This Is Not a Joke

I wanted to post this entry yesterday, but I feared people would only think it was an April Fools joke and never come back. This is, I believe, my return to regular blogging. I have been dealing with a few issues that led me to be a bit wishy washy with this blog. First, I had a hard time deciding on what type of writing I wanted to do here, but I also lost a dear friend last year and have spent the last year feeling not at all myself. Earlier attempts at bringing the blog back in a "fake it til you make it" approach left me feeling frustrated. I was empty inside and words would float around my head but never solidify into cohesive thoughts. The good news is, I've been doing a lot of training, riding, and thinking. Now that I'm feeling a little more myself, I'm ready to share my thoughts with you! BUT FIRST... We are going to start off with an update on Betty the wondermare.

After our fantastic outing at the SAFE show, Betty and I continued to work on riding, showmanship, and having her feet handled. I struggled to find enough time to ride her at the facility she was at as the days became shorter. Without arena lights,  I was still heading out to feed her each day, but I wasn't able to ride much. So, in October, she moved to The Red Horse Farm, my home base of operations and where two of my lessons horses live. We spent the next four months not quite riding as much as I'd like but still progressing steadily. Then we went and did this:



Her first time on cattle showed a lot of promise, but I realized how many buttons I still needed to install before she would be ready to work them again. We started working with more focus and with an aim at better body control. Betty was really enjoying her large pasture at RHF, but I was again running into issues with her housing arrangement. It was beginning to get hard to catch her, and I found myself making excuses not to ride just so I could avoid the half hour of chasing her around the pasture it would take to bring her in. In January, I had a serious talk with myself about getting this mare on track. At this point, she had about the equivalent of 45 days of training. We could walk/trot/canter and had basic steering but little else.

So, again, Betty was loaded on the trailer and moved a little further north along the road to Lazy M Stables. This has become my main training barn, and it made sense to have Betty where I do most of my riding. Since her move in February she has really come a long way. We have been taking lessons with a reining trainer, a dressage trainer, and hauling out to work some cattle. She has learned how to bend (relaxation is still a work in progress), is much better balanced, works well off my leg, and is starting to take horse strides instead of short choppy pony strides. This little mare has been such a joy to work with, and it turns out she's pretty talented too. She clearly was bred for the types of events I want to do and has such a steady temperament it's amazing.

So why bother to blog about her again after so long? Well, let me tell you what we have coming up! Starting April 1, we are participating in a 14 Week Riding Challenge. Between now and July 12, the goal is to complete 40 rides and a total of 60 hours together. Since we usually ride 5 days a week, I am hoping to complete this challenge by the end of May. Here are a few photos from our first ride of the challenge.




She's still pretty fuzzy but has put on some good muscle since the fall. These are our official "before" pictures for the challenge.



Baby slide stop tracks are starting to happen. Sometimes she braces too much, but it's a work in progress.

The reason for the challenge and the blogging, is to help keep me accountable and track my progress towards something that's already keeping me up at night with excitement. June 7-8, Betty and I will be heading across the mountains to clinic with Les Vogt. This guy is one of the greats, and I never expected to have a chance to ride with him. Needless to say, I am super excited and want to be sure that Betty and I are prepared to take home as much from the clinic as possible.

For some reason I can't get this video to embed, but it's a great explanation of his training approach and our road map for the next month at least: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJs_KP7e_DA&list=PLR4AO9Zju0dTri8I--5JmsUJolS3n33fE&index=2

We are currently improving pieces 1 and 2, and I just introduced step 3. So, we are well on our way. I'm also focused on getting her more relaxed and steady at the lope. Once these skills are a little further developed, I will put together a list of more specific goals. I still need to be careful of pushing her too hard, and I want to get out on the trails as soon as we dry out a bit here. Check back often to see what we're up to! 

On a roll...

July 1 Recap: It's been crazy hot the past few days, but I'm determined to work the big ol' bellies off these horses before the show in August. I waited until it started to cool off for the day so none of us would die of heat exhaustion, but even with my kind intentions the horses took off the second they saw me coming with their halters. I got Z caught after only a minute or two chasing him around. I popped him in the crossties and headed back out for Betty. She stood very patiently in the crossties while I groomed them both. She did have a mild freak out when I hit her with the fly spray, but she settled right down again afterwards.

