Looking sporty!

Maybe he really goes quieter in these ear bonnets, maybe I just think he looks cute in them, either way, he's now got one in black and one in brown, and I LOVE them!

He is sensitive about things tickling his ears when we ride. Even though we don't have much of a bug problem this early in the season, I do think it helped keep the wind out of his ears for yesterday's lesson. We had some crazy gusts! So the addition of the cute head gear, the jumping saddle instead of the dressage saddle, and the breast collar that I usually only use for cross country, all made for quite the sporty looking pony! Everyone commented!

Bear just turned 6 a few weeks ago, and since he's an adult, its time for him to get a job! We are officially starting over fences. YEAH! That was why I was looking so sporty for my dressage lesson. We worked on many of the usual things for the first part of the lesson, and then we took him through a gymnastic at the end. He was a little clumsy trying to sort out where his feet go, but he got the idea quickly. More importantly, he felt so relaxed and solid through it that it almost felt like he was already trained. Love it! It was still a cross rail of no more than a foot at the low point, but it was the biggest thing we've jumped so far, and he felt so good!

So we've gone about all of the possible options to prepare for jumping over the last few months. We've trotted tiny cross-rail courses, we've done trot poles, we've cantered over a pole on the ground, we've trotted logs on cross country and the trail, now we have finally jumped a beginner gymnastic (guide pole, cross rail, guide pole) AND added a second canter stride pole after with another little jump a few strides out. He's super relaxed about all of it! Next will be cantering in to the gymnastic and cantering a course of poles. I also think I'd like to free jump him again. I haven't done it for well over a year, and didn't jump him over more than 2ft then since he wasn't in great shape. I'd like to see his form over larger fences now, both to see what his style is like and to convince myself he's got the jump in him to later move up.

In the mean time, we are working on cantering conditioning at two point with the idea of working up to 5 minutes. I really need the work (right now ONE minute kills me!), but it has also been a big change for him to have me up out of the saddle. So we are doing lots of extend-collect transitions in two point to get him to understand what I'm asking now that I'm not able to sit down and use my seat.

I'm off to take him out on the trail now. Hoping he'll be quiet and sensible so that we can work on this canter excercise out in the open.

On a roll!

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!

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

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...

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...

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.

And then there was one...

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!

Long days… warm weather… LOTS of hair!

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!

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

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!

First Horse Show!

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!

Just for fun!

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!

Skipping the show was a good idea...

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!

Little steps toward the big goal

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...

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

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...

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...

Officially riding on our own!

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!

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!

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!

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...

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!