And More Running

September 8, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

Today it was my turn to ride Laredo, and after Robin’s highly successful loping, I figured we would do the same.

The ride started out pretty good, with the only problem coming from me and my boots. My good riding boots are at the cobbler’s getting new heels (I knocked the rubber off one doing hard groundwork in the pasture with Laredo the other week), so I had to wear my old pair of boots. These have always been too big on me, and they are much cheaper and floppier. You would not think it would make a huge difference, but throughout the ride I was shocked at how unstable my feet felt in the stirrups. This had a pretty big impact on my leg cues and seat. I’m sure I’d get used to them if I had to, but thankfully my trusty Olathes with their excellent heels and solid, leather soles will be back in just a few days.

With the funny feelings in the feet and some tight hips, I almost didn’t lope Laredo. But with how good he has been, those were silly reasons not to. And all our normal stuff was going great. Like Robin, we did a lot of bending.

We spent a good amount of time at the trot. He is moving out very nicely and really seems to enjoy trotting.

Finally we trotted down the strip and then picked up the lope on the way back. It does take a little more effort to get him going than it does with Steen or Bear, but he seems to shift between the trot and lope much smoother than either of them do. And when you are in the lope, it feels great.

We loped up the strip six or seven times. A few of them he got distracted on and petered out rather quickly. Once it was the herd, and then when we tried to lope with Robin and Steen, rather than get really interested in another running horse and try to stay with them, Laredo was surprised to see Steen running and had to slow down to take it all in. He’s such a funny horse. Thankfully the second time we tried to run together he hooked on to Steen nicely and we had a great run.

In between our runs we worked on troting and bending and walking. He wasn’t exactly riled up from running, but he did want to keep going down the strip. He also has this weird tendency to move into pressure when things are happening a little bit outside his comfort zone. In this instance he wanted to follow his buddy Tate who left on a trail ride, but instead I was making him run and pay attention to me.

We’re pretty sure the person who trained him as a 2 year old was a little heavy on the bit. We know they started in a snaffle, but they also used a twisted-wire snaffle. Definitely not ideal as far as we’re concerned. Robin and I have been working really hard to not get into any kind of pulling wars with him, and when he wants to seek pressure we just keep him moving forward and throw him as much rein as we can.

The ride was really great, and in the end he was so relaxed he let me scrub the mud off his ears that he would not let me get in the pasture or when we were grooming.

Bear also seems to be doing good. All our running is keeping him lean for his lady friend.

Lots of Running

Brian

September 6, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Bear continues to feel a little off. He was not super interested in coming to me, and while he often lacks a little spunk, today he was lacking more than usual.

I kept things very slow in the beginning. We went through all our usual things that seem to help loosen him up like walking and trotting in circles of varying sizes and serpentines and easy one rein stops. These might have helped some; it was a little hard to tell. Thankfully I could tell that he was not in serious discomfort, so I decided to spend some time going faster. Oftentimes that will blast out some of the stiffness and really allow him to relax.

We ended up spending a lot of time working at the lope. It was quite fun, and also quite demanding on me. It took a few passes of the oval for us to work together through the turns, but we ended up settling into a really nice pace. He was good off my legs, and I think he was having fun.

After some great running, we took a break to snap some shots of Robin and Laredo. She was having a wonderful ride and decided she should lope him for the first time. I know, we’ve had him for months and have not worked on the lope yet. But really, we’re in no hurry.

Of course, he seems to have an extremely balanced lope and absolutely no inclination to run away with you, so everything worked out fine and there was probably no real reason to wait this long. But all this time has made us all really comfortable with one another, and I’m sure that had to help.

I went back to working with Bear and wanted to spend some more time going right. We had mixed it up earlier, but spent most of the time going left. Right was good, but I wanted make sure. Wanting to make sure is probably the best way to ensure things are not good, and that is exactly what happened this time.

Bear was turning right just fine, but he was not into bending smoothly through a gradual turn. Instead we were running in what felt like a big triangle. We would run to the soybean field and then make a turn to the right, upon which Bear would lope at an angle to the opposite fenceline (ignoring my leg completely) and then dig in for a super tight turn up the fenceline before making a semi-nice 90 degree turn to head back towards the soybean field.