I tacked up Z and tied Betty to the fence to wait her turn. She stood around patiently the whole time. I'm not sure if this girl is just that good, or maybe a day spent grazing in the sun had her feeling drowsy.   When it was her turn to work, we spent a few minutes trotting and cantering circles. She was very lazy tonight, but, since I had big plans for our session, I decided to go with her laid back vibe and get down to business. I reviewed standing still while I waved the whip around and the saddle pad. I took a little extra time because this was a different pad than we'd used before. Then...

TADAAA!!!! Goal #5 has been accomplished! Betty was great for her first time saddled. I tossed it on and off her back a few times before cinching her up. She stood like an old dude horse and moved off calm as could be. I worked her both directions at all three gaits without a buck, snort, or silly fit.  So proud of this sweet girl.

Betty Update: June Summary

Wow! I can't believe June is gone already. It's been a full month with 4H season in full swing. Sadly, this means Betty has been doing lots of standing around mowing pasture. I'm happy to say, though our sessions are few and far between, we continue to progress. 

Below are a few posts that I had waiting as drafts to be edited and posted. I procrastinated too long and now it seems a little silly to post them on their own. So you get them all together. 

6/2: I only had time for a quick session. I brought her down to the barn, tied her up, and picked her feet.  Then we worked on holding her feet in the farrier positions and tapping/filing gently with a rasp. This will help get her ready for shoes to be nailed on. She was really good, but several times she declined my offer of treats. This has been happening lately, and I'm going to add timothy pellets for variety to suss out whether its the treats themselves or the process she is rejecting. 

Tonight was her first night together in the pasture with Z. I was ready for some running and tomfoolery when I opened the gate between their two pastures, but they just trotted together over to a grass patch and began grazing like they'd been together forever.

6/3: As I feared, Betty avoided me at catching time. I knew this would probably happen when she had a buddy to hide behind, as that was her favorite tactic in the pasture at the rescue. Since I had an extra pair of hands, I asked my trusty sidekick to catch Z. With the ability to use him to avoid me removed, she only walked away about 15 yards before turning around and approaching me for her treat.

In our groundwork, I was looking for more balanced trot in her circles, and she did very well. She tends to be more stiff when travelling to the right, so I occasionally ask her to yield her hips for a step to get her reaching her right hind deeper under her body and closer to her midline. As a way of reinforcing this, I asked for a lot of yielding her hindquarters from a standstill as well. Because she has been doing this one for a while, I asked for a little more refinement and precision. She's getting more consistent at crossing her hind legs while keeping her front end still, but she does have a tendency to want to walk forward rather than pivot. As she gets more flexible, I will continue to raise the precision that I require from her.

I also worked on the Landslide Exercise (back 4 steps, 90 degree turn on the haunch, sidepass 4 steps, 90 degree turn on the forehand, back 4 steps) from both sides. She was having trouble with the sidepass, which is the most recent step she has learned; so, we worked on this one both directions with her standing perpendicular to the fence. This helped her see clearly what her options were, and she greatly improved in only a few passes. We will need to continue to work on calmness as she tends to want to rush through her maneuvers, and she goes to the right much better than to the left. I need to be sure to pause between each step of the exercise to give both of us time to get organized for the next step.

I reviewed targeting the feet for a few minutes, but she doesn't seem to be enjoying that particular exercise. I think it's hard for her to lift her leg forward, which is why I chose this method in the first place. I think I'm going to put that one on hold for a while, and I will re approach the issue when she is better balanced. While it would be convenient for her to know it now, she really doesn't need it until she has to hold her foot on a hoof stand for shoes.

Today was also the day I introduced her to the saddle blanket. As with most things that aren't person related, Betty didn't care about it one bit. In this instance, a picture is worth a thousand words...

She also wore it over her back while walking and trotting some circles. Since the session was going to well, I also introduced the concept of approaching me at the mounting block. She wasn't too sure at the beginning, her hardest training moments involve her having to move near my bubble. She is OK with me being near if she can be still, but when she has to move in close proximity to me, she still gets a little tense and rushy. She caught on quickly to the concept, and I was very proud of our first session on it.

