resale horse. So this is the first horse that I've officially paid for myself, and will also have to foot all the bills for myself. These are the first registration papers with my name on them. Most importantly, this will be the first horse that I will have the responsibility of training all the way through, which is a huge responsibility! But more on that later... Now a little bit about him. His barn name is Bear. He's a two and a half year old gelding. He's out of an appy racing mare who had thoroughbred confirmation but a lovely leopard spotted coat. She has Native Dancer bloodlines, and has been successfully started a new career as an English pleasure mount and broodmare. His sire was breed to be an Appaloosa sport horse, and has had a great start in dressage. He has wonderful foreward movement and a good disposition (BONUS!). He is a great grandson of Secretariat! Both have strong thoroughbred lines, and appy color, and Bear seems to be just exactly what he was bred to be: Tall Dark and Spotty! He is a handsome guy, and although he doesn't have perfect conformation, he is wonderfully athletic, and has such a confident and laid-back personality that I think he could still make a lower level eventer. He naturally does flying lead changes in the pasture, and has great big long strides. And although its not a requirement to success, its so much more fun to have a friendly horse that comes up to you in the pasture for scratches and love. We're off to a good start! Stay tuned for his training progress.