It was exhausting for me to push him out of this pattern. You can see in the pic above that I’ve got my right leg on him and am trying to add a little bit from both the leading and supporting rein. Trying to go up the soybean field while Bear wanted to cut over made it a little difficult for me to keep my butt planted in the saddle, but eventually we started working things out a little bit better and got some nice big ovals. It is funny to project what the horse is thinking, and probably isn’t all that useful, but I like to do it anyways. In this instance, it really felt like Bear was just trying to go where he wanted to go, then all of a sudden he got tired of working against my cues and decided to just work with them. In the end, he was neither more sore nor less sore, but I’m hopeful the running loosened him up some.

Also, baby Laredo shots.

Playing Cowboy

Brian

September 3, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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When we were grooming the guys, the barn owner’s 9 year old daughter, Sylvia, asked if we wanted to help move the cows to the other treed lot for the winter. We were definitely down with that.

We mounted in the treed lot we often ride in and rode off into the big pasture with Sylvia and her friend Grace. We also had the barn owner in her golf cart. The cows were as far away as they could be, so we walked all the way down to the end and planned to bring them up along the south fence line, through a narrow section of the pasture and then to the far northwest corner of the treed lot that we started in. Sounds far, but it was certainly less than half a mile.

We spread out in the pasture when we got close to the herd. Sylvia dove right in and started moving the cows while Robin and I ended up on top of the hill near the front of the herd. I moved to the very front and tried to keep an eye on one of the more energetic adults. She had a few youngsters with her, and she definitely wanted to run. Bear and I checked her a few times, but then she took off. We loped alongside them for a little while, but the terrain got a little steep and I let them get away from us. Thankfully they just went where we wanted them to anyways. I definitely need some practice on reading cows and knowing the best position to be in.

The rest of it was uneventful. I waited for the rest of the herd to pass me by and then we trailed them up the hill and into the treed pasture. They went to the proper corner and then we just had to hang out there while some helpers opened the gate and shooed them across the driveway into their new home. It was a pretty cool experience, and I look forward to doing it again some time.

Then the girls planned on ridding in a big section of timber that has become a little more rideable thanks to some mowing and breaking down of tree branches. So we tagged along with them. It was a fun ride, and not too demanding physically.

We mostly zig zagged around the big area, finding small openings in the trees and squeezing through narrow sections of brush. We walked almost the whole time, and no one had a problem at all. I think they cows got everyone a little excited, and then we took them all somewhere new and they were just happy to follow along with whatever we wanted.

Back on the strip we did a small amount of work. Bear was only so so with listening to me in the timber section. He was not happy when we were in the back, and he kept crowding the other horses, so I wanted to spend a little time making sure he was listening to me. He was mostly OK. Robin and I then ended up loping all the way up the strip towards the barn. It was pretty fun, except Bear really gets it in his head that he is racing Steen. I checked him a few times with the hackamore. He relaxed his pace a little, and we ended up losing the “race.”

I’m not sure if this energy means he is feeling better or not. It was not the kind of ride that allowed me to really pay attention to the little signs I’m used to seeing. But if the cows make him better, we just might have to get a little herd of our own to keep things interesting for him.

Hot and Sticky

Brian

September 2, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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We’ve been waking up to really cloudy days lately. It hasn’t helped us get to the barn early. It might have been better if we did today, because by the time we got riding the sun was out and all the moisture in the ground made for a very sticky day.

It wasn’t that bad, but it was surprising in that we haven’t had a day like this in a really long time. Most of the summer was unusually dry, so these humid days really stand out.

It may or may not have affected Laredo. I could tell he was tired, but that could have been from the physically and mentally challenging ride he had yesterday after a week of no rides, or it could have been the heat, or possibly a mix of both.

But overall he was good. He continues to relax into everything we do with him. At one point, though, he showed more anxious excitement than I’ve ever seen from him. Robin and Steen had gone loping down the strip, and Laredo was certain we had to go with them or we would miss the exploring portion of the ride. I kept him down at our end, but his mind was out on the trails. It took a little while to get him concentrating after that, as he kept wanting to head off between the soy bean fields.