6/10: Continuing with my goal of getting Betty more comfortable moving closer to me, we worked on showmanship. She is already fairly maneuverable in hand from all the groundwork we've been doing, but she is really uncomfortable trotting in hand. To slowly ease her into it, we started with her trotting a circle about 8ft wider than I was jogging. I adjusted my speed and direction to keep her aligned approximately in the position I want her to be in when she is closer to me, but I allowed anywhere from a foot in front of to a foot behind my shoulder. When she got too fast, a quick turn brought her back into an ideal position. She rarely went too slow, but if she did, I would slow down my pace to match. As she became more comfortable, I reeled in more and more slack from the line. We ended up doing walk trot transitions with about three feet of rope between us. We had some good moments and some not so good moments, but she was really trying to figure out what I wanted. At the end of our session, I introduced the first step of setting up for showmanship. I used the clicker to reward her for standing squarely with weight on all four feet. The addition of variety of treats seems to have revived her interest in treats (and the clicker), but she does still occasionally pass on them. I've been wondering how far I would take the clicker into the training process, but it's starting to look like we will leave it behind sooner rather than later. We'll see how the next several sessions progress.

6/22: This was our first session that I left my clicker in the tack room. Her declining interest in receiving treats but not in the work itself led me to believe it was time to let it go.  We worked on more traditional lunging work; she seemed to like the more relaxed pace of working one direction and then the other. I worked her at each gait changing directions before moving faster. She is really improving in her balance and getting a more regular cadence to her work. My boyfriend was along so he was able to take some video.

You can see she is getting much more relaxed about pretty much everything. We also reviewed her showmanship moves. I've added in trot to halt transitions, and, while she still doesn't love it, she is getting much more comfortable moving next to me with only about 18" of slack in her lead. Today was her first introduction to pressure around her stomach, a vital step in preparing her for a riding career. This video was our first attempt...

I couldn't be happier with how she responded! That cool as a cucumber quality is one of the reasons I was drawn to her. I think she is going to be a rock solid horse. After this session, I think I'm ditching the clicker for our regular sessions. I'm sure it will come in handy for occasional things. I find it awesome for motivating a horse and for clarifying ground work where our cues are more difficult for horses to interpret, but, now that Betty has overcome her suspicion of me, I think I can treat her more like a "normal" horse and progress our training in my usual way.

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In between these sessions were some ho-hum, run of the mill ones. I wanted to focus on her fitness and moving in balance to best prepare her for being ridden, so we spent a lot of time trotting circles and changing directions. After her one night of rebellion, she has remained catchable. She willingly walks up to me in the pasture 90% of the time. She still has her occasional moments of avoidance but they are becoming less frequent.
Our showmanship is getting much better. So much so, that I've declared Goal #4: Go to a show. I'm planning on taking her to the S.A.F.E. Benefit Horse Show August 3rd and 4th. If she is exceptionally laid back about her new surroundings, I may show her in showmanship and trail in hand. As of now, the plan is just to get her out to see the world. I'll be showing her pasture buddy, Z, in some western classes, so she will have a battle buddy there to reassure her.

In the last month's sessions, I've been laying the very early foundation of her riding career. She is gaining confidence with each session, and I'm starting to feel like riding her is approaching faster than I thought it would. To that end, I will continue refining the movements that have already been introduced, while adding new elements that will continually build towards my first step in the saddle. The first one, Goal #5: Carry a saddle, should be uneventful. She has already worn the blanket and had pressure around her middle, but saddles have flapping stirrups and a stiff feel on her back that may inspire some excited behavior. I'm excited to see how she handles this new element.

Month End Goal Recap:
Goal #5: Carry a saddle.
Goal #4: Go to a show.
Goal #3: Plant the feet. - Accomplished!
Goal #2: Get a hoof trim. -Accomplished!
Goal #1: Create a catching routine. -Accomplished! 

Goal #2: Accomplished!

Betty had her first "real" trim on Thursday. I'm particularly proud of her because it was raining, and she had to be trimmed in a stall. I was glad we had practiced with the scary mats because she marched right into the stall when I asked her to. It probably helped that there was food in there. Betty loves food.

Sadly, I have no action shots. I was busy shoving treats into Betty's mouth. As long as she was chewing, she could handle the scary guy working on her feet. I think she'll get much better with a little more practice, and John gave us a rasp to use to work on getting used to having her feet hammered on. I'll keep her barefoot as long as I can, but, when the time comes for shoes, she'll be ready. 

Since the weather was rotten, we decided to leave the horses stalled for the night. It was also a test to see how they got along in close quarters. The plan is to move them in together so that they can start going out in the big pasture to graze. When I came to turn them out in the morning, Betty was happy and relaxed. She didn't seem to mind her night in the stall one bit. 

I've been holding off doing a lot of "work" with Betty because I didn't want to chip her feet, but now it's time to get serious about conditioning. While I'm not in a hurry to get her started under saddle, I do want to start making baby steps toward it.