Trail riding blues

Because it was rather warm upstairs after yesterdays nice weather, I slept with the windows open. I woke up about 5:00 a.m. to birdsong. Once my foggy brain registered that it was Saturday, I pulled the comforter up from the foot of the bed and snuggled in next to hubby for a couple more hours sleep. It was so nice to wake up to the sunshine yet another day! We decided to walk to Starbucks for our morning coffee and to take the dog with us. Let me tell ya, she was jumping for joy! After a decaf, skinny, cinnamon dolce latte and a cinnamon scone, we walked back home, changed clothes and headed out to the barn.

This nice weather is aggravating my trail riding bug. A friend from my barn invited me to go along with her and some other friends for a trail ride Monday afternoon. She said they needed some tried and true trail horses along. I think there are some greenies that need to go out. Well...Boo is not the tried and true trail horse that he ought to be at 20 years old. Instead he is the type of horse who will take his cues from the greenies around him. If they want a tried and true they need hubby and his horse Bay. Today hubby took Boo out on the ride we are suppose to go on Monday. Sarah rode Bay. I stayed back at the barn to man the phone for the 911 phone call that might be required.

Everyone came back in one piece, but I think hubby may have a new found respect for why I am rather nervous about going out on the trail although I long too. Boo can be a very stubborn boy. He especially hates marshy or muddy ground. Today he didn't want to go into the high grass and he didn't want to cross the marshy ground, and he didn't want to stop jigging if Bay got to far in front of him. He ended up going through the marshy ground and into the high grass with hubby leading him there ( I refused to let hubby wear his cowboy spurs). Better that then not going at all. I watched as Mick tried to go forwards, then tried to sidepass and then tried to back him through. The backing almost worked. Finally he got off, led him through, and got back on. I asked him later on if he thought the spurs might have helped and he told me he wasn't sure. They might have, but then again, when Boo goes into his "I am afraid and I'm not going there" brain, the spurs might have just made him panic more.

The jigging was on the way back. He's always done that when other horses get to far in front of him. Especially if he is the last one in line. As a matter of fact, he hates being the last one in line. I don't know who told him the lion eats the last horse in line, but someone obviously did. Mick worked with him on the jigging by just making him stop when he jigged. They'd walk a few steps, Boo would start to jig, and hubby would stop him again. They did that all the way back to the barn. Hopefully, he'll get over that by the end of the summer. At least he was stopping when asked. I guess it could be worse.

I wish I had taken some pictures of them, but the camera was locked in the truck and the keys were in Mick's pocket, so maybe tomorrow.

Odds and ends

Waiting for hubby to come home after which we head out to the barn together. We took Bay to the vet yesterday and spent about 2 hours there. They looked him over, worked some more on his teeth. Right now they are thinking that his teeth are the problem...the reason he's been losing weight; that coupled with the fact he's only been on hay and no grain and we're working him rather hard. He never needed anything but hay before, but now we are going to try Strategy. Has anyone out there used it? He isn't horribly underweight, but if he had another 50 lbs on him it wouldn't hurt him either.

I am going to ride Boo. He has had another easy week only because I have been busy with other things. I am feeling a bit guilty about that. Tomorrow the forecast is beautiful, so I plan to spend a good portion of the afternoon out there with him. Hopefully, I will get a picture or two to post while I am there.

This weekend is the AHACO show down in Salem. I am going to go down on Sunday when they have the dressage rides because I know a couple of the young ladies showing, and I'd like to see their rides. Might go Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours too, just because I like to look at the western bling. We'll see. Saturday may be given over to work around here that I have been avoiding...or maybe a trail ride? We'll see.

I took a break from horses

I took a break from horses last week. I don't know why I needed one, but I did. Maybe it was just my frustration that Boo still has these issues after 5 years...

Oh well, not like I'm going to boot him to the curb or anything...so I'm back. Rode today. His canter work was better than his trot work. We worked through it though and that is what counts. I made him wade through the big mud hole 2 or 3 times before we went in to saddle up. He didn't like it, but he did it.

I got an email last week from Boo's previous owner asking how he was doing. I think I probably wrote her a book length reply. It's always fun to catch people up on your horse. I know the previous owner must have cared deeply about him, why else bother to look him up.