When we worked on the walk/trot transition exercise he was much better. I know our upward transitions were the best yet. I could roll my hips forward slightly and open up my legs and he would move into a smooth trot. The downward transitions were also quite good. They could have been a bit more consistent in terms of how quickly he gave to the bit, but overall I was really happy with how things went.

Since Laredo was so keen to head off down the strip, I decided to take him down there and actually do some work. We’ve been up and down it quite a few times, but we haven’t worked in any of the far spots. So we started with some circles and figure-eights and quickly moved in to the trot. This was not so great. He was pretty balanced and fairly relaxed in terms of how his body felt, but he was not interested in listening to me AT ALL. This made me a little angry, but I got over that and focused on slowing things down and riding with quality. That got a little better, but it wasn’t a great fix, so we slowed down more and worked on short serpentines.

He kind of hated these at first. He was so stiff, and I was trying to ride through them in a way that didn’t seem punitive, but I really had to bend him at times and encourage him with my legs. Within a few minutes we got our serpentines going really nicely; he suppled up and started reaching evenly with all four feet. When we went back to our other exercises he was much, much more attentive to me.

We finished the ride by trotting back up the strip and working in big circles and figure-eights a little more. There is no doubt he is more attentive in our usual place, so we will have to keep pushing the boundaries of where we work. Of course, he can be bad in the usual area, too. Shortly after we got up there Robin dismounted because she was done. Laredo did not think it was fair at all for me to keep working him, and I had to remind him about my legs a few times. Riding him is so fun because of all these changes. It really forces me to stay light and constantly adjust what I’m doing.

Bear seemed happy in the pasture today. His back was a teeny bit stiff to the touch, but not as bad as it has been. I couldn’t find any knots. We gave him his vitamins and I put his fly-boots on. I’m hoping those will reduce some of the stamping and possibly help him feel a little better.

Back to Second Guessing

Brian

September 1, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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After a week off due to heat and busy work days, we got back to the barn. I was disappointed to find that Bear was still not feeling the greatest. He was inclined to really park out during grooming and tacking, and when I hopped on he felt stiff and distracted. He also continued to swish his tail almost constantly.

It was a little tough for me to ride well in the beginning. I was really letting his distractedness get to me, and I’m sure that wasn’t helping me help him. Thankfully Robin was having a great ride on Laredo, and she asked if I wanted to do some walk/trot transitions in a big oval. I was definitely up for that.

I’m pretty sure our first passes around the circle were more disjointed than Robin and Laredo’s. They looked great, and we still felt bad. But I got things under control a little. I worked on getting softer with my hands and legs and asking for collection more regularly. It was going so well (and maybe distracting Bear from being distracted?) that I started holding collection through our upward transitions. I’ve never done this before. I know it is a place I should be getting to, so I figured this would be a great time to start.

All in all, it worked pretty well. It did help that he was collecting nicely at both gaits. Initially he would give me some big hops into the trot and also get rather stiff in the head and neck. I would always make sure to keep a little pressure on him until he softened back up a few strides later. As we continued with the exercise, he got to where he was softening up much quicker. We never had a transition where he remained soft through the whole thing, but we got really close. And for our first attempts at this, I’ll take it. Especially since his downward transitions were extremely soft.

After that Robin suggested we take Laredo on walk down the drainage. I had done this with him a few weeks ago and he loved it. He is such a curious guy, and he seems to have no anxiety about exploring. So off we went, and of course, he was fine. Bear was fine, too, except that he was walking quite slow and we had to trot a few times to catch up to the power-walking Laredo.

We ended up going a ways down the second strip before coming back. Laredo wanted to keep going, so that seems like a good sign. When we got back to the strip I pushed Bear into an easy lope and he felt really nice. He gave me a soft downward transition and then we called it a ride and hung out for a few minutes so the guys could graze on the lush, strip grasses.

The one shot where he didn’t have hunks of grass hanging out of his mouth.