I spent last week getting a weight training routine going. I figure it will help me with my endurance in the saddle and my balance etc. I worked out my lower half yesterday and I gotta say, after riding today I can barely climb the stairs up to the bedroom. Tomorrow is my upper body routine. I'm not overdoing it either. I'm doing one set of 10 with 3.5 lb weights. Guess that shows you how out of shape I have been. This week I am suppose to graduate to 2 sets of 10. Might have to go another week with the one set. Just so I can keep riding.

When I returned to my horse obsession this week, I did it by going out to the Heart of the Valley dressage show at Devonwood on Saturday. It's always inspiring to watch really good riders ride. I took my camera along and took some pictures too. I'm posting a couple of my favorites.

The Mud Wars

When will the rain stop? It's messing wisth my riding schedule. I didn't go out yesterday or today. I knew with the winds and the rain it would be an exercise in riding past the spooky rattling barn door on the short end. Not something I felt up to after my mud puddle wars on Sunday.

I had a nice ride on Sunday. I did have to work more on slowing him down. He always wants to speed up on that long side. We rode lots of circles and straight lines until he finally realized (once again) that I want to be the one to set the pace. I think this might take awhile. Either this wasn't an issue before or I just didn't recognize it as an issue. Once we'd gotten to a good place with tempo we worked on canter departs and staying with me on the tempo there too. I rode off the wall, and instead of riding around the arena I rode him straight towards the wall. That way if he decided to try and blow through my aids the wall would slow him down. He didn't give me any problems at all and was a very obedient boy. Because we had ended on such a good note and because it was rather nice outside, I took him for a little hack out and about the property.

We rode down to the summer pastures and around the outdoor arena. We rode between the rock barrier in the parking lot and the tractor barn and past the pile of hoses just waiting to rise up and eat an unsuspecting horse. We rode past the hay shed, the horse trailors, and the big pile of shavings. We even rode through a couple of puddles that had lost their water, but were still a bit muddy. Now Boo doesn't like mud puddles, so I was greatly encouraged when he rode through the mud without flinching or even trying to side step. I was so encouraged that I decided to give the large puddle outside the little barn a try. We walked up to the puddle which was about 2-3 feet across and about 4-5 feet long. Boo stopped. I gave him a squeeze. He backed up. I gave him a tap with the dressage whip (just a tap mind you nothing more) and Boo started his whirl to the left, head up, snorty, kick out behind bull that he does when he's going to put up an argument. Only this time instead of kicking out once he kicked out a second time, and then a third time. Ah oh, he was getting into a rhythm here and that was not going to be good for me.

I was trying to turn him into a circle but he was stronger than me, so I had to work my left hand down the rein nearly to the bit, pull his head towards my knee and hang on while he circled and snorted and circled and snorted some more. Finally he settled, but he was ready and waiting for me to try to make him cross that puddle. Instead I started walking him back and forth along the length of the puddle. With each turn I would bring him a little closer. Once I had worked him over close to the puddle again, I decided to turn him across the measly little edge of the puddle rather than through the center where it was deeper. Nope, not going there. He started jigging and side stepping his way around the puddle, and I ended up having to circle him again just to get him settled down. This time, once I got him settled, I got off. Let me tell ya, when I hit the ground my knees were knocking. I was grateful that I had not taken a fall and I was angry that Boo was putting up such a fuss over such a small thing as a puddle. He has to walk through a bigger puddle than that just to get out of his pasture and back to his stall at night!

I figured I couldn't let him get away with this, but no way was I risking breaking anymore bones, so I used my dressage whip to keep him off to the side of me rather than directly behind me and I hauled his butt through that puddle at least 10 times. Not along the measly little edge of the puddle either, but right smack through the just above the ankle center of it. The last time through I made him stop and stand in the middle until I said it was time to move. Then I hauled him over to the big barn and enlisted my much braver than me hubby to ride him through the puddle. Mick rode him back and forth 4 or 5 times. By this time Boo was frothing at the mouth but he was going through, so we called it a day. I took him inside, untacked him, and led him back out to graze...right through the middle of that big old puddle. Later on, when I got ready to take him into his stall for dinner I led him through the middle of that puddle again. He is going through that puddle everytime I take him out for anything until there is no more puddle to walk through.