I’ll have to just keep a close eye on Bear’s back I guess. I’m not sure if it is stamping at flies or picking fights with the new horses in the herd. Either way, there isn’t much I can do about it other than ride lightly and hope to limber him up and give him time off when he might need it. It is just extra disappointing since we are coming off a great summer where he had almost no soreness.

2nd Anniversary

Brian

August 27, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Two years ago today I got Bear. He was a somewhat dumpy and out of shape horse. At 15, he also seemed quite old. He was still a great horse for me, but at the time we didn’t know if we would keep him much more than a year.

How wrong we were. Within a few months of clean living and regular exercise, he really perked up. And he’s slowly continued to change ever since. I have no intention of getting rid of him now, and I just hope we have many more years of riding and learning together.

I was pretty tired from riding all three horses yesterday, so I never planned a big ride for today. That was good, because it was raining when I woke up and continued to rain all day. I almost lost all motivation to go out after sitting around doing nothing, but then at 4 the sun came out and the wind picked up, and it looked like it was going to be a nice evening. So I changed clothes and headed out to the barn.

Bear was the driest horse out there. I don’t know how he does it. Snow, sleet, rain, whatever, he always seems to be drier than the other horses. I know he runs a little hot (which is funny, because he is sooo not a hot blooded horse), and he is also one of, if not the, head of the herd. So maybe he just always has a good position? Funny stuff. Someday when we get our land it will be fun to sit on the porch and watch the guys hang out to really see what they do.

We tacked up and proceed out to the strip. The ground was really soggy, so I didn’t plan on anything too exciting. We started by walking all the way up and down the strip. Bear was tight on the short, steep downhill, so we did it a few times and he loosened up.

We came back up top and trotted a few figure eights and worked on staying soft. He was pretty good, but he was exhibiting some of the same behaviors as yesterday. The tail was still swishing more than I would like and he kept shaking the skin on the right side of his body. It was not nearly as bad as yesterday, so that was good, but I have no idea what is causing it.

But since I planned on keeping things easy, I wasn’t too worried. We ventured back down the strip, and this time turned down the drainage. Bear wasn’t so sure about this at first, but I encouraged him to keep going. He then proceeded to zig zag his way down to the second strip. It was a little annoying. He only seems to do this when there isn’t another horse there. I had him trot for a while hoping that would fix the problem, but it really just got the section over with sooner and did nothing to fix the zig zag issue..

We walked down to the end of the second strip. This was uncharted territory for Bear and I. We have never ventured out from the barn alone. It seems like we would have done this earlier, but really, 99 percent of my riding is done with Robin (which is excellent, I would not have made nearly as much progress if this weren’t the case). So today was our first, pseudo-trail ride.

And it went great. Other than the weaving. But after getting to the end of the second strip and coming back (which was totally fine) we made another trip to the end and really worked on the problem. Before I was always using my legs and reins to adjust him, but it would usually just increase the weave in the other direction. So this time I kept a solid leg in the middle and just asked for collection as soft as I could. He always responded, and then most of the time he would go right back to weaving or veering. Sometimes we were collecting every second step.

But after a short while, it got better. Quite a bit better. We got to a nice spot and I let him rest and then turned for home. Of course going back he is much straighter, though still inclined to weave at times. I have often wondered about his vision in his right eye, and this is just one other example of that as most of his veering was in an attempt to see things on his right side.

We got back to the strip and cooled down with a few circles at the walk and trot and then some no-handed figure eights. It really turned into a beautiful night with a cool breeze, the setting sun, and some big clouds to the east. When I turned Bear out in the pasture, he even followed me all the way through the middle pasture when I went to put fly-masks on the other guys. So cool.

From a couple weeks ago, still looking great at 17.

And the fly-masks, I wish these were also easy, but no. I saw Laredo drifting off to go graze in the far corners of the pasture, so I went after him first. He stopped, saw me coming, waited, and then walked off again. This is becoming something of a regular occurrence, and I don’t like it very much. I had to walk after him a lot more than I would have liked.

When I caught him, I put the mask on with very little trouble. Then I put the halter on to do a little groundwork. This was just impromptu, but I wanted to remind him that I am the one who moves his feet. So I did. And it was great. He was very attentive and full of energy. I worked on directing that energy, and then bringing that energy down. It was a great little session.

Until I tried to remove the halter. He kind of freaked out at that. I remained calm and slow with my actions and tried to reassure him, but he kept pulling away. So each time he pulled away we went back to the groundwork. It got rather intense, and after a while, he was breathing really hard. I finally got to the point where I slipped one ear out, but he was still freaking out. I worried the halter would come off, but it stayed. So we continued to work and I was eventually able to get the other end off. He was stiff, but he didn’t go anywhere.

Instead, he put his head down and heaved a huge sigh. I gave him lots of praise and pets. When I walked off to put Steen’s mask on, he followed me. It was really great. I worried that I was pushing things too far and possibly losing ground with him. Not so. I stopped to give him some more pets, then turned, and he kept following me. So I think that little session was very worth it.

The Triple

Brian

August 26, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Robin is visiting her family in Arizona, so having nothing to do with myself in her absence I decided to spend most of the day at the barn riding all three horses. It was a breezy and cloudy day, and all the rides went quite well.

Steen

I decided to start with Steen. He is the softest, and most sensitive, and also I have the least amount of riding time with him now. Funny to think that, it didn’t used to be that way. For a while Steen was the only horse I rode.

He seemed happy to hang out with me. He was soft and responsive and not at all bothered by things. We spent a ton of time riding in circles. First at the walk and later at the trot. I don’t think this was super fun for him, but it was great for me. As I said, Steen is really sensitive. So in our circles I was able to concentrate on the pressure from my legs, hips, hands, torso position and a whole bunch of other things. If I made a change, he responded. I think this put me in a great place for riding the other guys.

Laredo

After our solo-ride on Tuesday, I felt really comfortable working with Laredo again. We started with some more intense groundwork, just like last time, and he was much more responsive despite having his 3 year old buddy Tate working on the strip, too. So we didn’t spend nearly as much time on it.

Under saddle he continues to get more and more responsive to legs. We spent many minutes zig zagging around the strip with only tiny adjustments from the reins. It feels great to be able to do that with him so soon. Steering was not one of his better qualities when we first got him, so we are definitely making progress.

Also like our last ride, we spent a lot of time at the trot. We trotted in big ovals, we trotted in smaller ovals, we used markers for upward and downward transitions, and I continued to use the tactic of turning a small circle to the inside when he got distracted or overly forward. This made for a rather demanding ride. For Laredo, I actually felt great. I was surprised at how relaxed I felt and how quickly I was able to assess what was working/not working and move into a good exercise for us.

Bear

While I was riding Laredo, I would occasionally see Bear way off in the distance watching us. He had received pets from me in the pasture twice already today, so he was definitely curious about what I was up to and seemed happy when I finally went to get him.

On the strip he started out really sluggish with the groundwork. We moved into the walking exercise with quick directional changes every 180 degrees (I have no idea what to call this). This woke him up instantly. Not only was he watching me closely, but he was putting energy into all his movements and I never had to ask him for anything twice. It was by far the best we’ve ever done with this exercise.

I went back to the groundwork we were doing before, and it was great. So I hopped on. Bear felt lively and energetic. He also felt very much like my horse. It was an interesting progression today. Steen does not feel very familiar to me under saddle, but Laredo felt surprisingly familiar. He had nothing on Bear, though.

So we started working through our normal warm up. He was great with the no-handed steering and happy to move into the trot. But very quickly things went downhill. He was jerky and erratic at the trot (despite me still being able to steer him rather well, it was odd), and he was constantly swishing his tail and shaking his skin as if to get rid of a fly. At one point he even gave me a few humped up hops. Very un-Bear-like.

I hopped off and ran my hands all over him, checked his back and the under part of the pad and everything seemed fine. So I got back on and started slow. We did flexes and worked on keeping them soft and holding them for a while, then smooth and easy one-rein stops, short serpentines, various sized circles and figure-eights at the walk and trot, and lots of walking out in between.

He did get better over time. I even ended up loping him up and down the strip and then worked him for a few short minutes in circles both to the left and the right. He was good for those. Quite good, really.