The funny thing is, he didn't want to go through when hubby rode him either, so I walked through to the other side and turned around and looked at him and he came through to where I was. Did the same thing again the 2nd time through. It isn't a trust issue with me, because he's perfectly willing to follow me through if I go first...although I'm sure he'd rather go around. I ended up having to stand off to the side and let hubby take him through on his own, because he needed to go through when the rider told him too not because he could follow the leader.

Obviously this is just as big an issue for me to work through as it is for Boo. Maybe bigger. I've lost a lot of confidence in the saddle after the injuries I've suffered. We will keep working on it. Maybe puddles are always scary to a horse. A friend said she wondered if they didn't just look like a big hole to a horse. I'll figure out a way to motivate him to go through when I ask him too. It just might take me some time.

Sunday Stills

No grazing for Boo today

It's been a long day. It was a good day, but it has been a long one. I spent the morning at the barn with Boo. Loving the sunshine. We did our practice from the clinic this past weekend and then we rode outside for awhile. I ran short on time and couldn't let him graze. He looked at me over the fence line like I was the worst Mom in the world. He stood there until I got into my car and then he finally turned away. Guess he figured out the cookies were all he was gonna get today. No green spring grass for Boo! I'll have to make sure I let him spend time grazing tomorrow.

I bought some corn oil for Bay day before yesterday. He's looking a little ribby and increasing his hay ration doesn't seem to be quite enough. I increased his soy and started him on some corn oil and we'll see what happens from there. I think he lost some weight after he had his teeth worked on. I think he was pretty sore for awhile. He had some major work done. He works pretty hard too. He's such a good boy. I wanna put the some meat back on him. Sure happens fast.

Both boys got shoes on Monday, so we are ready to go ride some trails. Wish the rain would stop. Heard on the news that we are short on rainfall for this year. Yeah, because it snowed instead of rained. The snowpack should be great.

I gotta get out from in front of this computer. I've been here far to long today. Later everybody.

Feeling good about today

I have not had a riding lesson in almost 3 years...until today. I went to a clinic and rode and it was wonderful! The trainer is a very positive person. Quick to point out what you are doing right and helpful with what you need to do to fix any problems. It was a very non-threatening environment. It was probably helpful that 3 of the other riders had come from my barn and I had met 3 more riders previously. Even so, I opted to make darn certain I'd keep the nerves at bay and took a shot of Pendleton about 30 minutes before my ride. A very dear friend boards at the barn where the clinic was held, and she took video for me. I plan to go back again and again and again :)

We worked on getting Boo to relax and not fall in over his left shoulder on circles. I didn't even realize he was doing it. Believe me though, once we fixed it I could definitely tell the difference and knew immediately when he tried to go back to it. By the time we were finished he was going around in a balanced frame and reaching for and chewing on the bit. I could feel him lift his back and give a soft roundness that has only been fleeting before.

When we head around to the right I need to flex him more than I had been doing. My outside rein was good but I had not flexed enough on the inside rein. When we head around to the left I need to counterflex him because I need to move him off the left shoulder. When I did it right I could feel him square up beneath me. I have to admit that in the beginning when he would square up I would be sitting crooked. Bernadine told me to glance back over my right shoulder to the outside of the circle and I ended up square in the saddle. She told me to work the circle in both directions and to spiral in and out on the circle with those corrections in mind. She actually told me a lot of things but I am not remembering right now. Thank goodness for Joanne and the video!

Boo was really good too. He got a little snorty when we first tried to load him in the trailer. One of the reasons I wanted to do this clinic was to get him off the property and take him for a ride. He hasn't been off the property since we moved him in last September. He ended up riding well and settled in at the barn where the clinic was being held quite well. He has never been there before, so I thought he might be spooky in the arena. Didn't happen. I think we had him so engaged in the work he didn't have time to even think about where he was.

I'm getting shoes put back on both horses on Monday, so if the weather gets nice and stays that way hubby and I can start going out for rides. I am so looking forward to this summer! Happy Trails!