It almost seems like poor Bear has a somewhat sore back again. It has been so long since we’ve had a ride like this. He did just have almost a week off, and there are more flies out there. Perhaps he is stamping a lot? Or maybe he’s been getting frisky with the young horses? It is impossible to know, but I think our ride turned out OK. He was still happy at the end, and he was in no hurry to walk away from me in the pasture.

Sorry for the long post and no pictures; it’s tough to get shots when it is just you. Also, riding three horses in a row is rather tiring. I thought I would be more mentally fatigued while riding, but that didn’t happen until I was completely done. Then I felt exhausted everywhere. Still, I would do it again.

Just Laredo and Me

Brian

August 21, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Robin has been hit by some ragweed allergies, so when I suggested a trip to the barn today, she wasn’t up for it. Thankfully she was fully supportive of me going. She’s the best.

On the way out I decided Laredo needed the ride. He got two days off and Bear only got one day off, so I grabbed Laredo’s halter and marched out to grab him. He was about as far away as he can be, and when he saw me he took as many frantic bites of grass as he could and then ran away from me. I was pretty surprised at that. It took me a moment to figure out how to react, but once I started marching after him I prepared myself to play the game all day long if I needed to. But he just went for about 20 yards before he stopped, swiveled towards me, and marched right up. Good boy.

This was the first time either of us had ridden Laredo on our own. He’s been a little distracted on our rides lately, and I had no idea what to expect from him. The strip was recently mowed, so I rode in the outdoor arena.

We started with some slightly more intense groundwork than usual. When we work through things in the circle he has a very strong tendency to look up and away from me. I used three tactics to get him back to paying attention depending on the seriousness of the infraction: a light bump from the mecate, a stop and roll over in the other direction, and a slap on the butt to move him out. After a minute of these tactics he became very alive and agitated, which is good I suppose. He was definitely inclined to pay more attention to me. Still, I made sure to give him some breaks and keep him calm as I was by myself and I also don’t want to be overly threatening. But just like usual, he would come right back down in a second. He’s so different than the other two.

The ride itself was genuinely great. We had some things that were not going so well, like whirly-gigs and consistently staying on the haunches. I completely abandoned working on whirly-gigs and even trying to move his front end over. I simply couldn’t get it to happen today.

We did focus a lot on using his haunches and staying relaxed in the trot. We had two long sessions of trotting, longer than we’ve ever done with Laredo before. We would trot in a big oval, and when he got either really forward or overly distracted by the horses in the pasture near us, we would turn in a moderately tight circle.

In the beginning we did a lot of circles, and many of those were sloppy. After a few minutes, though, we were doing less circles and much softer, higher quality circles. I’m not sure if Laredo was having fun with this as I could sense some tireds coming in, but I was really having fun. I was happy Robin gave me this exercise, as it worked quite well.

We cooled down by walking around and working on some mostly rein-less figure-eights. I think the trotting and tight circles really helped him listen to my legs. I also spent quite a few minutes asking for the soft feel at the walk. We’ve been doing this on most rides, but I haven’t been very systematic about it until today. In the beginning he was inclined to put his head down and really lean on the bit. I brought my legs in with a little action and kept him moving forward. That solved the problem. He never moved right into collection, but it got him out of leaning, and he’d usually collect a couple steps later. He got softer as we worked at it. Our ride was only 45 minutes, but I think it was demanding on him, and changing things up might have sent him into his old defensive mode of sticking his head down.

After a really nice soft feel, I asked him for a stop and got some huge, energetic, and soft steps backwards. I immediately hopped off and gave him lots of pets. It was a great day to be at the barn hanging out with him. I think it was relaxing and productive for both of us.

More Group Riding

Brian

August 20, 2012

Novels for Horse-Lovers

The Tipped Z Ranch books feature fictional stories but real horsemanship.

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Sunday we hit the trails as a foursome again. There was the possibility of it being a much bigger group, but this size felt nice. One of our friends came with us for the first time. She was on her older, gray Arabian, and they were great.

We couldn’t do sections of what has become our normal route due to the eventing competition at Catalpa Corner, but we still covered some good distance and revisited the salad bowl, which we had not been to in a while.

I rode Bear and he was really quite good. After a long warm up we hit the treed, grassy lane and moved everyone out into the trot. This is where Bear got really excited and sick of being stuck behind other horses. Robin suggested I move past her and see how he went. I did so and he went just fine. Great even. He had some high stepping trots to begin with, but then he really settled into a nice, ground covering trot. It is funny, he will walk behind other horses all day long, but I guess he can’t stand trotting behind others. When we hit another section of dirt and trotted for a while we just went to the front right away and again it solved our “problem.” I’ll be curious to see how this goes in the long run. I certainly don’t want to be the person who must be in the front when we’re going faster. That kind of stuff gets ridiculous, but I was happy to not get into the trap I was in last weekend of pulling on his nose too much. I don’t like being there.

When we looped back to the barn the horses were all keen to turn in, but we veered in the other direction and they were all surprisingly OK with that. We trotted up and down the big grassy hills, and this time I was in third. Bear was occasionally getting excited, but he was also a little tired, so that definitely helped. Steen was up front, and something in the tall grasses caught his attention and he made a big leap sideways. Almost at the same time Bleikka and Bear also dove to the left. No one got in any trouble. I was actually feeling really good that I stuck on Bear’s back so easily and just moved with him. These little things on trail rides are continually boosting my confidence.

We never stopped after the little spook, we just kept moving right along. The others got a little ahead of us, so I suggested to Bear that we lope up a small rise to catch them. He dug in so hard with his haunches that I’m not sure I have ever felt power like that before. I slowed him down somewhat abruptly at the top, since that isn’t really what I had in mind. So much for being low energy, I guess.

The rest of the ride was nice and relaxing. We chatted and walked and trotted all through the salad bowl and then back to the barn. Once there we worked on a few things on the strip and Bear was great with the no-handed figure-eights and some nice, relaxed loping.

The nights are really starting to cool off here. It feels great after many hot weeks of summer, but it means the grasses aren’t coming up like they were. And the horses are already getting in that “winter is coming and I’m starving” mindset, so we let them graze for a while on the yummy stuff they can see from the pasture but never eat. It was such a nice morning that we didn’t mind all the extra haning out time.

Laredo and the Rope

Brian

August 18, 2012

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Last week, I had some really great rides on Laredo, so I was excited to get back on him today. I also still had the rope attached to my saddle, so I figured I would start by seeing how Laredo handled it.

Like Bear, he seemed to recognize the rope, but he wasn’t as bothered by it. He really kept a close eye on it the whole time. I started by quietly tapping at his sides with the coil. He was very tense at first, but he never moved a foot. So I worked my way around him, tapping various parts. I would stick at one spot until his body visibly relaxed some, then I’d give him a break and a few soft pets with my hands. I moved around his whole body like that until I could tap him anywhere and not get any reaction. That only took a couple minutes.

Then I worked on swirling the rope over his head. He was not quite as good with this as Bear, as he would side step around and want to walk away from it. He never got as upset as Bear did, though. I know the guy who started Laredo last year ropes a lot, so he almost certainly got a little used to the rope. But I didn’t want him to think he could walk around when I was swinging the rope, so I would keep swinging and disengage his hindquarters to get him to stop, back him up a step, and then after he stood for a few seconds I’d give him some release by not swirling the rope any more. We did this for a few rounds and then he stopped walking off. Once that was working consistently I started to throw the loop around his legs and over his back. He was also fine with this.

That felt like enough rope stuff for us today, so I hopped on his back and went to work on all our usual stuff. He was exceptionally light to my legs. This has been the biggest area of growth lately. He is nowhere near as consistent as Bear, but at times I do believe he’s moving off less pressure than Bear moves off of.

The rest of the ride was just mediocre. Laredo was checked out and not all that keen on focusing. I was trying to think what Buck would do in a case like this, as I know he would not tolerate having a horse only give him part of their attention. And I’m pretty sure Buck would jump them out pretty good once they started looking off. I’m not quite to the point where I want to fully jump Laredo out (hopefully soon, though), so I started moving in and out of the trot a lot. It didn’t completely solve the problem, but it did give us some things to work on and allowed us to get a lot of stuff done.